I AM HealingStrong
Discover how to transform the most challenging chapter of your life with Jim Mann's inspiring podcast. As a stage 4 cancer survivor, Jim interviews famous musical artists like Tasha Layton, Ellie Holcomb, Katy Nichole, and Tim Timmons, as well as health influencers who beat incurable diseases like depression and addiction. Through humor and a renewed sense of purpose, guests courageously share their stories of overcoming the toughest times and learning to trust God. Tune in to Jim's powerful podcast to find hope and inspiration.
I AM HealingStrong
96: Melanoma and the Power of Persistence and Community Healing | Lorre Faszholz
We go through a journey with Lorre Faszholz, HealingStrong Group Leader, who found a red spot and recounts the journey from the first alarming signs of melanoma to her invasive diagnosis. Lorre's story reminds us how important it is to be our own advocate.
Lorre received a stage 1, and later on, a stage 4 metastatic melanoma diagnosis She shares the emotions and pivotal decisions involved in her treatment, including the anxiety of undergoing a biopsy and the overwhelming relief of finding strength in her faith. Lorre also shares the stress-related health setbacks, and the schedule of lung surgery followed by two years of immunotherapy.
Beyond her medical journey, Lorre emphasizes the power of community and lifestyle changes in the healing process. She discusses how her husband's adoption of a plant-based diet led to remarkable improvements in his health and the benefits of growing their own food. The conversation extends to her leadership in a cancer support group through and with the support of HealingStrong.
HealingStrong, is a non-profit organization dedicated to connecting and educating those facing cancer, and to learn how you can join this supportive network and be part of a community-centered journey towards healing and resilience, check out healingstrong.org.
To reach Lorre Faszholz and ask questions about her HealingStrong group or ask more about her story, email her at:
lorrefaszholz@gmail.com
HealingStrong's mission is to educate, equip and empower our group leaders and group participants through their journey with cancer or other chronic illnesses, and know there is HOPE. We bring this hope through educational materials, webinars, guest speakers, conferences, community small group support and more.
Please consider supporting our mission by becoming a part of our Membership Program, as a monthly donor.
When you do, you will receive additional resources such as: webinars, access to ALL our past and most recent conference videos, downloadables and more, as a bonus.
To learn more, head to the HealingStrong Membership Program link below:
I'd make my big salad and he'd go that looks pretty good. He hates flutter, he's always hated flutter. And he'd have a part of my salad and he goes this is really good. So he started just I would make my stuff and just say hey, you know, we can use these as sides for you. I didn't expect him to change his you know diet or anything, but he just saw it and he saw the research and so he did the same he does the same thing I do and he went. His cholesterol went from 230 to 152 in six months.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:He's at his college weight.
Speaker 3:You're listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast, a part of the Healing Strong organization, the number one network of holistic cancer support groups in the world. The number one network of holistic cancer support groups in the world. Each week we bring you stories of hope, real stories that will encourage you as you navigate your way on your own journey to health. Now here's your host stage four cancer thriver, jim Mann.
Speaker 2:Today I'm talking to someone in Arkansas. I've never talked to somebody in Arkansas, so this is a new deal for me. I'm speaking with Lori Fajholz, correct? Is that close? Uh-huh, wow, look at me. I just puffed up with pride there. I normally just butcher names. I won't try it again, though. So, lori, you have a great story. You were diagnosed Actually, you weren't really diagnosed at first, right Back in 2005? Yeah, they weren't sure what it was. Tell the story. I think you probably know it better than I do.
Speaker 1:Right. So yeah, in 2005, I noticed like a red spot on my thigh, on my upper thigh, and I went in to say, is this something to worry about? And, you know, got to know that just looks like some scar tissue or something, I don't know. So I dismissed it and went a few more months and it just still bothered me. It looked a little weird. So I went in again and, you know, no, it's nothing to worry about.
Speaker 1:And so this went on from October to like April and I finally went in in April and just said look, you know, this thing is changing. I tried to say all the buzzwords that you know, you don't have to take me seriously. And this was a dermatologist. And she just looked at me and said you know, honey, I don't think it's anything, but I'll take it off to appease you. So they shaved it, which you're not supposed to do with a melanoma. You're supposed to take a punch biopsy. Then they call back a week later and say I'm so sorry, it's invasive melanoma. Note to self, I think at that point I never felt bad pushing.
Speaker 1:If I think something is wrong, or if you feel like something is not right. You need to be just extremely persistent. Yeah, and not let somebody you know tell you don't worry about it.
Speaker 2:How big was it Was?
Speaker 1:it tiny, or is it? You know, on the surface it looked like an eraser head, okay. So, and I didn't know much about melanoma, you know, and they put me right to you know, a surgeon. But back then they staged it different, I think, than now. It was stage one, but it was Clark level three and so I think Clark level I'm not even sure what they went to four or five, so it was probably pretty deep. So they sent me to a surgical oncologist which they did a wide incision and took a sentinel lymph node to see if there was any lymph node involvement and there was not. Back then they also didn't do a drain. I know these days they do a drain, I think. So I did have some issues with because they went all the way, they did like a nine inch incision and all the way down to the muscle, and so I did have some, you know, circulation issues, I would say swelling. I had to wear compression stocking for a while because I had some issues with, I guess, the lymph going like it should. But you know, with Heal they didn't really have any follow up at that time In 2005,.
Speaker 1:It was like, you know, if you're an earlier stage, chemo doesn't work, and thank heavens, because I wouldn't have wanted that. But I'll tell you what I did pick up back then because I didn't know much about it. But I picked up the incredible fear radiating from the medical world which really did, you know, sit on me. One lady told me to never give blood because this would mark me forever, you know. So I kind of knew, even though now I know that everybody has cancer cells in them, whether they express themselves as more of you know, result of your immune system. But back then it was just, you know, I would go into appointment and the fear that radiated off the medical world was pretty significant. So it did. It was a wake up call for me. It wasn't early stage, so I was.
Speaker 1:I changed my diet a little bit, just with some very light research. There really wasn't a whole lot on, you know this kind of stuff in 2005. But I did see a lot of stuff on melanoin. It wasn't good on, you know this kind of stuff in 2005. But I did see a lot of stuff on and it wasn't good. So you know, it definitely got my attention. I changed my diet for a bit, you know. But then as time went on, I kind of went back to my standard American diet, which I thought I was eating sort of healthy but not really.
Speaker 2:Now, when you say you changed your diet, did you like just eat salads and more vegetables, or Just ate more vegetables.
Speaker 1:I was full time. I, you know, kind of thought about, oh, should I do some juice? And I it was really hard to do it before I left, and so I kind of tried to, you know, eat more vegetables. But I really didn't have a lot of the research, so I just was kind of taking a stab at trying to reduce fats and sugars and stuff like that, just clean up my diet, which I did for a bit, and then I just went about my life and I really didn't think about it a whole lot.
Speaker 1:I went in for maybe six years for blood markers, like once a year, and I don't even know what they were looking for, because there really isn't a lot of blood markers for melanoma. But I always had that kind of feeling in the back of my mind like what if it came back in my lungs or something? How would I ever know that? And just to back up a little, even before this diagnosis and then during it, I've been a Christian since my early 20s and I've always felt like God's watched out for me. And during some of those early scans I remember just feeling like God was saying do you trust me, daughter, do you trust me, and I did.
Speaker 1:It's really scary when you're going through some of those early scans and you don't know. And one of my favorite hymns when I first became a Christian believer way back in the 70s was it Is Well With my Soul. That hymn just resonated with me and it's always been one of my favorites and I just feel like, no matter what has come in our lives, the ups and downs, when it really comes down to it, it is well with my soul. So I'm very thankful that I have that base because, you know, I don't know how people walk through this stuff without it, anything else that happens in life, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So fast forward to 2020, we had just moved from, we were in Texas at this time and we had just moved up to Arkansas to a spot we thought would be great to retire in, and we moved up here in 2019 and we were up here about six months and then the whole country kind of shut down. So this is really, when I look back, I just see the providence of God all over this For me to have an appointment just for a well check in 2020, because a lot of places were even hard to get into for anything. I went in for just a well check in 2020 and they said, hey, by the way, why don't you do a CT scan for like a heart check, like a plaque calcium score for your heart? Because I hadn't had one in over a decade. So I said, sure, and so I went in for that. And they said, well, hey, your heart looks great. You do have something in your lung, but you aren't a smoker, so don't worry about it.
Speaker 1:And I thought you know that warning light went off. I thought probably unlikely, but I better. I said no, I want to, I really want to watch that because I've got a melanoma history. So we watched it like every six months and it was growing and so it got to about a centimeter and they said you know, we need to biopsy this. It's something we need to see what it is. So I said well, you know, would a biopsy spread something if it was something you know bad? And they said, oh, the needle's so tiny that you don't have to worry about that. So I go in for the biopsy. And you know that was not fun. They do not put you under for a biopsy of the lung because they have to have you hold your breath while they're taking it.
Speaker 2:So that sounds like fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was pretty terrifying, um, but even there, you know, on the wall of the hospital there was isaiah 41, 10 do not see, for I'm with you, do not be dismayed, for I'm your god and I was just like thank you, lord, for that. Um. But yeah, they took four samples and it was really difficult. You, your lungs fill up with blood and you know, so then I'm going. Yeah, I think what they told me is probably not correct because it's got to spread with that kind of involvement, with bleeding. But you know, lord can take care of that. So I really don't know how you would have found out what it was without that. So I just, I don't look back. I try to, you know, move forward from things that they're already done. There's nothing you can do to undo it. So the biopsy did verify that it was metastatic melanoma. Now that's when it really was, you know, terrifying, because this thing that I kind of feared my whole life came true and I just couldn't believe it after 16 years that I had, you know, this thing show up in my lung.
Speaker 1:Now I will say that I was in real estate in Texas and right before I moved, I was in a position there where I. It was very, very stressful. Plus, we were moving, so we're moving from somewhere. We'd been almost 20 years. We moved ourselves. So we moved. You know, sold our house, moved everything in storage units, did everything ourselves and I was a listing manager so I had like 10 listings at a time. I was so stressed out that by the time we moved up here like my hair was falling out I could. I was in that kind of a stressful mode and I really look back at that and feel like that allowed my system to be at such a level that you know things fired up.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:But anyway, after the diagnosis, as you know, when it's stage four you just like hear white noise, or at least for me. Between that and then getting into scans to see how much of my body was involved in this, music's always spoken to me and I just had to put headphones on and just put praise and worship music on, because I just could not take my thoughts captive. You know, I had to like force them.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:To listen to the promises of God and just, you know, focus on what was true and not what was not true. And what I didn't know and I've always known that you know who holds the future in his hands is Jesus. So I never did ask. You know what my diagnosis was. I knew from the first time looking, I'm learning not to look online because I knew it would not be good. Yeah, that doesn't help. So I really did just focus on, you know, taking my thoughts captive, listening to praise and worship. I did have the scans and it was only in my lungs. So I know I can't believe I'm saying that only in my lung, but hey, it could have been worse.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I was thankful for that. I still didn't know anything about this world that I'm in now. I really didn't. I thought I was doing what I needed to do. I you know. They said what are you doing? Next Tuesday, we can get you in and get that out. So I was like sure. So we scheduled lung surgery.
Speaker 1:I went in for a lung resection is what they call it. They cut out the portion that has the tumor in it, so they took about six inches of the top of my right lung out. Wow, they were going to try to do it robotically, which I think the Lord protected me here too, because, thinking back, that's probably not a good idea. You want to make sure you're, you know, being able to feel that everything's out of there, and so they did. They couldn't do it that way, so I was in there over three hours because they needed to go ahead and just cut me open to get it, and so they did that. They got it out, um, and then they told me I needed to do two years of immunotherapy, right? Uh, opdevo, is that what you were on to?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, I went ahead and started the Updivo and I did notice some things pretty quickly as far as, like I don't know how you reacted, but I had, you know, swelling pretty quickly in my joints and I just I'm pretty active. I can't say I've always been in the best physical health as far as, like, I put weight on here and there you know along my life, but I've always been very active. I was active in high school, active in college with sports, active in life, and I was feeling, yeah, I was very active Even during this. I worked out, I'd work out and go right over and get a infusion, so I wasn't in terrible shape. But I hit that 11 month mark on the immunotherapy and my body just went into a complete inflammatory response, basically rheumatoid arthritis.
Speaker 1:They told me at the oncology place when I hit this, they stopped Opdivo immediately and said you know you need to go to a rheumatologist. So they said you know you need to go to a ruminologist. So I they said you know they'll contact you. So they contacted me. It was about two, three weeks later. I was waiting for this call and they said we can get you in in about five, six months. I went what this is during those years where they're still having trouble with getting appointments in, and I just thought five or six months, I mean it was rapidly deteriorating. I got to a place where my husband had to put straps on the beds so I could pull myself up. I couldn't turn knobs in the shower.
Speaker 1:He had to lure me to use the restroom. If I woke up in the middle of the night and needed to move my sheet or pillow, I couldn't, and my hands, my wrists, started leaking the fluid into the tops of my hands and I had these huge ganglion cysts on both of the tops of my hands. Wow, it was bad.
Speaker 2:So it's like all your joints were.
Speaker 1:I couldn't sit down, yeah. So I knew I couldn't wait five or six months. So I started calling around to major cities around me and I got somebody in Kansas City who said, who called us on a Monday morning and said, hey, if you can get up here by one, we'll see you. So we got in the car and just booked up there it's only three hours and they said you have rheumatoid arthritis so we're going to put you on high dose steroids and then you need to take this other drug called methotrexate I believe is what it is.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:I looked that up and it did not. It was not good and you needed to come back for liver biopsy every three months and I, you know, at that point I knew I needed the steroids. It was really kind of depressing to have to go on those because after I spent 11 months ramping up my immune system, now it's going to take the steroids which are going to suppress my immune system.
Speaker 1:Well that's counterproductive, but there was no way around it. I knew I had to get the inflammation under control. I was almost in a wheelchair by the time I got an appointment. That would have been about six weeks total, and in that time I knew I was doing some serious damage to my joints.
Speaker 2:Now. Did it do anything for your cancer, though?
Speaker 1:What the immunotherapy?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I don't know, because you know, I mean, I'm hoping that it did in 11 months, but I just knew that I was in a situation now where I couldn't continue with immunotherapy.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And I was doing something, I felt like to almost undo what I did, so I had to figure that out.
Speaker 2:Right? The reason why I ask is I know everyone reacts differently. I only know a few people that have been on this. One guy turned into an albino. I mean, all the pigment in his skin just left, and he was the exact same age as me, had the exact same cancer and he just he goes. I used to be, you know, he worked construction. He used to be like really tan all the time and here I was white as can be. At least he was healthy. But me, I had like eight tumors in me and they disappeared or shrunk in the first two months. But it doesn't do that to everybody apparently.
Speaker 1:Well, you know that was my other question when I started the immunotherapy is they took the tumor out. I assumed we were doing it to to prevent a reoccurrence.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And that's why I did it. God can use any and all the things I've done. So I, you know, at that point I was, I was fine with with doing this. I know immunotherapy is in a different kind of state or you know different kind of place than chemo and radiation, but anything you put in your body is still going to have.
Speaker 2:Right Side effects.
Speaker 1:Reactions. So so I did do this the steroids and I'd said no to the mexotrexate. And this is the point in my story where I kind of just said, uh, I can see the path I was going to go down with taking this, and then I am this reaction and taking this and I am this reaction, and then how bad is it going to get? So I really did just kind of put my heels down and I started looking on how to reduce my inflammation, to get off the steroids. That was my goal.
Speaker 1:And in that journey a friend told us about crispy cancer. I watched the nodules and, man, that just that was it for me. I remember it just resonated with me. It just made so much sense and I just went cold turkey. And within six weeks no, I'm sorry, six months by December this was in June and by December I was completely off steroids of all kind, weaned myself off and never took the methotrexate and, you know, went raw, the 90 days, raw juicing, 64 ounces of juice, and I started my two year at that point, even though I was a year out from the melanoma and all that, I started the two year and I never looked back.
Speaker 1:I just, I mean every time. You know, this world was new to me. So I remember when I looked at Chris's cookbook, I didn't know what nutritional yeast was and never heard of hemp hearts, and I thought I'm kind of a methodical person. I just took one step at a time and, you know, did the diet, did the juicing and just we have been moving in this journey and just layering, you know, getting rid of the toxins in my life and, you know, got a berkey water filter and then worked on the personal care products and the microwave, by the wayside yeah just finished some dental work.
Speaker 1:So I you know I think chris has said before in some of his interviews I'll really never know what worked. I'm just hoping something in that mix. But I just believe so much in the research and what I've learned about the diet and the emotional cleansing and just looking at all the aspects, I believe in it so much. That's why I am doing the healing strong, because I feel like just to empower people whatever they choose. I didn't know, I don't know that I would have made different decisions here or there, but I know that if you have the information in front of you, then you at least go in going. I did this because I looked at everything and this is what I felt the Lord was leading me to. This resonated with me Right. So that's why I did it. It's been an adventure. We look at it as an adventure.
Speaker 1:My husband very supportive. We've been married, you know, 40, coming on 47 years and he's not unhealthy and he didn't have any major health issues at all. But he kind of was a cold cut. You know, lunch, meat, meat every day, beef, jerky. His cholesterol has always been high. It was like 230, you know, right around there and he just would watch. He was watching what I was doing. Obviously, he watched all the modules with me. It all made sense. And he was researching along with me and I'd make my big salad and he'd go that looks pretty good. He hates lettuce, he's always hated lettuce and he'd have a part of my salad and he goes this is really good. So he started, just I would make my stuff and just say, hey, you know, we can use these as sides for you. I didn't expect him to change his you know diet or anything, but he just saw it and he saw the research and so he did the same he does the same thing I do. And he went. His cholesterol went from 230 to 152 in six months.
Speaker 1:Wow, kind of put yourself in other people's shoes, I think. Like what would we think if we saw people like going out in the yard and their bare feet to ground? And you know, our son, we bring the Berkey everywhere with us and he'll, when we come to his house, he'll say you know, the fountain of youth can go here, you know, or we'll tell him to just let us out in the back, we'll graze, you know. I mean, you have to have something more about it so that people can slowly get used to the idea. But many of our children have even bought the cookbook Chris's cookbook and they don't have cancer but they love the food and I, you know, it's not that it's hard, I think it's simple. But the preparation time is what I think gets people in our busy world is that you have to, you know, take the time. It takes time to make anything for yourself and not grab a microwave thing or something.
Speaker 2:That's you know, that's right, we're in a hurry.
Speaker 1:Yes, but we've. You know you get into a pattern where it just it's hard for us not to. You know, this is a lifestyle change. It's definitely not. Whereas the first time it was more of a diet out of fear, this time it's a lifestyle change and it just feels like what we're supposed to be doing. It feels good. We have never felt better. We know we look as good as we can for our age 40. Yeah right.
Speaker 2:We'll go with that. Yeah, now, do you like, do you?
Speaker 1:have your own garden and everything, or yeah, yeah, right, we'll go with that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now do you have your own garden and everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, our garden beds have multiplied. We have started with two raised garden beds and then my husband just put in three more this year and we have been just enjoying that so much this summer. Yeah, I mean, it's you know, and you can't do it all at once. I've heard some of your interviews say the same thing. You just have to layer it. And that's what I've always appreciated about Chris too, because his square one.
Speaker 1:I love even the title, because along the way, and especially at the beginning, you get all this stuff coming at you from all directions and all new anyway, and I don't want to just be blown about like in the wind where I'm doing this and I'm doing that and I have no idea what I'm doing. So I really prayed hard. I started the diet and did the juicing. Like I said, I just prayed so hard that God would show me what else I should do. Something resonated with me. I would do it.
Speaker 1:But I'd always come back to square one just when I got too overwhelmed. I'd just say you know what? I'm just going to focus on the diet and the juicing and move forward and the detoxing and all of that, because otherwise it can get just really overwhelming and there's so many things out there now you can't do all of them at the same time. You can't. You got to kind of pick what you think is that resonates with you, that the Lord's put on your heart to do. But it's hard to do all the different protocols at the same time. So you got to kind of commit and do that.
Speaker 2:I totally understand that, because I always I've always had trouble with focus and some I'll be chasing squirrels all the time. You got to stay with the basics. I mean, there's a gazillion supplements to take and they're important, but you really need to get most of your nutrition from actual food, and supplements are just kind of like the icing on the cake, so to speak. But yeah, I love that big salad that Chris has, because it takes me forever to make it and even longer to eat it because I'm a slow eater anyway. So it's pretty much my whole day when I do a salad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're big and mine have gotten bigger. So, yeah, and I throw everything with the kitchen sink in there. I mean, if know, leftover taco meat from Chris's cookbook, I'll put a little of that in there. It's a savory taste, it's got lentils and peppers and all that in there, but I'll just, I just nothing goes to waste anymore which is awesome, and you can freeze so many things and then use them in soup, so it's a really good way to live.
Speaker 1:It's just unfortunate that it's hard to find it anywhere else. If you're traveling or something you know, you have to make the best choices you can. But, people are slow and slow in, you know, joining the bandwagon as far as completely eating healthy and it's harder to find organic and where we are it's really challenging on the restaurants. But you know again, if we travel we just bring our own food and we make the best choices we can. You know the best, better and good, you just have to do the best you can.
Speaker 2:You get more motivated when there's a diagnosis, though, don't you?
Speaker 1:Oh, yes, thank you.
Speaker 2:Everybody wants to eat healthy. They say that when they watch you eating healthy and they eat something from McDonald's or something, yeah, I'm going to eat healthy one day. And then, unfortunately, if they get a diagnosis, then that's the motivation. But yeah, anybody could do it and it is different for everybody. Even like with the immunotherapy, all of our bodies react differently.
Speaker 2:I was always interested and the doctors never seemed to know what to tell me, because I said, now, is this still in my system? Is it ever going to leave? Because, like my legs and I saw that was one of the side effects that sometimes it'll attack your joints, which obviously you know Uh-huh, but my legs sometimes feel like they're 90 years old. It hurts to walk up steps, yet the next day I can run up like I'm 16 years old Well, maybe 19. But still it's just the joints. My hips and my knees are like really sore. But I thought, well, is it my age, because I am in my 60s now, or is it still from the immunotherapy? I'll figure, I'll just work through it, no matter what it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the continuing? You know I'm so. I'm three years from the surgery, three and a half out, and I'm, you know I probably. Well, I don't have any plans on changing what I'm doing. I'm nowhere near where you are that far out I need to. I don't see changing anything for any time, anytime soon, and a part of that reason is because I know when I was first coming off the steroids, I was off, but you know something would come up where you know we'd have visitors or something and I would just get a little more fatigued and I'd feel that pain.
Speaker 1:It was like right under the surface and it took a good year before I didn't feel that. So I feel like you know. You know whether it's from scans and I push those way out, but whatever it is, we live in a toxic world so I need to continue to detox. I do see that this is an immune restoration journey that I'm on. I want my immune system to be so strong that it's inhospitable to cancer and that it can take care of anything that might come up. Right, like people get healthy just walking by you. Yes, that's right, hospitable to cancer and that it can take care of anything that might come up.
Speaker 2:Right Like people get healthy just walking by you.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's right, booze is out of me. You know, you know, and I do think that's why you know this journey, though I think people around you do watch it, and that's the other reason I had gotten into Healing Strong is I had people, you know, I would like. I said I'd be working out and you know people watched my journey and they so they'd call me up and say, can you meet with somebody that just got diagnosed? And it was that a lot. And I'd say, sure, but I, you know, I'm on the journey myself. I can only tell them what I'm doing, but as I met with people, I could see how, you know, everybody needs to just be able to know the information, because I didn't know it, and even if to help alleviate side effects or just help you feel stronger or help your body get stronger, no matter what journey of the stage you're in, that's so important and I almost feel as strongly about it as I do. Sharing where I have my hope. I mean the gospel.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It just feels so important because I'd feel terrible if somebody I knew was diagnosed and they would say to me later why didn't you tell me you know about the stuff you knew, now what they choose to do with it? I don't feel any responsibility for that, I just feel like sharing it is, you know, what God's laid on my heart to do. And it is funny how well, not funny, but God's timing is just so perfect. Because I listened to the modules, chris's modules but I don't remember anything about Healing Strong and I think I was ready to hear it. I was so overwhelmed.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:I don't even remember hearing it. I was so overwhelmed, right Everything. I don't even remember hearing it. I heard the interview with Christine Holcomb that Chris Work did last fall and that's when it just resonated with me and I thought oh, I need to look up and see if there's a group in my area. And of course I looked it up and there wasn't. So like a week later I was in training. So there you go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you've been doing that since January, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:How's that going?
Speaker 1:It's going well. I feel like God has brought the people who need to be there. And it fluctuates, it comes and goes, because I think it's maybe hard sometimes for people. I think at the beginning people just want to get back to normal and move on with their life. They don't want to think about it or talk about it. I mean people are kind of in all over the place and where they are in that journey. But so I've tried to really, you know, we try to make it a place of encouragement, a support group, and just you know how can we help you.
Speaker 1:And a lot of people come and they don't know you know anything. And then others come and they know a lot already of it. But the material is so great and really it's just about connecting because no one else knows how you feel. No one else knows that. You know kind of terror you feel at the beginning when you get that diagnosis and it just completely pulls the rug out from under you. Or you know, maybe you don't want to tell a lot of people right away.
Speaker 1:I know I was in that camp because then I had to manage their reaction to my diagnosis. It was really hard for me to you know, if somebody would say, oh my goodness, oh, I'm so sorry, it made it harder for me than it already was before because I already was scared, yeah. So I had to kind of hold that, you know. I had to kind of keep that close for a while. And nobody else understands that, you know, but other people that have been there, so those kind of things that you know, people you know, just like anything else in life, somebody else has gone through what you have.
Speaker 2:it's it's freeing to be able to talk to them, because then then you go oh, I, I know how you feel and you do yeah, yeah, it's definitely a big part of the groups, because they just feel relieved when they come into the group, because it's like they can let their hair down, so to speak, whereas everywhere else people kind of they always talk to you with that whisper tone because you have cancer, it's like, well, it's just not a funeral home. But you know, I mean, I understand they don't know, they don't know what to say. They look at you like you're going off to the guillotine or something.
Speaker 1:Yes, I try to put humor in the best I can, because we do it. We have friends that are just like I don't know what to feed you. It's like we're worried about it. You know, just it's okay. And if we go to a restaurant, most of them all serve salads. Just don't let it bother you. But some people it really does bother them that you're the way up to you know eight or nine or ten.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:We're just there because we feel like God's put it on our heart to share, and I'm so thankful my husband's come alongside me to be a co-leader. He does that because he knows what it feels like to feel like helpless, right. What do I do for her? How can I help? And really just to have a man's presence in there is helpful, because a lot of men, I think, are reluctant to come, but you can just encourage them. Hey, even if you go to the grocery store for her, it's helpful. I mean, this guy is amazing.
Speaker 2:You know, he's even, you know, cleaned my enema bucket.
Speaker 1:I mean that's love. Right there you guys might make it. Yeah, I think so. He's good, he's good. But again, 2 Corinthians tells us that we've been comforted, so we're supposed to care and comfort others. So privilege and pleasure and of course, our faith, walk if you can't. I was so excited to see that connection with Healing Strong, that kind of did it for me, because that's huge. I don't know how people do it without it. Like I said, Psalm 91.4, he will cover you with his feathers and under his wings you will find refuge. I mean, it's been my shield and rampart. It is well with my soul. Because when you come down to it, when you get that diagnosis I don't know if you felt this way, but even your spouse, your closest person, they can't help you at that point.
Speaker 1:It's like it's you and God. None of us are getting out this alive, but that diagnosis just brings it up to your face like, you know, a magnifying mirror, and you're just like, oh wow, I mean, I came home and started putting my affairs in order. I started, you know it was crazy. I was like here's the passwords to this and here's where this is. You just have to take a breath and go. Lord, you got me. You've already numbered my days and so please help me.
Speaker 1:To you know look for everything in front of me. But at first it's you know, you do, you feel like you're free-falling, good to keep your healthy attitude and to believe that God made our bodies to heal and make goals. As Chris said, I've made short-term, long-term goals, done some things already. You just are so thankful for the very breath in my lungs because it's the Lord who gives that to me, thankful for it all.
Speaker 2:Lori, thanks so much for sharing your story. I know that's encouraged a lot of people that are listening and perhaps those who have just got diagnosis. What would you say to them to encourage them? If someone's listening and they're scared and they don't know what to do, they're overwhelmed. I mean, you remember that feeling. What would you say to them to encourage them? If someone's listening and they're scared and they don't know what to do, they're overwhelmed. I mean, you remember that feeling. What would you say to them?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I probably fall in line with some of the others when I say you have time and that is what I shared with people when I was meeting one on one. I just you know, I'll tell them at stage four I had time. Just you know, I'll tell them at stage four I had time. No-transcript of us have time. You have a few weeks, whatever, to look around, get second opinions, really pray about it and think about it, because you know, when you go in that office and they give you the diagnosis, then they kind of do say, like I said on myself, you know what are you doing next Tuesday? It's like so quick they get you in and before you know it you're having surgery and you really haven't thought your way through.
Speaker 1:So I'd say, take the time, take a breath and hopefully people are believers and have that faith where they can, you know, just because God will give you that peace that surpasses all understanding. There's no reason that you would have that kind of peace other than the Lord giving it to you. You can just almost feel it throughout your body. So and I know these stories too I was going to mention at the beginning were some of the most encouraging things I had heard. There's nothing like hearing people with late stage cancers that you know have had good results. And unless you know and I knew unless all these people were lying, I didn't think they were, you know, and they're more than a decade out I it was so encouraging to hear those.
Speaker 2:So but if you live in Arkansas area near the Walmart kingdom, make sure you stop by and be a part of her group. When do you meet? Stop by and be a part of her group. When do you meet?
Speaker 1:We meet on the third Monday of the month. Okay, you can just look up, you know, put your zip code in if you're out in this area. But we meet at First United Methodist Church in Bella Vista on the third Mondays of the month from 6 to whenever we're done All right and more than happy to have anyone there that's interested in learning how to live a healthier life, and thank you, wick, for what you do. Jim Really appreciate it, very encouraging.
Speaker 2:Sure, hey, I get to meet people like you, so it's not that hard. Well, thank you, all right. Well, hopefully we'll cross paths. Next time I'm on Arkansas I'll stop by your meeting.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Would love. It All right. Thank you, Lori.
Speaker 1:Thanks so much, Jim.
Speaker 3:You've been listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast. A part of the Healing Strong organization. We hope you found encouragement in this episode, as well as the confidence to take control of your healing journey, knowing that God will guide you on this path. Healing Strong is a non-profit organization whose mission is to connect, support and educate individuals facing cancer and other diseases through strategies that help to rebuild the body, renew the soul and refresh the spirit.
Speaker 3:It costs nothing to be a part of a local or online group. You can do that by going to our website at healingstrongorg and finding a group near you or an online group, or start your own, your choice. While you're there, take a look around at all the free resources. Though the resources and groups are free, we encourage you to join our membership program at $25 or $75 a month. This helps us to be able to reach more people with hope and encouragement, and that also comes with some extra perks as well. So check it out. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give us a five-star rating, leave an encouraging comment and help us spread the word. We'll see you next week with another story on the I Am Healing Strong podcast.
