2+ year survivors with alternative therapies

trigeek

ok gals this will be long winded, but I thought I would share the letter that I sent to my oncologist when he was saying 'NOOO' to any non-conventional treatments.  He is ok with me now and we reached an agreement that I will be working with a complementary doctor.

"Aylin  is one of the millions of puzzled patients,  merely trying to climb out of a trap which feels like quick sand aided by your help and expertise.

Aylin did not have any of the stated risk factors for Breast Cancer and listened diligently to all the warnings that were given by the medical society.

There was no known family history of Breast Cancer, she was not overweight, had menses at age 14, did not take any hormones (even rejected Minerva IUD which had hormones), worked out diligently.. sometimes excessively,had her 2 lovely daughters at the ages 27 and 30, breast fed both for 7 months, stayed away from MSG and GMO products, ate organic for the past 5 years, did not even allow for pesticides in the house for the last 10 years,ate a low fat diet with minimal red meat lots of beans,chicken,fish,fresh vegetables,fruits and nuts, quit  smoking 14 years ago,did not consume alcohol, got her mammograms with ultrasounds every 12 months every year in July, and went to her ob-gyn in January for a manual exam,did monthly self exams frequently thinking that medical monitoring every 6 months should catch if anything cropped up at an early stage.

Among her friends/collegues she was the poster child for healthy living.

But on July 25th at a time where Aylin felt the strongest she had ever been in her life, 3 weeks after completing her 4^th Ironman triathlon, Ironman Austria event which consisted of 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and a 26.2 mile run, a routine mammogram day  became the turning point in her life.

She was hosting cancer.

Now she was classified and filed as:

Dx 8/3/2007, ILC, 2.5cm, Stage IIb, Grade 2, 2/6 nodes, ER+/PR+, HER2-

As all the medical procedures took over her life Aylin tried to understand and participate in her healing. After all thats how she had overcame all the major obstacles in her life thats how she trained for her endurance events, and her body never betrayed her. Upto now there was no physical ailment that Aylin could not take care of after knowing about it, this will be the same. It was not easy but she researched and found Health Care Providers that warmed her heart and felt she could trust with her life. However even they could not give a 100% guarantee that things would be fine after a treatment protocol.

Conventional treatments were focusing on beating the hell out of the present cancer cells, destroying them. Which was fine, Aylin felt strong and took all treatments with as much grace as she could muster. However Aylin did not want to be like Iraq where the whole country is in rubbles but the main problem remains. Aylin wanted to participate in keeping her body strong and helping it learn how to ward off the c.  As conventional treatments punched holes,suffocated, knocked out the c cells, Aylin's body  should also get strong and learn to knock the c cells out by itself to ensure that they never take hold again or better improve the environment so they never even exist ! This definitely should be part of the treatment to ensure longterm positive outcome.

In order to do this Aylin needs to work with her Healthcare Providers as a team and needs to be involved in of her treatment and decision making process.

She is understandably reluctant in leaving herself solely to conventional medical treatments after having done everything that was suggested by them and still getting nailed by the beast.

From her point of view the treatments are only taking care of the symptoms, leaving the underlying cause unscathed. Surely this could not be adequate in getting her out of the quickstand, a solid  foundation which is the body's own defense system also needs to be built concurrently.

So please bear with Aylin  as she thrashes and tries to get herself out of this quick sand.

Trust her.  All throughout her life she has managed to make steppingstones out of challenges to reach higher grounds.

And why this letter?

I am unfortunately aware of the high traffic in oncology suite XXX which almost seems to compete with the Pediatricians office in flu season as to popularity.

I am  in awe on how you are able to keep the positive outlook, smile, while tackling such a crusade.

I understand that it is natural that you disengage yourself from the patients individualities, that must be mandatory for your mental wellbeing, and for the ability to implement your practice and actually to survive and sleep at night.

However I also believe that in a long term patient relationship the Health Care Provider can team better with the patient, if the patient is more than a number/diagnosis and patients motives are understood.

Yours truly,

Dx 8/3/2007, ILC, 2.5cm, Stage IIb, Grade 2, 2/6 nodes, ER+/PR+, HER2-

Previously

Aylin

FloridaLady

Trigeek...excellant letter from Aylin!

Flalady