Testimonials

Barby Crear, Before
(Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma)

My health has never been my best asset … from polio and severe allergies in my youth to chronic digestive trouble, immune weakness and inflammations through most of my fifty years on the planet. Almost all of the medical treatments I received during my life didn't work, and many of them did more harm than good. Over the years I'd found some natural treatments that helped these physical problems somewhat. I used trial and error and read books by open-minded medical practioners. In short, I knew enough to know that I didn't know much, but I did know enough to know when I ran up against someone who knew even less than I did!! Thankfully I had found out, by the time I was diagnosed with cancer in June 2000, that not all doctors know everything and that not all treatments work for each person. This belief saved my life.

After a biopsy it took four weeks for me to receive a diagnosis. The pathologist said my tissue had been sent to three experts and that they were having difficulty in trying to classify the cancer. (Later I obtained their reports … they all reported finding both Hodgkins and non-Hodgkins lymphoma cells, and that none of them were acting the way they should be.) The pathologist I spoke to was honest with me and admitted that classification of cancer cells is the most difficult thing to do. Further, he said, cancer classifications are changed often so it's hard to keep up. "In your case," he said, "it was four weeks and we knew we had to come up with a diagnosis, so we're pretty sure…" (Yikes! Pretty sure???) They decided to call it "atypical diffused mixed non-Hodgkins lymphoma, large and small cell, intermediate grade." To me, that translated into "we really don't know."

The first oncologist I went to was simply horrible ... she didn't answer a single question, and said I needed to do CHOP at once or I would die. Next I went to a well-known cancer hospital for a second opinion. This doctor understood my concerns and wanted to do re-testing. I was accepted as a patient until I told her I was going to an immune specialist first and wanted them to confer. I received a FAX saying she was sorry I wasn't going to be her patient and that I should do CHOP treatments.

Although no one was sure what kind of cancer I had, they sure didn't waste any time at all deciding what treatment I should use …the strongest standard treatment, CHOP. I had active infections and my body had a history of extreme sensitivity to chemicals … but no one gave this any consideration! This made no sense to me. It seemed as if these doctors had put me on the" cancer conveyor belt" and my individual body meant nothing to them. And despite my lumpy appearance, I was planning to survive this cancer and live to a ripe old age. Therefore I was going to need my organs, mucous membranes and so on! I had no intention of doing "trial and error chemotherapy."

Now understand me … I know that it isn't easy being a doctor. Decisions must be made. There are no guarantees. Medicine is not an exact science. But if I have a diagnosis of cancer that needs to be treated with poisons … then let's at least use the right poisons!!! I met a lot of people while searching for my cancer cure … and too, too many of them had tried two or three kinds of chemotherapy, each wearing them down and leaving them with more damage. Why use guesswork when there is a method to pinpoint the right chemicals for a specific cancer in a specific person?

So after over a year of harrowing experiences I ended up finding my genius oncologist, Dr. Robert Nagourney. He listened. He understood. He explained what he does … an assay process that all cancer patients need. He takes some of the cancer out of your body and tries chemo drugs on it in a lab. This method pinpoints the drugs that work to kill that specific cancer, whatever it is. With this method it doesn't matter if your diagnosis is correct or not. I repeat: with this method it doesn't matter if your diagnosis is correct or not! Since pathologists admit that the most difficult part of cancer is deciding what classification to give it … and since the classification is what determines which drugs they'll "try" on you … well, then, doesn't it make better sense to forget about what to call it and, instead, find out what will kill it!??!

I thought so, too! I'm telling you these many details because almost all of us have friends or family who have or will have cancer … this assay method gives you two to three times better chance of having chemotherapy work! I'd have done chemo a year sooner if I'd felt they knew what poisons would work, and I almost died waiting to find some treatment method I could trust. I'm glad I waited, though. Guess why. Because my assay showed that CHOP would not have been effective against my cancer cells. Did you hear me???

I now tell everyone to go to the website and to call RTI … I tell doctors about it. I think it should be on every news program in the world. People need to know about this before they are in the position of needing it … because too many doctors rush a newly diagnosed patient into a chemotherapy treatment without giving information about options. And when you're scared and pressured, you'll do whatever you're told. If I hadn't had a "touchy" body, hadn't faced the fact that doctors and medicine are not perfect, and hadn't read so much about medicine, I'd have sat in a chair and put out my arm for an IV filled with CHOP one minute after being diagnosed. Because of ignorance. I don't want that to happen to anybody! Ever!!!