Well, here we are in Fort Lauderdale on vacation. We arrived at our hotel Wednesday February 27 about 02:00. The plane arrived at midnight. And today March 4, is Sandra's nth birthday (n=an even number that shall not be named). We are going out for a lobster supper at The Capital Grille on East Sunrise Blvd. Reservation at 18:00 to celebrate!
We have taken many long walks, 10km (6.2 mi) or so once or twice a day. Lots of sun. our Deauville Hotel has a pool and is very comfortable to sit and snooze or read.
On Friday March 1 we witnessed a plane crash. Only the pilot was killed which was a miracle. Shortly before 12 noon we were sitting reading by the pool. We heard a small plane approaching. It was a bright yellow Piper PA25, similar to the single-passenger crop dusters we see on the prairies. I saw it pass low and slow nearly overhead, wobbling as though it was near a drop-out-of-the-sky aerodynamic stall. It banked left into the wind, towing a banner, and cleared the power lines. I saw the pilot, with his cockpit windows pulled back, trying to control the aircraft. I don't know why he did not increase to full power. As a pilot I keep wondering what really happened. Anyway, about four seconds later there was a tremendous bang and then a deadly silence. The plane had stuck the concrete wall of a condo building around the 16th floor level and the wreckage then fell to the pool deck, which was under construction. It was an absolute miracle that no-one else was injured and there was no fire. The pilot was 28-years old, building hours to get his commercial license.
I keep wonder why!! I think he was having mechanical problems because the engine was not opened to full throttle to full power. To me it seemed he was only at about 25% power when he passed overhead. If he knew he was going down and was having engine trouble, then may be he was a hero because he did everything he could to clear the power lines. If he had turned the other direction, downwind, his airspeed was so low that he would have stalled and dropped out of the sky on top of beach sunbathers.
On the other hand maybe it was suicide and he was purposely choosing his target so as to not kill anyone else. Otherwise why did he hit the concrete (not a window) in the middle of a 50-foot (17-metre) wide building rather than flying around it. Now we will never know. Some say that his banner snagged on something and that caused the problem. No-one really knows.
We are here in Fort Lauderdale until this Friday March 8. Then we fly to Toronto, and on to Ottawa on Saturday. We will stay at our friend Victoria's condo, and visit Shauna and the three boys in Ottawa. On Wednesday the 13th we wend our way back west. Sandra arrives home to Inuvik on Friday the 15th. I make a detour to Regina to visit Anne who is home from Viet Nam, and to Saskatoon to visit Lynn and Derrick as well as Don Shenton, and maybe an old high school buddy, another Don S. I don't get back to Inuvik until March 21.
Well there you are. That will do for today. At 4:30 we will leave the hotel for our three mile walk to the restaurant.
Monday, 4 March 2019
Thursday, 14 February 2019
The sun returns!
Sorry for the long silence. The sun touched the horizon again about January 6 and now the days are lengthening. The weather continues to do strange things though. Day before yesterday it got up to -2C, almost melting, and 30 hours later it was -32C! And snowstorms and blizzards every week. The weather used to be so calm in the winter here in Inuvik over 20 years ago when Sandra and I were here before.
I was worried in early December that my cancer was coming back. I had some prickly numbness in my left hip and thigh, which reminded me of the only symptoms I had when cancer was first discovered. That is the way cancer survival is - every little twinge or pain causes alarm! Anyway I was able to get CT scans of my neck and back in Yellowknife at Stanton Hospital on 19th December, 2018. Then no word whatsoever as to the results!! -- Until I was able to go back to Yellowknife for an appointment with Dr John Walker from the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton on January 4. At which time he informed me that my cancer was still in complete remission, that the three tumours on my spine (base of neck, lumbar, and sacrum) were all inactive and completely stable. He also pointed out that the immunotherapy treatments that ended on July 19, 2018 were still effective, because the lymphocytes are trained by the immunotherapy so that when new cells are produced even after therapy ceases they still attack cancer cells. The long and the short of it, my recovery is so stable that the doc doesn't want to see me for at least 6 months, maybe September or around there.
But what a weekend that was, leading up to Monday February 4. The temperature was in the minus thirties when we arrived Friday evening, an hour late (which come to think of it is right on time for Canadian North!). The 1986Toyota started without being plugged in, with a bit of coaxing though. Next hurdle - the Stanton Suites hotel had lost my reservation for Friday and Saturday which kinda bummed us out. They still had room fortunately. The next hurdle was that we met Annelies and Bill and Brad for supper at Coyotes and the restaurant promptly lost my food order - and no I'm sorry or reduction of the bill. Do you think we will ever go back there? I DON'T THINK SO!
Then the temperature plummeted to -41 that night and I neglected to plug the car in. It would not start the next morning. And the Alberta Motor Association never did show up to help us (we are cancelling our membership!). Our good friend Anson came and boosted us and the Toyota finally started. I did have to cancel my haircut with Aileen at Vixen Hair Den at 10:30 that morning because of the car starting problem.After a lunch with Anson we continued on our day's activities. And oh yes, the Monkey Tree bar lost our lunch order so lunch was a bit longer that usual! But guess what, they gave us a free lunch. We will go back there, but never again to Coyotes.
So silly me. I think I made a rash vow to finish a draft of my cancer recovery book by the end of December. Nope! Never happened. I am back writing now though - but I have decided to concentrate on my memoirs. Sounds boring doesn't it? But memoirs don't have to be boring I recently finished reading the memoir of Tara Westover entitled Educated, where Tara recounts her journey from an isolated childhood late in the 1990s filled with life-threatening family violence and no schooling to eventually getting a PhD at Cambridge in the UK in 2014. Now my life isn't that exciting, but I did go from an only child on a tiny farm in Saskatchewan, born on Battle of Britain Day in September 1940, struggling with deafness and other challenges, to get my PhD in Engineering Science at the University of Warwick in the late 1980s. I did spend some time at Cambridge during those years, at the same time as Stephen Hawking, although I never met him there.
A few years ago I began writing down anecdotes of things that happened in my life. So now I have plenty to work with to write about in a memoir, which will of course include my cancer recovery story. We are fortunate here in Inuvik to have a cancer recovery circle that tries to meet once a month so that we can share our stories of hope with others who are cancer patients or family of cancer survivors.
Well that is enough for now. It is 4:20 PM and in a few minutes I will head out to pick up a Valentine's Day card for Sandra. The temperature is down around -28C but the wind has finally died down. It was intensely cold last night with a howling wind and the temperature in the -20s. I have a sneaking suspicion that Chinese food is on the menu for super tonight. And then we are spending time with Bob and Sharon in Illinois by telephone at 6:30 PM. Talking weather and politics (Trumpism and Trudeauism) followed by a Bible study. We love our twice weekly talks with them.
AND, I must not forget our 24th wedding anniversary is coming up later this week on February 17.
Best wishes to all.
I was worried in early December that my cancer was coming back. I had some prickly numbness in my left hip and thigh, which reminded me of the only symptoms I had when cancer was first discovered. That is the way cancer survival is - every little twinge or pain causes alarm! Anyway I was able to get CT scans of my neck and back in Yellowknife at Stanton Hospital on 19th December, 2018. Then no word whatsoever as to the results!! -- Until I was able to go back to Yellowknife for an appointment with Dr John Walker from the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton on January 4. At which time he informed me that my cancer was still in complete remission, that the three tumours on my spine (base of neck, lumbar, and sacrum) were all inactive and completely stable. He also pointed out that the immunotherapy treatments that ended on July 19, 2018 were still effective, because the lymphocytes are trained by the immunotherapy so that when new cells are produced even after therapy ceases they still attack cancer cells. The long and the short of it, my recovery is so stable that the doc doesn't want to see me for at least 6 months, maybe September or around there.
But what a weekend that was, leading up to Monday February 4. The temperature was in the minus thirties when we arrived Friday evening, an hour late (which come to think of it is right on time for Canadian North!). The 1986Toyota started without being plugged in, with a bit of coaxing though. Next hurdle - the Stanton Suites hotel had lost my reservation for Friday and Saturday which kinda bummed us out. They still had room fortunately. The next hurdle was that we met Annelies and Bill and Brad for supper at Coyotes and the restaurant promptly lost my food order - and no I'm sorry or reduction of the bill. Do you think we will ever go back there? I DON'T THINK SO!
Then the temperature plummeted to -41 that night and I neglected to plug the car in. It would not start the next morning. And the Alberta Motor Association never did show up to help us (we are cancelling our membership!). Our good friend Anson came and boosted us and the Toyota finally started. I did have to cancel my haircut with Aileen at Vixen Hair Den at 10:30 that morning because of the car starting problem.After a lunch with Anson we continued on our day's activities. And oh yes, the Monkey Tree bar lost our lunch order so lunch was a bit longer that usual! But guess what, they gave us a free lunch. We will go back there, but never again to Coyotes.
So silly me. I think I made a rash vow to finish a draft of my cancer recovery book by the end of December. Nope! Never happened. I am back writing now though - but I have decided to concentrate on my memoirs. Sounds boring doesn't it? But memoirs don't have to be boring I recently finished reading the memoir of Tara Westover entitled Educated, where Tara recounts her journey from an isolated childhood late in the 1990s filled with life-threatening family violence and no schooling to eventually getting a PhD at Cambridge in the UK in 2014. Now my life isn't that exciting, but I did go from an only child on a tiny farm in Saskatchewan, born on Battle of Britain Day in September 1940, struggling with deafness and other challenges, to get my PhD in Engineering Science at the University of Warwick in the late 1980s. I did spend some time at Cambridge during those years, at the same time as Stephen Hawking, although I never met him there.
A few years ago I began writing down anecdotes of things that happened in my life. So now I have plenty to work with to write about in a memoir, which will of course include my cancer recovery story. We are fortunate here in Inuvik to have a cancer recovery circle that tries to meet once a month so that we can share our stories of hope with others who are cancer patients or family of cancer survivors.
Well that is enough for now. It is 4:20 PM and in a few minutes I will head out to pick up a Valentine's Day card for Sandra. The temperature is down around -28C but the wind has finally died down. It was intensely cold last night with a howling wind and the temperature in the -20s. I have a sneaking suspicion that Chinese food is on the menu for super tonight. And then we are spending time with Bob and Sharon in Illinois by telephone at 6:30 PM. Talking weather and politics (Trumpism and Trudeauism) followed by a Bible study. We love our twice weekly talks with them.
AND, I must not forget our 24th wedding anniversary is coming up later this week on February 17.
Best wishes to all.
Thursday, 3 January 2019
2018 in review
The past year has seemed the longest in my short history. The illness dragged on.
Illness has taken its toll. Thanks to chemo I still have shingles, my right eye is defective (often sore and blurry), and I feel fluish every second or third day. That is nearly 12 months after starting chemo and nine months after the end of chemo.
I have some lingering anger about the fact that I have now experienced how the pharmaceutical industry holds medical treatment for ransom. I know (because my oncologist has told me) that cancer treatment specialists are fully aware that chemotherapy will not bring any healing to kidney cancer. But the government-backed medical system (pushed by big pharma) insists that chemo be tried before something that will in fact work on kidney cancer, namely immunotherapy. This situation has killed a lot of people, my cousin Karen included. It was immunotherapy that was introduced soon enough to train my immune system to attack the cancer cells in the three new tumours that appeared on my spine at the end of 2017. By the way at the end of chemo in April 2018 it was revealed by CT scans that the tumours had actually grown larger during chemo!! So I might not be alive today if it had not been for the timely introduction of immunotherapy.
Remission simply means that, although the three tumours on my spine are still there, they have stopped growing. I am waiting for the results of a CT scan taken in mid December in Yellowknife. I requested that scan because of some twinges and prickles in my left hip and thigh, similar to the precursor to the discovery of the tumour on my basal spine vertebrae near the end of 2017. It may just be an artifact of shingles. I should get a call from my oncologist at Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton in the next day or two with details about the scan. Everything slowed to a halt for Christmas and New Years in the medical field.
Illness has taken its toll. Thanks to chemo I still have shingles, my right eye is defective (often sore and blurry), and I feel fluish every second or third day. That is nearly 12 months after starting chemo and nine months after the end of chemo.
I have some lingering anger about the fact that I have now experienced how the pharmaceutical industry holds medical treatment for ransom. I know (because my oncologist has told me) that cancer treatment specialists are fully aware that chemotherapy will not bring any healing to kidney cancer. But the government-backed medical system (pushed by big pharma) insists that chemo be tried before something that will in fact work on kidney cancer, namely immunotherapy. This situation has killed a lot of people, my cousin Karen included. It was immunotherapy that was introduced soon enough to train my immune system to attack the cancer cells in the three new tumours that appeared on my spine at the end of 2017. By the way at the end of chemo in April 2018 it was revealed by CT scans that the tumours had actually grown larger during chemo!! So I might not be alive today if it had not been for the timely introduction of immunotherapy.
Remission simply means that, although the three tumours on my spine are still there, they have stopped growing. I am waiting for the results of a CT scan taken in mid December in Yellowknife. I requested that scan because of some twinges and prickles in my left hip and thigh, similar to the precursor to the discovery of the tumour on my basal spine vertebrae near the end of 2017. It may just be an artifact of shingles. I should get a call from my oncologist at Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton in the next day or two with details about the scan. Everything slowed to a halt for Christmas and New Years in the medical field.
Thursday, 6 December 2018
Choose - Hope - Survive
The three words in the title of this post sketch out the three stages of my journey to survival and cancer remission. First I had to choose - to make a decision to take responsibility for my own health. For me this meant that I would combine oncology cancer treatment (now immunotherapy) with natural healing. Then I needed to believe - use the power of belief - to recover, and this brought hope. And that led to survival.
I am writing a book on my recovery journey. The working title is now one word, a command: Survive. I hope to complete the first draft by the end of this month, December 2018.
I am using poetry to help keep my spirits up in the cancer recovery journey. The side effects of the original chemotherapy linger, bringing tiredness, depression, shingles neurological pain on one side, and sometimes just feeling as sick as if I had the flu. Here are three poems leading from despair to belief and hope (please excuse the wonky copy and paste formatting from Word). For me they bring much comfort and food for thought:
There you have it. I keep writing, because it keeps me working toward the goal of continued remission. Being in remission is not "home free". When a deadly cancer like Stage 4 Renal Cell Carcinoma is at stake, it can recur at any time so I must keep vigilant. Remission is simply some breathing space to prepare for a next onslaught.
I am writing a book on my recovery journey. The working title is now one word, a command: Survive. I hope to complete the first draft by the end of this month, December 2018.
I am using poetry to help keep my spirits up in the cancer recovery journey. The side effects of the original chemotherapy linger, bringing tiredness, depression, shingles neurological pain on one side, and sometimes just feeling as sick as if I had the flu. Here are three poems leading from despair to belief and hope (please excuse the wonky copy and paste formatting from Word). For me they bring much comfort and food for thought:
Cancer
Cancer
Sinister
Hide-and-seek now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t
Monster
Evil incarnate
Cold grey iron
Lurking – hiding
Your face is darkness and dismay
Cold grey eyes – pale bloodless skin of death
With hair the colour of cremation’s fire
Wearing a long black cloak
To smother each victim
Neither male nor female
Outside time and space in this universe
Cancer in Seventeen Syllables
Cancer - sinister
Now-you-see-it-now-you-don't
Evil incarnate
Balm of Poetry
Joy replaces fear
Debilitating cancer
But pen keeps writing
Balm of poetry
I need it now – darkness comes
Let joy win the day
I am still alive
Against all odds – keep writing
Poems bringing life
There you have it. I keep writing, because it keeps me working toward the goal of continued remission. Being in remission is not "home free". When a deadly cancer like Stage 4 Renal Cell Carcinoma is at stake, it can recur at any time so I must keep vigilant. Remission is simply some breathing space to prepare for a next onslaught.
Wednesday, 21 November 2018
Life goes on - both after diagnosis and after remission
In my last post I mentioned the book Surviv(her) featuring the cancer experience of young women. I would like to echo the words of Kristin who was diagnosed at age 21. She says: "The whole point of getting cancer is to wake up and do something different. What would you change? What parts of my life aren't I happy with right now? Everything is just broken and now I can start from scratch."
After I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Renal Cell Carcinoma, every new morning seemed somehow to be a special day. I realized that time in the sunlight of this life was precious, and that I needed to consider each day as very valuable, and that I needed to change my priorities. What could I do to help another person in my life? What did I hang on to that was just frivolous and of no value and should be got rid of?
After remission in October 2018 I still keep up my natural healing regimen of supplements that are considered to prevent or reduce cancer, as well as injections three times a week of Iscador (a derivative of mistletoe developed to battle cancer in Germany). And I keep discovering new things.
I have mentioned that getting shingles was one side effect of my chemo experience. Although the nasty shingles pain still persists it is somewhat reduced from what it was a few months ago. Then I read that turmeric (with the active ingredient being curcumin) is a pain reliever. Now I have been taking curcumin in the morning for months. But at nights I have some joint pain problems (shoulder, hip) and sometimes the shingles pain wakes me up. So I decided to take my high potency curcumin at night just before I go to bed. Voila! Joint pain and neurological pain from shingles no longer wake me up. I can now get a good night's sleep.
Also I have just received what I consider to be an honour. There is to be a living with chronic disease (prevention, self-management and care) workshop in Yellowknife on December 5 (two weeks away) and I have been asked by the territorial Cancer Care Specialist for the NWT Health Authority to be there as a patient contributor to the workshop from my experience as a chronic cancer sufferer living in a remote community of the NWT. I will decide by tomorrow if I will attend and make a 10 - 15 minute presentation from my cancer treatment and recovery perspective.
After I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Renal Cell Carcinoma, every new morning seemed somehow to be a special day. I realized that time in the sunlight of this life was precious, and that I needed to consider each day as very valuable, and that I needed to change my priorities. What could I do to help another person in my life? What did I hang on to that was just frivolous and of no value and should be got rid of?
After remission in October 2018 I still keep up my natural healing regimen of supplements that are considered to prevent or reduce cancer, as well as injections three times a week of Iscador (a derivative of mistletoe developed to battle cancer in Germany). And I keep discovering new things.
I have mentioned that getting shingles was one side effect of my chemo experience. Although the nasty shingles pain still persists it is somewhat reduced from what it was a few months ago. Then I read that turmeric (with the active ingredient being curcumin) is a pain reliever. Now I have been taking curcumin in the morning for months. But at nights I have some joint pain problems (shoulder, hip) and sometimes the shingles pain wakes me up. So I decided to take my high potency curcumin at night just before I go to bed. Voila! Joint pain and neurological pain from shingles no longer wake me up. I can now get a good night's sleep.
Also I have just received what I consider to be an honour. There is to be a living with chronic disease (prevention, self-management and care) workshop in Yellowknife on December 5 (two weeks away) and I have been asked by the territorial Cancer Care Specialist for the NWT Health Authority to be there as a patient contributor to the workshop from my experience as a chronic cancer sufferer living in a remote community of the NWT. I will decide by tomorrow if I will attend and make a 10 - 15 minute presentation from my cancer treatment and recovery perspective.
Friday, 16 November 2018
The Cancer Sharing Circle, CBC News, and community support
I was interviewed by Mackenzie Scott for CBC North as a participant in our local Cancer Sharing Circle that has met a couple of times this fall here in Inuvik. It aired on radio this afternoon and will available in digital form on the weekend.
Taking part in the Sharing Circle enables me to share parts of my story that give other cancer sufferers hope. Hope is a big thing in cancer recovery. As I have mentioned before, belief in recovery brings hope.
Our Sharing Circle here in Inuvik is for cancer patients, survivors, caregivers, relatives of cancer patients/survivors and anyone interested in cancer recovery. Participation certainly takes away the common feeling of loneliness and isolation for a person with cancer. And I suppose it is easier to make a Sharing Circle successful in a small community where it is a common thing for people to come together to help one another.
Fear is another common emotion as well as feelings of loneliness. And fear, being a negative emotion, can encourage cancer growth instead of combat it. So it is important to change fear into faith for cancer acceptance and recovery.
I have discovered an advantage of living in a small isolated community. And that is that people truly care about you. The news travels fast when a person is ill. I have been approached by many elders in the community, expressing how happy they are when they heard I was in remission from my kidney cancer. And I am on a first name basis with everyone in the local pharmacy and drug store, including the pharmacist and all the pharmacist helpers.
Speaking of support for cancer patients and survivors, young women face special problems. They are just entering the age of marriage and parenthood. See www.survivher.ca for information on the Surviv(her) movement. I have bought the book entitled Surviv(her) and the stories of young survivors is truly inspiring. All of the sales $ for books and other items go directly to women't cancer research. The author of the book and the website is Dr Amy Morris, a cancer pharmacist in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. If you google her name you will see many news stories about this inspiring young cancer survivor.
Taking part in the Sharing Circle enables me to share parts of my story that give other cancer sufferers hope. Hope is a big thing in cancer recovery. As I have mentioned before, belief in recovery brings hope.
Our Sharing Circle here in Inuvik is for cancer patients, survivors, caregivers, relatives of cancer patients/survivors and anyone interested in cancer recovery. Participation certainly takes away the common feeling of loneliness and isolation for a person with cancer. And I suppose it is easier to make a Sharing Circle successful in a small community where it is a common thing for people to come together to help one another.
Fear is another common emotion as well as feelings of loneliness. And fear, being a negative emotion, can encourage cancer growth instead of combat it. So it is important to change fear into faith for cancer acceptance and recovery.
I have discovered an advantage of living in a small isolated community. And that is that people truly care about you. The news travels fast when a person is ill. I have been approached by many elders in the community, expressing how happy they are when they heard I was in remission from my kidney cancer. And I am on a first name basis with everyone in the local pharmacy and drug store, including the pharmacist and all the pharmacist helpers.
Speaking of support for cancer patients and survivors, young women face special problems. They are just entering the age of marriage and parenthood. See www.survivher.ca for information on the Surviv(her) movement. I have bought the book entitled Surviv(her) and the stories of young survivors is truly inspiring. All of the sales $ for books and other items go directly to women't cancer research. The author of the book and the website is Dr Amy Morris, a cancer pharmacist in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. If you google her name you will see many news stories about this inspiring young cancer survivor.
Tuesday, 6 November 2018
More on belief and recovery
I have mentioned Stephen Hawking's struggle with his ALS disease and his determination to make discoveries as one of the world's most brilliant scientists in spite of his incredible handicap. A conventionally wise ALS expert has insisted in an interview that Hawking's determination to survive would have had nothing to do with extending his life! When will western medicine get the hint that maybe, just maybe, there are links (well proven in many books and research reports on cancer recovery) between physical disease and the power of the mind.
Another ALS sufferer is Steven Wells of Canada who is in his mid fifties, having been diagnosed at 21. I wonder how much his positive belief has influenced his life. Here is a quotation from UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill during WW2 on Steven Wells' wall:
“Sure I am this day we are masters of our fate, that the task which has been set before us is not above our strength; that its pangs and toils are not beyond our endurance. As long as we have faith in our own cause and an unconquerable will to win, victory will not be denied us.”
I have been studying and comparing how the very similar kidney cancer scenarios of my cousin Karen, two decades younger, and I came to the very same impasse at the point where we both independently though 18 months apart came to realize and were told that chemotherapy would not work against Renal Cell Carcinoma. Karen could not afford to be put on the recommended immunotherapy Opdivo (Nivolumab) because it was not covered by her medical insurance in the US. She was forced to continue on Sutent chemo for another year. By the time she was able to get on immunotherapy it was too late and she died in mid September 2017. At the same point in my prognosis I could not tolerate chemo so was put on Opdivo which was paid for by our helpful Canadian health system.
I also am saddened again by the realization that Karen would not consider special naturopathic treatment as a possibility for her. She would only follow what the oncologist recommended for treatment. I on the other hand have made several special dietary changes, and inject Iscador (mistletoe treatment developed against cancer in Germany) three times a week. I continue the dietary regimen and Iscador but have had not immunotherapy now since mid July 2018 and my cancer is in remission.
It is true that naturopathic doctors are not (yet) regulated to there are good ones and there are bad ones. You must ask around to find a good one. We are fortunate to have a very good Naturopathic Doctor in Yellowknife, NT, Dr Nicole Redvers, who has literally saved our lives through her suggested interventions for different medical issues.
We have dear friends down in Illinois and Wisconsin who are facing the same situation and, like Karen's predicament, they refuse to consider anything other than whatever chemo treatment the oncologist in Wisconsin in has recommended.
I am sure that many cancer sufferers are confused and may wish for alternatives to chemo but don't know how to approach it with their doctor or oncologist. Here are some questions to ask:
1) Does your cancer clinic have a specially trained nutritionist, or a special nutrition program, for cancer patients? (Many clinics do, including the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton Alberta, and the clinic at the University of Wisconsin as examples)
2) Do you support natural healing protocols to work with chemotherapy and immunotherapy to reduce tumor growth?
3) Do you support using mistletoe (Iscador) as developed in Germany to treat various cancers?
4) Can you put me on immunotherapy as soon as possible? (medical systems across North America insist that a person be put on chemotherapy first even when it is known that chemo will be ineffective.
That's all for now. Keep happy and healthy.
Another ALS sufferer is Steven Wells of Canada who is in his mid fifties, having been diagnosed at 21. I wonder how much his positive belief has influenced his life. Here is a quotation from UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill during WW2 on Steven Wells' wall:
“Sure I am this day we are masters of our fate, that the task which has been set before us is not above our strength; that its pangs and toils are not beyond our endurance. As long as we have faith in our own cause and an unconquerable will to win, victory will not be denied us.”
I have been studying and comparing how the very similar kidney cancer scenarios of my cousin Karen, two decades younger, and I came to the very same impasse at the point where we both independently though 18 months apart came to realize and were told that chemotherapy would not work against Renal Cell Carcinoma. Karen could not afford to be put on the recommended immunotherapy Opdivo (Nivolumab) because it was not covered by her medical insurance in the US. She was forced to continue on Sutent chemo for another year. By the time she was able to get on immunotherapy it was too late and she died in mid September 2017. At the same point in my prognosis I could not tolerate chemo so was put on Opdivo which was paid for by our helpful Canadian health system.
I also am saddened again by the realization that Karen would not consider special naturopathic treatment as a possibility for her. She would only follow what the oncologist recommended for treatment. I on the other hand have made several special dietary changes, and inject Iscador (mistletoe treatment developed against cancer in Germany) three times a week. I continue the dietary regimen and Iscador but have had not immunotherapy now since mid July 2018 and my cancer is in remission.
It is true that naturopathic doctors are not (yet) regulated to there are good ones and there are bad ones. You must ask around to find a good one. We are fortunate to have a very good Naturopathic Doctor in Yellowknife, NT, Dr Nicole Redvers, who has literally saved our lives through her suggested interventions for different medical issues.
We have dear friends down in Illinois and Wisconsin who are facing the same situation and, like Karen's predicament, they refuse to consider anything other than whatever chemo treatment the oncologist in Wisconsin in has recommended.
I am sure that many cancer sufferers are confused and may wish for alternatives to chemo but don't know how to approach it with their doctor or oncologist. Here are some questions to ask:
1) Does your cancer clinic have a specially trained nutritionist, or a special nutrition program, for cancer patients? (Many clinics do, including the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton Alberta, and the clinic at the University of Wisconsin as examples)
2) Do you support natural healing protocols to work with chemotherapy and immunotherapy to reduce tumor growth?
3) Do you support using mistletoe (Iscador) as developed in Germany to treat various cancers?
4) Can you put me on immunotherapy as soon as possible? (medical systems across North America insist that a person be put on chemotherapy first even when it is known that chemo will be ineffective.
That's all for now. Keep happy and healthy.
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