I must report a relapse in the primary and secondary tumours that happened in the last four days... up until tonight it was somewhat concerning, simply because I wasn't (sic) was unclear as to what caused it and since for all intents and purposes it was almost a wipeout of the progress made, you can imagine I felt some distress.
I decided to take a week off of the mistletoe injections so that I could participate in a shamanic plant medicine retreat last weekend which requires an absence of tyrosine in the system. This factor alongside other stressors and three days without sleep depleted me more than I was expecting, but the risk I took I feel was well worth it.
On Monday I developed a bronchitis and sinus infection which had been threatening to visit me for over a week. Green team was concerned my cough was an indicator of metastatic action, but when I tried to dive at the hyperbaric clinic I had to abandon the session because my eustachians wouldn't pop and depressurize... this gave me the confidence of knowing it was a head and chest cold getting it on, not the start of lung cancer. I chose not suppress it as the work I did on the weekend took me many steps forward in my search for forgiveness of self and others... when you release grief, the lungs will move towards spontaneous healing. Today the cough continued but as soon as I got my first round of iscador in the IV bag and then as an injection, it began to resolve and now its but a faint and periodic cough, productive and no longer dry, and what's more important, everywhere I've had regrowth and even new growth of the tumour, I now have that same itchy sensation I remember so well when the tumour started to regress and shrink.
Green team has agreed to my request that we forgo the usual schedule of injections and ramp up to a double every day. I know from past experience that it could make me feel, well, poorly, but it was after I had a few rough days with the injections that I saw my greatest leaps forward with regular night sweats and melting tumours. What the body can do, it can undo. What the body can undo once, it can undo as many times as it takes.
Many new and wonderful people have been brought into my life in the last couple weeks as a result of this adventure. Through ceremony I found a group of peers seeking healing and transformation that I will be able to revisit as I need to, people I really, really connected with... I've always avoided groups and congregations of any kind on account of ingrained negative memories so to have a positive experience was shattering to me in the best possible way... I was so moved by their sharing and touched by their effortless acceptance of me exactly as I am. I've also met many elders of late who I adore to simply listen to. Things of a new nature are knitting into shape so gently and effortlessly, I've at last been able to relax into the present as a means of transforming it into the life of service and happiness I seek.
The other detail that gave me confidence to not despair (except for when the tumour seemed to double overnight, freaking me out for a few hours) was a dream I had the first night after the plant medicine ceremony... I was looking at an MRI of my tumour and was told not to worry, it was just changing shape, not getting bigger, they said... I've learned to trust my dreams.
Also happy to report I've been getting stronger, energy wise, especially when I finally decided to go back to spirulina in megadoses... I effort to take 30-60 1gram tablets a day and its working marvelously for me. I'm still hovering around skeletal weight but feel I need to stay here until its time to rebuild a healthy, cancer-free body.
Since I feel its SO important to keep throwing new things into the mix whenever you're dealing with an aggressively adaptive cancer, I'm adding this week, modified citrus pectin (interferes with the adhesive factor which cancer cells rely on in order to form metastatic tumours, thereby offering extra protection against spread); and potentized green tea extract (which is anti-angiogenic.... makes it more difficult for new blood vessels to form and grow in service of the tumour)... and once I can find it, some DHEA cream to cut off energy pathways to cancer cells, causing them to die faster.
This is the most energy I've had in a week and I'm loving it.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Monday, October 14, 2013
exhaustion, an indicator of healing...
profound exhaustion on waking was put in context when I lifted my shirt to find the tumour has again reduced by an even greater margin... what's more, the breast looks completely healthy... where the tumour has retreated there is nothing but smooth, healthy tissue in its place... I have learned at last how not to give energy to what doesn't serve healing and health, come what may, come what might... onwards!
Sunday, October 13, 2013
melting...
huge meltdown last night, open-throated screaming, shaking and crying as a backlog of repressed emotions poured out of me, not about this cancer ordeal, it was a personal matter that was overdue for address and the release helped all concerned. i woke in the morning feeling weaker than i have thus far... but the primary tumour has melted back to where it was before i had the relapse. other factors that contributed, i was listening to Dr. James Sheridan the other night and decided to keep to the vegan diet modified to keep me in ketosis and modified to address the need for a near-starvation diet while still getting the nutrients and proteins i need now that i have a couple new ideas. i also started painting the breast with lugol's iodine and stepped that up from once daily to twice.
onwards!
onwards!
Friday, October 11, 2013
bounceback...
had no trouble with my cocktail bag today, having pulled it back just a touch to 125g vitaminC, which is where we will stay through to end of next week. i broke with my strict vegan diet as green team was worried i was wasting away and loosing muscle mass no matter how much hemp hearts i was eating. i ate a little organic chicken last night and again today and it perked me up sufficient that i could do some yoga for the first time in two months! perked me up sufficient to not be thrown when family made move to suggest they're having second thoughts putting my mother's money towards my treatment (notwithstanding the news that its working) when i could get chemotherapy for free.
so, learned today how to _really_ roll with the stabs to the heart. and this is what i decided. if nature wants my uniqueness in play on earth, my quest for healing will be met with just what i need when i need it. if it doesn't, mother nature will take me out of play by closing doors and foreclosing my choices. either way, i will be playing my part exactly the same. the rest is out of my hands and so not worth compromising my health worrying about a thing.
sure, i could easily see a doomed scenario taking root. its a habit i came by honestly, but it no longer serves to view things this way. i'm getting better, despite the odds. i believe i'm through the worst of it and that no matter what comes, i can cope, i can survive, all because i've found the power of facing.
so, learned today how to _really_ roll with the stabs to the heart. and this is what i decided. if nature wants my uniqueness in play on earth, my quest for healing will be met with just what i need when i need it. if it doesn't, mother nature will take me out of play by closing doors and foreclosing my choices. either way, i will be playing my part exactly the same. the rest is out of my hands and so not worth compromising my health worrying about a thing.
sure, i could easily see a doomed scenario taking root. its a habit i came by honestly, but it no longer serves to view things this way. i'm getting better, despite the odds. i believe i'm through the worst of it and that no matter what comes, i can cope, i can survive, all because i've found the power of facing.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
education involves relapse...
all it took was one day, a little human error (my daily IV bag only got half the usual amount of vitaminC that i'm working with... of 100g, only 50g got injected) plus a little emotional tweak (got news that mum was narrowly prevented from punching one of the other older ladies at the nursing home in the face, which means that i have to move her AGAIN, this time to a long-term venue that can handle where the dementia will take her).... i woke up this morning and the tumour had regrown back into the shape it was in about four days ago, before i started to see that really dramatic reduction each morning. it hasn't completely grown back to the proportions it assumed at its zenith, but its certainly gaining on me again.
for the first time since this whole ordeal began in june, i sat down at the kitchen table, exhausted and overwrought at 6am, and just cried. i had to release some of the stress of all this up and down, knowing and not-knowing. i sucked it up and pressed on with my day and by the afternoon when it was time for my IV, i reported my unfortunate news and asked my green team to take me into uncharted territory, bump me up to 125g vitaminC.... since i'd been doing so well at 100g, 150g was suggested, and of course i jumped at it.
well, i won't IV 150g vitaminC again. it was 6 hours of agony, four shots of lidocaine did nothing for the pain. right arm worse for wear and quite swollen, but as soon as it was over the pain stopped and i had a profound sense of well-being. i put arnica gel all over my arms and the track marks and they will be right as rain in morning.
it is absolutely necessary for my learning that i develop skill where none exists, and right now i have to solve the puzzle of how to protect myself from these backslides, and how to quickly right wrong turns. i'm very thin and weak, so having to redo work done is not something i can sustain.
green team will work with me through to sunday, our one day off, then we resume on monday.
onwards!
for the first time since this whole ordeal began in june, i sat down at the kitchen table, exhausted and overwrought at 6am, and just cried. i had to release some of the stress of all this up and down, knowing and not-knowing. i sucked it up and pressed on with my day and by the afternoon when it was time for my IV, i reported my unfortunate news and asked my green team to take me into uncharted territory, bump me up to 125g vitaminC.... since i'd been doing so well at 100g, 150g was suggested, and of course i jumped at it.
well, i won't IV 150g vitaminC again. it was 6 hours of agony, four shots of lidocaine did nothing for the pain. right arm worse for wear and quite swollen, but as soon as it was over the pain stopped and i had a profound sense of well-being. i put arnica gel all over my arms and the track marks and they will be right as rain in morning.
it is absolutely necessary for my learning that i develop skill where none exists, and right now i have to solve the puzzle of how to protect myself from these backslides, and how to quickly right wrong turns. i'm very thin and weak, so having to redo work done is not something i can sustain.
green team will work with me through to sunday, our one day off, then we resume on monday.
onwards!
Sunday, October 6, 2013
success....
i took quite ill last week and had to conserve my energy, so apologies for not keeping to date here, but i have nothing but good news to share.
last week i wrote:
waking up a handicapped immune system has been my first test of faith and persistence. intense response had my green team thinking i was in a bad way. i made contact with my white team and got the further tests, results and meds but refused to stop the injections or take the medications. couldn't walk on own three days. green team worked on me every day, even sunday. then today at last minute all the WBC and RBC distortions disappeared. i walked freely.
now we start the second course, which is even stronger. you can deal with anything if you have a strategy...
since then i have persevered and entered the land of night sweats and fevers. no matter how grueling things have got (my days have run from 6-12 hours of treatments not including all the driving) i kept to my program. the most challenging part has been keeping to a near starvation diet... keeping my caloric intake low and strategized is one of the cornerstones to the metabolic treatment of cancer, but it requires strength of mind and soul to walk that tightrope.
two days ago i wrote:
ten days ago the secondary metastatic tumour in lymph node was visible and about size of cookie... it is now no longer visible and about the size of my pinkie fingernail... primary tumour is also now showing signs of retreat... onwards!
after soaking the bedding thru twice as has been the norm these last few days, i got up to hydrate and move to the couch. that's when i noticed the primary tumour shrank another 20% overnight.
i knew something was different during the night when i spontaneously turned onto my right side, something i normally have to do so very gingerly and with careful adjustments. yet last night i turned over and was able to just glide right into my normal sleeping position, something i've not been able to do for months. i passed out immediately from sheer relief. so when i got up with morning and looked at my body and saw just how much its melted away, i squirted tears of joy and relief. for all those months i had to keep to my vision and faith when it wasn't looking good. this is what i learned is most important. i never gave up on me, instead i learned to give up making myself miserable by dwelling on other people's actions.
there is still a long road ahead, reabsorbing a tumour the size of a small melon while continuing to support the body as it heals from twenty years of PTSD, nutritional torment and self-abuse with drugs, alcohol and toxic relations requires wisdom, persistence, and constant vigilance. working with the situation as it is and endeavouring to bring not only the self but those in orbit into a state of grace is the task at hand. one foot in front of the other, little by little, i will go far.
last week i wrote:
waking up a handicapped immune system has been my first test of faith and persistence. intense response had my green team thinking i was in a bad way. i made contact with my white team and got the further tests, results and meds but refused to stop the injections or take the medications. couldn't walk on own three days. green team worked on me every day, even sunday. then today at last minute all the WBC and RBC distortions disappeared. i walked freely.
now we start the second course, which is even stronger. you can deal with anything if you have a strategy...
since then i have persevered and entered the land of night sweats and fevers. no matter how grueling things have got (my days have run from 6-12 hours of treatments not including all the driving) i kept to my program. the most challenging part has been keeping to a near starvation diet... keeping my caloric intake low and strategized is one of the cornerstones to the metabolic treatment of cancer, but it requires strength of mind and soul to walk that tightrope.
two days ago i wrote:
ten days ago the secondary metastatic tumour in lymph node was visible and about size of cookie... it is now no longer visible and about the size of my pinkie fingernail... primary tumour is also now showing signs of retreat... onwards!
after soaking the bedding thru twice as has been the norm these last few days, i got up to hydrate and move to the couch. that's when i noticed the primary tumour shrank another 20% overnight.
i knew something was different during the night when i spontaneously turned onto my right side, something i normally have to do so very gingerly and with careful adjustments. yet last night i turned over and was able to just glide right into my normal sleeping position, something i've not been able to do for months. i passed out immediately from sheer relief. so when i got up with morning and looked at my body and saw just how much its melted away, i squirted tears of joy and relief. for all those months i had to keep to my vision and faith when it wasn't looking good. this is what i learned is most important. i never gave up on me, instead i learned to give up making myself miserable by dwelling on other people's actions.
there is still a long road ahead, reabsorbing a tumour the size of a small melon while continuing to support the body as it heals from twenty years of PTSD, nutritional torment and self-abuse with drugs, alcohol and toxic relations requires wisdom, persistence, and constant vigilance. working with the situation as it is and endeavouring to bring not only the self but those in orbit into a state of grace is the task at hand. one foot in front of the other, little by little, i will go far.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
a love note from a friend...
Chaplin: “As I began to love myself I found that anguish and emotional suffering are only warning signs that I was living against my own truth. Today, I know, this is “AUTHENTICITY”.
As I began to love myself I understood how much it can offend somebody if I try to force my desires on this person, even though I knew the time was not right and the person was not ready for it, and even though this person was me. Today I call it “RESPECT”.
As I began to love myself I stopped craving for a different life, and I could see that everything that surrounded me was inviting me to grow. Today I call it “MATURITY”.
As I began to love myself I understood that at any circumstance, I am in the right place at the right time, and everything happens at the exactly right moment. So I could be calm. Today I call it “SELF-CONFIDENCE”.
As I began to love myself I quit stealing my own time, and I stopped designing huge projects for the future. Today, I only do what brings me joy and happiness, things I love to do and that make my heart cheer, and I do them in my own way and in my own rhythm. Today I call it “SIMPLICITY”.
As I began to love myself I freed myself of anything that is no good for my health – food, people, things, situations, and everything that drew me down and away from myself. At first I called this attitude a healthy egoism. Today I know it is “LOVE OF ONESELF”.
As I began to love myself I quit trying to always be right, and ever since I was wrong less of the time. Today I discovered that is “MODESTY”.
As I began to love myself I refused to go on living in the past and worrying about the future. Now, I only live for the moment, where everything is happening. Today I live each day, day by day, and I call it “FULFILLMENT”.
As I began to love myself I recognized that my mind can disturb me and it can make me sick. But as I connected it to my heart, my mind became a valuable ally. Today I call this connection “WISDOM OF THE HEART”.
We no longer need to fear arguments, confrontations or any kind of problems with ourselves or others. Even stars collide, and out of their crashing new worlds are born. Today I know “THAT IS LIFE”!”
― Charles Chaplin
back in the saddle again...
my energy continues to come back, the tumour continues to grow, albeit not at all at the same pace of a few weeks ago. the lung symptoms have abated as i've focused more and more on pranayam and psycho-neuro-immunological techniques designed to protect my core... metastases are driven by what candace pert called the molecules of emotion, not mere biochemic syzygies. thusly, i've partnered with my body to draw a line in the sand, which, in turn, has led to new and interesting encounters with people. i can speak my mind without anxiety or neuroticisms. it no longer feels safe to mask my reactions or hide my true feelings and so even tho it feels somewhat alien at times, i keep sticking more toes out from behind the curtain so to speak. if it doesn't come out right because i'm not used to being direct or forward or punchy, that's okay. i've thrown out all the score cards, adjudication sheets and tests. i'm only interested in experience and having a good time of it all, no matter the speed bumps or sink holes along the way.
to note, i'm still taking curcumin, B17, B15, selenium, magnesium malate, D3, glutathione, L-cysteine, alpha lipoic acid, and a liver support... my vicosan (mistletoe) injections arrived from germany, we started them monday and they increase in potency every day... its three weeks of daily vials. i'm also taking little shots of chaga powder mixed with water and lipospheric vitamin c (it reduces the molecular weight of the chaga water, making it more bioavailable - thanks Truth Calkins) to increase my natural killer cells.... then i'm still doing oxygen therapy, infared, the daily IVs, the zapping, the magnet therapy and the ketogenic diet.... this is such an aggressive cancer, a slower acting one would never ever survive the onslaught of all this!
work at the level of spirit and soul is where i'm spending most of my time. there's no pill, supplement, diet, treatment, or protocol to carry the day, i now understand that, and its thrilling and terrifying only because there's no particular manual for how to do this..... so i decided, that's great actually! i can't cock it up or ruin it since i'm writing a novel reply to a problem never faced before! even better, i can _choose_ to make it fun and rewarding and exciting because it can be so why suffer? now i relax, i balance doing my research and homework with learning to ask the body to talk by learning how to play with life again, using the irrational senses, letting intuition lead, not trying to get what needs to be done each day perfect, just completely done with my full presence and heartopen attitude...
to note, i'm still taking curcumin, B17, B15, selenium, magnesium malate, D3, glutathione, L-cysteine, alpha lipoic acid, and a liver support... my vicosan (mistletoe) injections arrived from germany, we started them monday and they increase in potency every day... its three weeks of daily vials. i'm also taking little shots of chaga powder mixed with water and lipospheric vitamin c (it reduces the molecular weight of the chaga water, making it more bioavailable - thanks Truth Calkins) to increase my natural killer cells.... then i'm still doing oxygen therapy, infared, the daily IVs, the zapping, the magnet therapy and the ketogenic diet.... this is such an aggressive cancer, a slower acting one would never ever survive the onslaught of all this!
work at the level of spirit and soul is where i'm spending most of my time. there's no pill, supplement, diet, treatment, or protocol to carry the day, i now understand that, and its thrilling and terrifying only because there's no particular manual for how to do this..... so i decided, that's great actually! i can't cock it up or ruin it since i'm writing a novel reply to a problem never faced before! even better, i can _choose_ to make it fun and rewarding and exciting because it can be so why suffer? now i relax, i balance doing my research and homework with learning to ask the body to talk by learning how to play with life again, using the irrational senses, letting intuition lead, not trying to get what needs to be done each day perfect, just completely done with my full presence and heartopen attitude...
and finally, wow, exciting exciting day! not only is it the start of the 10 day Cure to Cancer Summit which i'll be listening to online, thanks to a tip in Suzanne Somers' KNOCKOUT and our poor, groaning credit card, i'll be getting some macrovision oversight and counsel about the treatment plan i've created for myself from the valiant Burton Goldberg, "Burton Goldberg is the voice of alternative medicine and has traveled the world in search of the top therapies and treatments available from the fields of natural healthcare and alternative, integrative, and conventional medicine...." from what i can tell, there aren't many women with TNBC willing to pioneer a completely holistic strategy so i'm looking forward to corresponding, learning and refining not just my ableness to manage this cancer, but maybe luck will have it that i'll pick up some cues from Mr. Goldberg about how to establish and protect people's freedom of access and choice in care right here in Canada...
Sunday, September 15, 2013
hamer...
all last week i was struggling with much pain, getting weaker and weaker while the cancer grows stronger and spreads. yet, as i found out yesterday afternoon, my blood work is near perfect, save for a couple liver enzymes. even my cancer markers are low.
my body doesn't have cancer. the emotional reality i constructed from the crumbs i thought i deserved does....
"A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle."
-- Khalil Gibran
Twenty years ago, Dr. Ryke Geerd Hamer, a German doctor with his own practice in Rome, Italy, received a call in the middle of the night. His 17-year old son had been shot while on holiday in the Mediterranean. Three months later, Dirk died and shortly after, Dr. Hamer, who had been healthy all his life, but who was utterly devastated by this catastrophe, found he had testicular cancer. Rather suspicious about this coincidence, he set about doing research on the personal histories of cancer patients to see whether they had suffered some shock, distress or trauma before their illness.
In time, after extensive research of thousands of patients, Dr. Hamer was finally able to conclude that disease is only brought about by a shock for which we are totally unprepared. This last point is very important. If we can in any way be prepared for the shocking event, we will not become ill. In fact, Dr. Hamer does not like to say ‘cancer’. Rather, it is a special biological response to an unusual situation, and when the ‘shock’ situation is resolved, the body sets about returning to normality....
Read more.... http://www.newmedicine.ca/breast.php
Friday, September 13, 2013
Friday, September 6, 2013
upping the game...
upping the game is something i can never rest from doing nor take for granted, certainly not while i'm still racing to catch this thing. tomorrow i add in a homeopathic protocol (ramakrishnan) that will see me energetically plussing a remedy on a daily basis for 2 months, alternating each week between my constitutional of the moment, and a nosode... i'll also be taking Toxina de Alacran, a scorpion remedy coming out of a veritable homeopathic renaissance happening in cuba... i've started mixing chaga powder in water with lypospheric vitamin c and drinking that a couple times a day, having heard it will raise my natural killer cells by 300-400% in just one week... and finally, after two months of hunting, frustration and often muddling confusion, i found a qualified practitioner who will give me the intensive daily IV treatments and injections that i've been waiting for and in a manner individualized to my blood panels, not just shots in the dark.
i'll be on daily drips starting monday for a couple months at least... this is the begin of another rally, another big push. i've regained enough strength to be ready and primed for it... onwards!
Thursday, September 5, 2013
not so fast, mourners....
I got so much bad advice this week, its been a fun job navigating and having the courage of my convictions.... the tumour is not my litmus, my recovery of health is. three months with cancer and I have never felt better in my life! and one more thing, if you don't have love and positivity to share just now, i understand... just please leave me in peace while I'm busy doing what so many say can't be done... onwards!!!
self portrait 5 september 2013, TNBC metastatic, terminal diagnosis, pffft!
Saturday, August 31, 2013
teacher...
the great thing about having a palpable tumour, if i can use such a turn of phrase, is the immediate biofeedback. by this mechanism i've learned what holds it steady and what can spurt it into a period of uncontrollable growth that takes me days to curb. at this point, steady state is my golden mean, mistakes cost me dearly. like a few days ago i was feeling better and better and thought of how much more i could do with a little more food in my system. i added a single egg to my plate for three days before i realized i'd fed a growth spurt. i took a probiotic just to test my reactivity to dairy protein last night, and fed a growth spurt.
yes. this teacher who took up shop so intimately inside of me is a strict task master on a do-it-or-die mission. if i don't unlock the code in time, it will get the upper hand and destroy me. but, and this is what's so fucking tantalizing, if i unlock the code, i'll be able to deliver not just myself, but new knowledge...!
in this adventure there are times when its like being pulled along by wild horses, trying to find the calm in the heart of the storm that brings things to heel. these next few days are exactly such a time.
i'll be taking another round of measures that tend towards some unpleasantries to be borne, but i'm also dancing like nobody's looking for the first time in my life. onwards!
yes. this teacher who took up shop so intimately inside of me is a strict task master on a do-it-or-die mission. if i don't unlock the code in time, it will get the upper hand and destroy me. but, and this is what's so fucking tantalizing, if i unlock the code, i'll be able to deliver not just myself, but new knowledge...!
in this adventure there are times when its like being pulled along by wild horses, trying to find the calm in the heart of the storm that brings things to heel. these next few days are exactly such a time.
i'll be taking another round of measures that tend towards some unpleasantries to be borne, but i'm also dancing like nobody's looking for the first time in my life. onwards!
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
an august sunny muggy day...
when i left trisha's this morning i decided to walk the annex, see how long i could manage on my feet... not only did i last six hours in the heat (!!), the two times i needed a rest a bench would magically appear or someone would get up on the bus. no suffering...! not only that, the tumour stopped growing three days ago and my pain is reduced... onwards!
Monday, August 26, 2013
Saturday, August 24, 2013
why hyperbaric oxygen?
Most people who die of cancer die from the metastatic process, rather than from the tumor itself. There's really no treatment or cure for metastatic cancer. Dr. D'Agostino's team has demonstrated that the ketogenic diet by itself can extend survival in animal models of metastatic cancer, but when it's combined with hyperbaric oxygen therapy three times per week, there is an additive effect2.
Read more here... http://bit.ly/19R0TCA
"You get a significant reduction in tumor growth, decrease in tumor size, and significant extension of life when the therapeutic ketosis achieved through the ketogenic diet is combined with hyperbaric oxygen," he says.
"Tumors thrive in a low-oxygen environment. As a tumor grows, it exceeds its ability to supply oxygen to the center of the tumor. That low level of oxygen, called hypoxia, further activates the oncogenes; cancer promoting genes. It activates things like HIF-1-alpha and VEGF. IGF-1 signaling goes up. Hyperbaric oxygen can reverse tumor hypoxia intermittently. In doing that, it can actually turn off the oncogenes. There are published reports on this.
... [T]he tumor thrives in a low-oxygen environment, and it's adapted to that low-oxygen environment. When you saturate a tumor with oxygen, because the mitochondria are damaged, it overproduces oxygen free radicals in the form of superoxide anion. This oxygen-induced increase in free radicals can actually cause the tumor to kill itself."
Read more here... http://bit.ly/19R0TCA
Abstract
Introduction
Abnormal cancer metabolism creates a glycolytic-dependency which can be exploited by lowering glucose availability to the tumor. The ketogenic diet (KD) is a low carbohydrate, high fat diet which decreases blood glucose and elevates blood ketones and has been shown to slow cancer progression in animals and humans. Abnormal tumor vasculature creates hypoxic pockets which promote cancer progression and further increase the glycolytic-dependency of cancers. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO2T) saturates tumors with oxygen, reversing the cancer promoting effects of tumor hypoxia. Since these non-toxic therapies exploit overlapping metabolic deficiencies of cancer, we tested their combined effects on cancer progression in a natural model of metastatic disease.
Methods
We used the firefly luciferase-tagged VM-M3 mouse model of metastatic cancer to compare tumor progression and survival in mice fed standard or KD ad libitum with or without HBO2T (2.5 ATM absolute, 90 min, 3x/week). Tumor growth was monitored by in vivo bioluminescent imaging.
Results
KD alone significantly decreased blood glucose, slowed tumor growth, and increased mean survival time by 56.7% in mice with systemic metastatic cancer. While HBO2T alone did not influence cancer progression, combining the KD with HBO2T elicited a significant decrease in blood glucose, tumor growth rate, and 77.9% increase in mean survival time compared to controls.
Conclusions
KD and HBO2T produce significant anti-cancer effects when combined in a natural model of systemic metastatic cancer. Our evidence suggests that these therapies should be further investigated as potential non-toxic treatments or adjuvant therapies to standard care for patients with systemic metastatic disease.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
test results...
while i've written elsewhere why i don't subscribe to a gene-based view of cancer but prefer a metabolic/emotional one, i did consent to having my genes tested as part of a new program at the hospital. the result are in and i don't have the damaged BRCA1/2 genes, which means that even from a medical point of view, this cancer is not genetically driven (which they expected it to be), but a product of context... the perfect storm i contributed to these last twenty years which produced this singular, life-altering event.
this means, in short, i have no greater risk of developing a cancer than the average person and if i can beat this first effulgence of my frustrated body energies, there's no reason to think i'm at risk for subsequent cancers. they said it, not me.
onwards!
this means, in short, i have no greater risk of developing a cancer than the average person and if i can beat this first effulgence of my frustrated body energies, there's no reason to think i'm at risk for subsequent cancers. they said it, not me.
onwards!
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
side effects...
first i must report the extent to which i seem to be in holy flow. i can't enter traffic without it turning into stressless courtesy everywhere i look. parking spots magically appear, i'm running into people in dramatic, synchronous ways, everything feels so soft, and open, and warm. information and tools find me right at the last minute every time.... and they keep finding me, even when i don't know enough to know i'm woefully misinformed, doing the wrong thing, or not doing what needs done. that's a big one.
but here is the second whammy thing. i knew going into the start of the oxygen treatment that one of the reasons clinics like this exist and can thrive even at current prohibitive prices is that they're rapidly gaining renown as a very effective treatment for autism spectrum disorders. i'm an aspy and i can report after just three sessions some very dramatic changes i would never have expected.
i'm no longer as scattered mentally as i usually am. i seem to have inherited a sudden dose of social intelligence. i don't interrupt people and talk a blue streak but rather give and take in conversation, in fact, i can really hear what people are saying to me. its as if inside my head there's a new space that wasn't there before that allows me to relax when people speak. i'm not shuttling between their words and my own inner ticker tape. in fact i can see myself and my circumstances from the outside looking in, in a way i never experienced before and its acting as a natural inhibitor of these problematic patterns of behaviour (which i never really recognized as such). i don't get as lost in circuitous overprocessed inner conversation. i can speak more simply and say what i really feel without any hangups.
what's more, i suddenly can't stand to do what i've done for almost twenty years. content to hide from life and either loose myself in my mind and its books or fritter away my talents at a desk out of the game's circulation, taunting life with what i _could_ do if only....
now that i have to leave base camp to head to the north of the city for my HBOT every day i have a launching pad that i've started using to return myself to social life, to effort to see the people who i love and appreciate and who love and support me and make me feel good, to do the things that put me in new situations around new people so that i can improve my ability to interact with others. i was always good at making friends, but i lost most of them to neglect and just always never coming when called. i suddenly can no longer keep doing this.
in this way and by these strange means, i'm just letting myself become a bumble bee, moving from honey pot to honey pot wherever i go.... like woody allen said, 70% of success in life is showing up. suddenly i'm showing up. people are getting phone calls from me. i'm actually answering the phone. people are getting visits from me and during them i'm not screwing things up so much by anxiously projecting myself forward or getting bogged down, endlessly reprocessing hurts from the past. stupid things that are true but not best to voice don't fly out my mouth. that is a HUGE one that has led to so much unnecessary social tension. what i don't understand is that these seem to all be judgment issues, so why would oxygen lend me better social awareness, listening skills, and judgement? its not. its resolving the aspy adaptive habits i built over the years that have come to represent the peanut gallery within me that has made finding happiness and healing such a challenge.
onwards!
but here is the second whammy thing. i knew going into the start of the oxygen treatment that one of the reasons clinics like this exist and can thrive even at current prohibitive prices is that they're rapidly gaining renown as a very effective treatment for autism spectrum disorders. i'm an aspy and i can report after just three sessions some very dramatic changes i would never have expected.
i'm no longer as scattered mentally as i usually am. i seem to have inherited a sudden dose of social intelligence. i don't interrupt people and talk a blue streak but rather give and take in conversation, in fact, i can really hear what people are saying to me. its as if inside my head there's a new space that wasn't there before that allows me to relax when people speak. i'm not shuttling between their words and my own inner ticker tape. in fact i can see myself and my circumstances from the outside looking in, in a way i never experienced before and its acting as a natural inhibitor of these problematic patterns of behaviour (which i never really recognized as such). i don't get as lost in circuitous overprocessed inner conversation. i can speak more simply and say what i really feel without any hangups.
what's more, i suddenly can't stand to do what i've done for almost twenty years. content to hide from life and either loose myself in my mind and its books or fritter away my talents at a desk out of the game's circulation, taunting life with what i _could_ do if only....
now that i have to leave base camp to head to the north of the city for my HBOT every day i have a launching pad that i've started using to return myself to social life, to effort to see the people who i love and appreciate and who love and support me and make me feel good, to do the things that put me in new situations around new people so that i can improve my ability to interact with others. i was always good at making friends, but i lost most of them to neglect and just always never coming when called. i suddenly can no longer keep doing this.
in this way and by these strange means, i'm just letting myself become a bumble bee, moving from honey pot to honey pot wherever i go.... like woody allen said, 70% of success in life is showing up. suddenly i'm showing up. people are getting phone calls from me. i'm actually answering the phone. people are getting visits from me and during them i'm not screwing things up so much by anxiously projecting myself forward or getting bogged down, endlessly reprocessing hurts from the past. stupid things that are true but not best to voice don't fly out my mouth. that is a HUGE one that has led to so much unnecessary social tension. what i don't understand is that these seem to all be judgment issues, so why would oxygen lend me better social awareness, listening skills, and judgement? its not. its resolving the aspy adaptive habits i built over the years that have come to represent the peanut gallery within me that has made finding happiness and healing such a challenge.
onwards!
HBOT update...
i didn't sleep at all after the first treatment, i was coasting on an astonishing energy for two days and well into last night as well. the tumour, however, keeps swelling.* after the second treatment i felt my first reduction in pain and actually slept without tossing and turning for the first time in weeks. when i woke up this morning it was softer and had been subtly reducing overnight (easily adduced as the tumour has only been in reduction phase twice and the feeling is unmistakable), but as soon as i got mobile it started increasing again. its almost taken the breast over and now encroaches the thorax in all directions. yes. aggressive is the word. but the key thing is, i'm overall feeling better, stronger, and more grounded. its interesting that i'm receiving a treatment for cancer that is used to treat autism spectrum disorders (i'm an aspy). i'm noting already some changes and profiting from them greatly.
so. i'm keeping to the parts of the program that seem to help and focused on my goal. when changes become necessary i'm doing my best, some of the changes are intimidating, yet i feel right now that anything is possible, that i'm completely equipped and capable of making something out of this that can honour what i've learned, and get it into play and distribution finally.
its always nice to add to a body of human culture, but i long to touch people's hearts somehow. man is a wolf to man, the roman catallus wrote. the things we do to each other are barbaric and persistently so, but we're only ever one spark leaping across a synapse away from more ennobled understandings and the ableness to embrace dynamic natural laws.
i'm walking a tightrope for the next few weeks. i know in my condition it only takes a couple bad turns to find oneself in a pickle so i'm motivated to get back to work. its important i keep two books, as they say. one that acknowledges the mortality play at work, and one that believes in magic.
onwards!
*its important to note, in presence of conditions leading to the neutralization of disease, symptoms will aggravate or appear to worsen before rapid improvement sets in. it's always darkest before the dawn.
so. i'm keeping to the parts of the program that seem to help and focused on my goal. when changes become necessary i'm doing my best, some of the changes are intimidating, yet i feel right now that anything is possible, that i'm completely equipped and capable of making something out of this that can honour what i've learned, and get it into play and distribution finally.
its always nice to add to a body of human culture, but i long to touch people's hearts somehow. man is a wolf to man, the roman catallus wrote. the things we do to each other are barbaric and persistently so, but we're only ever one spark leaping across a synapse away from more ennobled understandings and the ableness to embrace dynamic natural laws.
i'm walking a tightrope for the next few weeks. i know in my condition it only takes a couple bad turns to find oneself in a pickle so i'm motivated to get back to work. its important i keep two books, as they say. one that acknowledges the mortality play at work, and one that believes in magic.
onwards!
*its important to note, in presence of conditions leading to the neutralization of disease, symptoms will aggravate or appear to worsen before rapid improvement sets in. it's always darkest before the dawn.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
correspondences...
interesting as HBOT comes into my world: part of the arrangement in tonight's blue moon finds the moon's north node on scorpio 11... the sabian symbol for which reads,
"A Drowning Man Is Being Rescued...."
Keywords: Resuscitation. Regaining one’s breath. Finding life renewed. Asthma, bronchitis, breathing difficulties. Finding help in moments of crisis. Needing a hand. Being rescued. Salvation on any level. Ventilators. Breathing equipment. Oxygen. Dependence. Last minute reprieves. [Lynda Hill]
"A Drowning Man Is Being Rescued...."
Keywords: Resuscitation. Regaining one’s breath. Finding life renewed. Asthma, bronchitis, breathing difficulties. Finding help in moments of crisis. Needing a hand. Being rescued. Salvation on any level. Ventilators. Breathing equipment. Oxygen. Dependence. Last minute reprieves. [Lynda Hill]
Monday, August 19, 2013
full moon contact high...
when i treat cancer like a foe, it defeats me, but when i work with it as coach, advisor, psychologist, and beloved, it helps me move in the direction of healing, at once unfurling and letting go, unfurling and letting go....
as far as i can tell it wants to tell me a story that will lead me out of the swampy wood and into the sunshine. i've recently taken up dictation.
as far as i can tell it wants to tell me a story that will lead me out of the swampy wood and into the sunshine. i've recently taken up dictation.
lazarus moment...
it took some doing but i managed to put together the financing for hyberbaric oxygen and ozone treatment. i started the HBOT today and it really is no exaggeration to call it the kiss of life.
it would be too tedious _just_ at the moment to start detailing the many things i'm doing right now to neutralize this cancer, suffice it to say wherever i go and whomever i speak with, i'm getting straight As for the comprehensiveness of my protocol, my hustle, multi-tasking, and spunk. ironically, the two words i've heard most these last three days are, 'glowing,' 'radiant...' it seems cancer agrees with me! perhaps that's why the tumour is so reluctant to let me go.
in the meantime it keeps playing its dramatic moves (they don't call TNBC 'aggressive' for no reason, i discovered...) and i keep countering with mine. i can't go into the details, but suffice to say i'm changing so completely, tuning in so exquisitely to the ecstatic channels of life, i barely recognize myself... and the more decisions i make guided by what is true for me (instead of contorting myself to comply to what is false for me)... by feeling in the dark for my womanness, by grounding in the limitless potential of each NEW moment, the more unpredictable and exciting life becomes. aho!
there are no ultimate securities, i've always known that. so why build a life around playacting a collective denial of this truth when there is such a more vital and beautiful world to uncover leaning into uncertainty and change.... and the impossible!
ONWARDS!
it would be too tedious _just_ at the moment to start detailing the many things i'm doing right now to neutralize this cancer, suffice it to say wherever i go and whomever i speak with, i'm getting straight As for the comprehensiveness of my protocol, my hustle, multi-tasking, and spunk. ironically, the two words i've heard most these last three days are, 'glowing,' 'radiant...' it seems cancer agrees with me! perhaps that's why the tumour is so reluctant to let me go.
in the meantime it keeps playing its dramatic moves (they don't call TNBC 'aggressive' for no reason, i discovered...) and i keep countering with mine. i can't go into the details, but suffice to say i'm changing so completely, tuning in so exquisitely to the ecstatic channels of life, i barely recognize myself... and the more decisions i make guided by what is true for me (instead of contorting myself to comply to what is false for me)... by feeling in the dark for my womanness, by grounding in the limitless potential of each NEW moment, the more unpredictable and exciting life becomes. aho!
there are no ultimate securities, i've always known that. so why build a life around playacting a collective denial of this truth when there is such a more vital and beautiful world to uncover leaning into uncertainty and change.... and the impossible!
ONWARDS!
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