How Juicing Saved My Life

(Photo: anna_debenham)

The year 1989 was a memorable year for me.

It was a year when, first I decided to die, then I decided to live.

For 4 months I had exhausting bloody diarrhea with mucus, great deal of pain and cramps.  After each bowel movement, I would just collapse into my bed.  I would run to the bathroom after eating even a morsel of food and even after drinking plain tea.

Then I said to myself: “Enough is enough”.  I must go to the hospital.

I was admitted to Cabrini Medical Center in Manhattan on East 19 St.  I stayed in the hospital for 10 days; doctors tried everything from Azulfidine to Cortisone.

I was fed nutrients through my veins, which collapsed after a week of being poked constantly.

I continued having bloody diarrhea. I lost all hope of recovering from my horrible case of Ulcerative Colitis.

As a last resort, doctors offered me a full colectomy: surgical removal of my colon.

That meant I would have to live with a bag instead of a large intestine for the rest of my life.

After learning the grim news, I decided to kill myself, and end my miserable existence once and for all.

I removed all the IV’s from my swollen hands, got dressed and walked out of the hospital onto the busy New York City street. I wanted to be hit by a car, and die quickly before the ambulance arrived.

I just kept on walking until I reached Daffy’s Department Store on E. 18 Street and 5th Avenue.  I walked into the store, and a black t-shirt with a “LOVE” logo in bright pink and orange letters caught my attention. And right there and then, I realized that I have so much LOVE in my life that I do not have the right to commit suicide. I must go on living. I have 2 small kids who love and depend on me, I have fantastic parents who adored me from the moment I was born, and a husband that loves me more than life itself.

I bought the “LOVE” t-shirt, put it on, and walked back to Cabrini Medical Center.  I reached a decision: I will get well one way or another, so help me God.

I checked out of the hospital against doctor’s orders.

One week later, I was sitting in Canada in the office of a famous iridologist.  She told me that I must do juice fasting and colonics to get well.  I thought she was crazy, and that I would die without eating any solid food for 3 weeks, and just drinking fresh squeezed vegetable juice.  I was merely 109 lbs; the pale, skinny shadow of my normal self (my normal weight was 135 lbs.)

I went back to New York.

I completed my 3-week vegetable juicing program in concert with other nutritional supplements.  My profuse bleeding, mucus, and diarrhea stopped.  I could finally lead a normal life again.

I felt like I was on the top of the world.  For the first time in 8 years, I was in control of my own destiny.  I understood – I could be well without using harmful drugs and surgeries.

Juice fasting was my miracle cure. It saved my life.

And I wore that LOVE shirt until it fell apart.