Chemotherapy...

I think it's hard to group all people into one big statistic.  For example, someone early stage, no nodes can benefit greatly from chemo and survive.  But if you get mets after initial dx or are stage IV from the get-go, chemo helps prolong your life (by years in many cases) but odds are that you will die from cancer.  So those mets people (like me) "ruin" the survival stats.  Stats based on cancer type, stage, grade, and node involvement might give a more accurate picture.

Come visit us on the Stage IV board and see how long many of us are living, and living well.  There are women there that have been NED (no evidence of disease) for years!

The numbers are correct (2%) and to add that 27% death's caused by chemo and drug related cancer treatment. I am from Europe (Germany) and can verify the awareness for non-chemo, non-drug related treatment is much higher. More and more people looking for alternative healing modalities intensively before they would decide to go on chemo or radiation.

Quote from remotehealing: 

"I am from Europe (Germany) and can verify the awareness for non-chemo, non-drug related treatment is much higher."

And your point would be....?  Awareness of complementary/alternative therapy really doesn't have anything to do with its efficacy.

"...More and more people looking for alternative healing modalities intensively before they would decide to go on chemo or radiation. "

That may very well be, but along with that comes more and more people popping out of the woodwork to promote unproven, unscientific, and potentially dangerous snake oil cures.  

Do you have research to back your Rife machine "therapy" or are you here simply for self-promotion?  

Oh, and by the way, do you have any idea how insensitive and offensive your tag line is?

I am totally new here, and new to any discussion boards about br c.  I am in so small a minority, as far as the path I have chosen in combatting this disease, that I've held back from posting---anything---for more than 11 years.  But I feel like coming to the defense of remotehealing.  I certainly feel that his manner was blunt, and even a bit insensitive, but I certainly don't think his intention was in any way offensive or hurtful.  We are ALL very sensitive about the decisions we've  made to help save our own lives---maybe overly so, and that's probably necessary.  So we tend to really jump on anyone who might rattle the fortresses we've built--and all the more so if they have not personally been on this journey! !

I have learned, over the years, that most people mean well, even if they blurt things out undiplomatically---or stupidly-----and without backing anything up with enough "facts" to satisfy us. 

I chose to not have chemotherapy, even though the oncologist I consulted (the only oncologist for at least 100 miles, in this heart of Appalachia ) made it clear that he felt I would probably die without it, and his student doctor assistant pleaded with me, with a most graphic horror story about his sister who refused chemo and died--right when I was at my most vulnerable, about a week after my surgery (modified radical).  The onc had planned an aggressive course of chemo, followed by 5 years tamoxifen (which I also refused since my ER was 0--neutral---and so he did not press that issue).  Genetic testing was available at the time, but the cost was prohibitive, and I had no health insurance, so it wasn't done. 

My mother had invasive breast cancer, at age 45 in 1960, and had a 2nd primary br c at age 59.  She had the so-called "Halstead radical" in 1960---very disfiguring and debilitating.  I was 8 at the time, and I remember how shocking it looked.  The 2nd time, years later, it was a modified radical (I had the same in '98) but she never received any type of chemo, which was not yet "required" in the U.S. in the mid-'70's.. (She died of a heart attack at age 61).

Her mother died from metastatic br. c. (brain mets) in 1957, 9 yrs after her initial dx. My mom was an  R.N.and took care of Gramma at our home, and I witnessed her decline and death---I was 5 when she died.

So, there is good chance I have a hereditary type of br c. 

I live about 25 miles from a well-known Osteopathic medical school. Immediately after my surgery, while I still had the 2 drains attached, I spent many hours in the library there. In the end, I felt that chemo would NOT help me, and in fact would cause me to lose the battle with br c---and my own research only strengthened my resolve to overcome this disease without it. I do NOT recommend my course of action to anyone else. I just know I followed the best course for me. I had a compromised immune system, to begin with (autoimmune disorder) and an instinctive negative attitude about chemo.

My personal course of 'treatment" included a healthy diet (meat-free except for fish), lots of time spent walking and hiking out in the woods, and above all, intensive study and listening to the music of Beethoven, and returning to playing the piano after many, many years of neglect. I took no special vitamin/mineral/herb supplements.

So you see it was a very personal decision, and I never was preachy and still am not!!  I just wanted to say we must all do what our hearts tell us is the right thing. Doesn't hurt to do our own research, either---and it's so much more accessible now----I didn't even own a computer in 1998.

Over the years, I have endured SO many "insensitive" remarks about treatment decisions I made, even---or especially----from other br c survivors, that I have stayed away from forums, support groups etc. But by now I am rock-solid.

My point--if I have to have one? I guess it would be that even if we are all on this same cancer journey---there are many paths we can follow, and sometimes we even need to create our own paths.

God bless to all.

Thanks, gscott! Sometimes I almost feel like I "got away with" something---it's hard to describe. Like when I'm in walmart, and I see someone who is obviously going through chemotherapy and they look like they've been going through hell, I feel almost guilty that that did not happen to me and I wish I could help them but don't know what I could do or say. It's like, our experiences of the same disease are totally different, because of the treatment methods we chose---so we cannot really connect, and this is upsetting.

I have not had the tests needed to nail down the exact autoimmune disease or combination of them that I've had for years. But my doc (who I see as little of as possible) thinks it's probably SLE.  It has gone, over the years, from multiple joint pains to skin eruptions on my face, to violent colitis attacks, and more.  Eliminating most wheat and dairy products and keeping carbs to a minimum seems to help, and I have not had a colitis attack in over 2 years.  Since there is no real cure for most autoimmune diseases and most controls involve use of steroids, I prefer to do what I can on my own to manage them, just as I ended up doing with migraine headaches, which I was afflicted with from around age 11 to my mid-40's. I have a mitral valve prolapse too, and there are all kinds of theories about a syndrome with that! Whew!---just too much to worry about, sometimes!

The only prescription drugs I do take, every day, are for hypertension, which I've had since my late 20's. Tried the natural routes and it persisted---runs in my family! Got my weight down to nearly ideal 2 years ago and cut the bp meds doses in half---but still need them.  I am certainly not  opposed to drugs across the board, but for me they are a last resort! 

I read your bio--I would have those lumps out no matter what---but that's just my opinion!  Why couldn't you have needle biopsies? How can they be sure they are benign without lab work?

Thanks for mentioning celiac disease, gscot! I'll look into that.

 About mammo's---you are totally opposed? I had my last one 6 yrs ago---and it will be my very last one unless find a lump in the remaining (left) breast.  My worry is not so much the radiation, but of the physical act of literally squashing the breast flat to get a better look---if  there is a tumor in there IT will be squashed too, increasing the chance of cells shedding and winding up in the lymph/blood system. Does that sound totally wacko??   Arent there some more recent hi-tech diagnostic tools that are fairly reliable?

If you click on Remotehealing's name you will see in his biography that he really is just trolling for customers.  He blatantly broke the rules of this site.  Just another one of the predators that we get all too often.

Hi Melissa,

Sorry to reply late, I'm not a regular here (or on any discussion boards--nothing against them, but I'm kind of a hermit).  Yes you are correct, I had the mastectomy and that was it, no other medical treatment. Maybe you are a kindred spirit?---I wish you all the best, Melissa.  I am not up on the Budwig Protocol but I'll read about it. Is there a way for members here to communicate without going public? I'll see about that, in the meantime I'll check back here, if you feel like talking to somone who is supportive of your decision.

God bless,

Gwen

@ Allegretto,

Surgery is the primary and most effective treatment for solid cancers. You had a full mastectomy (including lymf node dissection). This in itself will have given you a good prognosis. The additional treatments are adjuvants, to help lower the chance of the cancer returning by killing any occult mets.

You insinuate (I don't know whether you do this intentionally or not) that your change in lifestyle is the reason you are still cancer free and give no credit at all to your surgery. I think this is problematic, since it could give people the impression they can do without standard treatment altogether.

I also find it hard to believe what your oncologist said, you going to die because not doing adjuvant therapy. It just doesn't seem very logical. I would have believed you instantly had you told us he said this about you not wanting surgery. Are you sure you understood correctly?

Beatis,

Sorry if you misunderstood me. My life-saving surgery was not even an option, it's what had to be done. I don't think there was any insinuation in my post (unintentional or otherwise) to the contrary. I'm not an idiot.

 Also, I didn't write that the onc SAID, outright, I would die without chemo etc, but that he "made it clear that he felt I would probably die" without it. His student doctor was less tactful than he was. I will never forget the excruciating anxiety I felt that day in his office, and there was no misunderstanding on my part.

I knew if I posted my story here I would be walking on eggs, and I was right.

best,

Gwen

Thanks for your kind and supportive words, Linda.

Wishing you the best!

Gwen

Allegretto, I admire your sharing your experience with us.  It is a very interesting choice and journey you took.  You are right--it is your choice and your journey and you listened to your heart; I am so glad you had a recurrence free result. 

I am at the beginning of my journey with this.  I had a triple negative tumor which was a fast grower--so fast that it was estimated to be only 6 to 12 months new.  I could not do chemo--I had several other health issues that conflicted with a safe protocol.  I had neg nodes and lymphvascular so it was a very tough choice, but one that was almost made for me:  chemo posed a direct risk to my present status, it could have been fatal for me.  I have yet to do rads, but since I had a lumpectomy, it is being pressed upon me very hard.

I think that there were so many cases of people with micro mets and non apparent spread that rejected chemo and rads and went with alternative choices and they failed that it gave alternative options a bad name.  But there are cases like yours and others that are valid and can be treated away from the adjuvant setting; I wish there was a better way to identify them.

In the meantime, we need to be open to stories like yours.  We need to hear more of them; not less of them.  We need to not be afraid of successes that skirt the chemo/rads school of thought.