On 9/26/2007
tashfish wrote:
Hello Everyone, After being sick for almost a couple of months, my Dad finally received a CT Scan and endoscopy in August of this year. A mass was removed along with 50% of his stomach, and the mass was cancerous, and had spread to his lymph nodes. My dad began chemo but has currently stopped due to chronic bloating of his stomach, which has been attributed to no other blockages, but just because the cancer is not allowing his stomach to function properly. So he'd literally have to get liters of fluid pumped out of his remaining stomach. He'd also get really bad hiccups and get sick also. He had a tumor drained in a bioduct and a stent put in, but he is now being put on a feeding tube and we are told the chemo treatment he was undergoing was not helping like they thought. Is there anything anyone else has come across that has proven effective in fighting the cancer at this stage? My dad is only 55, and outside of the cancer was in good health. Any advice or words of encouragement?
I have always loved exercising and been extremely careful about nutrition, since I have two children. Two years ago, as a result of a medical check up, I was diagnosed with stomach cancer, stage iv (metastasis to the ovaries). I asked the oncologist not to give me any statistics or prognosis. I asked him to do what he knew how to do best and let me do my share. I have known of people with stomach cancer that survived against all odds. One of them, in Guatemala, 18 years ago, when chemo was not as developed. She was sent home with a prognosis of two months left. Her sister told her "Are you going to listen to a man, or are you make your own deal with our Supreme Being and find your answer there?" She did undergo chemo and got very sick, but thanks to her beliefs and inner strength, she is alive now, 18 years later!!!! She was my inspiration when I was diagnosed and I KNEW that getting well is not about chemo only. I continued with my yoga practice, added reflexiology to help me detoxify my body from chemo; hypnotherapy, focussed more on my nutrition (the doctors told me that I could eat anything I wanted!!!! Nonsense, meat and dairy loaded with hormones and antibiotic, can burden your struggling immune system), avoid sugar, artificial sweeteners. Take one glass of water with a tea spoon of baking soda (to neutralize acid in your body - cancer needs acid). Also I added some supplements, like CORIOLLUS mushroom, a mushroom that the Japanese government has researched extensively and provides to many people in Japan, one of the countries with the highest incidence of stomach cancer. To detoxify, try freshly juice made of celery, apple, pineapple and ginger. Also, hibbiscus tea. There are many, many resources in the internet. Look up and be discriminating, but follow up your gut instincts. After two months of chemo and additional approaches (the most important: my total trust in our Supreme Being), the tumors had disappeared to a degree that I was able to undergo a partial gastrectomy and ovaries removal. I have continued receiving chemo, but thanks to all the other choices I've made, the side effects have been almost negligible. One of the most empathetic doctors that has treated me told me once: "Listen to your instincts, because the truth is that we do not really know much". All I want to say is that I was stage IV and now I am in remission and one doctor described me as a "miracle". A miracle I am, according to my own beliefs. PLEASE DO NOT GIVE IN into any "prognosis". Each one of us is different. Disease can also be unresolved emotions or energy. That is why, reading and introspection can be very helpful. I also know of a man who was "given" two weeks to live after diagnosis. Four years later, after treatment, he is living a functional life. One of the books that really helped me was Bernie S. Siegel, MD "Peace, Love and Healing" PLEASE DO NOT BE PUT OFF by the title. Read it or give it to your patient. With blessings and best wishes for your dad's and everybody else recovery.