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Name: Linda Richert
Diagnosis: Stage IIIB Breast Cancer
Diagnosed: 2007 |
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Linda's Testimonial
It was a typical morning; nothing unusual about the day could have prepared me for the journey that was about to
begin. As usual, self-exams on the breasts were done on a regular basis. The night before I had casually noticed a small nickel-sized lump in the right breast.
Not to worry, I thought. I had
received Christ in 1978 and never left that commitment. I did not need to carry a bible, quote scripture verses,
or call a prayer chain. I had a deep, abiding faith in the One that I served. I trusted His leading. I had no fear.
My mother had breast cancer in
1992 and had caught it in the very early stages. Because a biopsy was done on the tumor, she knew it was a fast-growing cancer; they immediately
did a mastectomy on the affected side. She had taken an oral chemotherapy tablet, never lost her hair, and basically
had no ill-side affects. She was on that treatment for seven years. It was now 2007 and mother was still going
strong with no signs of a recurrence. She was a cancer survivor. For some reason that morning those thoughts never
crossed my mind. But I did take action.
I was an extremist of the holistic
kind. Doctors, medicine, hospitals
and drugs were my enemy. I was athletic, ate lots of raw fruits and vegetables and ate no beef and very little
meat. If I did eat meat, it was mainly turkey and fish. I never ate french fries, sodas, or fast-food burgers.
I had changed my eating habits about six or seven years prior. I made an appointment with a holistic practitioner
and as I sat in the fragrance-free waiting room, listening to spa-like music and the sound of water softly flowing
over the rock fountain, I knew this was the right way for me. A digital image was done and a small tumor was revealed.
It was deep in the center of the right breast, but there was no mention or even concern for the nickel-sized lump
on the side of the same breast. Going
the holistic way is expensive because insurance companies do not cover natural methods. But I felt like I was in the right place and this was the way I had chosen. I felt
at peace with the decision.
I was started on a host of remedies and bath soaks. I took them faithfully three times a day. I had to take many
drops of each remedy and hold it under my tongue for one minute. I did that with each of the remedies that were
given to me. There were probably fifteen in all as well as a great amount of supplements. Within three weeks, a
mole the size of a pea and looked exactly like a melanoma came out my back. It was located in the exact location
of the tumor that had shown up on the DITI image. My 13-year-old granddaughter had been doing a paper on melanomas
and said, "Nanny, that looks just like a stage 3 melanoma. I have just finished doing a paper on it and that
is exactly what it looks like." I was thrilled. Progress was being made. This was a good sign I concluded.
The nickel-sized lump on the right side of the right breast was getting bigger however. When I would inquire about
it, I would be told that toxins were simply being flushed out of my body and that it would take a while for things
to return to normal. I stayed on this course for 120 days. During this time, I was faithful to take every remedy
and every supplement. I even had lymphatic drainage done several times hoping that this would shrink the ever-increasing
right breast. Little did I realize how dangerous that procedure was for me. It was only later that I learned having
a lymphatic drain at that time could have spread the disease throughout my body.
INTRODUCTION TO POLY-MVA
Finally at the end of April, my right breast was so large that I looked deformed and the swelling tissue was beginning
to wrap around the right side towards my back. It was at this time that the holistic practitioner told me of a product called PolyMVA. She said she was not sure if this product could penetrate
into the hard mass that was now grossly obvious. But she gave me a number and the name of a doctor in Las Vagas, Nevada. She instructed me to call
this man and ask him if PolyMVA could help me. I came home, called the number, asked the question to an answer machine and left my name and phone
number.
At this time, my husband and my daughter literally forced me to see a physician. It was not a choice I would have
made on my own, but the holistic way was not working on this particular situation that was now confronting me.
I did not know what doctor to go to or how to even handle this situation which was outside of a natural, holistic
environment. My practitioner
told me that if the PolyMVA would work, I should take it intravenously. She then said she only knew one man in
the area that could do that and gave me the name of Dr. Jeffrey Mueller. She strongly suggested, however, that I go to Nevada to see a man named Dr. Forsythe.
That night I got on the Internet
and began to look up information on this mysterious PolyMVA. What
I read gave me hope. The web site
showed an example of how the PolyMVA actually penetrates into the cancer cell and shatters it like glass. It also showed a picture of someone's arm that had been
burned by the accidental dripping of a chemotherapy drug. Within a month, all that information was removed from the web site. I could only guess
that the information on there was not in keeping with our FDA approved laws. The website now showed PolyMVA was
simply a vitamin and mineral. The testimonies were still there however. But on the site, there was the name of
a doctor in California. I decided to call him also.
The next morning I made the call and was put right through to a Dr. Sanchez. I explained my situation to him and
asked him straight up, "Can
PolyMVA penetrate into this hard mass in my right breast and can it help me?" He said without hesitation, "Absolutely!" During our conversation, I found out that he knew Dr. Forsythe in Nevada and that they
worked together doing research on PolyMVA. "Wow, I thought, how coincidental that a doctor I got off the Internet knew the man that my
practitioner told me to call." Then as we were about to hang up, Dr. Sanchez asked me a question. "Just
out of curiosity, where are you going for your PolyMVA IV's?" I replied, "A man out of Altamonte Springs
named Dr. Mueller." Dr. Sanchez said, "I am very familiar with Dr. Mueller." And then proceeded
to tell me how he came to know Dr. Mueller. This man that lived in California, that I had gotten from a website, knew the man in Nevada and also
knew this man named Dr. Mueller, who lived in Altamonte Springs, Florida that I had not even met yet? I was astounded! I knew instinctively that a path was
being made for me. Now I knew two things for sure, Dr. Mueller was, without question, the man I was to see and
PolyMVA was the product that I wanted to take.
STARTING POLY-MVA
The journey had begun. The first
week of May, I made the appointment with Dr. Mueller and after the examination he said very matter of factly that
I needed to be properly diagnosed so that we would know exactly what we were dealing with. He sent me to a facility in the area to get a mammogram
and an ultrasound-guided biopsy and a PET scan. I hated doctors, I hated hospitals, and I really hated all these
procedures! I didn't even have a family doctor. I had a chiropractor and a dentist! Emotionally this was a very
difficult time for me. I had to transition from the "natural/holistic" arena to the drug/medical arena.
This was hard!
During this time of waiting for
answers, I started my first PolyMVA IV on Monday, May 7, 2007. I had a PolyMVA IV drip every day for the next five
weeks. Two weeks after starting the PolyMVA drips I received the official word of my condition. The prognosis was poor. I had multiple solid masses of varying size that measured 2 to 4 cm. There were multiple
lymph nodes of varying size seen in the right axilla. Secondary findings include axillary lymph nodes, the report
read. Finding in the right breast is a known malignancy. The pathology is invasive ductal cancer. The lymph node
biopsy was also positive for cancer. The biopsy results confirmed what was already suspected. It was a very aggressive
form of cancer. "Great"
I thought, "what now?"
I maintained my course of the PolyMVA drips every day. On the days I did not go to Dr. Mueller's office, like Saturday
and Sunday, I took 4 teaspoons
of PolyMVA orally three times a day.
On the days that I did get the PolyMVA drips, I took 2 teaspoons in the morning and 2 teaspoons at night. After the five week daily IV's, I dropped down to doing them three times a week.
I got online and became a member of the Quality of Life Program. The medical bills were beginning to pile up. We
took out a second mortgage to pay for the procedures that were bringing life to me. I could not comprehend why insurance companies would pay for chemotherapy that has
been sold to the public as a "cure" but has been proven to be ineffective on so many levels, and refuse
to pay for a product that actually does reverse cancerous growth on a cellular level and actually builds up the
immune system instead of tearing it down.
I found that chemotherapy could be called a "cure" because it was a drug, but if it were an herb or natural
remedy that produced the same effect without causing damage to the cancer host, it had to be called a "vitamin
or a mineral." Our government forbids calling a natural remedy a "cure." The research is very limited
on the natural side of things. Many
times during the chemotherapy process, I was warned not to take supplements or PolyMVA. The doctors seem to turn a deaf ear when dealing with the natural and the ones on
the holistic side of the fence seem to do the same thing against the medical industry. It is a silent war and the
losers are the patients because neither side will listen to the other. I found many flaws in the system as I continued
on this journey. The aggravation at this flawed system did not pay our bills however.
OFFICIAL DIAGNOSIS
The next step was to make an appointment with an Oncologist. I found one that was just a few blocks from Dr. Mueller's
office. At times, I would have a PolyMVA drip and then go see my Oncologist, Dr. Linda Lukman. Sitting in the exam
room at Dr. Lukman's office, reality became a cruel taskmaster. The diagnosis was Stage IIIB breast cancer. In one sense, I was thankful because it so easily could have spread to other organs
and then I would have been a Stage IV. At that point, they simply make you comfortable as you live out the remainder
of your days. As a Stage IIIB,
I was dangerously close. I was not going to take this lying down. I became very pro-active in my condition and
my treatment.
As my husband and I sat across from Dr. Lukman, she laid out the battle plan for the next five months. Dr. Lukman
is a small, slightly built woman from Japan and stands about five feet high. I liked her immediately. She would
start me on chemotherapy. I would have six hard hits three weeks apart. The drugs that I would receive would be Cytoxan, together with another powerful drug,
called Taxotere. As I read the
list of side effects, I knew this would be no walk in the park. Nausea, vomiting, low blood count, hair loss, loss of appetite, bladder problems,
swelling, stomach problems, muscle pain, and fatigue just to name a few. I started my first chemotherapy treatment June 13, 2007. I felt like I had arrived in hell. The next ten days confirmed that is where I landed.
There is really no way to adequately describe chemotherapy so I will not try to do so here. Let me simply say that
chemotherapy is in a class all by itself. Only those cancer patients that have sat in a room filled with scores
of other cancer patients, arms extended revealing the vein or the port where the drugs slowly drip into the blood
system, know what the next ten days holds for them. I met many people that were "return" patients. For some of them, this was their seventh bout with cancer,
some their third, some couldn't remember; many had lost hope.
One patient in particular stands out to me. I went in for my regular chemotherapy session. Seated next to me was
a woman that looked like a walking dead person. I knew instinctively this woman had given up hope. I turned to
her and introduced myself. Her
name was Deborah. Sitting in front of her in a chair was her sister. She looked almost as lifeless as Deborah. I began to talk to her and she told me this was her seventh battle with cancer. She now had cervical cancer.
I began to speak life to her. I told her what I believed with all my heart. There is no incurable disease. You
simply have to find the right mix of natural medicine and regular medicine and the disease will reverse itself.
I gave her a wonderful website
that I had found listing at least ten natural ways to reverse cancer growth. I told her that the body was designed
to heal itself and that she needed to build up her immune system. I told her about PolyMVA and gave her the Internet
information and encouraged her to get on the Quality of Life Program.
I told her about Dr. Mueller. I told her about a research program at Florida Hospital for women with cervical cancer
using Vitamin C and also PolyMVA
and that it was free to those that participated. I left her with a host of information.
The next day I would always go back to the chemotherapy room for intravenous fluids. As I sat in the waiting room
awaiting my turn, my daughter turned
to me and said, "Mother, is that the lady that you spoke to yesterday?" I looked up and saw this woman that looked like Deborah but I honestly could not tell.
It was like the man in the bible that Jesus healed and then no one recognized him because he looked so different.
I called out with a question mark
in my voice, "Deborah?"
"Hi!" she squealed,
with a face so bright and cheerful it caught me by surprise. "Wow," I said as the word seemed to fade
into the floor. "You look amazing!" I exclaimed. "Yeah, thanks," she said. At that moment they called my name and we had to say
our goodbyes. I never saw her again. But her face will forever stand out in my mind. It is sobering the power of a spoken word of life. I witnessed a dead woman come to
life because in her spirit she now had hope. Hope comes in many forms.
Every time I would go for my chemotherapy, I was told not to take my supplements or the PolyMVA the day before
or the day after. When I would
ask why, I was told it would interfere with the chemo drugs. I wondered in what way? I never received an answer
on that one. I was compliant
however. But after only two sessions of chemotherapy, I began to notice a change in the right breast. Something
was going on in there because it looked and felt different. I shared that with Dr. Mueller. He set me up for another
sonogram.
DRAMATIC TUMOR REDUCTION
On July 17, 2007, as I lay on
the table preparing for the sonogram, the attending physician, Dr. Tullo, cautioned me that a reduction in the
tumor was always the last thing that would happen, so don't be discouraged if the tumor has not shrunk he continued his warning. With that, the procedure
was started. On the left-hand wall were pictures of the sonogram taken six weeks earlier revealing my poor prognosis.
As Dr. Tullo stared at the screen that was now before him, he gasped. "Wow," he exclaimed, "they are shrinking, they are dissolving, I don't
know what they are doing, but it is definitely different than the first time I saw you." I raised my eyebrows and smiled a knowing grin. This
is the actual wording from the report: The
lymph node in the right axilla is smaller and now there is a more normal fatty replace hilum. (In other words,
the lymph nodes were returning to normal.) The node measures 13 mm. The known malignancy is less defined and measures
22mm. This has decreased in size. There is a solid mass measuring 15mm by 25mm seen in the central region of the
right breast (down from the previous report of 2 to 4 cm.) Dr. Tullo was amazed and astounded and I was happy!
Armed with this great report, I felt that my Oncologist would see what was happening here and surely limit the
number of hard-hitting chemotherapy sessions. As I sat on the exam table, my shoulders slumped forward as Dr. Lukman
said she was not backing off from the original plan. I had received two chemotherapy sessions and I had four more to go. She was very kind and appreciative of the results, but gave no credit to the PolyMVA. When she turned and left the room, I broke down and cried. Four more sessions simply seemed like over kill to me. I resigned myself to four more chemo hits. Dr. Lukman
was the expert and she had seen many more cases of this than me. I would just have to make a choice to continue
moving forward.
THE FINISH LINE!
So, forward I went. July turned into August and August turned into September. Finally my last chemo session was on September 26, 2007. As I walked into my home
on that final chemo day, my grandchildren had made a huge banner that said in big, bold letters with crayon markings
and highlighters, "THE FINISH LINE!" They had it hanging from one end of the kitchen to the other. There were crayon painted flowers,
trees, handprints and "I love U's" written everywhere. Up at the top in black marker were written the
words, "you made it" and "we love you". I started to cry. It blessed me so. I had gone into
this thing physically and nutritionally strong. I started out at 128 lbs. and now I weighed 114 lbs. I looked frail
in my 5' 7" frame. My pants were now too big and most of my clothes looked baggy at best. I felt worn out
and tired. I do not know how people that are over weight or are not physically fit make it through the chemotherapy
process. As I looked at myself in the mirror, I thought, there has to be a better way. Chemotherapy cannot be the only answer to our staggering cancer problem. But I had
done it. I had completed the course of six chemo sessions. And now it was over.
My attention would now be turned to finding a General Surgeon and a Plastic Surgeon. I had decided to do a double
mastectomy and also reconstruction at the same time. My left breast showed no signs of the disease, but I did not
want to spend my days wondering if I would have problems in that breast or not. Since the cancer on the right side
had been the fast growing kind, I felt like it was the best choice for me. In the Orlando area, there are literally
thousands of doctors. I needed the right one for me. God had been so faithful to lead me thus far, I needed to
know who was the best and would they be the right fit for me. I set myself to find the right doctors.
While doing the IV drips at Dr. Mueller's office, I had met a woman named Judy. She and I had become fast friends.
She, too, had cancer but her disease was the very slow growing type. She had struggled with the right way for her
to go. She thought perhaps doing a double mastectomy and reconstruction would be the right way to go and then she
would become afraid and back out. I, unfortunately, I did not have that luxury. Judy was very thorough in her search
for a surgeon. And all the information she found, she would pass it on to me. Two names kept coming up over and
over. The General Surgeon's name was a Dr. Kakhy and the Plastic Surgeon's name was a Dr. Rotatori. There were
so many to choose from. Finally, I simply decided to go with the two of them. The day after I had made that decision
but before I had made any appointments, I received a call from my daughter. A friend of ours that lives in Washington,
D.C. and has access to the doctors for the President of the United States had emailed her. This friend had also
been checking out General Surgeons and Plastic Surgeons here in the Orlando area for me. That morning she had received
an email from him saying that a Dr. Kakhy and a Dr. Rotatori would be good choices for me. This friend had no idea
that I had been thinking about going to these two men. Once again, a path was being made for me. I called and made
the appointment.
On October 15, 2007, my husband and I entered the waiting room of Dr. Kakhy. Dr. Kakhy's waiting room always seemed
full and there seemed to be a sense of disorder about it. But Dr. Kakhy was a kind, round-bodied fellow with a
very pleasant manner about him. He checked my chart and carefully looked over all my paperwork. He said that he
would have his office check his schedule and also check Dr. Rotatori's schedule and find a day that would work
for both of them. They would then contact me and let me know the surgery date. I then made an appointment with
the plastic surgeon. Dr. Rotatori's office seemed the exact opposite. The waiting room had soft music and there
were never more than one or two people there at a time. Each person from the receptionist to the nurses knew exactly
what was going on. They seemed extremely orderly and organized. Within a few weeks, I received the information
about scheduling and surgery dates from Dr. Rotatori's office. The day had finally arrived.
On November 1, 2007, I was scheduled for surgery at 2:00 p.m. I was nervous about the number of lymph nodes that Dr. Kakhy would be removing, so right before I went in I asked Dr. Kakhy how many
lymph nodes he would be taking out. It
was important to me that he leave as many as possible because I knew the PolyMVA had been returning that tissue
to normal. I had seen that with
my own eyes in the second sonogram. He said he usually takes out fifteen to eighteen lymph nodes. I asked him if he could just check them one at a time
as he took them out and then after so many were clean and clear, he could stop removing them.
I suppose that was a naive question, but I
really expected my lymph nodes to be normal. He was not as
confident. So on that day, I had a double mastectomy, eighteen
lymph nodes removed and expanders put in.
Expanders are put into place behind the muscle of each breast to stretch the skin before the actual implants. Two
weeks later, I had appointments with my General Surgeon and my Oncologist.
SURGEON STUNNED BY PET SCAN
The pathology report from my surgery had come back and also the results of the PET scan. The PET scan revealed no abnormal cell activity. I knew that was good, but I did not realize how good.
As my husband and I sat in the exam room waiting for Dr. Kahky to come in, we wondered what the results of the
pathology report would show. When Dr. Kahky came into the room, he pulled up a chair and pulled out the pathology report. He read the report and did
not speak a word to us as his eyes were fixed on what he was reading. He looked up and said, "This is an incredible pathology report." He
kept saying that over and over. He said everything came back normal. All tissue samples and lymph nodes were normal.
He then said it again, "This is a phenomenal pathology report."
ONCOLOGIST STUNNED BY PET SCAN
We then left his office and went to the appointment with my Oncologist. As she read the report, she began to jump up and down and squeal. This little five foot, Japanese woman who deals with
cancer patience every day, was extremely excited. My husband and I sat there wide-eyed. She came over to me and said,
"You are one in one hundred thousand. In eleven years of practice, I have seen this one other time and you
are the second one. You had a very aggressive form of cancer and you were a triple negative." Then I asked, "So are you going to restage me
or can you tell me what stage I am now?" "Restage you?"
she exclaimed. "You are just like me! You are a stage nothing!"
Then this doctor looked right
into my eyes and said, "This was not me, it was not chemotherapy, this
was God. He has more for you to do on this earth." "I know there is a God," she continued,
"because I see miracles
and I am looking at a miracle today. This is a miracle!"
I think somewhere in all of this, I started to cry. Even though we knew the outcome would be favorable, when the
answer did come after such a hard, fought battle, all I wanted to do was cry tears of joy. As we left her office and walked out into the day, I
looked up into the sky, felt the warmth of the sun on my face and sighed a thank you to my God who lead me all
the way from the products like PolyMVA to the doctors that treated me. There were no medical explanations for my results.
Linda
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