The Cancer Journey : Contradictions

Reposted from denisetam.webs.com July 12, 2012 A month and a half has quickly passed and the strict lifestyle I've had to adhere to has become more of a routine rather than a struggle.

Every morning mom makes my Chinese meds which I down with a crinkled nose and chase with a piece of bread or cracker (yeah not much of a chaser but you’ll soon see that my diet has been limited). Lunches and dinners have been more difficult especially being a vegan who is also restricted from eating fruits, dairy,all things raw and all things sour (including tomatoes!). In the end I was lefteating grains and cooked vegetables and even had to resort to having my morning muesli with rice milk.

Doctor Ma, the Chinese doc initially told me I'd be a lot better in a month anda half so I succumbed to his methods and gave him his requested time to workhis magic.

The first week was encouraging. My appetite returned, I was going to the bathroom more regularly (something that's been proven extremely difficult as Ibecome more and more bloated) and I no longer took midnight visits to the loo.

The second week onwards were less exciting. The bloating came back, (swellingin both the stomach and legs) and the big problem of eliminating came backagain. Funny enough Phuket brought me healthy bowels (usually traveling doesthe opposite for people) but I also started feeling swelling in my pelvis.

Needless to say, with the way I’ve been feeling I wasn’t toohopeful come report day. Here are the results:

Scan:

- largest lymph node the radiologist had been monitoring had increased to 7cmin size from 4cm. Considering the changes in previous scans which was onlypoint something of a centimeter, this growth is huge.

Blood:

- lymphocyte reading has increased. This is good news! It shows increasedimmunity and my doc and I have been trying to get it passed 2 for a long time.Last blood result was approx 1.4 and this one was 2.8

- CA125 reading (cancer markings of the ovary) has increased. Doc isn’t tooconcerned about this but says my hormones are out of whack

- LDH levels have increased (this is supposed to be a marker of how fast thecancer is growing). This can be read in two ways.

1.       Before thecancer cell dies it inflames hence the LDH increase

2.      Simply that the cancer is growing

Summary:

- we (as in doc and I) don’t know how to really read this since blood work andscan is somewhat contradictory.

- we’ve discussed this with the TCM doc, Dr Ma, and his unhelpful response wasthat ‘this is normal’. He also suggested I stop the meds for the time beinguntil I feel better. Our conclusion from his conclusion: he doesn’t really knowwhat he’s doing and so I’m going to stop for the time being and go back to whatI know and trust to be a healthy diet.

My response to theresults in a nut shell:

- confused, disappointed, a bit bitter, upset, lonely, tired of it all

- thankful for support of family

- glad to be back on juicing and eating fresh salads

Current pseudo treatment:

- the Budwig diet: which consists of cottage cheese and flax oil

- juicing fruits and veggies

- using the i relief machine that’s supposed to help with circulation

- weekly colonics

- more rest! I’ve moved my work computer home and will be working from homemore

I’ve been seeing several other doctors and am scheduled tosee more this and next week to try to figure things out. Will keep you allupdated.

Xx

Denise