Why I've Gone Raw

Why have I gone raw? Good question. It seems lots of folks have gone raw because of a “scare,” and I’m no exception there. For me, it was a cancer scare.

About two months ago, in preparation for a stage performance, I fell and injured a rib. This seemed to also re-injure an old back problem, so after a few days of pain, I went in to see my doctor. She felt the injury was no big deal, but at my insistence, she sent me off to get an X-Ray of my chest.

Surprisingly, the doctor’s office called me the next day and wanted me to get a CT Scan because they “found something.” This, of course, sets off some alarms. You don’t want to hear that they’ve found something in your chest, so I got a little paranoid. I smoked for about ten years, so the first thing that came to mind was lung cancer. Not a pleasant thought. And no comfort was to come from a phone call the following Monday: “The doctor wants to see you first thing tomorrow morning.”

The news was not good. “We think you have lung cancer.” Oh, really? There was the possibility of a few other things, but most likely it was lung cancer. I tried to remain calm while they made me an appointment to see a lung specialist, but the appointment was not for almost two weeks. In the meantime, I kinda freaked out. I, with the help of Kandace, switched to a mostly raw foods, anti-cancer diet. I gave up coffee. Wouldn’t stand within twenty feet of a smoker. I bought and read several books on natural cancer cures, joined several online groups, and read every crazy cure out there. I was having nothing but cottage cheese and flax seed oil for breakfast. We bought a juicer, and I drank juices and herbal teas all day long. We signed up for a two week cleansing course, made appointments with a nutritionist… I even started reading an Anthony Robbins book.

We were just a wreck. It was next to impossible to focus on work, or the conference we were attending. I was afraid to tell anyone, choking up around strangers, waiting to see if the lung specialist might have some hopeful news. I had finally come to terms with the fact that I had lung cancer, and might be dead in six months. I had started to plan what those six months would be like, what I still wanted to accomplish, and what I would be leaving behind. I even decided on the music I wanted to be playing at my funeral.

Finally, after about two weeks, the appointment with the lung specialist came. They did a series of breathing tests, and the doctor asked me an endless series of questions about my condition, symptoms, lifestyle, and so on. Finally, we came to the subject I had been dreading.

“It seems that your primary care physician told you that you have lung cancer.”

“Yes,” I replied.

“Well, you don’t have lung cancer. That’s probably good news, isn’t it?”

Yes. That is good news, my good doctor. That is good news.

Turns out I have Sarcoidosis, a disease which I now refer to as not lung cancer. The symptoms are mild, but I do have some of them, and the disease is often discovered by chance during a chest X-Ray, just as it was for me. It’ll probably go away by itself in time, but we’ll be checking in with another CT Scan in a few months.

Meanwhile, I’ve been seeing Dr. Ariel, a naturopathic physician. I went on a cleansing diet for three days, followed shortly by an anti-inflammatory diet, followed by a detoxification diet. And I’ve been 100% vegan, and at least 50% raw foods, for several months now. And I feel great.

Comments

  • Quite the wake up call. Have you done any fasting of any sort? It’s pretty scary what comes out when you detox, but feels oh so good, and will help your sarcoidosis clear up faster. Best of luck to your future being raw.

  • Thanks for the kind words. I’ve fasted three times since then, but only for short periods of time. I also went through a three week detox program. It’s too soon yet to tell what direction my condition is headed, but I’m not worried.

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