An Inspirational Stage 4 Lymphoma Survivor Story!
Hey friend,
I have a very special testimony to share with you today. It's the inspirational story of Stacy Ward, a survivor of stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Stacy is still in the fight against cancer over 9 years since her initial diagnosis, but let me tell you - she has quite a story to tell!! I started following her journey last year on Facebook and have witnessed so many answers to prayer that I really wanted to connect you with her. For those who are going through a hard time and having trouble seeing light at the end of the tunnel, this is especially for you!
Ways to learn about Stacy:
1) This beautiful video her daughter shared last year about all the miracles they've received so far - it is touching!
2) Her new blog documenting her journey
3) Her Facebook page with more frequent updates
4) My interview with her
Parts of Stacy's memory are a bit foggy due to her cancer experiences, so I asked her sister-in-law for a list of answered prayers. This is her response:
1. When she was in lactic acidosis, her level was 20! Typically even a healthy person cannot survive a level over 5. Truly truly, maybe even more than she realizes because she does not remember anything from the time she was loaded in the ambulance that she survived. Her pulse was 20 and BP and O2 were too low to even register. Dr was even saying 30 mins at that point. The Dr was saying that although lactic acidosis can be caused by dehydration that she was dying and fluids would cause her to struggle more in the dying process. I did not agree with no fluids so I prayed that God would wake her up enough to ask for fluids herself (as did unknown to me at the time) her daughter Kaitlin. About 30 mins later, she came to enough to ask for fluids. That was a huge answer to prayer.
2. Then when she woke up after the 4 days, she asked me if I had contacted a naturopath or anyone to ask about options. I was able to get a naturopath to come and do a housecall. He drove 1.5 hours and was with her for 3 hours and tweaked some things with her supplements, diet and hydration. That was another answer to prayer. 3. Another huge answer was that over the course of about 4 days, people donated around $5000 in September to be able to pay for the naturopath's housecall and the new supplement regimen.
4. She finished chemo in Feb 2016 and had the scan at the end of March and was pronounced terminal in April 2016. We raised $18,000 in 6 weeks and she went to Chipsa in mid May 2016. That was another huge answer to prayer to raise that much money that quickly. We even panhandled over Mother's Day weekend for some of that money (around $4500) We held up signs that said "Save A Mom this Mother's Day" on street corners in Oklahoma City area.
5. When she went for a scan in August of 2016 after having 90 days on Gerson, the tumor that was encapsulating and breeching her carotid artery was GONE. The primary tumor on her sinus activity was significantly reduced and cancer that was in primary genesis at the base of the skull was inactive. We actually have a video on YouTube of Stacy announcing those scan results and she got very emotional on there thanking everyone who had contributed prayers and finances to her miracle.
6. My brother was in poor health during some of this journey as well. He has severe type 1.5 diabetes that was caused by PCB exposure while in the Army and stationed at Ft McClellan. He was able to receive some relief from Dr Groves, Stacy's naturopath as well. For a short while, neither of them could hardly walk because my brother has terrible neuropathy from his diabetes.
7. As far as their house, they have been living there since around Christmas. It took about 6 months to remodel it and get it ready to move into and God provided so much for that.
8. Joe just recently got a wonderful job where he can pace himself and use his talents so they can start to catch up financially.
9. They did start out raising funds to go to another place and the money just did not seem to be coming in, during the course of that time, we found out the other place was not advisable at all and we feel God saved her from going there.
As far as ongoing requests: They still owe Dr Groves the naturopath money from Joe's last visit but would like to be able to pay him and then for Stacy to start going to see Dr Groves to have him oversee her healing process and tweak her protocol when necessary. Stacy would like to be able to do some non invasive testing such as thermogram. We have said since the beginning, we would like to start a non-profit to help fund others needing natural care for life threatening diseases like cancer. We are praying to find an attorney that will help us set that up and get it going, and then of course we continue to pray for full healing from the damage caused by the chemo and radiation."
Now here are answers to Stacy's prayers:
"It is wonderful to think of all God has done for me during this journey. My husband was my main caregiver for a majority of this time even to where he lost his job caring for me but God provided a way to keep bills paid. I was praying that Joe would find a job but God answered it another way - we moved to be near family to be able to have them close to help with my care and Joe was able to go back to work. I have prayed for a long time for my family to become close. I have been seeing positive changes in each of them and how they interact. This is His ongoing work. Most of my prayers during the time of my treatments were about provisions and direction the He has always provided. In September I would pray that I could live long enough to spend Christmas with my kids. I made it through that but I don't set limits anymore - now I thank Him for everyday He gives me. My prayer right now is that He uses me as a shining light of His love and directs my path. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share my journey. I hope it can be used to help others."
If Stacy's story has inspired you please let her know by posting a comment on her blog or Facebook page or on either of the videos shared. Then share her story with someone who needs it!
Have a beautiful day,
Bailey
