Many people find this blog because they have done a search to find out if the Medical facility in Mexico called Sanoviv is a scam. They find my blog because I have written about Sanoviv quite a bit throughout the past four years. I get requests occasionally to share more details about my experience with Sanoviv. I thought I had done in the past but that information must be difficult to find hidden within all of these random words.
The short answer for the many people that stumble upon this blog because they have typed Sanoviv Scam into their search engine is that no, Sanoviv is nothing close to a scam. My life is far better than it would be if I had not gone, which is to say that it's quite possible I could be dead instead of cancer free. Sanoviv was life saving and wonderful as far as I am concerned. For those of you have requested that I share more details about my experience please read on.
It is extremely difficult for people to get past the idea of leaving the almighty United States to go to Mexico for superior medical care. I may have already lost some of you because you feel so strongly that it's simply impossible that better care exists in Mexico than here. Some of you have already discounted me as a quack and you can't wait to talk to your doctor about how there are actually kooks like me out there saying that better care exists in a Mexican clinic. If that is you then we simply will have to agree to disagree but I hope you will at least continue to read my story so maybe you can understand why I have come to that conclusion.
In May of 2004 I was diagnosed with and 8 pound tumor on my ovary, not ovarian cancer but a cancerous tumor on my ovary called an immature teratoma. I required extensive surgery and then endured four rounds of very aggressive chemotherapy that I may or may not have really needed, I am honestly not sure. During that time I had a couple of very close friends trying to steer me towards the alternative or basically dietary approach to fighting this disease. Let me go back and say about chemotherapy, sometimes it is extremely successful and makes sense for people to do. Sometimes the statistics fully suggest that the long term survival rate with chemotherapy treatment far exceeds the long term survival rate without the chemotherapy. That was not the case in my situation, it was borderline but normally in a borderline case they will error on the side of "caution" which means proceeding with preventative or "just to make sure" chemotherapy.
After losing weight, my lunch, and a front tooth during chemotherapy treatments and being hospitalized repeatedly, I finally made it through the treatments. It was the hardest thing I have ever been through and you will never ever hear me say that chemotherapy wasn't that bad like some other survivors do. I was on an aggressive regimen and it was that bad and then some. I honestly do not know now looking back how I even actually survived it. While I was getting my treatments I was instructed to drink gatorade and ensure to stay hydrated and get nutrition but I started doing a lot of reading because of those friends who thought that nutrition might actually have an impact on my health - imagine. I read a book called SuperFoods RX that was sent to me from a friend in Seattle but is actually written by a doctor here in Encinitas named Steven Pratt. This book contained a lot of no nonsense, no fluff, easy to absorb and completely uncontroversial information simply about which foods contain which nutrients and how those specific nutrients can protect our health. From there I started to consider my Gatorade and Ensure because this book didn't mention anything about my need for high fructose corn syrup and artificial dye in my quest for good health.
After reading a couple of more books, one of them being the controversial, Natural Cures They Don't want You to Know About by Kevin Trudeau it started to become clear to me that the food industry has completely hijacked the food system and even foods that claim to add to your health are actually detracting from it. I started to make what at the time I thought was a major overhaul to my diet - no more fast foods or processed food for me. I started shopping at places like Whole Foods and Henry's instead of Ralph's or Von's and continued to try and educate myself regarding the difference between real food and fake food.
I finished my chemotherapy in August and went back to work but I was still feeling terrible. In October, a blood test would reveal that there was a secondary cancer and it is a terminal one called myelodysplasia or MDS. MDS is often caused by chemotherapy treatments and one of the chemo agents I had been on is known to cause MDS. It causes your bone marrow to completely shut down. Come to find out, your bone marrow is significantly important, it is what manufactures all of the components of your blood such as your white cells and platelets. With it broken down, I didn't have much of a chance of survival according to three different highly respected experts. They all gave me between three and five years to survive.
I started needing regular blood transfusions and a drug called procrit but both of these were only temporary boosts and eventually they would no longer be effective, I was dying and everybody but me and possibly Dick knew it. I refused to accept death and I am speaking for him but I think Dick simply could not face it. There were pity parties rippling out in every direction. It was a very scary time. Most people were sympathetic, helpful, and lovely. I started this blog, trying to share what I was going through as I went along. Every once in awhile someone would write to me and tell me I was going to rot in hell for accepting the blood transfusions that were keeping me alive or that I shouldn't be talking about the possibility of curing my cancer with alternatives because I was giving people false hope, so in fact they were saying the one hope I had was a false hope. These people and at least one of my doctors almost made me feel like I was misbehaving because I was not willing to give up and die.
I don't know what I would have done if I had not already been reading about the possibility of healing yourself with alternatives, maybe I would have followed my doctor's instructions and just died but by the time I was diagnosed with the second, much worse cancer, I had read about too many people who had been given the same prognosis; certain death and were alive and quite well twenty years later because of alternative medicine. At this point it kills me to even refer to it as alternative medicine, I think of it as primary medicine with drugs and knifes being the alternative but it would be awhile yet before I would really understand it that way.
I decided in my self education that I need the help of a professional so I went to a nutritionist and iridologist. She was a strange woman and she had some strange methods. She would have lost me if I was not so desperate for help. She took a picture of my iris and translated what she saw which to this day I am still skeptical about. She also gave me a specific diet to follow and some supplements to take. Before I left, after being in her office for nearly two hours she told me about Sanoviv. She actually got this far away look in her eyes and more like prophesied to me about Sanoviv. She told me about this amazing medical center in Mexico that is doing great things and helping so many people regain the balance in their body and in their life. She told me I would go there and they would make me well.
When she told me how much it costs, I laughed all the way home because I knew I didn't have that kind of money and even if I did, I was still skeptical that giving it to a "clinic" in Mexico was the right way to go. I tried to stick to her diet and actually even went to another nutritionist and tried that diet too. I found an incredible acupuncturist and massage therapist. I was spending oodles of money on supplements and I was exploring yoga and visualization but I was not getting well. Remarkably though, I was not getting as bad as expected either.
A little more than a year after that visit with the kooky nutritionist, her words kept hanging in my brain, I had done enough self educating, and I was just the right amount of desperate to start to consider that maybe one of those clinics in Mexico could help me. I looked up Sanoviv and several others. I started talking to them on the phone and listening to what it was they proposed they could do for me. I found that there are vast differences in the approach these clinics use and I did in fact think Sanoviv was the best of the ones I spoke to as they encompass conventional and alternative medicine in a state of the art facility that focuses on the entire body as a whole. I became convinced that Sanoviv was going to be able to help me and that I was going to have to go sooner rather than later while I was still strong enough to overcome this MDS.
When I told my husband that I wanted to go his reaction was "Why do we have to do it now?" Like I had all the time in the world or something. This reaction pissed me off, my temper during my MDS struggle was always short, irritability is a common symptom so I have always maintained that my ferocious attitude during that time could be completely attributed to my MDS. I don't know what my excuse is now. So he wants to know why now and I remember barking back "Uhhh because Idiot. Uhhh....if you don't remember what the countrie's leading MDS doctor said; TIME IS OF THE FUCKING ESSENCE HERE!" It wasn't his fault, he was simply in denial that I was quickly headed towards my grave. Except for when I was bald from chemotherapy my appearance has remained pretty normal through all of my illnesses. It's not like people could look at me and immediately be able to tell that I was dying. I think my husband didn't really accept that the situation was as dire as it was. I mean, he was there when that doctor so convincingly sentenced me to death but then we left and went on with our life, I think he just looked at it like I was really lazy and had to go to the doctor a lot. Easier than facing each day knowing the love of your life is slowly slipping away.
It didn't take any more than that outburst for Dick to snap into it and get behind me. The amount of money that is costs to go to Sanoviv is more than the average person has ready access to so we needed to come up with some funds. I would like to point out though that the treatment at Sanoviv is not at all expensive when you compare the cost to the cost of getting medical treatment here in the states. I was just fortunate enough to have insurance that covered most of my care here so I didn't notice the outrageous costs involved in my treatment. I feel very strongly Sanoviv was a bargain but I did have to do some creative work to come up with all of the money. I cleaned out my 401K, I had a huge yard sale with the help of so many generous people and I straight up begged. When I told my husband about my plan to have a fund-raiser and actually ask people for money he hated the idea. I still am not sure if my mother in law has ever forgiven me, she practically begged me not do it. I did do it, I begged without shame for people to come through with the rest of the money and in about 6 weeks they had delivered. Thank you all so much for feeling my life was worth sharing some of your cash, I will always remember you.
I am not going to spend a lot of time telling you of the specific experiences I had at Sanoviv because your experience will be completely different, everything is tailored to the individual there. I will tell you that they have an incredible facility. I went through their three week program and never looked back. I was helped so much by my experience there that I never needed anther blood transfusion again. I was almost instantly able to stop using the drug that was artificially boosting my bone marrow and I found that healing place within myself where miracles happen. My first trip to Sanoviv was in June of 2006 and now in January 2010 I am cancer free when if I had believed the doctors I would be, at best, mostly dead now.
I left Sanoviv and entered school. When I first enrolled I wasn't sure if I would live long enough to finish. I graduated in 2008. Now I am a clinical nutritionist and a clinical herbalist. I am able to work part time trying to help and encourage others to be brave and decide to survive. I am well enough now to actually consider something other than if I will have enough energy today to stand up in the shower or if I am going to have to sit in the tub while I shower. That was my reality at one point, I may have looked okay but I was most certainly dying.
If you are suffering with a disease and you believe that it's possible to find balance and healing through the power of nutrients, positive outlook, mind/body connection and all of that "kooky" stuff then you owe it to yourself to visit Sanoviv in person. You can go for a free tour and they will show you their amazing facility. Even if you do not believe in nutrition (I can't imagine how you couldn't), meditation, or positive outlook, I encourage to to check out Sanoviv. It may be harder for them to treat you but you will certainly at the very least leave there a little healthier than you were before going.
So no, Sanoviv is not a scam. Sanoviv is what should be the model for hospitals all across the world. I hope one day it is. I wish I had enough money to go to Sanoviv regularly just to relax. It is the most beautiful place I have ever felt.
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