[Update: I wrote this in October of 2014. It’s been 3 years, and I’m still doing great. Thanks to all of you who continue to check up on me and wish me well!]
It was February 5th, my mother’s birthday and a month before the 20th anniversary of my becoming vegan. I was sitting in a breast surgeon’s office in a paper gown, cradling my biopsied breast and waiting. After about an hour and a half, my surgeon finally appeared, apologizing for keeping me waiting because the results had only just come in. He took a deep breath and said, “You don’t have cancer.” I thought, “I didn’t think I did.” Unfortunately, as I would later find out, we both were wrong.
He went on to explain that the biopsy found abnormal cells, officially called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), but often referred to as Stage 0 or pre-cancer. While I was still reeling from the word “carcinoma,” he explained that these cells might become cancer, so they had to be treated like cancer. My options were a lumpectomy with radiation or a mastectomy. I asked whether there was any chance that the pathology report could be wrong, and my doctor said no.
I was stunned. I left in a daze and went over to my husband’s office nearby to give him the news.
Three months before, a routine mammogram had spotted a place that looked different from my last mammogram. I was sent to the Breast Health Center for another mam and then an ultrasound to get a closer look. The spot was so small and deep inside the breast that the ultrasound technician couldn’t find it at all, so I was given an appointment to return in three months. At that three month mammogram, the “spot” was clearly visible even to me as a glowing white circle in a sea of black and gray. A ultrasound-guided biopsy was scheduled for early the next week.
I’d had one of these biopsies four years ago, and that spot had turned out to be nothing but a harmless cyst, so I had been expecting the same results this time. Like most women, I didn’t think “The Big C” could happen to me. But because I was a vegan, I think I was even more positive that I couldn’t have cancer. After all, wasn’t I doing everything the vegan doctors tell us to do to protect ourselves from heart disease and cancer? Low-fat, lots of green and cruciferous vegetables and brightly colored fruit? No animal products? Moreover, no one in my family had ever had cancer. I naively thought I was immune.
So I didn’t really believe the pathology report, and I became even more skeptical when I read an article that said that DCIS is sometimes misdiagnosed. I decided to get a second opinion from one of the doctors mentioned in that article, a pathologist specializing in breast cancer in San Francisco. I had the hospital send him my biopsy slides, and a week later, I had a consultation with him on the phone. He was unable to confirm DCIS or rule out actual cancer because the radiologist who had performed the biopsy had noted that he had actually missed the “mass.” The biopsy needle had gone in front of the suspected tumor and gathered cells from there, just a few that looked abnormal. But until the actual mass was tested, the pathology specialist couldn’t rule out either DCIS or invasive cancer. He suggested I get another, more accurate, biopsy called a stereotactic biopsy, and I asked my doctor to schedule it.
I had high hopes that this second biopsy would show no DCIS and no cancer. Those hopes were shot down when my new medical oncologist called to give me the results: I had a small invasive cancer, Stage 1, that showed signs of being aggressive. She recommended surgery within the next 3-4 weeks. Just to be sure, I had the slides sent to the pathologist in San Francisco, who agreed with her diagnosis.
Snowball Fight with Daughter E at Oberlin College
So I did what any logical person would do: I took a vacation. It was Spring Break, and my husband and I had planned a 5-day trip to take our high school junior (now senior) to visit 6 colleges in the Midwest. We wanted to do it while we could because we knew that after the surgery, I would need 6 ½ weeks of daily radiation treatments and might not be able to get away during the summer. The trip was a great distraction, but as soon as we got home, I made an appointment with the surgeon and scheduled my lumpectomy for the following week.
The surgery went perfectly. The surgeon removed the tumor and the area around it, as well as three lymph nodes which tested negative: the cancer had not spread to them. A week later, I returned to the surgeon’s office for more good news: The final pathology report showed that the “margins” or edges of the material he had removed were clean, meaning that all of the targeted cancer cells had probably been removed. The only worrisome thing to my husband and me were some figures in the report that seemed a little scary, particularly a “grade” of 3, meaning the cancer was aggressive. My surgeon was unconcerned, and my oncologist said that she would order a genetic test called Oncotype DX to more conclusively determine my chances of having the cancer recur.
A few weeks went by as I recovered from the surgery and waited for the results of the Oncotype test. I was expecting to start radiation soon when my medical oncologist called with the test results. They indicated that I was at a moderately high risk of recurrence. She was recommending that I have chemo.
This was the first time the other Big C word had been mentioned, and for some reason, “chemotherapy” scared me more than “cancer.” The oncologist explained that the type of chemo she was recommending was “well-tolerated” and without all of the serious long-term consequences of other treatments. I wasn’t convinced, and I began frantically researching the chemo itself and alternatives to it.
Walking and thinking in a cypress swamp
I was in a panic. On the one hand, I’ve always believed in fighting disease with nutrition and had always been opposed to taking any medication if it could be avoided. On the other hand, hadn’t I been doing just that for the past 20 years? My oncologist was telling me that chemo could reduce my risk of having the cancer recur and spread, that preventing it now would be much easier than trying to stop if it spread to my other organs. I went back and forth, one day deciding that chemo was just too dangerous and the next deciding that I didn’t want to take the risk of the cancer coming back. I was, frankly, a mess. I couldn’t sleep or eat for worrying about the chemo. I finally decided to get a second opinion from a highly recommended breast cancer oncologist at the University Medical Center.
My second opinion doctor came back with the same recommendation as the first: Have the chemo. She assured me that I was young (me!) and healthy and I could handle it. And it would cut my chance of recurrence in half.
My husband was very careful to stand back and let me make the decision for myself, but I knew that he hoped that I would have the chemo. And I was afraid that if I didn’t have it, I would be anxious for the rest of my life, afraid that I hadn’t done everything I possibly could to prevent a recurrence. I’d read the stories of people who had fought their cancer with diet and lifestyle choices, but those people weren’t already eating a whole foods, plant-based diet like I was.
So I decided to do the chemo, four rounds, three weeks apart. I read everything I could find about the treatments and armed myself with supplements that could help prevent side effects. And I found out my oncologist was right: the treatments, though no fun, we’re not as bad as I’d feared. My side effects were minimal, the most annoying being a bad taste in my mouth that would come and go and made it difficult to create new recipes.
Just after my initial diagnosis, I’d begun getting up at 5:30 every morning and walking with my husband and our dog. During chemo, and later radiation, I considered it a point of honor that I never missed a walk. On the weekends, my family and I tried to get out of the house and do a little hiking or local sightseeing so that I wouldn’t feel like the treatment was making me isolated. I ate lots of fruits and vegetables to support my immune system and was careful to avoid coming into contact with people who were sick, and I sailed through my summer of chemo without so much as a sniffle.
A Visit to “My” Lake at Montreat, NC
When chemo ended, I was determined to take a family vacation before I had to start radiation therapy, so at the beginning of August, we spent a week in the mountains of North Carolina and a few days in Nashville, seeing my newest niece for the first time (and, of course, my brother and sister-in-law).
I got back home and jumped right into daily radiation treatments–33 of them. Again, the treatments weren’t nearly as bad as I expected, but I was thrilled when they ended last week. I couldn’t wait to put all of this cancer stuff behind me.
I didn’t write about this while it was going on mainly because I was afraid that people would offer suggestions and criticisms of my decision to go through with chemo and radiation, and I just couldn’t risk the additional stress that would have put on me. So why am I telling you now? Even though this blog is recipe-oriented and not usually very personal, I wasn’t sure if I could go on writing it if I had to pretend like something this big hadn’t happened to me, something that has consumed the last eight months of my life and has changed the way I see myself and the way I think about diet, veganism, and health.
My first month post-diagnosis, before I had the specter of chemo to worry me, all I could think about was “why” and “how”: Why did I, a vegan who tries to eat healthy, get cancer when no one else in my Standard American Diet-eating family has ever had cancer? What had I done wrong? Had I eaten too few nuts? Too little cilantro? Not enough flax seeds? BPA? Soy?! I worried that I had caused my cancer by never being able to get to my goal weight and stay there, that I didn’t exercise consistently, that I had had only one child late in life and that I hadn’t breastfed her long enough.
I was blaming myself, and I had a lot of help from the Internet. I couldn’t visit Facebook without seeing posts about how eating X (broccoli, nuts, soy, orange) would help prevent cancer. Or people posting about their frustration that a friend or family member had breast cancer and refused to treat it by adopting a plant-based diet. If I, someone who had been eating all the right things (and not eating all the wrong ones), got the message that I was to blame for my cancer, how must other cancer patients feel, the ones who hadn’t been stuffing themselves with kale and mushrooms? Is there a way to promote a plant-based diet that doesn’t point the finger of blame, that doesn’t make grand promises of health, and that doesn’t make people like me feel so confident in the invincibility of our diets that we put off mammograms or other screening tests?
I don’t know. But for me, it’s been helpful to think of the vegan diet as promoting health, but not providing a “Get out of Disease Free” card. My friend Maria made me see that even if my diet didn’t prevent me from getting cancer, perhaps the cancer would have grown much more quickly if I hadn’t been vegan. Perhaps I wouldn’t have sailed through chemo without ever needing nausea meds if I hadn’t been nourishing my body with fruits and vegetables. Perhaps my immune system wouldn’t have stayed as strong as it did or my energy as high if I had been consuming animal products.
It’s also been helpful to me to remember my real reason for being vegan. Though I’ve followed a McDougall-type diet ever since I became vegan, my ultimate reason for becoming vegan was not to improve my own health but to decrease the suffering of animals. So if you’re reading this and worrying that I’m going to be another vegan blogger who goes back to eating animals for her own health, don’t. No diagnosis in the world could convince me to eat another animal or animal product.
As for my current health, I feel great, and I’m confident that I caught this cancer early and have done and am doing everything medically and nutritionally possible to make sure I never have to worry about it again. I’ve tweaked my diet to reduce or eliminate foods I don’t need (sugar, soy, wine, and coffee) and to increase those I wasn’t eating enough of before (broccoli sprouts, flax seeds, organics). I walk at least once and sometimes twice a day, and soon I’ll be starting a workout routine at the gym. I plan to lose the extra weight I’ve been carrying around, which is the biggest threat to my health.
I think the hardest struggle I’ve faced isn’t physical but emotional. My image of myself as a healthy person who never took pills and was confident her vegan diet would protect her from anything–that image took a pretty big hit. I’ve been worried about “coming out” as a vegan with cancer for fear that non-vegans would see it as proof that a vegan diet “doesn’t work” and that some vegans would skewer me for resorting to traditional medicine. In the end, I decided that I had to put my truth out there so that I can get past it and get back to blogging as usual. Next post, you can expect a recipe. Cancer isn’t on the menu.
Loki has become an excellent therapy cat–when he isn’t destroying the house.
Thank you to all my family, friends, and friends of friends who offered love and support. And to my church, the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Jackson, and my parents’ church, The First Presbyterian Church of Hammond, LA (love the shawl and cap, y’all!) And to Maria Maggi, Nava Atlas, Dreena Burton, and Stephanie Weaver–wise women all, whose words of advice and offers of support helped me more than they probably know.
Becky
I am in the beginning of what you went through. I had a lumpectomy in August with negative lymph nodes. But my Oncotype test came back with a high risk for recurrence and so chemo was recommended. Never thought I would do chemo, but I am starting in a few weeks. I am terrified!! I have had two doctors who are not big believers in a vegan diet, but I am hoping it will help me tolerate the chemo. I am also going to an integrative cancer center where the doctor combines an ETL type diet with conventional treatment to help you through the chemo and to help prevent recurrence. It’s the first doctor’s appointment I’ve been excited about since this whole ordeal began. I understand what you mean about the emotional aspect of cancer and I’m sorry you had to go through all of this!!
Susan Voisin
Becky, I am so sorry you have to go through this. My doctor was also unimpressed whenever I mentioned veganism, and I envy you your integrative center. If I had been close enough, I would have liked to have gone to the Block Cancer Center, but instead, I read the book. Some of the supplements it recommended really helped with the chemo. I’ll be keeping you in my thoughts.
Karl Okamoto
Susan – thanks so much for sharing the details of your ordeal, and the way you shared it so appropriately. Thanks for bravely moving the WFPB discussion forward by stating that there’s no such thing as a “get out of cancer free card” – that’s so illuminating. We’ve been following your blog for the past few years and thank you for the delicious recipes on the blog (and the pictures in Nava’s book).
We wish you all the best, and a long, healthy, happy life from this point forward.
Charity
Thank you for being so transparent, and sharing your story with us. You have been an inspiration to all of us. I am glad that your treatment has gone well, and will be sending prayers and well-wishes your way!!!
Julie Beech
Dear Susan:
I was so sorry to hear of your illness. I have followed your blog for some time now and always admired the creativity and care you have dedicated to your craft. I appreciate the honesty and courage it must have taken to share your personal health information with your readers. I know that it came from a place of wanting to share with us that no matter how earnestly we try to nourish ourselves , we are not immune from disease.
I just found out this week that my mammogram showed a hypodense mass and I am scheduled for a spot mammogram and ultrasound. After reading of your experience, I am better informed and prepared on so many levels. I am just as frightened, but I know that I need to address this issue. I wish you all the best.
Sincerely,
Julie Beech
Marlo
Thank you for your honesty, bravery and courage to write such an open-hearted post about your cancer treatment and what you have been dealing with privately. My dad had cancer and I saw him struggle and one thing I had to learn was to respect his desires in how he wanted to approach his illness. I wish you well in this post-cancer journey.
Patti Sumida
Hi Susan, i am so touched by this post and your beautiful photos. Your account of the events and your experiences over the past eight months is beautifully written and articulated. Coincidentally, I read a a very informative position paper published in 2009 by the Anerican Dietetic Association today that you might be interested in. It talks about the health benefits of vegan and vegetarian diets compared to an omnivore diet. While some of the results are consistent with findings such as the China Study, others are surprising;notably a finding that suggests that while a vegetarian or vegan diet lowers one’s risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetesand some forms os cancer, a vegan or vegetarian diet does not appeart to lower one’s risk of breast or prostate cancer. The link to this article appeared October 10th on a blog called Nutrition Stripped, where the author references the paper to discuss protein intake for vegans. The paper she references discusses tne relationship between health and diet in a much larger context than protein requirements and offers some interesting data that relate to the questionof whether the adoptipn of a plant based diet offersus a “get out of cancer free” card. If you want to read the paper and have difficulty accessing it, let me know and I will try to send you the link. Be well and thank you for your willingness to share your experience with us.
deanna
Your honesty is more validating to others than not and a service, as is your work. Thank you for your recipes and continuing on with your blog. It is motivating and much needed when trying to continue a plant-based lifestyle that we all know is not always easy. Especially since I find your recipes to be the best and always look forward to what’s next.
Thanks for keeping on.
Barbara
Thank you so much for sharing. I really think it’s a popular misconception that we are immune from disease by our healthy eating habits. Some even advocate that we don’t have mammographies… So glad you’ve come out on the other side and are able to share your personal story. Wishing you continued health!!
Thomasa Moore
I have been reading and using many of your recipes for a number of years, every recipe has been delicious. Many blessing on Your continued path to wellness and thank you for being a shining inspiration for many of your reader’, like Me.
Chuck
Glad you’re doing better Susan. Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery. Hang in there and thanks for a great website. Chuck
kensington cooker
Oh dear Susan,
I am so sorry, and so moved by your story. I’m very relieved that you are cancer-free.
I’m glad you made the decisions you did. I’ve seen people who declined aggressive treatment leave us very soon, and those who used every available weapon get a complete cure.
I feel privileged to have watched you go through life and see E growing up. I think you find the perfect balance in your candid, heartfelt sharing, and in reminding us to get those mammos ( “We sque-e-eze because we care”) you may be saving some lives.
I have tried to read all the comments too–what a flood!–and it makes me feel good to realize that you’ve gathered a community with hundreds of sweet people. You as well as your wonderful recipes are well loved.
With affection and best wishes, Kensington Cooker
Kyra
Wow, thank you for sharing such a personal post. I feel like you felt: thinking being a vegan will save me from cancer and other diseases. Your post is a wake up call that it can happen to anyone! Thank you again for sharing 🙂
bethlp
Susan – Thank you so much for sharing such a personal story. I knew you were a tough woman when I found your blog and read you were a vegan in Mississippi! I was spoiled by deciding to go veg when I lived in Santa Cruz, CA – so easy with oodles of great markets and restaurants, but Mississippi??? If you accomplished THAT, you are a formidable opponent! I will be scheduling that mammogram I’ve been putting off . Ugh! Derm consult, too. Thank you for the reminders that self-care and self-compassion are vital to our well-being. I wish you and your family the best!
Becky
Susan, the Block Center is where I am going! I got his book a few weeks ago at the library as I was trying to make a decision as to whether or not I would do chemo. It is a fabulous book, isn’t it? He is about 7 hours from us, so I won’t be able to see him regularly, but I will be able to go once in a while. My regular oncologist is not thrilled about me seeing him, but he said he was willing to work with him, so we’ll see.
Nanci
Thanks for sharing your story. I wish you the best. Love your blog. I am shocked that someone as healthy as you got cancer, but that will not stop me from moving my family closer to a plant-based diet. Peace and blessings.
Maria Gilbert
Susan, we’re all going to get sick of one thing or another, sooner or later. Vegan people aren’t eternal. I’m not vegan, but 99% of my diet is fruits & vegetables. I enjoy eating some wild caught fish from time to time, keep my sweets to a minimum, & so on. I do serious physical training everyday, etc. I do all that because that’s how I like to eat. I exercise because it takes the stress out & much more. Thus The the true plus in all that is that it keeps me energetic, active, eager to live life as it comes, at times quite dandy & at times pretty crappy. That’s life! Vacation? Exactly! Keep on vacationing, keep on writing delicious recipes, keep loving your family, keep fighting with all your mighty to live life as you see fit. Let me share with you a secret: Gratitude & simplicity! Everyday is a gift — nothing complicated about that! Susan, I send you a box of love, enjoy it! 🙂
Carrie
Sending you tons of love, Susan. As a former vegan who got cancer when I was feeling full of energy and kale (ha, ha), I know how disheartening it can be. You are one of the kindest, most generous people I know, and I admire you tremendously for your strength and fortitude.
John
You are remarkable and beautiful and a blessing to so many of us who are trying to eat healthy and delicious food. I give thanks for you and pray that you continue to be blessed in life’s journey and your endeavor to stay cancer free.
Dazzle59
Susan, thank you so much for sharing your story with us. Like you, I have been ethical vegan for over 20 years, and always felt that my healthy diet and lifestyle would help prevent breast cancer (which runs on my dad’s side of the family). However, we need to remember that we live on a poisoned planet, and any number of factors can “turn on” those pre-cancerous cells that exist in every human’s body. Our air, water and the land we live on have been poisoned by industry for decades. Even our organically-grown food can be full of toxins, thanks to pesticide drift. Our clothing, linens and furniture (think mattresses and couches) are loaded with cancer-causing toxins. We may live a cruelty-free lifestyle, buying organically-grown food and using non-toxic personal care and household products, but how many of us can afford to buy expensive organic towels, clothing, mattresses and furniture? We may garden organically, yet our neighbor is dousing his yard with Roundup. We may filter our drinking water, but our household water supply is unfiltered and full of toxins. Our cars, homes and offices are built using toxic materials that off-gas regularly, and we breathe those poisons every hour of every day. We spend hours each day talking on cell phones, using mobile devices and working in front of computer screens – who knows how that radiation is affecting our bodies in the long term? We may live near a cell phone tower, toxic waste dump or nuclear power plant. There may be oil drilling or fracking in our community, which poisons the air, land and groundwater. Then there’s the hypothesis that regular screening mammography may harm more than it helps; that annual irradiation of the breasts might actually “turn on” the cancer cells. We just don’t know for sure. Bottom line is there are countless cancer-causing factors in our everyday lives that we cannot control. The one thing we can do is follow a healthy, organic vegan diet and buy nontoxic personal care and household products. I wish you continued good health, dear Susan! As for myself, I had my last mammogram 5 years ago, and am way overdue for a screening. I have decided to schedule an appointment for noninvasive breast thermography. It’s expensive, and not covered by insurance, but it will let me know if there are problem areas that need to be further investigated by mammography. And I’m saving up for a nontoxic organic mattress.
Lina Daukas
Susan, good thing you were and are a vegan! It could have been worse if you were
a meat eater. An oncologist in SoCal tells his recovering breast cancer patients to eat vegan, organic foods as much as possible. You are on the right track!
EmilyAnne82
Susan – your post couldn’t have been more timely or more powerful. Thank you for sharing. My mother (who is my hero and my source of strength) was just diagnosed with a very rare cancer in her cranial nerves (due to taking immunosuppressant drugs to prevent her body from rejecting her transplanted kidney, which replaces the function of her native kidneys that failed due to an inherited case of polycystic kidney disease). She just completed her 1st week of radiation. She adopted a plant-based vegan diet shortly before treatment began to help control her diabetes (also in large part due to her immunosuppressant medications) but the concern is getting enough protein and calories without reverting to animal products. It is very difficult. I am spending the weekend with her in Michigan before I return to Tucson where I live and work making easy-to-heat and eat meals for her that my aunt (her caregiver) can just throw on the stove or microwave and will be high protein.
Do you have any favorite high-protein, freezable meals you’d recommend? I’m making your Macaroni and Cheeze, for sure!
Thank you for who you are and what you do to make our world a better, healthier place.
Emily
Susan Voisin
Emily, I recommend my lasagna and Mexican lasagna as good freezer meals that contain lots of protein. I am hoping for the best for your mother and will keep her in my thoughts.
Sandie
Thank you for the years of wonderful opportunities to share your cooking experiments with me and others!
I too, wanted to lose the last 30 lbs (to prevent the other hip/knee replacement) and couldn’t with the McDougall Plan alone so I began working with a Functional Medicine dr http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_medicine
They treat food as your medicine as they focus on getting every avenue and system in the body functioning as it should. They will discover what is preventing the lbs from melting off. My yrs of frustration with not receiving vegan food support from a dr are over and it is wonderful.
Thank you for continuing the fat free vegan support you give and I look forward to many more delicious dishes!
Emily
Hi Susan,
I’m so sorry to hear of your diagnosis and everything you have been going through. I just got married last week and my new husband, Brian, was diagnosed with colorectal cancer 2 months ago. The doctors want to do chemo, radiation and surgery (removing his entire rectum and leaving him with a colostomy bag). This course of treatment is unacceptable to us and we are seeking alternatives. Brian has been vegan for only 2 years, while I have been vegan for over 12 years.
Like you, we were shocked to receive this news . I agree that a vegan diet can reduce our risk of cancer, but is not a guarantee that we will never get cancer. All of us can always do better with our diet and our lifestyle and even if our diet and lifestyle is perfect, there still is no guarantee. Cancer is caused and fueled by many things – animal products, sugar, a sedentary lifestyle, stress and more. Brian has given up all sugar, I am working to create more alkaline and more raw recipes and of course, we are filled with gratitude every day to have love in our lives.
Thank you so much for all you do to create healthy, compassionate recipes. You are a great source of inspiration and I have no doubt you will continue to thrive for many decades to come, looking back on this “cancer thing” as a distant memory.
Hugs,
Emily
Nancy Nurse
Dear Susan,
I haven’t been able to get you off my mind since I read your story several days ago.
I have attended Dr. McDougall’s Ten Day Live-In Program and I was wondering, have you spoken to him about this? What has he had to say? I sure would be curious.
But, I have to agree with your friend that stated how much worse this all could have been had you not been following a Plant Based Program. You know, in our world, we are in a constant war fighting for our lives; from the cell phone radiation to the high wires, to the fertilizers, to our acid rain (or worse… God only know what they’re putting up there in the clouds for our to breath with all the chem trails), to our atmosphere, the carbons emitted from automobiles, STRESS… oh my, it’s such an obstacle course out there and you have done really well to come through it so well!
As I’m certain you already know, they believe that it takes a cancer cell 20-30 years to become large enough for a diagnosis. A great deal has taken place in our world since then, Susan… many things that you and I cannot control. I know, in my heart of hearts, that you have come through this with flying colors due to your wonderful dietary intake.
You mentioned sugar and the fact that you must cut down on it… interesting that you mention that because every time I eat anything with sugar in it (yup, cheating here and there), I ALWAYS get a headache… so should I have something going on in my brain, well, it’s telling me to stop the sugars. A friend of mine has brain cancer and of course, they tell him that sugar FEEDS the cancer cell (as I’m certain you already know). So, thanks to your sharing your personal story, you have helped me realize the importance of adhering more strictly to our wonderful way of eating.
Susan, I admire your courage because it DOES take courage to not only go through what you have, but then to share it with the world. God Bless you for that.
Don’t be hard on yourself…. you’re amazing!
Would love to know if you’ve spoken with Dr. McDougall and if you wouldn’t mind sharing his “take” on this, I sure would love to know.
Be gentle with yourself… you’re my guiding light,
Nancy Nurse
County Cork, Ireland
Texas Ann
I appreciate your story. I have been vegan for about 5.5 years. I too thought I would never get sick. I am 70. Had blood pressure issues and decided to try the vegan lifestyle. It worked for about 4 years and the BP issues have returned. I am beginning to think of this in a different way. I drive a save car that I keep in good condition. I do not drive under the influence and I obey traffic laws. All of this will help me prevent being in a bad accident. It does not insure that I will never have an accident. I plan to continue my vegan lifestyle because I want to do everything I can to live a productive life. You have helped me and I am sure countless others on our journeys. Keep up the good work an God Bless!
Sonia
I am so glad you made it through everything! And now you hopefully have it all behind you.
My mother had breast cancer over 10 years ago. I always considered her one of the healthiest people I know. An avid runner, thin, petite, and a degree in nutrition from UC Davis. I think she was the last person people though would get breast cancer, but it happened. She is science minded, studied everything about her options, and did similar to you. I’m so glad to say that she is still here and her outlook looks great. She is still one of the healthiest, good looking 63 year olds I know (at least I think so).
So congrats for getting through all of that, and here is to a long life ahead of you!
Deirdra Doan
Hi I am sorry to hear about your My Unexpected Diagnosis. There are other things besides diet that cause our bodies to do weird things for sure. I am happy you at so onto of it!!!!
I don’t know if you would find this interesting. But I have been cured of several big things using this teaching and using Classical Homeopathy that is just for you and your body.
http://www.beinhealth.com/public/testimony/breasttumordisappearedNC
Be in Health is has really helped me!! When the Homeopathic or the diet was not doing it getting to the deep roots opened the door so my body could now benefit from the care like tweeking the vegan, workout routine etc with out the blocks anymore.
Several Doctors studied their female patients using the Be in Health findings and found it was true to what their patients reported. A researcher in San Diego at a big research hospital for cancer and women is doing a proper study on it now after I alerted him to Be in Heath. I hope this is helpful to you. Your vegan blog helps me!!
The Homeopathic helps get rid of the effects of chemo and helps with the mental emotional issues that often are the roots to disease.Your whole body gets a real boost in your deep self with more energy to heal all the issues. Since Homeopathic medicine deals with the Mental, Emotional and Physical of our bodies. But caution you want to go to the BEST Homepathic Dr. in your area. Not just anyone.
JoeyJava
All my heart sincerely goes out to you. I honestly can’t say anything about the topic of cancer because I don’t know enough and haven’t had any experience myself.
However, I DO know about losing weight. I started similar to what you’re doing. Basically, I just started improving my diet and actually walking my poor dog. There’s a big park literally at the bottom of my street. My vice was always crisps and at the worst, chocolate as well. To give you an idea, at the worst, I was eating full multipacks of five Mars bars a day during the world cup 2010. For example, those became a box of cherries by the final. Gradually improving diet little at a time and being more active and I was a healthy weight within about 7 months.
Long story short – gradual improvements step by step that you can maintain long term is the way to go. I have a little route that I walk every day after breakfast and lunch over the park – I highly recommend anything like that. Something you enjoy and then it isn’t a chore.
Ditto for if you start a gym program. Make sure your input is a major part, and you’re performing exercises which you enjoy.
Don’t try and take everything on at once, please, ease yourself into it. You’ve been through a lot anyway.
Much love!
Geoffrey Levens
I would think that with your diet and history your chances of recurrence are MUCH lower than conventional estimates would have it. Good for you for doing due diligence and then going w/ your heart/gut!
It is indeed important to remember the role of epigenetics in disease incidence. Some diseases we may contract due to exposures and diet of our mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, and who knows but possibly even further back. We just have to do the best we can and roll with what life deals us.
Long healthy life to you!
Geoffrey
Kris
You will need to take a month off just to read all the loving comments here! I am so happy for you, Susan. Your spirit is strong and your body is full of nutrients that will continue to strengthen your health. Thank you for sharing about this difficult time of learning and healing. Many hugs.
Ellen Lederman
443 comments before mine…I hope you can feel the love, Susan. Of course it is shocking to read about this since your blog is all about healthy living. And it makes me not believe in karma so much—just the randomness of the universe and the problems we face due to the environment and whatever genetic time bombs may be ticking. Because if there was karma, you wouldn’t have gotten cancer due to your healthy diet and your kindness towards other living things.
But I truly believe that your diet (and your outlook–with all the grace and honesty this post holds) may have prevented your condition from worsening and may be key to your recovery and future good health. People poked fun at Steve Jobs’ diet, which was vegan/fruitarian at times, saying he still died of pancreatic cancer. Well yes, but doctors say he lived so much longer than most people with that type of very invasive aggressive cancer…and that he could have started developing it so many years earlier but the diet prevented it from worsening so many years.
I had to chuckle about your saying you were afraid that some vegans would give you a hard time about your decision to go with the traditional routes of chemo/radiation. As much as I embrace a vegan diet, I have to admit that some of those folks are crazy and judgmental and don’t even understand good science. Your approach seems perfect: the traditional medical route with the less traditional stuff (vegan diet, exercise, perhaps meditation/yoga?). I went to one potluck dinner when someone was bragging that he never drank water or any other liquid because he ate 10+ pounds of produce a day and got all the hydration he needed from that. Uh, so you are a better human being than me because I sip on water all day long and enjoy tea and drink several glasses after exercising? Follow your own truth—someone like you has the intelligence and grace to know what is best for you.
Please know that I—and I’m sure everyone else—don’t see you as a cancer patient/victim, but just one of our favorite bloggers who is dedicated to healthy eating, even if it’s not always the easiest thing to do and even when there are some challenges (like unexpected and unwanted diagnosis and treatment).
And I can tell from the expression on Loki’s face that s/he is glad to be of service to you and help you with the wonderful vibes that ourring offers!
Michele
Thank you for your post. I think it’s important to talk about this. I have a woman who I interviewed for my “Powered by Plant’s e-book who got cancer as a vegan and marathoner and then overcame it without chemo, radiation, or surgery by going raw low-fat vegan. She then ran a marathon every day for a full year to bring awareness of how powerful a RAW vegan diet is.
My observation on vegans is that soy has IGF-1 which promotes cancer growth just like dairy does. See these videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tecaAPRHZ_M&index=4&list=FLUgFBH9GujQBijcCIncnCNQ
Dr. McDougall discusses soy protein isolates and IGF-1/cancer in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ff0YULYCgs&index=8&list=FLUgFBH9GujQBijcCIncnCNQ
I am glad to see that you gave up soy because you have “veggie protein crumbler’s” on your shopping list.
I am not saying that those CAUSED your cancer, but they would be good to eliminate so to reduce your risk of having it come back.
I think people think just eliminating animal foods is enough and oils, and don’t realize that all the salt, sugar, coffee and other vegan processed foods aren’t good for us, either.
If you’ve never considered a raw vegan program I would highly recommend it because cooking foods creates acrylamides and AGE’s which are cancer causing as well.
I wish you the best and applaud your courage for sharing this. I know you had the best of intentions and I am glad you are better now. I hope you take my comments as well-intentioned and not as criticisms because that is not what I am meaning to do.
Michele
Here’s another video by Dr. McDougall on IGF-1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHYFOJBU434
Mark Simon
Hi,
I would like to share some important information that may explain why you were diagnosed with cancer. I would also like you to be aware of the power of a methionine restricted diet.
Please send me an email and I will reply with a paper that may provide a possible explanation for your diagnosis.
All the best,
Mark
Shayla Roberts
Thanks for sharing your story. My own family’s history with heart disease and cancer convinced me to change my diet 20 years ago. Now the reasons to be vegan are much greater than my own health, including animal welfare and the environment. You are my “go to” website for recipes. The fact that you shared this personal story enhances my own personal commitment to my diet. Best of luck and wishing you continued good health.
Claire
I am so glad to hear that you are doing well now. This story is oddly similar to my mom’s breast cancer diagnosis (from doing a biopsy of the wrong cells, being told she did not have cancer, to finding out she did and it was moderately aggressive – sounds like a very similar treatment plan too). Anyways, all that to say that I know (as a daughter, not a patient) how difficult this journey can be – both physically and emotionally, and I am glad we can now provide some support to you!
Ginny McMeans
Thank you for telling us your story. It will only help other people in the future if they ever have to do that internet research and come across your post. You have been very brave and handled so much. I hope the future is smooth sailing for you and your whole family and I will be thinking good thoughts for you. We’ll be ‘seeing’ you and your wonderful recipes. Thank you for all of them.
Sonya Feinberg
Thank you for sharing your story Susan. Like you I have also felt my lifestyle (high nutrient whole plant food diet) makes me immune and I have put off having mammograms testing. I’m glad you chose to remain vegan, if only to keep putting out those great recipes. You are the only food blogger I follow! Thank you.
I believe Fuhrman wrote, “It’s more important what you eat between the ages of 0 – 15 than any other time in your life, to set yourself up for health”. Hopefully our children will be disease free.
Rebecca
Dear Susan,
I’m sure I don’t have anything to say that hasn’t already been said over and over to you since you so bravely shared this post. And although I know this comment is just one of, literally, hundreds; and although it very well may get lost in the shuffle, I had to still write it. I am so proud of you. I am grateful that you shared. I am sending you so much love and many warm wishes for health.
On another note, you have been so instrumental to me in my own veganism. Your recipes were the first I turned to when I turned vegan, and I make so many of your soups (I eat soup pretty much daily, because – like you – I adore one pot nutrient dense meals). I check your blog on a daily basis and get so excited when you share new recipes.
I’m sending you warm wishes for health, energy, and vibrancy; and I’ll be holding you close to my heart.
XO,
Rebecca
Karen Zielke
Susan,
I love you and your website. Thank you for your honesty and frankness. I will keep you in my prayers. I was diagnosed 7 and 1/2 years ago with a condition in my breast which increases my risk of breast cancer. I will be followed by an oncologist forever which is really strange but comforting. I never walk into that mammogram office without the knowledge that my life may turn on a dime before I walk out. I hold my breath and wonder if “this is the year.” I closely follow advice from women who have been through the process, just in case I become one of them. Thanks for your encouragement.