Meet Sonia
HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ME.
I was dealt two terminal diagnoses in 1 year:
Stage 4 lung cancer, which had spread to my ribs, liver, sacrum, and pelvic bones. Six to eight months to live. Told to go home and make a bucket list.
Eight months later, add in Addison's auto immune disease. My ability to make cortisol from the adrenal glands destroyed by immunotherapy. Without daily medication, I'll slip into a coma and die.
Today I am happily in cancer free because I listened to my body first over anything else. My oncologist doesn't know why.; keeps shrugging and saying "OK... I guess we'll just keep waiting." because he's expecting it to come back
I'm not. I'm living.
I just completed a 5 month solo trip in Europe.
BUT LET ME BACK UP
Before cancer, I worked with Olympic and masters athletes as a Registered Holistic Nutritionist, finding the missing pieces that held back performance.
A corporate and government auditor, I did the same in organizations, finding the gap others missed. I was good at it.
Easter Monday 2023, I got the diagnosis: Stage 4. Terminal.
A month later they offered me palliative chemo and immunotherapy. I took it - and made it my mission to survive chemo without damage.
I didn't even think about immunotherapy damage.
That was my first mistake.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT NEARLY BROKE ME.
Seven immunotherapy sessions, three months of my body wasting away. I lost 40 pounds in 6 weeks. I slurred when I spoke. I couldn't control my arms and legs. People said I walked like a marionette. And they were right.
It was terrifying.
I went through six doctors and four hospitals looking for answers. I Ubered myself between emergency rooms. My family doctor gave up. I used Meyers Cocktails to keep my body going. I was running out of time, running out of doctors.
I told my oncologist I needed help.
When I arrived at the hospital, I had to hook my arm through his just to stay upright. Walking had become that difficult. He looked at me and asked: "Sonia, do you know where the ground is?"
In my foggy head I thought: What kind of question is that??!! Of course I know where the ground is.
He looked back at me: "Because you're walking like you don't."
In the exam room I couldn't let go of him. I didn't trust my legs to hold me. I put my head on his shoulder and I said:
"Paul. You have to figure out what's happening. My mind is starting to slip and I can't do this on my own anymore."
Then, the diagnosis, almost blunt in its simplicity. One blood test, that's all it took.
Addison's Disease. My adrenal glands had been destroyed from treatment.
Whether he'd seen this before and recognized it or whether instinct told him to test, I'll never know. I only now this: It was caught.
I walked away from cancer treatment. The next chapter of surviving was mine to write.
I WAS DEVASTATED. I GOT BACK UP ANYWAY.
Six months to rebuild capacity. Palliative nurse. Home care. Walker. My leg muscles were gone. Support workers come in to help me wash myself, cook, do my laundry. Six months of consistent, daily work.
When I let them go, they were shocked. No one had ever gotten better before. That's how close it was.
The chemo and immunotherapy did their part. 40% of the cancer was gone - but at such a cost.
Walking, talking, cancer free....that was ALL mine. Built through nutrition, fasting, functional healing, radical self-trust, and refusing to accept that 40% was all that was available to me.
EUROPE WASN'T A CELEBRATION. IT WAS TRAINING.
I made the decision to go to the EU to engineer around myself.
I knew that if I stayed in a wintry Canadian city I would hibernate. I would not go outside. I would not walk. I would stay warm and stay small and lose everything I'd rebuilt.
I couldn't lose what I had built.
I chose Northern Italy - because it is nothing but hills. I hated it at times. It was exhausting and frustrating and some days I resented every cobblestone. But it worked.
I arrived unable to walk 1km. I left walking 5km - carrying weight.
I have two life changing diagnoses, a quiet oncologist, a daily medication I'll take for the rest of my life, and absolutely no intention of living in anyone else's timeline.
WHY I DO THIS WORK
During treatment I met an oncologist who studied how unpartnered women often face worse outcomes with a cancer diagnosis
I refuse to accept being single as a predictor of my future.
Being single should never be the reason someone has a worse outcome. That's why I do this work.