Am I crazy for trying an alternative treatment?
Comments
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I have never heard of turkey tail supplements, you know I will be looking in to it now, I have been on the fence with acupuncture, I do believe it has a lot of benefits, my husband had great results with back pains when he was in China, will definitely check on that as well, anything really that is holistic, my oncologist is on board.
I appreciate everyone here, love all stories and ideas.
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turkey tail or Coriolis. If you search the board here, there are already several threads. That's how I found it and then my Naturopath wanted me on it too. I think they use it in Japan with chemo as standard care.
I had a bad reaction to anti-nausea meds so had to do dose dense A/C chemo without it which was brutal but going to acupuncture twice a week helped me getting through it. Nurses said to me, keep doing what your are doing!
Wishing you the best!
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enerva, yes I too would like to wake up from this nightmare. We can't regulate body pH with soda. It's much more complex than that. We can drink more water, but that's about it
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Whirlaway
I ordered the Turkey tails and got it the other day, I'm hopeful and will definitely find out it's effectiveness on my next lab draw but I'm quite happy that I think it helped me sleep for 7 hours straight for the first time without taking Benadryl and I don't know if it's just me being too optimistic but I think it's also alleviating my joint pains!.
I appreciate this idea greatly.
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Kirat11, I am so glad to hear you slept well!
I am no expert on supplements but my naturopath wanted me to take the Turkey tail during all my treatments (which I did) and then I weaned myself off the following month. On my bottle it said not to take it more than 9 months which was exactly the time I needed it. I think it is a good idea to take a break from supplements but I have met other cancer patients who just take it all the time.
As for the sleeping you could always try CBD oil. I am in Canada and just recently got my prescription for it. It is anti-inflammatory and it helps me sleep! Since I had a large tumor near the under arm I had heavy rads. Unfortunately one lymph node got chronically inflamed and my surgeon wants to take it out as it keeps pushing on a nerve but my onco disagrees. So far the CBD really helped - I used to wake up 7 times from pain and my sleep quality and time improved big time! Not perfect but so much better!
I also take 10 mg Melatonin at bed time. The CBD kicks in about 1+ h and the Melatonin makes me fall asleep quickly along with a few minutes of mediation and ocean sound waves.
Fingers crossed for your labs!!
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Whirlaway...may I ask what kind of CBD oil and where did you get it? Does it have any THC in it?
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dtad, I am in Canada and it is by prescription only. It is prescribed by my cancer pain clinic and I buy it online. If you are in Canada you can pm me and I can give you the company's name. I am only allowed to buy it from one source.
The CBD is 1:20 - in 0.5 ml there are 10 mg CBD and 0.5 mg THC (almost all CBD). I am very sensitive to the plant which is not a bad thing as it allows me to get benefits from a small dose as the oil is expensive. It is organic.
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Thanks so much!
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Would you need a lumpectomy or a mastectomy?
The surgery will likely not as bad as you think it is. The imagining is the worst.
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Hi... Your post was so positive, thorough and reassuring, thank you. Would love to know how you went in China.
I was diagnosed DCIS 3 months ago and have been trying just about all alternatives (proactive and reactive) simultaneously. I have cancelled surgery 3 times, as I have a lot of confidence I can beat this responsibly and naturally. I too am health nut and vegetarian all my life (I've never even had a McDonald's meal). So the Western medicine way seems barbaric and totally against everything I believe in.
I'm really keen to hear the long story of how you are going in your quest to stay healthy and avoid chemicals etc..
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Hi Carol,
I'm going to pm you. I haven't really updated here because this journey can be an emotional rollercoaster.
I had a sonocine ultrasound a few days ago, which is able to see through dense breast tissue better than mammograms and ultrasounds. The Dr said that the area where the lump was doesn't even look like cancer, but there is something there. But the area where I have dcis looks like I have invasive cells there too.
OK, I will pm you.
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Hello everyone,
Enerva,
Our stories are similar in several ways, but I will attempt to keep this somewhat short. I too was diagnosed with ILC about 4 years ago, and after complaining to my gynecologist for months and arguing that I wanted a hysterectomy (she didn't think there was a need when all I complained about was heavy bleeding and the ultrasounds only showed a fibroid and cyst), I went to another gynecologist who is also an oncologist. Turns out I was right (always trust your gut), my cancer was back. The pathology from the hysterectomy showed the ILC was there, everything they took out had cancer. Prior to the surgery, I had internal ultrasounds, and a biopsy, all came back negative, even the sample they tested during surgery was negative, but it was all wrong/missed. I had told the first gynocologist during our months of tests and discussions, unless you can do a test, that can guarantee me there is no cancer there, I want the hysterectomy. She believed that a hysterectomy could be too difficult to handle (effects of surgical menopause). I told her, nothing is more difficult than telling your kids you have cancer and I don't want to do that again, so I want the hysterectomy. I knew something was wrong. I struggle each day with what lies ahead, but I am determined to do everything I can to see my youngest graduate high school in three years, and then I will change my goal to seeing him graduate college. Now I struggle with treatment option, natural vs. medical. I believe I am going with both. I have completely changed my diet, turns out that saying I couldn't stick to a diet if my life depended on it, is not true, it is easy to stick to it when you believe it might give you just one more month, or year. Anyway, I want to thank everyone for sharing their stories, and supporting each other. I love that a group of complete strangers can support each other in such a difficult time. Since my first diagnosis, this has been and remains an amazing resource.
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Update on my labs, my WBC and Neutrophils continued to trend down it went from 4.2 to 3.5 and 1.6 to 1.2 respectively, i increased my turkey tails from 2caps to 6 a day they said you can take up to 9 a day, June labs results: WBC is 4.0 and neutrophils 1.4!!! I'm very happy and will continue to take turkey tails. ( Thank you whirlaway!)
I have my 1st scan since starting target therapy this July, crossing my fingers..
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shockedat29:
I don't really separate western medicine from eastern medicine to be honest. I divide things based upon the evidence of effectiveness. I take thyroid hormone for hypothyroidism. Eastern medicine figured out how to treat hypothyroidism. I'm doing conventional therapies for the cancer, western medicine figured those ones out. I don't care where the idea comes from, I only care if it's effectiveness is evidence based and personally would not forgo a treatment that has a demonstrated high success rate for one that does not.
That does not mean I only limit myself to those treatments though, or would not try something that has not been subjected to rigorous testing if more promising options weren't available.
As for spontaneous remission of identified established cancer, these cases are rare and poorly understood and cases without recurrance are even rarer. In a lot of these supposed cases, the person actually did receive some form of conventional treatment and it's impossible to claim that the remission was not due to it.
I think there are cases of truely spontaneous remission of identified established cancer but I think it's a blessing of extreme rarity.
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Hello ladies!
I had my 2nd scan last July 2nd, met with oncologist for results, i'm happy to share that all bone mets now is all in metabolic remission! The breast tumor also has significant decreased and has minimal uptake on the pet scan. I will be continuing Conventional and alternative medicines
I am very grateful for such blessing, we got this!!
I have cancer, cancer does not have me.
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Kirat, good news.
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My wife went from stage 1 to stage 4 after trying TCM for 4 months.
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I’m so sorry werone. BC treatments either natural or conventional are virtual crapshoots unfortunately. I have several friends who also had their breast cancer go from early stage to metastatic. No rhyme or reason why given their early prognosis. Fact is oncologists are stymied as to why it happens. No consolation for your wife or my friends either.
My sister’s recurred but is localized. She was 4 years out.
Breast cancer is epidemic. More and more younger women are getting diagnosed. I hope and pray they find a cure.
Try and keep the faith. There is always hope.
Diane
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Thank you for sharing werone. You rarely hear from people who tried alternative medicine when it didn't work.
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That’s true hapa but the one person I always think of who did and suffered the consequences with an untimely death was Steve Jobs. When he realized it wasn’t working he went the conventional route but it was too late. He even had a press conference advising people not to go the alternate route.
Diane
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Farrah Fawcett is another one trying alternative tx in Germany. By the time she came back to go for conventional tx it was too late.
These people have tons of money. They did their research, were sold enough to try but failed. Traditional tx still produces much more results than alternative. Yes the ses and such suck but you have a better shot if your cancer profile is not a good one, high enough risk to recur.
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Those of us who went the conventional route have no guarantees either but we do have history and stats on our side for what those are worth. Thing is it’s all we have to go on and personally I’m was not comfortable with or willing to gamble.
Just make sure you don’t make a decision and second guess yourself. There is enough anxiety as it is.
Diane
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I don't understand why women find it so easy to blindly trust modern medicine but won't do anything to help themselves.
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I don't understand why women find it so easy to blindly trust modern medicine but won't do anything to help themselves.
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who says we aren't helping ourselves. Most of us adjust our diets, exercise eat right too. You go by your odds, are you high risk, and which has more ned possibilities. No guarantees either way, but which has a greater chance for your profile. Doing only alternative or conventional with fixing your diet and exercise.
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As soon as I hear great news from someone who benefited from non conventional medicine, 10 more people jump in to saying it is a fluke. I would be happy to be a fluke. Friend of mine is still NED after flying to Germany to get immunotherapy. Her doctor here in Seattle gave her 1 year to live if she didn't do chemo and 18 months if she did do chemo. So she went to Germany, paid for all treatment out of pocket, she is still NED that was 2011.
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Meow, do you know the name of the immunotherapy? Great story about your friend.
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Immunotherapy for breast cancer may not be part of first-line standard treatment yet but it is definitely not an "alternative" treatment as discussed on this thread.
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hi folks! I’m an acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist (also integrative nutritionist and shiatsu massage therapist) and would love to give my thoughts here.
In my community of practitioners, we NEVER say that Chinese medicine will cure cancer. It is unethical and potentially harmful to the patient to say this. Even my teachers who are Chinese doctors trained in China say they would never make this claim.
We also say that people who use “alterative” treatments alone with no intervention of western medicine end up passing away from cancer.
I know it is harsh and maybe there are some of you out there that have had radical remission through change of diet and lifestyle, but the numbers are not high enough for health care providers to feel comfortable enough to recommend this across the board.
Our bodies belong to us and we ultimately get to choose and experiment which ways we want to move forward with treatment.
I did my fixed rotation shifts in an oncology center that used to Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture, nutrition and supplements and massage to help people going through their cancer “journey.”
There are MANY amazing things that these health modalities CAN do with regards to cancer-related symptoms and SEs. And I utilize them myself and am so grateful for my training and knowledge.
My loved ones and doctors were very anxious that I would refuse conventional treatments based on my career and focus of medical study. However, my training did not teach me that alternative methods alone would suffice. And for me, it was a no brainer to (carefully and thoughtfully) choose the conventional western treatments I am currently no (and they are working - a huge relief!)
I send everyone lots of support and am always hoping for the best outcomes for all!
Brenda
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Immunotherapy is not considered alt medicine. Some cancers have it as first line of defense like small cell lung cancer. You see ads for this like you do stage 4 bc meds. At some point it will be available for bc. Just a matter of time.
Alt therapy here means using eastern meds, supps and such in lieu of chemo and rads to try and become ned as long as possible.
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