An Alternative approach to Stage IV Health and choices

That sucks about the MRI, thats-life! Hope it's nothing but lack of estrogen. But it's good that you already have a plan, just in case. Maybe they can give you something to relax you before the MRI. My sister falls asleep in those things. I don't know how she does it.

Eve, good luck on the Herceptin!

Good morning ladies.

I have now done the last chemo available to me. Halavan worked great shrank my tumors quickly dissolved my skin mets for (like some of the others) for about 6 weeks. Then my cancer over rode it again and it's fast tumors back, pain skin mets starting to spread again I get rescanned tomorrow. I am looking for a miracle.  I can proudly say I have done them all. My onc says there is nothing more they can do. I have decided to live much longer than my onc thinks which is a few weeks to maybe a couple of months. I can and will be doing whatever I can. Have any of you heard anything about the New Hope hospital in Sonora Mexico? Someone else was telling me about the Ayurveda Institute in Albuquerque, NM.  Thanks for any info you might want to share.

laurajane, I will keep you in my prayers and pray,too, that you get the miracle you are hoping for.  May God bless.

Laurajane,  I'm sorry to hear that your doctors have exhausted their therapies but I'm so glad to see that you are still willing to fight this!  It's amazing how far our spirits can carry us.  Miracles happen everyday.  We just have to believe!  Attitude is everything.  I have heard many, many stories of stage IV survivors. 

My cancer has advanced to my lymph nodes. I am currently getting treatment at an alternative facility in Tulsa Ok. I chose this therapy because I had done the most research on its therapies.  I have only been getting treatment for a very short time.  Its a daily infusion and I just took my 12th. I will be doing 40 total and then getting another PET scan on December to see my progress.  It consists of a carrier called DMSO which makes cells permeable, allowing the therapy to enter.  It's administered along with high dose vitC and laetrile (B17).  The B17, once inside the cancer cell releases cyanide that kills the cancer cell but does not harm normal cells.  There was a man at the clinic, when I got there, who had prostate cancer.  He arrived at the clinic in a wheel chair and was on dialysis.  He left 4 days after I arrived to complete his therapy at home.  He was walking and no longer on dialysis when he left the clinic.  I got a call from another man who was one of the first patients to be treated there 13 years ago.  He was 67 at the time and had non-hodgkins lymphoma. He was treated and remains free of N-HL to date.  Two years after his lymphoma, he got prostate cancer. Again, he was treated there.  He is 80 years old today and cancer free!  He has made it his mission to call anyone who is dealing with cancer and to share his story. PM me if you want further information.  I will be glad to share anything with you that I can.  See the link:

http://www.camelotcancercare.com/

An Oasis of Healingin Mesa, AZ is another facility that has a good reputation.  Another member here is currently there.  She doesn't come to these boards anymore because she is busy maintaining her own blog.  Please see this link and watch Dr. Lodi's video. 

http://www.anoasisofhealing.com/

She is stage IV and is having success there.  Her tumor markers have been cut in half in a very short time.  I will see if I can get in touch with her to see if she minds if I give you her blog info etc.

Another is Oasis of Hopein Tijuana, Mx. (not the be confused with the one above). I have heard many, many good things about this one.  Dr Ernesto Contreras started the clinic in the 1960's.  His son Dr Franciso Contreras continues it today.  He is one of the "top dogs" in the alternative circles. I have heard it is a spa-like setting which can be great for healing.  Here is the link to this one:

http://www.oasisofhope.com/patient_testimonials.php

Some people are anxious about Mexico.  We vacation in there every year though further south.  It's a beautiful place with good people.  Please click around and check it out.  Listen to some of the survival stories.

I wish you luck in your search.  I hope this help you in some way.

Laurajane, I'm sorry to hear your doctors are up against the wall. Would you be open to a second opinion? In any case I think trying to support your immune system with alternative medicine is a great idea.

Kaara, I think you're on the right track. Re: chemo brain. I wouldn't be surprised if cancer itself affects our brains, even without mets in the brain. It's the supply and demand for glucose, I'll bet. So the more blood you get flowing in the brain, probably the more food the brain gets relative to the cancer cells. Headstands, anyone?

Thats-life, thanks for the flattery. I'm just living day-to-day and maybe have had more experience than others in coping with (chronic) disease. The fatigue was a problem. But maybe more from lack of sleep as the pain prevented me from getting a good nights sleep for months already. I was about to buy a new mattress when I got the diagnosis. I did 6 rounds of triple agent chemo (TAC! Lol) with Zometa. I was NED somewhere around the fifth round. Yes, I attribute him to chemo since that's all I had done at that point. I could feel my tumor shrinking and immediately told my onc when I could no longer feel anything. I took a lot of naps but only after my daily walk. Rads was actually worse than chemo in the fatigue dept., coming after chemo and surgery. It may sound counterintuitive, but I added 1 hour of "arm dancing" with my favorite music to my walking routine. The music gave me an energy boost. The dancing relieved the tightness and probably helped with wound healing. I would say it took a year until I no longer needed my naps, but I still went to bed much earlier than before BC for a while longer.

I'm not as strict with the fasting now after a year. I do it when I feel like (17 hours a day without food). It's probably best to keep cancer guessing, now that it's probaby adapted to that schedule, if it isn't hibernating or, hopefully, extinct.

Heidihill, I am not stage IV yet....you ladies impress me so much    I would be very grateful if you shared your protocol.

Have a nice weekend everyone

Sweatbean, Not sure which facility you were referring to.  They are all expensive when paying out-of-pocket, unfortunately.  Most insurance companies will pay a portion of the cost though.  For example, my treatment cost $13000.  I will get reimbursed by my insurance for my picc line and some of the other standard procedures.  The treatments administered were "off-label" so they wont pay for those.  I am not sure how much I will get back in the end.  I have chosen to do 20 more rounds before I go for my next PET scan.  That will cost about a quarter of the orginal price because all the up front procedures etc have already been taken care of.  I have a $10,000 insurance deductible.  No matter what route I chose, alternative or conventional, it would have cost me $10,000 this year then $10,000 next year since my treatment would carry over.  $13,000 was a no-brainer for me.  I would have gone this route no matter what but that helped me to rationalize the spending, lol.   

That's a very interesting documentary.  It troubles me that they put so much merit in the vaccine for HPV though, as so many girls have alledgedly died or been harmed by it.  

I have read the Final Report of the Independent Review and Scientific Investigation Panel on The Breast Cancer at the ABC Toowong Queensland.  It stated they tested for "known" or "suspected" environmental factors that are carcinogenic such as ionizing radiation, EMFs or RF's, asbestos, water, radon, tobacco smoke, etc... and nothing unusual was found. It did say "Contact was made with Mr Bruce Clayton of Haden, the air-conditioning contractors for the Toowong site. He said that the condensate trays were cleaned infrequently with a common, soap-based detergent to remove slime. The ductwork is vacuumed on an infrequent basis. The filters are not cleaned but replaced about once a year. The heat exchangers are cleaned infrequently with a chemical named Coil and Filter"....

Sounds like they did not check for mold in this building.  I wonder if they did, wonder what they would find...

The report also mentions this "cluster study".

"Heath and Hasterlick reported an early formal epidemiological investigation of a cancer cluster. Eight children were diagnosed with leukaemia in Niles, a suburb of Chicago, from 1957 to 1960. All lived in the same residential neighbourhood and seven attended, or had older siblings who attended, a single parochial school. The authors concluded: "Although the exact cause of these cases was not identified, their association with one particular school, the time pattern of their occurrence and the parallel occurrence of a "rheumatic like" illness suggest an etiologic relationship to infection."

Thanks for the link! I got to the end but I maybe missed an important part: did they or did they not check for viruses on the ABC women? It seems they only checked for environmental factors.

impositive:  My DS lives in an area of W. Palm Beach, Fl that is part of a cancer cluster (a group of children all with brain tumors).  They have checked everything and can come up with nothing that would indicate a problem.  The area used to have orange groves and of course pesticide was used, but the ground tested negative for it.  Wonder if the tested the nearby schools for mold...I'll have to ask him.  That problem is really huge in Fl.

Thanks for the info on the cost of alternative treatment..that would be doable for me..I was thinking much more .I'm sure Medicare wouldn't pay, but maybe for some of it like you say. 

thatslife --

Kindle = the Amazon.com eReader.

Impositive:  Thanks for the info.  Hope your treatment is going well.  I will have to go to the other website and check up on you.  Keep the faith!