Eleven years ago, at age 53, Ursula Kaiser was a vibrant woman, scrupulous with her diet, fanatical in her physical exercise regime and diligent with regular medical checkups. Then one night as she awakened to a massive hemorrhaging of clots, her entire life seemed to turn in an instant. Ursula was terrified. “I had no idea until that night when the bleeding started that there was anything at all wrong with me, I mean why would I? But that night I thought I was going to die,” said Ms. Kaiser. The next day, her gynecologist informed her that she probably had an ovarian cyst that could be corrected by surgery. She underwent the surgery, but the situation turned out to be anything but ordinary. Ursula was diagnosed with advanced ovarian and uterine cancers that had spread to her lymphatic system. The prognosis was dire, especially when accompanied with the pronouncement that she had only three months left to live.
Ms. Kaiser faced a difficult choice: take the doctor’s recommendation and pursue a traditional regimen of chemotherapy and radiation, or plot her own course and pursue alternative therapies. Widowed and without children, she knew the choice was hers alone to make, and that she would have to accept the consequences. She never before felt so alone. She did not make her decision lightly, though. Remembering her father suffering an agonizing death from pancreatic cancer, she was fully aware of the seriousness of her situation. “I was not ready to give up or surrender. I knew I could find a way to successfully treat this disease,” she vowed. She began exhaustively researching alternative treatments and journeyed to Mexico, where she was exposed to a variety of therapies. “It’s a mistake to reject something outright simply because it seems odd or unusual,” she says. “I did a tremendous amount of research and study.”
You can probably guess the outcome of her story. More than a decade later, Ms. Kaiser — lithe and looking younger than her 64 years — is cancer-free and living an even more vigorous and fulfilling lifestyle than she enjoyed prior to her illness. In the pursuit of her alternative treatments, she was led to Hanna’s work and followed her guidance, among others. Though careful not to attribute her cure to any one person or therapy, she noted that “a doctor once told me that treating a disease or an illness is like working a puzzle; you have to keep trying different things, different approaches, and different modalities until you find a way to make the pieces fit. That is how you overcome it, and that is what I have done.” She believes optimal treatment combines traditional, Western medical practices with alternative methods. But most physicians know little about nontraditional treatments, she says, adding that patients often must seek out these options on their own. “I think most people need help evaluating these things, and that is what I do now,” she says, describing her role helping cancer patients learn about their treatment options. “And I do not tell people to walk away from traditional treatments.”
Now living in Naples, Florida, Ursula continues to explore and study non-traditional treatments and new ways to fully live her life. These days she is now on a mission to educate the public on ways to confront – and, she hopes – defeat cancer, which is why she allowed Southern Herb to recount her story. “I want people to know that if you have cancer it isn’t automatically a death sentence,” she says. “I know that for a fact.” Ms. Kaiser says her personal experience shows that the power of faith and belief can be a potent force for healing.