Treating skin mets

chillipadi

Recent posts about skin mets got me thinking, as I'm obviously not the only one plagued by these disgusting and painful sores. Please share your ideas about how to treat these wounds, which tend to ooze fluids, bleed and stink. I'll start:

1. After my shower, I clean the sores with cotton balls soaked with a home-made saline solution made of 1 tsp salt + 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda dissolved in 1 cup boiling water. I put the solution in a sterile jar after it cools and store that in the fridge. Saves money when you have a large area to clean.

2. I finish cleaning with an anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-microbial solution called Eliminator by Neways. Eliminator uses a food-grade agent called stabilized chlorine dioxide, initially developed to be used on canker sores. Painless to use and much safer than hydrogen peroxide. Smells nice and fresh too, so helps to reduce the odor. Put some on a cotton ball and dab on the wounds.

3. I dip a cotton bud into iodine and dab the sores. Helps prevent infection and dries the wounds. Be prepared for some stinging.

4. Then I sprinkle antibiotic powder (Metronidazole or brand name Trinazole) prescribed by my oncologist all over the sores. I can only get this in pill form so I have to pound them to make powder. This reduces infection and prevents fungus from developing. It also really helps to control the odor.

5. Finally, I cover the sores with gauze on which I've spread a home made aloe vera and seaweed paste. Recipe at: http://healingpastures.com/2009/12/04/aloe-vera-seaweed-for-wounds-2/  This helps to absorb the fluids as well as heal. I mix whatever essential oil I think is appropriate at the time to the paste before spreading it on the gauze. Currently, it's lavender. When I have a problem with bleeding, I add helichrysum essential oil. Just one or two drops dripped directly on a bleeder stops the bleeding immediately. Expensive stuff, but amazing.

The skin mets are healing well now, and new skin is forming. No more pain and odor. Anybody else have any tips to share? 

mathteacher

Chilli, Thank you for the time and effort you put into researching and typing this up. I'm printing it up and putting it in my files. I have read the seaweed was used a lot for wound healing by the Egyptians and Native Americans. Is there a reason you use the saline solution? Do use tincture of iodine or Lugol's iodine solution?

Thank you again for your generous message.

I'm so thrilled you are getting results and that new skin is forming.

orange1

I have read in a nursing journal article that honey is a good wound dressing for skin mets.  This may be due to that fact that honey is mostly sugar, and sugar binds a lot of water as it tries to stay dissolved.  Even though the wound area is seemingly moist from the honey, it is dry from a microbial stand point.  The water is bound up by the sugar molecules and not available to microbes.

I don't have experience with this, but it does agree with what I was taught in pharmacy school.  High concentration sugar syrup doesn't need preservative because microbes cannot use the water to live or grow.  It is why jelly and preserves, which would seem to be the perfect medium for microbial growth, keep well for long periods of time.

chillipadi

I tried applying raw Manuka honey on the skin mets for several weeks, but it did absolutely nothing for me. In fact, when the sores were very raw, they stung like mad when the honey was applied. It hurt so bad that I cried, and I'm pretty tough by nature. Perhaps honey works for sores which are not cancerous.

I use saline solution for debridement i.e. cleaning off fluids, dead tissue and other debris. As I had a lot to clean, it was the most economical solution to use.

Tincture of iodine is what I use to dab on the sores after dabbing on Eliminator. Good and cheap.

I must add that I'm doing chemo now with Navelbine. Apparently, this is one of the gentler chemo drugs. It's helping to shrink the tumors and clear up the skin mets. I agreed to chemo reluctantly about 6 weeks ago because the skin mets had grown to the size of lemons. I want to stop chemo as soon as possible, so I started on the Anti-Estrogenic diet a few days ago. I also bought a basic alkaline water system a couple of days ago and I'm researching how to make my body less acidic and more alkaline. Hormonal therapy doesn't work for me, although I'm 95% ER and PR positive, but I refuse to be a chemo captive for long.

I believe that the solution to beating cancer lies in getting the body to fix itself. This may require a major overhaul in diet and lifestyle. I eat and use organic products as much as I can afford. I've already banished personal care and household care products with harmful chemicals from my home. Now primarily using a brand called Neways which has eliminated at least 3,000 harmful or questionable ingredients from their range of personal and household products. I also walk at least twice a day. Hopefully, reducing my estrogen load through drastic dietary and lifestyle changes, and going more alkaline as well, will STOP cancer from continuing to exist in my body.

mathteacher

Chilli,

If helichrysum essential oil is too expensive, you might look into a cheap Chinese herbal powder called Yunnan Paiyao which also stops bleeding. It comes in a set little containers. They say to even carry it in the car in case of emergencies. A very old Chinese herbalist in Chinatown recommended it to me and I later bought it over the internet from a Chinese company. I told my friend in Boston who had skin mets about it and she already knew about it from patients at the Dana Farber Cancer Center.

Have you tried Lugol's iodine solution which is iodine in water instead of alcohol? It really doesn't sting as much. It's very cheap too.

Thank you for the tip on the nontoxic products. I use hardly any commercial cleaning products anymore but occasionally my husband (who likes to do the shopping) will bring home some wacky, toxic stove top cleaner and such from the store that catches his eye.

 Best of luck!

chillipadi

Thanks for the tips mathteacher! Great stuff!

Has anybody out there ever tried using black salve / bloodroot salve / cansema salve on skin tumors? Apparently, this kind of salve works by drawing out the tumor, roots and all. From what I read, there are both success stories (mostly with skin cancer) as well as horror stories. I'm toying with the idea if trying this, but I don't know if I should.

chillipadi

I just read on the Stage 1V forum that Aquaphor worked great for a lady with skin mets. She said "Itching stopped almost immediately. Wounds stopped bleeding and started to heal up. Seeping was minimized greatly." Apparently, you should be able to get this at most drugstores.

Back to bloodroot salve. Does anyone have any reliable information on this? Is it worth trying? 

habiby31

Hi chillipadi

Thanks for your tips on how to trat skin Mets. My mother has had hers for some time and the only treatment she recieves is daliy dressing from her district nurse, consisting of saline solution and some kind of cream.

I bought all of the stuff you have mentioned and its worked a treat..she is very happy.

pupmom

Chillipadi has passed away. Just thought those reading this thread for the first time should know.

abigail48

yes chillipadi has died, but it's unclear what happened.  her devoted husband went out briefly & when he returned she was dead.  someone suggested the cancer had metastisized but it sounds more to me of an accidental opiate overdose.  chilli had mentioned that the apoptosis caused by the blood root was painful.  by the way bloodroot turns out like the dmho to be a caustic

Rose12

What do skin mets look like? I got a very bad rash recently and my face looked like it had sunburn. It was all red and my eyes were a little swollen. Broke out in a rash on my arms. It was not itchy or painful. I believe stress brought it out. I have been done with chemo treatment now for 1 year. I did not go to the doctor. I was not familar with someone getting skin mets? Sorry, does it start as a rash? Thank you. 

exbrnxgrl

I got taken to task for mentioning chillipadi, after her passing, because someone reported my posts as upsetting. Although it might take a long time to sort through her posts, you can piece the story together in her words. She had ibc which she chose to treat only holistically, not even surgery. She did well for a while but eventually developed a fungating tumor. She sought conventional therapy at that point but due to the nature of fungating tumors, surgery was no longer possible. She did receive chemo at this point but it was not with curative intent, only in the hopes of providing some palliation. The tumor was large, bled and gave off a foul smelling exudate. Conventional doctors held out no hope for her. She did try black salve from Indonesia but stopped posting because she felt negative pressure from those who were opposed to this alternative tx. I accidentally ran across her obit, under her real name, which was commonly known, and posted a link to it.

Abigail, her passing was not known on this forum until I posted it. I am curious as to where the information regarding her husband going out and finding her gone and/or accidental opiate od came from. Yes, her bc had metastasized and a fungating tumor is very, very serious (far more than skin mets) and occurs with advanced disease. It is also an uncommon thing to happen.

Caryn

abigail48

her husand sent some kind of communication to someone who accessed it to another forum.  the opiate overdose is my conjecture.  I understand ibc is never a candidate for surgery.  my cyst gone bad fumigated at one dpoint:  very very distressing, but it's easily controlled with dressing it daily:  I use memuka honey & once a week or so coloidal silver spray.  the first box of sterile pads I bought contained a sample of colloidal silver gell.  I used it & the dodor was stopped immediately, but I prefer the purer spray.  it will turn your skin permanently blue if you use too much or too often.  I saw nowhere where chillis cancer had metastisized, it was a conjecture only but wouldn't cause such a sudden death I think.  even when used to opiates, if you're bedridden & not active, it's easy to just stop breathing even with a usual dose

exbrnxgrl

Her death wasn't sudden. She had been very ill for months. Her fungating tumor had spread across her chest, under arm and almost down to her abdomen. All of this is part and parcel of end stage bc. I'm glad your cyst resolved. Fungating breast cancer is not easily controlled and she did, indeed, try all the things you've mentioned but she had a diagnosed tumor. I think we need to let her rest in peace but I don't feel that conjecture about how she died or whitewashing the truth about how truly ill she was honors her memory or helps others.

abigail48

it hasn't resolved & I don't look forward to that endstage if it happens.  she couldn't tollerate the honey dressing, which could be a problem of hot weather, she lived in a hot climate.  I think talking about any of us could be helpful.  it's why she & the rest of us post here.

abigail48

I checked again & she hadn't been diagnosed, though I know there are posts accessed only by those she sent them to.  it sounded like the tumors were several cysts that had gone bad

abigail48

the bleeding though as well as the odor has seemed to stop.  

Momine

Abigail, if that is the case, you are very lucky and most likely you do not have cancer, but rather some skin condition.

abigail48

Yeah?  I've had this cyst since 1964 when I began taking "birth controll" pills, it rose got hard & began slowly turning red with teeny & then larger veins heading into it in march 2011

exbrnxgrl

Abigail,

A fungating tumor is a metastasis of breast cancer! I am not sure what point is served in trying to minimize her situation or suggesting that there might have been some simple solution to it. Her years using only holistic treatment (since 2001) did not provide a cure, nor did late stage administration of conventional meds. Her blog and Neways page are still available on the Internet. Regardless, she lived the last months of her life in agony and although I don't want her story whitewashed, I think we need to let her rest in peace.

abigail48

newways page, must checknit out.  not surprised it has metastisized after 2+ year5s, 3 really, 50 really.  so glad the dtessing has stopped the fingating & now the bleedidng.  hope it lasts

abigail48

have never expected a cure.  can't see neways page to access her words will try her blog.

exbrnxgrl

You will need to use her real name to find neways page which then provides a link to her blog (last entry 2011).

abigail48

done some reading then the computer went nuts.  found the blog on her posts, havn't had time to access it.  page here still nuts.  so she did have a 10 year run.  dr googel says u treated 2.7 years to half dead.  that would take me to this nov.  100 % dead would take me to over 5 years survival (from march 2011).....she did have an oncologist......a harrowing story.......she dis say okay to repost hers.  if to help, & how could they not.  say prayers for both her & her wonderful husband:  I do

abigail48

and a 10 year run would take me to age 83

stormoya2006

i use tea tree oil and vitamin E cream after I shower and apply aquafor. It still stings a bit but it stopped spreading. I am on xeloda 2nd cycle. Praying.