Olivia Newton-John’s husband, John Easterling, 68, shared the singer’s latest breast cancer recurrence, which landed her in her namesake hospital, the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre.
Read MoreNewton-John’s pain, Easterling explained, “was actually a fracture, which is kind of the progression of stage 4 metastatic breast cancer with has metastasized to the bone. Over time that compromises some of the bones, so the bone just gave way to a fracture.”
‘Like The Show ‘Undercover Boss'”
Newton-John entered her own cancer center for treatment. “It was almost like the show, ‘Undercover Boss’,” Easterling said, with a smile. “We checked in under a fictitious name. She wore a mask so that nobody would recognize her in the hospital. And it was a wonderful experience.”
To control her latest recurrence, the beloved singer, elected to do “radiation on a couple of spots” and “start an estrogen blocker — it’s an estrogen-positive breast cancer,” he explained.
“Pile On The Love And Support”
Easterling supported her decision with words that will ring true for all cancer caregivers: “Once someone makes that decision … then you just pile on the love and support for them.”
Although it’s not curable, Dr. Elizabeth Comen, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering says metastatic breast cancer is highly treatable.
After a month spent “flat on her back while that was healing,” Easterling introduced medical cannabis to her treatment, noting that it is “extraordinarily difficult to get permission to use cannabis in Australia.”
“An Immediate Shift”
After she left the hospital, Newton-John faced a lengthy recovery, “first in a wheelchair, then a walker,” Easterling says. He then got to work on a special formulation to speed her healing. “I got it down to 21 cultivars in the formula,” he said, explaining his painstaking process.
Dr. Junella Chin says that people come to her seeking relief for all types of chemo-related ailments, such as decreased appetite, pain, insomnia, or depression.
“From the very first drops of that, we saw an immediate shift. She came out of [the hospital] with bottles of opioids. And since that formula we described, the pain went down.”
“The mobility started increasing. We got completely off the pain killers,” Easterling said, adding, “she put the walker away after 3 weeks.”
“This was the third recurrence of stage 4 metastatic breast cancer,” he said, “and she’s doing astonishingly well.”
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