Once upon a wintertime! Winter indeed, warm (for the Arctic) at between -6 and -12 C day after day. But with 40 cm or so of snow here in Inuvik within the past 72 hours. And thigh high snow drifts. One local resident says she can only remember one other year when there was this much snow. And of course the winter is far from over. But the sun is coming back. The sun is now up for about 6 hours a day with long drawn colourful twilight at sunrise and sunset.
I recently received a beautiful card from a dear friend in Illinois who wanted me to share about what really keeps me well in body and spirit. And my dearest friend and spouse Sandra agrees with her! I talk about the Iscador, the turmeric/curcumin, avoiding sugar, the good nutrition - but that is only the physical part of my cancer and kidney healing. What about the personal part: attitude and emotion and belief? And the spiritual part?
Because I am a very private person, having grown up as an only child, I don't often share my inmost thoughts and cares and beliefs. Ok, here goes - !
We often read of people who recover from grave ailments simply because they believe they will recover. People in drug trials who are given a placebo rather than the real thing, but who recover simply because they believe they have received a healing treatment. This underscores the importance of attitude.
Right from the beginning, the quite miraculous discovery of my Stage 4 renal carcinoma (chest, abdomen, and lungs) at age 75, discovered only when I was sent south out of the Arctic by air ambulance with a false alarm of heart attack, made me wonder about other wondrous support. Combined with the intervention of a truly exceptionally-gifted surgeon, Dr Adrian Fairey. Why was I still alive, when the surgeon expressed surprise about that fact before the operation, because a tumour was possibly within minutes of stopping my heart?
When I awoke from the anesthetic I had two first thoughts. The first was "I'm still alive." The second was "Nothing matters but salvation" - meaning being entirely ready and willing for whatever God had planned for me. And I began to develop a very positive attitude toward post-operative healing. I knew of my cousin Aleta who had healed from leukemia many years ago with little help from the conventional medical profession. If she could do it, I could too! That was good enough reasoning for me at the beginning.
Following close on the heels of a positive attitude was joy. Joy goes far beyond mirth, happiness, peace, and comfort. It includes all these but transcends them as an integral part of spiritual well-being. I realized that, in whatever time I had left in life I needed joy.
Those of you who know me well know that I treasure the wisdom recorded in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. I read many, many, authors and books old and new, but none have the depth of meaning contained in the Bible. I prefer the King James Version of the Bible because I love the poetic resonance of old English.
So, getting back to joy. Every time I read Joel 1:12 I have a profound sense of wonder. After naming several fruit trees Joel says: "all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men." From this came a profound personal revelation, that JOY is necessary in order for fruit to be produced. Anything of lasting value in my life, any spiritual fruit, cannot be produced without joy being there at the beginning. So if I want the miracle of healing, I need joy, first and foremost. When I refer to spiritual fruit I simply mean what the writer Paul refers to in his letter to the Christian church in Galatia, Gal 5:22: "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance -." Spirit with a capital "S" means that I need spirit way beyond the spirit of man, I need the Spirit of God. And of course I note that joy is mentioned right after "love" as the preeminent fruit of God's Spirit.
So both in terms of natural and spiritual healing in life, I am kept by the power of God. I can't help but think of the 10th verse of chapter 35 of the book of Isaiah: "the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."
In conclusion, I ask myself: what else is necessary for healing to continue? And the only answer that comes is - thankfulness - gratitude. Being thankful to God that I have been given these added days of joy. Which leads to my "new year's resolution" for 2017, that I must show my gratitude by living the last days/years of my life to be a help to others as I journey.
Finally, back to the natural side of healing, my kidney is responding, slowly but surely, to better nutrition and plenty of water in my daily diet. The eGFR rating is now between 36 on the low end and 47 on the high end, much better than a year ago, when it hovered around 32 to 35, and the corresponding creatinine number now usually falls below 150. And I feel full of energy most of the time, not lethargic and tired out. My physical strength is returning, however slowly, and working out at the gym helps, not to mention shovelling snow!! And being virtually cancer free is wonderful, with the only cautionary note being that I need to keep my two enlarged lymph nodes in my chest shrinking to normal size. For that I need to continue to keep my immune system happy and healthy every day.
Saturday, 4 February 2017
Saturday, 21 January 2017
Cancer recovery reaches a milestone
Great news to report. I hopped on the Boeing 737 and visited the Stanton Medical Centre in Yellowknife on January 9th for a CT Scan of both chest and abdomen to see if there was further reduction of my kidney cancer. The radiologist gave the following final comments the Scan: "there is no evidence of recurrence or metastatic disease." This is really quite amazing when I compare this radiology report with the Feb 3, 2016 report (first one after the Dec 6 op) that still showed my lungs quite riddled with cancerous and other abnormal stuff. Other notes in this most recent report showed that for the first time the two enlarged lymph nodes in my chest are shrinking, still enlarged, but smaller than they were at the last Scan in August 2016.
The visiting oncologist from the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton, Dr John Walker (named after the famed brand of scotch no doubt) was very pleased with the result at the consultation the next day, Tuesday January 10th, and suggested that the next scan could be deferred for a period of about 6 months. He also suggested that I should return to Edmonton for a consult with Dr Adrian Fairey, my now renowned surgeon.
On Tuesday the 17th I journeyed to Edmonton, including an airline and aircraft change in Yellowknife, for an appointment with Dr Fairey the eminent surgeon the next day, Wednesday the 18th. Dr Fairey was all smiles, said how he always looked forward to seeing me (I am one of his success stories as far as cancer surgery is concerned), and his remarks re the radiology report were: "It doesn't get better than this!" He did caution that renal carcinoma was infamous for returning aggressively at any time. I am glad he said this because my natural inclination at such good news would ordinarily be: Yay, now I can eat chocolate, and peanut butter and jam sandwiches, and mountains of pasta, and ice cream, and---- and on and on. However, I am going to continue my chosen regimen of daily doses of concentrated curcumin and Iscador injections three times a week, and the minimization of sugar and simple carbs. And also minimizing the inflammation character of wheat in favour of oats, in porridge, in home-made bread, etc.
Although there would be no need for a definite appointment in the future with the oncological results as they are, Dr Fairy encouraged me to contact him if I noticed any significant changes. He gave me this task because in his opinion oncologists often do not recognize situations that could be better addressed by surgery than by drug or radiation-based cancer treatment. So he wants me to alert him of any new thing happening by way of cancer recurrence.
Since no cancer can now be seen - I want to keep it that way. It is hard though, because I really crave sugar and carbs from time to time. And I am sure that I will be on Iscador injections for the rest of my life. And remember that Iscador is a commercial name of a medically active ingredient of mistletoe. With a reminder mistletoe was used in ancient times as a natural healing agent (see http://www.blackhillscelticevents.org/Events/CelticMistle.htm, for example). Here is a quote from this site: "Mistletoe was known by the Celts and the Vikings as a healing plant upon which superstition and myth had bestowed miraculous healing powers."
Which leads me to my cancer recovery mantra. And that is, that God has given us bodies that have very effective immune systems to fight all manner of disease, including cancer. Therefore we should use all natural means in God's creation to encourage the T-cells in our bodies to target the destruction of cancer cells. Only if natural healing systems fail should we turn to artificial medical means for killing cancer cells such as chemotherapeutic drugs and radiation. I find it amazing that good naturopathic medicine practitioners always recommend seeking help from the medical profession, whereas medical doctors never recommend natural healing. To their credit though, oncologists now are seeking those drugs or healing agents that influence the immune system to target cancer cells, and this healing system is loosely referred to as immunotherapy. Here is a definition taken at random from the Internet: "Immunotherapy, also called biologic therapy, is a type of cancer treatment designed to boost the body's natural defenses to fight the cancer. It uses substances either made by the body or in a laboratory to improve or restore immune system function."
Huge amounts of money are being put into immunotherapy, not only in North America, but also in China for example. Part of an extensive chapter in an AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) supplement to Science Magazine, Precision medicine in China, December 2016, is devoted to immunotherapy treatment as part of what the Chinese medical fraternity refers to as precision medicine - in this case precisely programming T-cells to target and kill cancer cells.
The western medical system is completely brainwashed by the major drug companies, in the sense that drug administration is included in their medical training, whereas natural healing mechanisms are not. I repeat, I believe that chemotherapy and radiation should only be chosen if natural healing fails. My cancer recovery is a case in point. I have not been able to find renal carcinoma just going away on its own on any of the best medical sites that I visited on the Internet in 2016, including a special site for medical practitioners that a doctor friend introduced me to by giving me his password. Neither he nor the site shall be named!!
So, why me? I believe that my great and wonderful Creator (Isaiah 9:6) has kept me alive, not to strut and keep advertising the personal miracle of recovery, but to set to work to the best of my ability to help others, in whatever ways I can. That is my new-year's resolution for 2017.
The visiting oncologist from the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton, Dr John Walker (named after the famed brand of scotch no doubt) was very pleased with the result at the consultation the next day, Tuesday January 10th, and suggested that the next scan could be deferred for a period of about 6 months. He also suggested that I should return to Edmonton for a consult with Dr Adrian Fairey, my now renowned surgeon.
On Tuesday the 17th I journeyed to Edmonton, including an airline and aircraft change in Yellowknife, for an appointment with Dr Fairey the eminent surgeon the next day, Wednesday the 18th. Dr Fairey was all smiles, said how he always looked forward to seeing me (I am one of his success stories as far as cancer surgery is concerned), and his remarks re the radiology report were: "It doesn't get better than this!" He did caution that renal carcinoma was infamous for returning aggressively at any time. I am glad he said this because my natural inclination at such good news would ordinarily be: Yay, now I can eat chocolate, and peanut butter and jam sandwiches, and mountains of pasta, and ice cream, and---- and on and on. However, I am going to continue my chosen regimen of daily doses of concentrated curcumin and Iscador injections three times a week, and the minimization of sugar and simple carbs. And also minimizing the inflammation character of wheat in favour of oats, in porridge, in home-made bread, etc.
Although there would be no need for a definite appointment in the future with the oncological results as they are, Dr Fairy encouraged me to contact him if I noticed any significant changes. He gave me this task because in his opinion oncologists often do not recognize situations that could be better addressed by surgery than by drug or radiation-based cancer treatment. So he wants me to alert him of any new thing happening by way of cancer recurrence.
Since no cancer can now be seen - I want to keep it that way. It is hard though, because I really crave sugar and carbs from time to time. And I am sure that I will be on Iscador injections for the rest of my life. And remember that Iscador is a commercial name of a medically active ingredient of mistletoe. With a reminder mistletoe was used in ancient times as a natural healing agent (see http://www.blackhillscelticevents.org/Events/CelticMistle.htm, for example). Here is a quote from this site: "Mistletoe was known by the Celts and the Vikings as a healing plant upon which superstition and myth had bestowed miraculous healing powers."
Which leads me to my cancer recovery mantra. And that is, that God has given us bodies that have very effective immune systems to fight all manner of disease, including cancer. Therefore we should use all natural means in God's creation to encourage the T-cells in our bodies to target the destruction of cancer cells. Only if natural healing systems fail should we turn to artificial medical means for killing cancer cells such as chemotherapeutic drugs and radiation. I find it amazing that good naturopathic medicine practitioners always recommend seeking help from the medical profession, whereas medical doctors never recommend natural healing. To their credit though, oncologists now are seeking those drugs or healing agents that influence the immune system to target cancer cells, and this healing system is loosely referred to as immunotherapy. Here is a definition taken at random from the Internet: "Immunotherapy, also called biologic therapy, is a type of cancer treatment designed to boost the body's natural defenses to fight the cancer. It uses substances either made by the body or in a laboratory to improve or restore immune system function."
Huge amounts of money are being put into immunotherapy, not only in North America, but also in China for example. Part of an extensive chapter in an AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) supplement to Science Magazine, Precision medicine in China, December 2016, is devoted to immunotherapy treatment as part of what the Chinese medical fraternity refers to as precision medicine - in this case precisely programming T-cells to target and kill cancer cells.
The western medical system is completely brainwashed by the major drug companies, in the sense that drug administration is included in their medical training, whereas natural healing mechanisms are not. I repeat, I believe that chemotherapy and radiation should only be chosen if natural healing fails. My cancer recovery is a case in point. I have not been able to find renal carcinoma just going away on its own on any of the best medical sites that I visited on the Internet in 2016, including a special site for medical practitioners that a doctor friend introduced me to by giving me his password. Neither he nor the site shall be named!!
So, why me? I believe that my great and wonderful Creator (Isaiah 9:6) has kept me alive, not to strut and keep advertising the personal miracle of recovery, but to set to work to the best of my ability to help others, in whatever ways I can. That is my new-year's resolution for 2017.
Wednesday, 28 December 2016
The Old Year passes - here comes 2017
As I walked Sandra to work this morning, December 28, the town folk were either asleep or still away south somewhere on vacation. -29C but no wind. The town was very quiet, except for the snow crunching under my -100C snow boots. And dark, of course, but the sun is starting to come closer back up to the horizon every day.
The lack of activity in Inuvik this morning seemed to add to my sense of isolation. But isolation has its advantages. I am free to walk anywhere with minimum chance of getting hit by a bus. I can. I can dream dreams and believe they will come to pass - because there is no-one to look over my shoulder and tell me "it's impossible" or "that won't work" &c. However, the down side is the wonderful coffee shop is closed for the holidays. Would you believe it? When people are relaxing off work and have the time to meet and sit and talk and drink a mocha and eat a muffin, the darn shop is closed! Life isn't always fair!
Well, with reference to my last blog, I am back on my Asus computer after having it repaired by the one tech person in Inuvik who knows these things. I have had to send things that I filed on the old Acer from mid October to last Friday. The server I use only holds three weeks of email. I have come to rely on the old USB flash drive method to keep documents from disappearing forever from memory.
And I am back from London. Sandra and I had the best time every in London this time around. We stayed at the Commodore Hotel just north of Hyde Park. It cost about $225 per night, which is cheap in London. But we were then in walking distance from Buckingham Palace, and only a couple of hundred metres from the nearest tube (underground railway) station. We used the tube (remember: Mind the Gap) to travel a bit further to the Covent Garden market and to book stores. We haunted coffee shops and book shops. We bought a real honest-to-goodness English china teapot (NOT made in China) for our friend Louie in Inuvik, and other neat gifts for the kids.
The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 reception at Buckingham Palace on December 1 certainly met our expectations. We were able to meet Princess Anne, in whose honour the reception was held. She has now been President of the Royal Commission for 10 years. She asked where we were from as she shook hands with us. "Inuvik" we replied. "Oh, I've been there," was her reply. She visited Inuvik in 1970 when she was 20 years old. Great memory. Prince Philip was in fine form for his 95 years. I am sure there will be another reception in 2026, when I will be a sprightly 86!! I can hardly wait.
Ok, I am still concerned about the cancer thing of course. My next CT scan is in Yellowknife, Friday January 6, and my visit with the visiting oncologist from Cross Cancer Institute is on Tuesday the 10th. That will mean almost 5 months since my last CT scan August 22. All I know is I feel just fine. With the reduced weight and better nutrition I do indeed feel better than I did 30 years ago. However, the nagging cough, although less prominent, is still there. And that might be a symptom of continuing cancer. Looking back, the nagging cough began during the months preceding the discovery of the already Stage 4 kidney cancer just over a year ago. Does the cough mean anything today? Nobody knows.
Another reason to go to Yellowknife next week is that daughter Lynn and hubby Derrick are moving from our house on Ragged Ass Road to Saskatoon February 1. Derrick will continue driving for Superior Propane, and Lynn plans to go back to university. Anyway that puts us into a bind regarding what to do with our house. Rent it out (and how do we find good renters)? Sell it? That will keep us busy for a few days, including packing and moving yet more stuff into storage, including our piano. Not good to put a piano into cold, dry storage, but we have no choice since we do not want to sell the piano. I will let you know how this all turns out.
I need to figure out how to post photos in this blog. When I was in Tuk in late November, I took a really neat photo from my bandb window that showed the sun skimming red along the horizon, and two pingos outlined against the sun rise/set.
So that is all for now. I will update you, dear reader, upon return from Yellowknife on Sunday the 15th after CT scan and packing and moving stuff from house to storage.
The lack of activity in Inuvik this morning seemed to add to my sense of isolation. But isolation has its advantages. I am free to walk anywhere with minimum chance of getting hit by a bus. I can. I can dream dreams and believe they will come to pass - because there is no-one to look over my shoulder and tell me "it's impossible" or "that won't work" &c. However, the down side is the wonderful coffee shop is closed for the holidays. Would you believe it? When people are relaxing off work and have the time to meet and sit and talk and drink a mocha and eat a muffin, the darn shop is closed! Life isn't always fair!
Well, with reference to my last blog, I am back on my Asus computer after having it repaired by the one tech person in Inuvik who knows these things. I have had to send things that I filed on the old Acer from mid October to last Friday. The server I use only holds three weeks of email. I have come to rely on the old USB flash drive method to keep documents from disappearing forever from memory.
And I am back from London. Sandra and I had the best time every in London this time around. We stayed at the Commodore Hotel just north of Hyde Park. It cost about $225 per night, which is cheap in London. But we were then in walking distance from Buckingham Palace, and only a couple of hundred metres from the nearest tube (underground railway) station. We used the tube (remember: Mind the Gap) to travel a bit further to the Covent Garden market and to book stores. We haunted coffee shops and book shops. We bought a real honest-to-goodness English china teapot (NOT made in China) for our friend Louie in Inuvik, and other neat gifts for the kids.
The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 reception at Buckingham Palace on December 1 certainly met our expectations. We were able to meet Princess Anne, in whose honour the reception was held. She has now been President of the Royal Commission for 10 years. She asked where we were from as she shook hands with us. "Inuvik" we replied. "Oh, I've been there," was her reply. She visited Inuvik in 1970 when she was 20 years old. Great memory. Prince Philip was in fine form for his 95 years. I am sure there will be another reception in 2026, when I will be a sprightly 86!! I can hardly wait.
Ok, I am still concerned about the cancer thing of course. My next CT scan is in Yellowknife, Friday January 6, and my visit with the visiting oncologist from Cross Cancer Institute is on Tuesday the 10th. That will mean almost 5 months since my last CT scan August 22. All I know is I feel just fine. With the reduced weight and better nutrition I do indeed feel better than I did 30 years ago. However, the nagging cough, although less prominent, is still there. And that might be a symptom of continuing cancer. Looking back, the nagging cough began during the months preceding the discovery of the already Stage 4 kidney cancer just over a year ago. Does the cough mean anything today? Nobody knows.
Another reason to go to Yellowknife next week is that daughter Lynn and hubby Derrick are moving from our house on Ragged Ass Road to Saskatoon February 1. Derrick will continue driving for Superior Propane, and Lynn plans to go back to university. Anyway that puts us into a bind regarding what to do with our house. Rent it out (and how do we find good renters)? Sell it? That will keep us busy for a few days, including packing and moving yet more stuff into storage, including our piano. Not good to put a piano into cold, dry storage, but we have no choice since we do not want to sell the piano. I will let you know how this all turns out.
I need to figure out how to post photos in this blog. When I was in Tuk in late November, I took a really neat photo from my bandb window that showed the sun skimming red along the horizon, and two pingos outlined against the sun rise/set.
So that is all for now. I will update you, dear reader, upon return from Yellowknife on Sunday the 15th after CT scan and packing and moving stuff from house to storage.
Sunday, 20 November 2016
The saga continues!
I have been very busy over the past couple of months. And to top it all off I am back on my old Acer computer because the Asus I purchased in 2014 has given me no end of trouble. Most of my recent work is on that computer. I will be able to get it back running again, I hope.
Sandra and I went to Florida for a mental health break in mid September. I found there that my strength had pretty well returned - I walked up to 15 miles (24 km) per day there. Then at the end of October we flew to Los Angeles for a Writers Digest Novel Writing Conference. That was a great experience, including seeing the hundreds of homeless on the streets of downtown LA, right in the middle of a conglomeration of marble-fronted bank headquarter buildings and 4/5 star hotels.
In LA I met agents and fellow authors and came back all full of high energy to get writing on my Young Adult novel. The story takes place in the Arctic and I am on my first rewrite. I sent one complete chapter to my new author friend KK Allen and she gave me great encouragement to write on. You can view some of her published work at her facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/authorkkallen/
Well, that was the fun side. I have now got some paid work, training engineers on four new Northern Infrastructure building standards to respond to climate warming and melting permafrost. And this weekend I am in Tuktoyaktuk doing a business planning study. It is good to be working as a professional again. Although that leaves me less time for writing.
The sun is going down at the end of next week in the Arctic, permanently at our latitude for about 6 weeks. The sun will rise again around January 6 and there will be a Sunrise Festival in Inuvik to mark that occasion, with fireworks and huge bonfires out on the ice of the Mackenzie River. During that 6 weeks the sun will be just below the horizon in the afternoon, with the most magnificent and brilliant sunrise/sunset colours you can imagine.
In my early September post I pointed out the importance of both Iscador and concentrated curcumin in my cancer treatment. I forgot to point out the importance of keeping my immune system on high alert at all times. I do that through my old standby, elk Velvet Antler capsules from Erica Yurt at www.yurtland.com, that I have been taking daily for several years. I take two capsules daily, or more if I feel a tickle that might be a coming sore throat. Why take elk Velvet Antler? - you may ask. Because it boosts my immune system so that I almost never get a cold or the flu. I get a cold at most once a year, whereas 10 years and more ago I was forever getting colds. The reason that I recommend Erica and yurtland.com is because she sells the highest quality product, consistently. So take my advice. Elk Velvet Antler will keep your immune system working at full throttle. I have recommended it to others who have had similar results of better immunity and freedom from colds.
On a more somber side - yes, the cancer thing. Today I read a cancer recovery blog by a friend of a friend. His name is Rob Truscott and you can view his blog at http://cancersuckschronicles.ca/2016/11/rip-colin-hackett/ . Colin Hackett was an Alberta athlete who courageously fought colorectal cancer for two years. If you click on the podcast link at around the 26 minute mark you will hear an interview with Colin done only about 3 to 4 weeks before he succumbed to the dreadful disease. His upbeat courage in the interview is wonderful.
Cancer doesn't play around. After I read Rob's RIP account for Colin I couldn't help but come face to face with my own fears again. Because this Stage 4 kidney cancer thing has an infamous history in other patients of returning within two years of the original cancer operation. And only 8% reach the 5 year mark of life extension after their operation for renal carcinoma. Am I in that 8%? I am patiently waiting now for the next CT scan to take place in Yellowknife in mid January 2017.
So I am firmly resolved again to severely limit my sugar and simple carb intake. That has served me well up to now, as you the reader know if you have read my earlier blog entries. And I will probably be on Iscador for the rest of my life, complemented by concentrated curcumin just for good measure.
Well there you have my update. And later this week, on Friday the 25th of November Sandra and I are London bound. I am invited to Buckingham Palace for a 10th Anniversary celebration for the Princess Royal (Anne) as President of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. The 1851 Royal Commission awarded me the Overseas Scholarship that took me to the UK away back in the mid 1960s to do my PhD research at the University of Warwick. You can read all about it in a neat CBC North broadcast record athttp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/buckingham-palace-david-malcolm-exhibition-1851-1.3857999 . I will let you know how the trip went when I return.
Sandra and I went to Florida for a mental health break in mid September. I found there that my strength had pretty well returned - I walked up to 15 miles (24 km) per day there. Then at the end of October we flew to Los Angeles for a Writers Digest Novel Writing Conference. That was a great experience, including seeing the hundreds of homeless on the streets of downtown LA, right in the middle of a conglomeration of marble-fronted bank headquarter buildings and 4/5 star hotels.
In LA I met agents and fellow authors and came back all full of high energy to get writing on my Young Adult novel. The story takes place in the Arctic and I am on my first rewrite. I sent one complete chapter to my new author friend KK Allen and she gave me great encouragement to write on. You can view some of her published work at her facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/authorkkallen/
Well, that was the fun side. I have now got some paid work, training engineers on four new Northern Infrastructure building standards to respond to climate warming and melting permafrost. And this weekend I am in Tuktoyaktuk doing a business planning study. It is good to be working as a professional again. Although that leaves me less time for writing.
The sun is going down at the end of next week in the Arctic, permanently at our latitude for about 6 weeks. The sun will rise again around January 6 and there will be a Sunrise Festival in Inuvik to mark that occasion, with fireworks and huge bonfires out on the ice of the Mackenzie River. During that 6 weeks the sun will be just below the horizon in the afternoon, with the most magnificent and brilliant sunrise/sunset colours you can imagine.
In my early September post I pointed out the importance of both Iscador and concentrated curcumin in my cancer treatment. I forgot to point out the importance of keeping my immune system on high alert at all times. I do that through my old standby, elk Velvet Antler capsules from Erica Yurt at www.yurtland.com, that I have been taking daily for several years. I take two capsules daily, or more if I feel a tickle that might be a coming sore throat. Why take elk Velvet Antler? - you may ask. Because it boosts my immune system so that I almost never get a cold or the flu. I get a cold at most once a year, whereas 10 years and more ago I was forever getting colds. The reason that I recommend Erica and yurtland.com is because she sells the highest quality product, consistently. So take my advice. Elk Velvet Antler will keep your immune system working at full throttle. I have recommended it to others who have had similar results of better immunity and freedom from colds.
On a more somber side - yes, the cancer thing. Today I read a cancer recovery blog by a friend of a friend. His name is Rob Truscott and you can view his blog at http://cancersuckschronicles.ca/2016/11/rip-colin-hackett/ . Colin Hackett was an Alberta athlete who courageously fought colorectal cancer for two years. If you click on the podcast link at around the 26 minute mark you will hear an interview with Colin done only about 3 to 4 weeks before he succumbed to the dreadful disease. His upbeat courage in the interview is wonderful.
Cancer doesn't play around. After I read Rob's RIP account for Colin I couldn't help but come face to face with my own fears again. Because this Stage 4 kidney cancer thing has an infamous history in other patients of returning within two years of the original cancer operation. And only 8% reach the 5 year mark of life extension after their operation for renal carcinoma. Am I in that 8%? I am patiently waiting now for the next CT scan to take place in Yellowknife in mid January 2017.
So I am firmly resolved again to severely limit my sugar and simple carb intake. That has served me well up to now, as you the reader know if you have read my earlier blog entries. And I will probably be on Iscador for the rest of my life, complemented by concentrated curcumin just for good measure.
Well there you have my update. And later this week, on Friday the 25th of November Sandra and I are London bound. I am invited to Buckingham Palace for a 10th Anniversary celebration for the Princess Royal (Anne) as President of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. The 1851 Royal Commission awarded me the Overseas Scholarship that took me to the UK away back in the mid 1960s to do my PhD research at the University of Warwick. You can read all about it in a neat CBC North broadcast record athttp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/buckingham-palace-david-malcolm-exhibition-1851-1.3857999 . I will let you know how the trip went when I return.
Monday, 12 September 2016
A Cancer Reprieve
The results are in From the August 22 2016 CT Scan. It turns out that the two slightly enlarged lymph nodes have not changed in character since before my operation December 6 of last year. So that is good news, since there is no indication of cancer there.
Also, the two nodules on my lungs that were evident in May are not now visible. I seem to be vitually cancer free at the moment. Dr North the oncologist said on the phone, "There is nothing to be concerned about at this time." I will next see him in Yellowknife sometime in January 2017. However, he simply does not believe in naturopathic healing or in nutrition having anything to do with cancer treatment even though proper nutrition improves immune system health and hence the ability of the immune system to kill cancer cells. Go figure. I guess I am just a statistic to him I am the one in 100 or one in 500 or whatever of renal carcinoma patients that experience a complete regression in Stage 4 cancer. Uh-huh!
I personally attribute the reduction/elimination of cancer cells to Iscador (from mistletoe) injections 3 times a week, as well as concentrated turmeric (curcumin) daily. Them there cancer cells and tumours don't have a chance. They are targeted for destruction!!
It is true that abnormal cell growth that may become sources of cancer tumours is alive and well in our bodies virtually all the time. However our immune systems are able to deal with the dispersed abnormal cells and wipe them out.
Dr Fairey mentioned that once a kidney starts to behave in an abnormal way it won't get better. It will stay that way! I take that as a challenge. Because the GFR rating which tells how well the kidney functions to discard body wastes is gradually increasing. Back in early 2016 it was between 35 and 40. Lately it has been as high as 47. So I am taking it as a challenge to use proper nutrition to improve kidney health.
Also, the two nodules on my lungs that were evident in May are not now visible. I seem to be vitually cancer free at the moment. Dr North the oncologist said on the phone, "There is nothing to be concerned about at this time." I will next see him in Yellowknife sometime in January 2017. However, he simply does not believe in naturopathic healing or in nutrition having anything to do with cancer treatment even though proper nutrition improves immune system health and hence the ability of the immune system to kill cancer cells. Go figure. I guess I am just a statistic to him I am the one in 100 or one in 500 or whatever of renal carcinoma patients that experience a complete regression in Stage 4 cancer. Uh-huh!
I personally attribute the reduction/elimination of cancer cells to Iscador (from mistletoe) injections 3 times a week, as well as concentrated turmeric (curcumin) daily. Them there cancer cells and tumours don't have a chance. They are targeted for destruction!!
It is true that abnormal cell growth that may become sources of cancer tumours is alive and well in our bodies virtually all the time. However our immune systems are able to deal with the dispersed abnormal cells and wipe them out.
Dr Fairey mentioned that once a kidney starts to behave in an abnormal way it won't get better. It will stay that way! I take that as a challenge. Because the GFR rating which tells how well the kidney functions to discard body wastes is gradually increasing. Back in early 2016 it was between 35 and 40. Lately it has been as high as 47. So I am taking it as a challenge to use proper nutrition to improve kidney health.
Thursday, 1 September 2016
In The Danger Zone
More than 10 weeks have passed since my last blog entry in mid-June. The summer has been a busy one. Time to catch up. I chose the subject name for this post, In The Danger Zone, because it it so easy to suffer from apathy. Because there seems to be no real danger right now. My previous CT scan on May 16 only showed two small 5mm nodules in my lung plus a slightly enlarged lymph node in my chest. So the temptation is to be very nonchalant about the whole thing and forget about cancer altogether. However, to stay out of the Danger Zone I must live "as if" the cancer is aggressive and spreading. I must keep a really positive attitude to help both my immune system and my quality of life in general.
The latest update is a CT scan and visit with Dr Fairey the surgeon on the previous Monday August 22, followed by an appointment with the oncologist Dr North at Cross Cancer Institute in Edmontnon on August 23. Dr Fairey and Dr North both remarked on how very healthy I looked. That is both good news and bad news. The good news is that the cancer probably has not progressed. The bad news is that Dr North has now lost interest in my case. I am not sick enough for his serious attention! He didn't even take a quick online look at the CT scan before our appointment! He will phone me next Tuesday with the results of the Aug 22 CT scan.
The sad thing is that the medical profession is only interested in treatment for symptomatic disease. There is not interest in disease prevention. I mentioned my Iscador subcutaneous injection treatment to kill cancer cells to North and he almost yawned! He said if that made me feel better from a psychological point of view then go for it.
The GFR for my kidney was only 37 so they would not give me intravenous contrast, which means that from now on I will be scanned in Yellowknife with some contrast in the one litre drink beforehand. My GFR has been as high as 47 from recent blood tests. According to the med folks kidney function cannot be improved much and that it deteriorates with age. North was of the opinion that my GFR would never increase no matter what I did. However, since I have reduced creatinine and increased my GFR as high as 47 I am going to keep trying. At the very least I can prevent kidney failure in the future (where the GFR falls to below 20 and dialysis is the only option). I am going to seek the help of my doctor here in Inuvik, Dr Gail Robson, so see how nutrition can be optimised for my kidney.
Now I get on my nutrition rant again. It is a shame that the medical profession no mo more about nutrition than to recommend the industry-sponsored Canada Food Guide! I look forward to the new Guide which apparently has thrown out industry sponsorship. And Naturopathic Doctors and nutritionists are almost totally ignored. However, I continue to attribute my diminishing cancer to high immune system function governed by nutrition and supplements such as high dose curcumin to help T-cells target cancer cells and destroy them.
Drugs, drugs, drugs! An article in the 2016-07-01 edition of the Guardian Weekly has an article entitled Cancer hope higing in your bathroom. Talking about every day medicines like aspirin etc are seen to have beneficial effects in fighting cancer. A certain Pan Pantziarka, a coordinator of the Repurposing Drugs in Oncology project is quoted: "Basic evolutionary biology tells us that cancer is a complex, adaptive system that evolves resistance to very closely targeted agents." Of course, it is great that there is a lot of innovation happening in the cancer drug world and how to deliver the drugs to target cancer cells. For example, see the recent CBC News article:
So what about nutrition? What about insulin resistance and high blood sugar, allowing cancer cells a growth spurt? Our own body's immune system is all we have to fight cancer cells, yet when we eat high sugar foods the immune system almost shuts down for a few hours - again providing cancer cells with a growth spurt opportunity. Here is a good link - why not starve cancer to death?!:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/magazine/warburg-effect-an-old-idea-revived-starve-cancer-to-death.html?mwrsm=Email
It is a heavy-duty New York Times article that again points to the importance of high sugar diets in feeding cancer cells.
That is all for now. After my discussion with Dr North next Tuesday, and after receiving the radiologist's report of the Aug 22 CT scan, I will update the blog again.
The latest update is a CT scan and visit with Dr Fairey the surgeon on the previous Monday August 22, followed by an appointment with the oncologist Dr North at Cross Cancer Institute in Edmontnon on August 23. Dr Fairey and Dr North both remarked on how very healthy I looked. That is both good news and bad news. The good news is that the cancer probably has not progressed. The bad news is that Dr North has now lost interest in my case. I am not sick enough for his serious attention! He didn't even take a quick online look at the CT scan before our appointment! He will phone me next Tuesday with the results of the Aug 22 CT scan.
The sad thing is that the medical profession is only interested in treatment for symptomatic disease. There is not interest in disease prevention. I mentioned my Iscador subcutaneous injection treatment to kill cancer cells to North and he almost yawned! He said if that made me feel better from a psychological point of view then go for it.
The GFR for my kidney was only 37 so they would not give me intravenous contrast, which means that from now on I will be scanned in Yellowknife with some contrast in the one litre drink beforehand. My GFR has been as high as 47 from recent blood tests. According to the med folks kidney function cannot be improved much and that it deteriorates with age. North was of the opinion that my GFR would never increase no matter what I did. However, since I have reduced creatinine and increased my GFR as high as 47 I am going to keep trying. At the very least I can prevent kidney failure in the future (where the GFR falls to below 20 and dialysis is the only option). I am going to seek the help of my doctor here in Inuvik, Dr Gail Robson, so see how nutrition can be optimised for my kidney.
Now I get on my nutrition rant again. It is a shame that the medical profession no mo more about nutrition than to recommend the industry-sponsored Canada Food Guide! I look forward to the new Guide which apparently has thrown out industry sponsorship. And Naturopathic Doctors and nutritionists are almost totally ignored. However, I continue to attribute my diminishing cancer to high immune system function governed by nutrition and supplements such as high dose curcumin to help T-cells target cancer cells and destroy them.
Drugs, drugs, drugs! An article in the 2016-07-01 edition of the Guardian Weekly has an article entitled Cancer hope higing in your bathroom. Talking about every day medicines like aspirin etc are seen to have beneficial effects in fighting cancer. A certain Pan Pantziarka, a coordinator of the Repurposing Drugs in Oncology project is quoted: "Basic evolutionary biology tells us that cancer is a complex, adaptive system that evolves resistance to very closely targeted agents." Of course, it is great that there is a lot of innovation happening in the cancer drug world and how to deliver the drugs to target cancer cells. For example, see the recent CBC News article:
So what about nutrition? What about insulin resistance and high blood sugar, allowing cancer cells a growth spurt? Our own body's immune system is all we have to fight cancer cells, yet when we eat high sugar foods the immune system almost shuts down for a few hours - again providing cancer cells with a growth spurt opportunity. Here is a good link - why not starve cancer to death?!:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/magazine/warburg-effect-an-old-idea-revived-starve-cancer-to-death.html?mwrsm=Email
It is a heavy-duty New York Times article that again points to the importance of high sugar diets in feeding cancer cells.
That is all for now. After my discussion with Dr North next Tuesday, and after receiving the radiologist's report of the Aug 22 CT scan, I will update the blog again.
Tuesday, 14 June 2016
Some sobering thoughts
In the last post I remarked about the American Cancer Society statistic that only 8% of patients with Stage 4 renal carcinoma survive past 5 years. So there you are. My focus is to be among the 8%!
But attitude is so important. On a daily basis I tell myself - "I am going to beat this thing, and if it is unbeatable, I am still going to beat this thing. Conversely if it is really on the way out and I have nothing left to beat, I am going to behave as if and continue to beat it anyway!
On Wednesday June 8 I had my appointment with Dr A Fairey, my surgeon of much renown (he brought me back from death's door, that's why). Two or three times he remarked how good and healthy I looked. And I told him that my weight was within a pound or two of my weight when I returned from the hospital in mid December. I was 179 then, and I am 178 this morning for example.
However, here is the sobering thought. He finished his few remarks with saying in effect that my recovery was proceeding very well, and he was pleased that I was not on any medication or chemotherapy "yet". Yikes! The yet-word is scary. In other words he expects is to come back, even if it hasn't shown any growth "yet," which is in keeping with all I have read so far about renal carcinoma - it often recurs within two years of seeming remission, and that it is resistant to chemotherapy.
So I continue my rant about chemotherapy and radiation. These treatment protocols are meant to reduce the size of tumours and slow their growth, rather than to kill the cancer cells that cause the tumour growth in the first place through epigenetics (the study of changes in organisms caused by modification of gene expression rather than alteration of the genetic code itself) to bring about programmed cell death or apoptosis. However it is true that the latest chemo-therapies like Sunitinib do work with the immune system to help target cancer cells. At least that is my understanding.
The whole idea of epigenetics is that we can control our genetic expression through out own biology. Our genes built us but how they are expressed to cause or control disease for example is up to us. Just a few minutes ago I received a notification from Hay House by email of new publications that address this very issue (see: http://links.hayhouse.mkt5657.com/servlet/MailView?ms=NTE1OTc0MTAS1&r=MTk1NDU1MDk5MjAxS0&j=OTQxODc4ODgxS0&mt=1&rt=0).
There are two aspects to my health regimen right now. One is to improve and protect the health of my remaining kidney and the other is to kill the clear cell renal carcinoma. I am tackling kidney health through mitochondria-targeted antioxidants like Coenzyme Q10 and R-Lipoic acid (see: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21356165). I am also steering away from red meats, pork especially and processed meats of all kinds to help kidney function. I am concentrating on fish and chicken products and poached or boiled eggs for protein. Eggs are not a cholesterol problem I am told if they are cooked at low boiling temperatures (boiled or poached, NOT fried or scrambled).
And oh yes, there is the problem of the GFR rating which is supposed to be above 60, where as my remaining kidney has had a number generally between 35 and 40. at Cross Cancer Institute they will not give the intra-venous enhancing radiological stuff to improve the deatail in a CT scan if the GFR is below 40. Dr Fairey, who is an expert in kidney health, says as long as this number is greater than 30 he is not worried. So my goal with the super antioxidants help is to increase that GFR thing to above 40. Just to jog memories mine included eGFR is short for estimated glomerular filtration rate. Your eGFR is a number based on your blood test for creatinine, a waste product in your blood. It tells how well your kidneys are working
The key things about killing the cancer cells is choosing foods with a low glycemic index to help lower sugar as a fuel for cancer cells, and to boost my immune system by taking zinc to improve thymus health (the thymus produces the cancer-killing T-cells) and injecting Iscador which helps the immune system target cancer cells as well (see: http://www.oicc.ca/uploads/mistletoe-health-professional.pdf)
To close this post, here is a neat video showing how T-cells attack and kill cancer cells: https://m.reddit.com/r/gifs/comments/4lcqko/tcell_killing_a_cancer_cell/ . Really neat how you can take videos with a microscope!
But attitude is so important. On a daily basis I tell myself - "I am going to beat this thing, and if it is unbeatable, I am still going to beat this thing. Conversely if it is really on the way out and I have nothing left to beat, I am going to behave as if and continue to beat it anyway!
On Wednesday June 8 I had my appointment with Dr A Fairey, my surgeon of much renown (he brought me back from death's door, that's why). Two or three times he remarked how good and healthy I looked. And I told him that my weight was within a pound or two of my weight when I returned from the hospital in mid December. I was 179 then, and I am 178 this morning for example.
However, here is the sobering thought. He finished his few remarks with saying in effect that my recovery was proceeding very well, and he was pleased that I was not on any medication or chemotherapy "yet". Yikes! The yet-word is scary. In other words he expects is to come back, even if it hasn't shown any growth "yet," which is in keeping with all I have read so far about renal carcinoma - it often recurs within two years of seeming remission, and that it is resistant to chemotherapy.
So I continue my rant about chemotherapy and radiation. These treatment protocols are meant to reduce the size of tumours and slow their growth, rather than to kill the cancer cells that cause the tumour growth in the first place through epigenetics (the study of changes in organisms caused by modification of gene expression rather than alteration of the genetic code itself) to bring about programmed cell death or apoptosis. However it is true that the latest chemo-therapies like Sunitinib do work with the immune system to help target cancer cells. At least that is my understanding.
The whole idea of epigenetics is that we can control our genetic expression through out own biology. Our genes built us but how they are expressed to cause or control disease for example is up to us. Just a few minutes ago I received a notification from Hay House by email of new publications that address this very issue (see: http://links.hayhouse.mkt5657.com/servlet/MailView?ms=NTE1OTc0MTAS1&r=MTk1NDU1MDk5MjAxS0&j=OTQxODc4ODgxS0&mt=1&rt=0).
There are two aspects to my health regimen right now. One is to improve and protect the health of my remaining kidney and the other is to kill the clear cell renal carcinoma. I am tackling kidney health through mitochondria-targeted antioxidants like Coenzyme Q10 and R-Lipoic acid (see: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21356165). I am also steering away from red meats, pork especially and processed meats of all kinds to help kidney function. I am concentrating on fish and chicken products and poached or boiled eggs for protein. Eggs are not a cholesterol problem I am told if they are cooked at low boiling temperatures (boiled or poached, NOT fried or scrambled).
And oh yes, there is the problem of the GFR rating which is supposed to be above 60, where as my remaining kidney has had a number generally between 35 and 40. at Cross Cancer Institute they will not give the intra-venous enhancing radiological stuff to improve the deatail in a CT scan if the GFR is below 40. Dr Fairey, who is an expert in kidney health, says as long as this number is greater than 30 he is not worried. So my goal with the super antioxidants help is to increase that GFR thing to above 40. Just to jog memories mine included eGFR is short for estimated glomerular filtration rate. Your eGFR is a number based on your blood test for creatinine, a waste product in your blood. It tells how well your kidneys are working
The key things about killing the cancer cells is choosing foods with a low glycemic index to help lower sugar as a fuel for cancer cells, and to boost my immune system by taking zinc to improve thymus health (the thymus produces the cancer-killing T-cells) and injecting Iscador which helps the immune system target cancer cells as well (see: http://www.oicc.ca/uploads/mistletoe-health-professional.pdf)
To close this post, here is a neat video showing how T-cells attack and kill cancer cells: https://m.reddit.com/r/gifs/comments/4lcqko/tcell_killing_a_cancer_cell/ . Really neat how you can take videos with a microscope!
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