My mom... please respond

If I were you I would consult a naturopathic physician who deals w/ oncology. I do not know, from the sounds of it, if your mother would be able to handle the toxic side effects of chemo and would probably benefit from a liver cleanse, such as silimarin (Milk Thistle). I am no doctor, but if it were me I would prefer to see your mother healthy (liver functioning properly, good weight, and color) rather than necessarily being cancer free. I do not come on to this site daily so I do not recall what the exact situation with your Mom is - but as a survivior I know that quality of life is very important. Best of luck to you in your search for answers. Take care and give your Mother a hug for me! Susan.

P.S. I think there is a number on this site somewhere for clinical trail match ups. I cannot remember where though - maybe it's on the ACS homepage. Does anyone know? Also, check out the message just below this one on Ammonium TM. There is an 800 number on there I believe for an alternative center in Georgia that offers non-traditional treatments.

Hi there -- So very sorry that your mother is not doing well right now. I really don't have any clear answers, but I do know that my Gastroenterologist is a liver specialist; I might contact or consult with one. I might also start juicing to help clean out her liver. An Apple/Carrot mixture is often used as a general cleanse and my thought is that it would not hurt her -- but, she is in a weakened state -- the idea of a naturapath consult sounds good. Just allowing her liver to be less-toxic would be important, and life-giving. Again, I am so sorry that you are going through all of this despair and I sincerely hope that you find some help quickly. All the best thoughts coming your way and I hope that your mother is resting with as much confort as possible -- Maura

HI Erika,
I know about a new radiation procedure for the liver that is supposed to be 88% effective in controlling cancer in the liver. I guess the liver is not a place they normally like to do radiation because it is so hard to target the tumors and it messes up the whole liver. This new procedure ONLY targets the liver tumors and leaves the rest of the liver alone.
It just came out a couple of months ago at the University of Rochester. My fathers oncologist said it was a possibility for him down the road (I guess he means the road after the chemo stops working) If you are interested let me know. I'll check this post again or email me..I'll send you the info. It is supposed to be doubling the average length of survival for people with mets to the liver. Maybe your mother could check with her oncologist to see if she would be a good candidate.
Sue

oh Erika:
I am so so sorry that the chemo is no longer working and agree with all the other posts about alternatives etc- just to help he liver get rid of all the previous toxins.

The radiation procedure is called SRT- stereotactic readiotherapy to liver..and is currently in clinical trials.

I hope and pray for all of you-

Bev

Hi Erika, I am so sorry to hear about your mom. Scott did the erbitux for a couple of months and did not have severe side effects. He also drank Flor-essence tea which he said made him feel alot better. You can get it at GNC. It's a pain to make, but worth it.

Linda

While the Cancer Treatment Centers of America didn't have anything new or innovative for my metastatic colon cancer, I did like their treatment of patients. They tell you that if you're still breathing you still have a chance and they also don't ever want you to miss a meal which I think is important.

I saw where someone mentioned milk thistle to improve liver function. I take this daily and while I have doubts with much of the herbal or alternative stuff, I do believe that the silimarin in milk thistle improves liver function. During a very toxic chemo treatment a year or so ago, I began taking milk thistle and my liver functions improved during the chemo suprising my oncologist...the only thing I changed was taking the milk thistle...It's cheap and available at any drug store/grocery store.

Also, after having half of my liver cut out at Duke (literally), I got hepatic arterial injection chemo that severely damaged my liver and also caused blockage in my bile duct drain that led to me being very jaundiced... Essentially, the liver was still functioning fairly well, but the waste products couldn't get out. My urine became very dark and my eyes, skin, etc were yellow like the wolf man. I felt miserable. If your mother's bile duct is obstructed, a stent (temp or permanent) can be installed with a procedure that is not very invasive (goes through your mouth, stomach, small intestine, and places the stent (no incision)). The jaundice went away in a day or so and I felt much better. I had 4 temp stints installed before going to the stainless steel permanent one. (The temp stents would get stopped up after a few weeks) The permanent one has been in place for 7-8 months and I take ursodiol to thin my bile and it has done fine. The bad news is if it gets stopped up and they are unable to roto-rooter it out, you have to run a bag out your side (a little detail the Dr. failed to mention before doing the procedure), but at this point, I think the permanent one is the way to go.

If your mom's biggest current problem is poor liver function, this might be something that could help improve her quality of life, depending on why her liver is not functioning properly.

I would ask a liver specialist whether blockage that could be cleared by a stent might help. Probably not, but it's worth asking...One thing I've learned is that you have to be your own advocate....These Drs. herd you through like cattle at an auction and miss obvious things way more often than we would like to believe. (I'm no Dr.,although I have learned way more than I wanted to know about this stuff over the last few years.)

Has your mother tried Avastin with low doses of 5FU and leucovorin? Also, you may want to read about Ammonium Tetrathiomolybdate (TM) at www.coldcure.com (listed as one item on left side of web site). This regimen is not very toxic and apparently hasn't further damaged my liver too much... My alkaline phosphotase has actually improved to almost normal (dropped from 900 to approx. 200) over the 5 months (so far) course of treatment. I would never have tried the Avastin,(I was discouraged with chemo) except a lady I know had a very good response using it and between it and the TM it has definitely beat back my cancer of the last few months. (NOTE: A blood test has to be done to see if your VEGF? (I think) is the right number... If not, the Avastin doesn't work.)

Please let me know if any of this helps.