Why Writers Stop Writing...Update On My Husband’s Cancer.....

“Originally published on Conquer Cancer and Health Challenges with Herbs ”

Writers stop writing for many reasons, but sometimes it's family or health issues that overwhelm you and make it almost impossible to write. So today, I'm sharing an update on the past 5 months in our lives.

Some years, this one, will never be forgotten, including the death of my oldest sister and our beloved GP dog in the same week in July.

It was a year that was defined by sickness and death.

It was also a year we survived and came out the other side doing better than expected in so many ways. It included me being admitted into the hospital for the first time in my life, except for the birth of my children, and I am 75. It included the first time I ever took pain pills when the kidney stone pain got horrific and right after the surgeries.

How a year can get lost but reclaimed in the end.

It started in Feb when, for the first time since Covid began, we both came down with Covid and strep. We don’t get shots, and we will not now or in the future, flu or any of them. Since Covid began, we had not gotten the flu, pneumonia, colds, or Covid in all those years. Despite his CLL, he had done well through these past years.

We went to a private get-together, and a retired doctor who had just returned from an overseas cruise got sick and came to the party. We should have left when we found that out, but it was awkward, so we stayed. 3 days later we both became ill.

We took our regimen of herbs; I didn't get too sick. With his compromised system, for the first time, he got sicker and sicker. His cough from both strep and COVID got worse and worse. The cough was painful. I finally convinced him we should go into the clinic. The doctor who saw us got worked up over his lymph glands on the ct scan. I told the doctor he had CLL. He felt it had advanced into something like lymphoma, so he pretty much refused to let him leave unless he went up 3 hours away to an Oncology Clinic. So he was transported by ambulance up there. The doctor pretty much refused to let him leave unless we agreed.

When he came home, 3 days later, after $100,000 dollars worth of tests more for the CLL than treatment for the COVID and strep, he could not function mentally or physically.

He came home sicker than when he went in. He was not the same man. They found he had CLL, just what I told them, not advanced, not Lymphoma or any other advanced form of cancer. So after 100,000 cancer tests and a biopsy of one of the nodes, it was confirmed CLL. The problem was that the trauma of it all, plus the COVID and strep, he came back so compromised in strength and with worsened dementia that I was shocked.

I put him back on the herbal cancer regimen. I had to call in home health services just to get him in the shower and to shave. He was almost nonfunctional mentally and physically. So March and April were lost months.

In May, he began to improve slowly. Home health and rehab helped.

Now remember this was a man who could walk the dog a half mile without sitting down, then another half mile before he got treatment at the hospital. Now could not walk 100 feet and needed oxygen.

Blood clots in his leg made things much worse.

June and July got worse because he was sitting too much; he got blood clots under his knee, his leg swelled up, his foot swelled up and was painful, so now we had to put him on blood thinners and medication for his very swollen, infected leg. I was told I had to take him off the herbs because of their blood-thinning properties. My gut said no, but with an active blood clot, I gave in.

His leg got better, but his white blood count went up drastically, and his lymph nodes got much worse with swelling off the herbs. A month later, the Dr. agreed that being off the herbs, he had gotten much worse with the CLL. So she agreed with me to put him bk on the herbs and watch for like a bloody nose or other signs of bleeding.

Kidney stones will take you to the floor in pain.

Meanwhile, I began having pain in the left kidney area. I went to the doctor who misdiagnosed it as muscle pain.

Then, right before July 4th, I ended up in the emergency room with horrible pain, a kidney stone blockage, and kidney function going down. So for the first time in my life, I was admitted into the hospital, first for the blockage and kidney stone removal, and a week later for a second operation to remove more of them. That involved 2 laser surgeries, two stents, and a lot of pain both before and after. I came home pretty much physically done in.

My oldest daughter stayed on and off for about a month. The result of the stents and surgery left me fighting bladder infections until about August.

This is Sept., almost Oct and finally I am getting stronger.

I took one antibiotic which gave me horrible side effects,, so went back to herbs for my bladder infection and that solved the problem. I also fell during this time and ended up with a concussion and tore up my lower back. During this time, I still had to do most of what I usually do, except for in July when my daughter was home.

Update on my husband’s health and mine going into October.

Now September is over today. I have recovered mostly from the kidney issues, the bladder issues from the surgery, and the concussion. I still get headaches from working too long on the computer.

Marty is almost back to where he was before Feb with his short-term memory issues, has not improved in strength, has not been sick with any type of cold since Feb, and despite the return to our herbal regimen, his lymph nodes have not gone back down, and his blood count has still gone up.

He still has no further symptoms of advanced CLL such as spleen pain, nausea, vomiting, weight loss, loss of appetite, pain in the lymph nodes, or other infections. His heart check up came out good….his heart did not suffer from the covid and strep…He does not need oxygen. His lung function is good. His leg is normal right now. I am going to redo his herbal regimen…and I will talk about that in the next Substack.

I hope you readers will forgive the lapse in writing. I will be writing again now, so come back and keep reading. I want to thank 250 subscribers who stayed with me. You all are an inspiration. Thank you for your continued support.

Signing off, the Cathryn Freer, Herbladyisin