Jill's Hope: Follow-Up Trip to Hope4Cancer

We just returned from Hope4Cancer in Mexico at about 11:00 last night. It was a very quick trip, but very necessary and worthwhile. The positive energy there from both staff and patients is amazing and very refreshing. It is also such an amazing feeling walking away from a clinic having complete confidence in their assessment and recommendations.

We got into San Diego Sunday evening where we stayed the night. As we were driving to our hotel the driver made the comment that because the fog was coming in they might redirect flights to another city because the fog can be very dangerous to the pilot's ability to land. We felt very grateful to have had a smooth trip and to have gotten there before the fog set in.

Since Larry has been so sick traveling has been very hard on him. Luckily we had remembered to bring some magnesium flakes and essential oils so that he could have nice therapeutic bath before having some soup and retiring for some much needed sleep. We went to bed early and both slept soundly for about 10 hours that night.

As they do blood tests and ultrasounds first thing in the morning at Hope4Cancer the driver picked us up to go into Mexico at 6 a.m. After having his assessments done we were able to have a nice breakfast at the clinic and spent the rest of the day doing all of Larry's therapies that we would normally do at home.

Tuesday afternoon we were finally able to meet with the doctor. We felt very encouraged that the tumors had not spread all over his body as had been predicted it would do. There is a very small spot on his lung that looks suspicious so we are going to start focusing our therapies on his lung as well. The tumors did look bigger, but the doctor suspects they are just inflamed due to the therapies that we are doing. The most exciting news that we received is that Larry's cancer markers had went from 750 down to 350!!! We were elated to receive this news. We felt like all of the hard work that we had done over the past three months is paying off.

Going forward we are going to continue on the therapies that we have been doing and we are going to add a laser therapy. We will continue on the immunotherapy, elixor shots, and some of the supplements we have been taking (we have had to really scale them back as Larry can only handle so much going into his digestive system everyday). The doctor also encouraged us to go home and start the chemotherapy that we were tentatively planning to do. He said with how aggressive this cancer is we need to hit it from all of the angles. He did give us some tips for how to detox three days following the chemo. We also did our thermography before leaving the clinic on Tuesday. By the time we got home it was dark and cold so we just settled in for the night and watched a movie. Sadly, we were in a very nice hotel with these beautiful swimming pools that we never even got to go in😓We stayed at a beautiful hotel that Hope4Cancer had recommended to us and it was cheaper than the Best Western we had stayed at in San Diego. Just wishing we had more time to enjoy it.

Wednesday morning was super rushed as we had to leave Mexico for the airport by noon. We had to meet with the nutritionist and functional doctor and pick up all of our supplements before leaving. I just can't even put into words how much I LOVE the nutritionist, Oscar, at the clinic. He knows so much about the digestion process and how everything effects the whole process right down to a tiny drop of saliva. He is also extremely knowledgeable about compositions of foods and about every supplement out there. He has played a huge part in helping Larry be able to eat orally and knowing things he can take for different symptoms he is having. He has given us a target amount of calories (he said with chemo he needs to have about 500 more calories a day) that he needs to be eating everyday and he has provided us with a diet plan of how to get those calories with the type of foods Larry is able to eat. Larry pulled out his NJ tube before we left for Mexico as it was just irritating him too much and the plan was to come home and have a gastro tube put in. Oscar encouraged Larry to try getting adequate calories for a two week period with the new diet plan and then look at the tube if he isn't able to get enough calories orally. We finished all of our appointments just in the nick of time to leave for the airport.

Even though our flight didn't leave until 5:15 we had to leave at noon. Last time we crossed the border we got right in to the U.S. and sat at the airport for about four hours, but not this time. There were several lines and the traffic was backed up for miles and we waited in line for about 1 1/2 hours. It was a crazy mess and not something I would choose to go through again. Once was plenty. There were cars bumper to bumper, tons of pushy vendors trying to sell things, beggars, and people being rude to each other out of shear frustration. Our driver does this drive at least once a day and has waited in line up to seven hours (ugh!). Poor Larry wasn't feeling very well after breakfast and spent most of the time hunched over in pain. It was a very long ride to the airport and flight home. When we got home he took pain meds and a hot bath.

This morning we had to leave for Pocatello at 10:30 to have Larry's port placed at Portneuf hospital. The placement went smoothly and he is feeling much better. We are now waiting to meet with the oncologist at 4:00 to see what our plan of action will be for his chemo treatments.

A couple of friends that we met at Hope4Cancer. The girl I am standing next to is a nurse who has been diagnosed with cancer that she has kept at bay naturally for several years. As it has come back, she has decided to come to Hope4Cancer to get more aggressive with her cancer. While there we also met a lady that was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer and had been given three months to live. She has been doing alternative therapies and treatments and is going on a year and a half. She has come to Hope4Cancer to get more advanced therapies.

Above are pictures of the outside of the beautiful hotel we stayed at. Oh how I wanted to get in those pools, but by the time we got home every night it was too cold and we were exhausted.