Silvia Oceguera

I believe God prepared me for this cancer journey, and, in the beginning of it, when I was feeling desperate with fear, He told me to walk this journey with joy and that He'd use it in my life to witness to others of His faithfulness and love. When I heard Him say that in my spirit, it brought me such peace. After that, I just started praising Him ... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

In March 2006, my emotions had been a bit unstable; I caught myself overreacting to things. So, I began to pray about that and asked my husband and children to pray as well. I took some time for myself to pray and fast and seek the Lord. I had asked Christ into my heart as Lord and Savior when I was 16, and since then, I've walked with Him.

During that time of prayer and fasting, I felt God lead me to the book of Daniel in the Bible, and then, as I read, I felt Him tell me, like the angel Gabriel told Daniel, not to fear what would come, because I'd set myself to seek the Lord & and also that I was to seek wisdom and understanding. At the time, I didn't know the full implications of what those verses were to mean to me, I just noted them.

A couple days later, I felt a lump in breast, and I knew it was something. I just told the Lord that I knew we all go through difficult trials and circumstances, and that since He was with me, we'd fight this together. I went to the doctor, and a biopsy showed it was cancer.

My doctor wanted me to go to an oncologist in the area, but my husband, who was knowledgeable about nutrition and supplements and their impact on the body, didn't want me to just go where someone would do conventional treatment and not care about the whole body. He wanted me to go where I'd receive full person care, including nutritional and supplement help.

We'd seen the ads on television for Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), never thinking we'd ever need them ourselves. But when we started doing research on the Internet, we found CTCA again. I called, and after talking to an Oncology Information Specialist for a long time, he told me that even if I didn't choose to come to CTCA, they'd be there for me and that they had excellent information available. That made me feel so hopeful and cared for.

There were some difficulties with the insurance my husband and I each had, and while we were waiting for those to be worked through, my husband began thinking I should go somewhere else. That was a very difficult time for me, and the only time when I felt desperate and full of fear over the cancer. When you know you have a condition like cancer, you want to have something done as soon as possible or you start imagining all sorts of terrible things. But before all the arrangements and the appointment were actually made with this other doctor, I was approved for CTCA, and that's where I wanted to go.

We arrived at CTCA in Tulsa in late April 2006, just as they were celebrating their first-year anniversary in their new facility. During my initial rounds with clinicians, doctors and testings, I learned I had Stage 2, estrogen and progesterone-positive cancer in my left breast. I soon underwent a partial mastectomy, and then went through six months of chemotherapy and a month and a half of radiation with TomoTherapy®. I finished up in January 2007, and my three-month check-up showed no evidence of cancer.

During my treatment at CTCA, I've been blessed by how the caregiver is cared for as well as the patient. And my husband was elated with the amount of education we were both given on cancer ... the Lord, remember, had told me to seek wisdom and understanding, and I believe CTCA was where He supplied it. We received a wealth of information here. Naturopathy and Nutrition have been so helpful. Naturopathy confirmed that one of the supplements my husband had told me to go on was correct. That made him feel great. I had already made some changes with my diet and exercise before I came here, but with Physical Therapy and Nutrition at CTCA, I made even more. The spiritual support is wonderful. The chaplains were always available to encourage me and unite with me in prayer. I also loved the classes I attended at CTCA that were provided by different churches.

While in Tulsa for treatment, we visited a number of wonderful churches as well. I took my husband to Rhema for our anniversary, since he'd grown spiritually under that ministry. That was a joy. And we just met so many wonderful people, both at CTCA and in Tulsa. It was a blessing.

Through my experience with cancer, God has kept His Word in so many ways, and He's worked in my church and my family, drawing all of us closer to Him, and in giving me many opportunities to confess His Name.

Although there are parts of this journey that are really tough, like the fatigue, the emotions that well up -- even beyond your ability to control them -- and the loss of hair, I never thought of myself as someone dying of cancer. I've only seen myself as someone living with cancer and fighting it.

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