Let's Be Honest...

I am a pretty big skeptic...

And I don't buy into a lot of conspiracy theories.  Well, I have been known to watch the X-Files on occasion, but strictly for entertainment...honestly.

So, when people start throwing around words like Curing Cancer and Unconventional, Alternative Treatments, I'm the biggest cynic around.

Scroll back the clock to a little over 5 years ago... Our small, safe world was rocked when mom's growing stomach ailments were finally diagnosed as cancer in the fall of 2010.  Cancer of the worst kind...

Pancreatic. Cancer.

I will be honest.  Within days of that diagnosis, everything was on the table.  Our focused goal, as a family, as one, became finding a cure for this beast of a disease.

And 1 month turned to 2 then 3, then 6... and no cure was to be found.  The doctors offered platitudes and statistics .  Encouraging the chemotherapy and radiation that they assured was the Gold Standard in pancreatic cancer treatment.

It failed miserably. 

The cancer was insidious and aggressive.  We perhaps bought a little time with the Gold Standard of treatment, and I will forever be grateful for the added moments and love we shared...

However, the time we bought also carried horrendous moments of pain, distress and misery for mom as the cancer decimated her body.  I am being honest.  Too often I gloss over the agony of this disease in favor of offering hope and encouragement.

And I'm afraid that the hope and encouragement I offer is meager at best.  Pancreatic Cancer takes no prisoners.  It doesn't play fair.  And often I am just too polite to be honest and real.  This cancer is taking too many lives, destroying too many families.

The Gold Standard in pancreatic cancer is simply not working.

Perhaps that is the reason that The Truth About Cancer documentary struck such a chord within me.

The very first episode shared the remarkable story of Pamela Kelsey, a pancreatic cancer survivor...

Perhaps it is time to really be honest.  And look outside the box to discover treatments that ARE working for pancreatic cancer patients.

Our 31 Day Challenge aims to do just that.  As honestly as we can.

And maybe, just maybe, we can bring a little HOPE to the table...

In Grace, Always,
                 Jane