20-Jill Atcheson - LIVE along the way; OVERCOMING Stage 4 Lung Cancer

Lung cancer does not just happen to people who smoke.

Meet Jill Atcheson, a healthy, vibrant young mom who was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer at the age of 37.  And guess what?  She NEVER smoked a cigarette in her life. 

Her story is a profound example of what can happen when you partner conventional medicine with a holistic approach.  Jill has a phenomenal outlook and that also plays into her health and well-being. 

Listen in today as I talk with her about that diagnosis, her treatment choices and the biggest surprise of all while she was on this journey!

Connect with Jill at Luv Your Life Naturally:
https://luvyourlifenaturally.com/

Suggested Resource Links:

• Luv Your Life Naturally
• BOOK:  Metabolic Approach to Cancer

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Transcript

Ivelisse Page: 0:06

Hi, I'm Ivelisse Page, and thanks for listening to the Believe Big podcast, the show where we take deep dive into your healing with health experts, integrative practitioners, biblical faith leaders and cancer thrivers from around the globe. Welcome to today's episode on the Believe Big podcast. My name is Ivelisse Page and it's an honor to spend this time with you. Do you or someone you know need to hear a story of hope today? Have you been diagnosed with cancer and need to hear from someone who has been there and has overcome great odds? Well get ready because our guest and my friend, Jill Atcheson is here with an incredible story to share. Jill is living proof of the possibilities that exist when Western medicine is bridged with complimentary medicine. She is a three year cancer thriver after being diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in 2019. She was only 37 at the time. Today, she is a vibrant woman, wife, and mother of two beautiful girls, and is a healthy living influencer with her blog, loveyourlifenaturally.com. Welcome Jill to the show.

Jill Atcheson: 1:34

Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here today.

Ivelisse Page: 1:38

We're so excited to hear from you today and I know our listeners are as well. But before we start, we always share what our guest's favorite health tip is. And I know you have many as a healthy living expert. So what would be one of your favorites?

Jill Atcheson: 1:53

Yeah, I love this question and you're right. It was hard to pick just one. However, the one that I love to share with people is really just to stay open to the possibilities. There's so much that goes into really living a long and healthy life. And a lot of times we shy away from things that we don't know, but, there's so much possibility that can come from saying yes, more than no. So I always encourage people to try new things and just to stay open, whether it's to people, to new things, to a new idea. Just keep your mind and heart open.

Ivelisse Page: 2:30

I love that. And so many times we focus on the physical health tips. And so I love that side because it's really a mental, emotional one that we sometimes put secondary and is so important to share. So thank you. I love that one.

Jill Atcheson: 2:45

Absolutely.

Ivelisse Page: 2:45

Can you share about how you found out you had cancer and what you experienced?

Jill Atcheson: 2:50

Yes, absolutely. I think like a lot of people, it came as a complete surprise. I was a busy mom living my life, had a busy job traveling the world and just started developing a cough one day. I went to the doctor eventually because it was just quite persistent. And at some point after three rounds of antibiotics, the doctor said, I think maybe you should head over to the ER and maybe just have them take an extra peek. It was so casual and cavalier that trip to the ER. My husband and I were literally planning a trip to go on the next month. I just assumed that I would leave there with this super dose of something and I'd be fine. That visit led to multiple scans, tests, blood work, they do the whole thing and certainly an agonizing wait through the ER, as of course, emergencies are flying by and it's not a lovely place to be. And it's like this moment that I'll remember forever when an army of white coats parade in. And you just know this is not going to be great. And they basically found through one of my CT scans that I had earlier in the day, that I had a 13 centimeter mass in my left lung that had also spread. It had spread what they had known at the time was to my right lung and lymph nodes. And they were going to admit me to the hospital for more testing. In that moment, I think all time froze. It was just so surreal. And I'll never forget that ER doctor walking me through the imaging. I had never seen anything like that in my life. I was a marketing professional, so the whole medical world was just foreign to me and seeing the inside of my lungs and seeing this foreign object. I was just in denial that it was my own body at the time, or the fact that I was even breathing. I had just a cough, how in the world did this thing end up in there. So that was really how the discovery came. It was just a lingering cough that led to misdiagnosis of pneumonia, like walking pneumonia that landed me to discovery of this mass.

Ivelisse Page: 5:24

That is just unbelievable. And when you think of lung cancer, it's something we all believe that has only occurred to individuals that have smoked. And I know you've never even smoked a cigarette in your life. And so I'm sure it was even more shocking to you. And so what were the doctors saying as far seeing this, and what did they think caused this?

Jill Atcheson: 5:43

Yeah.

Ivelisse Page: 5:44

Since you were not a smoke smoker.

Jill Atcheson: 5:45

I mean, no, and so it's there's always so much irony in life. And when I was a young girl, my grandfather had passed away from lung cancer because he was a heavy smoker and I had taken one of these vows when I was seven years old that I would never touch a cigarette and I didn't. You can imagine when I feel like I'm diagnosed with this particular type of cancer, it was just eye opening to me. And I had never really encroached into the world of oncology. I had been lightly touched by cancer early on in my life, but you know, when that oncologist first sits down on your hospital bed day one, it's oh my gosh! Now I'm the cancer patient. What happened? What did I do to get here? They really don't know because lung cancer, much like other cancers, are often not genetic. Lung cancer just comes from a genetic mutation of your own cells, but it wasn't something that was in lineage that got passed down. It's just sort of a misfire that happens. And we all know what cancer cells do once they get going. The crazy part about it is that the diagnosis, it came later, of course, when in the hospital, they didn't know, but the non small cell lung cancer that I was eventually diagnosed with was a slow growing cancer. So their best bet was that I had been cultivating this mass for at least a couple years prior. That was alarming to me because I had absolutely no symptoms or side effects of this. I was active, athletic. I had a two year old daughter at the time. I ate really well. I was always invested in my health. If you ask anyone, they would've told you that at the time. So it came as a complete surprise to me, like really where this came from. And honestly, they still don't know.

Ivelisse Page: 7:50

Do you, with your research that you've done, integratively and others, are there other reasons that you believe could have been causes of it? Already talked about on the conventional side, what are those?

Jill Atcheson: 8:01

So I think I'm laughing because, oh my gosh, so much opened up in my world since the medical diagnosis. And I say that poignantly because so much of living is the physical aspect, but certainly the mindfulness and the spiritual dynamic that comes with that as well. And so my journey, I love to tell the story of it because I've unlocked those other doors. There's so much more to it, and I've done a huge, deep spiritual discovery on my own, through many modalities to land me to a belief of how and why this sort of cultivated for me. And of course it's different for everyone. But I do believe that I was a bit disconnected. Let's say to the meaning of life and living. I was on autopilot, focused on career, prioritizing family, of course, but that was about all I had time for. And I was like a fast moving bullet to I don't know where. The top of the corporate food chain maybe. And just forgot what living was all about. And, I remember this moment that I was having at one point in my career where I was asked to travel back and forth to Europe more and more frequently. And I just had a complete meltdown at home because I didn't want to go. I didn't want to go. I didn't want to leave my family. I didn't want to do it anymore. And I remember looking up with just pure desperation in my eye and said, I don't want to do this anymore. I should have clarified that I wanted maybe an easier exit, but I feel like the universe answered and said, okay, we'll give you an out. And I wasn't listening to my own heart and intuition. So I feel like somebody stepped in to say there's another way. And as jarring as it may seem to have something like health stop that path, it has set me into a whole other journey that I would've never encountered in my previous life. And I'm thankful for that.

Ivelisse Page: 10:13

That's amazing. So tell us the next steps, what happened after the diagnosis? What did you, how did you get your care team together? What were the next steps in your journey?

Jill Atcheson: 10:23

What's crazy is like, you get this initial diagnosis in the hospital. I was there for five days getting poked and prodded. And so lots of attention. We don't really know what's going on, but, stay tuned. We're gonna send you home. And with mine, they did a biopsy in the hospital and they send that off for genetic testing, because that was critical to my initial care. So I was sent home with a two week wait and some really great cough medicine. I also had a broken rib and that was all she wrote for that time period. I immediately decided that I needed to focus on what I could control because this felt like something that I very much could not control. And so for me, that was a giant quest into nutrition. What can I do to really dive into what I'm putting into my body to help heal it in some way? I knew that I was inflamed. I knew that my body couldn't have been happy. So what could I do? I started diving into the Metabolic Approach to Cancer. That was the first book that I picked up. The second book I picked up was on the spiritual realm. And that was around the biology of belief. So cellular structure, cellular energy, Because there was nothing I could do, but wait, and I refused to wait in agony. It just wasn't gonna be that way. And that occupied my existence for two full weeks. I loved being preoccupied by those things.

Ivelisse Page: 12:11

So at what point in your journey did you find Believe Big and how did that change what you were doing?

Jill Atcheson: 12:18

A wonderful chapter introducing Believe Big into my life. I will be honest, I started out my journey after I got my biopsy. They figured out that I was a specific genetic line that qualified for a targeted therapy pill that I could take, which I felt very fortunate for. I did not have to launch right into chemo or anything else. I could take my targeted therapy. That pill definitely helped me for about six months. And then my health took a turn, and I did have to pursue chemotherapy and radiation. So at that point, I was actually still exploring food as medicine. And I was looking for locally sourced, organic, farm- fresh eggs. And I posted something on Facebook in a local group. And about 10 minutes later, I get this lovely reply back from this woman. I end up talking to her on the phone. Turns out she just got herself 30 chickens and the eggs are all mine. I bring her up because she introduced me to Believe Big right around the time I started to need chemotherapy. She thought about me. She had created one of your beautiful mugs at a church event and passed it on to me. And I had never heard of your organization. But you were literally five miles down the road from my home. So it's just like, all the signs are saying, check it out. My first meeting learning about mistletoe, I didn't hesitate. I had my first mistletoe injection before I left the office. And my first infusion appointment scheduled the very next day. And I immediately connected with as much staff as I could because I knew I was in good hands.

Ivelisse Page: 14:23

Not everyone has that. That's an incredible story. I think it's those signs that you're saying that we need to listen to and you are intuitive enough to know that. Did you have the support of your family and friends when you veered off the straight conventional path or were they supportive of that?

Jill Atcheson: 14:39

Yeah, I feel very fortunate that I have an open-minded support team. For sure, my husband. It's not just in this health journey, but I come up with a lot of brilliant ideas that don't always pan out. I think all wives and mothers do, that just comes with the territory. So he's always been super supportive. My parents certainly always wanted the best for me. I think sometimes when I go off on my tangents they just listen. And other times they really get vested. But they know that I'm really good at following my heart and my intuition and then it always leads to good things. They're always cautionary and make sure you at least tell the doctors. I'm like, yeah, I hear you. I think you never lose that touch as a parent just to be overly cautious, but I've continued to build my support team too, with just even some of the modalities and other healers that I've come across. They've become a critical piece of my healing team. I say that I've collected an army along the way and it's true. It's a big piece of this.

Ivelisse Page: 15:48

So tell us, what are those complimentary care team individuals that you added to yours?

Jill Atcheson: 15:54

I love talking about this too, because I'll pretty much try anything at least once. I think sometimes I hear about things and I go, oh, no, that's not for me. For the most part, I'll talk to anyone or try anything because you just never know, back to my point of just staying open to new things. I was never really into yoga before, but that was an easy one for me to adopt because I was so active and liked movement. I've incorporated acupuncture, but then I started to explore other modalities like Reiki. I've done some detoxing, sauna, the mistletoe, the vitamin C infusions. Lots of I would say spiritual one-on-ones, whether that's with religious groups or just more intuitive healers. I've done guided meditations with people or just on my own and I have truly fallen in love with nature. I found this wonderful friend along the way who taught me how to forage mushrooms and chase monarchs. At some point, my husband was like, what is going on with you? Because it's like my whole life flipped upside down in so many ways, but it has brought so much joy into my life, too, just exploring all these possibilities. But in all seriousness, this is where I get passionate about just the marriage of the medicinal side of healing and all of these other beautiful modalities and beautiful practitioners, because there's endless amounts of them. And we don't even know that they exist.

Ivelisse Page: 17:40

Yeah, and that's a side that people shove to the side as well, because they're so focused on the physical, but even just being out in nature is so healing. I recently read an article that talked about grounding and we're gonna do a podcast about that in the future.

Jill Atcheson: 17:55

Oh, good.

Ivelisse Page: 17:56

But for those who don't know what grounding is, it's just going outside barefooted and walking in the grass. They've done these thermography scans on people's body. And before they do it, their whole bodies are like red, meaning stressed. And there's a heat within the body. And then I think it's within 20 minutes of being outside, walking in the grass, they do a thermography scan again, and it's all blue, meaning it's calm. It's reducing inflammation and just simple things that a person can do that you're thinking, wow, just we're so disconnected from nature nowadays that it's really important for us to step outside even for 15 minutes a day.

Jill Atcheson: 18:34

I'll be honest. When I go get the mail, I don't walk down the driveway, I walk in the grass. And then on the way back, there's one tree that I go and I hug. My neighbors

Ivelisse Page: 18:45

must think you are a tree hugger.

Jill Atcheson: 18:48

They must think I'm nuts. I don't care. I just put my hands on it because even if it's just for a millisecond every day, there's just something there.

Ivelisse Page: 18:58

And I think that's great that you literally are coining the phrase tree hugger.

Jill Atcheson: 19:01

I am I do. And if my daughter's there with me, I'm like, come on. it's a party.

Ivelisse Page: 19:07

That's awesome! You had a really welcomed surprise in the middle of your journey. Can you share that with us?

Jill Atcheson: 19:15

Absolutely. And I'll be honest with you, I think this whole journey is full of ups and downs and a lot of uncertainty and early on I was just waiting for the end. Then it dawned on me as I got through years of this that maybe there isn't this finality to the end that maybe I need to keep living as I'm figuring it out. And my husband and I, we always wanted to grow our family and this was not going to stop our hopes and dreams. So we welcomed a beautiful baby girl at the end of last year. She has been a beautiful blessing to our lives and certainly a wonderful part of my own journey, rekindling why I'm doing what I'm doing and why I wake up every day healing and thriving. It is what lights my heart on fire every day to watch one of my life list items come to fruition, even in the midst of so much uncertainty.

Ivelisse Page: 20:34

How did that affect your treatment? So you're still, you're not clear of cancer or were you at that time?

Jill Atcheson: 20:39

I was not. I had about six months, I would say of being stable. But before that we had decided to pursue a family. We invested in a surrogate because I knew that it was gonna be a little bit uncertain. Whenever there's a obstacle in front of you, you find the way and so we did. And we both felt really good about that. When something's meant to be it just unfolds and it did so quickly. We were so fortunate to not only find a loving, giving family to support us, but they were really close by, which is often unheard of. So I'll never forget when we did the transfer I was scheduled to start brain radiation the very next day. And you wanna talk about a collision of two worlds. But it's I knew we knew that I was going to be okay. People often ask me like, how do you know? And I just do. And so we just persevered. And then through the summer, and into the end of the last year I was given the all clear. We had our daughter and two weeks later my health took another turn, but here I am again. And I have months of clarity and it's a journey and it continues, but I taught myself that you can live along the way.

Ivelisse Page: 22:09

That's just amazing, and so courageous, to pursue that in the midst of going through something challenging. Some people would be like, I can only handle this, but what a great distraction and what a great message of hope that you can look forward to. My way of doing that was putting pictures around the house of myself healthy again, of places I wanted to see with my family that are happy places. And I surrounded myself with those pictures. But you literally are bringing life into this world and to be able to focus in on her. Wow, it must have just filled you with such strength to say I can get through this and focus on something outside of your cancer.

Jill Atcheson: 22:54

Absolutely, and that's a big piece of it. And that's sort of where I am right now. Like I have been revisiting the beginning part of my journey and I found a note that I had written to myself early on in the hospital when I was jotting down everything. And you're sort of like having this reality talk with yourself around your future. And what does that mean? I didn't even really know what, what stage four cancer meant, let alone an inoperable situation. What do you do? It was it's a dark note. It's like without intervention you have a few months, with intervention you're lucky for a few years. You'd be like, quote unquote, a walking miracle. And it is a lovely reminder to myself because here I am three years later. And I am a walking miracle. I know that for sure. I'm vibrant, I'm healthy. I'm helping other people. I'm here for a reason and I've even brought in new life.

Ivelisse Page: 24:01

I love that. And we know that everyone's cancer journey is different. And even with the same type of cancer you have to approach things differently and individually. But what would you say are the top three things you did that you believed helped you heal? If you had to pick three? I know there's many.

Jill Atcheson: 24:18

Yes, one is definitely mindset. I can I see it around me when I step into some of these institutions, more so medically for help and for treatments. I can feel the energy of the people that are defeated or don't have the team that they need around them or are just tired. So mindset to me was always a big piece of it just to keep that hope alive because the minute you let that flame fizzle, it'll follow you. I even got t-shirts made at one point because I was in marketing trying to rally my team. It said MINDSET in big block letters because that's truly how I felt. That was like ruling my darkest days is just trying to have a mantra or just something to center myself on that was full of hope. And so I encourage people to find their own mantra. Say something to yourself that helps you redirect a thought. It doesn't always work, but most of the time it does. And like your brain, your body will follow. It just does. It's a lot. I always encourage people to just start simple, try one thing. One thing, right? It's a journey. It's not a race. Jot down a suggestion. If someone recommends a book or a person or a thing, jot it down because you never know when you might need it, but you do not need to do all the things. The other thing is I think people get overwhelmed by all the things coming at them at once, because most people are not medically versed. And you have a lot of doctors and a lot of people, and they're like, you should call this friend or you should try this or this doctor. Then I kind of circle back to where I started, which is being open to trying new things. This isn't always a fun, place to be, but you can certainly have fun and give yourself something to look forward to. I've had micro moments to look forward to whether it's a massage or, lunch out with a friend all the way to a big macro moment, which is the birth of a daughter. And so those things matter. And there should still be joy in living even when you're going through the healing.

Ivelisse Page: 26:35

Those are great tips, incredible. And I think that's one of the things I learned as well. My doctor, my integrative doctor, I remember bringing all these things that people are telling me and should I do coffee enemas? And should I do this? And should I go to the sauna place? And, because at that time we didn't have an infrared sauna and I remember his words clearly and he just said, Ivelisse those are all wonderful things, but if your whole day is spent treating the cancer, then the cancer wins and is winning.

Jill Atcheson: 27:03

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Ivelisse Page: 27:06

You gotta enjoy your life. And I think that was the best advice, because then it doesn't leave a lot of space for joy when you're cramming it in with all these things you feel like you have to do.

Jill Atcheson: 27:16

Exactly.

Ivelisse Page: 27:17

Those are great. So if you could go back in time, knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently at the start of your cancer journey? Would there have been anything?

Jill Atcheson: 27:28

I think that if you would've rewound that a little bit more maybe I wouldn't have been so stressed out. But I, I'm actually pretty proud of what I was able to pull together. I never had really a true moment of panic. I just always had this innate knowing that I was going to be okay. And I'm actually really proud of myself for how far I've come.

Ivelisse Page: 27:53

You're such a beautiful person inside and out.

Jill Atcheson: 27:57

Thank you.

Ivelisse Page: 27:58

And in the last few minutes, I would love for you to tell us more about your blog, loveyourlifenaturally.com. Why did you start it and what can people find there?

Jill Atcheson: 28:07

Yeah, so that actually came out of basically so much absorption from research that I was doing, that I felt like I wanted and needed an outlet to share so many of my fun facts with other people. It started out as a love for food as medicine, as the premise, and just sort of looking at food very differently. Why eating a radish can be beneficial to your health all the way to like my latest post is about the benefit of dry brushing. Just simple tips, which I coined health hacks to stop people in their tracks to say,"hey I'll try that today". Or that food swap for almond flour instead of wheat flour sounds like an easy idea. I just wanted people to realize that they can take control of their health. That it's not always about recovering or healing from a diagnosis. The goal is longevity. I think if you ask anyone, they wanna live a long and healthy life, so what can I help kind of spoon feed in tidbits to help people achieve that.

Ivelisse Page: 29:17

That's awesome. And I've read several of them and one of them that still sticks with me, and I'm gonna try is your guacamole tip. I love guacamole. My family loves guacamole, but if you have any leftovers, it's rare that there is, but if you have leftovers the next day it's brown and you're scooping up the top. And I loved your hack that said just pour water on top. And it prevents it from turning brown.

Jill Atcheson: 29:40

Yeah. who knew! And then the best part is that people try and they're like, it works. I'm like, I know!

Ivelisse Page: 29:48

Those are the fine little things that every day that you can do that I love that you share. So thank you for sharing that.

Jill Atcheson: 29:54

Absolutely.

Ivelisse Page: 29:55

Is there anything that I didn't ask you that you feel would be really important to share?

Jill Atcheson: 29:59

I think it's just important for people to realize that it's okay to have a bad day. And it's okay to let it out. I have a positive mindset. I really do live my life most of the time in a very unique outlook on life, but I have bad days too. And I cry my heart out and I light paper on fire. I write down things that I don't want to light it on fire. I do all those things too. And I was just reminding someone recently that it's okay to let it all out. I think early on in my diagnosis, I held it all in because I wanted to be tough for my spouse and tough for my family and tough for my daughters. And once I started to peel off those layers, I realized that it's okay to be vulnerable too. So find your find your outlet, let it out, but don't live there.

Ivelisse Page: 30:52

That's great advice. Thank you so much, Jill, for joining us today. And we look forward to hearing from you again soon.

Jill Atcheson: 31:01

Sure. Thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure.

Ivelisse Page: 31:11

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