Ugh, cat scan on Monday and feeling worried

JanJan63 said:

Thanks Bill, I enjoyed

Thanks Bill, I enjoyed reading your post. I'm cranky again tonight because my ostomy bag leaked at work starting almost four hours before I could leave so I spent the rest of the day with paper towels folded up and stuffed down the top of my pants. Luckily I wear scrubs at work so nobody can see anything weird. I came home and put duct tape over it. It's leaking from under the sticker that's over top of the vent. Third one out of the newest box of appliances I have. Not impressed. Spent the rest of the day stressed out about it and Tuesday is our busiest and most stressful day to start with. So tired of feeling like Frankenstein.

I was already in a mood this morning and posted a rant about people who share posts about alternative cancer cures and how 'big pharma' has the cure but won't produce it. Such a bunch of crap. Came home to a response from the worst offender saying how I'm wrong because she knows people that have done alternative things and their cancer hasn't come back. Really? And how do you quantify that? There's no way to know if it wouldn't have come back anyway. She's also the big pharma conspiracy theorist. Yeah, because people who run or work for 'big pharma' would rather allow their own family and loved ones or themselves to die rather than come up with a cure. And all those people who work for them are all in it together. Newsflash, dead people don't make future customers to purchase their products, so how would not offering something that would get rid of cancer be beneficial to them? 

I know there are people on here who get upset with me for being such a non-believer in alternative treatments but that's how I feel. Please don't send me any private messages trying to tune me in, it just angers me more and does not make me see the light.

Bill, none of my tirade was directed at you, I kind of got off topic. Thanks for your message!

Jan

I just posted something about your ostomy reversal question.

Alternative Cancer Cures

I think many, many people start reading and researching when they are first diagnosed. Or at least after the stunned feeling of being in an episode of the twilight zone wears off.   I worked in an emergency room for about 3 years in the air force on all shifts. On the evening shift the doctor on call would generally wander off to their on base quarters (most lived off base but had to stay on base when they were on call) or go hang out at the officers club.  There were a couple of doctors who didn't mind hanging out and chatting so I got to pick their brains and over the course of 3 years, between the doctors, a Merck manual, Physician Desk Reference, and a few other medical books recommended by a couple of the docs I learned a few things.

So being the rationale human being that I am, after I was diagnosed I read every website I could find on alternative treatments, researching various herbs, supplements, etc.  Here's what I learned. No one has any clear, definitive, absolute, 100% proof.  People want to believe in something, anything, and will defend that belief using any argument, whether it's supportable or not and will defend that belief by pointing to ancedotal evidence and claiming it's 100% factual. 

Even pharmaceutical companies have gotten smarter than that.  Chemotherapy doesn't cure cancer.  It can delay growth, shrink it, make it go into remission, prolong life, etc. But medicine admits that it's not a cure and it doesn't work all the time.  The alternative treatment folks tend to want to make their cures work 100% of the time and if it doesn't work then it's your fault. Some of the people who started these sites have gotten smarter in their marketing and have toned down the sales pitch a bit but there are still the converts who swear up and down that their Uncle Joe ate nothing but Broccoli soup for a year and it cured his prostate cancer so that must mean that Broccoli soup must be a cure for all prostate cancer.

It's one of those topics like religion or politics.  Logic isn't required, just belief.  There was a site where the blogger claimed he'd cured his cancer by eating cloves of crushed garlic and I believe habanero peppers rolled up in a piece of bread and butter.  It's been awhile ago and I don't remember what kind of cancer he said he'd had and some of the details are a bit fuzzy but I believe he'd been through treatment and stopped it to do this alternative treatment.  What's interesting was that unlike many site he wasn't trying to sell anything. So, for that at least... I (sand)wich him well.... ahem and moving on.

The pharma conspiracy has been around for decades.... some things just never die I guess.  Kind of like the carburetor that would allow a car to get 100+ miles per gallon. What car manufacturer in their right mind would not want to be the first to put that car on the market. It would have put Detroit back on the map overnight. 

Pharmaceutical companies are like insurance companies.  Patients are immaterial other than the fact that they are the ultimate consumer of whatever medication the pharmaceutical company comes up with.   Pharmaceutical companies make money by being able to patent these medications.  During the life of the patent the pharmaceutical company will charge whatever it can get away with in order to recoup it's administrative and R&D costs and make a healthy profit so that management can get large bonuses and the shareholders can get whatever the lowest amount is that the company can legally get away with giving them.   That process hasn't changed in forever.  Nothing new. As an example, Mylan's EpiPen has increased in price from $60 9 years ago to about $400 now. They have a 1 year expiration date so have to be repurchased every year. I've given epinephrine shots and a 1cc syringe is at most $1 (monject 1cc syringe w/o needle, .21) and the dose of epinephrine is at most a couple of bucks. The EpiPen is patented and lets someone with no medical skill to inject someone with a predetermined dose of epinephrine.  So the delivery system is $400.  They've come under fire over it and are trying to do damage control. But, in business this is what businesses do. They do what they can, for as long as they can, to make as much money as they can.

What makes the conspiracy theorists argument so odd is that the arguments are typically directed at US pharma.  Does this mean that every other pharmaceutical company in the world is also supressing a cancer cure?  Can you imagine what it would mean to any country, especially those one's not particularly friendly with the U.S., to come up with a cure and patent it.  Why wouldn't they?  The argument could be that no other country in the world has our technology and knowledge and skills. Okay, as we've seen in the news, if a country wanted that inforation they'd hack their way into a U.S. Pharmaceutical company and steal what they needed.  It would be a huge coup and it's not a huge leap. What pharma company is going to yell foul if Russia suddenly came up with a cancer cure that a US company was keeping under wraps.

Even more than just being consumers of drugs, we're all consumers of food, gas, energy, auto, entertainment, etc.  Would these other industries allow one industry to control who lives and who dies and reduce their profits?   Why would the government not want live taxpayers?  If there was a conspiracy wouldn't the NSA have picked up on that by now? I mean according to the conspiracy theorists the NSA can get into anything right?  (okay, that may not be so far-fetched... reminder to self.. recheck my firewall).

The conspiracy theorists have been around since way before the technology age and haven't quite gotten up to speed on the "information highway".  The kind of conspiracy they are talking about makes no sense in a very competitive global economy where companies not only want recyclable consumers they also want long-lived consumers.  If any pharmaceutial company could come up with an actual cancer cure they would have 7 billion potential customers for as long as the patent lasted.  Money trumps conspiracy every time.

Okay, stepping down from soapbox now. 

So, yup. I agree with you. 

Hope you have a better evening.

Bill

My wife just went through the PET-CT yesterday, preliminary report sounds okay, same old features. Complaints about the 3 hr drive in, one poke and veins.  

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I'm not sure what to say about alternative medicine.   Certainly I see stuff that looks in part to be shared ignorance, commercial exploitation, or just plain crazy.  Besides surgery, my wife's offers from standard medicine only could lead to disaster in suffering, finances and death years ago.   

We are also aware of a lot of unused phenomena that have been extremely helpful for us with off-label medicine and somewhat specialized supplements in potent amounts, combined with standard medicines from other parts of the globe but not approved in North America.    Virtually no one utilizes these things in a rational, sustained manner to be really effective.    Certainly we've done a few things that would raise eyebrows, most in forms of applied logic and science as we see most practical.  

Most people I hear of, they expect too much from one random treatment, tried way too late, too briefly, with too little, in erroneous efforts from dubious sources, to be reasonable expectations. Many critics and proponents have little idea what they are talking about.

We started from the beginning.  I've marched through thousands of papers, myriads of literature abstracts. For us, it has been consistent effort from the start to accu mulate improvements and advantages, avoid mistakes - conventional and unconventional, then to recognize problems and mistakes and recover from them ASAP.  

Is it my time yet?

When Oxford University formulated "Trovax" they tested it for years with various types of cancer. Very successful! It was immunotherapy and managed to get one's immune system to fight the cancer cells. Trovax had to be used alone, since a weakened immune system would have a tough time fighting the damaged, rogue cells.

Merck (One of the largest chemotherapy suppliers in the world), bought into the license to do further testing for FDA approval. Merck insisted on Trovax be used as an adjuvant to their chemicals (chemotherapy), and they insisted on testing Trovax with cancer types that were never tested prior to their purchase. They spent hundreds of millions on their tests, and each and every test failed. The license was given back to Oxford Biomedical and Oxford could not get any other investor to invest into Trovax. for further testing necessary to market their product.

All of the very inclusive doc umentation regarding Trovax is available on the web for reading. The Oxford/Trovax story is available at most all of the major investment websites. It was a very major investment by a very major leader in the industry, with results of the failure of the tests noted. Everything indicated that Trovax was totally useless as a cancer fighting tool. That had put an end to Oxford's Trovax; without investor support, Oxford had come to the end of it's road. (Conspiracy theories? haha.....  funny!)

Years prior to Trovax, a chemical known as "Hydrazine Sulfate" was studied by  Dr. Gold (a member of the "The Syracuse Cancer Research Institute"). All tests indicated very successful results for those of late term stages of cancer. The chemical is a "jet fuel" byproduct. It was deemed as a carcinogenic chemical and denounced by the chemotherapy industry. The fact that every known chemical used in Chemotherapy are known to be carcinogenic, was not noted. (immunotherapy products are not classified as "chemotherapy").

The physician and the entire non-profit Institute were denounced by the industry for promoting "Hydrazine Sulfate", in spite of the in-depth testing and record keeping that indicated the chemical's usefulness. "Hydrazine Sulfate" had been proven to stop (or slow) the liver from converting Lactic acid back into glucose. (Lactic acid is generated as waste by a cancer cell during it's use of glucose for it's survival). A cancer patient in the late stages of cancer looses weight and energy quickly, since the cancer cells are using glucose faster than "good cells"; HS breaks that cycle and provides the patient with a better chance for survival. The Syracuse Cancer Research Institute and Dr. Gold had absolutely nothing to gain financially for their work with Hydrazine Sulfate; HS is already marketed in other countries and is already licensed for use in those countries.
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Hydrazine Sulfate:
http://scri.ngen.com/

http://www.hydrazinesulfate.org/

The cost for the amount needed for total HS treatment? I paid $5 per bottle of tablets back in 2006, two bottles were said to be needed; $10 total. No, I have not resorted to taking the chemical (yet). I am an advocate for Traditional Chinese Medicine, not chemicals. If/when TCM fails, I'll have the HS to resort to. But I seriously do not accept the use of chemicals to fight any disease. It would take a "last chance/do or die" situation for me to turn to any chemical resolve.
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Traditional Chinese Medicine has been studied and well doc umented for over three thousand years. Western Medicine has only been studied for a few hundred years (perhaps less than that). TCM is practiced in most all of the Asian hospitals, as an adjuvant to western medicine and as a "stand alone". Institutions - Johns Hopkins, Sloan Kettering, Mayo Clinic, etc presently have added some aspects of TCM treatment. TCM is presently considered a viable alternative to western medicine in many health facilities.

Unlike many of the "alternatives" that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, TCM is quite inexpensive. And unlike most all of the so-called "alternatives", TCM has been studied, practiced, and the results well doc umented throughout history.

I'm sure there are other viable modalities aside from Western Medicine and TCM, but my trust is with TCM, and my experience is limited to both these modalities.

Never allow fear to steer your course. Listen to your inner instincts; your intuition. Your self-survival instincts are there for a reason.

Be well,

John

Jan,

The waiting is horrible.  You are not being cranky,,,,, you are being human.  I never really understood about "waiting" for results until I went through all this cancer mess.  I used to try to fill the waiting time with things I really enjoyed.  It helped a bit to divert the brain.

I send all good thoughts your way!

JanJan63 said:

John, you constantly amaze me

John, you constantly amaze me with your vast knowledge and research. I am not good at finding information that I want and I'm really impressed when someone else is able to get the answers they're looking for. And I so appreciate you taking the time to share it with me and all of us here.

My problem with TCM is that for thousands of years they didn't know exactly what was wrong with a person. There were no tests to tell them it was cancer or whatever it was. And, of course, people had a much shorter life span so cancer wasn't as common. I just don't trust that they work.

I watched a documentary last year about a treatment people with cancer were going for in another country, I forget where, and the people were convinced that it had worked. But they'd been tested before and after they went and their cancer level hadn't changed at all, some were even worse. But the people were so convinced by it that they thought they were better and were more active and felt much better emotionally. The conclusion was that it might extend their life by a short period merely due to their positive attitude or make their time left a more positive experience nut the treatment itself had changed nothing as far as their cancer was concerned.

John, you've probably seen me post about my grandmother who was in her fifties in the 1950s and had 'bowel' cancer and only had surgery to remove it and give her a colostomy, no other treatments and passed away in her early eighties and had never had cancer again, her kidneys had failed. The doctors said she was so healthy they wanted to give her a transplant but she refused. What that tells me is that if she'd taken somethng whether it was traditional treatments or TCM or whatever it was, she and we would think that was what kept it at bay. I just can't see how anyone can say that a certain thing has helped them.

Like my friend who keeps touting Essiac tea. She had a small bump on her lip that was cancerous and had it removed. She had a larger area removed and had to have someplastic surgery and has it in her head that it indicates how bad the cancer was, how big it was. She doesn't understand margines. So she drinks Essiac tea and is convinced that that's what has kept it from coming back. Yet her nice had cancer as a child and had courses of radiation and chemo and has had nothing since, no treatments or alternative options, is now 25 years old and has never had a reccurence. I think everyone takes from what they know or have read a different point of view. If she'd convinced me to drink the tea and I don't have cancer now she's be saying 'see!' and think the tea had done it.  

I'm just going to stick to the treatemtns they choose for me and question it if it sound sketchy or there is a better option I've heard of and stay away from any sort of alternative ideas. I've never smoked or done drugs, I rarely drank and I eat pretty well and I've always been active enough and I got cancer. I rarely eat processed food or fast food and do not eat a lot of meat. I'll stick with that way of living and hope that it doesn't come back. I guess I'm a little fatalistic. I feel like I could be killed in some other way any time so why sweat it too much trying to prevent it. The blood clot that almost killed me gave me a little bit of a different perspective on the cancer thing. Looking back the cancer seems minor compared to that. The cancer is something that I could go along with slowly and get the treatments and over time see if it's worked. The blood clot killed me on the spot. I got up and made a cup of coffee and within five minutes my husband was holding me on the floor and I'd taken my last breath. It was so fast and totally unexpected. The only reason I'm here now is because he called 911 and they got here in time to give me CPR before the 4 minutes were up where brain damage starts. I had to be revived at least five times. I've been told as many as eight times but I'll stick with five. I was told after that my survival rate and odds of going back to normal were something like 3 in a thousand. The survival rate for just the blood clot was less than 6% but I was never expected to be back to normal. My family was warned that I'd likely be a vegetable or barely able to function and likely wouldn't know them or interact the same way. And I'd be in a care home for the rest of my life. But here I am. So I feel like we can all go at any moment and while I won't risk doing activities that will endanger my health I also won't go too much out of my way to try unproven ways of preventing a recurrence of my cancer.

Jan   

JanJan...

Re:
"My problem with TCM is that for thousands of years they didn't know exactly what was wrong with a person. There were no tests to tell them it was cancer or whatever it was. And, of course, people had a much shorter life span so cancer wasn't as common. I just don't trust that they work."

I'm going to make this short..

In TCM, no "label" is applied to a symptom. You have pains in your abdomen, it isn't labeled "Crohn's disease" or "UC" or any other label after which specific pharmaceutical products will be prescribed with western medicine's approach to healing.

With TCM, the underlying cause of the symptom you are displaying is treated; the treatment is designed and formulated for you, not for the generic symptom that is being displayed.

When the problem is resolved, the symptom goes away; TCM takes time. In TCM, your body does the repair. The herbs or other treatments only encourage specific organs to do the job they were intended to do.

A "tumor" is not designated as "cancer" or otherwise; a tumor is a tumor. A normal working body does not allow a tumor of any type to form. Most people do not have tumors. If one's body can be brought back to do what it was intended to do, you will never find a tumor within that body.

Some of the oldest individuals in the entire world are of Asian descent. I'm curious to the "shorter lifespan" you referred to, but it's not to be argumentative, and more rhetorical..... No need to drag it out...

We all make our choices to do what we feel is best for us. It's the only correct way to go through life. No one knows our life better than we do. We all have that inner voice; an intuition, that self survival instinct that we should to listen to if we intend to survive in the manner best suited for us.

Some do well using the remedies of one modality, while other do better using other than that modality. There are options available to try, no one should feel limited to any specific modality if they find it's failing them, or causing more problems.

That's really all my comments were and are concerning, and certainly not directed to any individual.

Be well Jan, my best wishes always your way.....

John