Adventures in Alternatives

"Knock Hard, Life is Deaf" -Unknown

After a fabulous, but long and nap-less, family day filled with basketball (of course), emergency shoe shopping (for X), video games, and movies, at 7 pm I felt like someone hit me with a ton of bricks.
My head suddenly started to ache. I started getting irritated with EVERYTHING.
I know this point. I've been there many times before. Nothing good can happen after I hit this proverbial wall.
I told the family what had happened, shut the door to the bedroom, crawled into bed with my meds as normal, turned on the tv and began choosing between 60 min. and dateline.
Yeah, this is how much fun I am on a Sunday night.
But then, whoa, it felt like lighting struck, Suzanne Summers was on Dateline talking about her controversial book, "Knock-Out: Doctors That are Curing Cancer."
This was too much to be a coincidence. My body had shut down sending me to bed at the exact time this news program about alternatives came on.
Interesting.
I have researched alternatives to chemotherapy and traditional American treatment across the world from NYC to Germany to India with success.
In the April of 2008, while in NY to see a Dr. at Memorial Sloan and Kettering for a second opinion on transplantation, I saw a Dr. in New Rochelle, NY who recommended a series of supplements from Germany.
I'd had a PET scan immediately prior to this visit.
In May I decided to undergo treatment at Dana Farber in Boston using a trial drug to prepare for my mini-allo transplant.
My Following PET scan showed my tumor had "spontaneously regressed" to the point I almost did not qualify for the treatment study.
By late June, with no other treatment, the supplements worked! I was nearly cancer free! I had 1 tumor less than an inch in diameter.
But what did I do?
I stopped so as not to interfere with the trial and took the traditional route. My cancer returned while receiving my transplant.
That is one feisty cancer to return during active treatment with a transplant!
Thank goodness I'm feistier.
Now, again, at a crossroads, it's time to consider alternatives at the very least, alongside traditional treatment.
You'd be surprised the support this is gaining from the main stream. The choice does not have to be either or but a safe combination.
The study of Psychonueroimmunology has only been identified within the past 20 years. As part of medicines' progress, many are recognizing treatment must treat the patient as a whole, even as an individual whole with customized therapy, such as a vaccine, and not solely as a disease.
Dana Farber in Boston has embraced proven alternative methods and provides them for a small fee at The Zakim Center.
These proven methods include, but are not limited to, nutrition counseling, massage, and accupuncture.
Norris Cotton at Dartmouth also has embraced some alternatives, such as Reiki, massage, music, and art. All of these are made available to patients during treatment at the center or as an in-patient.
What has yet to happen; however, is the cross-over where physicians and NPs recommend supplementation.
This is where I am.
Previously, I was ready to head to Germany to The Klinik Im Alpenpak to see a Dr. Ursula Jacob. She was recommended by the same MD that prescribed my tumor shrinking alternatives.
Dr. Jacob also became famous as the foreign Doctor who treated Farrah Fawcette.
There I could receive a cancer vaccine customized specifically to me and my disease. This treatment is only in the study phase in America.
I could also undergo hyperthermic radiation, which is also being studied in the United States.
These are not "alternatives" in other countries. These are treatments that have not yet made it to the United States.
I chose not to due to several factors, among them being leaving my family without promised success and the issue of cost.
Now I've studied American alternative Doctor's for years.
Dr. Rodriguez, who was featured in Suzane's book and on Dateline last night, is a name that has come up often.
He's been recommended to me by the same friend who recommended the Doctor in New Rochelle and Dr. Jacob in Germany.
As a personal fit, I don't think he is for me.
I'm more interested in Dr. Ralph Moss.
I've watched Dr. Moss for years after he was recommended by physician friend's "in-the-know" in Manhattan.
He travels frequently searching worldwide for the best, evidence based treatments. He writes a free newsletter and blog. He charges $300 for the purchase of a comprehensive alternative manual specific to the patients disease prior to any discussion, which at first I found immoral and disturbing, but now I find is a very reasonable price.
One Dr. featured last night costs $15,000-20,000 to walk into the door of his clinic in Texas.
Even Sloan and Kettering requires proof of the ability to pay or payment before a consult.
I found this out the hard way, by misplacing my wallet on the day of my consult which had my ID and insurance cards. I was treated like I'd broken into the hospital. The registrar was the security guard, trying to force me to put $800 on my credit card, which made me cry.
How can I be so sick I have to travel 400 miles to see a doctor only to be turned away due to lack of upfront payment?
Ironically, upfront payment was an example the Director of Sloan and Kettering used to discredit alternative Doctors even though it's commonly practiced at their own hospital.
Anyway, I'm adding folic acid back to my regimen which is proven at 1000mg daily to improve RBC health. I'm digging out the meds that originally regressed my tumor, and hopefully, I'll be purchasing that Moss Report. . . . . sometime.
Today I have to get my Kineret again for $150.
 Remember everybody, my jewelry sales go to a good cause: my health care. Feel free to purchase and donate whatever you feel necessary. My goal is $300 to get in the door.