Since the beginning of this journey, I have been doing a TON of research and finding out other ways to help Scott return to optimal health. I have shared many of those methods on this blog. Here is my story of how this Hope4Cancer journey came to be.
I was introduced to a documentary called The Truth about Cancer about a year ago through a friend. It was made by a man who lost both of his parents to cancer and he has made it his life's mission to educate people about cancer treatments and prevention. He has traveled the world and interviewed many medical experts, both in the conventional and natural medicine realms, and put them together in this documentary. One such expert he interviewed was Dr. Tony Jimenez, founder of the Hope4Cancer treatment centers. I was so impressed, not just with Dr. Tony's knowledge about cancer (he has been studying and treating it for 30 years), but by his compassion and love that emanates from him as he speaks. I knew from the beginning that he was someone we could turn to for answers. But I also knew that Scott was not yet ready to delve into this new undertaking.
Let me give you a little background first. After our visit in January with the oncologist and our visit with the GI doc, we began discussing other options for Scott. We had gone to the cancer specialty center in our state and there was nothing they could do for him. We knew we were done with them. There are several other places that are considered cancer specialty centers that could probably get Scott on a clinical trial and we could definitely get a second, or third, opinion about things. One such center is the MD Anderson cancer center in Houston, Texas. I had been thinking about calling them to see what was available for Scott, but hadn't seriously looked into it yet. I received a phone call in February from a concerned family member who suggested that I call them and investigate other options. After all, it's only his life, yah? We need to do all we can to save him. At the timing of her call, I was getting ready to take my kids to a ballroom competition and I was still reeling over our experience at the specialty center close to home, when the doctor said there was nothing they could do. I wasn't in the best frame of mind and unfortunately wasn't very pleasant with this family member. But, after stewing it over for a couple of days, I decided that I would pursue that avenue. I'm grateful that this family member encouraged me to do so. It lit the fire under my butt that I needed. I got the ball rolling and emailed and called to see if Scott could come there. It was rather a lengthy process, with trying to figure out insurance and sending all his medical records and we kept running into obstacles. I wondered if this was even the right avenue to pursue and I called a dear friend who has been through this process (of helping a loved one battle cancer) before. I expressed to her that I felt like I wasn't receiving answers to my prayers as to which avenue to pursue and that I was just doing what I felt like we should, aka going through the motions, but I wanted a confirmation from up above. Was I just doing this to appease this family member's persistence or is this really what we needed to do for Scott? She told me something that was so powerful to me. She and I both served missions for our church and we became best friends after we returned home, so we really have a tight bond through our experiences as missionaries at the same time. She asked me to remember that as missionaries how many miracles we witnessed when we were specific with our prayers and how strong we felt the spirit because we were doing the Lord's work every day! Yes, I remember! I loved being a missionary and I was so happy because I felt His Spirit all the time. She then told me that it doesn't have to stop just because we aren't missionaries anymore. We are still doing the work of the Lord, just not full time anymore. We are still entitled to the same amount of revelation and the powerful spirit if we are specific in our prayers and ask God for specific answers. And then she added that if it's not meant to be, God would place a roadblock in our way so it would not be possible for us to accomplish that thing. That helped me a ton and I continued to pursue the MD Anderson route, unless a roadblock was placed in our way. The day that the stay home, stay safe initiative was issued, they called back and said they had received all of the needed information for Scott, but they were not accepting new patients for the time being and they didn't know when they would be. They would contact us when he could come. Talk about a major roadblock! I texted my friend later and thanked her for her advice and told her about our roadblock. We haven't heard back from MD Anderson and if they ever do call us, we will tell them we are no longer interested.
In April, after Scott's last scan, he decided to be done with chemo. As I explained in my earlier post, he was frustrated that the chemo wasn't working and he was afraid that he would catch corona because of his weakened immune system. So he decided to be done, but knew he still needed to do something to help his body heal. That is when I introduced Hope4Cancer to him. Now let me tell you, I was nervous. I knew it had a hefty pricetag and Scott is not one to jump into expensive purchases without thinking about it A LOT beforehand. We had very limited information, except what was on their website and we knew they were located in Mexico. Why not the US, you ask? Because our wonderful FDA does not approve natural treatments because they haven't been tested. At least not according to their standards, but in my opinion, those aren't very high and very biased. So Dr. Tony has set up two centers in Mexico with proven, natural treatments that have very high success rates of HEALING people with cancer and returning their bodies to an optimal state of health. That's what we want, right? I had signed up to be on their email list a few months prior and they had just released a reality show which followed a few patients during their journey through the center. It showed some of the treatments that they received and explained the process in a different way than the website. I knew this would answer some of Scott's questions, so I presented this to him and he agreed to start watching the show with me. He looked at the website, but wanted to hold off on the free consultation until he had more information. After watching a few episodes, he called them and we found out we could get the COVID special, since everything had shut down and the economy was struggling, they had reduced the price. And they're open during COVID! In fact, their center has received multiple 5-star ratings from the Mexican health department for cleanliness. They were amazed at how clean this place is. That's saying something.
So now we had to decide how to come up with the money to pay for this amazing place. We had the money. At the beginning of the year, we had withdrawn a large amount of money from some of our investments. It was like a loan from ourselves that we didn't have to pay back. We withdrew it to cover the cost of the natural treatments that he was already doing. It was almost the exact amount of what was needed to go to the center. However, if we used all that money our savings would be wiped out and we would have nothing left. Scott was concerned about using all of our money, and I told him not to worry. I would set up a GoFundMe account to raise half of the money and then we would have some leftover money as a buffer in our savings. I was confident we could raise the money. Scott set up the date to go to the center and I set up the GoFundMe account. Scott was still hesitant to do it; it is difficult for him to ask for help. I told him that since the beginning of this, people have approached me asking how they can help, and I knew that this was a way, whether by contributing, or spreading the word, or both. I set up the account on a Saturday. We got the COVID special for that too! 😃 In less than 24 hours, we had raised almost half the amount and in less than a week we had raised almost the entire amount! As I continued to spread the word, one person told me to raise the amount of money we were asking for so people wouldn't hesitate to donate if they saw that we were almost there. I increased the amount and by the end of the fundraiser, we had raised our initial amount, and then some! Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who contributed and/or spread the word! We are completely overwhelmed by everyone's generosity and these next few blog posts are for you, so you can know what your generous contributions are helping with. We love you all so much! I know this is where we need to be right now. No roadblocks getting here!
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