OH WHAT A DAY IT'S BEEN! How fun is this to get to share my joy and excitement with you all. Below is a list of the main treatments I am doing, these treatments are tailored specifically for me, and are not a "one size fits all by any means". I am working specifically with a team of professionals to help guide my healing journey, and heal my body of cancer. Cancer is our own cells- it's not a foreign thing in my body. Our cells are intelligent, they are incredible, and they sometimes can be fesity. Cancer cells can evolve, as do our treatments and approach to always keep the cancer on it's toes and weaken itself- so that it does not become resistant to a treatment. BEFORE you read all of this, I've been instructed to "stop limiting people's ability to help you". The way I could use help in the next four weeks before my next PET scan, if you feel led to... ORGANIC Vegetables/fruit for juicing. Whether you could purchase some and drop them off, have them delivered, or prep them for me, that would be amazing. Juicing is so good for me but time consuming due to the prep work. If interested reach out and I can text you what a normal haul of vegetables would be for me- two juice recipes for example are: 5 stalks celery, 1 cucumber, 2 carrots, 1 lemon, chunk of ginger, granny smith apple. The other juice is: 5 lb bag of carrots- I have to peel all of these and then juice them- to make 40 oz of carrot juice. Another way you could help is if you wanted to cut/cook some Organic vegetables for me- however you like them- and drop them off for me to have prepped veggeis in my fridge/cooler at work, that would be HUGE. The fruit I eat right now is limited to- raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries currently. The thing about cooking vegetables is that, it's preferred that you don't place hot cooked vegetables into a plastic to go container. This sounds super picky and I hate saying it, but my mother in law (sweet Patty) told me to just say it. Hot food into plastic to go containers releases the plastic compounds into the food. Literally a major thing I am trying to avoid. So if you wanted to help cook vegetables/that's your thing I would love it. I love and eat all veggies basically. No special way- I love trying foods how other people enjoy them. It's ok to put them in plastic to go containers, just once they are cooled. And if you're like, yeah Ali I don't do veggies or fruit- but you crush it smoking meat and that's easy for you- meal prepping meat- organic if it can be- is huge for me for work as well. Anyways- back to this hyperbaric chamber. I had no idea how this lovely piece of equipment was going to fit into my journey, no idea when it would fit into my journey, or how we would afford it. Thankfully an amazing woman who knows my in laws very well, felt led by her faith to throw a benefit for me before Christmas and raised almost the exact amount of money needed for us to make this purchase of the chamber. This is what's called a hyperbaric chamber. The way it works is I climb in, and Tony zips it shut and clips it closed. No air leaks. He turns on the oxygen and pure oxygen (normally two to three times that ofthe normal atmosphere) gets pumped into the chamber I am laying in. It's like a tube with a mat in it and a pillow. Then it fills with pressurized pure oxygen which essentially forces its way into your cells saturating them with oxygen, which creates an environment cancer hates. It also gets into the plasma and the cerebrospinal fluid in the brain, spinal cord, and lymph. The cells receive 15 times more oxygen than they would under normal conditions, and the lungs get three times more oxygen. Cancer functions best in most people in an anaerobic environment. Meaning without oxygen. So when you saturate your red blood cells/plasma with oxygen and your tissues, it becomes toxic to cancer cells but also helps healthy cells function better. It will stimulate your body to release growth factors, and stem cells that promote healing. It also significantly reduces inflammation-which inflammation is what you don't want in your body, especially with cancer. (All this info has been derived from a book called the Cancer Revolution which has been incredibly helpful in my journey.)

RED LIGHT THERAPY- This is a handheld device I use that helps heal and wake up the mitochondria in your cells. It helps generate ATP (energy) in your cell that promotes healing. I hold it in front of my cancer for about 15 minutes a day. It is also very good for sore muscles and your skin!

DANDELION JUICE- as my partner called my juice- is a juice that a friend makes for me that I used to dislike but ended up falling in love with. A part of my journey is trying to flood my body with nutrition. I am not a good eater. I like to eat maybe 2 meals a day and call it good (even before cancer). Not a big snacker. Especially in the ambulance we just get so busy and it's overnights when I work, so just not as easy to eat when you need to. Juicing is something I have grown to really enjoy, and am going to try and start doing regularly. There will be an opportunity for you to help me if you would like, through helping me with vegetables for juicing!

CURCUMIN- This is a treatment that I started out with 100grams of Curcumin, and each week increased by 100 grams. This treatment was weird. It would make my cancer sore that night, and the next day, because it creates cell death which is kind of a sore process. It also had the weirdest side effect- it made me smell. I would emit this smell of a "sour spaghetti sauce" as my sister described it- and dubbed me the nickname "Speggy". Thankfully my work partners put up with it and wouldn't really mention it. Unitl I was in the stablization room with a critical patient, and THROUGH THE MASKS- the entire care team of doctors and nurses were trying to figure out what smelled so odd. It was me. I had just finished the highest dose of Curcumin of 600grams the day before and the smell was ripe. They all had a good laugh when I told them it was my cancer treatments. Curcumin essentialy: "disables tumor survival mechanisms and processes in the body that lead to cancer, interferes with cancer stem cell development, disrupts NF-kappaB, an inflammatory chemical responsible for initiation of cancer development". (All this info has been derived from a book called the Cancer Revolution as well). HIGH DOSE VITAMIN C- this treatment I receive weekly, this is not drinking "a lot of orange juice". This is 75grams of vitamin C through an IV- which goes directly into my cells- because if you ingest it orally your body would not be able to process it and distribute it appropriately. This treatment I get through my port most weeks, and pairs really well with the hyperbaric chamber. High dose vitamin C enters the cancer cells and creates hydrogen peroxide through a molecular reaction, and the cells can't function off of that and they die. The hyperbaric assists in thinning out a layer of "goo" the cancer sometimes puts around itself as the tumor to protect anything from getting in and harming it. When the red blood cells come to the tumor (because tumors have their own blood supply they get fed from, that you want to eventually want to kill off)- when the red blood cells come to the tumor loaded with pure oxygen, it spreads out that goo and thins it, allowing the vitamin C to better get into the cell causing the molecular reaction, leading to cell death.

This little girl- she is so incredibly sweet. Receiving a stage 4 cancer diagnosis really makes you have some crazy thoughts. There can be some dark corners that your mind goes to, but you have to be able to vocalize those things to the people in your inner circle, so they can help you work through them. I had a few good cries while visiting in Iowa recently, for a lot of reasons, but a lot of them were over this sweet girl. She was born a couple months exactly to the day after my dad died. She has his eyes, and has been such a source of joy (with her older brother Weston) for my family. She has so much sass, and gives some of the most straight forward -you can see on her face what she's thinking- kind of looks. I want to heal my body, go into remission, and continue to carry on these lifestyle changes I have made, so that I can continue being the most bad@$$ aunt for this girl that I can be. Love on her and Weston (and my other nephew Quinn) and any other nieces and nephews, or future kids of my own that I hope to be blessed with one day.

This is a photo of my hair growing back, I still wear a head wrap most days (it's cold out)! Or I will wear a wig when I work. I am working on becoming more comfortable in my short hair, but it's a work in progress. I have people tell me often (close in my life) how much they love my short hair and how cute it is. I don't disagree, but it's not something that I chose to do. It was out of my control, and so it makes it a lot harder to embrace the new look. I am incredibly thankful for my hair dresser Megan, and Morgan, for helping me out during this challenge of life that I wouldn't wish on anyone. Morgan has given me the most bad@$$ wig that has ever existed in my opinion, and I get comments on it ALL the time stil whenever I wear it. Brings me so much joy and confidence. These next four weeks, we are going to be doing what we are calling "four weeks hard". Some people within in my life have decided that they are going to do something hard/challenging for them, and do it alongside me doing four weeks hard, and I will be putting treatments that I do at home, at top priority and really focusing on nutrition and finding rest. Mentally and physically trying to build rest into my life. That doesn't mean I am taking time off from work, but that means when I am off from work, I can't try and do every single treatment possible. Narrowed down the daily non-negotiables, and then add in what I can, within reason each day. If you want to join in on "four weeks hard", let me know! I have friends chosing to eat better, workout more, go sober with me to reduce inflammation in my body, switch to organic coffee to help reduce inflammation because most coffees have a significant amount of mold in them which causes GI issues and all over body inflammation. Text messages, snaps on snapchat- whatever you want to help keep me motivated to accomplish my "non negotiables" each day until I have a PET scan that will tell us how well our treatments have been working. For example- if you text me: "drink your water...take your supplements...eat some protein..." all good things! :) My treatments are being over seen by an Oncologist at HCMC, but the man behind it all is a doctor of Osteopathy out of Mankato, MN that we were led to. He has been so knowledable, and so supportive of everything I do, but also able to tell me when to pump the brakes, stop worrying, etc. He loves that I throw all sorts of different treatment options I've learned at him, I challenge him with questions, and he welcomes it and enjoys being able to discuss these things with me. My recent specific cancer treatments have been based off of a bloodtest we did back at the end of November, and my bloodwork got sent over to Greece to get ran through a panel of natural supplements, and chemicals, to see what kills my cancer, circulating tumor cells (cancer not yet growing), and how many circulating tumor cells I have in my blood. I could be considered "No evidence of disease" by a PET Scan one day, but still have circulating tumor cells that are waiting to take up host somewhere else in my body, that I would continue treatment for. These circulating tumor cells (not yet growing as cancerous) are the things that cause reoccurance in people. At the end of February we will re-do the blood test to see how many circulating tumor cells I have in my blood (not a test done by an Oncologist, but done by my Mankato doctor). and then we will have the PET scan to determine how well the tailored treatments I have been doing that showed what kills my cancer, have been working. I wish I could tell you "the cancer has shrunk and I can't even tell where it is anymore". But that's not the case. The high dose Vitamin C treatment I do every week causes cell death and when cell death occurs, there is a release of gas that gets trapped in the dead tissue of the tumor/lymph nodes and it becomes swollen. So the PET scan will show us how much of the tumor/lymph nodes are dead tissue that needs to be cleaned up by my body, and the metabolic rate of the cancer. I believe my cancer is still active because it gets sore after treatments still. But we try our best to celebrate the soreness knowin that it is cell death and we are healing my body. Still hoping and praying for no evidence of disease though, when the PET scan comes. Non-Negotiables each day I will be doing are: daily supplements, oils, liver detox patch, red light therapy, dry brush therapy, hyberbaric "dives", daily green smoothie, daily juices, 120 oz of water, 7 servings of vegetables, 60-80 oz of protein, NO ALCOHOL, and learning how to find rest daily. Added thearpies I will try and do through out the week, sometimes 3-4 times a week, other times once a week or every other week: Sauna, Ice baths, Chiroprctor adjustments, acupunture treatments, massage therapy, meditaion, and my favorite- Crossfit. We appreciate everyone's love and support, and you all mean the world to us. This is a journey we never asked to be apart of, but are trying to embrace it the best that we can.