Thursday, September 2, 2010

Battle 2012

I came back from the hospital about an hour ago. Took oats and rye bred for lunch and some fruits. Meanwhile I am also boiling my daily herbs for consumption. My meeting with the oncologist was good, tough the news he gave me at the end was not so good. He studied the CT scans in detailed so that he could see and compare the developments of the nodes in the lungs. Although the general conclusion from my radiologist is that things has improved but at the micro level, there seems to be contrasting developments. Yes, the bigger nodes seem a little smaller but some 4 small nodes may have disappeared. But for those nodes the are smaller, some of the nodes were seen improving, some stable and yet a few other seems to have grown. Normally they should all grow in tandem and not some grow and some don't. The oncologist say he can feel the tumor mass during physical examination since it has grown and actually I am losing a little blood daily through my urine. That' why my red blood count and iron is low. Overall impression given by my oncologist: slowly progressing.

My oncologist's recommendation is that I consider:

a. tumor debulk and
b. Sutent medication or
c. Interferon treatment

Tumor debulk has always been on my mind since I started this therapy but I am not sure if now is the correct time. I would want to see good progress on the lungs before the time is deemed suitable. Sutent is definitely out not just because I could not afford it financially (it's RM24K or US$7,6K per month, I need millions to survive a five year period) but also because of the low success rate although my oncologist say each individual responds differently. Interferon treatement is daily injection of some immune boosting medication into the skin and is less expensive costing around RM2.4K (US$760) per month depending on how many injections I need to administer. There are also side effects such as flu-like symptoms, psychiatric symptoms, insomnia and sleep disturbances and hair loss. He has asked me to seriously consider the options and let him know. He also warned me about homeopathy saying some of the medications used may actually enhance cancer development. He has no quarrel with Gerson Therapy.

I need to review and go back to the period of May 2010 onwards because that was I sense my body changes and also change my diet a bit. This is Battle 2012, meaning I need to do something to ensure that I can continue to have an opportunity to live through 2012. I have added a new therapy and is that enough? I have no answers now. Meanwhile I am taking iron supplements.

Despite the poor prognosis by my oncologist, I remain positive because I think what I have done to date is somewhat effective and need to finetune areas that I have lag. The fact that he has given me an open date for the next appointment of one year seems to suggest I still have time to make corrections. The load leading out of the tunnel suddenly seems so long again but I remain hopeful.

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