Help Allison beat breast cancer!

On Oct 23, 2023, I was diagnosed with invasive lobular carcinoma breast cancer. My medical team is still trying to determine the stage and subsequent treatment. I will know more after a CT and bone scan on Wednesday November 22. I’m hopeful it isn’t metastatic. If you know me, you will find it not surprise that as soon as I was diagnosed, I started reading and researching everything I could about ILC. I found there are other ways to treat cancer than conventional methods. I converted to a vegan, low GI diet, am using a metabolic approach to starve cancer (thank you, Jane McLelland, Chris Wark, Dr. Leanna Standish, Dr. Jenn Simmons, Dr. Karlfeldt and Dr. Isaac Eliaz!!) and doing IV treatments of high dose vitamin C, artemisinin and doxycycline. Dr. Standish is my naturopathic oncologist at AIMS Institute in Seattle. The treatment I’m doing is basically chemo without all the nasty side effects. I am doing this because I didn’t want to sit around and let the cancer continue to spread while I’m waiting for all the imaging to be done. That’s a whole other story (my first mammogram was in MAY!), but the bottom line is I’m not waiting around for the imaging to be complete because this is an aggressive cancer and I can’t afford to let it get worse. I have a family to take care of.

I already feel fortunate and grateful for the stellar medical team who will help me heal and the robust and resilient support that has rallied around me.

Although I am not sure what to expect financially in this journey, it has already amounted to about $2k in less than a month. I travel to Seattle for most of my care, so each trip is approximately $40 just for the ferry and most of the time that’s twice a week. The IV treatments are $650 each (they’re starting me on one per week for 6 weeks). The additional meds and supplements I’m taking are also not covered by insurance because they were prescribed by an out of network doctor. I’m considering switching insurance plans but for now my functional medicine physician is out of network. Fortunately, my naturopathic oncologist is in network, but the treatments are not covered because they’re considered investigational.

Any funds raised will help offset the out of pocket costs for my current and future treatment, which could involve surgery and radiation. I am filling my body with healthy food, using additional modalities such as acupuncture and yoga, and generally trying to keep my stress level low and resilience high!

No one is ever prepared to hear the words you have cancer. It is terrifying, but I am a survivor and have been inspired by so many stories of survivors/thrivers. My Dad just went through treatment for bladder cancer and is doing well…he’s my inspiration!

This has certainly changed my life, but I am imagining a stronger and deeper version of myself on the other side, with more community, more compassion, more love.

My heartfelt appreciation for you, friends!