Elaine was raised until the age of three in a small town in Pennsylvania, before her family moved to LaSalle, Michigan, just north of the Ohio border. She attended Monroe High School where she studied business. She later took courses in business in college.

Her marriage at a young age sadly ended in divorce, yet gave her four beautiful children. She worked in a factory until her children were grown, then left the factory to begin her own business.

She was again married, this time happily. Her husband joined her in her business until his death in 2005.

Elaine owned and operated Woodland Embroidery in Marion, Michigan. Today Elaine lives in Kentucky and owns and operates American Designs.

Elaine also spends much of her time listening to, and giving encouragement to, others who are going through the same kind of ordeal that she went through.

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Our cat Luke, whom we rushed to the pet emergency on July 4, 2005, was diagnosed with a fibrous sarcoma, or vaccination site sarcoma, between his shoulder blades. We were presented with two choices: radical surgery followed by radiation therapy, or nothing at all, which would result in Luke dying in three to four months. This cancer is difficult to completely excise resulting in likely recurrence. We chose surgery at a specialty clinic in Pittsburgh.

At the advice of the surgeon, we were referred to the Veterinarian Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. Luke received the radiation (one of the biggest mistakes we ever made). The radiation was a daily course (18 treatments) for which he had to be sedated each time. He also received a relatively mild chemotherapy. During this time he had to remain at the clinic during the week. We brought him home for the weekend and went up every day to feed him. Luke would never eat when he was at the vet's. When Luke returned home he bounced back well, and regained his weight at about 15 pounds. One of his nicknames was Fatty Luke. Unfortunately, the tumor reemerged in February 2006.

A second surgery was performed at Cleveland in early March. They gave him a much stronger chemotherapy, adriamycin, but Luke couldn't handle this new treatment. He became quite ill in May and ended the chemo. He began having litter box problems, straining to defecate. We made several visits to our local vets and eventually he was hospitalized because of severe constipation. He was administered fluids and unsuccessful attempts at enemas. They recommended lactulose, a strong laxative.

Eventually one the doctors probed poor Luke with his finger and declared he felt a "ring" just inside the rectum. We were referred to the specialty vets again. The first doctor we saw was a surgeon who said Luke would become completely incontinent if he operated. As an aside, this guy had the worst beside manner of any doctor we've ever been around. We did find out at this point that the daily sedation for the radiation ruined Luke's kidneys. Nice of them to tell us at that point.

Luke was hospitalized there and as far as doctors are concerned, we went from worst to best as Luke was treated by one of the nicest vets we've come across. He was an internal medicine doctor. Luke received several tests including a barium x-ray. The doctor showed us the results which looked like taking a long balloon and twisting it in the middle resulting in an almost infinitesimal gap between the colon and the rectum. We were trained to give fluids under the skin, laxatives, kidney foods and Luke was sent home to die. We were looking at weeks or even days.

The doctor said that Luke had a circumferential tumor or ring tumor in his bowels. A friend at work recommended Protocel. Luke was very sick, we feared for life every day for some time. Starting in September 2006 we hand fed Luke the Protocel-laced food four times a day.

In about three weeks, Luke began to have normal bowel movements. My husband was so dumbfounded and excited that after taking several photos, he ran the poop up to our vet; she was amazed. This wasn't supposed to happen. She said to keep doing what we were doing because it was working. She's a wonderful doctor and a friend we can count on. When there's any kind of emergency, we can call even weekends and holidays. She always makes time when it's time for our guys to go, so that they can be put to sleep at home. However she's not the biggest proponent of alternative medicine. (She does believe that Protocel is a good anti-oxidant).

Luke showed such improvement day to day that he became his old self, doing all his Luke stuff. He gained a lot of weight back. He lived 16 months after he was sent home to die and started on the Protocel. Luke passed away on February 8th, 2008, of kidney failure at the age of 15 years 9 months. I think it's very reasonable to credit Protocel for not only eliminating the tumor in his bowels - which was unfixable for normal medicine - but also stopping the recurrence of the original fibrous sarcoma which should have come back. Thanks to Protocel and Kathie, and God bless you.

Cathy Stagel, November 2009
mommieblondie@comcast.net