There and Back Again like Bilbo Baggins
I left my shire (Sacramento) and set off on my adventure in Reno to fight my dragons and face my trolls. Yes, I am talking about cancer. I've been there and now I'm back again and here is my tale.
I Don't Belive Anyone Causes Themselves To Get Cancer!
One of the things I have heard is that we somehow, through stress, get cancer! I don't belive it at all. Being a psychology major in college, I know how the mind can effect the body. In one case study, a man came home early and discovered his wife with someone else. His retinas detached, and he was blind. In the process of trying to heal him, his wife left her lover, and he became the center of attention. His retinas reattached and he could see again. (short version of the story) I know that how we feel and handle our challenges, health or otherwise will effect our bodies. It will help us along the healing process if we have a positive attitude. If we are always stressed out and upset our bodies will let us know through our health such as ulcers and other problems. But I believe that while it may cause our cancer to grow faster, cancer starts with an exposure or a defect in our system. How we handle the situation is what counts.
Mind Over Matter and a Higher Power.
I had a friend who was an alcoholic. He didn't belive in God but needed a higher power to be able to overcome his addiction. He said at first the beer can was so much more powerful than him, that he set an empty one in frount of himself and talked to it. It was his higher power for awhile until he was able to see that there was a much higher power than an empty beer can. I think that we can't fight any challenge that we face, be it physical, mental, or spiritual without reaching out to a higher power. Our mind is of itself a powerful force where our body is concerned, but we need more than that. I happen to believe that there is a God out there that loves us and is mindful of us. Sometimes I think that this challenge I'm facing was meant to make me stronger and to rely on Him more. I think that after it's all said and done, attitude goes a long way. Nothing is so sad to me than to see someone give up and give in to this disease. So as I have said before, prayers are very welcome--no matter how you pray.
Positive Thinking Has Its Limit!
If I could have used positive thinking to make my veins cooperate, I wouldn't have had to get a pic line. My veins had other ideas and just said
no way are you going to poke me again. So I had to put my body in the hands of some very well trained doctors and submit to my limitations. However, if I had it to do again, I would have just started with a pic line. It worked great and was easy to remove at the end of the three weeks.
About My Treatments In Reno.
I had 3 weeks of interveinous therapy. It involved 2 days a week of low dose chemo with insulin. The other 3 days were interspersed with immune therapy, oxygen therapy, and vitamin therapy. I also began a regimen of vitamins, herbs, and other supplements that were shown through testing to work against my cancer. I began using a bio-mat to sleep on, and learned some new ideas to add to my growing list of treatment options. I didn't lose my hair since it was low dose, and I felt great most days, with the exception of the immune therapy--that gave me an upset stomach! And I had one weekend that I felt sick, but it resolved itself.
The Fellowship In The Room. They are Best Therapy Group!
One of the things I liked most about my time in Reno were the wonderful people that I met. They have inspired me, given me new ideas, and increased my will to fight this thing! The people I met were varied in age, types of cancer, stage, and also whether they had regular treatments or were just starting out. The one thing they all had in common, was an open mind to new treatment options. Most have lived very healthy life styles, and I can see no reason for them to be going through what we are. I would say this could happen to anyone, and again, knowledge is power. I will miss talking to them every day--they still inspire me!
Sharing The Treasure of New Information.
One of the things I learned about was the
Budwig protocol. As we, the patients, were talking about it, one of the nurses leaned over and whispered to me "You should try this--the breast cancer patients we have that do it, do very well." I say it can't hurt, even if it's adding some dairy back into my diet. The following link is about Dr. Budwig and her protocol, which involves mixing cottage cheese with flax seed oil in order to make the oil water soluble and easily absorbed into your cells.
http://www.healingcancernaturally.com/budwig_protocol.html
For the first 2 weeks I was mixing it up all wrong. This video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSoddptWL0s shows you how to mix the basic recipe, and it is very good, but I add a little sweetener (xylitol
http://www.xylitol.org/questions-about-xylitol).
I also think you could mix it with some onion and garlic and make a nice vegetable dip.
My
Bio-mat was prescribed for me. It helps with pain (that I don't have, thank goodness) and it also helps to break up cancer cells in the body. It is used for detoxification. (Some oncologists believe that a person with cancer is too sick to detox safely; I say we must detoxify.) It also gives off negative Ions. They are great for us! To learn more about Bio-mats click this link.
http://www.bio-mats.com/
Negative Ions are very important to our health. Because of their health benefits, I would say they should be called Positive Ions, but Benjamin Franklin dubbed them Negative, and it stuck. The good feeling you get when you walk by a waterfall or open a window in a stuffy room after a nice rain storm is caused by negative ions. They clean and freshen the air. They help dust drop out of the air and get rid of bad smells. Here is a link if you want to know more about them and their health benefits.
http://www.peakpureair.com/effects-negative-ions I have to say that this site gives good information, but I'm not saying to go buy or not to buy an air filter. There are many plug in ionizors you can get at places like Amazon.
Coffee cleanses are something else I have learned about. They are controversial and some doctors go out of their way to discourage them. But before you turn away from the idea of a coffee cleanse or enema read about Dr. Gonzoles of New York
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Gonzalez_(physician). He is the only doctor who has had sucess treating pancreatic cancer. His sucess is such that there is now a study underway to try to duplicate his results. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly types a person can get. His patients live for many years, long past the expected time frame. His patients not only live, but they enjoy life and are active. He uses enzime therapy along with diet and coffee enemas. The enzime my husband found that most closly matched his is called Zymactive
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=zymactive+double+strength&tag=googhydr- and I'm taking it.
If I'm to detox and get rid of the cancer, it is very important that my liver, pancreas and intestines (whole digestive system) are working properly. The coffee cleanse may sound unpleasant--but it's not that bad, and worth the time if it can help. Gerson theropy also uses the coffee enemas. The following link will give you further information about coffee enemas and how they are done. They also sell the organic coffee that is grown for this purpose.
http://www.sawilsons.com/basicenema.htm
DCA is another wonder drug that is in clinical trials at this time. They have just completed a study of breast cancer and DCA, but they have not posted the results yet. It is hard to find, but was shown to be positive in killing my cancer in my immunity test. It has been shown to shrink tumors very rapidly. However, it is not somthing that my doctor has access to, so I went out and found it so that I can take it. I did tell the doctor I was taking it and he saw no problem with it. Here is the link if you are at all interested in learning more.
http://www.thedcasite.com/ Or a video at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KkZtrlc19s&feature=related
I also wanted to tell you a little about
Artemisia anna. It was also shown to help kill my cancer, but I have learned that it is somthing some oncolgest use but others do not. Why they don't use it, I can't say, but it kills the cancer cells that are resistent to chemo with no affect on healthy cells. It has been studied and shown to be useful for cancer patients. The pharmaceuticals have also pattened a component of Artmeisia as a chemotherapeutic drug. It is used to kill parasites and to treat malaria. The following article talks about the studies done with Artemisia anna and how it works by reacting to iron which cancer cells are abundant with.
http://www.denvernaturopathic.com/news/artemisia.html
How I'm Doing now that I'm back again.
I'm home now, and it feels great to be here. The first thing I did was take my children to the pool. I was there for about 2 hours and boy did I pay! I didn't realize that I would be photosensitive days and even weeks after I had chemo. I burned like crazy, and it didn't stop getting worse for 2 days. I used everything I knew to stop it, but it kept getting worse. Now I am peeling but have learned a valuable lesson--stay out of the sun until about December when I have been off chemo for 2 months.
Right now I'm having a low dose oral chemo seven days on and then seven days off. I had a rough start with lots of nausea and vomiting, but after admitting to the fact that I needed help, I called the doctor. He prescribed an anti-nausea medication and now I'm feeling good again. Lesson learned again! Call for help when needed. So I'm mostly back to normal, if you can call about 30 pills a day normal. I feel great and have learned how to manage my care and still go out. So if you see a lady wearing long sleeves, pants, sunglasses, and a big floppy hat, don't laugh at her, just come say hello, because chances are it's me out trying to enjoy the sun with my family!
Thanks For The TLC!
I just wanted to give a note of thanks to all of you who have taken care of my family for me while I was gone. They ate like kings and queens and made it to all of their activities. Thanks to those who helped with my accommodations in Reno! Thanks to those who came to visit me and keep me company in Reno--it was GREAT! I have been richly blessed with so many wonderful people in my life!
