Update 4/12/17

We are just so fortunate to live in Southern California. I met people today from the Virgin Islands, Australia, Texas. There were others but I didn’t get to talk with them.

After meeting my sister in Oceanside at 5:30 am, we drove down into Tijuana to the Biomedical Clinic, also known as the Hoxsey Clinic. They have been there since before I was born, started by American doctors who could not openly offer natural alternative treatments for Cancer in the U.S. because of the way our system works.

Most people who know me well know that my education helped me to become who I wanted to be. I am not brilliant or innately confident. Education gave me stepping stones into a new existence. So, the M.S. (Masters of Science) I have means a lot to me. I respect the Scientific Method and I LOVE working with inquisitive, hard working, smart people who are studying science. They work incredibly hard to understand – well, everything.

Considering a cancer treatment with little to know scientific study is hard for me. But I know and love people who have been successfully treated there. And they know even more people. Mainstream medicine seems to be living up to the reputation that makes people seek alternatives: overspecialization so that it feels doctors only care about a very small part of what is going on. They seem to want to treat the cancer and not consider the cause of the disease, the rest of the body and what could be going on, and the collateral damage it may cause; they espouse a cookie cutter approach to “curing.” I have learned that “curing” isn’t even used in cancer circles. They try to poison cancers into remission, but success rates are staggeringly low. And the quality of a person’s life while undergoing AND AFTER undergoing chemo and radiation are very commonly not what we would wish on ourselves or others.

So, there I am at the Hoxsey Clinic, reading testimonial after testimonial in a voluntary log where people document their journey. So many people who had tried everything but nothing was working. Many were given only weeks or months to live. They reported how they got stronger and stronger, healthier and healthier – and their bodies beat, or at least managed, their cancer. Testimonials are not peer reviewed published studies. But they are real and there was such a staggering amount of them.

I hate dissension and conflict. I find myself anxious right now as I try to sort out what seems like the mutually exclusive philosophies and treatment options. If feels to me like the political climate of our country: 2 very divergent sides who are too afraid to look at the others’ point of view in that they might lose something. The wellness/alternative medicine community says to strengthen the body’s own defenses against dis-ease (as my mom used to say). Mainstream medicine, on the other hand, says – “We think this is the best set of treatments for your lymphoma so just do it. You have no real choice.” They very rarely tell you details of the repercussions: possible neuropathy, lymphedema, muscle paralysis, loss of taste, heart damage, lung damage, a myriad of permanent changes.

I have no idea what I am doing yet. I have a bone marrow biopsy tomorrow and a trip to City of Hope next week. CDC soon (to deal with Lyme Disease and Babesia Infection). I will start the protocol of herbs and supplements (including some Chinese medicines I need to order) Monday (I have to wait until 5 days after the biopsy). This is going to take a lot more self-discipline that I have had lately.

Supplements and an herbal drink throughout the day. Planned meals of organic whole foods. We eat pretty good but I am not used to, nor motivated by, the process of planning, shopping, cooking, cleaning up after – labor intensive meal preparation. No pork, vinegar (which turns out to be in everything), alcohol, tomatoes, processed sugar, processed flour products – for at least 5 years!

Tons and tons and tons of vegetables.

I go back to the clinic in Mexico in 6 months. They gave me the tools that have worked for many and now it is up to me to use them to get well.

Lord, I’m going to need help with all of this!