MY SECOND CANCER CHALLENGE - By Annie Pierce

After my first Cancer Challenge in the early 2000’s (Chapter 6 in book), in 2015 I discovered another lump in my right breast! During the years of 2000-2005, I was deeply and actively involved in real estate investing, helping to buy a 7-unit property for the family, and buying and selling a variety of properties at every opportunity, and even planning to build a beautiful mansion on Paradise Hill in Lincoln Heights. So, I’m almost certain that the lump developed from the stress of my multiple real estate investing activities. But instead of repeating the act of using herbs, like what I had accomplished earlier, I decided to experiment with Tea Tree Oil, which I thought could “magically” bring the lump to the skin surface for removal at a faster pace. Unfortunately, I was not familiar enough with Tea Tree Oil (which I later learned should always be diluted), and it burned a hole in the skin of my upper right breast, which eventually became a big one-inch diameter wound by 2017! When I finally discovered that I didn’t know anything about healing a wound like that, (and neither did my primary Health Provider) after a year, I decided to have the wound surgically removed because it kept bleeding and became infected. I was fortunate to find a wound specialist at the WOUND TOWERS in West LA in 2018, and both the wound and the lump were surgically removed from my right breast at the same time, and the Lab examination of the lump that was removed from my breast verified that the lump was CANCEROUS.  I healed well from the surgery, and after about 6 months, I thought that I was well enough to start riding my bike again to buy groceries at my favorite Trader Joe’s. I wore a backpack to bring everything back to the Shumei Hollywood Center on Franklin Avenue, where I was living at the time. But unfortunately, the strapping of the backpack irritated the stitching at one end of the wound, and it caused the wound to open again, and become what my research described as a “Surgical Site Infection”, and started bleeding again! This event forced me to revisit my Wound Doctor once again, even though I thought I had seen him for the last time in 2018. When he looked at it, he immediately told me that the cancer had returned, and referred me (for the second time), to an Oncologist he knew at the Cedar’s Cancer Center, which was EXACTLY who I didn’t ever want to see, but my son and daughter strongly encouraged me and actively made an appointment on my behalf. My son even traveled out here from Chicago to help me make the “right” decision, and talk directly with the doctor. 

I finally met with the Oncologist and because Cancer cells like to consume Estrogen, he suggested that I take a drug that reduces the amount of Estrogen that cancer cells like to eat.  When I got the drug from CVS, I saw that it created DIZZINESS and I decided NOT to take it.   I did some research and discovered several herbs that also reduced Estrogen in the body, and I bought them, and I could see some gradual improvement of the wound..  When  I visited the doctor again, after 2 months, I told him I didn't take the drug because it would make me dizzy, and he said that he had prescribed it to several women and they had good results without any difficulties, and that the drug specifically reduced the amount of Estrogen created by the Adrenal Glands, so, reluctantly I  took the drug for 6 months, and it seems to have dried up the wound such that it stopped emitting any leakage as before. Previously, I was going through a box of gauze pads each month! Now, I don’t use any, except when I want to apply some Manuka Honey or Aloe Vera gel to help complete the healing process. It’s become a hard “scab” now (see photo), which I’m expecting to eventually fall off and leave new skin beneath.