For those following we had another set of scans performed and a follow up visit a week later with her oncologist. We must be singlehandedly making the man bankrupt judging by his efforts to get her to do chemotherapy. Now Becky and I are not exactly on the down slope of the intelligence scale..... so if you're going to try to pull a fast one your game better be spot on or we'll nail you. He tried but we both caught him at it.
What he tried to do was show us two sets of scans to illustrate how the cancer has progressed and thus convince her to agree to chemotherapy. So he pops up the "before" and "after" scans and sure enough on the second set of scans there is about twice as much tissue involved in high uptake of the radioactive marker as in the first set. One minor problem though. Soft tissue still shows up on the scans as a faint shadow..... thus you can see the "outline" of the body being scanned. Well in his presentation the "after" scan showed the outline of a body that weighed perhaps 230 pounds. Becky only weighs about 145 pounds right now though.... so it's really tough to explain how she happened to gain and loose about 90 pounds in the 15 or 20 minutes it took to take the scans. BUSTED!!
Taken in their *correct* order the scans indicated that we've managed to reduce the cancer by a good 50% so far..... and we're still on the attack. We recently uncovered some more research on various over the counter supplements that we believe will be a good augmentation for the program we already have in place. One of the supplements goes by the abbreviation DIM which is much easier than Di-Indole Methane. DIM has been shown in clinical studies to promote the healthier metabolism of estrogen in both women and men. Since Becky's cancer is estrogen receptive this addition makes sense. She takes the Arimidex as an estrogen inhibitor already and we feel that the addition of the DIM will further serve to starve the cancer of this substance. As an aside I'm taking the DIM also since it is a fact that estrogen levels in men begin to rise over 50 years of age as the testosterone levels start to decrease. This estrogen increase tends to cause older guys to grow a nice spare tire around the middle. I'm sporting a lovely raised white letter low profile steel belted radial myself. Hopefully that will go flat and fade away over the next several months.
We added in another couple of vitamins and she started using a supplement called Alka-Max too. This is a powered "drink mix" which can be added to water. It has a slight citrus flavor so Becky mixes it with her black tea and it seems to be palatable that way. Of course the idea there is to shift her body to a more alkaline state which is inhospitable to cancer cells. This also seems to be a fairly easy and painless method of getting that result as she drinks a lot of tea anyway.
Otherwise she is visiting the surgeon on Friday the 25th and, with luck, will have a date for her surgery set when she leaves. If not that will at least be in the works. I believe I mentioned that he is 100% certain he can remove all the cancerous material with 0% risk of any breakout or spreading. We're both in agreement that this is the correct course of action as it will permit all of our efforts to concentrate on the cancer which had earlier spread to her spine and rib. The scans also showed dark areas on her left shoulder joint and hip joints....... but she has had arthritis in those for years so we believe that the darkness is the result of an increased uptake of the radioactive marker in those joints due to the increased blood flow caused by inflammation.
Otherwise bone density seems to still be rather good over all. She does take vitamin D and calcium daily. There is a treatment (Yes another alternative therapy) out there that can rebuild the arthritic joints in a fairly short period of time It uses a combination of an injection of a solution which irritates the joint...... and an infusion of ozoneated blood back into the system. The ozone in the blood makes far more oxygen available and triggers a rapid rebuilding of the joint material. (As a side benefit the extra oxygen also kills cancer cells as they are anaerobic)
That's it for right now. I'll fill everyone in as we learn more!
Needed now more than ever..... peace.......
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
#23 February Update
It's time to update everyone on what has been going on lately. We continue to see the oncologist at the Arlington Cancer Center. Much to his dismay we continue to have success *without* resorting to either Chemo or Radiation. (this, of course, does not help his income rise) :-) On our last visit, which was Monday the 31st of January, her cancer marker were slightly elevated but we're not concerned with that finding. Remember that we had Becky off the DCA for nearly 3 months and that is the main element in our alternative therapy. She is back on it now at her weight adjusted dose and we expect the progress to continue.
Earlier in January we had an appointment with the surgeon. He's satisfied that the tumor has shrunk enough to permit surgery and be able to have a nice clean closing line. He is also quite confident that he can remove *all* of the cancer tissue in her breast without any risk of metastasis. As of now we're considering tumor removal this month which will likely have Becky off work for a week or so. Pretty much the entire left breast will be removed. We think that this will help us combat the cancer that is in one rib and a couple of vertebra.
Even if the main mass is totally dead we'd prefer not to have that tissue in her breast. To us that just seems like asking for problems down the road. If it's mostly dead but has some active cells inside somewhere..... then eliminating it also eliminates the risk of those cells escaping and causing problems elsewhere. No specific date for the surgery has been set at the time of this writing. At most we honestly don't expect her to be in the hospital more than overnight.
Otherwise she is doing quite well. The dietary changes mean that she is still loosing some weight which is helping with her hips and knees as they have less weight to bear. We also got rid of our old "sleep number" bed and acquired a mattress from IKEA. We added a 2.5 inch memory foam topper to that and a 72 spring base under it. So far it has helped Becky get a much better nights sleep than before so it was a good investment. She typically sleeps on one side or the other..... but since the new mattress she has been sleeping more on her back. Before she complained of back pain when she woke up but that seems to be a thing of the past now.... for which I am most thankful.
As soon as we have any additional information about her surgery I'll post an update here. I doubt she will in the hospital long enough for cards or flowers to reach her there. We'll discuss the possibility of posting our address here..... but I suspect that anyone reading this already has that information.
As a parting thought...... "Love as if you'll die tomorrow but learn as though you'll live forever."
Peace....................
Earlier in January we had an appointment with the surgeon. He's satisfied that the tumor has shrunk enough to permit surgery and be able to have a nice clean closing line. He is also quite confident that he can remove *all* of the cancer tissue in her breast without any risk of metastasis. As of now we're considering tumor removal this month which will likely have Becky off work for a week or so. Pretty much the entire left breast will be removed. We think that this will help us combat the cancer that is in one rib and a couple of vertebra.
Even if the main mass is totally dead we'd prefer not to have that tissue in her breast. To us that just seems like asking for problems down the road. If it's mostly dead but has some active cells inside somewhere..... then eliminating it also eliminates the risk of those cells escaping and causing problems elsewhere. No specific date for the surgery has been set at the time of this writing. At most we honestly don't expect her to be in the hospital more than overnight.
Otherwise she is doing quite well. The dietary changes mean that she is still loosing some weight which is helping with her hips and knees as they have less weight to bear. We also got rid of our old "sleep number" bed and acquired a mattress from IKEA. We added a 2.5 inch memory foam topper to that and a 72 spring base under it. So far it has helped Becky get a much better nights sleep than before so it was a good investment. She typically sleeps on one side or the other..... but since the new mattress she has been sleeping more on her back. Before she complained of back pain when she woke up but that seems to be a thing of the past now.... for which I am most thankful.
As soon as we have any additional information about her surgery I'll post an update here. I doubt she will in the hospital long enough for cards or flowers to reach her there. We'll discuss the possibility of posting our address here..... but I suspect that anyone reading this already has that information.
As a parting thought...... "Love as if you'll die tomorrow but learn as though you'll live forever."
Peace....................
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