Holistic tx only--what Ive done

So I'm back. The holistic doc, who is a board certified internist, started out as a "real" doctor but soon realized that they were treating many issues way more effectively in China, his home country, and he gradually switched over. He uses a diagnostic tool called Acupuncture Meridian Assessment and uses probes on my fingers and toes to take a reading on what's going on in various parts of my body. Apparently my liver was very sluggish--not surprising as I suspect I was suffering from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which many sugar addicts also share in common. I found out that sugar essentially does to your liver what alcohol does. He put me on many supplements. A parasite cleanse--turns out that the meds for this actually kill cancer cells. Then he sent me to the dentist.

He gave me the names of 2 or 3 dentists in town--all biological ones. I had at least one metal filling in each molar and all were 50% mercury. Also, as a child I had broken open a thermometer and played with it for over an hour in the bathroom one day. I still remember how cool that was, but what I started to realize as I revisited this memory, was how sick I was for weeks, months, and years after I did that. I remember that my mild hayfever turned into life threatening illness at times, even after something like a neighbor mowing the lawn, but not every time. My face broke out in an awful rash and my formerly outgoing personality just shut down and I became the class reject that year. All of these are signs of mercury poisoning it turns out. My teen years were very unhappy and emotionally I was a mess for years. I even ran away from home and dropped out of high school. And so sure enough I was high in heavy metals and esp lead and mercury.

The dental work was extensive and I had to have 3 crowns just to hold everything together. I enjoy the fact that I no longer have a metallic taste in my mouth but I'm still not finished with this. There is a spot on my gum that seems to be what the dentist called an amalgam tattoo. A sloppy dentist from years past had gotten amalgam jabbed into my gums and you can still see it with the eye and see it on the xray. I always thought it was a vein down there but dentist said this is amalgam b/c of the way it shows up on the xray. Anyway, newest studies are showing what Weston Price said years ago--as the health of the mouth goes, so goes the rest of the body.

So for now, I'm just in a holding pattern. I've tried a little bit of everything. I switch around my supplements often, though I consistently take the basic nutrients plus iodine, Brevail, DIM, alpha lipoic acid, and melatonin. I switch in and out of things like quercitin, choline/inositol, co-Q-10, and immune support type products like maitake and elderberry. A friend gave me some essiac tincture and I take that 4x/day. I"ve dithered around about my diet. I know the ketogenic diet helps in the short run but in the long run I just can't imagine it's the healthiest. Have tried vegetarian but I always seem to come up short on protein so for now I just try to eat enough protein for the day and as many fruits and veggies as I can fit in my mouth. Stopped juicing due to weight gain, though I sometimes make a big glass of celery juice. I often fall off my diet and binge on bread (it's the new sweets for me) and then get nervous and read something that tells me how great fruits and veggies are for you and go right back to it. I've stopped getting these dry crusty things on my skin since I began to really hit the produce aisle. (If you're less than 50 you probably don't know what I'm talking about . . . )

I decided I needed to exercise and no excuses but I don't live near a gym so I bought a rebounder. I got a good one b/c I knew I'd use it every day. I put Cajun folk tunes on pandora and hop away and it feels great and I love this kind of exercise. I make a huge effort to get no less than 7 hours sleep a night. This was tough b/c I'm a night owl but it was necessary--funny thing is I thought I was living a healthy lifestyle before but I was awful!

The thing I still struggle with is constipation. I love to make whey smoothies and use that for my protein and the amino acids are said to be just right for dealing with BC issues but the stuff plugs me up for a month. It took a bit for me to realize what was causing it. My system just doesn't seem to respond to the usual methods of getting unstuck so a coffee enema will fix it temporarily but I wish I knew how to fix this. Yes I take probiotics, prebiotics, drink plenty of fluids, fruits, you name it, I've done it. It's chronic and ever present.

Thanks Gemini, I will look into that. I know I can't sustain the keto and I can't eat red meat right now either. I have a problem where sometimes I just can't muster up the stomach acid to digest it. The whey powder binds me up ferociously and I avoid soy so my protein options are limited. What does this author suggest for protein?

I'm going to look for it Lilac. I need to do something and it sounds like it might have fiber too. I do get about 50 gms fiber/day and drink fluids as much as possible but still having problems.

Yeah things better now. Think I will share some about the emotional issues here since you never know what some folks will find helpful.

I did not have a horrible childhood but it wasn't exactly a happy one either. I became wildly unhappy after the thermometer incident and my parents didn't and couldn't help--they were quite cold and all of us suffered to some extent from their neglect. I got married in my mid-twenties to a man I considered my best friend and we were married for 23 years before he came out gay. If I were a betting person I'd swear that's when the cancer got started--it was such a huge shock and I remember feeling numb thru much of it--just totally out of touch with my feelings. More crazy stuff happened--death of mother and grandmother (who I was closer to), dealing with the detritus of two hoarders, moving out of town to take a job, etc etc. Very stressful. Thru it all I held one thought, accurate or not: I believed that my ex had never loved me and that all I wanted was to find someone who could. And then. This. Oh, ex came out 3 days after Xmas in '08.

So, needless to say, holidays are not a happy time for me and it hit esp hard this year. The ex is very happy--he's found a wonderful new husband--they are married and even I adore this new partner of his. However, I can't help but contrast my situation to his--not that I think about it all the time but it did hit at holiday time. I think it gets worse with each year b/c it's another year that I'm alone and he's that much closer to getting everything he ever wanted. I want him to be happy but I want me to be happy too.

Also, something set me off at my holistic cancer support group--a man was talking about how angry he is with his dead father and as I listened it occurred to me that what my dad did was worse and then I got really angry! I was like a bomb getting ready to explode. I never had faced how angry I was--had never even admitted it to myself--b/c he's dead maybe I don't know. And I realized that I'd uncovered a whole new layer of angst and that it's good to have it out but I really lashed out at a male friend who tried to talk to me during this time. And yes, I am totally disappointed in my dating situation and wondering if it will be possible for me to find someone under the current conditions. After all, I'm treating a very scary disease with a treatment that 99% of the rest of the world doesn't believe in but I believe so strongly in what I'm doing that I'm not willing to give it up--not even to increase my chances of finding a loving partner. It doesn't help that I am rather isolated socially where I live and I'm a democrat in Trump country. That's all I'll say about that except that my tongue is about chewed off from biting it. Would like to move back to St. Louis, closer to my doc but moving is so stressful that I wonder if it's a good idea right now.

So, my point in typing all of this up for your delectation, is that some have speculated about a "cancer personality." If it's a thing, boy do I have it. Some folks get mad when it's brought up, like they are being accused of bringing on their cancer, but I don't see it that way. For one thing, no one asked to have emotional issues either. It's not like you can just turn them off like a faucet. Much of this stuff is buried, in some places quite deep. I call it "digging up bones," a term I coined from a reading of Women Who Run With the Wolves, by Clara Pinkola Estes. ( "La Loba, as told by Clarissa Pinkola Estes in Women Who Run with the Wolves, tells of an old woman who collects bones. When she has a whole wolf skeleton in her bag, she takes them home to her hut. She lays them out meticulously, then lights her fire and sings. Her song puts flesh and hair back on the bones, puts breath in the wolf's body and a beating heart in its chest. When it is ready, the wolf jumps up and runs into the desert. At some moment, mysteriously, the wolf transforms into a woman." ) Of course the actual story is more involved and I love this story. Those bones are me and I am trying to build a coherent picture of my self, from the fragments that were scattered.

Other things I do to help are to meditate and Donna Eden's daily energy routine. I have my support group, which meets monthly, and I have made a big attempt to get out and meet people, even date. It's heartbreaking when I like someone and I tell them I have BC and what I'm doing for it and then I watch them backpedal. The way I figure it though is that I need someone to be with who can have confidence in what I'm doing, or at least in me, and if they don't get the holistic thing they probably won't get me either. Unfortunately it's same old same old story tho--the ones that like me and can handle it are not the ones I like back and vice versa. I generally tell them pretty early on--don't want to lead anyone on, but neither am I going to put that in a dating profile or tell it on the first date. My experience most often has been that a man who really liked me will suddenly do a switch in his head and I'll be downgraded to, "I'd do her . . . " I have learned to wait a lot longer before hopping in the sack than I did before--no I was not a first date girl or even a 3rd date, but I've discovered that even a 10th date is too soon. (Some of you probably rolling your eyes and some probably going, "Whu. . ?" LOL relax, I'm 57. I remain hopeful but will probably have to move.

OK, so I don't know what to make of this so I'll just jump in. Old lady tumor has just melted in the past couple of months. i mean, I think she's gone. Can't be sure without testing of course but it feels like it's so. I do have one very tiny hard little spot but when I got to thinking about it that's where they inserted the marker for surgery. The little pink ribbon thingie. It seemed like they inserted it deeper but then I realized I've lost 30 lbs from then and I was a DD bra size--now I'm a B. I think iodine helped with that--made all the fibrocystic tissue shrink.

The one major thing that could have contributed to it was the gum surgery I had in January but I've done a lot of emotional healing as well and making up with my sister was huge. I had no idea what a black hole that was--sucking off my life. Gosh I didn't even think about her most days while that was going on but I'm thrilled that we're speaking again. I truly do believe that tending to your emotional health is just as important in cancer care. Most of us start with the physical stuff but it's the emotional healing I think that finally made the diff.

I do not intend to go get tested or anything. I mean, what would I do different? Start eating candy again? I have found a routine that I can live with for the rest of my life and don't intend to go back to my old lifestyle anyway and I don't want to get too comfortable if you know what I mean. I truly did go deeper into this journey called life.

Thank all of you for your kind words. We don't all have to agree on our health care plans but I'm glad we can stay civil. And honestly, there is more than one way to skin a cat.

You know, one thing I've been doing that I think has really helped my health is that I've been working very hard on my digestive issues. I take digestive enzymes and aloe vera juice and try to keep my fluid intake up. These things have helped a lot. I've always been constipated and I have low stomach acid, which is a reason why I haven't really been tempted to do the baking soda cure lol. Low stomach acid is a lot more serious than most people realize since you need it to absorb the nutrients from your food and when food sits in your stomach it can be a miserable experience. I was alerted to it when I stopped being able to eat red meat. Dumb docs put me thru a bunch of expensive tests (over 10 years ago) but not one mentioned the issue of low acidity. I seriously have not ever been to a conventional medical practitioner where they didn't screw something up or miss the obvious, which is why I didn't choose to trust them with my cancer. But, I'm going to try to stay out of that and rejoice that I'm doing so well.

Oops, run off to Bolivia and see what happens with all the great responses lol. I just had a great trip there and got to do a rainforest tour and was able to see cat's claw, which just happens to be very good for kicking back cancer. Unfortunately, while I traveled I got off my plan and ate way too much bread and other things that aren't really in my diet and I could feel some difference in the size of the tumor by the time I got back home. Rather than scare me, I take this as a sign that whatever I have been doing has been effective so I'm getting back on my ketogenic diet, b/c I have gained weight and that's not good for blood sugar control, which is the real issue with cancer--not sugar in itself so much as high blood sugar with high insulin--insulin is a growth hormone. I also indulged in a couple of sweet foods and some wine while I was away so now it's back to reality. LOL.

On the issue of whey, I used to use that but had to give it up. One problem is that it is dairy and dairy is not that great for us ER/PR+ types. Another issue for me is that it behaves like cement in my intestines. I've had a struggle with constipation all my life but nothing stoppers me up like whey protein. I went to NOW pea protein for one canister, but barely gagged the stuff down. Now i use Garden of Life Raw Protein which I love, but then they went and raised the price quite a lot and it was never cheap to begin with. I'm still using it but the price may be prohibitive for some. It seems like the best option for me to get protein on a low carb diet when I can't eat red meat and studies show that red meat in itself can be carcinogenic, though I must say that I wonder sometimes about the quality of the meat in the studies--is it organic grassfed or something they got from the grocery store?

Marijen, for my parasite cleanse, it was something the doc prescribed. I believe the meds were praziquantel and ivermectin and I'll soon know for sure b/c doc promised to put me back on them when I get back from the trip lol. Also, he prescribed an herbal one with black walnut hulls, cloves, and wormwood. Interestingly aa couple of those ingredients have shown anti-cancer properties and so does ivermectin. Ivermectin kills breast cancer cells Clove Extract Inhibits Tumor Growth and Promotes Cell Cycle Arrest and Apoptosis Wormwood Extract Kills Cancer Cells Obviously we have a long way to go with the studies, but it's nice to know it probably won't hurt.

As for iodine, I take 25 mg day of iodoral. That reminds me that I'm out and need to reorder--I'm feeling some increase of swelling and maybe it's from that. I had such terrible fibrocystic breasts before the dx and they hurt all the time and were so dense with cysts that the mammogram was pretty useless. Well the mammygram is useless for ILC anyway but still.

4yourlife, I have heard of urine therapy but haven't tried it. I'm not sure I'm brave enough for that one but I'm glad it helps you.