Wonder Woman really does have super-duper powers.
When I met Susan Stone three years ago, the Mukilteo woman, who had cancer, was famous for wearing a superhero outfit around town.
“I can’t be bummed out in the outfit, thinking about cancer,” Stone said. “It makes people laugh and smile. Kids love it. You can’t be focused on dying.”
She wore it in parades and to birthday parties.
There was no way to jolly away her disease, but she took a controversial path for a cure. She shunned American doctors and went back and forth to Mexico to treat a nasty skin cancer.
And she believed in natural and spiritual healing, herbs and nutrition. The Mukilteo bodybuilder spent time in a special sauna in her garage, breathed air from an ozone machine, rested in a hyperbaric chamber several hours each week and dabbed cream on dozens of ugly spots spreading from head to toe.
The ones on the bottom of her feet were very painful, she said.
Her search to save her life took her to Mexico for “microdose chemotherapy.”
After I wrote about her quest, we lost touch.
I was sure she was dead.
“A lot of people thought I died,” she said. “It’s funny when I see one of them — the look on their faces tells me what they’re thinking. I usually say, ‘Yep, I’m still alive.’”
Very much alive, kicking, and jumping out of airplanes.
She broke her back skydiving on 7-07-07. It was a very bad landing, she said, as she swerved to avoid blackberry bushes.
A medical scan showed not only the broken back, but that spots on her previously affected lymph nodes and liver were gone.
She had surgery, wore a brace for four months, and learned to walk again. That could be more than enough medical calamity for many people, but Stone isn’t a quitter.
Off she went to the gym.
“I was still wearing my back brace,” Stone, 41, said. “People saw me struggle, but those who knew about the cancer knew I could do it.”
They pushed her hard at a mixed martial arts program at 5th Element in Mukilteo.
“I’ve been working out in gyms for 20 years, but never done anything like this.”
She said when the struggle seemed insurmountable, she went deeper inside herself and did whatever it took to climb over, crawl under or go around obstacles. She wasn’t able to work when she was going back and forth to Mexico, but she has been employed for two years with SNOPAC 911 Emergency Communications.
Stone works on her diet with friend and naturopath Kasara D’Elene, who has a health food store in Bothell.
“I wish I knew what makes her a fighter,” D’Elene said. “What makes some people want to be here, and some not?”
She said she didn’t agree with the decision when her courageous friend went to Mexico, but said it turned out to be a good choice for Stone.
But is the Mukilteo bodybuilder free of cancer?
We can’t say for sure. She doesn’t visit an oncologist.
“I still have occasional things, both internal and on my skin, but nothing like it was,” Stone said. “Melanoma is not detectable in a blood test, only through cutting and doing a biopsy. I won’t let anyone do that.”
I’ll take her word, and admire the her bodybuilding photo, to gauge how she’s doing. She recently competed at the Emerald Cup Bodybuilding Competition in Bellevue and says she looks better than she did eight years ago.
Stone keeps Mexican doctors appraised of her progress.
“I’ve been pushing myself physically, and put myself on the strictest diet I’ve ever done,” Stone said. “I don’t think they’ve ever met anyone like me.”
But then, she said, who has?
Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com.
More on the Web
Read more about Susan Stone’s journey at www.susanwonder stone.wordpress.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
