Today is day 100 for Dawn Ferguson on her new "raw" diet to heal cancer. We took this opportunity to interview her about her experience.
Q: So, Dawn, tell us what you're eating?
A: Raw fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds.
Q: Are you eating any cooked vegetables?
A: No.
Q: Not even some beans or a baked potato?
A: My goal is to eat all raw...as in not cooked.
Q: Are you tired of eating just raw stuff?
A: Yes!
Q: Have you cheated?
A: Yes! But not much.
Q: How much have you cheated?
A: I've had two naked, baked potatoes. I've eaten about a half cup of cooked black beans and a little steamed broccoli. And I've had a few pieces of Ezekiel bread. Those are my only cheats in the past 100 days!
Q: What do you like the least about this diet?
A: Eating salads all the time and not being able to go out to eat.
Q: What do you like the most about this diet?
A: There's no wondering what I need to buy at the store to "fix" to eat.
Q: What about Roger?
A: What about him?
Q: What's he eating?
A: I'm still cooking for him!
Q: Isn't that hard?
A: Sometimes.
Q: Has he been supportive of your diet?
A: Most of the time. Except there was that one time when he told me to just put salad dressing on something I didn't like and eat it! He might have even told me to quit whining.
Q: Sounds like you're holding a grudge.
A: Moi?
Q: What's in the picture up above?
A: My latest discovery. Raw onion bread.
Q: How do you make raw bread?
A: Well, you have to plan way in advance. This bread is made from ground sunflower seeds, ground flax seeds, onions, olive oil and coconut aminos. You mix all that together and then spread it on sheets in your dehydrator and "cook" it for 36 hours!
Q: And how does it taste?
A: Considering I can't have baked bread and am tired of salads, it's delicious! Actually, it's not bad at all. I even look forward to dinner now.
Q: How much longer are you going to stick with this diet?
A: I go back to the naturopath in September so I'm sticking with it at least until then. I'm hoping he lets me add a little cooked food after that.
Q: Then what?
A: From all the research I've done, it appears I'll need to be doing this for about two years to get my body back into tip top shape and keep it cancer free.
Q: You think that will be hard?
A: Yes, I do. But the longer I do it and see how much more energetic I am, the easier I hope it gets.
Q: Well, congratulations for making it 100 days! Any final words you'd like to share with our readers?
A: Yes - thank you all so much for your support and your prayers! I love you guys! And "I love you, O Lord, my strength."
I missed church yesterday.
Not because I wanted to, but because I was puny.
On Saturday - with no warning whatsoever - I woke up achy and not feeling too good. By mid-day, I had a temperature of 101. I stayed in bed all day (which is a clear indication that I'm not feeling good.)
It's been about 80 days since I did this very radical shift in my diet - going all raw. That detoxes your body as you go along, but you reach a point where it does something even greater to you. I think I reached that Saturday. I treated none of the symptoms. By mid-morning Sunday, it was gone. That means my immune system kicked in! Hallelujah!
My friend Kathy has already been through it and said it was like having a short episode of the flu. Bingo!
We live in a very toxic environment. In fact, the more I learn about it - the scarier it gets.
Just consider your skin - the largest organ of your body. Our skin absorbs 60% of what we put on it. Look at your lotions, your soaps, your sunscreens, etc. Those chemicals you can't pronounce are getting into your blood stream!
We breathe in toxic air. We eat toxic food - food sprayed with pesticides - some food which has been genetically modified - some with Round Up to be resistant to weeds! Toxins are everywhere. There is no way to avoid them all. That's why it's important to do what you can to avoid as many as possible. (End of sermon.)
Back to missing church - I love my church family. Not just Madison Church of Christ, but all God's people. I have loved all the congregations I've been a member of - Hendersonville First United Methodist Church, Aurora Christian Church, Tulip Grove Baptist Church and many I haven't been a member of.
I don't go on Sunday and at other times during the week to get my card punched or because I have to or I'm supposed to. I go because I want to! I love being in fellowship with other Christians.
When I am there, there are people all around me going through tough times - some much more difficult then what I'm dealing with right now. I get strength when I see them praising God amidst trials. That is raw, unadulterated faith.
Two weeks ago I prayed with a woman in our Benevolence Center. When I asked her what I could pray with her about, she said "my faith." The standard answer is generally finances, family, health issues, etc. I asked her what about her faith. She said she was losing it. Why? "Because I'm doing everything right and I'm having all kinds of problems."
Unfortunately, people sometimes seek God for what He can do for them. Some people call this the prosperity gospel - as long as you're good and do everything you're supposed to do - God will pour out blesses on you!
That is bad theology! And it's not the truth.
Jesus tells us that God causes the sun to shine on the good and the bad and likewise with the rain - it falls on the good and the bad. (And we need some of it to fall right now on all of us!)
And thankfully, I'm glad the prosperity gospel isn't the way God works. I much prefer His mercy and His grace because if I had to live out His rules to be blessed, I would have been dead a long time ago!
It's day 83 of my raw diet. Next Monday, I'll be celebrating day 90. Can you say $8 raw chocolate bar here I come?
"I love you, O Lord, my strength."
It's day 71 on this all raw diet, and I am starting to feel more 
energetic. I think my body has been in detox mode which has made me a little sluggish.
I've had lots of friends ask me about what I'm doing and why is it so important to eat raw. Once food is heated above 108 to 115 degrees (there's some disagreement as to exactly where the heating point is) it starts losing enzymes, then nutrients, then minerals, etc. the more and more it's cooked. That's not to say that roasted broccoli is bad for you - just that raw broccoli is better.
Cooking destroys enzymes, lessens the nutritional value (some say by as much as 80%!) and raises the acidity of the food. Cancer thrives in an acidic environment, so I am alkalinizing (if that's a word) my insides so it's not welcoming to cancer cells.
The naturopath set my goal at 100% raw, and that's what I have pretty much stuck to. I did cheat two or three times and have a slice of Ezekiel Bread again, because the naturopath also told me not to stress out over meeting all my goals! So I'm not!
Roger and I took a field trip to Whole Foods yesterday and I actually found an all raw (meaning it's not been cooked above 118 degrees) organic chocolate bar! Yes - it was about half the size of a regular candy bar and cost $8.00 - but it was worth it! (On second thought, maybe that's why I'm feeling a little peppier!)
I have enjoyed watching and listening to some of you who are inspired to make some lifestyle changes because of what I'm sharing --- especially my sweet friend who shall remain nameless who is trying to give up her morning McDonald's sausage and biscuit! Some of you have told me you've gotten your juicers back out or you're eating at least one raw meal a day. Yay! My niece is visiting juice bars across the city and ordering Alabama zingers! Even Roger is eating a salad or two with me.
I truly believe it is making a difference in me in a very positive way. For one thing, my skin pigmentation is a little oranger which means I can stay outside and get more natural Vitamin D. (If you don't believe me, just let me turn my palm up and compare it to yours.) I do have more energy. I stay full and I'm rarely hungry. My teeth are whiter (probably from not drinking any coffee.) And my silver hair appears to be getting darker. (Note: This is an anti-aging diet.) Roger is still waiting for the mental clarity which is supposed to be another side effect...bless his heart.
I watched an interview on youtube yesterday with Jack Lalane, the fitness guru who invented jumping jacks and lived to be 97. At the time of the interview, he was 95 and had just written a book on the importance of nutrition and exercise. His philosophy is "If man made it, don't eat it."
To which Roger replied, "if woman made it, it's okay! Where's the fudge cake?"
My niece's 10-year-old daughter Kaitlin created the above artwork. She asked her parents for a canvas and then planned and painted this just for me. I've chosen to hang it in our kitchen for inspiration. While I love the front (pictured above), I love what she wrote on the back the most. In case the photo doesn't show up well, it says:
To: The person named
Dawn who will overcome
CANCER!
From: Kaitlin
Go Girl!
What a great motivation. You rock Kaitlin. Thanks.
"I love you O Lord, my strength."
It's been a tough week. I've been trying to stay positive, but honestly it's been hard to do.
There are so many things I'm supposed to do on my list of daily goals that the naturopath gave me that I had to make myself a spread sheet because I couldn't remember if I had done such and such three times a day or just two. And he emphasized that these were just goals, not to stress about any of them. In fact, one of the scriptures he gave me to memorize starts with Philippians 4:6 --- Be anxious for nothing!
I thought about the Coneheads yesterday as I was preparing "mass quantities" of fruits and vegetables (pictured above) to consume for my daily allotment of juice. Roger thought that was funny and was going to photoshop a picture of me as a conehead consuming my juice for this blog! Guess you can just use your imagination for that one!
And for those of you who think I'm so amazing and missed the correction of my last blog...please note I have great difficulty converting ounces, quarts, pints and gallons. All those fruits and vegetables you see pictured above will equal a day's goal of 96 ounces in fresh juice. That is not three gallons as I stated in my last blog. It just seems like three gallons!
People keep asking me why juice...why not just eat those things...don't you need the fiber too?
As I understand it, juicing is THE most effective way to get all the nutrients, enzymes and minerals these foods have to offer. When the juice enters my body, the body is not required to break anything down - it's already broken down - so my internal enzymes don't have to work and can save their energy for doing other things in my body, like cleaning house and getting rid of cancer cells. And, I think I would die if I had to look at that pile and sit down to eat it all!
So what am I eating? That's another point of confusion with a lot of people. I am not just eating fruits and vegetables and nuts and seeds; I am eating all those things RAW - i.e. not cooked. I would kill for a plain ole baked potato right now. Raw is hard. There aren't too many places you can go out and join your friends for a meal of raw organic fruits and vegetables. And frankly, I'm tired of just eating salads. It's been about eight weeks on this diet, and I'm bored with it.
Why is raw important? Because any time we heat our food above 105 degrees or so we start killing the enzymes and other nutrients. I need my enzymes! Our cells are living things and they need living nutrients especially when we are fighting disease.
Obviously, what I am choosing to do as my option for healing is not for everybody. And I once again want to salute all the people who go the route of conventional medicine for treating cancer - chemo, radiation and surgery. That isn't easy either. The best thing we can all do is learn to take better care of ourselves.
That's one of the reasons I wanted to share my journey through this blog. The National Cancer Institute says that one in every two men and one in every three women will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their life! It's the second leading cause of death in the U.S. Heart disease is number one yet people don't seem to be so afraid of it. I think it's because there appears to be a lot that can be done for people with heart disease - stents, bypass surgeries, pacemakers, medicines, etc. Lots of things that are apparently saving lives. With cancer, the prognosis is a lot less sure.
Because of my disease, I'm having to make a lot of radical lifestyle changes all at the same time. That's what is so hard for me. I can't just eat MORE raw fruits and vegetables, I have to eat ONLY raw fruits and vegetables. Maybe, you can just start taking better care of yourself by making one change. Choose to eat more raw fruits and vegetables. Choose to eliminate processed foods or sugar or dairy or white flour from your diet. Choose to exercise more. Choose to quit smoking. Choose to eliminate some of the stress in your life. Choose to go organic. I encourage you to do something to take control of your health. Don't wait until you have to make all the choices at the same time because your body is diseased.
Once again, I appreciate all your prayers. It is amazing to me when people tell me they are remembering me every morning in prayer. I love my brothers and sisters in Christ. Without your support, I would be in the pits! And I am forever thanking God for you and for His strength which has girded me for this journey!
"I love you, O Lord, my strength."
As I sit here updating my blog concerning my cancer journey, I'm drinking a delicious glass of Alabama Zinger! It's made with a beet, a lime, a piece of ginger and 12 apples. Delish!
Alabama you ask?
Yep! Roger and I made a trip to Florence, Alabama yesterday to visit a naturopath who has had a lot of success helping people heal from cancer, arthritis, diabetes, and many other diseases by doing a computer analysis of the electricity flowing through their bodies and "prescribing" herbs, supplements, foods and lifestyle changes - all natural healing things - to help their bodies re-connect. (Yes, that is my rendition of what he told us in laymen's terms!)
I loved that the whole time he spent with us he quoted scripture and talked about our bodies being "fearfully and wonderfully" made which we totally concur with. And he spent about an hour-and-a-half with us which is much longer than the 10 minutes the oncologist gave me. Aside from a handshake, she never touched me or questioned me. This guy examined my skin, my nails, my hair, my eyes, the bottoms of my feet, my breathing, my oxygen level, etc. He talked to me about my diet and asked about my work and what other stresses might have triggered this event in my body. Then he designed a program just for me and my needs. The oncologist gave me the exact same protocol she gives everyone else in my situation. There's just something wrong with that!
To boot, my insurance will reimburse her more than $400 for her office visit, but it won't pay a dime toward his $75 visit or the gas we used to drive two-and-a-half hours to visit him.
So why go all the way to Alabama? Because it is illegal to practice this kind of "healing" in Tennessee. In fact, you have to be real sure that you don't promise or say you can cure people when you're doing this no matter where you practice.
Dr. Rawdon (yes - another great doctor name for someone who wants me to eat 100% raw!) once was a pharmacist in Tennessee. He was diagnosed with a tumor in the late 80s and decided against conventional treatment so he started experimenting on himself.
He discovered the Gerson diet - which has been around for quite some time and is 85% raw with some juicing - and used that for the base for what he developed for himself. He added herbs to what he was doing and eventually cured himself!
After his success, he started helping other people in Tennessee - never promising to cure anyone. He had a lot of success and attracted a following of patients. But he had a client come to him with Stage IV pancreatic cancer after having exhausted all the conventional treatments. Rawdon started him on juicing and some supplements, but it was too late and the man died. His wife sued Dr. Rawdon and the Tennessee Board for Licensing Pharmacists fined him $1,000,000. So, he left Tennessee and who can blame him?
The tests he performed on me showed that aside from the cancer activity, I'm healthy! So my "prescription" includes eating 100% raw fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, taking several supplements - many designed to boost my immune system and fix the broken communication between some of my cells and others designed to detox my body - plenty of exercise, fresh air and sunshine, jumping on my trampoline for 10 minutes per day, meditating and keeping good thoughts flowing, increasing the good fats I'm eating and drinking three gallons of freshly squeezed juice! THREE GALLONS! That's my goal - but I'm not to get stressed if I don't make it every day.
I've only had one day to let all this sink in so I'm still processing it and trying to figure out my system for taking supplements and making and drinking juice. My Rx includes a gallon of straight carrot juice, a half gallon of apple, a half gallon of Alabama Zinger and a gallon of "Reboot" which is made from a variety of green stuff.
The specific things I am to avoid are: gluten, sugar, milk products, meat, processed soy, MSG, aspartame, BHT and peanuts. Oh, and I get a high protein smoothie made with frozen pineapple, bananas, blueberries, almonds, cashews, avocado, dates, apple juice and hemp protein. Yum!
So if you go looking for me and can't find me I'm either at the store buying produce, in the kitchen juicing or blending or cleaning up, outside jumping and getting fresh air and sunshine or de-toxing!
Oh - and one more thing - Rawdon gave me some homework. Memorizing Joshua 1:8-9 and Philippians 4:6 - 13! They are both to help me have positive thoughts and to not be anxious about anything and to think about the things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy!
"I love you, O Lord, my strength!"
It's day 41 of this new healthy regimen for me (but who's counting, right?!)
In the preface to Rick Warren's book The Purpose Driven Life, he says that 40 days is a spiritually significant time period. Whenever God wanted to prepare someone for His purposes, He took 40 days.
To cite just a few examples:
- Noah - 40 days of rain
- Moses - 40 days on Mt. Sinai
- the spies in the Promised Land - 40 days
- the city of Nineveh - 40 days to change
- Jesus - 40 days in the wilderness
- the disciples - with Jesus for 40 days after His resurrection
These were all days of transformation for the people involved.
So what kind of transformation have I had? Well, I've lost about 12 pounds. I'm more energetic then I have been in a long time. I've increased my stamina for jumping on the trampoline from 7 minutes to 15. I feel great! And I'm thinking all this carrot juice may be making my eyesight better.
Supposedly, this is also an anti-aging diet! (The jury is still out on that one.) And, it's supposed to help my mental clarity. Roger is still waiting for that benefit to kick in!
Except for some Ezekiel bread - which is a bread made from sprouted grains - I have stuck to all raw fruits and vegetables and nuts and seeds for my diet --- except for one treat I allowed myself last week. I cooked some organic popcorn in coconut oil - the preferred healthy oil for us today. It smelled so good! But after two handfuls I thought I was going to be sick. : (
Sometimes I wonder if I will have to remain on this diet the rest of my life. Obviously, my body has adjusted or transformed to the change and is responding positively. So for now, I'm sticking with it.
But I have to think back to the Israelites who ate manna for 40 years. I'm pretty sure I would be complaining too. In fact, I already have complained! (To which Roger responded: "Just put some of your dressing on it and eat it.")
I often find myself coming down hard on the Israelites. I don't understand how they could turn their back on God. How could they see a miracle and not give Him credit or not remember what He had done for them? I mean He parted the Red Sea and they crossed over on dry ground! But I do the exact same thing.
I often find myself coming down hard on the Pharisees too. They were always keeping the rules and judging those who weren't. And if I'm not careful, I could easily turn into a Pharisee over this diet and my lifestyle changes. As I learn more and more about how we are poisoning ourselves with what we eat - mainly processed food and genetically modified meats and foods - I just want to scream! I want to tell young mothers to quit giving their kids all that sugar and those carbonated drinks. Cancer is now the number one killer of children in our country --- ahead of accidents! And, it's on its way to being the number one killer of adults because we aren't fueling our bodies appropriately and because our environment is so toxic.
So, please, if I start preaching to you, forgive me. Know that I do it out of love.
I love something that Billy Graham said about this very thing. He said, it's God's job to judge, the Holy Spirit's job to convict and our job to love.
I can try and make up my mind to not judge you and tell myself that I'm going to try harder and not judge people any more - but that is trying to operate in my own strength and I always fail.
I believe the ONLY way to judge less is to love more! And that's my goal because "love covers a multitude of sins."
Thank you all for the outpouring of love through your emails, cards, notes, texts, Facebook comments, gifts, hugs and words. We are so blessed to have such a great group of family (some of whom are pictured above) and lots of friends. I love you all!
"I love you, O Lord, my strength."
Faith.
It's something we all live by. Every step we take is taken in faith.
What makes us different is who or what we put our faith in. When I was younger, I put my faith in my parents and then when I became a little older - and oh so much wiser! - I started putting my faith in myself. Big mistake, because that just comes with all kinds of limitations.
It's not until something happens to us that is beyond our control that I truly believe we learn to move from self-reliance to God-reliance.
When Roger and I started dating, we hadn't known each other too long before we had a great discussion about our faith. We had both come through some difficult and trying times and we talked about how we had done that only by and with the grace of God. We both said that we believed we could go through anything because of our faith in Him.
It was probably at that moment that I started realizing I loved Roger. (Of course, his dazzling wit and good looks had already tantalized me!) But this was the missing piece that sort of sealed the deal for me - finding someone who had a deep faith in the Lord.
People are asking us about how we can have such peace since my cancer diagnosis. We believe it's because of our faith.
We both know that no matter what happens God is still sovereign. His Word tells me that my days are numbered in His book. He is sovereign over death and life. He is sovereign over every breath I draw. He knows the ending from the beginning. Believing Him as the sovereign Lord of all is THE most liberating feeling in the world. It makes me realize just how little is really dependent on me and what I do.
And when I take my last breath, I am comforted in knowing that I will be with Him forever because I have put my faith in Christ and His righteousness and what He has done that makes me righteous --- not my own righteousness.
We are like the man who building a house, dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. "When a flood came, the current struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built." - Luke 6:48
Cancer has been that flood for us this year. But our foundation has been built on the rock, and we are unshaken!
For those of you who are wondering how I'm doing, I'm doing great. I am probably in better physical condition then I've been in for a long time. I am still eating my raw fruits and vegetables and starting to learn a little more about how to have some variety in all this. (Did you know that you can make taco "meat" from ground walnuts?) It's been four-and-a-half weeks on this regimen, and it's not easy. I'm still exercising - walking and jumping on my trampoline which is good for the lymph system - and keeping my stress level at an all time low!
This Sunday, I'm starting a study of Judges in our Sunday School class. It truly is an amazing study of God's mercy and grace as His chosen people live as they see fit without a king and turn their back on God, and time and time again He delivers them! There is such hope for us!
"I love you, O Lord, my strength."
