Don't hog your journey

My son said "don't hog your journey".  I didn't feel I had anything to share but it is not my place to judge that.  He also said just a tiny bit of info made him feel better about my condition.  So I want to share.

I was diagnosed on  June 2007 with stage IV breast cancer strongly her2 positive slightly er positive with bone and liver mets.  The tumor was in my left breast and it was 5.9 cm.  Because it was so large and they soon found out it had spread, they decided to start chemo right away.  My treatment began in July and consisted of taxol, herceptin and zometa.

 My bone pain decreased after a month on taxol.  On my first re-evaluation, 2 months later at the end of August my breast tumor was gone.  Only the scar from the biopsy remained.  My bones were stable and the liver lesions were shrinking.  My oncologist seemed surprised and mentioned I was doing really well!

I mention my doctor’s comment only because I wonder if some of the things I was doing on the side contributed to my success. Of course, maybe I was just lucky.  I had done some research through books and the internet and found that flax seeds, borage oil and olive oil helped herceptin type of cancers.  See below for more info.

Currently, my doctor has stopped the taxol due to beginning nerve damage.  I was on taxol for 3 months.  My recent re-evaluation (October) still shows no tumor and my bones are stable and liver lesions are still shrinking, one of them is just about gone.

I am only on herceptin, 3 weeks.  Zometa is on hold.  My hair is growing back, my eyebrows and eyelashes are also growing back.  I have also been taking coQ enzyme and hawthorn to protect my heart from the herceptin.

I work with an alternative dr that helps support me through this journey of mine.  “Beating Cancer with Nutrition” by Patrick Quillin has been very helpful.  “How to Prevent and Treat Cancer with Natural Medicine” by Dr. Michael Murray is another book that has helped.  By the way Patrick Quillin was the Director of Nutrition for the Cancer Centers of America for 10 years.

I hope this helps someone. 

Flax seeds: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/queryd.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15897583

Borage Oil:

http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2005/11/gammalinolenic.html

Olive Oil:

My information came from the book “Waking the Warrior Goddess” by Christine Horner, M.D.  Her info came from Annals of Oncology 2005.  Her quote is, “ Olive oil acts synergistically with Herceptin, enhancing the cancer cell killing and growth stopping effects of this drug by 70%.”