Breast Cancer in early 30's

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/nyregion/single-mother-battling-breast-cancer-takes-strength-from-her-children.html?smid=pl-share

Story of a single mother with stage 4 breast cancer

Naltrexone and Alpha Lipoic acid for Pancreatic Cancer

In the latest issue of Integrative Cancer Therapies, a case of 3 patients with pancreatic cancer were treated with intravenous alpha lipoic acid and low dose naltrexone. What's astonishing is that the patients are still alive, 2 of which were already cancer free based on their PET scan.

This is an ongoing trial in a New Mexico Integrative Center.

I hope this study will be more available to all pancreatic cancer patients.

Cancer is Infectious

I remembered when I was young, people would often tell us that you have to be careful not to get infected by cancer. So be careful that their blood don't get into yours.

I told myself how absurd that they can think like this? What in the world were they thinking? How did they ever thought of such things?

And then this study came out, wherein they got the plasma of a cancer patient and they introduced it to "normal" cultured cells, and lo and behold, true enough, the cells transformed into cancer cells. They call it genometastasis.

Another one bites the dust

After 1 week of fighting, patient with both breast and uterine cancers coupled with metastasis to the liver and abdomen finally let go.

She was a tough lady. Despite having a hard time breathing, she still refused to have oxygen until she was too weak to resist.

I learned a lot from her this past week, when the Spirit is strong, anything is possible.

Cory Aquino has passed Away

Former President Corazon Aquino is now at the hospital in pain due to cancer of colon. Even in her weakest state of health, she once again has come and united the Filipino people in praying and supporting her. I find that a wonderful trait of Mrs. Aquino, that she can still muster a great number of people behind her, whether in politics or otherwise.

Though her presidency was wrought in ineffective political and economic leadership, her strength really showed in terms of her spiritual leadership. Only time will tell if this spiritual leadership will wake up the Filipinos about themselves and what Filipinos want for their future.

She has passed away on August 1st, 2009.

Remarkable turn around

A friend referred this breast cancer survivor to me because of severe pain in her right hand. I could see its swollen. The initial diagnosis was neuropathy but we know better. This is lymphangitic invasion. She was already operated, chemo and radio-therapied 2 years ago.

After a session of Access Healing, she felt better less pain, what was wonderful, was after the session, we had a talk about how it came back after being in remission. AShe admitted that this relapse happened after her sister passed away. She recognized the importance of her siblings being together.

After the talk, her pain surprisingly disappeared and the day after swelling was visibly lesser. Weird and wonderful

Battling with Breast Cancer.. Again

I have been seeing a 65 yr old female with metastatic breast cancer for about a month now. She came back coz the cancer grew back from the MRM. It was growing fast but the patient didnt want to do chemotherapy anymore.

So it was decided that we try homeopathic medicines. After about 1 month or so, seems like the tumor has shrunk to 50% of what it used to be. It certainly surprised me! I didnt thought it would be that fast and effective.

But we'll have to see after a few more weeks.

Breast cancer mother

Again, had a 39-yr-old mother of 2 (6 yr and 1 yr) who had breast cancer but now has metastisized to the lungs. I know and felt the pain and dejection after knowing about the metastasis, aside from the worry of raising her very young kids!

Fortunately, her sprits are back up again and wiling to fight it to the very end. She's doing chemotherapy and quite impressive she's taking it quite well. Gave her some supplements to help her immune system.

In a related event, researchers now are really looking at how not just to kill the cancer, but likewise the cancer stem cells!

Family support

For some unknown reasons, I am getting a lot of patients now with liver cancer, metastatic. All of them above 65.

Whats good about them is that even if their doctors have pronounced a Death sentence, they still believe and I agree with them, its not over until the FAT LADY sings or in this case when St. Peter calls them.

So whats more apparent in these persons is that I can't say anything about the family support. As I said to one of them, 80% of your survival now is entirely up to you! If you decide, "lets call it quits!" then there is nothing else we can do about it.

Twenty percent of the person's survival chances is the family and friends support. Time and time again I have seen it, if the family support is strong, our treatment does wonders to them, but if the family is passive, unsupportive or frankly hostile, we won't go anywhere.

So where does the doctor's or healer's help come in to play? Whether you believe it or not, its not inside the 100%, its only an extra or should we say placebo? of course a lot of people, especially doctors will disagree!

I guess its only an interesting point of view of mine.

Close call

I was at the hospital yesterday. The patient with gastric cancer check himself to the hospital because he was so weak and in pain. His abdomen was so tense, must be due to the tumor obstruction in the rectum. 
 
When I saw him, he was really having a hard time I could see. He hasn't slept for days because of it. I felt so helpless I couldn't do anything for him. I did some body process anyway, and prayed for the best.

This morning, his brother called me and bring me NEWS...

He was sleeping already.

During colonoscopy, they saw the stent that was placed had an obstruction to it, food particles and fibers. So upon clearing it out, he passed all the stools that were there in his colon.\

I'm so happy and relieved to hear the GREAT NEWS!!!
S

Touching words

I had the pleasure of meeting a 67 year old mother who certainly looked younger than  her age.
She came to me because she had several mass on the pancreas and liver. 
It did looked like she had stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

The family have decided she not undergo biopsy or chemotherapy, however I asked her one question, which was "what do you want to do?" There was a pause for she hadn't made up her mind whether she wanted to do biopsy or not.

I told her that ultimately it must be your decision she is the master of her life not the family members
eventhough they are just looking out for her.

After we had the discussion on what she can do, while making the decision to do biopsy, she made a remark that really touched me.

She said, "I already feel better just talking to you?"

How can it get better than that?

What are the infinite possibilities for her to be healed of this condition?

Last phase of his journey

The patient with gastric cancer has now come to the part where there is no turning  back. His cancer has come back with metastasis to the rectum which has obstructed it. A stent had to be placed to relieve the obstruction. Aside from this, pulmonary and hepatic metastasis are also present.

But still.... he is adamant and hoping that chemotherapy might not be the only way out now. I don't know why he is really against it. But I respect his resolve.

However, time is not on his side on this matter anymore.

Gone for Good?

My patient with gastric cancer has left for out of the country. Of all the time, it has to be now? I mean, he's CA-199 is of the scale, his CT showed mulitple lymph node involvement in the retroperitoneal space.

I wish I could him help but he's not here. I just hope everything will be better if not at least stable disease when he comes back!

Resurggence

I hate it when it happens, because they are more difficult to treat. My patient with liver cancer came back, with bleeding coming from the t-tube. His MD who placed the tube said it is normal but its been a week. I'm waiting for the bleeding parameters.

The tumor has grown back to how it used to be. The patient is worried, I'm quite disturbed because he did start eating meat again, could be that reason.

Awaiting labs

Ginseng

I really don't go out and buy or endorse supplements for my patients. However, there are a few exceptions and one of them is this Ginseng I got from my patient.

What is different from other Ginseng product? Well, for one, this Ginsengs seemed to have a detoxifying effect, and patients (not only one) had a sort of "healing crisis." At first, I was a bit skeptic and waited for the effect if any.

The liver cancer patient was almost gone, he couldn't stand up, poor sleep, no appetite, extremely dehydated. He then was introduced to this ginseng product that was farmed in a temperature-controlled area. He claimed it made him stronger, sleep better. But still I was a bit hesistant. 

But this morning, I saw him and he showed me his lab work-up and it was a surprise! His HBV DNA count was lowest in 3 years but he still takes Hepcera. What really suckered me in was his SGOT, SPGT going back  to normal levels. AFP was 5.86 almost normal.

Lets see now if it works for my mother. I hope she follows my instructions.

Cancer complications

I've been closely monitoring my breast cancer patient for the past 2 weeks now. Its hard for me to see her having a difficult time breathing every and then. All the test done on her showed all normal except for the lungs with multiple multi-nodular densities. So most likely the cause of her dyspnea is the tumor infiltration to the lungs.

She is very brave. I don't think lesser persons can be able to handle the stress and difficulty of always catching their breathes, literally. But I do expect, not hope but really expect her symptoms to improve very soon.

I hope I am right!!!

Demolished in 1 day

Its sometimes so hard and disconcerting to discover and realize that one's work and patients' achievement can be suddenly wiped out in a matter of minutes.

This is exactly just what happened to my patient with breast cancer. After nursing her back to health, physically, mentally and emotionally; her sister-in-law who is also an MD comes into the "rescue" and advised her to do chemotherapy, and then changed her mind and told her to just enjoy the last few months of her short life.

I was angry, to see such a tactless person, telling someone that they have a few months left. And to think that these are doctors, they should encourage not discourage them.

I have to go back and build the walls back up again.

Technorati Tags: cancer, breast cancer, metastasis, cancer stories

Powered by ScribeFire.

Spilling the Beans

Yesterday, I just had a chat with a patient of mine who had stage 4 liver cancer. Like all the other conversations I had, it was just about what they were doing and what do they plan to do in the near future. I always ask this question, especially to  very ill patients, in order for them to focus on something other than their illness.

But suddenly, the conversation shifted to his problem of sleep. He stated that he wouldn't be able to sleep and that he would somehow get memories of his past. Like a movie playing at an accelerated rate, it recounted his past life ever since he could remember.

I was a bit happy for him, for this is part of the healing. The healing of the past hurts in his life, which was I would definitely say, very traumatic for anyone. Being left an orphan from a well-to-do family, he was "sold" to his second family. It was very painful for him more since he could distinctively remember he had a sister, who he has never seen again.

And yet... I was sad. For patients to be having "life reviews," it will definitely mean either they  get well or move on to the next life.
I've seen it already a few times, and this one is no exception. I just hope he will be liberated from these pains soon. Its the emotional pain that will not go away or be dulled by any pain killer.

Bravery: Women vs Men

I recently had a Breast Cancer patient with an already oozing lesion on the nipple area. She was advised to have chemotherapy prior to surgery. She refused to do the chemo, feeling that it will hasten her poor health.

Instead, she opted to have all those Vit C, B17 injections. Lost and unable to express what she really wanted to do. Unfortunately, all the MDs who told her to do this and that did not inform her that her tumor will not shrink that fast with those procedures. When she came to me for help, I explained to her, the REAL condition, and still adamant against the chemotherapy.

I see great courage when I see this kind of persons. They will hold on to their belief even if their family and friends have advised otherwise. She is the 3rd patient to refuse chemotherapy altogether without even trying one session.

I salute them for their courage, though only God will know if their beliefs will be their folly. My first patient also breast cancer, refused all conventional treatments. Her tumor was bigger than a watermelon but disappeared completely, only to metastasize to her lungs 2 years later. It was a sad moment for me. She held on that belief until the very end.

My second patient, also breast cancer, held that firm belief. Only this time, the tumor actually shrunk from 4cm to almost 0.5 cm at this time. I am quite certain that the tumour will disappear completely with her treatments, and she will not develop any metastasis anytime soon though.

This just exemplifies the courage of these extraordinary women. I have yet to encounter that same courage in men. In fact, men are less inclined to hold on a belief or principle when they are sick, and seem to be more passive with their choosing of treatment options.

Sleepless

I can't seem to sleep these past few days. I keep thinking of my past and present patients who I am and have taken care of. It seems that I am rationalizing things that are already been done or things that were inevitable.

Weird, maybe my subconscious is tryng to tell me something!!! I have to know what is it soon, or I go crazy. I can't stop thinking especially of a new patient with lung cancer with metastasis to the brain, that is going to be a bit more difficult. I hope I can help him fast!