How I Achieved My 15-Year Brain Tumor Survivorship

In 1998 at age 24 years old, I worked in the U.S. Congress with intentions for law school. But a shock took me in other directions with a brain tumor diagnosis turning my world upside down. My course was clear for awake brain surgery.

When recovering from my surgery, I started to use aspects of integrative cancer care for my body, mind, spirit, social, and environmental health. Yet change can take time. As only one component, it took me many years to adequately improve my diet.

But the beginning of 2004 featured shocking news. A major cancer hospital where I had frequent MRI scans for many years told me that not only did I have a brain tumor recurrence, but the tumor recurrence had been visible on my MRI scans since 2000. In the confusion, I did not know what to do and who to trust. I launched transformation in my healing process.

Intense suffering offers profound opportunities. Quality information and actions must occur. Over the next year, I meditated, used many new modalities, a raw foods retreat with significant detoxification and building my immune system, and move from Washington, DC to California with spiritual guidance. I began studying more about spirituality and what happens after death. My soul’s existence and process for evolution further emerged.

My healing journey continued and in new directions. Over five plus years, my treatments involved hundreds of integrative therapies, including at three clinics in Europe and the Gonzalez protocol. Sometimes I felt improvements in my quality of life and others only pain. But in the summer of 2011, I became extremely sick and absolutely needed a second awake brain surgery. Thankfully I’ve covered from surgery using integrative cancer care for the whole person.

Everyone has a unique purpose in this lifetime. When people express their meaning and purpose, their innate healing capacities strengthen. In my chaos with cancer, levels of guidance directed me to many jobs gaining important skills for my purpose. After the U.S. Congress, I worked for national cancer non-profits, a consultant to the National Cancer Institute and Food and Drug Administration, a job at the National Institutes of Health National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine’s Clearinghouse, for health care practices, and other businesses. Now I work in integrative cancer care and love what I do to serve others for their healing. My services include work as a Cancer Coach & Navigator, Writing & Consulting, and Public Speaking.

When I express my purpose with work, part of me requires healthy foods. I wish I learned about healthy foods earlier in my cancer journey. Research findings clearly show health benefits, including turning cancer cells on and off. Eating healthy foods improves quality of life, cancer survival, cancer prevention, and other keys to optimal health and healing.

Jeannine Walston shares integrative cancer care information and inspiration to support optimal health and healing with her educational website of articles and blogs. Her services include work as a Cancer Coach, Writing & Consulting, and Public Speaking. Jeannine is a cancer survivor since 1998 with extensive experience in cancer education and advocacy, health care policy, and conventional into integrative cancer care through work for the National Cancer Institute, Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine’s Clearinghouse, the U.S. Congress, cancer non-profit organizations, and health care practices. Visit her website www.jeanninewalston.com.