Christin Hart (Healing From Cancer, Facing Trauma, and Building Community)

In this honest and inspiring episode, Christin Hart shares what it’s like to hear “stage three cancer,” go through surgery, try radioactive iodine, and then realize you are in the small percentage where the standard plan does not deliver the healing you were promised. We talk through why she chose an integrative oncology path with an extensive protocol. She also tells the story of returning home to a skeptical medical system, ordering new imaging, and watching the room change when the scans show no evidence of disease. Christin bravely shares the parts people rarely say out loud: the loneliness of diagnosis, the power of community, and why she refuses to call it “my diagnosis.” Throughout it all, Christin keeps pointing back to faith, Scripture, and learning to trust God when the path is unclear. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review with the biggest takeaway you want to remember.

Disclaimer: This podcast is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making medical decisions or trying any treatment discussed in this episode.

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Transcript

The PET Scan Surprise

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I don't know what to say. And we're like, okay. And he's like, yeah, I looked at the scans. I had the radiologist look at it twice. And then we took your scan to the head radiologist to have him look at it. And there's no evidence of of cancer. Like, there's not nothing's lighting up on your PET scan. And I just looked at him and smiled.

SPEAKER_03 0:32

This

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SPEAKER_03 0:33

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Meet Kristen Plus Quick Icebreakers

SPEAKER_03 1:24

Kristen, thank you so much for being here today. I'm so excited to talk to you. I was reading like your notes, your bio, your website, and just thinking like you are the exact person that I want to have on this podcast. Like you're in the middle of so many things right now, and you're trusting God in the process. And this is a story that I want to hear. And I know people are going to be so blessed by you, um, just your vulnerability and who you are. So thank you for being here. I'm so excited to get to know you better. Um, but to start off, I want to do a little icebreaker get to know you game. Okay. Um, it's called Love It, Hate It, In the Middle of It. Okay. So I'm gonna read you a list of five random things. You tell me if you love the thing, hate the thing, or feel in the middle of it, kind of neutral on the thing. Okay. Yes. Okay, it's just quick. Um, number one, camping.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

Oh. I love it if I'm in like a house. Me too, honestly. Yes, I love it. I'm not a tent camper. Those days are over. Yeah. There were days when you did it though, and now you're like Yes. In the beginning of marriage and when kids were little, I tried it a couple times and I was like, yeah, I just don't sleep. And then I turn into like mobster, you know. That's so funny. It's like funny.

SPEAKER_03 2:38

Camping's not for me. I feel like being on a tour bus is as close to camping as I'd like to get, you know? Yeah. Fair. Okay, number two, the blurry creatures podcast.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

That's hilarious. You're bringing this up. Um, I actually love those guys. I love their podcast. I don't love all the guests on there. Um, I kind of take it with a grain of salt. Me too. But I really love what they're doing and just the topics. It's super entertaining. It's actually the podcast me and my son listen to. Oh, I love that in the car. So it kind of connects us. That's cool. It's fun.

SPEAKER_03 3:12

I asked because I have connected with your husband Sam over the Blurry Creatures podcast. We've been to like a blurry musician's retreat thing together. So I met him there. Anyways, I knew that your family knew about the Blurry Creatures podcast, anyways. I was like, I'm gonna ask Kristen about it. It's funny. Um, I agree though. I love what they're doing. I think it's such a fascinating podcast. I'm not totally down with like every episode. Sometimes I'm like, no way. If it is true, I can't go there in my mind. It's like too much, you know. Like, I can't handle that. Life's next fallen out. Literally. I'm like, I know. Sometimes I'm really down for it, and other times I'm like, absolutely not. Um, okay, number three, public speaking.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

Hmm. I actually am very comfortable speaking in public. Okay. Singing in public is another thing. I absolutely just get drenched, drenched in sweat, super nervous. Yeah, I don't, I think it's like feels more like a performance. But speaking is like, no, I'm just here to like serve. I don't know. It's a different, even though it's probably the same music. Do you know what I mean? But in my mind, it's yeah, I can't do it.

SPEAKER_03 4:18

I'm like the other way around. Like I can sing in public anytime you need me to. I guess I should because that's my job. But put to like put me up there and just have me like public speak, I'm like, absolutely not. No way. So I love that you're comfortable with it. And I feel like that's something that you are starting to do more and like will continue to do. So I'm glad that you don't hate it. It's like, you know, God did that on purpose.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

It's like you're not gonna sing, you're gonna talk, and you're gonna sing and now you're talking, don't you? A little bit. I mean, I'm not Nashville, you know what I mean? But that's how Sam and I met was singing on the worship team in high school. And yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:52

In high school, you guys met in high school? Yeah, that's amazing. My high school sweetheart. No way. I love a high school sweetheart story, that's really sweet. Okay, number four is food trucks. Do you like food trucks?

SPEAKER_02 5:04

I do, yeah. Uh, food trucks were from San Diego originally, and that's a big thing out there. Yeah. My aunt actually owned a food truck. No way. Um, yeah, and we almost bought it from her and started that business, like took over that business, but it's just so much work. What kind of food truck was it? Um, so my a big part of my family is from the East Coast, so it was crab cakes, like Maryland Blue Crab. Yeah. And it was actually a truck from the 9-11 site that was serving the first responders there. And so she called it Crab Cakes 911, and they're so bomb. Yeah. Yeah. And you almost bought it from her? We almost took over the business, but yeah, it was like, I don't know, we'll never see our kids. Kind of we crab cake people going through. I don't know. We're just Sam and I are just such entrepreneurs, yeah, you know. So it's like, yeah, let's think about this crazy idea, but it just didn't align with our values.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

So well, maybe down the road it'll be a crab cake food trucks. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 6:03

Okay, last one early mornings. Are you an early bird? Um, I am now. Okay. I used to be a night owl, but my life has shifts shifted so much. So yeah, I really like waking up before anybody else, and I feel like I get kind of a jump start on my day. Yeah. If that doesn't happen now, I feel like, oh my gosh, I feel just behind. It's a weird like psychological thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:24

I feel like as a mom, that is important to have like that time just for you carved out. I feel like I'm not quite there yet. My son's only eight months old, so I'm like, I don't know if I can wake up before him because he wakes up at like four o'clock in the morning sometimes. But I feel like as he gets older, that time in the morning is gonna be really important to me. Um, even though I've always been a night owl. So you're in survival mode right now, so you know, get as much sleep as you can. I know. I'm like, I'll take the hours where I can get them. You know, anyways, my sunrises, I've seen more sunrises in the last eight months than I've seen in my whole life combined, I think. And so I'm taking that as a win. Taking that as

Stage Three Diagnosis And Tough Options

SPEAKER_03 7:00

a win. Okay, um, I'm just I'm really excited about this episode. I feel like just reading your story is so impactful to me. I can't wait to hear you speak about your story, just where you've been. Um, for everybody listening, will you kind of give like a brief background of what the last few years have looked like for you, um, just with the diagnosis that you faced and what you're walking through. Um, just a background of it.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

Yeah. Um, so about three years ago now, I was diagnosed with stage three papillary thyroid cancer, which is supposed to be the best type of cancer. I mean, no cancer is good. Um, but that's what they say in the medical field because it's 98% treatable.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 7:44

And um basically, long story short, through my journey, I went had my entire thyroid removed, bunch of lymph nodes. Um, it had metastasized down into my chest at that point. Um, went in for traditional radioactive iodine treatment. That treatment didn't work, and so I found myself in the 2% of cases where um, you know, it was like, well, now what? Yeah. Like what's plan B? And that just led me down a really different road than um I ever anticipated. That's kind of when things got really scary for me. And um, but I don't know how much you want me to go into that. Yeah. Um, but basically led me into more of a holistic point of view because the options that my oncologist gave me were well, we can watch and wait and see what happens. You can do a chemo pill that basically might make you really sick and lose all your hair, and it'll work for a while until the cancer gets smart, and then we'll have to switch to you to a different kind, or um we can do more surgery and more traditional radiation, but more radiation will eventually lead most likely to a secondary cancer because you're so young and it just causes so much um DNA damage to the cell. And so basically, what I heard was like, we don't have any good options for you. You're gonna need living with cancer the rest of your life. And I just if if you've ever I don't know, like that was like the lowest place to be just like, yeah, there's no hope, like this is your your life. And I just something inside of me was didn't want to accept that.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:40

And I had been reading and researching, you know, that's what you do when you um come across something like this, and um basically wanted to see what an integrative oncologist said, and um that's another miracle story. But then I got to work with him and uh went down to Mexico. You have to leave the country because a lot of these things are not FDA approved, and really learned about how healing really works. And it's not, you know, in conventional medicine they treat the disease. Yeah, the symptoms. Um, but they're not looking at why did you get sick, where did this come from, right? You know, um, and looking at the entire terrain of the body. Like our body, you know, your liver is not isolated in your body. Like your body's full of systems that interact and you know, communicate with each other, and when one system is off, it affects another system. Right. And um, so basically that's the approach of integrative care. Where and it's I don't like to use the word holistic because I think there this needs to be prefaced, where people will pendulum swing, like go totally holistic or totally conventional. And we use the word integrative because it's really taking the best of conventional and the best of holistic care and figuring out what's right for your specific body. And that's what my doctor does, and he's been practicing for over 25 years. And so after doing his protocol for three months, the cancer that had uh spread into my chest completely vanished. Wow, and um that just kind of opened up my eyes to a whole nother world and left me on a different path. And and yeah, now I'm I went back to school and to study this science and how it works, and now I'm a certified integrative health practitioner. So cool. And this is my life's mission is just to provide hope, first of all, to people. Like when you get a diagnosis, it does not mean it's a death sentence. Yeah, and people need to know that only 5% of cancer is an emergency. Like you have time to take a deep breath and research and figure out what the best type of care is gonna be for you.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

And so, and then you know, implementing strategy and systems and really working with people um to figure out what's going on with your body that needs to be rebalanced, you know, if you have deficiencies or certain toxicities that need to be moved out, um, and a whole sorts, all sorts

What The Mexico Protocol Looked Like

SPEAKER_02 12:32

of other things.

SPEAKER_03 12:32

So what did that protocol look like with your integrative doctor in Mexico? Like what what how did that look for you for those months before the tumors disappeared?

SPEAKER_02 12:43

Yeah, so I was very skeptical at first when I went down there. Um, they have a program where you go down for three weeks and you're doing like intense therapies every day, probably from like 8 a.m. till 2 to 5 p.m. at night. It's a full-time job. Yeah. And they're just moving you from one thing to another. So they, you know, first they're changing your diet, your nutrition. Um which is such a huge part of why we're getting so sick, our diet. Yeah. It's maddening. I could go off on a soapbox on that. But you know, nutrition, they're looking at all your labs, they're doing all like extensive other labs that your normal conventional doctor wouldn't look at to figure out what pieces are going on, even to your your nutrition is you know, there's not one size fits all for um people that are walking through cancer. Yeah, it's really uh bioindividualized. And like, for example, I before I went, I was on a vegan diet, and I felt terrible with by the time I got there. But that's what everybody says to do is to eat as many plants as possible or their pendulum swinging the other way, like, no, you eat red meat all the time. And it's like, what is it? It's so confusing. Yeah. Um, but your body actually has these biomarkers that tells you exactly what your body needs once you learn how to read these labs. And so they work with you work with a nutritionist to do that, and um, you're doing like high dose vitamin C, oxygen chambers. Um, you're doing some specialized treatments, sometimes called eBu, where they oxygenate your blood, run it through light, clean it out. Yeah, uh they have a lot of specialized treatments. You're learning how to do coffee enemas, that's a fun topic. Wow. Um, heating your body up in um hyperthermia chambers, so you're getting your body inducing basically a natural fever because cancer hates heat. And so, you know, when you have infection or um illness, your body gets hot because it's it's natural response to kill um what's in there, and so you do that every other day. I mean, there's so many things I could go on and on, but they're basically you know uh uh coming at it from all angles because cancer is smart too, and there's smart cancers and stupid cancers, and um basically every cancer type has its own microbiome too, and certain things feed it or um react to it, and so they're really trying to outsmart the cancer, if that makes sense, and come at it from different angles.

SPEAKER_03 15:34

That's amazing to me, like and it makes sense because we are all made so uniquely, so differently, that to treat our bodies like fighting cancer, it makes sense it needs to be individualized, like that makes so much sense to me.

The Oncologist Sees No Cancer

SPEAKER_03 15:50

Um what did your conventional doctor in the US think when you came back with no tumors in your chest? Like, what was that conversation like?

SPEAKER_02 15:59

Yeah, that was a fun one. Um, he was not happy. Really? So, yeah, actually, sorry. When I came back, I didn't tell him I was going to Mexico because I didn't want to have an argument. Yeah what I mean, and just keeping your stress down and is very important also while you're healing. Um, so I came home, I went to my initial appointment because my integrative oncologist from Mexico was like, you need to get a PET scan um just to see where we're at compared to your last one you got last June. And um he was like, Where have you been? You know, I've been worried about you. And so I told him, like, oh yeah, I'm working with this doctor, and we're doing, you know, mistletoe injections, we're doing all this stuff, and he was just livid. Wow like his face totally changed and was like, These people are not going to heal you flat out and kind of lectured me for a good couple minutes. Wow, and placed the order for the PET scan and all this stuff, and um just felt like that this big, you know? And so the next time I went in to get the results of my PET scan, I brought my husband with me because I was like, I don't want to be chewed out again alone with this guy. Yeah, and um, and I think just to preface, it's not oncology's fault. Do you know what I mean? Like this is how they're trained, right? Like this is what they know. Yeah, and I do believe they're doing the best that they know how to help people, yeah. But there's so much other research and science out there now that they're just not teaching and not looking at. And so we come into the office, me and my husband, and I'm nervous, you know, like waiting for these PET scan results, and he sits down and he's like, Well, I don't know what to say. And we're like, Okay. And he's like, Yeah, I looked at the scans, I had the radiologist look at it twice, and then we took your scan to the head radiologist to have him look at it, and there's no evidence of of cancer, like there's not nothing's lighting up on your PET scan.

unknown 18:23

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 18:23

And I just looked at him and smiled, you know.

SPEAKER_03 18:27

It's like you're like, I don't even have to say anything. Right. We all know.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

And I was like, wow, can you can you look into this stuff? Do you know what I mean? It it works, and so that was amazing to just get the news. Yeah, yeah. And so now we're just tracking blood markers. So the way they measure different types of it depends on the type of cancer. Um, but for thyroid cancer, they're looking at thy leftover thyroid tissue. It's kind of how they track the growth of cancer cells, but it doesn't necessarily mean it is cancer. Um, and so, but that's how they do it in conventional, and so you know, watching the numbers like drop more and more. They've gone up a little bit at one point in my journey, um, but they're going back down now. And I had an MRI scan this past November, and that came back clear. So, yeah, everything's looking good, but I'm still healing. Yes, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_03 19:27

You're still in in the journey, you're still on it, you're still doing a lot of things to keep your yourself healthy, your body healing. Um, but you're also helping other people that are in a similar boat, which I think is really beautiful. I feel like you could face something like this and just go completely inward and be like, okay, I need to do everything I can do. But I love that you went back to school in the midst of all this, you went back to school um to become an integrative health practitioner, and now you help other people. Like that's so incredible. Can you talk about just that journey, what it's like to walk with other people that are going through a similar journey as you?

Helping Others After A Diagnosis

SPEAKER_02 20:06

Yeah, I think when you're given a diagnosis, it's very lonely. And nobody really understands what you're going through. I mean, and you kind of become like people don't know what to do with you. Do you know what I mean? It's like, oh, you have cancer, and we don't know what to say. And and I think we do that in our culture, like, but uh so it can be, and then there's nothing wrong with that. It's just I think how things go, yeah. Um, or we don't know what to say or how to support people when they're going through crisis. Um and so for me, you know, I am actually a very introverted person. And um the reason I started sharing my story online was because I had some pretty miraculous things happen right before my surgery, and I really thought I was gonna like just go in and get the radioactive iodine done and be healthy and healed, and just wanted to share just not live in fear anymore and just uh be a light basically and encourage other people. Like we comfort those who you know walked through the same thing um as us, but um it's been I never expected it to be what it is today, but um I feel like it is the most humbling and rewarding experience to be able to share in the suffering of other people and it be a com a source of comfort and a source of hope um for others, which is like not what I expected to happen. Um but you know, I'll get messages on my Page or like in my community group where it's like you know, I did everything that you said to do, and like I'm cancer free now, and like thank you so much for sharing your story, and and it's really humbling, it's kind of weird, you know, um, to real like you just don't know how your story is gonna affect somebody else's life, yeah. Um, but it also speaks to the power of like and I just think other people we should be more vulnerable, we should be more transparent, and we're all walking through something hard, yeah. And it just kind of takes down those those walls, but um it's it's really hard because it's like I feel for these people, I know exactly what they're going through. Yeah, but it's also very rewarding, deeply rewarding at the same time.

SPEAKER_03 22:54

So it's so amazing. Like you're we are called to bear each other's burdens um and to comfort each other, to encourage one another, and you're doing exactly that in such a vulnerable moment in someone's life, like when they receive a diagnosis.

Identity Plus The Power Of Words

SPEAKER_03 23:08

Um, something that you said in your notes that really spoke to me was you said, I do not say my diagnosis, I say the diagnosis because I don't claim this as my identity and who I am. Um can you speak about that a little bit more? Like that just that's a really important distinction, I think.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

Yeah, so um something that I've been learning on this journey is just how we think and what we say um really has power and um holds a lot of weight more than we realize. Words are powerful. Yeah. There's a scientist, I forget his name, um, but he did this study where he basically took water molecules and he spoke um healing and life to like one jar, and then like, you know, all this negative bad stuff to another. And the I think they were frozen and the crystals like basically like the the jar or the water that he was speaking to that was negative, like started forming mold and like toxins, but the other ones became more pure and more crystallized and perfect. Incredible.

SPEAKER_03 24:22

I've heard of that before, and it blows my mind, but it makes so much sense. Scripture says that the power of death and life is in the tongue. Yes. Um, and I believe that's true. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

So even when you look at like study the word cancer and where it comes from and the meanings of it, um, you know, I don't think like we aren't we aren't our disease. We it's not our identity. Our identity is in Christ, right? That's right. And so the same thing is for if you're talking negatively to yourself, like I'm so stupid, or I don't know, I catch myself saying things all the time that aren't like uplifting, and those things hold weight and power over time, you know what I mean, and kind of drag you down and but you're basically the premise of the science behind it is your body is made up of what 80% water. Um and it affects the way you communicate to yourself affects your nervous system, which affects your your organs and your body, yeah, and holds um power and weight. And so we want to be speaking life. We don't want to be claiming something that is a disease that is ours. I mean, that's up to the Lord ultimately to decide how this plays out. Yeah. Um, but it's not, I don't use it as like my diagnosis or my you know, I would not say that because um I don't want it to be something that like takes root and right has a presence forever in in my life, and yeah, um claiming that that's what's happening. Do you know what I mean? So totally speaking, healing, reading versus like God's word, like over your body, like meditating on that, like it really does affect everything, like yeah, your your nervous system, your you know, psychoneuroimmunology, they talk about like how the brain and all that's connected, and it I mean I could go on and on, but it's really, really important, like how you speak to yourself.

SPEAKER_03 26:42

Yeah, so fascinating. I feel like even a couple years ago I had this realization that I have struggled with anxiety for a lot of my life, and I realized that I had been saying, I have anxiety, or like I've had anxiety as long as I can remember. And the Lord really revealed to me that I had let that take root in my identity. Like, even though I hated that I had anxiety, I had let it become part of my identity and who I was, and to be like, Oh, I'm just an anxious person, like that's just who I am. But the Lord has called me out of that and been like, no, no, no. Like you may struggle with anxiety or you face anxiety, you battle anxiety, but you are not anxiety, you know? And I feel like you're saying a similar thing, like you are not cancer. You do not, you do not claim that. Like it is something you're battling and facing and have overcome and all of that, but it's not who you are. Um, and I think it's so easy for us to just claim things that have happened to us or things that we're walking through as part of our identity. But like you said, our identity is in Christ, and that's who we are, truly. Like that's our baseline. Something else that is interesting that you've talked about is also like besides just the words that are spoken over us, but things that have happened to us, like stored trauma in our body, can also express itself in something like cancer.

Trauma The Nervous System And Tumors

SPEAKER_03 28:02

Um, can you talk more about that? That's really fascinating to me.

SPEAKER_02 28:05

Yeah. So the premise of this, you've probably heard of the book The Body Keeps the Score. Yeah. And that's a really popular one. But there is psychoneuro neuroimmunology. Basically, what that is is when you have your sympathetic nervous system and your parasympathetic nervous system. And um, when you go into fight or flight mode, when there's a significant trauma, sometimes depend usually if it's in the formative years from like one to eight to thirteen years old, um, your brain, that you know, that trauma can create a really deep pathway in your brain and kind of trains you to be stay in that elevated fight or flight uh for the rest of your life with the normal things that like trigger, you know what I mean? Like it's it like something really common might trigger a traumatic response in you, or you just become hyper-vigilant, like I'm not safe, you know what I mean? And so you it forms your worldview and how you perceive um security and safety and stress. And so basically the idea of it is over long periods of time when you're in that elevated um state of stress, it wears on your body over time. Like it's okay to like be stressed for a short amount of time. If you're there's a car coming at you, you need to get out of the way.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

Right.

SPEAKER_02 29:41

But being in that constant state, um, basically, you're I have a therapist who explains it like um you have a cup, you know, and we store we can store emotions in our body if we're not processing them and um talking about them and getting them out and um healing from those things. And basically because you're stressed out for such a long time, your cup basically gets so full it starts overflowing, and then your body makes another cup, which is usually which is a tumor because it's trying to store this stress, wow, um, and protect you from it like going all throughout your system and basically killing you. Right. Um, so cancer actually tumors are a protection. They're your body's really smart and it's designed really well, and it's designed to keep you safe and alive. And um so it's actually when you know what they teach is like when you have a tumor forming in your body, it's like she's like, Thank your body for keeping you safe. Wow, like what a mindset shift, yes, total mindset mindset shift. Thank your body for protecting you from this like going throughout and just wreaking havoc. And so when we don't deal with the emotional root or the trauma, that's just gonna continue to manifest and keep building stress and um and things, it's one of the root causes of cancer.

SPEAKER_00 31:38

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 31:38

And so one of the things that they uh teach in integrative therapies and cancer treatments or functional medicine, or what I do now, is we have to look at the emotional component. We have to look, are there traumas in your life? You know, make sure you're working with a therapist, like unpacking those and dealing with them. Um for thyroid cancer specifically, it's usually there's this doctor called Dr. Homer, who is um a German scientist, and basically his son um died suddenly, and him and his wife both ended up with cancer 18 months later. Wow. And because he was, I think he's a neuroscientist, he was like, this isn't an accident that both of us would um get cancer that short. So it can be like a trauma from a long time ago, or it's usually a trauma that happens within 18 to 12 months of your diagnosis. And so basically, through all his wisdom and knowledge, he figured out the patterns and w why we get different types in different parts of our body, and it actually points to the emotional root. Wow. So my story, which I was totally skeptical of this when it first happened, um, basically walked in, these doctors knew nothing about me, and um they're like, oh, thyroid cancer, that's usually a trauma of like suppressed will or voice. Um and my story is uh when I was young, I was sexually abused as a child, and so it's like somebody, you know, basically keeping you from speaking out, wow, you know, to protect yourself or like and there's a lot of psychology stuff that goes around that, like shaming the child and making it their fault and afraid to speak out against um these things, but wow, yeah, and so the energy kind of gets stuck there, if that makes sense, and it forms um these these tumors, but then you learn like so the trauma is actually you learn as a child it's not safe to speak out. Do you know what I mean? Or you feel like nobody's listening to you, and so I carried this pattern of not being myself or speaking out against things, or even just you know, things that I wanted or needed um were not voiced because I didn't I wasn't in an environment where that was welcomed. Yeah, and so it's the same message over and over again.

SPEAKER_00 34:32

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 34:32

And so now I'm unlearning those patterns. That feels yeah, that's just really interesting and I think helpful. Yeah. I mean, we're not just physical beings, right, right? Like we're emotional beings and we're spiritual beings, and so that is the premise of um integrative care is like you are looking at all these aspects of a person, yeah, and they're finding, you know, my doctor that I worked with, he will he's told stories like people will go through all the right treatments and do all the protocols and they won't get better. And then they work on the emotional part and the cancer is gone. Wow. And he's seen it over and over again, and he's actually writing a book on it right now, and it's it's pretty wild, but yeah, like we can't ignore what is going on in here.

SPEAKER_03 35:28

Yeah, right. So if somebody receives a diagnosis that they are gonna be battling cancer, what would be the first thing that you would say they should do?

SPEAKER_02 35:38

That's

Where To Start After Diagnosis

SPEAKER_02 35:39

hard to pick. Um, because the right answer is to look at the entire terrain. Yeah. But if but a lot of people are really overwhelmed. And so I'm actually creating a guide um that is a free guide that for this very question, because people, so many people come to me and they're like, I don't know what where to start.

SPEAKER_01 36:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:01

And so I would say it's input, output, and um activation. And what I mean by that is you got to start putting good things into your body clean water, organic food, lots of plants, like 10 to 15 servings of vegetables a day. Wow. Because food is medicine, and also it's like amazing to me that we have a God who created the whole world. He knew cancer was gonna be a thing before even sin entered the world. And he put these compounds, these healing compounds, in plants for our bodies to heal. And so you want to be kind of overdosing on vegetables every day. And the second thing is output, and that's detoxification. The average American is exposed to 177,000 toxins a day. No way. Babies are born with I can't remember the number, but just um, I think it's like over 200 toxins from birth. No way, and so we don't practice detoxification really in American culture, a lot of other people do and have been for like 6,000 years. Wow. Um, but it's really important to be eliminating and getting rid of these things. And so I give people some points in that guide what to where to start and how to do it. And and then um activation is basically just moving your body. Like we gotta get oxygen in. We spend so much time indoors, we don't go outside, we're not we're not taking as many steps a day as we need to.

SPEAKER_00 37:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:45

Um, but the but also what movement does is it energizes the mitochondria, which is the energy source of the cell. And basically that's um very one of the reasons like cancer forms is because um cancer stops using or a healthy cell stops using oxygen as its fuel and it mutates because it's damaged and starts using sugar or glucose as a fuel. And so you want to be oxygenating your body as much as possible to get flood those cells and help reverse and eliminate those cancer cells. So those are the three places I would start, and they're all pretty much free. I mean, yeah it's not expensive, you know?

SPEAKER_03 38:36

So and it makes so much sense to me, it really does, and it also makes me sad because I feel like our world and our society is so far from that, even as simple as it is to eat well, to move your body, um, to detox your body. Like that sounds really simple, but we eat terribly, we sit inside all day. Um, like it that's just crazy to me. I feel like it's obviously a much larger conversation and a much larger issue, but um, just the fact that God designed plants and the sun and oxygen to perfectly work with our body, and our bodies are made to heal. Like, that's what we're programmed for is to heal. And like you're saying, with tumors, like walling off and being like, no, we're containing this thing that is toxic. Um what has this journey showed you about God?

Finding God In The Fear

SPEAKER_03 39:28

Like, I feel like we're kind of touching on that, but like, where have you seen God in this journey? I mean, that is a whole nother podcast.

SPEAKER_02 39:37

Yeah, yeah. Maybe we'll do a part two. No, but I think the big ways is, you know, he's very close when you're in crisis, especially in those early days. It's very scary. Yeah. And um nobody knows what you specifically need on your healing journey except him. Yeah. And I think early on I had some really great mentors in my life who were like, yeah, there's so much information out there. You could do this, you could do that. But really, you need to get quiet and listen um to where he's leading on this journey for his purposes. And so it's not perfect, you know what I mean? Like, I'm still human, it's not like I'm holier than thou or whatever. Um it's a process, it's another layer of trust that I didn't I didn't realize how much I didn't trust God until I was diagnosed, you know. And so from the beginning there was a lot of verses that he would speak to me that I were like lifelines, you know what I mean? That because you don't know the future, you know it's so scary. Yeah, but um, he promises to go ahead of us and he's guiding every step. Yep, and he never leaves us and he never forsakes us, and that is 1,000% true.

SPEAKER_00 41:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:09

Even during the seasons, there have been seasons on this journey where he's very quiet and not sure what's next, you know? Yeah. Um, but yeah, I would say it's also been really revealing of the emotional component in the trauma and learning about how your perception has formed about life in general, how much that affects your perception of God and um basically detoxing those those points of view, those things that you adapt early on and relearning, like or b becoming more um aware of who he really is, um and understanding the love of God, you know, because for me, like I didn't feel I was very loved as a child, you know what I mean? But there were messages that I rece received because of my experiences where I didn't feel that way. I didn't believe that to be true. And so there's perceptions of of that I would put on God, yeah. Um and basically deconstructing those and showing like he's not your parents, he's not right these people that influenced your life at a young age, he's not this experience that happened to you, he's outside of all that, and um, it's very slow and layered, but that's another like that's the spiritual healing aspect of it too. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:55

So that's amazing to me. God is close to the brokenhearted, he saves those that are crushed in spirit. I feel like receiving a diagnosis of cancer is crushing to your spirit. Um, but I feel like to walk through something like that with God looks so different than to walk through it without him. Um, just knowing that he really can be trusted, he's not surprised by something like this brings so much comfort and peace. Because I feel like if you don't know God and you get news like that, you're like, okay, well, what do I do? Like it's despair, you know? Yes. And maybe there's even some of that with God. But I think just knowing that our life is not in our control. We can't do anything. Like God is taking care of us. He is our provider, our sustainer. Um, and we partner with him in that. But ultimately, like we trust God. And um, I'm so glad that you have seen him in your journey and also helped other people by sharing what he's done. Like, looking at your Instagram is like a little joy bomb, it's like an inspiration bomb. Just like you are so inspiring to so many people. Like you have like a half a million people that follow you, and they're following you because they see something in you. Like it, you're not just someone who's like, Let me tell you how to fight cancer, like I'm doing it perfectly. You're like a human that's walking with God and listening to Him, and you have so much joy while you do it, and it's infectious. Um, so thank you for what you do and for pouring back into other people. Um, tell us about this guide that you have and just like it's a passion project

Her Free Guide And A New Calling

SPEAKER_03 44:33

for you, right? Like everything you're doing is just yeah, like this is your purpose. I feel like you've unlocked this new purpose. Um, tell people how they can find that or how they can find you if they're walking through a similar journey right now.

SPEAKER_02 44:47

Yeah, so um you can find it if you go to my website, um, cancer warrior.lifeslash guide. Okay. Um, that's where you can find that at. And yeah, it's it's it feels like a calling. It feels like if I could tell you my whole life story and how difficult it's been and I feel like cancer was uh the the precipice of a major shift. Um, but I remember when I came home with with the diagnosis and I was finally alone and I could like process it on my own. I just fell on the floor crying. And I wasn't afraid to die, you know, because that's what you think about when you hear those words. I was more deeply saddened that I had wasted so much of my life being afraid and not being my true self. And so my prayer was God, I I don't know how much time I have here left on this earth, but I don't want to waste a minute of it. Yeah. And I feel like the best thing that you could do is just share, like, right? We um what is that verse in Revelation? Like you um it's through the testimony and the blood of the Lamb. Like we overcome. We overcome. Yeah. And so I wanted to be an o I'm like, I don't know if I'm gonna overcome cancer, but I'm gonna overcome it in my heart with Jesus. Wow. And I'm just gonna share and I'm just gonna be a light. And um and so that's basically I I feel like he just heard my simple prayer and was like, okay, you know, and it's also I feel like as it unfolded, because I didn't plan any of this, right? It just that's why it feels like a calling. Yeah. Um it led me into like more the medical side of the world, but I'm also think about Jesus' ministry when he was on earth. Yeah, he came to save people, save the lost, but a lot of the way that he did that was by meeting people's physical need first.

SPEAKER_01 47:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:08

And so when you're facing a diagnosis, you are terrified and you don't know how much time you have left and you're grasping for anything, like for hope, and you're you're just so scared. Um and I just you know wanted basically like to bridge that gap, you know what I mean, and just reassure people like they didn't have to be afraid by giving them practical hope, like here's things you can do to help your body to heal.

SPEAKER_01 47:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:44

Um, but also behind that is like the spiritual element of it because that's what Jesus has done for us, right? And so um, yeah, so it's it's evolved and morphed, and now a lot of what I do in my day-to-day is just speaking to the physical need of people and meeting them where they're at. Yeah, and it doesn't matter what background or where you're coming from, like we're all human and we're all experiencing the same health journey, which unites us, and um and so just giving them step-by-step tools, like this is where you're you start and helping them change that lifestyle because it's a big shift from being like, I don't know what your life was like before cancer, but it cannot be the same. Yeah, and so a lot of people struggle with that and you know, implementing and keeping it accountable. And you think, you know, a diagnosis would be the most motivating thing in the world, and it it is, but you're also dealing with emotions and you know, distractions and things that it's we don't we're we don't change overnight. Do you know what I mean? So giving people those step-by-step tools and and um going back to school and figuring all that out so they don't have to, basically all the mistakes I made the first year, you know, that didn't work. Yeah, and being able to give that to them in a step-by-step plan um is really comforting. Yeah you know what I mean? And and it helps. It really makes a difference. What you eat, how you're detoxing, what you're thinking, um being in community, like like not doing it alone, all those things make a big difference.

SPEAKER_03 49:36

So that's amazing to me. And it makes so much sense, it really does. I thank you for being here. I thank you for who you are and for looking outward and helping other people. Like, I am so excited for you. I feel like you're right. It does seem like a calling. Like, I just met you one hour ago, and I'm just like so inspired by you and just really excited for you because I feel like you are helping so many people just by being you. Um, so thank you for what you do, and thank you for being here and like being on this podcast truly in the middle of it. Like you're still healing, you've already done so much healing, and there's still more to come, just like all of us. But um, thank you for being in the middle of it. I appreciate you so much.

Oatmeal Fact Pygmy Goats

SPEAKER_03 50:20

Um, as a way to end the podcast, we're gonna do a little fun game. Um, we usually like start high, we go deep, and then we come back up for air, you know? So I have a wheel here that has eight topics on it. You're gonna spin the wheel and then we're just gonna end the podcast for like two minutes talking about whatever it lands on. Okay. Okay, great. Okay, it's so fun. And here it is. Amazon.com just provided me with this this here wheel. If you can reach it, yeah. Oatmeal fact. Okay. No one's ever gotten this one. Oatmeal fact. Okay. Okay. It's not a fact about oatmeal. Again, this is the opposite of a fun fact, okay? It's like the most boring thing about you that like people wouldn't know, but it's just like a boring, a boring thing. Like, oh, I sleep with my pillow vertically instead of horizontally, or just something that's not a fun fact. It's just an oatmeal fact about you.

SPEAKER_02 51:13

Something people don't know.

SPEAKER_03 51:14

Something bland, something okay.

SPEAKER_02 51:17

It's a hard question, I know. I know. I'm like, this one wasn't on your list to prepare for.

SPEAKER_03 51:24

This was actually a a last-minute edition.

SPEAKER_02 51:27

So okay, let me think for a minute. Something boring about my life. Okay. So I grew up on a farm, and no way my mom raised pygmy goats. What? Yes. And this is always the thing I share because it's so weird. But basically, there's this whole group of people that raise and show little miniature goats like dogs. And they get like national grand championship and all this crazy stuff. And so um, I grew up doing that with my mom, and she was like the queen of pygmy goat royalty, and that is wild. Yeah, like actually, like all pygmy goats in Australia are like from her herd because they couldn't like ship them over there. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 52:23

Yeah, that's a weird fact. That's an excellent fact.

SPEAKER_02 52:27

Yeah, I love how to show a goat.

SPEAKER_03 52:29

You gotta show a goat like a dog, like a dog show, but a pygmy goat. Yes, I've never heard of that in my entire life. I learn a new thing each day. Kristen, thank you so

Final Thanks And Goodbye

SPEAKER_03 52:39

much. Thank you for being here. If you guys are interested in pygmy goats, Google it, I guess. It's a thing. I love it. Thank you so much. Thank you, Hannah. That's so funny. I've never heard of that in my whole life. That's crazy. It's a thing.