[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.
sarah
susan,
i’ve read your blog for years and am sitting at my kitchen table kind of crying as i read this spooning peanut butter into my mouth (sounds like a personal problem …) — just wanted to say i appreciate you sharing with us and am wishing you the very very best! keep up the goodness, thanks for all you’ve given.
love,
your reader sarah
Tawny
Godspeed to you, Susan. I have admired you and loved your recipes for years. You are a big part of the reason I’m vegan and an animal rights proponent. Thank you so much for sharing, your honesty has helped many of us already. We all stand together in this fight, remember you are never alone.
Much love to you,
Tawny
Stephanie Weaver
Susan, so glad to read this post and the honesty that shines through it. And honored to be included in the people who helped. Glad that I could. Being in the middle of my own health opportunity and having to radically change my diet, when I thought I was eating the absolute healthiest way I could, is a challenge for me too. Your honesty helps others recognize that there isn’t one way. I hope we can all just support each other. XOXO
Lorna
Hi Susan,
Thank you for this blog post. I have always felt like you, that I never will get cancer because of the way I eat. After reading this, it is important for me to get mammograms. I would make the same decision as you did, feeling that if eating this way didn’t prevent cancer, it won’t cure it. I also think your friend Maria is very smart.
I am sorry you had to go through the emotional pain of this, wondering why this happened when you lead such a healthy lifestyle. You have friends out here in internetland, friends that you never even knew, giving you support and sending good wishes.
I have been reading for 4 or 5 years now and have made many of your recipes, with a lot of repeating favorites in my house.
Good health to you,
(((hugs))) Lorna
Sarah
Susan, thank you so much for sharing, you are an incredible, brave and wonderful woman and I’m happy to hear you are now cancer free. Big hugs and thank you for all of the amazing recipes over the years, looking forward to many, many more. xox
Amy
Longtime reader, infrequent commenter – thank you so much for sharing your story. I am so glad that you are doing well now! Virtual hugs!
Kari L Peterson
Hi Susan,
Thank you so much for sharing your story!
It came at a perfect time for me. I have been mostly vegan (sometimes vegetarian) for the last 3 years and I was diagnosed with bladder cancer at the age of 44 yrs.
I was stunned! I didn’t have any of the usual symptoms only some mild cramping which I have been told was unrelated but I know it was. I was lucky in the sense that it was caught early and only had minor surgery to have the tumors removed. No other treatment was required for the time being. I too worried about the possibility of chemo and radiation and went through a lot of the same emotions you did. Bladder cancer does recur and I am pretty sure it is back as I am experiencing the same symptoms. I keep thinking I can ignore it but I know I need to deal with it. I too felt it was ironic that I am the only one in my family that eats the healthiest and ended up with this. No one said it but I imagined them thinking it.
But I bounced back quickly and I am sure my diet was the reason why. Next on my list is to try to drink more green smoothies and stay positive!
Thanks for coming out and sharing your story, I feel better for having read it.
Bonnie Prisock
So glad you are ok. Had you not been a vegan, I am sure it would have been worst. Love all of your recipes and wish you the very best of health.
Julie
Your post beautifully articulated your heart throughout this journey. I, too, would most likely made the exact decisions you did for the very same reasons. I’ve learned through your post that a vegan diet isn’t a “disease-free” card and that I shouldnt promote it as a guarantee. I will continue to eat a vegan diet because I truly believe a plant based diet is the healthiest diet I know of and the one that actually makes me feel at my physical best.
Your blog is my go-to for fabulous recipes! So thankful that you’re through the woods and will continue providing delicious, creative, healthy foods for all of us! Thanks for being transparent and real! Praying God’s peace and blessings for you!
Amy Crawshaw
I am so sorry you had to go through all this, but thank you for sharing your story. I understand your fear that people might be judgmental about the choices you made, but you did what was best for you. Good luck with your continuing quest for good health (sounds like you have some good goals!) and I wish you and your family all the best.
Dinah
Thank you so much for sharing your story, Susan ~ and all good wishes for optimal health!! Your story is very important for all of us ~ let’s stop the shaming and blaming!
Love your blog and your recipes ~ and, most of all, your wonderful spirit!
Lisa
Hi Susan,
I am sorry that you had to go through all this and I hope that the cancer is now behind you for good. Thank you for sharing your story, even though it was probably difficult for your to write it. I think it is important to have this conversation, to understand that they are no absolutes, and that things happen no matter how hard we work to avoid them.
And thank you for all of your recipes that continue to inspire me to eat good food. I, like many of your fans, hope to see more of them in the coming future.
Best wishes from a long-time reader,
Lisa
Pat
Thank you for your brave post-you are awesome. Bad things just happen to people who don’t deserve it. The good news is that’s how we learn, grow and learn humility. I’m so glad you did and are doing everything possible to fight the disease-why not? If some people judge you or make you doubt your lifestyle or choices, they must not have much going on in their own lives-ignore them. Stay positive and creative-your fans are still here!
pgyx
Thank you for sharing your journey with us. As a physician, I’m all too aware that sometimes bad things happen even to those who do everything “right.” That said, I still think that health-promoting behaviors like a veggie-rich vegan diet are well worth any challenges. I’m so happy you’re doing well and wish you many blessings and joy over the next few decades!
Susan Walter
Thank you for writing this honest account of your experience. I’m sure many people go through this sort of associated ‘non-medical’ trauma along with the strictly diagnosed medical stuff, with so many of their friends, family and complete strangers wanting to impose their ideas. It can really help to see someone come through after having determinedly worked out their own path. The more I read your blog the more impressed I am. I really appreciate the recipes for thoughtful recipes using real ingredients that actually work. I love beans and your various beany burgers are a fabulous addition to my repertoire.
Irene
I’d like to add my best wishes to you as well. You are such a brave lady. I have MS and follow a plant-based wholefood diet with fish and ‘good’ oils, eg extra virgin cold pressed olive oil. Your recipes are just wonderful as I can use any of them and just add the oil of my choice after cooking. Looking forward to many more blogs. Keep well x x
Chrissy Faery
Oh gosh! I’m so sorry for all you’ve been through – I’m so glad that you’re doing better now though! Thank you for sharing your story xxx
Teri
Your journey is one that no one wants to take and no one is rest ever prepared go it either. You can control what you eat and how you exercise but one can not control the environment around us. Our world is laden with chemicals that can’t be pronounced let alone know what they can do to harm us. Knowing you did everything right should make you happy but in no way can you cocoon yourself away from a harmful environment. Just like a tsunami hits thousands of miles away from us we still get the effects of it in a different way. No one is immune from life. Keep your head high and remember YOU did not cause this. You did everything right but bad things happen to good people. Congrats to you for the fight of your life that you WON!!!
Hilary
Thanks for sharing your story. The points you made sure ring true and we need to understand and support the choices others make in the treatment they pursue. I am grateful for your honesty and pray for your healing.
Kathy Baglan
Thank you for sharing your ordeal. I am a radiation oncologist and have being a vegan for only the last few years. I have seen many vegans with breast cancer over the years and all are shocked as you were that they could get cancer despite their diet. Unfortunately, we don’t clearly know what causes most breast cancers. However, I do believe, and there is increasing evidence to support it, that eating an anti inflammatory, whole grain based diet and maintaining a healthy weight improves breast cancer survival. Also, there is epidemiological evidence that drinking alcohol increases the incidence of breast cancer. I would encourage everyone, vegan or otherwise, to get all of their health maintenance exams on a routine basis … Mammograms, Pap smears, screening colonoscopy, routine blood tests. No one is immune from disease. I can see how hard you struggled with the diagnosis and treatment choices, but I think your story will definitely help others. My advise for anyone diagnosed with cancer is simple … Find excellent doctors and stay off the internet except for reparable cancer sites (American concer society, rtanswers.com, NIH, mayo clinic, etc). Never Google your diagnosis … The Internet may have a lot of information on it but it has a lot of misinformation too and what it lacks is an appropriate filter, meaning that patients have no idea if what they reading is applicable to their situation or if what they are reading is fact, fiction, or opinion. Your experience is exactly as most of my patients tell me … The treatment isn’t nearly as bad as they imagined and eating a vegan diet and moderate exercise can be very helpful in the recovery process. Congrats on making it through and wishing you many more healthy and happy years to come.
Sigrid
Dear Susan, I think you are a very courageous woman! And I wish you many years in good health and without worrying. I am sure that your healthy diet made you recover from the chemo and the radiation this fast and keeping the negative side effect as minimal as possible. Stay strong and enjoy life as much as you can. In the mean time I (and many others with me) enjoy your recepies.
Warm greetings from Belgium
Sasha
Dear Susan,
I haven’t commented on here before but I felt compelled to do so now. You are a brave & strong woman. Thank you for sharing your story – it’s a reminder that our lifestyle can protect us to a great extent but doesn’t guarantee perfect health. I second your friend’s statement that your lifestyle is probably what helped you recover so quickly.
I too have had my share of health scares but practicing meditation & breathing techniques (http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/what-sudarshan-kriya ) has turned my life around.
All the best for your journey forward.
connie
You made absolutely the right decisions for you. Thank you for sharing your story. I am SO HAPPY you are cancer free!!!
Ruth
Susan, How brave you are to share this. I am absolutely certain that your diet and lifestyle are the way to go. You are strong and healthy and have been able to sail through the treatments and promote renewed health. You are an inspiration Susan.
Ashley
I was so happy that you chose to share your story. I’m a vegan freshman in college with dreams of becoming a D.O. Surgeon with the philosophy that you should do whatever prevention and good health practices you can first, but if there is still something wrong it should be treated. I believe you made the right choice and that although hard to admit, your lifestyle almost certainly had a big hand in your recovery and ease of treatment. Bravo for chosing your health and choosing for yourself. This was your choice, don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise. 🙂
Jim
Thank you for sharing this difficult story of you life. Glad to hear that you are doing well. Keep up the great work!
LaJuana
(((Hugs Susan)))!!!
Sherry
Susan, thank you so very much for this post. Thank you for being honest about your journey. I was also under the impression that food would be the preventative medicine and that you would be immune to this cancer. What a shock it must have been! For many I am sure this is awake-up call that we still need to do our due diligence in mammograms and checkups and not assume anything. I am so sorry you have had to go through this but I am very thankful that you have come out on the other side in victory. I pray that you never have to face cancer and disease again and that it will never show up again in your family! God’s richest blessings on you and your future!
Anupama Ponnapalli
Dear Susan, Thanks for sharing a very intimate part of your life with us. I wish you all the very best !
Karen
Thank you for sharing your story! I was diagnosed with stage 2 bc in June of 2012. I had just started a vegan diet 6 months before. I do have the BRCA 1 genetic mutation, so I was being closely monitored. My first thought was also, how could this happen while eating so healthy? The reason I switched to vegan was for health reasons….to hopefully prevent cancer. Anyway, after mastectomy, chemo, radiation, and hysterectomy I am ok. I pray that continuing to eat a whole foods, plant based diet will keep cancer and other health problems away. I did very well through the surgeries and treatments and I know it was partially due to all the veggies and fruits. I even saw my blood work improve from week to week when eating green smoothies!
Anyway, I hope you continue to stay cancer free! Thank you for sharing and for your recipes…I am going to try the okra and tomatoes today!
Sue
A very well written post, which I should imagine will help a lot of people. It is so brave of you to share this with us.
I hope the cancer now stays away, you have handled everything so right and so bravely you deserve nothing but the best of health for the future.
Debbie
Thank you so much for being brave enough to share your story. As a vegan who tries to live a similar lifestyle to yours for the same reasons, I cried through a lot of it. “But we are supposed to be immune to cancer! That’s supposed to be a benefit to eating so healthy!” ran through my head in shouting voices. But the reality is that nobody is immune to cancer – there are so many things in the world that could do it, especially here in the US. As someone who has not been good with exercise / weight – this blog was what I needed to get serious about healthy eating and exercise. (Sure Oreos are vegan, but probably not my best choice for a snack!) Also, organics – sometimes I go for the conventional when I see how much cheaper it is, but now I will treat myself. I just wanted to say thank you so very much for this. I am praying for your continued recovery both physically and emotionally. PS – Your cat is adorable!
Megan
Congratulations to you. You have beat this and that is what counts. I totally get what you are saying that you had depended on this eating lifestyle to thwart any diseases or sicknesses – you make this more real for the rest of us by opening up about your cancer. Everyone tends to believe that vegan is what will keep you safe. Not always – so thank you for sharing. I cried through the entire thing. You are truly an inspiration.
Kate
I’m recuperating from my second lumpectomy from DCIS, as I read your article. Thank you SO much for writing it! Two years ago, DCIS (and high cholesterol) moved me from vegetarian to vegan to plant-strong, no processed foods, no oil. (My DCIS both times stayed contained & was a 2, not 3, so I was able to avoid chemo/radiation.) I did think my uber-healthy way of eating would take care of all my health issues, going forward. But 2 years later, here I am again. So it is SO helpful to know that someone I admire and try to emulate, and who’s been doing this a lot longer, has the same issue. I’ve come to resent the claims by many that eating right provides a bullet-proof vest, because then the next natural question is “Why me?” or “What have I done wrong” when something like this does happen. (It’s happening for me with my cholesterol, as well.) I, like you, believe that if I wasn’t eating healthy, things might be so much worse. And I at least know I’m doing the absolute best I can for my body. Also like you, I won’t in any way support the industry that causes suffering to so many innocent creatures. Thank you so much for letting me know I’m not alone, and not in some way to blame. I guess sometimes stuff just does happen! Even to those of us who are eating healthy…
Celyne
Thank you Susan for what you’re doing for the vegan community. I wish you all the best.
Vicki
Thank you so much, Susan, for sharing your journey. I’m a vegan of 26 years, and, for various reasons, I struggle with whether or not I should even have another mammogram. I appreciate your honesty and candor, and I’m so happy for you that you had such wonderful support and advice, and that you are now feeling terrific. You are inspiring me to adopt an even healthier vegan diet. (And also, thank you for caring about animals and the planet. 🙂
Veronique
So happy you are doing o.k. and so incredibly thankful that you shared this with us. You are truly a woman of strength!
I bow in deep respect.
Janne Swearengen
Susan, Thanks for sharing your story. As a fellow survivor, I can understand all of the feelings and emotions you shared and spoke of my own in my blog as well. It’s been a year for me since my diagnosis; I did not have to have chemo as my Oncotype came back as a very low risk for recurrence. I did have the radiation and I credit my vegan and exercise lifestyle with being able to, as the doc put it, ‘sail through the radiation without a problem or complaint’. Thanks again for sharing a very personal journey.
jlautner
Thank you for a very thoughtful post about a subject many of us think about. I would have had many of the same thoughts as you if I were in a similar situation. And like you, I would have been reluctant to share, worried that I might seem to be “failing the movement”, in a sense, just as I seem to do every day just by being fat. There are so many aspects to how our bodies process what goes in them, from food to chemotherapy and radiation, that nobody knows it all. I do believe that you helped your case greatly by eating as you do, just as I am certain that my sister’s gall bladder cancer was slowed (but not stopped) by her whole-foods plant-based diet. It was helpful to me to read of all that you did in the pursuit of the truth about yours, so there is no question. Thank you for letting us in on this very personal yet important story.
ruthann
thank you for sharing your story. You have always been a star in my sky, but you shine even brighter today. ((hugs))