Alternative Treatment

Mini and Momine, Danny Boy is 145# now and is not allowed to put any tension on leash but sometimes it happens.  When I was gardening, holding Danny Boy's leash, a horsefly "came after him" (my eyes are rolling) and he decided to outrun it.  Pulled my arm about out of joint and took my back and knee out of place.  Damn dog. Fortunately it was unaffected arm.  Brushing him and raking the carpet is hard on the LE arm, butI have to do it.  Yes, I rake the carpet w a leaf rake, easiest way to pick up his furballs when he scratches them loose.  He is 50# of black fur that is like down and he blows his coat.  

Purple, you are right about the acupuncture needles.  She doesn't use them on my arm, there are secondary points.  But those I am not afraid of anyway.  It was the IVs and the blood tests.  I didn't know not to have in affected arm, no one told me.  Then learned about LE and relieved I am not a worse mess.

Tonight I ordered 4 flower essences for the application to acupuncture points w/o needles.  I am doing it as my first level of deep healing emotionally and spiritually, along with a homeopathic following.  Will be interesting. 

Sweetbean - the description of the node tests is great, hope they get it in the surgery room sooner than later, we need it. 

LOVEEssa

And yet these are the people that we are asked to follow blindly and who look at us like we're rubes when we question them regarding something we've researched. My mom trusted her doctor to her grave-where he put her. It's only been a few months but my doc already knows I"m coming with lots of questions and will not take everything he says at face value.

"Doctors are often woefully uninformed where LE is concerned. I had to practically wrestle mine to get a referral to a therapist, and both my doctors keep asking, in the manner of little kids, "why are you still wearing that?" when they see my sleeve."

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IDIOTS!
This is a permanent condition. Whatever happened to ' first, do no harm ? "  There should be lawsuits for not giving proper warnings and info.  All they'd have to do is give you a handout ...then it would be YOUR/OUR responsibility.  With NO info, I feel it is my DRS responsibility.  I trusted them.

I agree, Mad. We're basically in shock when we make some of our decisions. They make it seem like you have to do something right that very minute. Well if it took 5-7 years to get to this point, unless you're a stage 4, a few more weeks won't hurt anything. I wish now that I hadn't done the rads, but that is water under the bridge. I'm just trying to undo the damage done and trying not to incur more. Not much else we can do.

Be very glad exbmxgrl. My doc is a nice man and took good care of my husband after he had cancer, but he is an assembly line doc and very traditional. I keep searching but without the resources to pay for out of area docs, my options are limited.

I ask that too, but that also depends on the doc and their background. Even their age. Statistics show that older doctors tend to ecommend mastectomies over lupectomies at any stage, even when the data doesn't support it. It's better safe than sorry mindset. Also, some do not keep up on current studies and treatments. It's a crapshoot for some of us; especially those of us in smaller areas. Thankfully, there are some nearby facilities that would be options if I need further surgery or treatment, but are not practical for regular follow up care since they are located 100+ miles away. We traveled to Indianapolis for my husband's CA treatment. His roomate was from California. We were estatic at having the country's leading docs for his CA only 4 hours away.

I believe I was made aware of the lymphedema risk by someone, but at the time it meant nothing compared to my urgency in having the nodes out. Mine were hugely inflamed with cancer and I could feel them, especially after the needle biopsy which I am convinced made things worse. I ended up having one of my cancer nodes with a diameter of 2.5 cms! I remember my onc reminding me of that when he was trying to convince me to have chemo. Minds work so differently. My thought, upon hearing about that node was "what a fantastic node - it really kept the cancer from going further." I am not usually prone to wishful thinking, so I wonder if somehow I knew what my body was doing. It may or may not have been magical thinking. Who is to say for sure.

Luckily, I have no lympedema as of right now. The only precautions I take are to ensure that no blood is drawn or no blood pressue is taken from that arm.

Athena, I had two palpable nodes, one of them quite big. After surgery it turned out that the really big one had no cancer, it was just inflamed. On the other hand, there was cancer in the smaller one and 6 others. Go figure!

A friend told me that someone she knew refused to get chemotherapy for the second time and just resigned to the fact that got breast cancer. Until one day, a friend of hers recommended her to eat lots and lots of Guyabano/soursop and to boil the bark and the leaves of the tree and to take it as a tea. She was told it was a natural treatment for cancer. She seemed to feel better from doing that so she decided to see a doctor. And man, the cancer cells seemed to have deteriorated and the doctor did not know why. I heard this soursop is really a cancer fighter. I bet there is no harm in trying. It is all natural anyway. Speaking of natural, I'd been taking mangosteen and pomegranate supplements. I feel brand new and awesome! My friend referred me to this very good review site http://annwhite.tophealthproductsreview.com . I owe my friend a lot!

My lump was found by mammogram and ultrasound. It was deep and in a position that neither my doctor or I could feel it. Because of its location, it would have had to have grown considerably larger for it to be felt in an exam or to have caused me discomfort. The timing of my mammo was very "lucky" for me. I was actually late in getting it. Had I gotten it when I should have, it likely wouldn't have shown and it would have been another year before I had my next one. I was almost 6 months late in getting it, but by then it was big enough to be noted by an alert radiologist who then ordered a diagnostic mammo and MRI to confirm.

Mine could not be felt by BS  MO RO or  GYN ...or me.  It did show on the mammo and when I askled to dsee my PREV yr mammo, I saw it there as well!  Talk about geing pissed off !

I spoke to the radiologist and he said he was sorry---though he was quick to point out he was not the DR who read the prev ytr. The written report did say normal, but he too could see it .

he just said :  " it was very small.  I guess he ( Last yrs dr)  didnt see it as significant."

I sure bet he would have had it been his wife !

tried twice to post, 3rd time testing

A new industrial chemical? Alternative maybe, but hardly sounds natural. It would be pretty hard to prove what treatment worked given that he used it after conventional tx. To much heresay for me .

Caryn

You're healthy abigail! Celebrate! You don't have ANY troubles, plus now you can sleep! YAY!