Soul’s Journey

Lisa Engelke is a young, devoted wife and mother of two young children. She is also a Stage IV Metastatic Triple Negative Breast Cancer Survivor with no chemotherapy, radiation or hormonal drug treatments.

As a Middle School student Lisa was enrolled into the independent study program at the National Cancer Institute at Ft. Detrick, Maryland, intending to find the cure for Cancer before it took anymore of her family members.

After facing 30 years of living in toxic environments, unexplainable illnesses and two very challenging pregnancies and deliveries, she began hitting a brick wall with conventional medicine, always suffering side-effects and poor results. Although conventional medicine and intervention had saved her life multiple times, it was clear that the overuse of not just conventional medicine, but the conventional lifestyle that she had been living was causing her more harm than good.

This is when she began her in-depth research of natural & ancient medicines, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Energy Medicine. She applied them to herself and her children who started to reflect the same symptoms she suffered with as a child.

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Supported by the unwavering love from her husband and armed with these new tools    and information, she was now able to reverse chronic eczema, chronic infections, acne, inflammation, migraines, gut issues, heart problems, depression and anxiety in herself       and in her family.

It was Lisa’s diagnosis 5 years after getting “healthy” with nutrition and reversing most chronic issues, that pushed her into the more in-depth independent research of integrative methods to reverse and prevent long term chronic illness.

Lisa found a lump and was diagnosed in Feb 2015, at the young age of 35, with Stage II Invasive Ductal Carcinoma.  Tests confirmed more specifically that it was Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC), a type that is more aggressive in women under 40 that does not respond well to chemotherapy, radiation or drugs.

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Out of all breast cancer types, approximately 15% are TNBC and it has the lowest 5-year relative survival rate of only 14%. She was told that those 5 years (or most likely less) would “guarantee a second cancer”.

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Chemotherapy, radiation & Tamoxifen were still aggressively recommended and she was even told that the success rate would be about 50% by 3 of her doctors. She was also told she would recover quickly & wouldn’t have to quit work. “You’re young, you’ll bounce back, you’ll do great!”

Why were the statistics that her doctors telling her so different than the research had showed? This discrepancy re-ignited Lisa to pursue her intensive research into integrative and holistic methods to reversing and preventing Cancer. She was also contacted by her friend Ivelisse Page, a young Stage IV colon cancer survivor who was also told she had a very small statistical percentage of success with chemo and radiation. At that point Ivelisse had been surviving it without chemo or radiation for 8 years after her surgeries with diet modification, supplementation, European Mistletoe and her strong faith and belief. What a gift of HOPE!  http://naturalsociety.com/real-life-cancer-treatments-mistletoe-extract/

Mistletoe contains a cytotoxic lectin, viscumin. It also contains a number of cytotoxic proteins and polypetides (viscotoxins). Various lectins are both cytotoxic and immunostimulatory. It induces tumor necrosis, increases natural killer cell activity, increases production of interleukins 1 and 6; activates macrophages; induces programmed cell death (apoptosis), and protects DNA in normal cells during chemotherapy.

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Over just a 2 month time the Cancer had spread very quickly and Lisa and husband Ken felt they had to make a radical decision to buy time. In April 2015, after Lisa had started supplementation and mistletoe, she had a single mastectomy with 3 lymph nodes removed and an attempted reconstruction. Much to the surgeon’s surprise, the lymph nodes were negative and Lisa came out with a clear pathology report! The doctor was certain they would be positive with “that much cancer” in her breast and explained how surprising it was. The treatments at home and the mistletoe was working! …but the doctor didn’t want to look any closer into this medical anomaly. She spoke quickly with no eye contact and exited the room fast.

The reconstructive surgery brought a number of complications and many more surgeries throughout the year. The Alloderm was liquefying and the doctor had never seen this before. He deemed the reconstruction “unsuccessful” and pulled out the Alloderm and tissue expander, but this was a success in Lisa’s eyes. It was a blessing in disguise and more victory for mistletoe and all of the holistic treatments she had been pursuing at home.

Two months after her mastectomy, in June, Lisa’s mother passed away. She then, while still unrecovered from surgeries, had to leave the family business with Ken to care for her ill father and had to quickly put him in a home for his fast progressing Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Lisa and her family suffered such great losses around them during this time.

By February of 2016, instead of celebrating a year clear of Cancer, she was back into the surgeon discussing what to do with the new lump in a lymph node, a recurrence, now Metastatic, now presumed Stage III. After the nightmare of the first biopsy, they decided to have the whole lymph removed, not wanting to risk another biopsy to spread the cancer even faster, like before. She proceeded with the surgery and had it removed. The surgeon discovered quickly that there was a large mass that had spread into the surrounding muscle tissue. It was removed and classified as Stage IV Metastatic Breast Cancer and leaving her with lymphadema, chronic pain, and disabled. Doctors pressed for her to get more surgery, chemo and radiation.

Life began to get more and more difficult. Every step of the way the insurance companies bullied and changed their minds about covering anything preventative to help. Was this because she rejected chemo & radiation? Deciding to forgo chemo and radiation was not an overnight decision and one that she and her husband did not take lightly. There were very limited resources and charities available to those with Cancer who chose not to go the route of chemo or radiation. There was no coverage for lymphadema care or the compression clothing she needed, to help prevent any further infections and to help her with daily pain, no scar massage therapy or even emotional therapy was covered. Even social security disability came back with a letter stating that she was “not disabled enough”. The scar had become hardened to her chest wall, and the lymphadema worsened. She now faced the inability to perform simple basic tasks for herself and her children and family. Friends and family started to fall away and their business began to suffer because Ken had to care for the home, children and his ill wife.

Completely isolated and abandoned by the medical system, Lisa was left with no other options but to find other low-cost non-toxic options and apply them at home. As the pain medication began to destroy her body and make her more ill and lose weight rapidly, she began searching for non-toxic options for pain management. She kept up with treatments at home to keep the lymphadema in check, like light exercise, rebounding, coffee enemas, dry-brushing, juicing and a plant-based super clean diet, clean water and continuing mistletoe. She found a local affordable community acupuncture clinic. And she also pursued her Reiki degrees, that had become so powerful in her treatment of pain, emotional and spiritual support. The Reiki bought her more time while waiting for medical cannibus to be approved in the state. A few dear friends continued to step in and donate help where they could.

After the Stage IV news, the community came together so quickly and raised the money to send her to Durango, CO at Namaste Health Center for a two week mistletoe IV intensive treatment after a mystery hospitalization in July 2016. Friends and local moms made a schedule to help with the children to make this trip possible for Lisa. Lisa was able to document and share her incredible journey through her Facebook page.

Scans after her trip to Colorado still showed metabolic activity in three lymph nodes so she continued to stay on track with treatments at home. Lisa did well until a CT scan reaction to the contrast (iodine) injection in January of 2017 triggered her into a 4 month long “Thyroid Storm”. She lost 50% of her hair and became very weak and pale. It was becoming very clear that there was an auto-immune component layered under her condition as well.

More research and testing showed that she had a chronic viral load of Epstein-Barr Virus and mysterious auto-immune symptoms driving the illness that continued to remain undetected by modern conventional tests.

Lisa was becoming very discouraged. It was hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. She was trapped in a downward spiral and running out of options and unable to afford another trip to Colorado. A dear friend of her husband stepped forward and helped to fund a whole month of treatments with GW-Center for Integrative Medicine in May 2017. This was the closest facility she could find that would administer her remaining mistletoe from her previous trip to Colorado. The good news was they also offered high dose vitamin C. During this month Lisa also continued acupuncture, chiropractic adjustments and treatments at home, including LDN, the “game-changer”. Lisa was able to go twice a week and by the end of one month all of her labs had normalized and she was approved to go into reconstructive surgery! And now that she had lived with a flat chest along with all of the complications to bear for two years, the insurance FINALLY approved a DIEP FLAP reconstructive surgery. But why wouldn’t they cover the preventative treatments to prevent this major surgery in the first place?

As everything fell into place, the disability fight was finally a victory offering some relief for Lisa’s family. They were able to hire a nanny/nurse for the summer of recovery from surgery and bring in some important home treatment tools for continuing non-toxic gentle treatments, like an infrared sauna, infrared heating pad and ionic foot bath. Gentle detox proved to be the best path moving forward as her ND sweetly refers to her as “The super sensitive flower patient”. The discovery of the auto-immune component and viral load helped to explain the mysterious symptoms and to specialize her treatments moving forward. Lisa pulled away from immune boosting supplements and herbs and focused more on immune modulators like Reiki, mistletoe, homeopathy and LDN. And based on her labs and genetic counseling with Optimal Terrain through Dr Nasha Winters, she was happy to introduce quality grass-fed meats and healthy high fats back into her diet. She potentiated her treatments as well by rotating the ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting, yielding great results in such a short amount of time.

The DIEP FLAP surgery in June 2017 was an incredible success. Lisa was told to prepare for a week in surgery with up to 4 drains and possible complications to be rolled back into the OR but she was out of the hospital in 3 days with only 1 drain for 24 hours. There were very few complications and inflammation with this major surgery. She was able to hire a RKMRI certified medical reiki practitioner to be with her during surgery. A community of dear “Reiki sisters” came forward to care for her in the hospital so her husband could focus on the kids at home and keep their business going. Angels in the community continued to step forward to help. She was able to decline all anxiety medications and reduce the pain medications and decline any post surgical antibiotics. She was only on pain medications and drugs for 2 months, then was quickly able to get back on track with the home treatments and holistic care, which was now proving to be more powerful and effective for her than conventional drugs or over the counter medicines. Lisa continued the mistletoe and high dose vitamin C infusions with GW during the months after, helping to speed along her recovery from surgery.

Lisa discovered Biocept and was able to convince the doctors at GW to bring it into their practice, giving her a non-toxic liquid biopsy option, so she and Ken felt better about reducing the number of scans per year. Her latest results show a very low number of circulating tumor cells. But this was a small victory bubble popped by the insurance companies once again. Lisa is closely monitored by her team of doctors and all of these treatments and therapies continue to be 100% out-of-pocket as the insurance companies continue to decline and change their mind about coverage for Lisa’s needs. And now that Lisa is with Medicare (because she was approved for disability) this now covers LESS options than Medicaid did.

Today, Lisa continues mistletoe injections and infusions, as well as high dose vitamin C infusions as often as she can. All are dependent on the number of donations that come in to her GoFundMe page or PayPal. They are rotated with whatever non-toxic low cost options that she can find and apply at home. Lisa has set up a retreat-like studio in her home mimicking a treatment center like Namaste with the collection of non-toxic therapies she has collected over the past 3 years. The main components of treatments for her Thriving lifestyle are the infrared sauna, ionic foot bath, acupuncture, homeopathy, LDN, Chinese herbs, biomat, medical cannibus, immune modulating supplements, hydrotherapy, cycling ketogenic diet, intermittent fasting, fruit fasting, natural sunlight, community connection, essential oils, holistic dentistry, mineral balancing & Reiki or energy medicine. She hopes to expand and open a center where she can educate and offer these options to the public and setup programs for families in need.

Lisa’s most respected, honorable and prestigious titles still remain as “Mom”.

She now also finds great joy in becoming an author, a health coach and a public figure of Hope to tell her healing story. It is Lisa’s mission to be a credible source of information for integrative and complimentary therapies that can be applied to any person or illness, not just Cancer. She hopes to be a catalyst for real science, energy medicine & intuitive healing, to bring forth community awareness about the state of our healthcare system and to empower individuals to take control of their own health.

Lisa hopes to promote the necessary awakening in patient advocacy through educational lectures and interviews for patients, families, and medical professionals.

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“In a world where we are seeing so much drug resistance, it seems clear to me that we need to incorporate natural methods to heal and to potentiate therapies. This is the Truth that my story has brought forward.

Why wouldn’t we try that first?

And without instilling so much crippling fear?

Why has our health been bastardized by someone else money profiting standards? How did we let it go on for this long?

Why does it have to take a health crisis for us to awaken?

This is where my passion and drive comes from, in asking these questions and wanting to reach individuals and families before this happens to them.

We live in a world where our major health decisions are made by insurance companies, not doctors! It is heartbreaking to watch so many people turn a blind eye in the face of so many walking skeletons…Tricked into following a system that blinds us with fear, leading us to ignore the intuitive signals from our bodies, and therefore we blindly turn our bodies over to a system with standards that has no design or focus around the beautiful biochemical individuality that our diverse sea of humans possess.

So many times, close to “The Edge”, I have laid on my “death bed” thinking….is this it? Am I supposed to die because I don’t have proper money or coverage? Is this really how God designed us to be and live? …Wake up – go ignore your children to make money – give it to the system – nothing left for yourself or your family? And kill yourself doing it?

NO!

It seems we have been so far removed from the basic necessities that our bodies are truly reflecting the outcome of the abandonment of nature. Our bodies reflect the earth.

This perverse abandonment of nature is the abandonment of love. I was abandoned until I met Ken. And I don’t mean that he saved me, or that I was a real orphan. I came from a very close and loving family. It was his love and reflection of me through his eyes that guided me to save myself, Love myself, and to never abandon myself. We are all abandoned until we choose Love. Love heals all.

Love is the center of our story and survival. It was and still is Ken’s love and the birth of our children that transformed me, it ignited the necessary awakening to break free of that toxic conventional lifestyle, and the very reason I am here and Thriving today.”

-Lisa Engelke 2017-

***Lisa’s first speaking engagement is with the Annie Appleseed Project in West Palm Beach, Fla at the CAMS (Complimentary and Alternative Cancer Therapies conference) where she was asked to speak on the patient panel and attend as their newest Board member.

You can also anticipate reading her first published story in an upcoming (unreleased)        new book, where Lisa shares her powerful personal healing Reiki story.

Preview  Natural Therapies for Triple Negative Breast Cancer