Introduction

california_artist said:

Karen
You are lovely in your thoughts. I feel as though you are new to the neighborhood and we should as we did when I was a girl, come a calling and offer cake as a welcome, were we of mind to eat cake.

Pleasure to meet you.

Claudia

So, what are your thoughts on cancer treatment? prevention? long term survival strategies, etc. Just if you look at it, cancer, as a problem to solve. I had just been mentioning to another Karen here about how often it is an idea of another that begins to complete the puzzle and bring an ah ha moment, filling in a missing piece and making the entire picture clearer.

Any and all thoughts and conjectures are welcome.

Best

fearlesshoneybadger said:

Thank you
for your warm thoughts. I continue to be amazed at the thoughtfulness, kindness, and generosity of the women and supporters of these boards.

Jill: Kale stew sounds amazing. I thought I wasn't a fan of kale (though I love spinach and other dark greens) until I tried baked kale (chips) recently (sprinkled with a bit of fresh grated parmesan). Yum!

Claudia: All week your questions have been sitting in the back of my head and I think about them in quiet moments. I realized that for all of the research I've done on gynecologic cancers, treatments, therapies, and the like I'm not entirely sure *how* I feel about the three main issues you asked about (treatment, prevention, long term survival strategies).

Going into the process last year without much information other than slash and burn as the gold standard left me wondering what else is out there for treating and managing cancer. I am convinced of the power of foods and supplements to create an inhospitable environment for future cancer growth or development but this is tempered with the case studies of people who recur despite such interventions. I like to think such people bought themselves more time recurrence-free or perhaps just a reduction in symptoms difficult to achieve with standard therapies.

The director who is also the co-PI on numerous GOG trials of the small women's cancer center I go to professes not have the resources to offer anything other than the "standard" methods of treatment. I have been working with my gyn/onc and their staff to help build up these resources. Specifically, I think all of us should have as "standard" treatment, consultations with a knowledgeable nutritionist, comprehensive monitoring beyond RBC/WBC (vitamin levels, hormone levels, etc.), psychosocial monitoring and intervention (when was the last time your gyn/onc asked about your sex life, body image, or day-to-day coping?), etc.

I understand the reluctance of some gyn/onc to integrate "complementary" therapies into their evidence-based medical practice but it seems like our current models of evidence-based cancer treatment could use some updating. The same databases of medical research physicians point to in support of a strictly evidence-based approach house peer-reviewed, rigorous research on some of the very complementary therapies evidence-based physicians scoff at. That seems like a narrow-minded view of current medicine (to me). Indeed, some medical school hospitals and treatment centers have recognized for well over a decade now that there is more to treating cancer than flooding the body with cytotoxic chemicals and radiation.

I do know I feel a bit lost at the moment with the next steps. My cancer is not an "if" for recurrence. It will. When it does, I'm not sure how I want to proceed. I don't dwell on this issue day-to-day but I do want an action plan in place.

-Karen