Kaylee Del Valle, a 31-year-old fitness trainer, had a devastating start to her adult life after she was diagnosed with cancer and three autoimmune diseases. Navigating through this trying phase with faith as her anchor, she has found peace, hope, and healing.
Ms. Del Valle grew up as an active athlete, a competitive cheerleader, and a successful student. However, when she started college, she began to feel tired.
“I was sleeping like 12 to 15 hours a day,” she told the Epoch Times. “It was alarming because I would get a full night’s rest. I'd go to class. I would sleep through my classes. I would wake up just enough to go home, do a little bit of homework, eat dinner, take a nap, wake up, and then go to sleep again.”
Cancer Diagnosis
Upon seeing this pattern, Ms. Del Valle’s mom urged her to see a physician because the young woman’s father had a family history of thyroid issues. They went to several doctors and each time they were told she was too young to be dealing with a thyroid problem. One doctor even insinuated that Ms. Del Valle was lying to her mom about her health issues. But, as her mom pressed the doctors for more answers, they agreed to carry out some tests.“It came out that my thyroid levels were off,” Ms. Del Valle said. “From there, we found that I had Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, which is the autoimmune version of a thyroid disease.”
This was, unfortunately, just the beginning of Ms. Del Valle’s troubling diagnosis. She underwent a series of medical tests and was told that “it was probably fine” each time. Eventually, after getting a biopsy of her thyroid, it was discovered that Ms. Del Valle had cancer.
She said that doctors told her, “This is a slow-growing form of cancer, so you’re probably fine,” adding that she'd probably had it since she was 12.
Ms. Del Valle then underwent surgery to remove her thyroid and some nearby lymph nodes and then began to prepare for radiation treatment.
Her parents were very upset about their daughter’s new reality, but were “very strong in their walk with the Lord.”
As a family, they knew they would “stick to the Lord’s promises.”
Ms. Del Valle never blamed God for her health issues but admits feeling annoyance and anger toward some of the doctors.
“... The doctors made it seem like it wasn’t a big deal, but then they made it seem like a big deal at the same time,” she said. “For me, that was very frustrating because I didn’t know who to trust because they ... said, well, you know, ‘This is great, this is awesome. It’s the slowest growing [cancer], and you’re probably fine, but we have to take out this vital organ, and we have to surgically remove it, and we need to do it right now.’”
Between advice from doctors and wanting to live a regular life, Ms. Del Valle felt control of her life slipping from her grip.
“I just wanted to get my life started as an adult. I had to have the surgery that I really didn’t know anything about. It wasn’t so much the cancer that harmed me, it was the treatment, and it was everything afterward. Because, once I was cut up, it felt like I got minimal attention from doctors, “ she said. ”I was put through different medical treatments that, now, I know were things that I should have never gone through. I was mismanaged, misdiagnosed multiple times.”
Ms. Del Valle went through a harrowing few months.
Before her radioactive iodine treatment, she and her parents were fighting to find a solution as she was getting sick very often.
“I had gained about 80 pounds within just a couple of months, and I was barely eating,“ she said. ”I was sleeping 18 hours a day. I was losing my hair. My skin was pretty translucent. You could see right through it. I started to hallucinate, and it was just a terrible, terrible time. And again, it was the fact that I had a vital organ taken out of my body.”
‘A Turnaround Moment’
In these moments of confusion and despair, Ms. Del Valle cried out to God.“I had a turnaround moment in that hospital,” she said, “and I told the Lord, and I said ‘Lord, if you do spare me, I’m going to live my life for you because I’m not ready to go.’ And after that moment, the Lord started to show me things that I could do to heal myself.
“I was diagnosed with autoimmune conditions, at least three times.”
Despite being told that she had “bad genes” by one doctor and that she needed to take a lot of medications for the rest of her life, she believed she was being guided to better ways.
She has since connected with a new doctor and began to find natural ways for her body to heal, though she still has to take some medicine.
Through trial and error, she describes how she believed she was able to gain more understanding of her situation from God.
“I took the medication that I needed to, and then I very much was like ‘You know what, Lord? I believe that you gave me everything I need on this earth to heal myself; show me what I need to do,’” she said. “Slowly, He would put me on this website or that website, or I would figure it out. I would come across somebody’s testimony that they self-healed from something else, and I slowly started to do little detoxes here and there.”
She would also constantly make changes to her lifestyle. When she was about 23, Ms. Del Valle came across a book called “Grain Brain” by Dr. David Perlmutter, and she learned about the effect of sugar and carbs on the brain. Using the information from this book, she began to regain her energy.
At this point, her hair was falling out from alopecia, but she learned about the use of rosemary oil.
“Ever since I did that, my hair has come back. It’s never fallen out since,” Ms. Del Valle said.
One of the biggest changes Ms. Del Valle made was choosing to eat a carnivorous diet. Her brother and sister-in-law sent her a link to a TED talk by Mikhaila Peterson about a diet focused on eating meat.
For Ms. Del Valle, choosing this diet helped a lot.
“I did ground beef cooked with tallow. Lots of salt. And then I found Ancient Nutrition makes this bone broth protein powder. I would use that protein powder and this collagen powder from the same company, and I would put it in a smoothie, and the only thing that I would add was just a little bit of organic whole milk and just frozen blueberries,” she said. “And I ate that for a year. It’s crazy because you [would] think I wouldn’t get much nutrition.”
There was, however, a huge difference. Ms. Del Valle previously had to take a Vitamin D pill because her levels of that nutrient were so low, but after going to the doctor a year on, her Vitamin D levels were soaring.
Through it all, from the breakthroughs to the setbacks, she felt gratitude toward God, and she also felt guided by Him. She recalled praying to God, feeling his guidance and assurance with her.
“It was just kind of a boost that I needed because I was still kind of struggling with my weight fluctuating, with my mental clarity, my memory,” she said.
As a fitness trainer, she feels guided by God to share with people who are suffering through their own health issues and provide them with a glimmer of hope.
She said: “The most important thing for someone that’s going through this stuff [is] if you don’t have a relationship with the Lord, get to know Him. If you do have a relationship with Him, put Him first no matter what, and sometimes he might have you use doctors and sometimes He'll say, ‘You know what, I’m going to do a different path for you this time,’ but get to know His voice for you because that is the only way I’ve gotten through this.”
