You look healthy
Three words dear to her heart –
‘You look healthy’
Some words, some terms sound good even if you do not know for sure what they mean. Others just sound bad. You know it as soon as you see or hear the word or term Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Now there is a word that sounds good. It is a nonsense word but you have to smile just thinking about it.Stage IIIc, papillary, serous and clear cell, poorly differentiated ovarian carcinoma. You just know this is not a good term, even if you do not know what it means. It has a bad sound, it is in fact bad. On a scale of 1-10, it is a 10. It is a very aggressive and fast-growing cancer. Two months prior to learning she had the disease, Goldie Garner was given a clean bill of health. Then to learn she had a cancer that needed immediate attention was almost too much. That she went from a clean bill of health to having a tumor the size of a grapefruit in her lower left side was pretty awful. But the news got worse.
Goldie, an AIM Director from Centreville, Maryland, headed straight for the hospital. She had a complete hysterectomy, had 18 inches of her colon removed, and was told she needed six treatments of chemotherapy that would take five hours for each treatment. Then came more bad news. “My doctor informed me that this type of cancer is a recurring type and also told me that I would get it back. This news was devastating to me. I thought it was over with the surgery and the chemo treatments.”
Her life, she says, became one of desperation. “I prayed to the Lord to help me fight this situation and give me the strength to get through it,” Goldie recalls. What resulted was a change in diet and she began using AIM products. “Today, I am healthy and have been cancer free for eight years,” exclaims Goldie.
Following the chemotherapy, “I started having bladder infections,” says Goldie. “The infection cleared up after taking AIM CranVerry® and AIM FloraFood®. Then the cancer fatigue started and I increased my AIM BarleyLife® and that went away. Since I had stopped all medications, and after the chemotherapy treatments, the resulting health problems were cleared up only by the use of AIM products and a natural diet.”
For Goldie to be incapacitated by an illness was something new in her active life. Growing up she played softball, field hockey, basketball, volleyball, and swam. She was captain in all her sports. All that exercise was gone with the cancer. Now that is behind her and she is back … taking care of the family five-acre lawn, gardening, swimming 50 laps per day, bowling, bike riding, and playing ball with the grandchildren.
Goldie and husband Ron, who is a builder, have three children and 11 grandchildren. Goldie grew up on a 500-acre farm in Maryland. There were 100 cows to milk with fields planted with corn, soybeans, wheat, and hay. “There was always something to do on the farm,” she says.
Maybe it was the mental toughness of being an athlete, possibly life on the farm helped, and do not forget the power of prayer. As Ron says, “Goldie demonstrated the right mental attitude toward her life-threatening ordeal. Through it all Goldie radiated a positive atmosphere, displayed determination, and the discipline to stay on track to a healthy recovery. The outcome of her dedication produced the greatest compliment a doctor could say: ‘You look healthy.’”
Ovarian cancer is deadly, the fifth leading cause of cancer death in women. Women in the United States have a 1.4 to 2.5 percent chance of developing some type of ovarian cancer. In 2007, there were 22,430 new cases diagnosed. There were 15,280 deaths. More than one-half of the deaths are in women ages 55-74.
Goldie knows she escaped a death sentence. “I choose not to dwell on it. I don’t like to worry about anything. I like to start each day with a new attitude and plenty of gratitude. Make the best of each and every day. Don’t whine or whimper over things you don’t have any control over. I look at what happened to me as a bump on the road and an inconvenience that I had to get over.”
AIM BarleyLife® is the core of Goldie’s AIM regimen. In all, she takes 12 AIM products but, she says, “I would not have a day without AIM BarleyLife®.”
While recovering from her cancer, her doctor focused on a particular blood test with the hope of having a reading below 35. At one point Goldie’s reached down to 3.5, the lowest possible and best reading. You can’t go any lower, said the doctor. But the next time her reading was below 2.0, off the chart. Her doctor could not explain such a great result. But Goldie can. “It’s nutrition and AIM BarleyLife®. I was taking six tablespoons of it per day” and she believes it created an alkaline presence in her body instead of an acid profile. “It was that day that I realized AIM BarleyLife® is a powerful punch for my health. I would not have a day without my AIM BarleyLife®.”
At one point, Goldie and Ron traveled to Idaho where they met Chairman’s Club Directors Jim and Carolyn Kling. They encouraged them to attend the Texas BarleyLife Convention. “This is where we first heard Dr. Mary Ruth Swope and Janet Pauly (both AIM Chairman’s Club Directors) and many testimonies on how people were healed from so many different illnesses by changing their lifestyle and diet. I feel AIM goes to the very limit to improve and test its products. I feel the products are of the highest quality in the market today,” says Goldie.
Janet Pauly holds a special place in Goldie’s heart. “Without a doubt Janet Pauly’s testimony (about her beating cancer nearly 20 years ago) and Janet talking with me really gave me a lot of encouragement that I was on the right track” in using AIM products.
“It is not what you have in life but who you have in life,” advises Goldie “I am so thankful to have such a wonderful husband, a loving family, and so many wonderful friends. Life is about relationships. Live a day at a time and always have a good attitude. My Dad told me to remember that there is always someone worse off than you and I never forgot that.”
“Cherish your health,” adds Goldie. “If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help. Keep learning.”
Back to those words that have meaning even though you are not exactly sure what they mean. Forget that bad term that Goldie heard from her gynecologist some nine years ago. Focus instead on supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Even though it is found in most dictionaries, it is still generally considered a made-up word. It is meant to express approval or gratitude. It might not be a word Goldie Garner uses but it is a pretty good word to describe who she is today and how she got here.
Thank you AIM, she says. Thank you family. Thank you friends.
Thank you God