Why I chose conventional treatment

'Black Salve'/Ichthanol is a very old drawing salve. It can be bought in pharnacies today. Basically - it is just pine tar and iodine. I havd used it many times

Black drawing salve, commonly avaiable in drug stores, is indeed different than the black salve purported to treat cancer. Drawing salve's main ingredient is ichthammol, which is very different than cansema.

see post above your last post:)

Ok, not anecdotal. So will this ONE case convince newbies on how to go? One case...one anecdote...get the connection?

As I have said i have no pony in the race but there is often a sanctimonious tone to "conventional" threads and the intelligent women not making the same choices you have made might feel somewhat disrespected. They don't actually need the information because they can think for themselves but it would be nice if newbies felt free to express themselves without being looked down on.

Anyway, the topic is exhausting and so repetitive. Have a lovely evening all. :-)

Because of his wealth, intelligence and connections, Steve Jobs had access to the very best alternative medicine available; he had every resource available. Imagine if it had helped him, how that might have changed the perception of alternative methods to treat cancer.

My son was a big Steve Jobs fan. I read Jobs' biography. It still breaks my heart that he is no longer here because of effing cancer. He was such a visionary.

Conventional medicine works for many. In the late 1970s, my brother was diagnosed with terminal testicular cancer that had traveled to his stomach and throat. They gave him a year to live. He had chemo, rads and surgery. It was a very, very rough time for him. He was 18. He's now in his 50s.

I knew I could get through it because my brother did it years before me.

I think the black salve issue was brought up because many on the alt threads were huge cheerleaders for it's use by this particular member. They encouraged her to photograph her progress and document what an amazing "cure" this was so she could prove the conventional doctors wrong. I really do wish there was a magic bullet, but in the world of anything goes, encouraging things like this takes away from any credibility that unproven tx may have.

Yes, pancreatic cancer is different than bc, but the mindset that led Mr. Jobs to make his early decisions is shared by many who eschew conventional tx.

Just back on line after a couple weeks break which means I am catching up - was a little worried about LaBelle declining chemo with an affected lymph node even though her small (compared to some cases) ILC was low grade but then, checking her posts on another thread was relieved to see she had OncoType done and scored 11: certainly a helpful bit of information in making some of these decisions. Best wishes during rads and enjoy a quick return to full health! Truly sorry to learn of your mother's situation, still so recent.

Like our original poster, I am about 4 years from diagnosis but continue to be drawn into this community in an effort to support & help others. Special thanks to our Deanna, Selena, edwards, exbronxgirl and others for their contributions over the years.

While oncotype testing is presently used primarily in women w node negative status, the oncological breast surgeon at UT and now (consult today) the oncologist at Vanderbilt agree that having a small amount of lymph node involvement does not really change anything for me as my grade is so low and tumor so small (7mm per final pathology) and both are good with going with the oncotype test results in my case. Both were really, really surprised to find anything at all in my nodes and I certainly wasn't prepared for it either.

In the end refusing chemo wasn't really a hard choice. No one on my healthcare team was actually recommending it-I thought the oncologist might w node involvement, but we didn't spend hardly any time even talking about it today as I'm finding my oncologist to be in favor of conservative treatment. No need to drop an atomic bomb on a gang of street thugs (and my cancer is the thuggy type). Moving on to radiation (with lymph node involvement I've pretty much decided that has to happen, w/o I wasn't sure I'd do that either) ovarian removal and maybe tamoxifen or more likely AI therapy (or not, still up in the air about any hormone therapy other than ovarian removal).

I'm finding one step at a time is best. Surgery, done. Appointment w radiologist scheduled. Chemo was nixed and not going to happen per today's onco appointment. Decision to move on to surgical ovarian removal finalized and appointment w my gyno made. Discussion of Tam v AI to happen and choice to be made in Feb. at my next oncologist appt, after radiation and ovarian removal. I think that's enough to deal with for now. Getting thru radiation and the oopherectomy (not really a big deal surgically speaking/ a laprascopic surgury, but still!) are my focus for now. Plenty of time to decide about hormone therapy in the future. I've found this whole diagnosis w BC to be overwhelming. Planning my treatment one step at a time is I think better than trying to get the whole thing mapped out at once, which really was getting me quite upset.

Well, she'd previously said no chemo IF there was no node involvement, but in the end I think smaller tumor size than we'd expected and very limited node involvement (one of 4 sentinel nodes, zero of 8 aux nodes sampled) plus my own already expressed reluctance re: chemo, made her decide it wasn't a good plan for me even with node involvement. I'm finding her very informative and she's said she will support whatever decisions I make about my treatment. I'm glad I got such a good fit w my oncologist. We'll see what I think of the radiologist (next step) and as I'm having my reg gyno do the other surgery (and already know I like her, LOL) I'm on my way, I guess.

Onco and I did discuss other less conventional treatments. I changed to a Paleo (no sugar, gluten or processed foods) diet in March (before BC diagnosis) , lost 20 lbs, was feeling great, got my vitamin D levels where I want them, ditto for thyroid after 4 years of dinking around, all of which the onco approves of, including continued Paleo and vitamin supplements. Says I'm going into this thing in great shape, am very healthy, etc. except for that pesky BC thing of course!

I definitely can't imagine demanding chemo, but I suppose some people do. People do seem to want to tackle this thing in a variety of ways from do EVERYTHING even if it about kills me to let's do almost nothing. Odd, isn't it? Of course as I'm finding out, breast cancer is not really just one disease, so many stages and types, things to consider so it's good we've got some real options in the treatment dept. but also frustrating since they can't just say, "Okay, do x y and z and you'll all be cured." No one size fits all.

I had my oncotype test done prior to surgery, using material from stereoscopic biopsy. I was told at that time, that they only order the test for node negative or those they believe will be node negative, but I'm definitely glad I had it done. Having a score of 11 I think helped the oncologist to determine, despite a positive node, chemo wasn't going to be of much or any use in my case, the potential side effect outweigh the potential benefits for me.