It almost seems like yesterday, when I was hiking with my family in Sedona on the September Labor day weekend in 2001. We were almost to the top, when our eight-year-old daughter, Christie showed signs of vertigo. I felt a little relieved to be heading back down the mountain, as I was a little tired from being up most of the night with severe stomach pains that subsided by daybreak. I had been concerned for a few months, as I no longer seemed to have the energy that I used to. I always kept active with daily walks, workouts in the gym at least 5 times a week, and I had just received my High Blue belt in Tae Kwon Do, along with my husband Mark, Cody our thirteen year old son, and Christie our eight year old (at the time), we were a very active family, and we loved to life and the adventures that came with it.

In the back of my mind I was a little hesitant to return to the doctor at Mayo clinic, as I had been there only four months earlier after passing a lot of blood only to be told that everything looked fine. Perhaps, maybe it was due to an internal hemorrhoid. I left with a feeling that I knew it was more than that.

You see, when I was twenty-one years old, I had developed a rare autoimmune disease called, Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS). A neurological illness that is very similar to Multiple Sclerosis. The disease left me completely paralyzed from half of my face and down to the rest of my body. It took several months of physical therapy to recover the use of my muscles and my immune system was left weak.

Due to this experience, I had been tested beyond what I have ever thought imaginable. I came away with a renewed attitude and never took life for granted. I was used to the pain and never complained, as I was thankful for each day and every day. I was able to have two beautiful healthy children, and the most wonderful caring man in the world as my husband.

After we returned to our home in Scottsdale, Arizona, the pain seemed to worsen. I had booked an appointment with the same doctor, but I just didn’t want to go, dreading any bad news. After a restless night and once again passing more blood, my husband Mark called the doctor’s office in the morning of September 7th, 2001. They told him to immediately take me to the hospital, where I was admitted and scheduled to undergo several x-rays and scans.

After my colonoscopy, I was a little groggy, but I remember Mark holding my hand and telling me it was going to be okay. I had a malignant tumor the size of my fist and they were going to remove it as soon as possible.

Mark was so calm. Little did I know he had been crying and had a few hours to think about how to deliver the news to me, knowing my fear of hospitals. He insisted on telling me, instead of the doctors.

What??? Cancer…me?? I am only thirty-nine years old and I have Colon Cancer!!!
My mind started racing. My grandmother had it and passed away two years earlier, my favorite aunt Laverne died of it at the age of fifty-two a few years prior, and now me!!!

The surgery was scheduled for the Tuesday morning of September 11, 2001. Cody and Mark waited in the waiting room watching CNN, while our daughter Christie was at school enjoying her third grade class, oblivious to what really was happening. We wanted to keep things normal as to not alarm the kids.

After the second plane hit the tower, all surgeries were stopped. I thank God everyday for my surgeon Dr. Jacque Heppell. He insisted that his team go ahead with my surgery as he just had a feeling that it needed to be done that day.

The surgery took five hours, three hours longer than anticipated. That evening, I received more startling news. The tumor was a fast growing cancer that had spread through my intestinal wall and surrounding area. They ultimately removed fourteen inches of my colon, my ovaries, fifteen lymph nodes of which eight were cancerous, as well as two thirds of my rectum. The next step was to begin six months of chemotherapy and radiation, to attack the cancer that was remaining as soon as I regained my strength. I had tubes everywhere, and they had told me they had to rebuild my rectum, so my new one would get use to it. What an understatement! I had no idea how life changing the surgery’s effect on my bowels would be. At the same time I am also so glad I did not end up with a colostomy bag, so I dealt with the changes.

My prognosis was to complete six months of these treatments. My cancer was fast and furious, and I could expect a 30% survival. Mark immediately went to work looking for solutions, other cancer survivor stories, anything that might give us hope.

Seven days later I was released from the hospital to prepare mentally and physically for the next six weeks before I received my first chemotherapy push.

As we left the hospital, I thought Mark was taking me home, but he had already made another appointment with another doctor at Envita Natural Medical Centers of America to see if they could help us. I thought he was crazy!! I just wanted to curl up in my bed and cry, and he wanted to drag me around with my fourteen-inch scar that ran up and down my stomach. I was almost at my pity party limit and didn’t know how much more I could endure.

Mark wasn’t taking no for an answer and rushed me inside yet to see another doctor. We already had an appointment with The Sloan Kettering Center in New York City to meet with one of the finest colon specialists in two weeks…is he crazy?

I really can’t express in words what this chance meeting with these doctors was. For the first time, Mark started making sense as to why he wanted me to be here. They were the first to educate me on to why I had cancer in the first place, and what I had to do to get my immune system back into fighting shape. They also educated me on how they were going to attack my cancer with therapies that were so advanced; millions of people across Europe had been using these treatments for over fifty years. I had hope for the first time!!!

I immediately began ozone or “HOT” therapy along with vitamin IV’s and went faithfully every day, four days a week for up to five hours a day due to my tiny veins. I willingly drove to the Mayo Clinic daily for my chemo then drove straight to the Envita center to rebuild my immune system.

Now I feel I am eager to get another opinion as I am now armed with information and my husband and I are ready for the next evaluation. I normally am a white-knuckle flyer, but this time, even though we took off, on the near empty American Airlines plane to NYC, three weeks after my surgery, and only three weeks after 9/11, I was okay!! It was eerie to say the least and I felt at the same time, “Well I have cancer, if the plane crashes, at least it will be quicker.”

Any hope I carried with me to New York City dwindled as the doctor told me that I only had a twenty percent survival and that nutrition had nothing to do with getting and to not listen to any “quack” natural doctors because all they would do is have you spend money for nothing. “Go home and live out your life with your husband and kids.” That was it, arms crossed and everything. That dude had a bad attitude. He doesn’t know me. I am not just a statistic.

We went back to our hotel room, where very close friends were waiting in anticipation of the news. I asked to be alone for a while and cried like I never had before. I had never felt so helpless in my life.

So there you have it, three opinions. Two of the finest cancer medical facilities in the world tell me what I don’t want to hear and the unknown facility tells me I can beat it! You wonder why so many people die of cancer, it’s because that’s what they are told, and they accept it…but not me!

I had been in the position before when I had GBS. I had three doctors. Two of them told me I had MS and that I may never walk again, or have children. The third doctor, Dr. Nair, stated that he was certain it was GBS, though he hadn’t seen a case in years.

All I needed to hear was that there was a chance and that was it for me! My decision was a commitment to learn all I could and be a hundred percent coachable to what the Envita doctors were suggesting. The treatments themselves were very expensive and I kept justifying it with saying, “well, what is my life worth?”

The biggest factor that loomed in the forefront of our minds was that both Mayo clinic and Sloan Kettering had no markers to tell if the chemo would be working at beating the cancer. You know what they told us? “Time is the marker. If she is here in five years then we know it worked.” Time. That’s the answer? I couldn’t justify putting my body through all the pain and sacrifice and not know how I would respond to it. Waiting was not something I wanted to be sacrificed for. The long-term effects of the poison of chemo, that the doctor’s don’t even prepare you for because they don’t know how your body will respond to it is not something I found appealing.

The first week of chemo treatment they gave me the standard amount for my weight and height, even though my husband pleaded with them that my immune system was impaired from GBS years ago. Yep! Just like I thought, back to the hospital we go after one week. My lips had swollen to full capacity, you could see the skin peeling and breaking right before your eyes. Any movement was met with excruciating pain. My face was full of blisters that were like burn marks made from a curling iron. I can take pain but that was ridiculous!

Immediately, upon seeing me walk in, my oncologist ran to put me in a private examination room as to not freak out the other cancer patients who were horrified by my distorted face. Mark was upset by this time and reminded the doctors that the dosage was too much for my body, and the doctor quickly complied. It took a few days to return to normal, but now I was even more wary for another five months of this.

Thank God for Envita. The nutritional changes I made weren’t that difficult, as we adjusted as a family. We were one team, with one dream. I wanted to see my children grow up, I wanted to see my grandchildren, and Mark and the kids needed me.

Mark and I own our own financial services business with Primerica Financial Services, so freedom of time was not an issue, and after thirteen years of working, we were financially independent, so the money to afford the treatments and the time to get treated was not a factor.

Everyday, I sat in my chair to receive my therapies and was often seated by different patients whose story was very similar to mine as to how, and why they chose alternative care.

Every person had a story, including young children who had come to Envita as a last resort. It was always a last resort, after traditional medicine couldn’t help them anymore, and after their bodies had been riddled with chemo and radiation. Most families couldn’t afford it and therefore most stopped completing their recommended doses.

Why doesn’t the health insurance industry cover this? It works, it’s good for you!! I would lie awake at night and pray for something to change. This wasn’t fair. Only the families who could afford it could get the proper care? That last I looked we were in the 21st century! Why doesn’t the FDA have such a huge say in this? It could mean the difference between life and death.

Everybody needs to know about Envita or alternative care and its availability. Why can’t doctors or medicine refer us? Natural Medical Doctors (NMD’s) refer patients to them. These treatments should be covered under insurance. After all, people may be cured, isn’t that what’s important? I can’t tell you how all of this used to make my blood boil just thinking about it as I watched another listless child walk through the doors, with their balding head whose parents were looking now anywhere for help.

I had now finished two months of chemo and was heading in the chemo through the port infusion along with six weeks of radiation to the pelvic-buttocks area. My experience was so repulsive, that I still shudder at the thought of it. As a result I had received first-degree burns from the underlying pelvic area inside and all around the rectum. When I would eat the tiniest morsel, I had the urge to pass it and it felt like razor burns cutting through my skin. After completing six weeks of chemo and radiation, I couldn’t bear the thought of another two months of it. I told my oncologist that I was finished and was going to only be treated at Envita Natural Medical Center. They were of course not too pumped about this idea, but they had nothing else to offer me. So I began the fight of my life.

Mark had to now face the ongoing concerns and opinion from our parents, families, and friends due to their lack of knowledge and research. It wasn’t their decision it was mine. All mine!! They just didn’t understand what I knew.

My fight was not just against the cancer that was riddled throughout my body. My fight became more a fight against the traditional medical industry, and the insurance companies. I became frustrated as to why wasn’t everyone privy to this incredible information. I became almost obsessed with telling everyone I knew about what more there was available than just the standard treatments that are prescribed. I felt the world needed to know at how this choice could make such a difference in the outcome of their diagnosis.

After four months of natural therapies I returned to the Mayo for my check up that included an ultrasound scope in the rectum. The doctor was astonished as to what he found. He could not tell where the cancer had spread through the intestinal walls. It had healed up so well that it was as if they never did the surgery. He said he had been doing this for many years and had never seen anything like it. He couldn’t believe it had only been a few months since the surgery as my scar had healed nicely back to my flesh color.

After my colonoscopy at the Mayo, a few weeks later, Dr. Heppell could not believe that my colon that had been blackened before, by the cancer, was now shiny, clean pink. In his words, “that of a brand new baby’s”. My husband could not believe his eyes upon seeing the before and after x-rays.

Oh my God! Hallelujah!!! It worked!!! To this day both of my doctors at the Mayo have told me, whatever you are doing, keep doing it. I will and I am!

You have to know that my cancer was the most aggressive cancer that my doctor had seen. In cancer cases like mine, the cancer returns within the first year, ninety-nine percent of the time. I am writing this story on September 11, 2006. I am now five years cancer free!

I have met a lot of cancer patients over the last five years. I have seen people survive and thrive, and I have seen my share that have since died. The ones who have passed were patients that had a strong will, but decided on alternative care too late. No medical institution will recommend these therapies, as it goes against their standards of what they can offer.

There is a lot of money in being sick. Think about it. All these years of research, and millions upon millions of dollars raised for the funding and they don’t have a cure yet? Something like “ozone”, that is not a drug, you can’t patent. How can they offer it, if it doesn’t make money? I am not anti-hospital. The Mayo Clinic saved my life, but Envita and alternative therapies helped me helped me live longer than ever expected. I “AM” anti-drug company and anti-FDA. The fact that Europe and Asia have had alternative therapies available to them with millions upon millions of people who have been treated this way since the 1940’s and the only facility in the country performing these therapies is right here in Scottsdale!
I have dedicated my life to bringing this knowledge and research to everyone’s attention. Why? Because everyone has been affected by knowing someone who has been stricken with this disease. Word of mouth is powerful.

My passion is the main reason why “The Fullness of Life Foundation” came to life. I want to create an outreach for everyone to be educated on the impact of integrated medical supportive care. To encourage those who are beginning their fight with cancer or other chronic diseases by providing them with real hope by my story and other survivor’s examples.

My goal is to educate and involve the health insurance industry providers until they have no choice but to include these therapies to be covered, just liked chiropractic care eventually proved they were worthy. People are dying everyday, just because they weren’t’ given a choice.

My dream is to raise millions of dollars through our annual charity gala and fundraising event, to provide the families in need of care, who need financial support. I want to see every child receive the proper care without their parents having to worry about the cost and the horrific side effects and long-term lasting effects of the chemo.

In closing, I believe we can change the world, one person at a time. I believe the more survivors we have, the stronger and louder our voice becomes to change an ignorant industry. I know I am forever changed through my experience. These past five years have been a blessing and I have a lot to be thankful for. I want to thank my amazing husband Mark, my inspiration for living, who is responsible for getting the ball rolling. To my two beautiful children who stood by me and helped me through those dark days, all your prayers and hugs made the difference to keep the fight. My sincere appreciation and love to my family and friends, especially my very dear friends, Mark and Sue Younger. Sue, you are my angel, for all your wisdom and positive attitude in making this dream come true. To the caring staff at Envita who became an extension of our family, they made each day worth looking forward to. Last but not least, many thanks to Dino Prato, who’s endless crusade, passion, wisdom, and vision for healing the sick continue to impact lives daily. Thank you for being my light at the end of the tunnel, for you made this journey count for something and forever I am grateful.

I hope that neither you nor anyone in your family will ever have to face the burden of cancer. If you do, you can learn from my story and hundreds of others on how to win this fight the best way. After all it is your Life!

May God keep you in good health and Happiness,

Sandy Yozipovic