Three

It rained in the desert yesterday afternoon and this morning. And with the rain came cooler weather, a welcome reprieve. And humidity! I've noticed far more humidity almost every day here than I ever do at home in the moss-draped regions of the country. But the clouds sped away, followed by the hot July sun, and my car once again turned into a blast furnace.

I've had great news this week. My PET scan showed the tumors in the breast and the lymph node beginning to break up and disintegrate. And it showed no cancer anywhere else in my body. Following the PET scan I received a 25 gram dose of IV vitamin C, which mitigates the damaging radiation from the scan. Did you know that one PET scan (or 10 mammograms) have the same amount of radiation as people received at Hiroshima when we dropped the atom bomb! I can't find the research at the moment, but I read recently that a large percentage of breast cancers are caused by the radiation from mammograms. When I come across that information again I'll post it. So what are you thinking now about that annual mammogram?

Today I came across a book of patient testimonials on leaving An Oasis of Healing. One struck me as especially valuable for anyone facing cancer, wanting an alternative treatment, but uncertain about what method to use in overcoming it. It was from a man who, following an accident, had damage that subsequently caused bladder cancer. He was active, athletic, fit and strong when the accident happened, and, some time later, following surgery to remove the tumors, he was weak, weary, and a very sick man. His oncologist told him he would continue to have bladder tumors and would probably need more surgery every six months or so. When he asked how to prevent this scenario, the doctor coldly told him he could cut his nuts off!

This man was an engineer and had a background in research, so he began looking for a better answer. First he read all about his type of cancer, what caused it, what promoted it, how it spread, and what alternative therapies helped it. Then he went searching for doctors who used those therapies that had a track record of success. After a thorough search he found An Oasis of Healing and Dr. Lodi. He said it was the only clinic he had found that used all the therapies proven to be successful in healing cancer. He came here, stayed a few weeks, and went home cancer free. And, even better, he learned how to stop making cancer through diet. He went home to resume life, not to await a series of surgeries and eventually a younger than necessary demise as the cancer would have spread to the stomach and beyond.

I want to tell the world about people like this man and others. Cancer is epidemic and it is both preventable and curable, but the methods most doctors use too often fail the patient, or even kill the patient. It is a travesty that successful, proven, nontoxic methods of healing cancer are never used, indeed, are little known about, by the vast majority of oncologists. If there is ever going to be change, it must come from the demands of people who know there are alternatives that work. Believe me, change won't come from the lucrative cancer industry.

Two

Doing Cancer Differently

An Oasis of Healing is an amazing place. It is simply crawling with Canadians, who can’t find an alternative like this at home, apparently. The two toughest cases are from Toronto, and family members have been shuttling back and forth, staying a week or so, then going home and someone else coming. These are people who really do need someone here to help them. Yet, they are strong in spirit and they know this is the best chance they have – certainly better than the death sentence given them by their own doctors back home.

Abba, a Lebanese Canadian, is tiny, gentle, strong and accepting of what is, or whatever will come.  She told me, “It is all good. Whatever happens, it is all good.” Her husband, four daughters, and her mom and dad have been with her this week. The daughters are little clones of her, especially the oldest, who is 19. The youngest is only six. All have wildly curly black hair and an exotic beauty. She wears a scarf, not because she lost her hair, but because she is Muslim. She sits with her legs curled under her 82 pound body, seemingly at peace. They discovered a tumor on her pancreas when she went in for surgery to correct what they thought was a hernia.

Her dad and daughters come to the early morning yoga class. When we did an exercise called Stirring the Pot, Dad, who grew up in a village in the old country, was reminded of binding and tying wheat sheaves with a hand-operated machine when he was a boy. And, of course, they cut the wheat by hand, using a scythe. They didn’t have a lot of cancer in his village, where everybody grew their own food and ate it fresh, and nobody sprayed poisons on their crops and gardens. And of course, they worked hard in the sunshine to earn their dinner, while making lots of vitamin D – an important cancer preventive.

Another Canadian, Martie, lives far to the north in British Columbia, in the small town of Ft Nelson, where she works as a bookkeeper in an oil-driven economy. She had a bit of chemo at home after they told her she was terminal. She is having a tougher time than some, because of the toxicity of the drugs, and her hair is slowly coming back in. Still, she remains cheerful and positive, and is improving, with a couple of glitches that will go away. She can’t wait to get away from the Arizona heat. There’s nothing like it in Ft Nelson, BC.

Being here with such people, so much sicker than me, is a humbling experience as I watch them and listen to their positive comments and see them accepting what comes, giving their bodies the best chance possible to cure their cancers. After all, the only real cure for cancer is a strong immune system, and everything they are doing is aimed at strengthening theirs. It is rewarding to see incremental improvements, to share the joy of a good blood test or positive PET scan.

The most exciting news came late today, when Recita finally had her appointment with Dr. Lodi and found her PET scan came back clear of cancer. Recita grew up in Argentina, but moved to Houston as a young woman, married there and has lived there ever since. She, too, is tiny, slim, and has a lively, spicy Latin personality and heavy accent. She feels her highs and lows strongly, and she was positively beaming when she came to tell us all. She has been here five weeks and her husband is driving over to pick her up Friday. The breast cancer that returned two years after mastectomy has been conquered, and she has learned how not to continue producing cancer.

Last Friday Tatiana, from Russia, flew off to London, also with a positive PET scan, and then on to meet her husband in Paris for the flight home to Moscow. She struggled with English, and I found her courageous and strong, to come to such a foreign situation alone. Tatiana and her husband, if I understood correctly, have a publishing company that publishes books about the arts. They recently spent months on one for the queen of Sweden. Tatiana will be back in a month for some follow-up treatment.

As for me, I’m doing great. I enjoy the peace and tranquility of my simple life. Since the center prepares most of my food, there is little work for me to do. I have various therapies all day six days weekly. Yesterday I began my 10-day (or maybe 2 week) juice feast. This is a period of intensive detoxing by drinking only fresh green veggie juices, which are surprisingly good.

Today started with EWOT (exercise with oxygen therapy), which is riding an exercise bicycle for 30 minutes while breathing lots of oxygen through a mask hooked to an oxygen concentrator or generator. Next it was into the sauna to sweat out toxins, followed by massage. Then it was time for the IV – a mixed, but low, dose of chemotherapies. While still on the IV, I had a session of colon hydrotherapy. Then, back to the recliner in the IV room, to finish and fall asleep for a good nap before driving back to the condo.

Only two days after the first dose of chemo, I began feeling changes in the tumor. Dr Lodi said, “Cancer is hard. When it begins to break up and degrade it becomes softer and more diffuse.” That seems to be happening already. Because of the low dose, and the way the drugs are targeted at the tumor, there are far fewer side effects. No nausea, no hair loss, nothing noticeable – at least so far, and nothing expected. The nurses check my blood weekly or more often for signs of anything that shouldn’t be happening, watch closely and test blood sugar to make sure it drops to just the right number, so the insulin receptors on the tumor will open wide and invite in the toxic medicines. Did you know that tumors, which ferment on sugar, have 17 times the number of insulin receptors of normal tissue? That’s why this therapy works miracles.

I will be forever grateful to Sheri Bade, a woman I’ve never met or talked with, who is lending me her lovely home to live in while she cools it on the Oregon coast. And I thank Fran Kelly for brokering the deal.

Enough. I hope you’re all well and happy, and that if you ever need a place like this one, you won’t hesitate to come here. But please, if you can, time it for winter!

One

July 22, 2010

  

In February I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer - one that doesn't respond to hormone therapies. The doctors wanted to do the works - chemo, mastectomy, radiation. After much thought and research, I found I simply could not do those things. At some point I may agree to a mastectomy, but not yet. Instead, I have embarked on a journey of alternative healing, and I feel confident it will be successful. But I also know that, even if it is not, maintaining a high quality of life is more important to me than one that may be a few months longer while I'm sick and miserable because of treatments. I know that many have lived a long while following breast cancer treatments. But when you look at the statistics, it becomes evident that they have survived not only the cancer, but the treatments as well. They have my deepest respect and prayers for their continued health. But they have taken a path I simply cannot.

There is much wrong with our illness care system today, much of that stemming from the power that drug and insurance companies and the FDA wield over doctors, hospitals, and treatments, making it almost impossible for doctors to do anything innovative, or even to use very successful treatments that are common in Europe and other parts of the world. I won't go into that now, but I will touch on it in future updates.

Last Thursday I flew from cool Olympia into a pizza oven otherwise called Phoenix, Arizona. The temperature that day was 115. It hasn't cooled a whole lot since. But that doesn't matter, since I'm simply existing in an air conditioned world and only step outside to go from car to clinic to condo. Today I wished I'd had pot holders for the steering wheel. Linda, you warned me! I’m saving the little bands they use to hold gauze against the exit wound from removing IV needles to use to crochet pot holders! Right!

There has to be a very good reason for going to Airzona in July, and this is it: An Oasis of Healing, or, if you want to check it out, www.anoasisofhealing.com. This clinic uses many well-researched and successful therapies to heal cancer, often cancers that mainstream medicine has given up on. I'll tell you about some of the therapies, and how they relate to healing cancer, as I experience them.

I'd also like to tell you about some of the other patients, if they are willing to let me share something of their stories. We all have a story, don't we? For now, suffice it to say, I've met patients from Toronto, Ft. Nelson, BC, Maryland, North Dakota, Chandler, AZ, and Russia. There are others I haven't talked with yet. Some have completed their therapies and only come in occasionally for follow-up. When I look around, I appear healthier than most, because many of them have been treated for a little while by the typical therapies, until they realized that the treatments would kill them before the cancer had the chance. Several have very serious cancers, cancers that are almost always fatal, and they appear to be getting better.

One man was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma in March, and subsequently lost 50 pounds. Now he appears almost skeletal, except his liver, which has several palpable tumors. When he arrived three weeks ago he was in a wheelchair. Today I watched him walk into the therapy center with just a little support from his dad. He has 2- and 4-year-olds at home and his devoted wife is with him.

The four young daughters of another Canadian patient flew in yesterday, so happy to see their mom. This morning they were at yoga class, the six-year-old basking in the pleasure of sitting out on the lawn doing poses, and getting a little extra attention from the teacher, her older sisters and grandpa joining in the fun.

This looks like a place where miracles happen. I hope you'll enjoy the stories of people who remain hopeful and positive, who visit, joke and nap while getting IV treatments, people who are truly living one day at a time, seeing the good in life and understanding poignantly that we are all in God’s hands.

With love to all,