I AM HealingStrong
Discover how to transform the most challenging chapter of your life with Jim Mann's inspiring podcast. As a stage 4 cancer survivor, Jim interviews famous musical artists like Tasha Layton, Ellie Holcomb, Katy Nichole, and Tim Timmons, as well as health influencers who beat incurable diseases like depression and addiction. Through humor and a renewed sense of purpose, guests courageously share their stories of overcoming the toughest times and learning to trust God. Tune in to Jim's powerful podcast to find hope and inspiration.
I AM HealingStrong
105: PT.1 Childhood Trauma, Stress, Faith and Pancreatic Cancer | Shakira Porter
Shakira Porter, who likes to be referred to as Kira and California HealingStrong Group Leader, faced an unexpected pancreatic cancer diagnosis at the age of 47, despite feeling like she led a seemingly healthy life. She reflects on her childhood in Hawaii, with an abusive alcoholic father, and recreational drugs, she also shares how faith began to play a part in her upbringing.
Navigating the maze of modern healthcare, Kira shares her insights on being proactive. From the discovery of a pancreatic cyst to the recommendation of a distal pancreatectomy, her story is an important reminder of the value of seeking multiple medical opinions.
Kira's involvement with the HealingStrong community highlights the priceless role of support systems in the healing journey. This episode is not just about battling cancer, but about empowering listeners to understand the intricate connections between body, soul and spirit.
Learn how the HealingStrong organization offers a lifeline through free local and online groups, encouraging group participants and educating through a holistic approach to healing. Join us as we look into the immeasurable power of faith, community, and informed decision-making in navigating life's most difficult challenges.
HealingStrong's mission is to educate, equip and empower our group leaders and group participants through their journey with cancer or other chronic illnesses, and know there is HOPE. We bring this hope through educational materials, webinars, guest speakers, conferences, community small group support and more.
Please consider supporting our mission by becoming a part of our Membership Program, as a monthly donor.
When you do, you will receive additional resources such as: webinars, access to ALL our past and most recent conference videos, downloadables and more, as a bonus.
To learn more, head to the HealingStrong Membership Program link below:
Before we get started with this episode with Kira Porter, I'd like to take a moment and recognize a partner of Healing Strong. Oasis of Hope Hospital in Tijuana, Mexico, offers integrative cancer care with over 60 years of experience. Led by Dr Francisco Contreras, they provide personalized care and innovative treatments like immunotherapy, focusing on improving quality of life and supporting patients through their cancer journey. To learn more, go to oasisofhopecom. And now here's Kira.
Speaker 2:It wasn't until I hit 45 and then things kind of started, you know, falling apart, like I would start getting strange things happening, and I thought, well, maybe this is just perimenopause. And so I kind of attributed like all my symptoms to that perimenopause. And so I kind of attributed like all my symptoms to that. But in hindsight now I realized these were all kind of red flags and things that were kind of like the warning signs about cancer.
Speaker 3:You're listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast, a part of the Healing Strong organization, the number one network of holistic cancer support groups in the world. The number one network of holistic cancer support groups in the world. Each week we bring you stories of hope, Real stories that will encourage you as you navigate your way on your own journey to health. Now here's your host stage four cancer thriver, Jim Mann, Talking to Kira Porter.
Speaker 1:That's right. Good to be here, Jim. You're there and sunny it's sunny there now in LA it's sunny.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right. Good to be here, Jim.
Speaker 1:You're there and sunny. It's sunny there now in LA.
Speaker 2:It's sunny. Yeah, it's about 97 degrees full sunshine. It's a beautiful day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course the humidity is lower there than it is over here on the East Coast. Yeah, we're like in the 70s here.
Speaker 2:I don't want to brag too much.
Speaker 1:Hopefully we'll get there soon. Yeah, we just did go through a hurricane. That wasn't fun, and now I still got to clean up my yard here from a week ago. Yeah, I just want everybody to feel sorry for me.
Speaker 2:Did it work? We do, yes, okay, good.
Speaker 1:Well, let's move on about your story then. It's only been a little over a year ago now that you got your diagnosis right.
Speaker 2:Yeah Gosh, it was in June of 2023. I was 47 and I was told I had stage one pancreatic cancer. And then I had one of those like how, how did this happen? I mean, I always thought I was a healthy person, I don't drink, I don't smoke, I wasn't overweight, I didn't have high blood pressure, I didn't have all the typical signs and the things that they say, you know, with pancreatic cancer. So it was quite shocking to be told that the more that I studied cancer and read about cancer and you know I found Chris W, obviously with Chris Beat Cancer, and that kind of opened my eyes and I started looking back. You know hindsight's 20-20. So I'm looking back on my life, those 47 years going. How did I get pancreatic cancer? And you just start seeing it. I started to really see it throughout my life. I'll start at the very beginning, because I think it's important, because it's something that I learned in a book, one of the books I read from an oncologist that I've found really, really fascinating.
Speaker 2:I'm from Hawaii originally. I grew up in a really small town called Nanakuli on the Libra coast of Oahu. My parents met in high school. They were very young. My mom had my brother when she was 18, and they had me when they were like 20, I think, or 21. You know they dabbled in recreational drugs back then in the 70s. You know they got married. They were having a pretty tumultuous marriage. My dad started drinking pretty heavily. He was a really abusive alcoholic. He was not like someone who drank and smiled and loved everybody and had a good time when he drank. He got pretty angry, pretty violent. I mean I remember in my childhood holes in the walls, broken furniture, broken doors, rips, them off the hinge he screamed at the top of his lungs. He was physically abusive towards my mom and my brother. He was not physically abusive to me, which I found really strange looking back on things, but they had a really rough marriage and I have a lot of memories of that and I'm sure there was a lot of and I have a lot of memories of that and I'm sure there was a lot of suppressed emotions going through that as a child when I was that age. I can remember a lot when I was six and seven.
Speaker 2:Something that was interesting during that time was my grandmother paid for my brother and I to go to a small Christian private school and our family didn't go to church. I wasn't learning anything about that. We didn't go to church on Sundays, but I went to this Christian elementary school and that's when I first learned about God and I learned about Jesus and we read the Bible and we had chapel every Wednesday and my brother was there from first grade through fourth grade and then I started after him and I went for first and second grade and then I started after him and I went for first and second grade and it was really interesting to go to this lovely little Christian school and learn about Jesus and have everyone so nice, but then go home and live in this really crazy dysfunctional environment with an alcoholic father and my dad also smoked marijuana, so he was constantly out of it. My mom smoked marijuana as well, but not as bad as my dad. So, yeah, during that time it was really weird.
Speaker 2:And there was one memory I have in particular where they forgot to pack a lunch for us. So my dad brought lunch in the middle of the day and he brought us a Coca-Cola, a bag of Fritos and a pack of Ho-Ho's, those little cakes, those chocolate cakes and that was what he brought me for my lunch. And this was probably in second grade, and my teacher felt so bad for me that she shared her lunch with me that day because she couldn't believe that that's what my dad brought me to eat for lunch. So that just kind of goes to show what kind of food I ate at home and what we were fed. So we were very poor. Sometimes my dad would go fishing you know out in Waianae and we would eat the fish for dinner.
Speaker 2:I remember eating a lot of like box foods. We ate a lot of processed foods. We ate a lot of like box foods. We ate a lot of processed foods. We ate a lot of like Kraft Mac and cheese and then those like potato flakes that you just add water and then instant mashed potatoes. So I was raised on that. And then I do remember eating a lot of like Burger King, kfc, mcdonald's, like just a lot of fast food and processed foods. Yeah, you should have been fine.
Speaker 2:I had a poor diet as a child. My parents finally got a divorce. When I was about eight years old we went to go live with my grandmother, and when that happened we were pulled from the Christian school and put into public school and we lived with my grandmother. So we had a good two years of normalcy with my grandmother. But then, you know, tragedy struck again in my life and my grandmother used to work in Waikiki driving the tour buses. She would pick up the tourists at the hotels and then drive them out to the luau's and then drive back to Waikiki and get her truck and then drive all the way back, which was about an hour long from Waikiki, all the way to the Leeward side. And one evening, when I was 10, she was driving home from work and she fell asleep at the wheel and she drove like an old, vintage truck, didn't have seatbelts in it and her truck flipped, and so she was killed instantly in that accident. And so that was a really traumatic thing for my mom and for my brother and I, since we were living with her and my grandfather. They were divorced as well, and my grandfather lived, you know, about 20 minutes away in another town. About three months after that he was out fishing and had a heart attack and died. Three months after that he was out fishing and had a heart attack and died. And so my mom lost both of her parents within a three-month period and had just been divorced two years prior and she was working at the department store at the mall and we didn't have a lot of money and my grandma was kind of like the rock. She kind of helped us.
Speaker 2:So when my mom lost her parents she started the downward spiral, got more into drugs. She started using crystal meth, which is a kind of a huge thing on that leeward coast of Oahu. That's a big problem in Hawaii is crystal meth use. My brother and I were just kind of fending for ourselves and I think we were all kind of in that fight or flight emotionally after everything we had gone through. And I was eating dinner at 7-Eleven. I was eating Hot Pockets and candy bars and I would eat a hot dog or drink in Big Gulps and the Slurpees and we had a KFC right up the street from us so I'd eat KFC a lot. We just didn't have, you know, the normal family unit where you're sitting down and you're eating a home cooked meal Like that was never anything that I experienced. So she started dealing drugs.
Speaker 2:Shortly afterwards she started dealing the crystal meth out of our house and so that kind of created a more dysfunctional environment for my brother and I to be in. And you know, there were strangers in the house, a lot people coming around and, mind you, I'm probably like 11, 12 years old at this time. She had been fighting with her boyfriend and I remember he was grabbing her like he was getting physical and I'm much older now so I wanted to defend my mom. So I went into the kitchen and got a knife from the drawer and I threw it across the room to try to stop him, which you know. Obviously I shouldn't have done that, but you know, when you're 11 or 12, I think it was 12. I thought back on that and thought, you know, when you're 11 or 12, I think it was 12. I thought back on that and thought, gosh, that was not smart. And my mom recognized that and luckily I missed, and so the next day my dad showed up and so he took me and I was like you're out of here, like she didn't want me there anymore, and I think that was like a huge like emotional punch in the gut for me because I was trying to help my mom and instead of getting rid of the abusive boyfriend, she got rid of her daughter, and I think that was something that I didn't deal with for years and years and years.
Speaker 2:And so I went to live with my dad who, unfortunately, you know, still drinking, still, you know, smoking marijuana. He's remarried now. He's got a new kid there, you know, smoking marijuana. He's remarried. Now he's got a new kid there. My brother was, you know, a toddler at the time and it was not as bad there because my stepmom, she kind of stood her ground a little better than my mom did. But you know, it was still a pretty dysfunctional environment. I didn't have a room, I slept on the floor. They didn't have a lot of money either. So I kind of went from like one dysfunctional situation to another dysfunctional situation and I stayed there for a few years and then eventually convinced my dad to let me go move in with some relatives. I had an aunt and uncle that didn't live too far away. It was close to my high school, so I was able to stay in school and I got, you know, two, three years of kind of a normal family unit there, you know, before I graduated from high school.
Speaker 2:I graduated from high school, started living with some roommates and I started working at my dental office for my dentist, because I had gotten to know her really well, because I had had a lot of cavities. When I went to live with my dad, I had a toothache and so they took me to the dentist and I had had a lot of cavities. When I went to live with my dad, I had a toothache and so they took me to the dentist and I had about 12 cavities. Wow yeah, at 12 years old I had cavities in practically every molar and premolar. I almost needed two root canals. I mean just goes to show how poor my diet was and that we didn't have anybody making sure we were brushing our teeth or making sure we were brushing our teeth or making sure we were bathing, you know. And I had head lice for years and years through my elementary years because we just weren't really cared for.
Speaker 2:And you know, when I got older I kind of just thought like, oh yeah, my mom, you know, she's a drug dealer and my dad's an alcoholic, and everyone's like, well, you've turned out so great and I kind of wore that as a badge, like, yeah, I'm tough, I got through that. I'm not on drugs, I didn't become an alcoholic, you know. Like I'm good, like I got through it. You know I beat the odds, kind of thing. And I felt like that for a really long time Like it didn't affect me, you know, but it did, and it was in ways that I didn't realize until I got older. So I met my husband, we got married, we moved to LA for more opportunities.
Speaker 2:I still kind of carried on my habits, my eating habits, because I didn't really know any better. So we ate a lot of fast food and I actually ate a lot of processed food, like I loved just buying like the lasagna that's already made and you just put it in the oven and heat it up, and so that's kind of what I fed my husband and myself. I didn't really cook anything from scratch, I didn't eat vegetables. But you know, at the same time I thought I'm healthy because I didn't have all these bad addictions, and I didn't. I wasn't overweight and I didn't have bad blood work or anything. So I just went about living my life, thinking I was fine.
Speaker 2:I was a dental assistant which I think was another building block to cancer. I took x-rays on people for 15 years. I did that and it was back when we were still doing amalgam fillings on people. So that was my job is I would mix the amalgam together. I handled all that you know. Now, knowing what I know about amalgam fillings and the mercury exposure, I realized like wow, I was really exposed to a lot of toxins during that time that I worked in dentistry. We also would sterilize the instruments with a chemi-cleave and I remember the bottles had a huge warning on the bottom that would say may cause cancer, contains formaldehyde, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 2:And at the time I was like I'm not going to get cancer, I'm healthy, like I'm fine, this isn't going to affect me. But for 15 years I worked in that environment with a lot of toxic chemicals and materials and I was careless A lot of times I wouldn't put my gloves on if I was cleaning things up and handling the cleaning supplies and stuff. I wouldn't put you know gloves on, which is stupid now, and even times maybe I should have had like my mask on or my goggles on, like when I'm handling cleaning things. And I really didn't because I just thought like I'm not going to get cancer, like it's not going to, I'm fine. So, you know, fast forward to like years later and it wasn't until I hit 45 and then things kind of started, you know, falling apart, like I would start getting strange things happening, and I thought, well, maybe this is just perimenopause. And so I kind of attributed like all my symptoms to that. But in hindsight now I realize these were all kind of red flags and things that were kind of like the warning signs about cancer. So in it was in like December of 2022. Well, actually let me go back In 2022,.
Speaker 2:My husband got COVID and he was extremely sick and he ended up in the hospital on oxygen. He got blood clots. He was in pretty bad shape. I thought he was going to die. I was terrified and we have a son he's 10 now so going through that was like super stressful period of at least four months, you know, four to five months of worrying about him. He came home with the oxygen tank and everything and you know it took him a few months to recover. So you know I dealt with that and then we had dealt with my son who had had some health issues. So that was kind of a stressful period as well. And then I think 2020 was stressful on everybody with COVID.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so that was hard for me and I think I hadn't realized throughout my life. I don't deal well with the stress of things like that. I would automatically go into fight or flight and I always had the attitude like when things were going good, I would automatically go into fight or flight and I always had the attitude like when things were going good, I would always be like, okay, something bad's going to happen, something bad's coming, like that was just how I lived and I think it was because I was always on guard and I think that was just leftover from my childhood and the way that I had grown up. So I always was on defense. You know, just in life and after 2020, and with COVID and then my husband getting sick in 2022. At the end of 2022, I started getting heart palpitations. I would get it would get stuck like the supraventricular tachycardia, stuck like the super ventricular tachycardia, so that would happen and it's funny now when I think about it. But like we'd go to Chick-fil-A and we get, you know, a fried chicken sandwich and fries and I'd get one of those delicious lemon smoothies that they have, and after I ate about you know, five, 10, 10 minutes after I ate, my heart would start to race and and it would just beat so fast that I'd have to sit down and like take deep breaths and just calm it down. And I was like this is really weird, why is this happening? And like November, december, it started happening more frequently and I told my husband. I said I think I should probably go to the doctor because this doesn't seem right, like I'm not sure what's triggering, but it seems to happen If I have a lot of caffeine or sugar or if I'm eating a big meal, then I would get it after that and I didn't go to the doctor.
Speaker 2:And then on New Year's Eve we went to Disneyland and it happened at Disneyland after we ate dinner and I couldn't get it to stop. It got stuck in the cycle of the beating, like it was like 200 beats, I think, per minute. And I said to my husband it's not stopping, Like even though we stopped and I sat and I tried to rest and I was like am I having a heart attack? What's going on? And so we went to the little nurse first aid station there and they called an ambulance and they had paramedics come and he had me like do these different maneuvers? I think it's called, like the Vesal Vagal Maneuvers, to like, get my heart to like, get out of that like rapid heartbeat, and we were able to do it and it stopped and it started beating normal and started going back to like a normal rate and they took me to the hospital anyway and they ran a bunch of tests and I stayed overnight.
Speaker 2:On New Year's Eve my husband and my son went back to the hotel at Disneyland and I stayed the night in the ER and so that was horrible. That's how I rang in 2023. And I should have known that was like a sign of worse things to come. It was pretty bad. So the next morning I met with all the doctors and they gave me a stress test. They did chest x-ray, everything and they're like you're fine, we think you're just really stressed out, like they couldn't find any reason that was causing it and they thought it was just being triggered by stress and I was like, okay, I guess that's that.
Speaker 2:So you know, went about my life and we went on vacation to visit my Nana who lived in Florida, and we went to Orlando and Disney World and this was in April and I was in excruciating abdominal pain the whole time and I was taking Tylenols like crazy and if I took the Tylenol my pain would go away. So I kept thinking, okay, this can't be anything serious, because when I take Tylenol it stops and I feel fine. So I was living on Tylenol throughout this vacation and when we got back to LA I was sleeping and I woke up in the middle of the night, which was common, because the abdominal pain it was pain in my left abdomen. It would happen where, as soon as the Tylenol ran out in the middle of the night, which was at like 2 am, I would wake up in excruciating pain. And so we got back to LA, I woke up in pain again and I woke up my husband and I said I'm just going to go drive to the ER and go see what this is.
Speaker 2:And I'm like so just stay here, my son's asleep. I was like, okay, I'm going to go run down to the ER by myself. And he's like are you sure? And I'm like, yeah, it's fine, like I'll go take care of this. And I get to the ER and I'm telling them like I'm doubled over in pain because I didn't want to take any medicine, because I wanted them to like see what I was feeling. I want to be able to describe what I was feeling to the ER doctors. So I didn't take anything, so I was just like dying in pain in the ER. And so they get me back you know,
Speaker 2:they do blood work and they take me back and they do a CT scan and I never had one before in my life and I wait, you know, two hours or so for the doctor to come in with the results. And he's like okay. He's like so you have a bleeding ovarian cyst and that's what's causing your pain. And he's like it usually goes away. It's just women of your age group with perimenopause this is a typical thing where you can get ovarian cysts and it should go away within a few days and you'll feel better. And I was like okay, really, but it's been like a month that I've been in pain and I finally came after a month. And he's like yeah, they usually they're nothing to worry about. You know, go follow up with your OBGYN. And I'm like okay, fine. And then he's like but there's one other thing. He's like there there is a little cyst on the tail of your pancreas. And he's like those are usually nothing to worry about either. People get cysts all the time. So he didn't really have a sense of urgency about it. So then I didn't, which probably was a bad thing for him to do, cause then I was like, oh, all right, it's nothing to worry about. But he had said you know, tomorrow follow up with your, your regular doctor, and we would recommend that you get an MRI to get this checked, just to make sure it's nothing to worry about. And he's like I'm sure you're fine, but just get it checked. And so I was like all right, okay.
Speaker 2:So you know, I went home, my son went back to school, things got going, I got carried away with like daily life again and then about a week later I'm like you know I should probably call my doctor about the MRI and let them know what happened. So I sent them a little message on the little MyChart thing and I got a phone call like immediately from the doctor's office and they were like you need to go get the MRI, we've got it scheduled for you, you're going next week, like it was already done. They had done everything. And they were like you need to go do this. And I was like okay, and she sounded really serious on the phone about it and that's when I started to go okay, wait, you know, I thought that my ovarian cyst thing was what was.
Speaker 2:You know all this pain and everything. But you know they seem a little worried about the cysts of my pancreas. So I start looking online and I start looking online and I start Googling pancreatic cysts and there's actually a cyst that perimenopausal women can develop that's a benign cyst on your pancreas and I'm like, oh, it's probably that that's got to be what. It is no big deal. And then I read about you know, there's like four different cysts and the other one was like an IPMN cyst and it said most commonly found in men in the 70s and 80s, and it can be cancer. So it turns into cancer. And I thought, okay, well, it's not that, because I'm not a 70-year-old man, you know like there's no way that it's the IPMN cyst, right.
Speaker 2:So I'm kind of convincing myself like it'll be fine. It'll be fine, it's nothing to worry about. So I go in and I get the mri done and probably 30 minutes after the mri my doctor called me and I just knew I was like this is bad if they're on me this fast like something's wrong and she's like we need you to go get a biopsy.
Speaker 2:So we've set up a biopsy appointment for you. You're going to go to Holy Cross Hospital and get this done. And I think it was like a week and a half later that they had been able to get me in for the biopsy. And then that's when I realized like okay, this isn't looking good. And I started reading the MRI report and it said like thickening walls, high risk features. The cyst is communicating with the main duct. And I started Googling all of that and trying to figure out like what does that mean? What does this mean? And then the more I read, the more I realized like, okay, this could be pancreatic cancer. So this is the fear. So I start praying.
Speaker 2:You know, my husband, luckily, was a Christian when I met him and so you know I went back to church and started. You know his family was wonderful. His parents were so married, they were normal couple. You know his mom made dinners for us and so I was really welcomed into this beautiful, wonderful family, my husband's family. So they really took me in. So you know, I, my faith, grew over the years that I was with him and you know my mother-in-law came down when my husband had COVID and we prayed a lot and I just felt like God got us through a lot of those trials.
Speaker 2:So when this happened, I started to pray a lot more and, you know, really looking into my Bible for some guidance and try not to panic and worry and just kind of thinking in my head like, okay, this can't be cancer, like there's no way that it's cancer, right? So I go and I get the biopsy done and it comes back benign and we're all like, thank you, jesus, yay, and I'm so happy and everyone's happy. And the doctors were still saying, though, that you know you need to get it removed because it could be precancerous. So thank God that you came in and we found it so early, thanks to having that ovarian cyst pain which turned out to be an endometriosis diagnosis. After the fact, when I followed up with the OBGYN, they said I had endometriosis which I had not known about. So, yeah, I had the biopsy and it was benign and we thought, okay, that's great. And they said I would need a distal pancreatectomy, which is the surgery to get it removed. They said it looked pretty fused to my spleen, so I probably would lose my spleen and I said, okay, that's okay.
Speaker 2:So I start researching that surgery and I'm looking into everything and I'm nervous about that. So we're going to my doctor's appointment. My primary care doctor was fantastic and he told me to get two opinions. Go see two surgeons regarding my surgery. Two surgeons regarding my surgery. He said don't just go to the one that the hospital is referring you to, he's like go to some other ones. And so he gave me some names of some others. And the other doctor was like a pancreatic cancer specialist and so I made an appointment with him as well.
Speaker 2:But the first doctor that I went to, that morning, my husband and I were driving down the five freeway to head to the hospital where he was, and I had been having a rough week. You know, I was really worried about everything and even though everything came back benign, I was still really scared of the surgery. I was still really scared of the surgery. And we're driving there and I look to my right and this huge semi starts barreling down the freeway and on the side of it is a big Jesus fish and Bible verses just all over the side, just all over it. There's Bible verses everywhere and I'm like whoa, this is crazy.
Speaker 2:And the one that I made eye contact with was Isaiah 41.10. That says I have it on my little plaque. Someone put it on a little plaque for me after my surgery and it's so. Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I'm going to get emotional. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Speaker 2:And so I saw that on the way to the doctor's office and I was like, thank you, jesus. You know he heard my prayers, he's with me, he's literally with us on the way to the doctor's office and my husband and I get there and we speak with the surgeon and he seems great. And he tells me that you know, oh, you don't have anything to worry about. You know, you're so, so lucky that we caught it you know this early and it didn't develop any cancer. And and you know, we'll do the surgery in about two months. Because he was booked out that long and because it wasn't an emergency for them, they were going to do it in two months. So he said go enjoy your summer vacation with your family and when you come back we'll do the surgery.
Speaker 2:And I said okay. And then I let his receptionist know like I have another consultation with another surgeon, but I'll let you guys know because they wanted to get me scheduled already for surgery. So I'm meeting with the pancreatic surgeon and he's basically telling me that I guess my cyst has like three out of four features for it being cancer. So he says I don't think you should wait two months to get this out. He's like I think you should do this as soon as possible. And he's like I can get you in next week for the distal pancreatectomy. And he's like if you want to do that, I really think you should just get it out as soon as possible.
Speaker 1:We're going to end part one right there, and I love Kira's story, not that she had to go through all that as a child, but how she recognized that all that trauma contributed to her illness as an adult and how she overcame all that to live a God-centered life. Can't wait for the rest of the story in part two, even though I've already heard it, but right now I'd like to take a moment to recognize another partner of Healing Strong Barlow Herbal. Led by owner and master herbalist, jane Barlow Christensen, offers potent herbal products. Jane is known for her expertise in herbal remedies and natural healing, with a focus on educating individuals about the health benefits of medicinal herbs for daily wellness, and she's such a nice person. To learn more, go to BarlowHerbalcom and use HEALSTRONG10. That's HEALSTRONG10 to save.
Speaker 3:You've been listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast. A part of the Healing Strong organization. We hope you found encouragement in this episode, as well as the confidence to take control of your healing journey, knowing that God will guide you on this path. Healing Strong is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to connect, support and educate individuals facing cancer and other diseases through strategies that help to rebuild the body, renew the soul and refresh the spirit.
Speaker 3:It costs nothing to be a part of a local or online group. You can do that by going to our website at healingstrongorg and finding a group near you or an online group, or start your own, your choice. While you're there, take a look around at all the free resources. Though the resources and groups are free, we encourage you to join our membership program at $25 or $75 a month. This helps us to be able to reach more people with hope and encouragement, and that also comes with some extra perks as well. So check it out. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give us a five-star rating, leave an encouraging comment and help us spread the word. We'll see you next week with another story on the I Am Healing Strong podcast.
