Not so much looking for a cure as "a life," Andrea Barker is embarking on a 2,700-kilometre journey this week to receive specialized cancer treatments in northern Mexico.
Not so much looking for a cure as "a life," Andrea Barker is embarking on a 2,700-kilometre journey this week to receive specialized cancer treatments in northern Mexico.
Diagnosed nearly two-and-a-half years ago with follicular lymphoma, Barker, 31, has undergone multiple rounds of chemotherapy and a self-donated stem cell transplant to fight the disease.
Since the cancer has proven resilient to conventional treatments, Barker decided to pursue an alternative treatment program offered by Dr. Isai Castillo in Tijuana that combines natural and conventional cancer treatments.
"As soon as I found out the stem cell (transplant) didn’t work, I was like, OK, we need to go and see this doctor," she said.
After the community raised roughly $60,000 for her fight against the disease through several fundraisers and now that she is well enough to travel, Barker is finally ready to head south on July 24.
But when she is asked what her ultimate goal is by travelling so far to receive treatment, Barker said she isn’t expecting Castillo’s program to miraculously make the cancer disappear.
Instead, she just wants to get control over the disease that has been such a prevalent part of her life for the past two-and-a-half years.
"I know you can live with cancer and it can be managed and that is what I’m going for," Barker said, adding she is not cured right now but still feels well enough to play with her five-year-old son Lucian. "If I can get cured, great. That’s icing on the cake.
"If this is how I would feel for the rest of my life. Great."
Although she has been cancer-free since February, her last computerized tomography (CT) scan showed a "questionable spot" that Barker believes "is probably the lymphoma coming back."
"We knew that that was a possibility."
So she’s ready to head south to begin treatments to hopefully put the cancer in check again.
"I’m excited to get down there and see what the whole process is and what the treatment is going to entail."
Her next CT scan is scheduled for three months from now and she’s optimistic the treatment program in Mexico will produce good results.
"I’ll have been to see Dr. Castillo by then so hopefully (the spot) will have done nothing or be gone," Barker said.
Barker starts her first round of treatment on July 25 and expects this round to be finished on Aug. 19.
From what she understands, she will then return to Mexico every three months, with her next treatment starting in November.
Each treatment period, Barker added, will get shorter as the program progresses.
If the treatments are successful, she’ll soon only have to travel to Mexico once every six months and then once a year.
The money the community has raised will pay for the entire first year of treatments including Barker’s accommodations just across the border in San Diego, she said.
Having that cash has meant Barker’s family won’t need to re-mortgage their house or go into deep debt.
"This is more of a 'Yay, we get to do this,’ not, 'Oh my God, where are we going to get this money?’" she said.
Lucian and Barker’s husband, Tyler, will drive down to San Diego on July 30 to stay with her for roughly half of her first treatment round.
She said when she is not undergoing treatment, she should be well enough to spend time with her husband and son to take in some of the attractions in southern California such as Sea World and Disneyland.
"You’re supposed to feel really good after these treatments," Barker said. "It’s not like standard Western medicine."
Barker said it was after she first found a lump on her neck that she learned about Castillo’s treatment program from a friend who had taken her mother to the Mexican clinic.
Her friend’s mother is now in her third year of remission from ovarian cancer.
After researching Castillo, Barker said the treatment program seemed like the best course of action.
"I don’t feel like I’m being pushed into this," she said. "It just feels right. "Regardless of the outcome, this is the path I need to be on right now."
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