Reno.

We heard about a really great doctor in Reno, Dr. James Forsythe. He is really a pioneer right now when it comes to curing cancer. He is not only an Oncologist but he is also licensed in homeopathy, which is exactly what we were looking for. You'll find that most Oncologist only have one option for cancer; cut it out and chemo it. And that is not an option for us. So I called his office early Monday morning to get Donnie an appointment to see him but they had no openings for 2 weeks. I was totally bummed; I didn’t want to wait 2 weeks for someone to see him. But I wanted him to see Dr. Forsythe, not someone else. I was completely torn; I had no idea what to do. I made the appointment and just figured me and Donnie would talk about it when he got home. To my surprise around 3pm the office was calling me back. The lady on the phone, who I had spoken to earlier, asked "if I had a cancelation, do you think you could make it here?" I think my heart skipped a beat, I immediately said yes not even knowing when this cancellation was. She told me "It's at 10am tomorrow" I told her to schedule us and we would be there! I called my mom and told her the news and she packed a bag and headed down to Vegas, because we needed a babysitter :) Me and Donnie left for Reno and drove all night. Stayed at the Atlantis, Not the kind of Atlantis I was hoping for but I guess I forgot we were in Reno not the Bahamas he he! Kind of reminded me of the old casino mob movies, where it was all mirrored with fake rock and low ceilings :) No complaining here though, we were just grateful to have a comfy bed to sleep in after that LOOONG drive.

We made it to the Century Wellness Clinic, it was more than I had expected. I guess I don’t really know what I was expecting. I have a hard time at doctors’ offices because i always feel like the nurses and doctors are so jaded. But they weren’t here, you could feel the sincerity. Blah blah I could go on for hours about how great they were but I’ll stop :) We finally met with Dr. Forsythe. He talked with us for a while about what we have done so far, what we want to do and just tons of information about Donnie’s cancer. He made us feel like we were talking to a great friend not a narcissistic doctor (like most of them are). He looked in Donnie’s throat and found another lump :( He called me over to look at while he held the light. I’ve just never had a doctor engage me like that; I just thought it was neat and scary at the same time. Another lump. Great. He said he wanted to start a IV Immune therapy treatment and IV Vincristine treatment (low dose chemo) before we left to break up the cancer cells while we waited for the Greek Test results to come back. Side note: the Greek test is a large blood sample that is sent to Greece. It tests your cancer cells on 18 chemo treatments and 38 homeopathic treatments to find out what treatment is the best for your specific cancer. It is actually an amazing test. The results will show what treatments will be the best fighter against the cancer and which ones won’t. This is why we love Dr. Forsythe so much. He doesn’t care what the treatment is as long as the treatment works. He doesn’t believe in full chemo (which breaks down your system and not only kills bad cells but all your good ones too), he believes in low dose chemo (10% of traditional chemo), along with mass amounts of supplements and a very strict organic only diet. He believes in having your immune system at the best it can be.

When we had made the appointment they told us we would be there all day. All day I thought, what are we going to do there all day? Little did I know we would actually be there allllll day. We closed the office. We saw 3 more doctors that day, each doctor talked about different things that need to be done in order for the treatment to be successful. He had a couple test done as well. Donnie found out that he had gluten intolerance, extremely high sugar levels, viral and fungal infections and a body that is completely inflamed. Pheeww that was a lot to get out! He also had his two IV treatments done that I talked about early and those took about 2 hours. While he sat in that chair getting his treatments, it seemed very surreal for the both of us. It’s funny because the whole time we were there everyone kept staring at us, probably because we were the youngest people there by 40 years. I could see it in their eyes that they were all thinking the same thing, "he’s so young". And at that moment watching him getting that liquid pumped into him, I thought the same thing, he is so young. I wished it wasn’t him, I wished that he didn’t have to go through that. He's the strongest man I know. He’s been taking care of a family since he was 21, working his butt off so that I was able to stay home with our kids and now he has to go through this. I would have traded places with him in a heartbeat. But you know what, this has made us stronger, we will be forever changed. And he will beat this! Anyway :) We left that place feeling so hopefully and encourage. We really felt like we had come from another world, like we are going to beat cancer, they made us feel like that. The doctors and nurses there gave us so much hope. Sometimes I feel like, did I drink the Kool-Aid? And I know sometimes that people must think we are crazy for not doing traditional treatment. But you know what, nobody is going to do the same thing we are doing and we aren’t going to the same thing that someone else did. Everyone has their own journey through cancer and this is our journey!

Where we are today..... Well we are still waiting for the Greek Test to come back, it has only been 4 days so hopefully after Easter we should hear back from them. After we get results we will be able to map out our treatment plan but until then we wait.... and wait :)