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
116: Confronting Stage Four Prostate Cancer Through Faith and Holistic Healing | David and Kathi Peters
David and Kathy Peters share their journey following David's stage four prostate cancer diagnosis, focusing on their choice to pursue natural healing rather than conventional treatments. Highlighting the importance of community, diet, and emotional resilience, they encourage others to embrace holistic approaches to health.
• David's prostate cancer diagnosis and initial reactions
• The decision to pursue natural healing methods
• Importance of community support through their journey
• Dietary changes: transitioning to a plant-based diet
• Emotional aspects of dealing with a cancer diagnosis
• The use of the RGCC test for personalized treatment plans
• Plans for their documentary to share their story
David is a career filmmaker, and together with his wife, Kathi, they operate Global Story Films. They have created award-winning films that tell compelling stories of people from all over the world with an authentic and journalistic approach.
They have a keen interest in telling stories about the often-ignored voices of those speaking truth to power in culture.
In November of 2022 David was diagnosed with Stage 4 Prostate cancer. Along with pursuing an all-natural pathway toward healing, David and Kathi decided to create a documentary about their process. They earnestly hope that this film will give others permission to step away from traditional cancer treatments and go all in toward natural healing.
Kathi
David
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:
Kathy had someone to come up to her in the library. We did a lot of posting on Facebook. I just had, like this insatiable desire to write. I started a blog and I never thought I would blog and write, but I was writing long posts and just talking about what I was experiencing and feeling and someone came up to Kathy and said you know, I've never met someone who didn't do what the doctor says, and so we're really curious. So in some ways it's kind of like pressure's on, because we really hope and believe this is going to be successful and we hope others will follow suit within our little sphere of influence.
Speaker 2: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. 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.
Speaker 3:David and Kathy Peters. Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, our pleasure, glad to be with you here.
Speaker 3:And, of course, if you hear a little murmuring in the background, I'm not sure if that's picking up or not, but we're at the convention the 10th anniversary of Healing Strong, here in Houston. Of course, by the time you hear this, it'll be over. Sorry, you missed it. We're here talking with people about Healing Strong and what God has allowed them to do. So tell me a little bit about why you're here and what it is you guys do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we'd heard about the conference. As part of our healing cancer journey that I started last year in November, I found out that I had stage four prostate cancer, so that was a well a life-changing moment when we were there with the oncologist, getting this announcement, and part of what we did is just dive into how can we heal this naturally. And in the process of all of that, I can back up a little bit, but we heard about healing strong several months ago and I just want to mention that we've been listening to your podcast. As we exercise in the morning, we typically listen to a podcast, so while we're exercising our body, we're learning and exercising our mind and learning more about health, nutrition and healing. So we've enjoyed your guests. In fact, I think you interviewed Teresa Scott, if I'm not mistaken. Yes, I did. Yes, that's how we heard about her, and we're interviewing her on Tuesday for a documentary that we're producing.
Speaker 1:So after my diagnosis, our distributor called us and said have you guys thought about possibly documenting your journey? Because he said, I understand you're going all natural. He said, said my father died in 2011 of cancer. He had been diagnosed in 2003, had been given eight months to live, chose a natural healing path and lived eight more years and toward the end of his life he was starting to produce a documentary, do the pre-production research and unfortunately died before he could finish. So he asked us, in the honor or memory of his father, if we would finish the documentary. So that's how we got in the process of doing that and then we'll be doing one of the interviews with Teresa Scott on Monday Just looking at mouth health and how that impacts our overall health and chronic disease and cancer.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I learned a lot from her. I learned that I'm in trouble Because I still have some metal in there that I got to get rid of. I got root canals.
Speaker 1:I didn't know anything was wrong with root canals, but yeah, man, yeah, she already had a root canal removed and my amalgams, which had mercury in them, removed. So kathy is part of the documentary um there. Theresa is going to remove her amalgams on Monday afternoon, so we're going to interview Teresa and then also actually document her in action with this very important aspect of our health if you need more action, I'll volunteer too, that she can.
Speaker 3:Yeah, fix me up here. Yeah, no, it worked out good. Are you excited about that?
Speaker 4:Well, I'm anxious to get the nasty stuff out of my mouth, and so, yeah, I mean it's again. Those things have been in there for decades and you have no idea that there's something going on in there that needs to be dealt with, and so of course, what we're told is perfectly safe.
Speaker 3:So, oh yeah, yeah, it's perfectly safe, unless a thermometer drops on the floor and some mercury comes out, we have to evacuate, right exactly that's.
Speaker 1:That's always odd to me, but yeah, when they do the biological dentistry, they remove the amalgams and the mercury and there's they're considered toxic waste that has to be properly disposed of and it's. I guess it's a fairly expensive process for dentists to do and yet that's in our mouths, which just really doesn't make sense yeah, the odor I get.
Speaker 3:More things don't make sense to me anyway. So yeah, that's just one of them there. In fact, she pointed me out to a dentist in Greenville, south Carolina area, where I live, and of course they don't ever take your insurance.
Speaker 1:But that's all right. You know a lot of money on that.
Speaker 3:Yes, so I'm going to be. I'm going to be looking pretty in a couple of years here. Good, hollywood smile, there we go, anyway, so, yeah. So you decided to come here here, of course, you were doing some interviews for the documentary yourself, so you're going to be, you're going to be sitting in on all the different, yeah we came to enjoy the the event.
Speaker 1:We've already interviewed suzy griswold and then chris warwick earlier today, so we were glad to be able to do that interview and get that done. So we can just totally focus on being part of the event here and meeting people and just enjoying and being blessed by all that will take place.
Speaker 4:And we have absolutely come to understand in this journey that you need community in your life. When you go through this, it's scary and it can create a diagnosis, can create an instant disconnect with people because when you choose the natural route, we have three children, all adults, all married, and in the very initial stages of our journey, and in the very initial stages of our journey, each of them in their own way said well, you know, maybe you should seriously consider what the oncologist said, because they were reacting in fear. They don't want David to die any sooner than he has to. And it's not that it affects. Yes, we appreciate that, that's true, yes, we appreciate that.
Speaker 1:They want me around, that's true, and the grandkids.
Speaker 4:But it's not that they were against our choice to do this, but it has the ability of really tearing you apart.
Speaker 4:Part of our journey has been that when you decide to go the natural route, your options are myriad. And I came home from the oncologist, I sat down at my computer and googled natural healing for cancer and one of the first things that popped up in my search results was hope for cancer, and I tucked it away and we didn't do much of anything until we found out the extent of David's cancer and I said, david, I remember that I had discovered something. It's a clinic in Mexico and they actually have a booth here at the Healing Strong Conference. But that's the one of the avenues that we chose, and so we went and spent three weeks, started on the 1st of January of this year. We're there for three weeks and we've been back for one subsequent visit and through that we have developed a network of friends who are going through the same thing that we are. We have a WhatsApp group and we correspond literally every day with this group of people.
Speaker 4:So we understand the value of having people that you can pour your heart out to, and so, when we looked at the Healing Strong Conference, it's all about connecting, and so we truly believe that, just as God wants us to experience unity on every level, the unity that you can experience with people who have a common I hate to call it an enemy, but a common journey that they're on, I think that's truly what God's heart is desiring for us is that we connect with other people and that together, we show the world there's a better way.
Speaker 3:Right. What made you actually decide to go a different route? I mean your oncologist.
Speaker 1:He wanted the chemo, or Well, yeah, initially it was going to be well. Yeah, initially it was going to be androgen deprivation hormones and then, uh, radiation was. But, yeah, we had both my parents died from cancer. Kathy's dad died from cancer. Um, so it's, we've been around it. Um, kathy and I were already.
Speaker 1:Kathy's been a health and wellness coach for years, taught weightlifting and exercise classes at the gym. We ate really well, so so many things that we were doing were already right and that's why it was kind of surprising well, how on earth did I get stage four cancer? So we had discussed in the past that if we were ever to be diagnosed that we would just go all in with natural right. So, literally that it was on friday, as I recall. Yeah, we were met with the oncologist and that's when I found out that it was stage four, as I knew I had prostate cancer. But then they, they staged it on that friday in november and, literally, cat, well, we first we cried ourselves asleep that night. It was a very traumatic night. But then, first thing, we just dove right in.
Speaker 1:Kathy had already heard about Hope for Cancer. We called them, they called back and we started the conversation and then, less than a month later we were well, a little over a month later we were there. So it was somewhat natural for us, but then it still. You know, when you're sitting With an oncologist At Fox Chase Cancer Center, which is one of the Most significant ones, or probably the major Cancer center In a Philadelphia area when we live, and and the oncologist, who's well-trained, well-paid, experienced, is telling you something and you're basically not listening to them, it's intimidating, yeah, and you know, we'd read all about it, we kind of have our minds made up. But then you go talk to the oncologist and then all these questions start coming into mind community with people that are committed to this process, that are all in, you know, and listening to people like you know yourself and the your story and the people you interview. It's just so important to be immersed in that, because it's easy to become intimidated and and not feel that or to feel you're alone when you're not.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and we really felt like the way his first oncologist dealt with us. It was a. It was from a position of fear. They were trying to create fear within us. In fact, when he explained to us how serious it was, he said you need to start this treatment on monday. And this was friday afternoon. And for us, having walked with God since we were little children, we were born Christians.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we know that fear is not of God, and so we just wanted to make decisions not based on a doctor saying you need to do this on Monday, and so we just felt that it was worth taking the time to make sure that this was going to be the route that we would take, because we knew it was going to be a tough one, because it's not something that you do for a month and then your cancer's gone and then you go back to the way you lived before. It's a committed journey that you will be on for the rest of your life and that scares you enough to think, well, maybe it'd be easier to get chemotherapy and radiation. I say that jokingly, but the passive approach.
Speaker 4:But what we found was there's a sense of empowerment that comes from feeling like we're in charge. I mean, ultimately God holds all the cards in his hands, but we're working together with him. So we feel very empowered by what we're doing. And the more we study and research the traditional route and I had studied that for probably 20 to 30 years and that had been our motivation for saying we're just going to hit this with all cylinders on the natural pathway the more we discover and the more we research. There's not many answers that were confidence boosting to us in the traditional allopathic way of doing things. So we feel very empowered that we're on the right track.
Speaker 1:Well, just looking out the window here and seeing all these people and sensing the energy here and comparing that to what I felt when we've gone to see our oncologist, and you see people waiting to go in for their chemotherapy, yeah, and here they're about to partake in wonderful food that will aid in their health and healing. And then people are going to go in and have chemicals dumped in their body and you know we've had so many our friends recently. And, of course, once you've been diagnosed, then you start to notice how many people have cancer, how many are going through traditional treatments and suffering as they go through them, where, even though it's been hard to give up certain things, it's been fun to learn a whole new way of eating and then watch my body, or our body since we're eating this together adapt and really start to crave the things that are really best for us now?
Speaker 3:are you in a like a plant-based diet or?
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, we went Well. First we tried raw vegan. So I was diagnosed. In November there was a local holistic doctor that we had already connected with and we started doing IV infusions and ozone infusion and she suggested I go raw vegan For 90 days. For 90 days and that was just like hellish for me. That's tough. In fact. After about 10 days that was just like hellish for me. That's tough. In fact. After about 10 days it was putting so much stress on me and Kathy I thought I'm just going to not eat for three days. I read three-day fasts were good and so about two and a half days into it I felt I was in bed. I could hardly get up. I just felt so bad. And of course, we told our naturopath. She said well, you know, you should have talked to me first, because you're supposed to prepare for those, not just decide you're going to do it one day. So we did that for a month and I was losing weight. I went from 175 ultimately down to 145. Wow, and I'm still just barely teetering above 145.
Speaker 3:So I lost it. You're kind of tall, aren't you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm 6'1", so I kind of related to Chris' work story because he was 150 or so and went down to 130 or maybe I forget what it was, but he's 6'2", he's a little taller than me. Yeah, so, going plant based, I did introduce some meat and of course we went to some cooked food starting in January. So we kind of. But you know, I'm glad I tried it. It was an interesting experiment and you know we had to laugh at some of Kathy's attempts to make normal food. You know, like the mushroom soup, it literally, you know, looked like poop. You know, and the almond crust pizza, was it what it was? And it looked halfway decent but it just tasted awful and I would always say, honey, thank you for trying this, I will eat it, but please don't ever make it again.
Speaker 4:When that happened, I literally went around the corner and just burst into tears. Because it's a lot, you know when your plants take a long time to chop up, and I mean we eat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she works so hard and she loves to cook and loves to cook for me and typically I'm very easy to please.
Speaker 4:Yes, he loves to cook and loves to cook for me, and typically I'm very easy to please. Yes, so, but it's a lot of work. I feel like I've exchanged my freewheeling life and now I live in the kitchen.
Speaker 1:It feels that way sometimes, but basically it's plant-based.
Speaker 4:Per our dietary recommendations from Hope for Cancer, he can have wild codfish three times a week, so we typically do that, but other than that it's a whole lot of plants, fruits and vegetables. We have a garden, so that's um oh, that's good yeah, it's been a a crazy change.
Speaker 4:So we'd always eaten. You know, we would buy our eggs from a little farm near us in Pennsylvania and we had a, a turkey farm where we would get our chicken and so, um, yeah, but all those places have kind of gone by the wayside and so anyway, wow, yeah, that's definitely an all-in thing.
Speaker 3:You can't just like, uh, eat a few more vegetables and yeah, cancer will go. Yeah right, yeah, right you gotta spend a lot if you don't have a garden which I still don't have a garden you spend a lot of time in the grocery store.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we do a lot of time and money our food budget has you know, gone like I don't even I haven't really wanted to find out exactly how much more we're spending, yeah, but, um, you know we're self-employed, um, so part of it for me came down as a business decision. Um, I add a lot of value to our company, so, so the company investing in keeping me alive, I think, is worth it, because hopefully I'll be able to work for many more years and create more films with Kathy and earn hopefully a whole lot more money.
Speaker 3:Experience cancer healing like you never have before at Hope for Cancer. Through their patient-centered, integrative and alternative cancer treatments in Mexico At Hope for Cancer, they offer a holistic approach, treatments that address the root causes of cancer and provide a personalized healing protocol. Hope for Cancer Treatment Centers empowers all cancer patients to overcome the odds of their diagnosis, guided by their four core values of faith, love, hope and generosity. To learn more, go to HopeForCancercom. That's Hope, the number four, cancercom, and that's what you were doing before you got the cancer doing films.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've done my whole career. Yeah, I picked up a camera in sixth grade and started making movies in high school and went to film school and have done film work my whole career. Kathy joined me back in 2011 with our own business. We mostly worked for other people, but now we produce long-form documentaries as well as a lot of short-form films. So, in fact, the holistic clinic that we do work with or that treats us, we're starting to do stories for them to put on their website. So we pick some of the patients that they've helped and not only interviewed them, but like like one, he had a lot of problems with his legs and knees and he loved to play pickleball, was having trouble but through the clinic's therapies now he's back playing pickleball. So we went out and got footage of him playing pickleball and so so, yeah, in fact that's I'm hoping we can do more of that, working with organizations that are into natural healing and start telling their stories, because I think with social media, with podcasting, you know, 20 years ago it was really hard to get information out there, where now it just can proliferate and go viral. You know, if you have something that's good and people start sharing it and I think people are.
Speaker 1:Kathy had someone come up to her in the library. We did a lot of posting on Facebook. I just had, like this insatiable desire to write. I started a blog and I never thought I would blog and write, but I was writing long posts and just talking about what I was experiencing and feeling. And someone came up to Kathy and said I've never met someone who didn't do what the doctor says, and so we're really curious. So in some ways it's kind of like pressure's on, because we really hope and believe this is going to be successful and we hope others will follow suit within our little sphere of influence.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is hard to go against the doctors because you know they're like right next to God. Right, you've got the Trinity and the doctors and then the rest of us yeah so it's like and usually family, like you said. You know they they're scared, you're doing the wrong thing and they're gonna lose you, but for some reason my, my family didn't seem too scared maybe we'll get rid of them.
Speaker 4:Let me rethink this, yeah see our inheritance coming a little sooner than we thought, oh my goodness and I and I.
Speaker 3:I know so well that gut-wrenching cry you have to have when you first get the diagnosis and you think, oh, my gosh, it's over and, and you cry like a baby or you're just shaking. But then right after that it sounds like the same for you. Right after that it it's like, okay, god, you've got this. You know, I got the crying out of the way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, something that, of course, immediately after the diagnosis, people were giving us suggestion upon suggestion. You know, you've got to try this, read that. And Chris Work's name came up, like everywhere. Yeah, so we immediately got his book. In fact we got two copies and I remember reading I just like devoured it in a couple days where he he said he was asked the question do you want to live right and why?
Speaker 1:And that's where, you know, the emotions started to come, because I really wanted to live right and, for goodness, the first couple months I would cry over anything and everything, I just would be. I was so emotional and in many ways it was kind of like it's good purging, just letting all of this out. You know, what I had was holding in and just this whole new appreciation for my wife and for my kids and for what we do and for the world, um, an intense desire to increase, you know, as a storyteller, because the world is hurting and we feel our films and stories can help people in that process, whether it be just, you know, spiritually or physically.
Speaker 4:So but it's okay to cry and have a sense of resolve.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, yeah, it wasn't despair it, it was just deep emotion that's just deep within the human part of my soul and the spiritual part that was just, I guess, in love with this life and as hard, as difficult as it can be at times, but wanting to be here and to love and be loved. I have a crazy vegan friend. He has a restaurant in our area and he was one of the first people I sat down with and he said before anything else, he said, dave, love will heal you. So now you're going to change your diet and everything else, but love is the core, god's love. But he said let your food love you, let your exercise, let your friends love you, because that's what you need. Your body's wounded. And he said your cancer is a messenger, and don't shoot the messenger, you know. Get to the bottom of what's going on, because sometimes it is emotional. In fact, as a prostate survivor, often that's one of the highest cancers that's associated with stress so wow, I think it was chris work.
Speaker 3:I said this bc and ad, you know, before cancer and after diagnosis. I mean it's kind of it splits your life to. Your perspective is so different. I think I was 58 when I got my diagnosis and like I thought man, I just appreciate everything that much more yeah work is not as important.
Speaker 3:We've got to work, of course, but I mean just, you know, staying busy all the time was not important, just calming down and learning to rest and connect with god, it's just. And then also facing death. You know, I thought you know. They call me a month or two, I'll be gone, wow.
Speaker 1:And uh, can't imagine. That.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you and you think, okay, what do they do with my life? And I got to make all these videos. I should have come to you. Yeah, I'm a total different person than I was before cancer. I was just floating through life, having fun in radio, but still, now it's a whole different thing. Radio is not that important to me. In fact, I'm not even there anymore. Doing this podcast is important because it's giving people hope that are scared to death when they get the diagnosis. You can't help but do that because you don't know what's coming down the road. Even if you do all the right things, you don't know what's coming down the road. And wow, just outside of our little window, here they're talking to everybody, they're all coming together.
Speaker 3:The cattle are moving in one direction, but they're all happy still.
Speaker 4:Happy cows yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, once you've had the cancer and you've passed all that, it's a blessing. The cancer Not the cancer itself, but the fact that you had cancer and it awakens you to all these things. And of course, we've heard Chris talk about that and James Templeton. It's amazing.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and one thing that we've told people time and time again is, after David's diagnosis, his sister, who's a very wise sister, said David, this is a gift. And so we, you know, in some ways it's hard to look at it as a gift, but that's a choice that you make. So, and it's asking yourself the question do you want to live? Because there are some people and, having been a wellness coach for many years, there are people whose identity is wrapped up in being sick, so they can't imagine conversations without their symptoms being part of the discussion. And we don't want to be that way. We want to be, as Chris calls himself, a cancer thriver. So we're learning to rephrase how we say.
Speaker 4:We don't call it David's cancer. We talk about a diagnosis or whatever, but not owning it. Because when you ask yourself that question, do I want to live? As you described it, there's a shift that happens in your brain and all of a sudden you start to commit, to derive joy out of situations that might have just gone by totally unnoticed. So I mean, in God's economy, he's nothing but good. And so this part of David says cancer is part of his body. So we're going to work to eradicate it. But instead of talking about killing it and having all those, we want to heal it, because God is healing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's another thing we picked up from Chris right away. He said I don't want to talk about fighting cancer because it's this adversarial thing. I talk about healing it because there's beauty in healing, right um. So you know, just as it relates to this whole idea of having community and being with people, we were in um at hope for cancer for three weeks in january, as kathy mentioned earlier, and so you know, you, it's like being, you know, in a foxhole with people.
Speaker 4:I mean you're in six days a week.
Speaker 1:You're in treatments and therapies and you're getting to know one another. In the evening you're spending time together and you're away from. It's the first time we've been away from professionally. For me to have been away from life ever that long, I would maybe have 10 days or two weeks, but to have taken three weeks, so just that disconnect of from the real world to a world of healing was, was such a great thing. But the people we met and we were I was mentioning this to sally earlier or suzy earlier if I feel like if I hadn't been diagnosed, I would have never met these people and I literally it's like hard to imagine life without them.
Speaker 1:So it's I I've I said this before that if if someone came and said, well, dave, you could choose to not have cancer, but then you would lose all these relationships and experiences you've had in the last nine or ten months, it'd be a tough choice. It really would, especially because we feel, you know we're on the road to healing and quite possibly because of the diagnosis and the cancer, I may end up living longer, based on how we're living now.
Speaker 3:You know changing everything, yeah. So how are you doing right now?
Speaker 1:I feel good. Um, as I mentioned, I lost a lot of weight, right, I had to get. I'm in the process of getting a new wardrobe I still now that it's getting warm, I'm wearing jeans again. I have one pair that fit me. But I feel good. My PSA number had risen rapidly last year. It capped at 49 when my therapy started and then it started coming down to 25. But it's been creeping back up in the last three or four months. I just had a PET scan where they looked at the metastatic areas, the parts that had lit up my large lymph nodes. Kathy can usually explain this stuff better than me, but it seemed like there was improvement. There certainly no growth and it certainly hadn't expanded into bones or elsewhere in my body. So that was really encouraging. We've got to figure out the PSA, but we just had done a test called the RGCC test. Kathy, why don't you explain it?
Speaker 4:So it's also called the Greek test, because that's where it's done. Are you familiar with it? Yes, yes, so Research Genetic Cancer Center. Yeah, teresa told us about it, in fact.
Speaker 1:I think we heard about it on your podcast. Yeah, we did. We heard about it on your podcast when you interviewed Wow, what a small world. There you go. There you go, see what value you're offering. You were the catalyst.
Speaker 4:Yes. So you know when your numbers start going in the wrong direction? You aren't. And again, this is part of the struggle when you choose the natural route is there are variables, you're just not sure. So what typically people do is they try everything you know the diet, the exercise, the supplements, and how do you know what's helping? I mean, you can watch your numbers go up and down, but you don't know what is specifically contributing toward that. So when David's PSA, which is the biggest cancer marker for prostate cancer, started going back up, we realized we've got to figure out why that's happening. So we remembered the RGCC, and a number of our friends from Hope for Cancer have done it as well. And so basically, they take blood, they put it on ice and they overnight it to grease and they are um, they kind of wanted to go along and yeah, no, not the truth, so but they isolate.
Speaker 4:they isolate your cancer cells and they basically for lack of a better description they drip all types of natural substances on those cancer cells, as well as different chemotherapies, and determine very specifically which ones are going to be working for you. So we just had a two hour visit with the doctor that ordered the test last week, and so we know now that there are certain supplements that David has been on for almost nine months now that are having no effect. So that's very helpful. We can drop those from our, our his daily regimen, but then there are those from our, our, his, daily regimen, but then they're huge, which is huge.
Speaker 4:So, and just the confidence in knowing so, um, and for people that do choose the the traditional medical route, it would tell them exactly what type of chemotherapy would be specific for their type of cancer. So that's not on our palette right now, so, but we have been given a list of substances, of things that would be helpful for him, so we're in the process of figuring out which ones would be the most helpful and adding those to his regimen, and they walk you through it moment by moment and step by step. So, um, yeah, so that's, it's a, it's a journey that continues. It's not just okay, now we know what to do and we're just going to do this for time and eternity. It's, it's, uh, it's definitely a process and it's yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, we've been throwing, as a friend of ours suggested, throw the kitchen sink at it, just do everything right, and spending a lot of money doing that. But now that we saw the number rising we thought, okay, let's be a little bit more strategic. Um, so we could, as we were were told, kind of give it the final blow. It just needed a knockout punch. And so we're hoping and believing this will be a big part of that.
Speaker 3:Now, when is this documentary coming out? I want a certain date, yeah well.
Speaker 4:So do we.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's one of part of you know, listening to Chris his interview today, he was talking about stress and, unfortunately, between this and our other work, September just turned into a very stressful month. We were two weeks in Austin and Phoenix, then back to Austin, then we came home for three days, then flew here and we had trouble with the rental car last night. So we're trying to not overdo it with the film. So, as things are happening, we're documenting right and we're trying. Now we just finished a documentary on William Penn. It's released next in, well, on the 10th of October.
Speaker 1:So now we're going to shift toward this documentary, plus another one that we're working on. So I would hope that we could possibly by the end of next year. Um, but we have another documentary that needs to be done in july, a long-form documentary. So, um, so we're not in any really big hurry because it's it's our journey and our story and we want to be able to interview some key people along the way that we keep learning about. Like we'll listen to a podcast, like with listening to Teresa, oh, we got to have her in the film, yeah, so we reached out to her and she, um, you know, was super cooperative. Yeah, whatever I can do, you know we'll interview.
Speaker 1:In fact we're going to go um to Geronimo Adventure Park on Sunday to go zip lining because she said through her cancer diagnosis she discovered how to be fearless, because she was so fearful in her life and she said, if I can face cancer, I can face. I think. She said she's done skydiving, she's done four-wheeling and I I said, well, what if? How do we show that in the film? And she said, well, there's an adventure park where you can do a ziplining. So we're gonna do that with her and her family on Sunday as part of the film. We're hoping, you know, we want it to be clever, you know, and personal. There are so many, not just a straight up documentary.
Speaker 4:Yeah there are so many clever documentaries about food.
Speaker 1:Root cause. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 4:Root cause. I mean, it's just there's so many documentaries that you can watch about this, not just cancer, but just eating healthy and living healthy. But um, yeah, you know, when we talked to chris wark about the possibility of interviewing him for the documentary, um, he said I'll do it if your documentary answers three questions or deals with three topics. Number one is can I do it? Number two is how do I do it? And number three will it help me? He said if we can create that kind of hope for people. And so at the point that we are in David's journey, we're feeling very confident that this would be something that we would say to other people. It's hard but it's good and it's worth the effort. But who knows what the future will bring?
Speaker 1:So hopefully next year, whatever the story looks like, we'll yeah, and we'll probably start doing some editing ahead of time, but we really appreciate all the cooperation from Susie and yourself and the whole Healing strong team here, um, because it's these types of things that we feel will bring it alive, versus just interviews with people talking about healing techniques.
Speaker 1:so we're, we're really and and so yeah, so when it comes time for the premiere, we'll make sure you talk about it, okay yeah get an audience, because we'd like to do like a streaming event where we'll show the film um and have it open, you know, globally we did that with another film recently and it went really well and then have after the film, have like a discussion afterwards and get some key people. In fact, maybe you could moderate that discussion. That we would, we would record on zoom and then that would be part of the package. People would get a ticket to watch the film and then the discussion afterwards and possibly some other things. You know, like a… Ziplining, ziplining.
Speaker 1:Yes or a free trip to Healing Strong Conference. That's right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think I'm free that week. So yeah, we can do that, yeah, well, hey, I figured out what they're doing. They were saying grace and now they're all eating. They're all in line in queue well, they're better.
Speaker 4:They better leave some for us yeah, the line's too long anyway, so yeah I know well, we can tell them we're vips and we need to get in line first exactly well, we know jim great well, david and k, I appreciate that it was good to meet you all.
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course, and it's very interesting. I can't wait for that documentary to come out November 28th of 2020.
Speaker 1:You're going to pin us down, aren't you? That's right. Well, we do work better with deadlines. So when it comes that time, we'll call you and say, Jim, we need a deadline, and you can give us the deadline and we'll meet it.
Speaker 3:I'll do it all right. Well, thank you so much, and I'm glad you guys are here and uh be encouraged by all the speakers uh that are going to be here and thank you so much for being part of the podcast yeah, our pleasure.
Speaker 4:Thank you very much and thank you for what you do. You truly bring hope into people's lives. It's worth listening and and, uh, we, we've been so blessed by what you do. So, um us, us. Cancer diagnosis, diagnoses people are looking for looking. What's that?
Speaker 1:to coin a phrase.
Speaker 4:To coin a phrase there we go are looking for, we're looking for information, so, and yours has been- very, and as we exercise in the basement and listen to your podcast, we will think of this moment.
Speaker 3:Yes, all right, you'll be exercising to yourself pretty soon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true, Boy would we have.
Speaker 4:Oh, that would be odd.
Speaker 1:Would we be able to listen to ourselves? I think we did pretty good.
Speaker 2: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 2: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.
