Part 6: Radical life changes

This is part 6 of my blog series. If you haven’t read the previous parts in the series, it is best to start with part one, Daddy’s dying.

By 2018, I had had chemo, radiation, and major surgery for my stage IV pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, and they appeared to be stable for now.

One day, I stumbled upon a book in the library when I wasn’t even looking for a cancer book called “Radical Remission: Surviving Cancer Against all Odds” by Kelly A. Turner PhD. Dr. Turner studied cancer survivors who managed to beat cancer. Even stage IV cancer. There are a number of very inspiring stories in her book. People who had stage IV cancer and had reached the end of what the healthcare system could do for them but found a way to a cure on their own. She identified 9 factors that all the survivors had in common: radically changing your diet, taking control of your health, following your intuition, using herbs and supplements, releasing suppressed emotions, increasing positive emotions, embracing social support, deepening your spiritual connection, and having strong reasons for living.
Accounts Whoa, I’d already made some of these changes. I had learned to take control of my health, to follow my (or my wife’s) intuition and with this crazy RV trip idea, had some strong reasons for living. I was ready for more radical!

The common theme was that the body has amazing healing powers, all on its own. The question was, how to tap into this power to cure my cancer?

The lesson I had started to learn was: “The body is a self-healing machine. Help it heal.”

Could I actually take actions that could cure an incurable cancer by giving my body, mind, and soul what they needed?

The first thing I did was to ask if just the plain-old healthy balanced diet was enough? What was the most radical diet change I could make? I was already reading “Chris Beat Cancer” which recommended a vegan diet, so why not vegan? As a guy who never really liked vegetables, what could be more radical than vegan?!

Now, I am not here to preach a vegan diet. In the end, this did not work for me, but it may work for you. What I am saying that worked for me was being open to new ideas and a mindset change and a change in habits.

So, what is the difference between a vegan and a vegetarian diet? Eating vegetarian and vegan both mean abstaining from eating animal protein and meat. But vegetarians may eat dairy, eggs, milk cheese and honey. Vegans do not. Just plant products. So, what to eat? Fortunately, Michele is an excellent cook and took pity on me and came up with interesting vegan dishes that were filling. I also started “juicing” and eating organically, as recommend in the “Chris Beat Cancer” book. This involved purchasing large quantities of fruits and vegetables at Whole Foods and stuffing them into my new juicing machine. It takes a lot of fruits and vegetables to make one juice and it is pretty expensive too. I found my favorite recipes here (Healthy Juice Recipes)[https://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/18061/drinks/juice]. Very tasty and my favorite part of eating vegan.

Lesson Learned: “What you eat is important in your healing. Be open to different ways of thinking about what a healthy diet is”

What about using herbs and supplements? I read about and tried a few. One was dandelion root. I had read someone’s story about how they dug up fresh dandelions, dried the root, pounded into powder and mixed it with orange juice to drink and this cured their cancer. What the heck, I would try that. The problem was, we lived in Tampa, Florida. Did you know that there aren’t dandelions in Florida? Up north where I grew up they were everywhere and you spent a lot of time and money getting rid of them, but in Florida, when I wanted them, they were nowhere to be found!

We went to an organic herbal farmer’s market and asked around. One guy said that about 30 minutes north they had laid down some sod in a park and he had seen dandelions. Ah ha! So we grabbed a trowel and a bag and off we went. We tried to be stealthy as we dug up the dandelions in the park but we inevitetably left large holes. Then we saw the park rangers coming, apparently because they had heard about someone digging up the sod. But we managed to escape with our bounty and after a few days of drying, I was eating dandelion root powder.

Unfortunately, this did not magically cure my cancer, but it was a good story.

I even tried releasing surpressed emotions, but this wasn’t for me. I had a open mind about it, but I just didn’t see or feel any changes so I dropped it.

But hey, was there any more radical life change than selling everything you own, quitting your jobs and touring the country in an RV?

It was January 2019, and our new RV life was rapidly approaching. There was much to do. We were working hard to ready the house in Tampa, Florida for sale while urgently ridding ourselves of 30 years of stuff. We hoped to have the house sold by June and with the proceeds, we planned to buy an RV, though we still weren’t sure what kind. When we first planned this great adventure of quitting our jobs, selling our house, and embarking on a year-long RV trip across the US, we thought it would just be Michele and I. Our daughter Taylor had graduated from Grad school and would soon be a licensed Occupational Therapist. Our oldest son, Zach, would graduate from college in May and our youngest son, Jackson, would begin college at some Florida university. We would be empty nesters.

Or maybe not.

It turns out that everyone wanted to join us on our RV adventure. How awesome to have all of our adult children with us! But now we had to plan for five adults living full-time in an RV, and that meant a larger, more expensive RV with bunk beds. We had a blast going to the massive annual RV show near our home in Tampa, but the options were overwhelming.

We got our house on the market in the spring, and had multiple offers within 2 days. We were set to close on June 7.

That’s when we finally made the decision of what kind of RV. Because I had never towed anything in my life and it seemed daunting to tow a 40-foot fifth wheel, we decided to go with a class A RV; Those big ones you see on the road that look like a bus. We found our new home, a 2011 Monaco Knight Diesel, purchased it within 10 days, and then we had to downsize our stuff even more to fit into it.

I mentioned I was scared of towing a large fifth-wheel RV, but that’s not to say driving a huge beast like this wasn’t scary. It was. A lot. You don’t have to have any special training or license to drive one and so we jumped in and took off.

But what about the cancer? What if the cancer grew? What if I needed some treatment of some kind? How can a cancer patient with stage IV cancer, stable or not, be so irresponsible?

If you have had advanced stage, incurable cancer, you know that life is short and precious. It was time to live life. F**k the cancer. The only on-going treatment was a hormone shot that was supposedly helping to keep the cancer stable, so my wife learned how to give me the monthly injections, which made us self-sustaining. I could always fly back to Florida for scans.

Our one year of full-time RVing with no employment, turned into 16 months thanks to the pandemic. Along the way, we dropped off Taylor in Idaho where she began her career as an Occupational Therapist. Our son Zach left for an 8-month internship in Malaysia saving sea turtles, where he ended up spending lock-down on a remote island. Not a bad way to spend lockdown. Jackson had begun on-line college and continued touring with us. And then suddenly there were a plethora of remote jobs, and so, we were able to continue going while I worked!

But working in an RV 2 or 3 other people can be annoying. And so, we sold the RV and Jeep, bought a pick-up truck and a small cargo trailer, and began moving from Airbnb to Airbnb every month. We still enjoyed all the amazing benefits of travel but got to live in nice houses. We still do this today, over 3 years later.

Living a minimalist lifestyle, free from stuff, free from the burdens of homeownership with nothing but free time on weekends is amazing and quite low stress. We spend our free time exploring nature, hiking up mountains, in the desert, in the forest, and along alpine lakes and rivers. Every weekend is an adventure. I believe this lifestyle has told my body “This guy wants to live!” and is a big factor in beating cancer.

Lesson Learned: “Don’t wait. Live life to the fullest while you can!”

Here is a map of our travel since June 2019!

There was something I noticed as we settled into our new lifestyle. It was much less stressful. I believe stress was a big factor in getting my cancer in the first place. I figure it started getting a foothold back in 2006 when I started a new job. I am in software development and I was to manage a team of 50 people. The first week, my boss came into my office physically shaking and said “Dave, I don’t know how much longer I can take this. Prepare yourself to take on my job too.” Yeah, that job was stressful alright and so was the next one after that. I just didn’t realize what it was doing to my body until I did not have that stress anymore.

Lesson Learned: “Learn to recognize when stress is impacting your body and learn how to de-stress”

Well, back to the cancer. I flew to Tampa in October 2019 for an MRI. The tumor was still there on the pancreas but it hadn’t grown. And that was my last MRI because after that came the pandeamic.

As for treatments, I mentioned that Michele was administering the last treatment I still received while we were in the RV. It was a hormone shot given once a month that was supposed to be keeping the cancer stable. And get this, it cost $27,000 list price a month. $27,000! But with insurance discount it was only $18,000. That is just crazy. Fortunately, I had insurance and discovered a copay program from the manufacturer that would pay up to $20,000 of my out-of-pocket expenses. You know the insurance company was making a ridiculous profit when they can afford to do that. But getting this medication became more and more difficult. By early 2020 there were 4 different parties involved. The oncologist who prescribed it, the insurance company, the insurance company’s specialist pharmacy and the drug company’s copay assistance program. Try as I might, I simply was not able to get these 4 parties to work together to get me the medication! Everyone kept pointing fingers at the others. I took this as a sign to stop taking this medication. And that was that. My last cancer treatment. On to the next National Park in the RV!

If you are interested in what it is like to live a minimalist, nomadic lifestyle check out our book Working on the Move: A guide for remote workers seeking adventure

If you want to see the pictures, feel free to follow us on social media: Facebook or Instagram

Lessons Learned:

---

1: Focus on finding out what cancer you have before thinking about cutting it out.

2: Do not let them rush you. Take your time and make good decisions.

3: Trust your instincts. Don’t be afraid to do something different than your doctor suggests.

4: Take time to find a specialist, especially if you have a rare condition.

5: Learn and get support from other patients going through what you are going through.

6: Question if the medications are necessary. Is there some alternative? Consider the cause of the condition and see if there is anything that can be done to address the cause rather than treat the symptoms.

7: Doctors are not God. They do not fully understand how the human body works and often are focused only on their specific area of expertise.

8: Do not rely solely on doctors. Take control of your own healthcare.

9: It is important as a cancer patient to have something in the future to work towards, despite the cancer

10: The body is a self-healing machine. Help it heal.

11: What you eat is important in your healing. Be open to different ways of thinking about what a healthy diet is.

12: Don’t wait. Live life to the fullest while you can!

13: Learn to recognize when stress is impacting your body and learn how to de-stress.

---

Check out Part 7 in the series: All in!.

Disclaimer: I am not a physician nor any kind of healthcare worker. Nothing I say should be taken as medical advice. I will simply tell my story for my particular situation and hope you will get something out of it.