Alternative treatment

together
together Member Posts: 13
edited March 2014 in Lymphoma (Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin) #1
the Biopsy confirmed that my son still has cancer, the doctors say that he has a moderate aggressive hodgkins, after discussing all of the options(few), my son has decied to undergo more chemo, they hope to put him into remission where more options will be open to him. He only has a 5% chance of cure. We were thinking of going the alternative route, the doctor would not give us his opinion on that way. Has anyone heard of going to Mexico and doing alternative treatment there?

Comments

  • AlloMan
    AlloMan Member Posts: 47
    #2
    After my first relapse for HD and having an auto transplant, I looked at alternative medicines to prevent another relapse (which eventually happened). I decided not to go that route.

    There are many problems with alternative medicine. If someone says herbs A,B and C will fight cancer, say, prove it. I suspect there will be little if anything documented, or any studies, especially if we're talking specifically about HD. Secondly, it would probably be suggested your son take a combination of herbs or other stuff. Even if there is something documented about herbs A,B and C, I doubt very much if there's anything documented on the effects of taking A,B and C in combination. It may very well make your son more sick and not do anything for the cancer. These things also cost a lot of money. If you take this route, expect to potentially pay hundreds of dollars each month (I was told $500/month and that some Mexican clinics charge up to $1000/month).

    But, to each his own. Maybe if I shelled out the money, I wouldn't have relapsed again (I doubt it). Doing my research, I read a couple books: "American Cancer Society's Guide to Complementary and Alternative Cancer Methods" (ISBN #0-944235-29-8) and "Herbal Medicine, Healing & Cancer" by Donald Yance (ISBN #0-87983-968-6).

    You will probably find some miracle stories about this or that approach, but maybe what you won't hear is the stories of people spending a lot of money, getting very sick and passing away anyways.

    I don't know how old your son is, but it sounds like he's already made his decision as to what to do. After my second relapse, I had an allogeneic bone marrow transplant. Prior to it, one doctor said the procedure would do me no good. After the BMT, a transplant doctor told me I have an 80% chance of a cure. Any kind of treatment, alternative or otherwise, is a crap shoot. Whether your son made the right decision, time will only tell.

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