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Centenarian still active Red Cross volunteer
BY ALEX GALLAGHER Progress Staff Writer
At age 101, Betty Grenig is the American Red Cross’ oldest volunteer, serving the nonprofit for over 80 years across the nation and even overseas.
Because of her efforts, the Scottsdale woman was honored last year with a Presidents Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021 issued by President Joe Biden.
Grenig, who turns 101 tomorrow, Aug. 15, said she felt “confused” by the certificate because she felt she was just doing her patriotic duty for the past eight decades.
Grenig still remembers when her mother told her she should volunteer for the Red Cross in 1939, when she was a 17-yearold high school student in Long Beach, California.
Her mother had been deeply patriotic and had read a sign that the Red Cross was looking for people who knew how to knit socks for soldiers in the Army.
“You can knit Betty, get busy” were the words her mother told her that changed her life.
Betty gathered six of her friends to go to the Red Cross and knit socks and caps to go under soldiers’ helmets.
“We didn’t bother with sweaters, which was too much,” she said with a laugh.
However, her earliest days of volun-
Betty Grenig of Scottsdale turns 101 tomorrow, Aug. 15. Here she displays a certificate she received from President Joe Biden thanking her for her service to the American Red Cross, where she is the nonprofit’s oldest and longest-serving volunteer. (David Minton/Progress Staff Photographer) teering provided Grenig with some of the fondest memories of her teenage years. “We always had knitting needles and whenever we were sitting, we’d get the needles and start moving,” she said. seeGRENIG page 16
Carrie Crary of Carrie’s Healing Cafe, became familiar with the challenges cancer poses through her work as in the VA radiation department and her only personal battle with
the disease. (David Minton/Progress Staff Photographer)
Carrie’s Healing Cafe offers cancer care
BY ALEX GALLAGHER Progress Staff Writer
Carrie Crary is no stranger to cancer care.
Crary had worked as a nurse in the radiation department at the Phoenix Veterans Administration and had survived one bout with cancer before becoming a registered nurse. Then, in 2018, she received the news that changed her life.
Crary learned that she had stage four breast cancer and the outcome didn’t look good.
“Initially, I was just freaked out,” she said. “I was (having) anxiety attacks in the middle of the night and it was just devastating being told that you only have so long to live. It was traumatizing.”
Crary said she began seeing signs about alternative care that she attributes to a higher power.
“God started putting things in my life that led me to start researching alternative care,” Crary said. “I went into a smoothie shop and the owner sat down with me and started talking to me about all these therapies and different things like to take and to do as far as juicing and different things.
“I sat on a bench at work at the VA and had a patient come and sit next to me and just randomly start talking to me about all these things they knew nothing about – what I’m going through – and it just kept coming at me through friends, family and strangers alike.”
From there, Crary began doing her re-
Neuropathy Is Often Misdiagnosed
Muscle cramping, difficulty walking, burning, tingling, numbness, and pain in the legs or feet are symptoms of neuropathy people live with every day,” explains Dr. Kerry Zang, podiatric medical director of CIC Foot & Ankle. “The thing is PAD has very similar symptoms. So similar that in many cases, people are told it’s neuropathy when it may not be.”
Medicine is often prescribed. “Pills aren’t a cure, they just suppress the symptoms,” says Zang. “If neuropathy isn’t causing the symptoms, the real problem could get worse.”
It’s important to determine if PAD (peripheral artery disease) is causing the pain or making it worse. PAD is plaque in the arteries which causes poor circulation. “Blood brings oxygen and nutrients to your feet which they need to stay healthy,” explains Zang, “When your feet aren’t getting an adequate supply, they start sending signals.” Those signals include pain, burning, tingling, numbness, or cramping.
The good news is PAD is treatable in an office setting. Dr. Joel Rainwater, MD endovascular specialist explains, “We go into the bloodstream to find the blockage using imaging guidance. Then with small tools that can go into the smallest arteries, remove the blockage, and restore blood flow.”
Getting the proper diagnosis is the first step to getting better. “It’s all about finding out what’s causing the problem,” says Zang. “When your feet burn, tingle, or feel numb, it’s your body telling you it needs help, and you should listen.”
If your neuropathy medication is not working, your symptoms may be an indication of another condition.
For golfers, a stiff big toe can make their game suffer.
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Stiff Joints Interfere with Everyday Living
One in 40 people over the age of 50 may find themselves limiting their activity because of a condition called hallux rigidus. It’s a degenerative disease of the big toe joint. As it progresses, the pain in the joint increases and motion decreases.
“People don’t realize the impact their big toe has on their life. It plays a role in balance, shock absorption, and forward movement as you walk,” explains Dr. Daniel Schulman, of CiC Foot & Ankle. “When the joint is stiff, it’s not able to bend and rotate properly, and it changes how we walk without us even realizing it.” These changes can lead to back or knee pain as well as discomfort in other parts of the foot.
“It always concerns me to hear that someone is playing less golf or staying home because they’re in pain,” says Schulman. “There are ways to help.” The goal is to protect your feet from the repetitive stress of everyday activities. “We have several treatment options to not only relieve foot pain but help improve how your feet work. If we can help your feet function better, in many cases the need for surgery can be avoided or at the very least postponed,” says Schulman. “Patients are always happy to learn about ways to alleviate their symptoms.”
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After graduating from high school, Grenig attended Whittier College her freshman year but did not return for her sophomore year.
Instead, she trekked slightly eastward to attend the University of Nevada, Reno, where she met the man who she would later marry, Robert Grenig, or Bob as most people called him.
After graduating, Bob joined the army and the two wed at Ft. Douglas in Salt Lake City, Utah, where Betty, again, volunteered at the local Red Cross.
Bob’s tours of duty transported the couple across the world. He served in the Philippines, Korea and Japan.
Betty fondly recalled volunteering with the Red Cross to provide physical therapy to soldiers who had problems with their eyes and hands at Ft. Ord in Marina, Calif.
“They gave the men these big darning needles and yarn and they cut out felt animals and these men had to learn to thread that darning needle — and when you can’t see, that’s hard (to do),” Grenig said. “We had this little guy who must have been about 3 years old and he came bursting in waving an elephant saying ‘my daddy made me this’ repeatedly. His daddy was so proud that he threaded the needle. So that I got feedback and that makes you feel good to know that, that what you did wasn’t in vain and that it was appreciated.”
Bob and Betty had two children – Jay in 1943 and Carolyn two years later – and in 1961, the couple decided to finally settle down in a quiet sector of what is now considered southern Scottsdale.
“They used to have the Arizona Bank, which was a great bank and it started here. They wanted to hire my husband when he retired from the Army,” Grenig said. “There were so many places to live and I wanted to just have some little place. Well, all those little places have grown.”
Grenig, who still lives in the home she built in 1961, began volunteering again with the Red Cross at old Williams Air Force Base in Mesa, where she remained until 1993 when the base closed.
She began volunteering at Luke Airforce Base until she formally retired in 2015 at age 94. However, she just couldn’t stay away from the Red Cross. “Now I am making packets for disaster victims,” Grenig said. “If (a family) has been in a fire, flood or whatever they get a packet that tells him where to go for what and what to do. So, I do that and anything they asked me to do.” Betty is best known for baking desserts on the last Thursday of every month. She originally began baking brownies that were so craved by fellow volunteers that they would often rib Grenig when she wouldn’t bring her famous dessert to the office in the I have baked for Red Cross on (the last) Thursday for I can’t tell you how many years and I have been told a couple of times by my friend ‘you forgot the brownies, you might as well go home.’” Biltmore Area. “I have baked for Red Cross on (the last) Thursday for I can’t tell you how many years and I have been told a couple of times by my friend ‘you forgot the brownies, you might as well go home,’” she said with a laugh. As the years went by, Grenig had to shelf her brownie batter and began baking her mother’s recipe for German chocolate cake. “I used to make brownies but now I have arthritis, so I can’t cut them,” Grenig said. “So figured I’d bake the cake and let them cut their own (slices.) That works fine.” Her cake is so popular with volunteers some travel from Tucson to score a slice. Grenig admits that she misses the old days when volunteers wore uniforms. “One thing that breaks my heart is we always wore a uniform and if anybody would see one of those (uniforms) you’d be recognized,” she said. “I’ve had quite a few free lunches because people wanted to ‘thank me for all I’ve done.’” She also said that there is a growing need for blood donations, and that is what she cites as being the best way that anyone can help out the Red Cross. “One of the big problems we have is the ongoing (shortage of) blood and donation of blood. Blood can do so much and when you give somebody a donation of blood you may save their life,” she said. “So, I wish everybody would give blood.”
search on alternative medicine and care and she stumbled upon a book titled “Chris Beats Cancer: A Comprehensive Plan for Healing Naturally” which introduced Crary to Gerson Therapy.
That therapy is a natural treatment that activates the body’s ability to heal itself through an organic, plant-based diet, raw juices, coffee enemas and natural supplements.
“Juicing is huge because that’s high nutrition that you’re just flooding your cells with which makes your immune system extremely strong,”
Crary became intrigued with clinics that offered alternative medicine and discovered Hope4Cancer Treatment Centers in Cancun, Mexico. There, she began experimenting with alternative treatments for her cancer in addition to taking a drug prescribed by her doctors that targets the protein that causes her cancer to spread.
After about a month of treatment in Mexico, Crary began to notice a significant improvement in how she felt mentally and physically while partaking in treatments like putting herself in a hyperbaric chamber – a pressurized oxygen chamber that floods cells with oxygen – and using heatbased detoxification.
Inspired by her results, Crary purchased an infrared sauna, hypothermia unit, INDIBA radiofrequency machine, a hyperbaric chamber, therapeutic ultrasound technology, PEMF technology and Vibe Lymph Therapy.
“The infrared sauna and hypothermia both detoxify through sweating by putting the body through heat and mimicking a fever,” Crary said.
Her INDIBA machine also allows customers to lay on a grounding pad where they can use a probe to go over areas that have cancer, inflammation or an injury by creating apoptosis, which destroys cancer cells.
“I try to use the hyperbaric chamber twice a week and I rotate between the two heats — the hypothermia machine and the infrared sauna — daily and then I do the near-infrared lighting daily as well,” she said.
Because of this, Crary decided that she had to share her knowledge with the masses, which is why she decided to open Carrie’s Healing Cafe in May in a space nestled off of Pinnacle Peak Road and Pima Road – not far from the Mayo Clinic.
“I also utilize Mayo Clinic and I know people do utilize Mayo Clinic and so I feel like this is a great kind of area for health care,” Crary said.
Although the business name of Carrie’s Healing Cafe may sound like a restaurant, Crary admits that was by design.
“It was going to be a cafe,” Crary said with a laugh. “The cafe aspect is we have a menu but it’s a menu of therapies.”
Her space also offers a cafe-like lounging room where customers can read books, chat and relax as they learn more about the science behind the services offered at Carrie’s Healing Cafe.
She also wants the space to be a place for people to find positivity.
“The message throughout the clinic is you working on yourself is huge while you’re going through cancer and getting that positive frame of mind and that I can do attitude will help with the fight.
Carrie’s Healing Cafe is located at 8876 E. Pinnacle Peak, Scottsdale.
Information: 928-830-1217, carrieshealingcafe.com.
The hyperthermia suite at Carrie’s Healing Café
(David Minton/Staff Photographer)
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