In 2011 Sue Doty was working hard on putting in a new yard on a property she and her husband own in White Cloud, MI. However, the project became more difficult to complete when she started experiencing severe hip pain.
Normally this would be alarming but after giving birth to twins at 19, Sue developed sciatic nerve pain which she had been treating with over-the-counter painkillers for years. One night while showering, Sue said she started feeling tired, dizzy and light-headed. Soon after, she fell and called out to her husband.
“When he came in I was sitting on the floor and then I laid down,” she said. “After I laid down, I couldn’t get up again. I would lift my head up and pass out.”
Frightened, Sue’s husband called an ambulance and they rushed to Spectrum Hospital in Grand Rapids. Once they arrived at the hospital, Sue said her condition became worse.
“As soon as I got there I started throwing up and that’s when I found out I had a stomach bleed, so they did an emergency surgery to stop it.”
After the surgery, doctors told Sue that the stomach bleed was due to taking over the counter painkillers for an extensive period of time.
“The warnings they put on the bottle are not a lie. I had been taking the pain relievers for such a long time, it caused my stomach to bleed,” she said.
As if Sue hadn’t been through enough, doctors also told her they had found something during the surgery. It would turn her world upside down.
“They did a bunch of tests and the CT scan showed that my lymph nodes were pushing on my sciatic nerves in my heart and pancreas and liver,” she said. “Their diagnosis for me was follicular lymphoma, an incurable type of cancer that would continue to need chemotherapy to be treated.”
Because the lymph nodes were pressing against so many of her vital organs, doctors suggested that she start chemotherapy right away. Like many cancer patients, Sue was interested in an alternative method of treatment but doctors told her that undergoing chemotherapy was the only way to shrink her lymph nodes. She reluctantly agreed to six rounds of R-CHOP chemotherapy in February 2012.
“My first treatment was around my 50th birthday. It was terrible and I wanted to die,” she said.
Sue added that by her fourth treatment, doctors had given her too much chemotherapy which resulted in the doctors lowering the amount of her final two doses.
“I had a fever and ended up in the hospital,” she said.
By her sixth treatment, Sue’s lymph nodes had shrunk but tumors had started to form on her lungs, which she believed was a side effect of the treatment. However, doctors were not concerned about the tumors.
“They weren’t worried about it because there was another type of chemotherapy that they could give me for that so they told me it wouldn’t be a problem,” she said. “There was nothing to look forward to other than more chemotherapy. At that point, I had lost the will to live.”
During this difficult time Sue reached out to family and friends in search of an alternative treatment. Luckily a silver lining began to shine when her husband’s cousin sent her an article about a cancer treatment called honey oil. After some research of her own, Sue found that honey oil was actually a code term for cannabis oil.
Desperate to learn more about cannabis oil, she and her husband reached out to North Star Community Club, a group of cannabis activists whose goal is to provide people with resources about the medical benefits of cannabis.
“They hadn’t heard much about cannabis oil at the time but they were a huge help and provided great support,” Sue said.
A few months later she attended a Halloween party with her husband where they met former cancer patients who had used cannabis oil as a treatment for themselves. They also met people who knew how to grow cannabis and extract its oils properly.
“It was the first time in nine months where I actually had hope that there was another type of treatment other than chemotherapy that could actually work,” Sue said.
She added that she received her first dose of cannabis oil that night and decided to continue the treatment. After taking one gram per day for six months, she returned to her doctor for another CT scan; what doctors found was astonishing.
“The CT scan showed that the tumors started shrinking in my lungs and after a year there was no more sign of lymphatic activity in my lungs,” she said.
Six years later, Sue said that she takes one gram of cannabis oil daily to keep the cancer under control. She also uses it as a treatment for illnesses she developed after going through chemotherapy.
“I now have neuropathy in my feet and I can’t feel my hands. I also have no immune system. I actually have to give myself weekly injections of immunoglobulin,” she said.
In addition to the Immunoglobulin, Sue also takes an extra gram of cannabis oil as a part of her daily regimen, in an attempt to get her immune system back. She said she believes that the treatment has been working in her favor.
“It hasn’t fixed the neuropathy but I think it’s slowly repairing my immune system. The last blood test I had done came back normal and showed that my natural immune system is improving a bit. Doctors told me that would never happen after going through chemotherapy.”
While Sue has seen the medical benefits of cannabis firsthand, she believes that cannabis is a medicine that can treat certain illnesses, but not cure them.
“I think that once you start taking cannabis as a treatment, especially for an incurable disease, you have to take it forever,” she said.
She added that cancer patients should explore their treatment options and take their doctor’s advice with a grain of salt.
“Through this experience, I’ve learned that doctors who treat cancer are the only ones who benefit from the treatment. I think most of the people they treat with chemotherapy don’t really need it but it’s such a high profit for them that they will give it to the patients anyway. I think doctors rush them in way too quickly before they have the opportunity to see what other treatments are out there,” she said.
Today, Sue says she feels awesome. She and her husband have started growing cannabis plants for themselves and have dedicated their lives to telling her story to anyone who will listen as well as providing resources about alternative treatments to those who need them.
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