BeWell Cancer Story: Brittany Burling
Breast Cancer Warrior
Brittany’s Story:
I found a lump in my breast in late 2023. I had been priming my body for conception and was very into health and wellness, so the thought of it being cancer wasn't even on my mind. I watched it for a month then I made an appointment with my primary care provider. She said it seemed unsuspicious but scheduled me for an ultrasound and mammogram. Two days later, my life changed forever when the radiologist came in, looked very concerned, and told me there were some suspicious calcifications and I would need a biopsy as soon as possible. Four days later, I got the official diagnosis: Stage 3 Invasive Ductal Carcinoma — ER/PR+ (100%/90%) — and it was in at least one but up to four lymph nodes.
My mother-in-law sent us the Chris Beat Cancer Square One program, so we started that right away. The night of my diagnosis, I messaged a naturopathic doctor whom I did some labs through, asking if she knew anyone who treated cancer more naturally. She shared that her friend Erin (@thewellwagon) went to the Cancer Center for Healing, and I immediately dove into the Center’s website to learn more. I knew that going a fully holistic route gave me anxiety, and going the Standard of Care route gave me anxiety, and finding the integrative approach was the first time I felt peace and hope since my diagnosis. I continued to let those feelings be my guiding light throughout my journey.
A few days later, I met with a team at my local hospital: the medical oncologist, surgeon, and radiation oncologist. They gave me a treatment plan: chemo, surgery, radiation, then 5-10 years of hormone blockers. I was still grieving the dreams of a family that were ripped out from under my feet and felt the weight of making sure my decisions would 1) keep me alive so i could still have that family someday and 2) keep my body in good shape so i can still have the option of conceiving naturally. I needed some time to digest everything, so I left that meeting with no commitments to these doctors. I kept thinking about the Cancer Center for Healing, and after a few more weeks of prayer and conversation, I decided to go there. I spent part of January 2024 there, getting all kinds of testing, IVs, and other healing modalities done. I also made some friends who have profoundly impacted my life.
Toward the end of my stay, they recommended I do some form of chemo and engage in some pieces of the Standard of Care puzzle based on my staging. I felt like there was no way I could make the low-dose chemo work because it was so much travel and out-of-pocket expenses, but it was the thing that gave me peace. I spent February doing a very intense detox program recommended by the Center and praying about my next steps. I ultimately decided to continue following my peace and trust that God would work out the details and started low-dose chemo at the Center in March. March-May, my weekly schedule was: Drive two hours for bloodwork on Tuesdays, fly out to CA on Wednesday, chemo Thursday, detox pushes + IVC then fly home on Fridays. After 11 weeks of that, I got a scan and we didn’t make as much progress as we hoped. At that point, we did the Datar test, added hormone blockers and repurposed drugs, changed up my chemo agents, and I started doing the Quantum bed.
I did 11 more weekly rounds of chemo from July-September. This time around, I felt *massive* results! I got a CT Scan at the end of September and it said there was no detectable breast mass and my lymph nodes were smaller. I also got my Signatera results back saying I had zero circulating tumor cells! This all felt very exciting, but my oncologist said CT scans aren’t great for breast imaging. He said it was time to move on to surgery and they would do more imaging that was better for breast evaluation. Over the last few months, I have done two surgery consults, two mammograms/ultrasounds, an MRI, and a PET scan, and all have confirmed that there is no more cancer in my breast!
I have a very small amount in my lymph node, and I trust that as I continue hormone therapy and the other lifestyle tools, that will be gone soon, too. However, I still have 6.5cm of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), which conventional care says can only be treated by being surgically removed. Because of this widespread DCIS, my only option is a mastectomy. These decisions are deeply personal, and each person will have a different decision, but the same intuition that told me to try the integrative route is telling me to try a few other modalities before going through with a mastectomy. While my treatment is not done, I have a couple of years left of hot flashes and a very large decision around surgery ahead of me, I am so thankful to be at this point in my journey and for the path of healing I found.
