Our Vegetarian Journey

We would like to take you on our journey to becoming vegetarian (or more accurately Lacto ovo vegetarian meaning we still eat dairy and eggs).

When Ben first said to me that he wanted to stop eating meat, I was frankly surprised. I didn't think he would EVER think about that. He's a meat-n-potatoes kinda guy. But laying in a hospital bed for a week due to cancer complications from growing tumors tends to change your mind about things like this.

Lately we have been seeing more and more information regarding meat and its potential links to cancer. It seems to keep appearing everywhere lately. 

Is it a sign?

 Is it purely coincidence?

Both?

Either way, I tend to follow my gut on things that seem to be presenting for a reason.

We figure, "What if?"

What if The China Study is correct and not eating meat can reverse cancer?

What if meat does cause cancer and weaken our body's ability to fight it?

What if I could be free of cancer just by not eating meat?

When you're right in the middle of battling cancer, you will eventually be willing to try anything to stop the suffering. Plus, you don't need meat to be healthy so why not give it a try if it could save your life and the quality of it?

Would I do this if Ben didn't have cancer?

Honestly, probably not. I love food. But I love Ben more and it is worth it to me and it is worth it to Ben.

A little history.

Ben had cancer in 2002. Synovial sarcoma. It was a tumor in his shoulder that grew extremely fast. It went from undetectable to a grapefruit size within a month. He was diagnosed a few months after we were engaged and he started chemo the monday after we were married. After chemo, radiation and surgery, Ben was free of the cancer. The chemo didn't seem to affect it at all and the radiation did not shrink it either. The surgery was the only thing that seemed to work. 

One year passed. Then 3 years. Then we were at Ben's 5 year cure date celebrating his victory over cancer.

Fast forward 8 years, just enough time for Sara to finish her education. Ben's tight breathing provoked a chest x-ray which showed a baseball size tumor in his left lung.

This was a big shock. How could it be back? It's been 8 years?

Over the next year and a half, Ben would suffer through multiple hospitalizations, 2 lung surgeries and would find another completely different aggressive cancer in his thyroid, which also resulted in a surgery to remove his thyroid and the surrounding lymph nodes. During this time as well as following it Ben would have multiple ER visits in addition to radioactive iodine therapy and more chemotherapy that he had previously swore he would never do again because of how traumatic it was. Cancer changes things.
Now we are looking into the hospital room where the doctors can't figure out why Ben has such severe abdominal pain, is swelling all over his body, can't breath and can't keep anything down. Call it divine intervention or just a smart doctor, an echocardiogram is ordered to look at the function of his heart. The echo technician quickly called down to the doctor that would read the report to make sure he didn't go home before reading it. Very shortly after, Ben's cardiothoracic surgeon came to the hospital room and stated that Ben needed to have fluid around his heart drained because he had cardiac tamponade, so much extra fluid around his heart that it was collapsing his right atrium. Left untreated this is fatal.

Following the drain placement, Ben felt "funny" in his chest but it was a good funny because he could now breath easier and he started getting better from then on. The pain in his abdomen subsided. The emptiness he felt after the draining was a result of a long process of fluid accumulation that was caused by the cancer in his lung, now encroaching on his heart and displacing it to the right side of his body. Additionally, the cancer has spread from his lung down through his diaphragm and into his abdomen pushing his spleen out of position and compressing his stomach.

And through all this we still have hope. We still have plans for our future.

We recognize all the prayers in Ben's behalf and know they have helped.

We believe that God gave us the ability to keep ourselves as healthy as possible as well as help cure ourselves. So we are going to do our part in trying to heal Ben and then leave the rest up to God. 

His will be done in all things.

But we will do all we can and if that means trying a different food lifestyle then that is what we will try. 

So I invite you to join us in our journey towards vegetarianism and health.

I have quickly noticed how much our society depends on meat.

I have my own opinions on meat quality now compared to what we used to eat and think that maybe meat was fine to eat at one time, but is it still fine to eat now that we are trying to "mass produce" meat using hormones and such?

I just don't have all the answers but that's ok. 

The benefit would greatly outweigh any risk or trouble if these theories and studies are accurate.

So, I would love to hear if you have some creative vegetarian meal ideas or delicious ways of cooking veggies. I'll share what I come across. :)

ADDENDUM: Please see my addendum HERE.