Family Update

My Brother:

To start off with, brother has faired relatively well as far as digestive problems since the January report. He still is hoping his "regulation" becomes more predictable since he can not sleep through the night due to having to empty things during the night. He also has a problem of passing gas all the time which can be embarrassing when you are at a meeting at work and other places. He has been trying different products for controlling gas, but nothing seems to work presently. He also has been trying to determine which foods promote the problem. That's been kind of hit and miss so far also.

The other problem he has been having is the leg that he had to have a stent put in due to the side effect of the chemo that sort of destroyed the vein. Well that same stent had collapsed and his leg started swelling again. Upon going into the hospital once again to clear the vein and perhaps replace the stent, it was discovered that there was too much blockage this time for them to get at it! He was referred to a special specialist(!) at another hospital that perhaps could help him with this problem.

He saw that doctor last week. The doctor told him that at this point he didn't want to do anything. Reason being, he wanted my brother to be sure to get plenty of exercise to see if the veins that are working properly in that leg will take up the job of the one that isn't working (apparently this happens often in our bodies).

If, with added exercise, and elevation above the heart for at least 30 minutes a day, there isn't improvement in four to five months, then they will assess other options. Surgery to replace the vein would be one option at that time.

My Father:

My father with his lung cancer, is doing as well as can be expected considering his age (93). Up until two weeks ago, he was still living by himself. It has now become necessary for us siblings to take turns staying with him. His energy is low again, which means taking him back to the doctors to be refueled with a couple of pints of blood (it was explained to us that due to his age, his body was just not producing blood like your's or mine does normally). Usually, right after these "refuelings", he perks right up. The problem is that the periods between "refueling" is getting shorter. It was 3-4 months. It's only been a month since his last fuel-up. I take that as not a good sign.

He doesn't appear to be in any pain in regards to his lung cancer. The only pain he complains of is from his hip surgery a few years back. Therefore, he moves around very little because it hurts. His mental capabilities seem to be deteriorating quite a bit also, thus the need for someone to be with him to make sure he takes the right meds at the right times.

I love him dearly and certainly don't want him suffering unnecessarily!

My Sister:

She is doing pretty good. Again, there is swelling one arm (due to chemo) and she is suppose to be using a particular massage procedure to keep the swelling down. She did it for a while but became bored with it and is now just accepting that one arm will be larger than the other due to the swelling. Her checkups so far have all been great (but that's to be expected at this early time after treatments).

New Alt. Cancer Info:

I am amazed at the new sources that are showing up all the time regarding alternative/natural cancer treatments. A number of these are now being used by the mainstream medical industry, but they are not actively advertising these natural treatments due to the heavy government/medical/pharma industry harassment they would receive. I'll report more on these in another update.

For The Ladies Re: Mammography & Breast Cancer

I've long become an advocate of NOT having mammograms! From the information I've seen from professionals, the harm far outweighs the good. Far too often, it has been found, women have had further procedures (surgery) due to a test result that wasn't accurate. Read this article below from the Associated Press: (Due to copywrite, this article has been revised to quote just the part that pertains to mammograms.)

"FDA scientists complain to Obama of 'corruption'

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR – January 8, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an unusually blunt letter, a group of federal scientists is complaining to the Obama transition team of widespread managerial misconduct in a division of the Food and Drug Administration.

"The purpose of this letter is to inform you that the scientific review process for medical devices at the FDA has been corrupted and distorted by current FDA managers, thereby placing the American people at risk," said the letter, dated Wednesday and written on the agency's Center for Devices and Radiological Health letterhead.........(several paragraphs down)

In the letter the group singled out mammography computer-aided detection devices as an example of a technology that should not have gone forward. The devices were supposed to improve breast cancer detection, but instead studies showed they were associated with false alarms that led to unnecessary breast biopsies.

Since 2006, FDA experts have recommended five times against approving the devices without better clinical evidence, the letter said. In March of last year, a panel of outside advisers supported some of the concerns of the FDA's in-house scientists. Nonetheless, FDA managers overruled the objections and ordered approval." (Bold emphasis added)

I've talked to my own immediate family regarding this procedure and they still go along with whatever their physician recommends. It needs to be understood that 9 times out of 10, if a lump is detected with a mammogram, chances are that it could have just as easily been detected by self-examination. The added radiation from the mammogram is doing you more harm than good (I don't care how minute they say it is).

It's also barbaric! It has always been hard for me to believe that...if you have a lump in your breast...it's okay to compress it between to metal plates of pressure...and nothing is going to happen to aggravate the cancer more!

Everyone of my female siblings (eight of us) and myself, have had a lumpectomy performed at some time in our lives. Some of us have had it done twice. This procedure is done when a mammography shows a lump and they go in to see whether it's cancerous or just a lump. Every time they were just lumps.

My two siblings who have had breast cancer, the cancers were not found by mammography first!
In fact, both siblings found the lumps themselves within six months after having their regular examinations.

Now would someone please tell me what the advantage is to having a mammogram?

Family Update - 1/07/09

Since last posting, in mid October, my brother went for surgery to have a permanent colostomy bag. He said he didn't want to have to go through the healing process again if he had everything in his colon area reconnected, to find out that it didn't work, and turn around and have another surgery that required the colostomy anyway. As it turned out, his surgeon stated that once he saw the inside area of my brother that he would have had to reconnect, he found it would have been impossible for him to do so.

He was off work for six weeks and everything appeared to be going fine in the healing process. He returned to work the week of Thanksgiving, thus allowing himself a short work week to get back in the groove. The following week after Thanksgiving, I ended up taking him to the emergency room due to severe abdominal pain that was progressing into vomiting and no movement of any kind into his colostomy bag. Upon the beginning of these pains, we first thought that maybe it was just something he ate, or he had a flu bug, and it would all pass. But by the second day, the pains were getting worse and cramping was occurring every 1-2 minutes and he agreed to let me drive him to the ER.

After spending a week in the hospital and running every test (they could think of, they couldn't find anything wrong! Perhaps it was something he ate that just "slowed" things down, is what his doctor told him. It was going to have to be up to him to become aware of what foods would cause this problem for him, and either eliminate it from his diet, or eat smaller amounts of it. (I'm not buying this, by the way!) They send him home with...pain meds if needed.

So now we're back at home and this is our plan: we start on a "soft" diet to start with and slowly add sources of fiber and meats back into his diet. He's doing fine for a few days (about four), and then the pains return. Mind you, at this point we haven't added any beef, whole grains, vegetables or anything that is fibrous. And during this time, I started doing some research on colostomy and cramping, or colostomy/ileostomy and abdominal pain (he had stated that the pains/cramping were right where his ileostomy had been).

I found out that adhesions could create quite a problem for anyone who has had any kind of abdominal surgery. Some people could never have a problem with these little buggers, but other people could have some major problems or constant pain for some time to come unless they have surgery to have them cut away...which could cause more to grow (kind of a catch-22). The adhesions (not scar tissue) are part of your body's healing process from having organs/tissue inside your body "handled", whether by human hands or instruments. They look like a thin membrane (picture plastic wrap stretched across a dish). The problem occurs when this membrane stretches across one organ in your body and attaches it to another. So it can conceivably cause a lot of problems, if for instance in my brother's case, his small intestine (where his ileostomy was) becomes attached to another organ in his body and doesn't have the free flow movement it needs to move the waste materials to his large intestine.

Back to second on-set of pain:
Again he goes back to the hospital, but this time he's able to drive himself. He has called the doctor ahead of time and is admitted directly into the hospital. They are concerned that he might have a blockage. After performing an upper GI test, and also scoping his large intestine, they find no blockage and "again" start feeding him regular food and wait to see what happens. Things start moving okay and they release him from the hospital just before Christmas. Prior to releasing him, his surgeon mentions that the pain is probably caused by "adhesions". It happens to patients all the time and the plan is to do nothing and see if the body takes care of the problem on its own (by the adhesion breaking loose of it's own accord). Time will tell.

My sister:
Is doing good. The swelling in her arm has reduced dramatically and she's back to her normal self. Her hair has grown back and she's even decided to keep it short (more manageable). She will, of course, continue to get her regular checkups and tests, to ensure the cancer is caught early...should it return. Still...no adjustment to diet or exercise.