PP 654: Setting Our Own Course with Andrea London

“We all have to aggressively take our health into our own hands.” – Andrea London

Just a couple months after tying the not in 2001, Andrea London and her husband, Lenny, discovered he had stage 4 cancer. Deciding to forego the advice of the doctors, Andrea and Lenny created their own treatment plan, and, nearly 20 years later, Lenny is alive and well.

Listen as Andrea and Kim embark on an enlightening yet somewhat controversial conversation, where they discuss alternative health, marijuana, faith, depression, and more.

Highlights:
07:06 Stage 4 Cancer
09:41 Following the doctor’s orders vs following our instincts
15:17 Sharing their treatment, love story and faith
17:50 Going outside of the norm and doctors
19:32 Kim’s PCP journey
19:05 Kim’s ran about the Food and Drug Administration
24:09 Kim’s commitment to health
28:00 Marijuana and CBD
33:04 Caring for the caregiver
38:33 Sharing is caring
44:08 Surviving stress
49:59 Judas and his dirty money

Resources:

Love Conquers Cancer
Rachel Luna
CBD Oil
K-Love
Fight the Good Fight – Triumph
Spirit Driven Success by Dani Johnson
The Purpose Driven Life by Pastor Rick Warren
First Steps to Wealth by Dani Johnson
Even If by MercyMe

Inspirational Quotes:

“Ramen noodles is not a food group.” – Andrea London

“Without faith, I’ve learned what’s the point? Because if I don’t believe it can get better, it’s probably not going to.” – Kim Sutton

“We all have to aggressively take our health into our own hands.” – Andrea London

“You’ve gotta fill your soul with positive things. If you’re gonna fight the good fight in this world, you’ve gotta fill your soul.” – Andrea London

“It’s our responsibility as humans to share our message.” – Kim Sutton

About Andrea London:

Andrea London’s journey and passion with health, wellness, and a love for helping others began over 20 years ago. An accomplished real estate agent in Virginia, she has served hundreds of clients in building, reselling and acquiring the home of their dreams. It was early on in her real estate career when she met the love of her life, Lenny London.

Together they built a strong faith-based family and love for helping others. While working with several health companies, in pursuit of a deeper knowledge and for the family’s optimal health, she realized her new passion for motivating others toward a healthier lifestyle and sharing God’s message of love with the world.

• Website: https://www.andreaclondon.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/londonswellness
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndreaCLondonWellness/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andreaclondon/

EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION: ANDREA LONDON

Kim Sutton: Welcome back to another episode of positive productivity. This is your host, Kim Sutton. I’m so happy to have you here. And I’m also thrilled to introduce you to today’s guest, Andrea London. She’s the international best selling author of Love Conquers Cancer.

And I know this story is going to touch some of you with experiences that you’ve already had. I wanted to prepare you all for experiences you may have in the future, but with without, without or without. With

further ado, I guess it would be without further ado, let me introduce you to Andrea. Andrea, welcome. I’m so thrilled to have you here.

Andrea London: Thank you, Kim. I’m so happy to be here. I really, really appreciate you inviting me on your show. I’m excited to get to know you more.

Kim Sutton: And you as well, for listeners who don’t know, you and your story, would you share how your book came to be?

(Transcription still being cleaned up. Thanks for checking it out!)

Andrea London: Well, yeah, it’s actually a pretty long story. But to put it in a nutshell, my husband and I met in 1998. We had a long wonderful engagement Well, not too long, a few years and we made we were married September 1 2001. And then the end of December the 28th. of that thing year, he was diagnosed with an incurable non Hodgkins lymphoma cancer, and was told do not do traditional treatment at this time, even though he was in stage four. He was encouraged by several top lymphoma specialists not to do traditional therapy, mainly because the cancer isn’t considered, quote unquote, curable. According to conventional medicine, it’s only considered treatable. So that began our almost 20 year journey. And we, along the way, have done a lot of alternative things. God has brought us down many, many paths. And he’s a miracle story, and continues to be a miracle story. And about six or seven years ago, we had a lady that I met in California just she was the first one that said, you really should write a book about everything. And, you know, share what you and your husband have been through. And I just put that in the back of my head and said, Okay, well, I’m not a I’m not a writer. I’m a wife and a mom and a full time real estate. And I don’t have time to write a book and I wouldn’t know where to begin. But over those years, I just more and more had people coming to us and asking for advice. And now it’s pretty much a regular occurrence where people reach out monthly, it seems like sometimes even weekly, having someone that’s battling cancer and wanting to know, you know what, what they should do. So, about a year ago, I finally decided after writing it on my goal board, every single year, write a book, write well, for like five years, I finally decided to go ahead and do it. And it’s been a wonderful journey for both Lenny and I’ve been very healing. It’s, it’s our love story. It’s a lot more than just the cancer story. It’s, it’s very real and raw. And like I said, I’m not. I don’t consider myself necessarily a writer, but I believe everybody has a book Or more inside of them. And we should all share and be transparent with each other because you never know when your story is going to drastically change someone’s life for the better.

So if you didn’t know and for first time listeners because repeat listeners have in depth or in undoubtedly probably already heard this, but I’ve been saying I was going to write my book, since I launched this podcast this before I launched this podcast in 2016. And for, it’s finally getting getting written, and it doesn’t take you don’t need to be in front of your laptop or in front of your computer or even with a notebook in hand to write your book. I was sitting at a soccer game and then I’m going to get back to your story. I was sitting at a soccer game three weeks ago, and my introduction for my book came to my head. I was in my car parked right next to the Porta Potty and I spoke my initial introduction into my phone. And so now that’s quote written. I haven’t even looked at it to see what typos were put in there. Because Siri is not always Kim palatable, get it out. But you know, so if you’re talking, if you’re thinking about your book, just get it done. But I want to go back. So you’re, this is 21 years later.

And yeah, well, it’s 2001. So yes, you’ll get a beat. Well,

I was thinking, Well, why don’t

we move that in? Okay, that’s okay. Okay, so my

oh my gosh, so,

and he’s still here. He’s still here. Thanks. Good Lord above. Amazing. So I’m

in full disclosure listeners. I have not read the book. And I’m, I am somewhat embarrassed about that. But hey, busy mom. We can only do what we can do. He’s still positive for cancer. I mean, I do realize that stage four, stage four is the most serious. Yes.

Well, you know, that’s one of the things we learned going through this, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to die, you know, if you don’t reverse it back to stage one or two. So I mean, if someone out there is listening, and you’ve just been given a diagnosis of stage four, especially if it’s lymphoma, I mean, stage four simply means it’s in the bone marrow is what we were told, okay, so it’s not necessarily I mean for lymphoma, that’s where your lymphocytes are created in the bone marrow. So of course it’s going to show up in the bone marrow, it doesn’t mean you’re going to die next week. But all the top lymphoma doctors did tell us that if he started treatment, traditional treatment, chemo radiation eventually of transplant, he would shorten his life and and they they estimated that he had already had To be between five and seven years, based on where it was and the body because he had, you know, all these different lymph nodes were enlarged on this on the stand. They basically said you have seven and a half to nine years to live with this until it until it ultimately you succumb to the disease ultimately. And I just remember clearly looking at that oncologist at Johns Hopkins and saying, Well, thank you very much, but I’m not going to receive that report. You’re not God. you’re practicing medicine. And you know, we’ll take your will take your medical opinion with a grain of salt.

I absolutely love it. So sounds like you’ve got a bit of stubborn just like I do. Yeah, I do. We’ll make our own way. Thank you very much. I just recently spoke at she podcasts live and I and I realized this episode is going out a few months after But Rachel Luna, who has her own podcast, she was there. And earlier this year, she was diagnosed with stage four triple negative breast cancer.

And she,

yeah, and but she was there. And I don’t know exactly what this means. I mean, there were 700 women there. We didn’t have a chance to chat one on one. But she said she was cancer free. And she had gone through. I mean, she lost her hair. So I don’t know what type of treatment she went through. But she was not going to follow the protocol that other people told her that she should. She said, No, I’m going to do this my way in a few in a way that feels right for me. And I’m just so fascinated by your story, because there’s so many times I mean, I’ve gone through my own medical issues, and I know that there’s listeners who have as well, where we felt like we had to follow the orders of the doctor and that’s often how they feel is it’s not suggested treatment, it often does feel Like doctor’s orders, eat an apple taco you in the morning, but it’s not I mean, I, I went through major burnout in 2008. I was admitted to the mental hospital it was because I was sleep deprived and my thyroid was giving me I was not treating my thyroid as I knew I should have. But the doctors, they prescribed me to three antidepressants. I didn’t need antidepressants. I needed sleep and to take care of my thyroid. So when I took myself off the medicine listeners, I don’t recommend that you take yourself off, but if you know it’s not right for you, you have the power to do whatever you want to for your body. I took myself off and my doctor fired me.

But why is it doctor’s orders? So what did you do that was you know?

Yeah, what, what was your path? I mean, here we are. 18 years later, almost 18 years later.

What would you say? Were His radical right word?

Well, we, the very beginning the prognosis from all three lymphoma doctors was watch and wait. And you know, my husband wasn’t really comfortable with that. nor was I. And I’ll never forget it. We were driving home from john hopkins. And he looked at me and said, Well, what do you think? Because I’m not really good with wait until the thing starts, you know, getting into my Oregon before we do treatment. What do you think? And I said, Well, I think you should drastically change your diet because we did learn that cancer loves sugar based on one of the tests that he did. And you know, me, me asking, what was that that they were putting in the IV and they told me this long explanation. I said to the doctor, can you just give it to me like I’m five years old? And he said sugar water. And I’m like, Well, why don’t you give them sugar water and he said, Because There’s live cancer cells, the sugar will go directly to the cancer, it soaks it up like a sponge, and then we put them through the machine and the radiation will light it up. And that shows you the density and the strength of the cancer. And I said, so in essence, you’re feeding the cancer. And he said, Yeah, well, and I was like, I just remember thinking, Well, that doesn’t sound good. So I looked at my husband and said, we’re going to drastically change your diet. Dr. Pepper is no longer going to be your best friend. And Raymond noodles is not a food group, which I used to always tease him when we were dating anyway and tell him that and we just we did that we drastically changed his diet. He did like a like an 80% change overnight. We sought out a alternative cancer doctor who used to be an oncologist for over 30 years and then he decided to go the alternative natural path way and became very educated. He was incredibly smart. And a believer. So his faith was very, very strong. And that was one of the first questions he asked us was, what do you believe? What is your What is your belief system, and we went that route and didn’t do any conventional medicine at all. And in less than six months, all 23 lymph nodes shrunk back to normal, there was no bone marrow activity. And I considered Lenny at that point cancer free. But the oncologist would not, quote unquote, state it or put it in writing because when he had one lymph node that was a half of a centimeter. Let me repeat that one lymph node from 23. That was a half a centimeter that showed up on the CAT scan. And so I argued with him and said, Well, you could probably put me through a CAT scan right now and I might have a couple from straps that are enlarged. But that’s it. necessarily mean the cancers there. And so we fired him and got a new oncologist to Lenny’s had from from that point on, who’s wonderful. And he’s always been very open to the alternative things that Lenny has done. He’s never claimed to be educated on any of it, but he’s always been open. And you know that that was the first of five different pathways. So just to put it in a nutshell, he has gone through alternative route, three out of the five occurrences, and two out of the five occurrences he’s had to do the chemo and the radiation. I mean, it was basically like you said, a doctor’s order, meaning if you don’t do this tonight, you could be paralyzed tomorrow. Because the first time he had to go that route, he had a tumor that develops in his spinal cavity and when wrapped around his spinal cord. So if he didn’t shrink it within, according to the doctor within 24 hours, he could sever his spinal cord. So at that point, we were like, go get some radiation, give him some steroids, give him whatever. And he started that protocol. So that’s pretty much I mean, the book pretty much tells you all the different pathways that we’ve done, but it also, while we’re talking about all of that, we share our love story, which is why the book is titled love conquers cancer. And we share our feet

which I absolutely love when I started my business in 2012. Okay, so let me back up a little bit. I left my ex has been in 2010. I had been raised Catholic, but until the weekend after I left my ex husband, I didn’t know God.

I was. I

heard a voice that told me to go to church and my life changed in that moment. Like at the first sermon and regardless of what your spiritual beliefs are listeners are, even yours, Andrea, I mean, our faith can be so many different directions. But my faith has carried me through.

Not cancer. But sometimes it feels like anything but

and without faith. I’ve learned what’s the point? Because if I don’t believe it can get better. It’s probably not going to.

Amen. Yeah. Yeah.

I love that the doctor and it was the doctor who asked about faith, the one who said the one lymph node. Was it the same doctor?

Andrea London: No, no, no, no that that the one that asked about his faith was the alternative doctor who helped lead Lennie down the path to healing the fertile time. Okay, the the oncologist was on the sideline, very much involved. So both of them were involved in Lenny’s health. But Lenny wasn’t doing traditional treatment, he wasn’t doing radiation. He wasn’t doing chemotherapy. He wasn’t doing any kind of anything conventional, traditional whatever he was on the left side of medicine, doing alternative doing the, you know, change in diet, several supplements. And this particular doctor did a lot of things with German technology and created these little tinctures. And, you know, he had a lot of he had a lot of flack from the medical community. He had to go to court several times people trying to take his medical license. You know, they called him a quack. I mean, any time you go outside of the norm, it seems like you know, I guess the best way to say it is a doctor Aren’t up on something, a lot of times not every time but a lot of times they’re down on it. So that particular oncologist that Lenny had was obviously very negative about the fact that, you know, we went outside the box and we found this guy, and he helped you, Lenny. And he just didn’t want to say yes, Lenny teal. He wanted to focus on the fact that even though Lenny’s, quote unquote, gauge for non Hodgkins lymphoma, which was in the bone marrow and had 23 abnormally large lymph nodes throughout the body showing up on his scans, here we go, almost six months later, he goes through all the same testing, he has no bone marrow activity whatsoever. Nothing shows up on the scans, other than a half of a centimeter lymph node. And to me that’s incredible progress.

So We have that’s why we fired him.

Absolutely. So we have quite an international population listening to us. And while you and I are, you know, North America, there’s a lot of international listeners as well to the international listeners and want you to know, I mean, how it works in your country might be different than how it works in the States. In for me, I mean, I’ve always been told, you can pick a primary care physician from this list, or you can go and seek out another if they’re approved and own what have you. But I found I mean, it took me 39 years to finally find a primary care physician who I feel like actually cares. The first appointment that I went into, like he sat down and asked me to tell him about myself. And I just like I was in shock. I remember shaking my head, pulling my head back and being in saying what he says. I like to know my patients.

looking amazing, and yeah, and that’s the way it should be. It is

in at the risk of being controversial. And I fear that someday My mouth is going to get me sued like Oprah talking about beef. But it’s, it amazes me, you know, the Food and Drug Administration. I know that for some time, it might still be the case. It wasn’t the case when I work there. But I know New York City had a ban on on certain sizes of soft drinks. And I think that’s amazing. But if I think if we could look at the country as a whole and really start regulating the additives that are in food, and what is allowed to be sold, but then we wouldn’t need the drugs and it’s just so ironic to me that it’s the Food and Drug Administration, but if we had more control over the food that our citizens are eating, without being like I don’t think the government should be able to control Everything about our lives. That’s not what I’m saying at all. But let’s help our people be healthy so that we don’t need the drugs. But then there’s all the tax money and you know, all the donations and all that from the drug companies in it. But I just think it’s so sad that when it comes to the health of our country, it’s driven by money and not for pure intent.

I agree. And one of the things is just kind of a simple thing, but think about it. One of our alternative paths was going to Mexico and going to this little clinic in Mexico, where Lenny had incredible success. And we learned so much about the food. I mean, I thought I had had our family on a pretty clean diet, but didn’t really realize how important organic was. And if you think about it, when we go into the store to buy some, you know, regular asparagus is $3 and 99 cents typically, to go over to the organic it’s $4 and nine The United States sometimes $5 and 99 cents. And to me, like, why can’t it all just be organic? Why do we have to tell this family? Oh, I’m so sorry, your food budgets only $100 a week or $125 a week. You can’t afford that extra $30 or $40 a week to buy organic. So you got to stay over here in this section. I mean, I just I scratched my head with that. That’s

when you mix the vegetables and the fruits looks so much more appealing.

And it’s, and it’s horrible for you. And yeah, and I never realized how much I mean, I used to wash all of our stuff with apple cider vinegar and water and think I was doing such a good thing. But being in that clinic for six weeks in Mexico and being behind the kitchen with the chef, Chef role I wrote about him in our book. I mean, he was amazing the things that he taught me and he said, Look Andrea Problem with American is you you have a horrible food source your diet is horrible. He said so when you go to the store, if you can’t find a good looking organic section, go go over and buy the ugliest produce and vegetables like just just look at look at the ugliest piece of whatever it is. And you’re better off buying that. Wow. Wow. And that’s just really cool to me.

Hey there, my friend. I hope you’re enjoying this episode of the positive productivity podcast. I wanted to take a quick moment to invite you to join the work smarter, not harder challenge over the course of 30 days these free Yes, free short videos will teach you a few the systems and strategies I set up in my business so I can get away from my computer and back to the people I love. I invite you to sign up now at works smarter, not harder. challenge.com. Again, you can sign up at work smarter, not harder. challenge.com So this year, I made a commitment to myself on January 1 that I was not going to go. I was not going to be in the hospital at all this year. And I know that might sound crazy to the new listeners, but I have burnt myself out so much in the past. Last year, last in were 11 and a half. We’re 11 months into the year and I’ve managed I’ve done it. I have a frog in my throat right now but I am not sick. But the reason is because I’m taking care of myself. I also cut out I would have to say 90% of soda. I’m still working on it. Okay, once in a while. By the way, your husband and my husband. My husband is addicted his Mountain Dew. He drinks it like water, but we got to get him off. I’ve tried, but sometimes I hate to say it like they just they’re stubborn in their ways. And sometimes they need a hard lesson and it sucks

but

There are just some people who are are stuck in their ways. But I, so I have hypothyroidism I’ve had it since birth, I went to get blood drawn this past weekend. And while I was there, I asked them if they can do a food panel. And they said yes, but you need your doctor to order it. And I know I have gluten intolerance, but I want to know what else I should not be eating. And I don’t want to, like I would love to just get the blood taken and have a report. No, you need the doctor to order it. I said, You mean I can’t just buy it?

Nope. Crazy. It’s crazy.

And I know that there’s tests I could order like through the internet, but I would prefer just to go into the local place and get the tests that I want. And I don’t understand

why can’t

But anyway, I have an appointment with that awesome doctor who takes the time to talk to me this week and I’ll I won’t be walking out of that appointment without To order to get that blood test,

I think that’s very smart. I mean, we all have to aggressively take our health into our own hands and not just allow anyone, a doctor whomever, to influence us to go down the path that they think is best for us. I mean, I mean, you have to go through the healing process when I mean, when you have cancer or some major disease. It’s not because you lack all these drugs that the doctors want to give you. It’s because something went haywire in your body that you need to correct. giving yourself a bunch of drugs is just covering up the symptoms and trying to wipe out the body. And then a lot of times, you’re going to create all these extra side effects and sometimes God forbid another type of disease. That now you got to deal with that. So

I’m married to him.

We all while you’re helping football,

yes. And he had a serious back injury in the service and they prescribed oxy cotton,

which,

which made him suicidal. And he took himself off. Until last year, he still had an open prescription for oxy cotton on his report, and he could get all the oxy cotton that he possibly wanted. And we joked about it, please know that we never did it. Like in our points of struggle, he’s like, you know, I could just fill that prescription and sell them. We never did that, because he saw what it did to him. And we’ve heard enough reports of what is done to other people that there was no way we were going to open up that gate and we’re not going to do illegal stuff for money period. So he finally had them just take it off. Like take that open prescription off his records he could not get it. But what he found in this I don’t know that I’ve ever admitted this on the podcast before

Marijuana has just become

illegal for medicinal purposes in Ohio. My husband does not have as many are his medical marijuana card. But he’s found that that works for relieving the pain in his back.

And it’s very, very, very good. Yeah, not a bad thing. My husband has done that well, and we actually found a really good CBD product that has all the power of you know, the plant got like 113 cannabinoids, but it doesn’t have the THC. Because for whatever reason, my husband he just is so sensitive to it. I mean, I actually created there’s another chapter in the book. He said I should have called it Smokey and the Bandit chapter, but I actually made a a, I don’t know if you’ve heard of Rick Simpson oil, but we read all about how making the Pot into oil can kill cancer. And so he was all about wanting to do that after the second conventional go around, which almost killed them, he had to have a transplant, six months of high dose chemo and radiation. And then, you know, have a stem cell transplant at the end of it and it still didn’t kill all the cancer. And it actually came back with a vengeance. So he did did not want to go through conventional again, but he read all about the oil and so I went out to the other side of the country. And, you know, after networking and bought quite a lot of the plants and the eight and a half hours making it into oil, put it in these old syringes and then drove it home. And I might be putting myself in danger here. I don’t know who’s listening to the podcast, but I had to rent a car because you can’t fly it and it’s fun to add things you go through to try to like help your loved one and Why should you have to do any of that is my whole thing. I mean, if you’re if you’re able to get a drug that like, like the oxy, I can’t ever say oxy cotton, cotton or, yeah, if you’re able to get a job like that, that literally can kill you puts you on an addiction path to suicide. But yet you cannot get something that is a natural, God made. God created all these different strains of it that do all these wonderful things, for children for psychological disorders, for cancer of all these different things that are mostly inflammatory diseases. And you got to break the law to go get that. I mean, I mean, again, I’m scratching my head, like what in the world what is going on in our country? Why can’t Why can’t we thought we were a democracy. We don’t have the freedom to go get a plan and make it into some kind of mess. And like the Native Americans used to do I mean, traditional medicines only been around 100 years. Prior to that, what did they do? They pulled up plants. And they boiled it and made it into tinctures and soup and oil or smoked it or whatever. And that’s how they heal, heal themselves. So,

conversation, so my dad,

and my husband couldn’t God love him Can he could not function. He could not go to work. He called me one day I’ll never forget it. He was on one of our local roads and he said, Andrew, I feel like I’ve been driving on this road for two hours. It’s been 15 minutes. I cannot get get our son from basketball. You’re gonna have to go get him. I don’t know how I’m gonna get home. Wow.

So I can milk pot. I can’t I can’t do any I can’t eat brownies. I can’t eat the cookies or anything because it has an adverse effect on me. It it does crazy things in our brain. That’s all I gotta say. Like

for him to This man’s never smoked, never smoked a hit off of it or anything. But here I’m making this oil that supposedly like over 70% THC. And he only takes like one little half of a grain of rice size droplet. And he as he says it, I went to another planet for the day. Well, he found a really good product that is just the pill and he takes that and it doesn’t have the THC but it gives him all the cannabinoids to you know, reduce inflammation. And I mean, that’s just one of several things that he takes on a regular basis. But what we basically put everything in the book of his daily regimen, his diet, you know, different websites for different things that we found over the years. He writes a letter to the to the reader if they are the actual cancer patient. You know, from his perspective, you know, my writing is pretty much just our story. And you know how we navigated through these 18 years and just trying to encourage the caregiver not to give up to take care of yourself. Take care of your body because, you know, especially as women, we put a lot on ourselves. And we have to put our health first. I mean, how in the world can we can we like I love the air, the airline stewardess, like example how can we don’t put the don’t put the oxygen mask on the person next to you till you put it on yourself? You know, how can we be there and be strong for someone that fighting if we aren’t strong?

So what did it take you to figure that out?

Andrea London: Oh my gosh, I’m 52 it probably took me till I was in my early to mid 40s. I had kind of like what you did, I had a complete nervous breakdown and I got put on antidepressants. I have a whole chapter in the book on depression. And I mean, I wrote that not to take away from Lenny part of the story but but to encourage … I know there’s a lot of people that battle with depression and what I was from is not just I battled depression since I was 19.

Andrea London: But I was battling from major menopause and hormone imbalance, and it wasn’t until I got put on two different strong antidepressants and became suicidal and was in the hospital that I realized, okay, these people don’t know what they’re doing. And luckily, the good Lord sent me a hormone doctor. And you know, I had to go to Tampa to get it all done properly, which was, you know, an airline ticket. But my hormones were completely off the charts.

Andrea London: And so I did bioidentical hormone and read Suzanne Somers book on that and when they over about a three year period to bring myself back to balance and I’m still taking a very mild antidepressant but it’s Wellbutrin and it’s not. It’s not necessarily addictive or anything like that. It just helps me chemically just stay balanced. My hormones are all about

Kim Sutton: I’m not laughing… I’m not laughing at you. I just want to make that clear. So when I was in the mental hospital, they prescribed me to Wellbutrin, Prozac and Atavan.

Andrea London: Oh my god.

Kim Sutton: … At the same time. So, listeners if I have never shared this, be prepared, you’re probably going to be shocked. But so I was on all three. I went back to work. It had me on a different type of different planet like a different one. Besides what pot put me on. Put me on. Let me just I will never do it again. Yes, well, there were two separate days. This is back in 2008. So 11 years ago, people this will not happen again, where I wound up in tattoo and piercing parlors, and let’s just say I got piercings that nobody would ever think I would get. I no longer have those piercings. But that was part of the clue of, oh my gosh, you need to get off this stuff. 

Andrea London: I love that you’re so how old are you? How old? Were you? If you don’t mind me, when all of that happened?

Kim Sutton: I was 29.

Andrea London: So, it sounds like you had you probably had adrenal fatigue and they took it for. They took it for depression.

Kim Sutton: Oh, I absolutely had adrenal fatigue. I was so I was working a full time job during the day with an hour commute. So nine hours plus two more so 11 hours a day there. And then I was also trying to build a business at night. So I was only sleeping two hours a night, I would say. And I did this for a year and a half to two years. So I was absolutely exhausted. Plus, as I already said, I I’ve been I’ve had hypoactive thyroid isms since birth. And the business I was trying to build was an online scrapbooking shop. I had tons of papers all over. This is a bad excuse, but my thyroid medicine got buried out of sight out of mind is totally what happens to me. And I had not taken my medicine in forever. So when they checked my blood when I got to the hospital, I think the T four should be between point one and point two and mine was at 158. So take care of yourself people but when you are going through stuff like that, you don’t please for the love of God. Don’t let them put you on Wellbutrin. advant and Prozac to fight adrenal fatigue. Like that’s not yeah Crazy

Prozac was one of the ones they prescribed me to.

Andrea London: Yeah, that’s pretty, pretty intense.

Kim Sutton: And it’s funny because I went through all this in 2008 and 2009. I was admitted to hospital on the same day as Britney Spears.

Andrea London: Oh my god bless your heart Kim. I whenever I mean anything, it’s horrible. It’s horrible going through all that. I mean, it was some of my darkest moments. Absolutely. And I don’t like to talk about it, but I like you have to talk about it. Because to me, it’s like, like I said in the beginning, if you don’t share this stuff, has anybody else that’s going through it that no one telling them what to do or or, or not telling them what to do, but just sharing another option that could save their life.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely. I love and I want to go back to something that you mentioned briefly earlier, but CBD oil. I know there are so countries where it’s illegal. So for for those of you that are living in countries where it’s Legal, I am not condoning is condoning the right word going out and buying it. But it’s worked for me.

Kim Sutton: So in 2016, I had another cycle of burnout but I was taking care of my thyroid. And my husband at that point, I was working in a vape shop. He and I were both smokers. And I don’t know that I’ve ever admitted this on the podcast before. We were both smokers for 20 plus years. And after the twins were born, we both quit however we continue to vape and that’s something that I’m still working on listeners please don’t touch but he heard in the vape shop about CBD oil and I went and bought some and although I cannot smoke pot, CBD oil is almost like instant anxiety relief for me. So I keep it stocked in the house now. And because I have I am multi passionate and I’ve chronic idea disorder and I always want to be doing more. I have a routine now of taking a drop a dropper of CBD oil when I’m feeling super hyper active before bed, because or else I will toss and turn all night and be stressed about what I should be doing instead of sleeping. But we need sleep in the CBD oil, careful, yep. It just calms me down and lets me sleep. And I don’t I don’t think we need to be going out and getting drugs to help asleep

Andrea London: I for me, CBD oil is is just that. (?)  It does all kinds of other good things to the body. I mean, it completely regulates and balances out your I never can say the word endocannabinoid system. And if you have any inflammation in the body, I mean if you’re on a good enough amount, it can alleviate and reduce and even eliminate the inflammation, which inflammation is the precursor to most every disease. So, I love it, it helps my depression, it helps me sleep. I mean, I’m just on a little handful of really good vitamins, my CBD oil capsules. And a couple times I’ll do the drop here and there and I do the lowest dose of Wellbutrin. And I’ve I’ve tried to go off without a couple of times and just decided, you know, not yet for whatever reason it’s not like, like I said, I’m not addicted to it. I just I went through so much I just my doctors, like you know, and she’s pretty alternative open minded and somewhat educated. She’s like, Andrea, it’s not hurting you. You know, it’s, it’s taken that little bit of edge on the chemical side of things. It’s okay, it’s okay to and you know, anyone out there listening that is on medication for depression, or anxiety or any of those things. I mean, yes, there’s alternatives out there and you might be able to find some but if you have to stay on something It’s helping you. I mean, you know, don’t beat yourself up about it because I went through a whole long period of time where I did that. You know, there’s

to judgment here. Yeah. So I just don’t like it when the doctors are prescribing medications unnecessarily. That’s all. I agree. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. So how are you today? And how is your husband today? And what are you most excited about for the year ahead?

Andrea London: We are both doing wonderful. We are our marriage knock on wood is stronger than ever. He is doing really well. The one area where the cancers still kept showing up isn’t completely gone on the scan yet. He has his next scan in January. So we are anticipating really good news because he’s done a lot of new really powerful alternative things that go over And and we found the DNA lady out in Illinois that, you know, does things from a DNA standpoint, and he’s just feeling great. He’s looking great. He’s working full time, but not too much. And he’s working out again five days a week. I mean, we just went to a fundraiser function over the weekend and saw some old friends and they just kept saying it over and over again, Lenny, you look amazing, like, you look better than we’ve ever seen. You look, and he’s 53. And so I’m just so so proud of them. I feel great. I’m working out again. I’ve got my house, knock on wood and check and balance and I couldn’t be more pleased about that. First and foremost. We are looking forward to the future because we know God has amazing plan. And we’re just walking it out one day at a time we both have a business. So that takes a lot of time but our family is more important than anything. We, you know, we make time for family and we’re just excited about the future and what God has planned.

Kim Sutton: What would you say is…, are some of the ingredients for being able to make it through all the stressors that you’ve had? Because there are couples who wouldn’t have gotten a year through?

Andrea London: Well, I have to say that the number one thing is our faith. And, you know, to those that are listening, that, you know, maybe you don’t have a faith or maybe you’re searching, you know, don’t… Again, don’t beat yourself up for not having a faith but I guarantee you, if you if you open up your heart and you ask for God to show you, He will answer and he will show you.

Andrea London: I just… There’s no way that I can stand here today and tell you I could have made it through all the things that we’ve gone through. Because I mean, the book has a lot more than the cancer. I mean, we’ve lost babies, we lost a home. We had to start all over. I mean, it’s a lot more than the cancer walk. And there’s no way that I could say, we’d be standing here today. One of the chapters says, I’m still standing as as the as the title here,

that song No.

Yeah.

And the music and the music can answer your question the music for me. It’s so hilarious because people that know us. I mean, my husband’s a believer too, but he says, My, my mouth is big enough for both of us. So he doesn’t really he’s very quiet about his face. He doesn’t really talk a lot about it, but he, to me, he’s a walking sermon because he doesn’t have to talk. He doesn’t have to open up his mouth. He’s just kind and loving and his just, his soul was amazing. So he doesn’t need this Anything but music has gotten us through like I love worship music I listen to a station called Caleb which is positive music all day long it’s all positive yeah See, I knew I loved you so music helped me I work out every day I I read you know positive things I fill my you got to fill your soul with positive things if you’re going to fight the good fight in this world, you’ve got to fill your fill your soul so my say positive things awesome music. My husband I mean I write about his music and he loves rock and roll. I mean his his fight song is trying to fight the good fight which I never really listened to the lyrics until we were going through this together. And he was like, he was like a fight the good fight my anthem song I’m like, really? And so I googled it and I sat there and I bawled my eyes out. I was like, Oh my god, this is such a spiritual song. Well, no.

So what am I, I gotta share with you one of my husband and some, my husband has been a believer for far longer than me. And one of our first dates for driving to a Dunkin Donuts and, and he has on this station. I think it’s now called air one. But it had a different name at that point. But it’s like, heavy metal Christian. Like, what is this? Because that was just never a genre that I could listen to. He’s like, Oh, it’s a Christian heavy metal. And I said that exists. Yeah, you’re listening to it. And I was like, Oh my gosh, it is still something that I will never get into. But I want to share one more thing for all the believers out there and especially Christians, you’ll understand the weight of this. I live in a small town in Ohio about 20 minutes north of Dayton. We have this small Stadium in town where The local high school team plays hockey. So I don’t even want to say but me have like 1000 seats, maybe more, but I’ve never checked. So my husband and I are going out on a date two weeks ago, and there’s a traffic jam in my town. We’re just going to the local Mexican restaurant. And we’re like, what’s going on? And then I remembered Chris Tomlin was in town that night, playing it the whole time. Yeah, me too. So I hurriedly like, took out my phone. I was like, I wonder if there’s any last minute tickets because that would be so awesome.

But yeah,

I just need to do that. If it weren’t for our faith, then we wouldn’t be here and January 1. When I committed to not going to the hospital this year. I also turned everything over to him and I started my year if you haven’t read it yet, and for believers and even non believers who are listening, I started my year by reading Danny Johnson’s spirit driven success. It completely changed the trajectory of my business. And one of the things that I realized it took me eight months of this year to finally make the decision was that I was still focusing on income rather than integrity. And I was still focusing on income rather than impact in all areas. And that’s been my belief since 2016, that I really needed to change the focus. But I was so worried about where the income was coming from, that in some situations, it wasn’t the best decision for my faith, because I can’t embrace. I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want people to get mad. But I just realized what people were being sold and not by me was not what they’re getting delivered. And I didn’t want to be any part of that. The final kicker for me was I was reading a Purpose Driven Life by Pastor Rick Warren. And he’s talking about Judas in the Bible to this was the one you turned over Jesus to the army or to. I’m not a Bible. Thumper. Okay? So, it but he got paid to do that. And then he went and bought a farm and essentially he died. Pretending as far as I believe is how the story goes. But he died because of his dirty money in there just hit me in the heart. I was like, wow. Now I’m not saying that the person that I’m working with is, is dirty or illegal or anything. It’s just I realized that that’s essentially I was sacrificing time with my family time with my husband, time working on the projects that I really need to be because of my commitment to doing what I no longer felt was right for my god and for my integrity. And I let it go and immediately, goodness just started flooding in

Andrea London: I think that’s amazing, Kim, I just think that’s amazing. Isn’t Dani Johnson the best? I mean, I love, love, love that book. I’ve read that book a couple of times. And I also am reading her called it’s on my bookshelf. First Steps to Wealth.

Kim Sutton: Are you reading that right now? Cuz it’s on my shelf too, but I haven’t started yet.

Andrea London: Yeah, I just started it. I’m reading another book, too. I’m always reading books, but I just love her. I love her. She, she reminds me of kind of like how our mindset is that we want to positively impact people. Whether it’s like with you with your podcast, and with me just telling our story and encouraging people medically to get, you know, to get knowledge. I feel like she does the same thing but with wealth. I mean, because I believe like she does.

Andrea London: I mean, God doesn’t say anywhere in the Bible that He wants his kids to be broke. I mean, how can we be? How can we be givers and find the answers of the kingdom for walking around broke and we can’t find $2 in our checkbook.

Kim Sutton: Right.

Andrea London: so that’s what I love about her is she shows you you know, from a very you know, logical common sense way but also with a biblical undertone, I guess or a foundation, not undertone, foundation is more the word of you know how God wants us to do our business and I just think it’s really really awesome that you’ve read that and you’ve already applied it and you’re having positive results.

Kim Sutton: I feel bad now that we’re that we’re discussing her book instead of yours, but what really struck me…

Andrea London: It’s okay, I love her.

Kim Sutton: I’m really hoping that this will help somebody but and I’m sure everything that we’ve already talked about would but what got me started was first she says, work for all your clients as though you’re working for God. Now. I just want that to I want to say, that does not mean treat your clients like God, but work for them. So you’re working for God.

Kim Sutton: Second, charge your worth. There’s nothing in the Bible that says we need to be giving discounts because we’re Christian. And I struggle with that. So, I, and then, and when you’re charging your worth, and you’re working for them as though you’re working for God, they’re gonna be spreading your word all over your name. And then you’ll get more clients and the more money you make, the more you can serve.

Kim Sutton: And the more you can give in what, what proportion does she say that she and her husband live off of? Isn’t it like, they give away 90% of their monthly salary and they’re still exceptionally wealthy?

Andrea London: Mm hmm. Yeah, and I think that that was originally Rick Warren. That was his goal was to create a ministry where he would be giving he would be giving… He would flip the tide, instead of getting 10%, and keeping 90, he would flip it, and he would give 90 and keep 10. So I don’t know if she got that concept from him. But I just know it’s pretty amazing.

Andrea London: And you know, I just always say, when you’re feeling down or something bad going on in your life, go out there and give to somebody else. And bless somebody else. And I can tell you, Lenny and I walk with the Lord and walk through all of this stuff that we’ve gone through. There have been so many times where I feel like God, not necessarily testing but here comes somebody that’s in a worse situation, or Here comes somebody that’s in a similar situation. And God’s like, “Help this person. Encourage this person.”

Andrea London: And some of the times we were like pinching pennies, wondering how were we going to buy groceries that week, and God would say here, give to the person. And every single time we were obedient, he blessed us tenfold. And it wasn’t like we did it to to get something from God, it was more of a faith walk. And it was more just, you know, I mean, that’s the one place in the Bible where God says, test me in this and see if I won’t open the floodgates of heaven.

Andrea London: And for me, every time I’ve given that way, my prayer has always been heal my husband, heal my family, protect our marriage, heal our marriage, you know, it’s never been to give me money. You know what I mean?

Kim Sutton: Absolutely.

Andrea London: like God is your provider and everything and if you if you walk in that and believe in that, and you obey Him and that you won’t be stressed out financially, huh?

Kim Sutton: Yeah, everything. This has been one of the toughest years in the business although I have in the business. Let me just repeat that in the business. I’ve had clients who said that they were Christian turn around and do the most unchristian like things. And unhuman like things I should say. Like just non moral, and it’s just, it doesn’t feel good, but because I kept my faith, everything is turned around and there are people who would have just given up I thought about giving up, but I won’t. I want to leave listeners and then I want, I will, Andrea that would love you to leave a golden nugget as well. But I’m gonna put a video into the show notes. And it’s a song called even if by Mercy me and that song is carrying me through every single day right now. And it’s just a beautiful song. So if you’re struggling, I want you to go listen to it. And again, you can find the show notes at but KIM SUTTON comm forward slash p p 654. Andrea, thank you so much. I feel like this is just our first of many conversations, because I would actually love to read four steps of wealth with you. I’m just

I would love that too. Yeah, I

really would love to have a, you know, an accountability partner. I just feel like when you have an accountability partner In a book, it’s so much more powerful. I’ve been in a Bible study group for about four and a half years now. And we’ve gone through many books, but going through it with another group of women or even, you know, a small group or a group of one. I mean, it’s like when you have somebody else to discuss it with and ask questions about, it just makes it more. You just learn it better if you keep it, you keep that knowledge more than if you just read it and say, Oh, that was great. And maybe take a couple notes. I just feel like when you discuss it with someone else, and they share their perspective, you just learn it more. Absolutely.

I want to leave something else for the listeners too. And then I’m really throwing it over to you. And it’s our responsibility as humans to share a message so regardless of your faith, you have something inside you that needs to be shared. Andrea today, I mean, she’s sharing her story with her Husband in love conquering cancer. And then we shared our face. So whatever you’ve experienced, there’s somebody who can gain great value. By just hearing you talk about it. You do not need to be perfect. Positive productivity is not about perfection, but it doesn’t need to be painful either. So share your message and help somebody else. Get through whatever they’re going through. But, Andrea, I would love to hear your golden nugget and where can listeners find you online?

Andrea London: My website is Andrea A-N-D-R-E-A-C, like cat, London L-O-N-D-O-N .com. And my book is found on Amazon. It’s, Love Conquers Cancer.

But, my golden nugget is… I guess the scripture that’s coming to mind and I know I should know it. I want to say it’s Hosea. But you could probably Google what I’m about to say and the scripture will pop up. My people perish for a lack of knowledge.

Andrea London: So, my golden nugget is get knowledge, whether it’s knowledge for your faith and finding the true God that loves you unconditionally that wants to be there and is there in every part of your life, whether that get knowledge in your health, and don’t just let somebody else dictate to you what your health is and what your health is going to be. But get knowledge yourself and go with your gut.

Andrea London: Or whether it’s get knowledge on your finances or your family or any area of your life that you’re struggling, get knowledge because it’s out there. And that’s our job. We we are to get the knowledge and then we walk in faith and let God do his part.