Anyone completely refuse surgery/conventional treatment?

ChiSandy,

I almost refused surgery when I found out I had BC. I was so scared of being put under, of being intubated, of what would happen after I woke up. I have severe anxiety and panic attacks and was afraid of going through all of that in the hospital, and also looked up all the things that could go wrong with anesthesia. I don't even take aspirin for pain, unless it is REALLY bad then I was take some Tylenol, but I have never done drugs, only drank a handful of times in my life, and really try to keep toxic poison out of my body, so when I was hearing about all the drugs they give you in the hospital for surgery it freaked me out. But I am 6 months out of surgery and am glad I went through with it because before I had surgery I kept thinking about the lump, feeling it, seeing if it grew or anything, but after I had surgery and more so now that it is months later, I don't think about it so much anymore. I do worry about recurrence and every little pain I have makes me think about "Is this cancer again?". My doctors try to help with that by telling me what to look for so I try to remember what they said. I am supposed to be taking tamoxifen, but again am scared to put toxic poison into my body, afraid of the side effects, and afraid of things like blood clots and strokes being caused by it. I am looking into natural estrogen blockers such as grape seed extracts and DIM. But do you or anyone know if I can take them together? I make smoothies in the morning with fruits and broccoli sprouts so I can get my fruits and veggies in me for the day since I find it hard to actually "eat" 5 servings of each. I found this way is great for getting those necessary nutrients into my body, but wanted to add DIM and grape seed extra to the blender and have them mixed in with my smoothie so I am getting them into my system as well. (To tell the truth I almost did that with tamoxifen but then wondered if it was OK to chop that pill up, also wondered since my smoothie mix fills up a glass and then 24oz water bottles that I drink throughout the day, if getting tamoxifen throughout the day would be harmful to me) so opted to not put tamoxifen in my smoothie. I am supposed to have been on it for 6 months now, and have still be too scared to take that first pill even though I have been very close many times. I have read about DIM and it's an amaratose inhibiter, just like the AI's given to post menopausal women with BC, so would it do the same or act the same way as the drugs? Is DIM just a natural form of an AI like Herceptin? If anyone has any info on natural estrogen blockers please PM me as I want to try both DIM and grape seed extract, but want to know more about them and if they are safe to use together, as there any dangers to taking them and can I crush them up in my smoothies and drink them throughout the day?

Misty I don't want to put you off but I took DIM for 8 years prior to this new diagnosis. I don't know if it helped (I felt fantastic taking it) but it didn't stop my cancer from re-surfacing. I did every natural thing I could, exercised daily, ate well,took DIM and numerous other natural remedies ie had C infusions took various vitamins I was low in etc but still it came back 😥I have a friend 12 years out grade 3 large tumour 16/19 positive nodes she drinks doesn't exercise is overweight and has had stressful jobs and no re-occurrence so go figure. I can't work outthis stupid disease i

If we examine and shed some of our closed belief systems, indoctrinations and prejudices, which promote non-creative fear-based negative thinking, we'll all do better in our BC journeys. We are all connected through consciousness during our very difficult & diverse journeys.

Furthermore, we can choose to expand our thinking to embrace PSI empowered healing, metaphysics and Creative Arts (music & art) therapeutics, daily Meditation, Touch-healing, Yoga, Reiki, TaiChi, Kundalini, Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Alchemy, etc. Optimum healing is the mind-body-soul connection.

"Biology of Belief" is VERY real .... see Dr. Bruce Lipton's intro below. "Genes and DNA can be manipulated by a person's beliefs. He (Bruce Lipton) is the author of the bestselling book, The Biology of Belief, and is a former researcher at Stanford University's School of Medicine." Source: wikipedia

Abigail- I was wondering do you have any family members that live near you? Have they tried to get you get medical. YU care and you have refused? Not wanting to get yourself checked out because you are sure the mammogram will cause cancer is crazy. If you already have cancer, it seems like you would want to know so you know how to treat it. If it is truly just an abscess, then it can get treated, and they can stop the bleeding. I am surprised you are not anemic with all the bleeding going on. You are signed up for medicare I hope. I had a friend that treated her rheumatoid arthritis, strictly by becoming mostly vegan, and yes that does happen occasionally, but it does not work for everyone, and she was incensed that she had the cure for RA, and nobody would listen to her For a long time she did not sign up for medicare, because she felt she did not need it. She finally signed up for medicare when she was around 80, and several months later she suffered a mild heart attack.

Ms Abigail,

What can we do to help you? I am truly sorry to hear about your breast problems. I send you a big hug!

The entire Abigail issue is very very bizarre to me. To those who are offended by her statements/presence (like me), may I encourage you to just stop responding to her? It is obvious by her choices and odd use of words/phrasing that she is not like the rest of us, so no need to give her any more of our time/energy.

here growning what I concider slowly. four and five centemeters in say five years. today with the blizzared, but mostly snow fall I got the first calm time in months, and so slept and managed to cookmy breakfast forty minutes too long. still snowing. if only it would thaw without rain we'd get a silver thaw, one of the most beautiful sights in nature which I was privileged to see both winters I lived in the pacific north west

Brava, Sandy and what a good suggestion to the mods.

Re: ""Epigenetics" is theoretical (studied only in animals, and any changes it allegedly produces in genes is temporary and not studied in tumor cells), and often used by Biblical fundamentalists to try and discredit Darwin. The closest it can apply to humans is the advocacy by some "aging specialists" (not all of whom are physicians) of early and consistent lifestyle practices to attempt to prevent telomeres (chromosome ends) from shortening to affect longevity in general—not with regard to any disease processes."

The application of "epigenetic" modifications in cancer is more advanced than suggested by the above. While I do not support alternative treatments in lieu of the current standard of care, I would like to note that certain approaches in the field of "epigenetics" have much more scientific evidence behind them than others.

One example of an epigenetic modification is acetylation and deacetylation of proteins, such as histones, and in fact, a number of histone deacetylase ("HDAC") inhibitors ("HDACi") have been approved by FDA for clinical use in the treatment of certain cancers. See, for example:

Zwergel, "Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors: Updated Studies in Various Epigene c-Related Diseases" (2015)

http://clinical-epigenetics.imedpub.com/histone-deacetylase-inhibitors-updated-studies-in-various-epigeneticrelated-diseases.pdf

"To date just a few HDACi have been approved by the FDA: vorinostat [1] (Zolinza®; Merck) for the treatment of refractory cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) [20], romidepsin [2] (Istodax®; Celgene) for the treatment of CTCL and peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) [21], and belinostat [3] (Beleodaq®; Spectrum Pharmaceu cals) for the treatment of PTCL [17]. In early 2015 oral panobinostat [4] (Farydak®, Novartis) has been approved by the FDA, as combination therapy with bortezomib and dexamethasone in patients with recurrent multiple myeloma who have received at least two prior treatment regimens, including bortezomib and an immunomodulatory agent [22], being currently studied also for other types of cancer."

It should be understood that these examples do not validate other unproven approaches to "epigenetic" modification.

A quick search on clinicaltrials.gov for "HDAC inhibitor and breast" reveals that HDAC inhibitors are also the subject of a number of on-going clinical trials in breast cancer.

To learn more about epigenetics in breast cancer research, see for example, these review articles:

Byler (2014), "Genetic and Epigenetic Aspects of Breast Cancer Progression and Therapy"

http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/34/3/1071.full

Vo (2012), "Epigenetics and Breast Cancers"

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ogi/2012/602720/

Jovanovic (2010), "The epigenetics of breast cancer"

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1574789110000244

BarredOwl

Thank you for enlightening me, BarredOwl. (As you frequently and dependably do). But your answer supports the validity of the actions of the conventional academic scientific community…as well as demonstrates that self-diagnosis and the self-administration of “natural remedies” without any knowledge of their supposed mechanisms of effectiveness is inadvisable. It is important to point out that you cite controlled double-blind studies using both standard and experimental medications…NOT “natural remedies."

Do you believe in "miracles"? I do. "Medicine does miracles" ... But, it's"limited to trauma", Dr Bruce Lipton, PhD, had stated in aforementioned book (as evidenced on trauma).

Do you believe in the "Power of Blood"? For example in the blood of Christ, and America is a Christian nation.

Believe in all the miracles of healing

There isn't one person in this thread or board for that matter that doesn't have a heart for suffering. You misunderstand. She has said she has bc (but never dx'd) and gives advice based on what's she's doing. This is plain wrong to give advice on any disease when you have never had it. I think everyone agrees with this. And we are to believe too that she had AIDs not once but twice and self cured it! Wowza.

This is NOT a “Christian nation!” The majority of Americans may be Christian, but that spans a wide panoply of belief—from affiliation and identification all the way to strict belief. I’m glad you believe in “miracles,” but to say that should be the case for all Americans is insulting. (And “the power of the blood” is a minority viewpoint within organized Christianity as it is practiced in most of this country).

Yes, we are all "creatures" of God ... Source ... Creator .... Allah .... Jesus Christ.

Forgive the biblical slip.

May God bless us all.

edited to remove reference to a line cited in and then edited out of the post to which I’m responding