Well it has been a very busy few weeks to say the least. I try my best to keep up with this blog but find that my days are so over filled and sleep is very important in my treatment. I have been asked to describe my treatment experiences. At first I was hesitant to talk about the fact I chose an alternative treatment route. After diagnosis I found a site for women to discuss breast cancer. They had a section labeled holistic and alternative treatment so I thought this would be the perfect place to ask if there was anyone with my diagnosis who had gone totally alternative. I had no idea what I had begun. It turned into 82 pages of the most vicious comments I have ever experienced. It got so out of hand they pulled the whole post. It was then that I learned about the huge battle between main stream medicine and alternative. Having a mother 13 years clean of CML Leukemia by holistic treatment I had no idea this was such a big deal.
I am an educated woman who isn’t fooled into things easily. I spent almost 8 months researching this. One of the most shocking things I learned it how low the US rated in treatments. Like most US citizens I considered us one of the most advanced countries so I assumed this meant we have the best care available. Through my studies I realized that if you asked the right questions you would get answers you didn’t really want to hear. I could have easily walked away thinking I had the best care but that would have only been because I was lead to believe that. After months of study and due to the extent of my cancer I decided on integrative care. One huge factors for this decision was the fact that if you ask a mainstream doctor they will tell you any alternative care doesn’t work. They tell you this with NO first hand experience in working with alternative methods. They have no interest in learning about these. They are given reports put out by people who have a vested interest in the drugs being prescribed. I chose my doctor because he spent years as an MD and after experience realized he could no longer ethically live up to his Hippocratic oath once he found out there were other options that didn’t harm his patients. His theory is that his main objective is to help patients so he will put everything on the table and only use what works. He won’t close his eyes because he only wants to choose one side but listens to all ideas out of a passion to help his patients. I have a lot more respect for this kind of doctor than one who tells you something doesn’t work and has never used it. 13 years ago my mother told her oncologist she was taking Vitamin D to which he said that was silly as it has no benefit. Anyone reading this now who has been to a doctor has surly now heard of this so called NEW discovery. The sad part is look at how many years passed without people knowing this because the right people have to finally get forced to admit its role in health. This example and having kids 10 years apart really opened my eyes to the lack of knowledge of doctors. When I had my second son EVERYTHING my doctors had told me to use was now banned and deemed dangerous and they looked at me like I was trying to kill this child. They forgot they are the ones who told me to do that. There was no remorse of concern for all my first son had been exposed to. With my next two kids I only used medicines when absolutely necessary and they are almost never sick. With my son that I used every cold medicine prescribed by his pediatrician I went through constant colds! After this I realized we are exposed to many dangerous things and only find out about it after the fact. Just turn on your TV and see all the lawsuits on medications. The fact is we are told they are safe and then there are lawsuits. Funny part is most people still don’t question what they are being given. This is what lead me to start studying my choices and was shocked at what I stumbled upon.
As you have seen my cancer markers are rapidly dropping and people want to know what I am doing. First let me say due to the cost I had to come in on a partial treatment plan. Right now with the lack of fundraising we are having to prepare for my return home. My point is I am getting these results without the full treatment. One thing in particular people did not understand is my 21 day juice fast. I have to say I didn’t quite get it either and had to ask. First I had people worried I would starve and I needed my nutrients. The fact is I was getting more nutrients than in any other day of my life. The nutrients were not being lost from cooking so my body was being flooded with them. They were coming from a variety of vegetables which gave me plenty of nutrients. In one day I was getting 1 bunch of kale, 1 bunch of spinach, 10 stalks of celery, 2 cucumbers, 2 lemons, ginger, and 14 granny smith apples! Hardly starving…lol I also wasn’t thrilled with this idea I have to admit..lol But I am very glad that I was able to do this as I saw a huge benefit from it. The reason for this is that your digestive system is like 5 feet long if you were to stretch it out. Digestion is a constant process. By being on the juice fast this long it completely frees up your digestive tract. If I recall the numbers correctly about 70% of you immune system is being used in this process and by freeing it up you allow 100% of your immune system to go after your cancer. Now medical science puts no concern in your immune system with cancer. The ironic part of this is their own theories put the recovery fully on this system they don’t put stock in. After mainstream chemo the theory is they basically make you half dead so that the immune system can beat the cancer. But if the immune system isn’t something of concern than it seems funny that their approach places such a emphasis on it.
Another role for the juice fast is to help in detoxing your body. Well I had one experience that blew me away!! When I had gotten there they had told me about getting a tongue brush. I had kind of thought what the heck will that do but was willing to do whatever I am asked. However I had gotten so much new information to process I had honestly forgotten all about this tongue brushing thing. About 3 days into my fast one of the ladies here started freaking out while we were talking saying my tongue was bright white. I thought what is she talking about?? I hadn’t had anything white. Then she asked if I was on the juice fast to which I replied “yes”. She started to explain that the toxins were coming out of my tongue and telling me I had to hurry and get them off with a knife. I was thinking to myself “I think she is being a bit dramatic”, I mean how much could really be on my tongue? Then I looked in the mirror and to my horror I saw that my tongue looked like a ski slope!!! It felt like I had been talking to someone with a big booger hanging out of my nose. Now no one had told me this would happen but low and behold it had. I couldn’t really argue with that one.
The next big shocker is that I have had 17 chemo treatments to date and I haven’t lost my hair. I have the joy of not being sick so that I can care for my little girl who is here with me. In fact I take her out each weekend as a treat for being so good all week. The type of chemo that I opted for is called IPT. How IPT therapy works is they use 5-10% of the mainstream dose. They can do this by utilizing insulin. Now many mainstream doctors do not promote this but the ironic thing is they believe so highly in the power of insulin it is used in their most accurate cancer test known as the PET scan. Cancer cells steal sugar from healthy cells. A pet scan loads you with insulin and measures how fast the cells are up-taking the sugar. If it is rapid enough they know it is cancer. I have to fast before my IPT and then they drop my blood sugar so the cells are starving. They then inject the chemos with the insulin to trick the cancer into stealing it. Sort of like placing a bomb in a steak and putting it out for a tiger. This allows the healthy cells to be spared. The other huge difference with an integrative doctor is that they protect all the parts of the body when giving any treatment. They give me CQ10 to protect my heart for example. The smaller doses allow for less exposure to the rest of the organs in my body. A problem for many people who have had the full dose. Like the man I described whose liver failed but was “cancer free”. One of the best analogies I have heard is from my clinic. It says mainstream medicine knows there is a burglar in the kitchen so they blow up the whole kitchen. They forget that the burglar can escape from the window. Alternative puts poison in a mosquito and sends it after the burglar so even if he escapes he will still die and the kitchen is left unharmed.
I also do many IV treatments. One that has gotten a lot of attention is Vitamin C. At high doses it can actually kill floating cancer cells. It helps boost the immune system and makes chemo more effective. I also do IV’s of hydorgen oxide. What this does is oxygenate the blood. The reason we want to do this is that cancer cells can not survive in an oxygen environment. It is the same idea as taking oxygen from a human, they can’t survive without it. They also have a treatment called UBI which does the same thing by taking your blood out of your body and oxygenating it. As it costs $600 a treatment I couldn’t afford it. Another treatment I had to skip was EWOT which is exercise with oxygen. Again making the body a place cancer can not thrive. There are many articles in mainstream medicine that have proven those who exercise have a longer survival rate. I can’t wait for my back to fully heal so that I can get back into my routine.
One of the toughest parts for me is the raw food diet. The main reason is this is difficult to do with a family of five. All the food requires lots of prep and is very expensive. The program even has cooking classes with an amazing woman to prep us for our return home. Basically I can’t buy any premade foods. My poor Brandon feared we would only have cold food…lol We can warm the food as long as it stays around 105 degrees. The reason for this is you kill all the enzymes and loose valuable nutrients. These are very important for your body and especially a cancer ridden body. As so few people do this it leaves me feeling very left out. My husband has agreed to do this diet with me. This is a HUGE help as I struggled with all the tempting foods in our house. I also physically can’t keep up with making two different meals each night. By joining me he has helped me to feel less alone. It is very hard to have everyone tell you how you need to do it but they can’t and won’t do it themselves. It may also help him understand why this is so hard. By eating a clean diet like this my body again is freed to focus on the cancer and has the nutrients it needs to do so. As a person who has studied diet for years I am shocked at how little I knew. I was sold on the high protein diet and had no clue what I was putting my body through. Like for instance excess protein robs the body of calcium and leads to arthritis. Another shocker for me was the actual amount we really need and how much vegetables can provide.
I also do an infrared sauna to help with the detox. Lymphatic drainage is another focus on this treatment. I had never given any thought to my lymph system before all this. There is no pump in the lymph system to allow it to drain so we have to do things to help it. The theory behind addressing your lymphatic system is that in order to heal the body the system needs to be clear for travel. Like in a traffic jam, you can have the emergency crew ready to get to the accident but if they are stuck in traffic than they can’t help. We do a few things to clear the lymph system. One is body brushing which seemed crazy to me but now that I understand it I am glad that I learned about it. I have to admit when I learned how the toxins stored as cellulite and this could be removed by brushing I got much more motivated…lol I also see a wonderful woman who does a lymphatic drainage procedure on me. She uses these wands that have electricity which break up build up in the lymph system making it easier for my body to go after the cancer.
The other thing that many alternative treatments put a huge emphasis on is enemas and colonics. I have to say this is the one thing I had no faith in. I was totally opposed to this in fact. However 21 days of not eating and mass junk was coming out I could no longer argue the fact it was doing something. We all have years of waste in our colons. The things that are in our colon are impacted feces, dead cellular tissue, accumulated mucous, parasites, worms, etc. Our body has to protect against these which requires lots of work on our immune system something a cancer patient really can’t afford. We need our body focusing on healing the cancer. This can also lead to other illnesses in our bodies so it is very important even if you are not sick currently.
The program also focuses on the mental aspects of cancer. They offer Yoga which I can’t go to anymore between the back breaking and the fact these days are to long for Karina. I tried to go after my surgery but she was so exhausted starting at 8 am she was a nightmare for me and I didn’t think is was fair to do this to her. When I first got there they had a psychologist which I really looked forward to but I only saw her once and she was gone. I was a bit upset with this part but they now brought in a hypnotherapist. Basically she just relaxes you enough to discover things that are subconsciously thinking about but are to busy to realize. It isn’t like those crazy shows you see where someone is doing crazy stunts and don’t remember what the did. I found out a few things I had forgotten that have impacted my life. The crazy part is I told her an age and then called my mom and she and asked she how old I was when it happened and she said the same age. As stress and mental mind frame have been linked with cancer these things are in place to address those issues. Stress is a tough one when you have 3 kids to keep up with =) So these are the things we do and I think that I covered them all. I may have missed some as it is getting late. Once I have a chance to reread this I will add anything I missed but I am very pressed for time. I will be updating from the fun stuff on my journey home and this past week but the treatments keep me so very busy. Right now we are planning for my trip home as I am loosing my place to stay and fundraising is non existing at the moment. I am asking for prayers to help me though this current obstacle. I am also very concerned as only one pilot has volunteered to get us home for Thanksgiving and I would be heart broken to have our family split, we have been through enough and I just want a little piece of normal. So if you have a moment please add this to your list of prayers =) Next blog will be more about our experience I just promised to explain our treatment =)
