Instead of a welcoming feast, the usual greeting offered to a loved one who has not been seen for a few years, I immediately started her on a juice fast.  I gave her freshly prepared carrot juice (one quart daily) mixed with wheat grass juice (three ounces daily) plus daily colonics.  She had no previous experience with these techniques but she gamely accepted everything I threw her way because she knew I was doing it because I loved her and wanted to see her in better condition.  She also received a daily full body massage with particular attention to the hand and knees, stimulating the circulation to the area and speeding the removal of wastes.  Every night her hands and knees were wrapped in warm castor oil compresses held in place with old sheeting.

I did not use any vitamins or food supplements in her case.  I did give her flavorful herbal teas made of peppermint and chamomile because she needed the comfort of a hot cupa; but these teas were in no way medicinal except for her morale.

In three weeks on this program, Grannybelle, as I and my daughters called her, had no unsightly knobs remaining on either her knuckles or knees and she could walk and move her fingers without pain within a normal range of movement.  The big payoff for me besides seeing her look so wonderful (20 years younger and 20 pounds lighter) was to hear her sit down and treat us to a Beethoven recital.  And her blood pressure was 130 over 90.

Breast Cancer

I have worked with many young women with breast cancer; so many in fact, that their faces and cases tend to blur.  But whenever I think about them, Kelly inevitably comes to mind because we became such good friends.  Like me, Kelly was an independent-minded back country Canuck.  At the age 26, she received a medical diagnosis of breast cancer.  Kelly had already permitted a lumpectomy and biopsy, but had studied the statistical outcomes and did not want to treat her illness with radical mastectomy, radiation and chemotherapy because she knew her odds of long-term survival without radical medical treatment were equal to or better than allowing the doctors to do everything possible.  Nor did she want to lose even one of her breasts.  She knew how useful her breasts were because she had already suckled one child, not to mention their contribution to one’s own self-image as a whole person.  I admired Kelly’s unusual independent-mindedness because she comes from a country where universal health coverage is in place; her insurance would have paid all the costs had she been willing to accept conventional medicine, but Canadian national health insurance does not cover alternative therapy.

Kelly stayed with me for nearly two months as a residential faster, because she needed to be far from the distractions of a troubled family life.  With financial support from her parents and child-care from her friends she was able to take time out to give the recovery of health top priority in her life without worrying about whether her small son was being well cared for.  This peace of mind was also very important to her recovery.