Triple Positive: Research, Faith, and Fighting Back

Since we found out something was wrong -- ten short and very long days ago – I've been stuck with this sinking feeling in my stomach. I haven't had this feeling in a long time but I remember it well from my youth.

You feel nauseous yet not sick, almost like your stomach dropped from like on a roller coaster. When I was younger I got this same feeling when I was homesick. And now, awaiting the results, I'm homesick.

And then, today, Erin told me she has an email of the results.

My stomach sinks even further.

She hasn't read it yet.

And so, I open that confusing My Charts application and am slammed in the face with so much scientific jargon and overwhelming nonsensical data to any normal person I want to throw up.

The system was designed to scare you.

And it did. And it does.

With no doctor to explain it to me, I threw the results in Chat GPT.

Triple positive confirmed.

I'm sick. She's sick.

But she's so freaking healthy. She fasts and saunas and works out and has almost zero body weight and doesn't drink sugar or cokes. She doesn't eat dessert. Healthy people aren't supposed to get sick!

And yet, one in eight women get breast cancer. Why? How is this ok? How is this possible?

There's no "why God?" question, at least not yet. I understand the risks of living in the fallen world. Hard things happen to any of us, to all of us. My former much more religious self might have believed cancer happens to those living in sin. Or to those who haven't read their bible enough.

And now, we live in the wonderful confidence of sonship, of daughtership, heirs with benefits and promises we cannot earn, or achieve with works.

And thank goodness.

Jesus either completed the work on the cross or he didn't. And if he didn't, we are all screwed. But since he did. We live in freedom. In wholeness. In healing even when the world seems to disagree with these promises, we stand on them. It was already bought and paid for. It's freely given. Oh, to be a son and rest in sonship! Oh, to be a daughter of the creator of it all! What confidence. What hope.

And so we adopt his hope in this season. A Kingdom that is backwards and upside down from things of this world. He is with us.

And that's enough.

Also, we reject you cancer. You don't get to scare or intimidate my wife or me or our family.

Jesus already won.

So you can't.

The Medical Details

For those following from a medical perspective, the official diagnosis is a little different than what me and Chat GPT thought it might be.

Diagnosis: Invasive ductal carcinoma of the left breast, grade 2, estrogen receptor positive, progesterone receptor positive, HER2 positive (triple positive), measuring approximately 2.4–2.6 cm on ultrasound, with no sonographic evidence of lymph node involvement (cT2N0)

If I'm honest, HER2 positive is challenging. It requires chemo and HER2 therapy and future surgery and radiation.

Again, all of this was learned from our own research and countless questions to AI.

Also, HER2 has had amazing medical advancement over the last few years and with the HER2 treatment, it can now even have a better outcome than being HER2 negative.

But chemo wrecks. It just does. We know this, we would love to avoid it, but at this point it's standard treatment.

We believe in holistic healing. We also believe in western medicine. Can you marry the two and have a strong outcome? Can you avoid western medicine all together and all the poisons that come with it?

Lots of questions. The Lord will lead us.

What We're Trying

• Keto diet. Cancer grows from glucose and glutamine according to one podcast we listen to.
• Fasting. Autophagy is the body's natural way of ridding itself of cancer cells.
• No processed foods. No processed meats, no unknown sourced chicken or beef or pork or turkey. Grassfed grassfinished only, no seed oils, and wild caught Salmon.

Erin will do whatever it takes.

She's that strong.

Love, the Murrays