Melanoma almost killed me!

While living in Florida five years ago, I had a small black mole removed from my upper left chest. The lab reports showed it to be Melanoma. Since the first surgery was done in the doctors office, he wanted to be certain that it had all been removed, so I went into the hospital for a second surgery to remove a larger area. The reports came back clean.

I guess its human nature to try to put things like this behind us so I went on with my life as if nothing had happened. I did stay out of the sun and I was a little more careful about my diet and exercised some, but essentially, I put it out of my mind.

I made plans to fulfill a long-time dream and travel to Mexico, where I fell in love with the culture and the people. I became an English teacher in a private academy, rented a house and put down roots. In September of 2000, things changed. I was in bed one Sunday morning and for some reason I felt under my left arm. I was shocked to find a large lump about the size of a golf ball. I panicked.

Only four months before in May of 2000, my brother had died of Melanoma, he was 57. His cancer started on the skin too, similar to mine. Years later it showed up in his lungs and within three months he was dead. My brother was a pharmacist in a major hospital and was well acquainted with the various types of cancer treatments. He had administered chemotherapy and had observed first hand its effects on patients and decided not to go that route. He knew that only a few people in the advanced stages of melanoma, even those treated with chemotherapy or radiation or other conventional procedures survived. He told his wife that he wanted, whatever time he had left, to be spent feeling as good as he could and not in a hospital. Unfortunately for my brother, I didnt know what I know now. I might have saved his life!

My first impulse, after discovering my lump, was to get to a doctor. I found an oncologist in the small city where I was living in Mexico. The doctor I found was not only treating patients with advanced Melanoma but was teaching in Mexico City at a hospital specializing in Melanoma. He said that my prognosis was not all bad and that with intensive treatment I might live several years, maybe more. Surgery was scheduled for October 15th, 2000 to remove the lymph gland; a tumor 10 by 6 by 4 centimeters in size was removed. The biopsy report this time was not so good. The cancer had not been contained. This meant Melanoma was in my system and would most likely show up again in the organs rather than on the skin. Melanoma spreads rapidly and the doctor prescribed large doses of a drug called Interferon which was to be followed by chemo. I had to begin immediately! I would have to be treated in the hospital several times a week for a year and the effects would fluctuate from mild flue-like symptoms to severe nausea, headaches, and possibly hospitalization.

I learned from studying several internet sites that only about 3% of the patients in my condition survived using everything in conventional medicine. My family begged me to get back to the U.S. and check into a hospital. I was frightened and confused. I felt that all was lost. There would be no light at the end of this tunnel.

Decision time. IF this was it, then I didnt want to spend my time feeling sick or wasting away in a hospital either. My brother was right in that respect, but I had to do something. After studying the internet and speaking to several doctor friends in the United States they urged me to seek out an alternative treatment in Mexico. Why not give it a try?

The director of my English academy told me about a natural cancer treatment that was being made by a Yaqui Indian family in a remote area of Mexico. He had heard about it from a friend of his who had taken the treatment five years before for a large tumor that his doctors had described as inoperable. He had been told that he had six months to live. The director said the man is alive today, is healthy, and has no signs of cancer. That got my attention! He tracked down a phone number and I asked him to make the calls since my Spanish is limited. I had prepared a laundry list of questions: Did it really cure people? Will it work for Melanoma? How do you take it? What is it made from? Can I take conventional treatments along with it? How can I be certain.. And on and on.

What was I doing? Here I am, looking down the barrel of a loaded gun with a hundred chambers and they all had bullets in them, except for three! THATS a serious game of Russian Roulette! I have never won anything in my life. Nothing in the lottery, nothing at carnivals, nothing. BUT I wanted assurances. Right! ...I ordered the treatment.

On November 16th a refrigerated packet arrived via air express. In the package was a drink made of natural herbs and plants. Also included were 12 small wood chips. I was instructed on how to use them to brew a tea that I would drink with meals and before bedtime for the following twelve days. There was a special diet I had to follow for at least one month; NO beef, pork, carbonated drinks, cooked eggs, alcohol, and more. This wasnt going to be easy, but it sure beat the alternatives, and I was told I wouldnt feel sick from taking it.

I had been told that some people felt an effect within 15 minutes of taking the drink. I felt nothing. I brewed the tea every night for the next days use as per instructions using a clay pot commonly sold in Mexico for cooking. The taste of the tea was that of slightly bitter Sassafras.