Hi Carlos. I'm sorry to hear about your mother diagnose. But you have to have hope, no matter what. Let me tell you what happened to me last year. My mother who's 80 years old noticed in April 2004 a couple of tiny little bumps in the top of her head. She told me "sonny, i feel a little pimple here, feel it". I thought it was a common scalp irritation and told her "it's just some irritation, I've told you tons of times to use an expensive shampoo, stop using the cheapy ones". By coincidence, she had a doctor's appointment a week later and her doctor send her to the dermatology to look into the bumps. We both postponed the specialist' appointment for months because we thought it was nothing serious. Well, it was angiosarcoma, we were told, and by then the cancer had expanded to other parts of the head and neck, limph nodes involved. Doctors in USA told us there was nothing that could be done, that that type of cancer is one of the worst ones since its survival rate is very poor, and in people her age, mortality rate was 98%. She was given from 3 to 6 months to live. I was devastated. Guilt took over me. What if I had taken her in April directly to the specialist for diagnosis and the cancer hadn't spread so much? What if we hadn't postponed the appointment with the dermatologist? She was going to die and all was my fault! I cried alone in my home for all the years I never cried in my whole life. The last time I remember crying was when I was 16. I cried while driving in the freeways. I cried at work. I cried in bed. I cried when I was eating and my tears would mix with the food, I never thought I would be eating my own tears. I always thought, for a reason I don't know, that my mother would live to 91 years old. Suddenly, life was cheating me of a dozen years of her. I refused to accept it and took her to Mexico for diagnoses that were as dismal as those we had: not much could be done, she would die soon. I started having unilateral conversations with God. While crying driving in my car or sitting on my bed or other places, I would ask him, beg him, to let me enjoy her more years. I would ask him that from the bottom of my heart, with an honesty, sincerity and modesty rare in me. And I had the rare sensation (or hope) that he was listening and that, somehow, he will feel pity for me and show mercy spearing my mother's life. He did listen. He felt compassion for so many tears and he made it possible: now my mother is one of the few people on record, over 80 years old, who survived expanded angiosarcoma. She gave her permission to have the photo record that shows the progression and elimination of her cancer to go into medicine school books. Her cancer it's in full remission but if it lasts in remission 10 years, then a 91-year lifespan can be considered, by any means, a long one. I don't know much about your mother' type of cancer but I will tell you this: she has to boost her immune system before and after any treatment. Cancer doctors wont even talk about immune system, it will be your homework to do the research over the internet and find what is best for her. I will only give you info in what I gave and currently give to my mother to be a cancer survivor. I don't know if they work for all cancers but they worked for my mother:
1.- Stop all sugar intake immediately. Cancer cells feed on sugar. No artificial sweeteners either because they contain chemicals that are carcinogenic: nutrasweet has aspartame, sweet'nlow has saccarin and splenda has sucralose (which is not sucrose). Instead, my mother takes Stevia: a natural sweetener that is made from a wild plant found in Paraguay. Your local natural food store sells it or order it from the internet. In google.com write the word Stevia and do the research.
2.- Avoid all meat. If not possible, then compromise in at least avoid red meat and eat turkey, chicken or fish instead. Eat lots of vegetables, specially greens and all kind of sprouts, lightly steamed vegetables. Lots of greens. Lots of vegetables. Lots.
3.- Take one capsule of Modified Citrus Pectin with each meal. There are many brands but the brand Pectasol is the only with that has done research with humans with great results.
4.- Take twice a day 2 oz of Flor Essence liquid tea mixed with 2 oz of water first in the morning and before bed at night. There are many brands but the brand Flora is the better known.
5.- Fortify the immune system: cancer is like AIDS: cancer cells invade healthy cells and the immune system does not attack the enemy because it's fooled into accepting it as a guest. Chemotherapy and radiation are a heavy blow to the immune system, so fortify it. Help the immune system help you: 1 daily pill (or 2) of a multivitamin complex, found at your local GNC or walgreens. 1 daily pill of Sublingual B-12 pill. I daily dose by mouth of liquid B-12 dropper which equals to one regular painful shot of B-12 vitamin.
6.- Aloe-vera shakes: fresh aloe vera (peel it off for better taste) mixed with your juice of choice right before eating breakfast. Nature is very generous with us, it has given us this wonderful, abundant and miraculous desert plant, take advantage of it.
7.- A teaspoon or two of Flax Seed Oil, around or after noon. You can also buy it in powder form or even in powder capsules. In the powder form, the Canadian Flax Oil Seed mixed with cacti ("Linaza Canadiense con Nopal") tastes very good actualy and is very well known in Mexico. You can buy it at your local natural food store or over the internet.
8.- One daily teaspoon of Birm, a concoction made from the amazonian plant Dulcamara. It is made in Ecuador and not available in USA, so it's expensive. One little bottle wich lasts one month costs $110 and can be bought at www.birm.com. In Latin America you can find countless stories of cancer victims cured by this medicine, but you can not wait for the FDA to approve it because it might take years.
9.- Acupuncture: visit a good local registered acupuncturist on a weekly basis. It helps relieve the pain that conventional cancer treatments cause.
10.- One weekly full body massage from an experienced masseuse/masseur: Mind and body are interconnected in ways we usually don't pay attention to but when a full battle is launched against the monster that cancer is, every single muscle of the body is needed to win each battle, and then the war.
10.- She needs to go to church and be in peace with God. If not religious, then Meditate. Expect the best and be prepared for the worst. Believe in miracles. If not religious, believe in the power of the mind and the positive forces of the universe.
I always believe that good things happen to good people and that when we do good, then good things will happen to us. I really believe that. When I was 9 years old my mother gave me a big O poster to hang in my bedroom. It's now in my home so I can look at it every day. Its a prayer that St. Francis of Assisi wrote in 1526 and reads in Spanish:
"Señor, hazme instrumento de tu voluntad. Que donde haya odio siembre yo Amor, donde haya sombras: Luz, donde haya tristeza: Alegria, donde hay desaliento: Esperanza, donde haya duda: Fe. Porque dando es como recibimos. Perdonando es como tu nos perdonas. Y muriendo en ti, es como nacemos a la Vida Eterna".