Video: Stage 4 Breast Cancer Survivor

I was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer that had metastasized to bone. It’s been six months since I was diagnosed.

I would say I definitely have a much better quality of life now than I did before I was diagnosed.

I’m really grateful for LifeWorks. I’m really thankful for Dr. Minkoff.

Life is different for me now in that I have a lot more understanding about my body and I have a lot more confidence about being able to handle cancer. I have a lot more hope for life and for the future.

I’m Shannon Lavenia. I’m 52 years old. I’m from Dunedin, Florida, and I’m a business owner, wife, mom.

I was diagnosed with stage 3C breast cancer in 2019. I did a lot of conventional treatments and alternative treatments then, like chemotherapy, radiation, did a double mastectomy, and there weren’t any options. It was really hard. I lost all my hair.

I was very sick.

It really tore my. My body up. I had five surgeries in two years. Going back, I don’t think I would make those same decisions. I was considered no evidence of disease for about five years. I was having my regular cancer checkups. Nothing showed up that I had cancer again. The cancer antigens weren’t elevated. My doctor advised that I didn’t need a scan, which definitely, I think, was a mistake.

And then I was doing, like, maintenance, you know, nutritional support. I was seeing a dietitian. And then I had really bad back pain. I went to three different chiropractors. I went to a physical therapist. One day. It was, like, so bad, I just couldn’t even walk. And I told my husband, like, we really have to go to the emergency room because I can’t. I can’t sit, I can’t stand.

Like, there was nothing I could do to get comfortable. And we went to the hospital. They did a CAT scan, saw it right away. I had a vertebra in my back that had broken because a tumor had grown there. So then I was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer that had metastasized to bone. I was hospitalized for eight days, had surgery, had a spinal fusion, an ablation, and went home and had to figure out, like, what I was going to do this time.

I had already made up my mind that if the cancer ever came back, I was not going to do traditional cancer treatment because I had already done it once. It was really, really hard. It took me a number of years to recover from it. I have friends who’ve gone to LifeWorks and had successful treatments. So I decided to explore that as an option. My experience when I first came to lifeworks Wellness center was very different than when I went through cancer treatment the first time

I sat down with Dr. Minkoff, I said, I really want to know why this cancer came back and what can I do to not have it come back again and how do we handle it? He gave me a lot of data about what actually causes cancer. And then he talked to me about testing. Let’s do this RGCC test. Look at what your cancer cells respond to, and then create a plan after that.

When I looked at my particular test results, I could see answers to things that I had never had explained to me before. And not only did it give me answers, but it gave me solutions, and it gave me a lot of hope and knowledge so I could be more responsible with my own body. I definitely feel a lot more in control. So it wasn’t like, okay, these are the three things we do for every single cancer patient that has your type of cancer.

First, chemo. The red devil you can only do once in a lifetime because it is so toxic. I had to actually use a different bathroom in my house. I wasn’t allowed to touch anybody. Nobody was allowed to touch me. My clothes had to be washed separate than everybody else’s. And it was really hard being a mom and not being able to touch my daughter. They wanted to do the immunotherapy with a chemotherapy called Taxol.

It gave me really bad neuropathy. And this time when I did the RGCC test, it showed Taxol wouldn’t even really be effective. So why go through that if it’s not going to help?

Based on the testing that we did, the RGCC test, the data gave me the ability to make intelligent decisions. My plan was tailor made to me. Even with the chemotherapy I did with Dr. Minkoff, the low dose chemotherapy, the IPT, the three chemotherapies that were chosen showed in a test as effective against my cancer cells.

And this time when I went through chemotherapy, I wasn’t sick. I didn’t lose my hair. I didn’t have to not touch anybody. You know, we weren’t, I didn’t have to isolate. Everyone was allowed to use the same furniture. The person delivering the chemotherapy wasn’t dressed up in a hazmat suit. So it was a very different experience. And I also knew from the testing that this chemotherapy was actually going to kill the cancer cells.

So it made it worth doing.

I did complete my personalized treatment plan. I feel great. I have a lot more energy. I’m sleeping better. My digestive system is way better. I’m fairly confident that I don’t have any active cancer. Like all of my test results have come back pretty conclusive. And I mean, with stage four, you’re always kind of like wondering if there’s a cell here or a cell there or whatever.

But I’m on a follow up program and I feel like that’s doing really great.

I think everyone should consider coming at least for the consultation because you don’t know what your options are until you know what your options are.

The thing that I really loved about Dr. Minkoff as well is he truly is integrative care. A lot of holistic therapy doctors only want you to do holistic therapy. And I know that there’s also good modalities conventionally. So I wanted a doctor who was willing to give me an opinion on both. And Dr. Minkoff was. So I’m doing immunotherapy through a conventional oncology center and Dr. Minkoff was able to give me data on whether that would be good or not as part of my program. And I really appreciated that.

Let’s say the cancer. Cancer did come back. I still feel like I have effective handlings on what to do to attack it, to get rid of it again. So I’m just not stressed out about it, which is a really good place to be.

Now that my health is better, I’m a lot more active. I do things with my family, like kayaking, we went to a cave to go snorkeling and things like that. The first time I went through chemotherapy, like the first chemo, the red devil you can only do once in a lifetime because it is so toxic.

But with these treatments, because they are improving my health, I can come back as much as I want. And even on the maintenance program, like, I’m still doing IVs, I’m still drinking Kaqun water, I’m still taking certain supplements, I’m still following a nutritional plan. You know, these help me to feel better. And they’re optimizing the internal terrain of my body to prevent the cancer from coming back.

I’m really grateful for LifeWorks. I’m really thankful for Dr. Minkoff. I’m grateful every day that it’s here and the amount of knowledge and care that they put forth. All of the staff are very caring. It is very different than going to a traditional oncology office where it’s like you’re in, you’re out, you’re a number. I think the group of staff that they have here is the most caring group of staff that I’ve ever met when it comes to oncology.