Retire Early Lifestyle
Retirement; like your parents, but way cooler

In 1991 Billy and Akaisha Kaderli retired at the age of 38. Now, into their 4th decade of this financially independent lifestyle, they invite you to take advantage of their wisdom and experience.

Billy and Akaisha Kaderli

Mungkala Chinese Medical Clinic, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Now We Wait

After all the poking, prodding and bio-samples taken, now we wait for the determination of the tests.

I was moved very rapidly from wanting a non-invasive procedure done in an outpatient style to being placed on a conveyor belt named “CANCER.”

Cripes.

How did THAT happen?

I was feeling a bit “spun around.”

Throughout this whole process over the months ahead, Billy proved to be my Rock. He never left my side, gave me emotional support, and took care of all the physical details this journey would entail. There are no words deep enough to express my gratitude.

The talks

When the idea of Cancer comes to visit, it’s a wake-up call.

Nothing stays the same and all of a sudden, my Life clarified.

At this point, no diagnosis was given, but just the idea of it was enough to shock us out of any complacency we might have been feeling… about anything.

What if it really IS Cancer? What if I only have 4 months to live? What if it has metastasized to my lungs or anywhere else?

Billy and I went into high gear, trying to sort things out for ourselves and we began to have “The Talks.”

Yes, we have a will, but it needed updating. Yes, we have thought about assisted living or end of life care, but… NOW?

How would we manage this – if it really WAS Cancer – at home in our beautiful little apartment in Chapala?

A flurry of thoughts, sleepless nights, tears - and we were awash in “I love you’s” everywhere.

One thing I was certain about from the beginning and that was I was going to make the most of this experience.

My approach was a very unambiguous stand: “This is the best thing that has ever happened to me in my Life.”

If Cancer was on my doorstep, then I was going to milk it for every gift I could get.

The Mungkala Clinic, Chiang Mai, Thailand

We had lived in Thailand for almost 7 years previously, and one of the things I had planned for this return visit, was to utilize the Mungkala Clinic located in Chiang Mai.  

This is a very famous, family-run Acupuncture, Chinese Medicine Clinic, and I had utilized their services many times in the past.

My appointment at the medical center for a consultation and an acupuncture treatment was the following day.

The Chinese doctor I normally used had died during the Covid time and her sister was now running the the business.

Even though my primary Chinese doctor's death had been a couple of years ago, the sister in front of me was still heavily grieving. This was hard for me to witness, and - while I understood that pain - I felt my energy gently drifting downward.

“No, no, I don't want this – this isn't good for me”, I said to myself, but I sensed myself descending anyway, matching her grief level.

As we spoke, something told me that the doctor I normally saw must have died of Cancer. The reason I say this is because when I told the sister doctor here about my current state of affairs and my visit to Chiang Mai Ram Hospital, she immediately and strongly also decided that I had breast cancer.

Done deal

“Just cut it off” she said to me matter-of-factly. “It's better to have your life than to try and keep a diseased breast and endanger yourself. They have better tools and medicines now.”

This was probably meant to comfort me or to be some kind of encouragement and support.

But I found myself trying to tell her otherwise, attempting to keep a door open to other possibilities (in my own version of Schrodinger's Cat), explaining that I was still in the testing stages, and I didn't have a firm diagnosis right now… and… and...

What is it with doctors? They decide something and that is it. No wiggle room for anything, even a second opinion? A miracle? I had no diagnosis at this point, and yet this doctor had already decided my fate.

This took me by surprise.

Face-to-face with an immovability of concept, then concept becomes reality. I was still looking for some flexibility here but it was nowhere to be found.

I felt like I was being pushed psychologically and I wasn't strong enough to hold my mental and emotional place.

For the first time, the seas around me became rocky.

Different ideas in conflict

Everyone has their different views of Life and how to live it. I get that.

When it comes to health management, these ideas can be in conflict, and I get that also.

I have not been one to take a lot of pharmaceuticals – I will if I need them and obviously in an emergency - like the de-gloving of my finger in Guatemala in 2012 – I will do what is necessary to move forward in health.

However, in general, I don’t like to take on someone else's ideas or concepts.

It has always worked for me to keep my own counsel and to imagine a much better outcome than what I have been told by people on the outside, regardless of their “expertise.”

This mindset has worked for me my entire life in just about every category.

I am not saying this is better or worse, I am simply explaining my general approach in Life. I don’t particularly like someone else deciding for me, or telling me something won't work or will fail.

But I had just met my match in the matrix.

One of my perceptions was fading and being replaced right before my eyes, and I seemed to have no control of it.

A frightening visualization

At any rate, I went into the treatment room and laid down. I was here to “unblock my chi” which has proven to be useful to me in the past and is what I wanted to do at this point.

While I am relaxing and visualizing wonderful things - Being filled with God’s Grace and Guided and Protected by His Light and feeling filled up with Peace – right in the middle of that - I receive a terrible image of my breast.

The area where I have been seeing the cyst had moved over, and behind it was an ashen gray mass that dissolved into dust, with a very deep cavern in the center.

I can't tell you how disturbing this was to me. It was another complete surprise.

Visualizing my breast for almost 2 years, it has never looked unhealthy. Nor have I felt unhealthy.

Yes, I have a mass and yes, it is large and yes, it might be a cyst (called a fibroadenoma) but it has always looked healthy in my mind’s eye or I would have made a move much sooner on this condition.

I felt rather shocked and invaded by this image… and now – ok, I am willing to learn, I tell myself - this is the work I need to do.

I need to replace that corrupted vision/image with a healthy one.

I understand that some of you don’t go for this kind of thing and I’m alright with that.

Everyone lives their lives in their own way.

Yet another realization

Receiving this stark image at this time and in this way was a first for me. It truly shook me to my core, and for the first time in years, I was knocked down to my (emotional) knees.

I said to myself: “Look, if I am supposed to die, and my time is up… fine, all right... But in the meanwhile, I am going to go with the flow and let things fall into place. I gotta trust there's something good here.”

So far, everything has been working out very easily and conveniently and I’ll see what develops.

I will work on the meditation of my breast with healthy tissue, changing what it looks like in my mind. It seemed the power of the replaced image was pretty stubborn though, not yielding to any of my attempts to modify it.

Oh dear.

Meanwhile, I have nearly a week before I return to the hospital for the results of my biopsies, so I was going to have to sit with all of this until I received the outcome of the tests.

For more information, pricing and perspectives on my Stage Three Breast Cancer journey, click here

Retire Early Lifestyle appeals to a different kind of person – the person who prizes their independence, values their time, and who doesn’t want to mindlessly follow the crowd.

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