Being in control is important.  I've been told countless stories of individuals who began losing their hair and then took action.  The problem is that in some treatments hair loss is inevitable.  By determining when to cut off the hair you aren't surprised and you may even make a ceremony or ritual over the process.

There is a song on India Arie's third album about hair.  One stanza begins "chemotherapy took away the crowning glory".  Hair is a big deal not only in our culture but in many cultures.  The Dagara people of West Africa believe that women's hair is like energy receptors.  Women who naturally receive high energy often cut off their hair so they cut down on their sensitivity to the energy so they don't become overwhelmed.

What does your hair mean to you?  What will you do to assert some control in the process?

Headline: FDA warns about fraudulent cancer treatments "The Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on teas, supplements, creams and other products that falsely claim to cure, treat or prevent cancer even though they are not agency-approved drugs."

Why shouldn't I be free to decide what is real or fraudulent when it comes to the treatment of cancer, much less its cure? Why shouldn't you? This is where we have irrefutable evidence of the current slave-state mentality of my fellow countrymen, the people of the united States. How could a "free" people tolerate governmental and corporate interference in the care of their bodies at all? Perhaps fluoride has clouded our judgment. Why else would we believe that the FDA is really about our protection? Especially from some leaves that might cure cancer. Maybe we should dump all of our anti-cancer tea in the Boston Harbor. How about some Selenium as well?

It is a disgusting outrage and an embarrassment that a free people would tolerate such restrictions when it comes to the care of their health. How do you defend the FDA's war on natural cancer therapies? Is it really "fraud" to heal cancer without FDA approval? No. The real fraud is the claim that the FDA could protect us from fraud. They encourage it. They allow it. They subsidize it pharmaceutically. What would you call the monopoly practice of oncology and its barbaric treatments?

Cancer is not caused by a lack of chemotherapy, radiation or surgery. But it may very well be caused by a lack of that which the FDA claims is fraudulent. More people die of the treatment for cancer than cancer itself. More people die each year from FDA approved substances than have died from ingesting natural medicinal substances since the dawn of these united States of America (I am not including mercury here, even though, technically, it's natural). It's strange that when allopathic medicine uses a substance from nature, it's not only toxic, but unlike the homeopaths, they use it in a toxic dose.

In the private sector, if any company had a track record even 1/10 as bad as FDA and the drug industry they "regulate," it would have been bankrupted within a year and its executives brought up on criminal charges. Instead of Nixon's perpetual War on Cancer, we now have the pharmaceutical industrial complex's war on natural cancer treatments. This is made possible only because of the monopoly status granted allopathic medicine by government despite the prohibition against granting titles of nobility. Read the Constitution for goodness sake. It is, in actuality, the responsibility of the People to hold public servants to their oath of office, but too many of them are under the influence of all that is approved by government. If "we the people" remain addicted to FDA approved drugs, it may be a conflict of interest that our republic cannot Bayer.

Does government do anything right? How about the War on Illicit Drugs? Surely that is justified because they are more dangerous than the FDA approved variety. Aren't they? Just wait 'til you read my next blog entry...

Posted by Robert Scott Bell at 4:04 AM

Here we are on Monday night. I have just returned from my darling husband's bedside. He is still the sweetest man I know and very, very funny.

Today I got to walk the halls with him....up and down....up and down....up and down. He is very strong although there is not much left of him with all his weight loss.

There he was wrapped in two gowns, back to front and front to back and a depends. He stopped his walk suddenly and called to the nurse. 'Is there anything you can do to help me keep these depends up?' I lifted his gown and sure enough, they were pirched half way down his butt and just about to fall to the floor. That's what happens when you have a belly and NO BUTT!!! He thinks its funny to walk into the kitchen on the weekend laughing as his pants fall down around his ankles. Of course, he blames the maid. Some things never change.

I told the nurse that I was going to bring in his red, white and blue patriotic suspenders tomorrow. He said he would use them to keep his depends up....and he will. The nurse laughed and said Graham was the funniest patient she had ever had.

On a more serious note, all three of his surgeons were in to check on him while I was there. They all bore news of the pathology reports on his cancer.

First bit of good news.....

The bladder cancer was completely contained in his bladder. All lymph nodes were clear of cancer. AOK

Second bit of good news.....

If not for the bladder cancer we would never have stumbled onto the colon cancer which could have greatly shortened his life.

The other news is that the colon cancer was stage three but early. There were many associated lymph nodes taken with the transverse colon and cancer was found in only one. Therefore, Graham will be required to undergo some sort of Chemo treatment. The doctor said there is plenty of time to heal and then we will talk about the next step needed in six weeks.

I thought Graham and I did well with this news. We half way expected there might be some additional treatment required and were prepared for the news. But, we both believe that the treatment will not be radical. We want to continue to think on the positive side and just know that all will turn out fine.

Graham fought me for water today. He even went so far as to tell me he would get even if I refused him. On the heals of that conversation, Dr. Chan entered the room. He, Dr. Chan, told Graham that I was doing him a favor by not giving him any water and that to sneak water would give false readings to the output from the NG tube and cause the doctors to leave it in for another day. 

Saved by the bell! I clearly won that round. YES

Other than all of the above, Graham is looking considerably younger with the weight loss and his skin is glowing. Must be all the cleansing and no food for a week that is responsible for his more youthful appearance. What a way to diet. NOT

"This report should absolutely, definitively and for all time close the door on this treatment," said Dr. Larry Norton of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

During the 1980s and 1990s, it became popular to treat women with a high dose of chemotherapy after surgery, in order to kill off any cancer cells that had not been removed by the initial procedure. Before surgery, surgeons would extract stem cells from the patient's bone marrow. After the chemotherapy, these cells would be transplanted back into the body in order to restore the immune cells that had been killed by chemotherapy.

The procedure was controversial from the start, in part due to the toxicity of Chemotherapy drugs. Such drugs are particularly dangerous at high doses, and some women subjected to the treatment in the United States have died from toxicity. Even in those who survive, such a high dose of chemotherapy drugs is incredibly hard on the body and leads to a high degree of suffering. Finally, many health insurers were initially unwilling to pay for what they considered an experimental and non-proven treatment.

Researchers analyzed the results of 15 separate trials involving a total of 6,200 early stage breast cancer patients. The lymph nodes of all the patients tested positive for cancer following surgery, but in no cases had the cancer spread to other organs. The researchers found that women who underwent the high-dose chemotherapy did not relapse as quickly as women who underwent more conventional treatments, but they did not live any longer!

i'm a slave for you.  no, really.  i think about you day and night.  bloggity this, bloggity that, blog, blog, blog.  i know i've been a little distant the past week, but i think you'll be pleasantly surprised with what excitement i have for you tonight!

as i mentioned on friday, jenny came for a visit.  she also shaved my head.  surprise!

there's a video, too, but we'll have to wait for jen to send it to me.  it is sure to delight one and all!

i've been out and about sans hair and all went well.  well, i mean, jeez, how else did you think it would go?  no small children ran in fear, the elderly have taken a keen interest in me and the teens are holding strong, remaining totally self-absorbed and obnoxious as ever.

nugget's tantie is here until tuesday and then her grandmamie will be back.  i have chemo dose #4 this thursday.  i can't believe it's almost time for that again!  the first week in august i'll be getting pet and ct scans to see just how much cancer ass the chemo's kicked already.

We are off for a formidable 4 weeks with out anything but a cell phone. If your curious our house name is Pocono cottage.  We are going to be hanging out on the beach and going to local/ ( Belgium)  attractions for our little girl. www.plopsaland.be. Not many theme parks are meant for under 4, but this one is an exception it is based on a morning television program from www.studio100.nl.

I have to come back and forth for my chemo day by train that is the reason we are not traveling as far as we would like. I still won't have access to the Internet unless I go into one of the local hotels and pay by the minute to get my "fix" and check e-mails. I have started to do a bit of e-bay equivalent in Holland called Marktplaast.nl. I am curious how my bidding of my old baby carrier's are doing. One already go a bid. I'll close the bidding when I get back. I am very pleased I got my recommended price already, but I am letting the bidding continue because I halfed the original price, and my hip baby carrier from hippy chick really did not get much use. The other one is still in it is original box. Te reason I had the hip sort was I was still recovering from neck radation therapy. Thus nothing over the neck and shoulders thank you.

So I bid you good bye for 4 weeks, and I hang the sign on my blog door saying I am out to lunch!

Anyway....my patient informed me that she would be coming to our area for her job on a certain day that I'm already occupied.  I'm being purposefully vague because of a confidentiality agreement.  Anyway...I had originally thought that I would be able to go and see her do her job but that was before I remembered the other obligation.  Now, I feel bad because I had mentioned that I would be coming to the event in question that she is involved in.  Now, I have to tell her that I won't...I just feel bad...

But, for anyone who is reading this...ChemoAngels is a great organization and I've found it very rewarding...you should check it out.  So, I guess if nothing else, me venting my disappointment is at least a way to maybe get more people to learn about it.

The reason for this is that cancer patients have reported they have a metallic taste in their mouth after sessions of chemotherapy as well as a loss of appetite because of this taste. They claim that after eating the miracle berry that the metallic taste disappears, thus they regain their appetite.

If this were true then it would probably be the result of the miraculin, maybe the same taste buds responsible for sour and bitter tastes are the ones that are tasting the metallic taste, and as the miraculin blocks these taste repceptors then that would result in the metallic taste disappearing.

This alternative us of the miracle berry was publicised on TV in the Richard and Judy Show Channel 4, United Kingdom

Technorati Tags: chemoradiotherapy, cell-cycle, oxygen

The taxanes are commonly used in combination regimens. The Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) directly compared cisplatin (75 mg/m2) plus paclitaxel (175 mg/m2) every 21 days to cisplatin (100 mg/m2) and 5-FU (1,000 mg/m2 daily infusion, days 1-4) every 21 days as first-line therapy in 194 patients with advanced head and neck cancer (25). In a preliminary report, the cisplatin–paclitaxel combination was associated with similar median (9 vs. 8 months) and 1-year survival rates (30% vs. 41%), but a more favorable toxicity profile. In the palliative setting, carboplatin is often substituted for cisplatin in combination with a taxane. Several other three-drug or four-drug combination regimens containing taxanes have shown high response rates and are under development.
An analysis of the available, appropriately conducted, randomized chemotherapy trials had the following conclusions about combination regimens (8).

Combinations produce statistically significantly higher response rates than do single agents, including methotrexate.
In no comparison group (single agent or combinations with taxanes excluded) is survival time meaningfully lengthened.
The toxicities of cisplatin and infusional 5-FU, especially nausea and vomiting, are significantly greater than those of single agents.

Technorati Tags: Combination Chemotherapy, Cisplatin, Methotrexate, 5-FU

Technorati Tags: methotrexate, chemothrapy, side effect

Technorati Tags: chemotherapy, 5-fluorouracil, side effect

Technorati Tags: Chemotherapy, Cisplatin, Carboplatin

Technorati Tags: Paclitaxel, Paxus, Doxetaxel, Taxotere

vincristine, vinblastine, and vinorelbine, interfere with mitotic spindle formation
The taxanes include paclitaxel and docetaxol. They are plant derivatives that stabilize microtubules and render them incapable of mitosis.
he first of these were hormonal therapies (e.g., tamoxifen and other drugs) that target the estrogen receptor. Hormonal therapies have had little use in head and neck cancer.
The ideal drugs have spectra of toxicity that do not overlap. The scheduling of drug administration takes into account possible pharmacologic interactions.

Roles of Chemotherapy in Head and Neck Cancer

Approximately one third of patients in the metastatic setting have tumor shrinkage (a partial or complete response), which lasts an average of 3 to 6 months. For patients with locoregionally advanced stage III and IV cancer, chemotherapy has two main roles: improving survival and organ preservation. Patients with nonresectable head and neck cancer who receive concurrent chemotherapy and RT rather than RT alone have had improved survival rates. For patients with resectable advanced tumors of the larynx and hypopharynx, chemotherapy followed by RT has been associated with laryngeal preservation among two thirds of patients without decreasing survival rate. Concurrent chemoradiation therapy also may allow organ preservation as well or better than induction chemotherapy with a survival rate equivalent to that of surgery.

Technorati Tags: chemotherapy, head and neck, oncology

my little cabbages, i know you must think i've forgotten about you.  mais, non!  i think about you day and night.  it's just that sometimes those pesky chores of life, you know, building a house two and half hours away, raising a toddler, having cancer, having a sister and not one, but two dear friends in town, are using up all my minutes and i haven't got any rollover.  but fear not, we're working on something amazing at chez bits as i type.

jenny is on her way over for paninis with nugget, tantie and me.  then there are major plans in the works.  m-a-j-o-r.  you will not be disappointed!

we're just going to have to take things slow.  i mean, i like you, i really do, i just need some time to myself today.  but tonight, i promise, we'll have some special time together.  just you and me and some spectacular video footage.  i know, i know, i can hardly wait myself!

Yesterday when I was at MD Anderson waiting to have my blood work done, I shared the waiting room with a number of gutsy women who came in sans-hair. Sans-hat too, and sans-scarf. They are the bold ones who simply say, "To heck with this charade, I'm going au naturel." Among those women was one who looked to be in her mid-70's, passing the time talking (loudly!) with her son about politics and other potentially offensive subjects that made her son look chronically uncomfortable as he tried repeatedly, and unsuccessfully, to change the subject. She was clearly an opinionated soul with a lot of heavy thoughts on her mind, and they weren't going to just stay there quietly - much to sonny's chagrin.

My best efforts to tune her out were futile, even though I'd brought a great book. Somehow, regardless of how engrossed I had been in the pages of my political thriller, her voice crowded the characters, dialogue and plotline - all three. When my name was finally called to the inner waiting room of the Diagnostic Center, I was happy to set my bookmark and go with the nurse. Two other patients had preceded me into the inner wating area, and the nurse pointed to a woman who was already there. "You'll go after the woman in the red scarf," she said to me. As I took the chair next to the distinguished-looking woman with a beautiful red silk scarf tied around her head, another woman came in after me. She, like the loud mama in the outer waiting area, was bald. She was wearing a nondescript uniform of some sort - khaki pants and khaki shirt with the name of a company embroidered on the pocket, and work boots on her feet. I'm sure she must've just come from work, or would be going to work after her appointment. She was told, "You'll go after the woman in the bright blue top," as the nurse pointed my way. I nodded and smiled at the woman in the uniform as she took the chair next to mine. It was all so orderly, and so polite. Until . . .

The woman from the waiting room was then ushered into our little inner sanctuary. In a dress with a pattern as loud as she was, the woman blustered into the room with, "Well, it certainly took long enough today! I thought you'd never call my name!" The nurse, unflustered, simply pointed to the uniformed bald woman and told the noisemaker, "You'll go after the woman in the glasses." Giving the uniformed woman a long study up-and-down, the loud mama said, "Oh, you mean the man in the glasses! The man, not woman!"

I wanted to crawl under my chair. I felt mortified for the sweet woman sitting next to me. It's undeniably disconcerting for a woman to lose her hair in huge clumps, and then finally be completely bald, but it had to be mortifying to be mistaken for a man because of it! But it only pointed out what I'd felt from time to time - it is true that much of a woman's own sense of femininity is in our hair. We baby it, condition it, curl it, style it; we like it to be gently flowing around our faces, adding softness to our expressions. Without it, I have come to realize that I need to find other ways of feeling - well, girly. Typically, for me, it means that I must wear makeup, jewelry (especially earrings) and perfume. And, of course, I'm not brave enough to leave home without a covering for my head, whether it's an adorable hat, scarf or wig.

If the bald uniformed woman had been wearing a cute pair of silver hoop earrings and red lipstick, Miss Loudmouth probably wouldn't have made such a dreadfully insulting mistake. Which just makes my point, doesn't it?

It takes a little more effort when you're bald.

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Sunday was just a bit better. I slept a lot all weekend.

Then I had to go back to work on Monday. It was a strain to sit up all day and keep working. I accidentally stayed up til 11:30 reading, though.

I woke up at 3:30 am today, and was apparently finished sleeping. I laid there until 5:20 and then got up. I felt good enough to rotate the dishes. I managed to get to work at a semi decent hour.

Now... I'm just "regular" tired.

The good news is I'm now on vacation. We are going to visit my boyfriend's brother and family for a few days. I'll be back on Monday to do all the work no one did while I was on vacation, have a "good" week, and then one last AC chemo.

I start Taxol/Herceptin some time in August, weekly, for 12 weeks.

http://my.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20080708/4872e640_3421_13345200807081427591896

OMG I can' belive this! They want to POISON 60 poor children. Seven years ago they removed Mercury from vaccinations and some paranoid delusional undereducated parents haven't figured out it made NO difference to the autism rate. Even worse they convinced the govenment to put some money into dangerous research.

The Chelation therapy proposed basically strips the metals out of their little bodies including the iron in thier blood. I don't know about you but a low white blood cell count doesn't sound healthy to me. Besides we already know by studies in adults this doesn't work unless the metals are very high. Oh and did I forget to mention one child is already dead as a direct link to this therapy?

Thiomersal (technical name for the mercury used in vaccines) has a half life of a couple weeks so there won't be any traces of it in the bloodstream. So again why are we placating these crackpots while they gamble with innocent lives? Once it was publicly known that the Mercury was removed they started blaming some other additive. This moving goal post will always put vaccines on the diffensive.

Most scientists call this dangerous, unethical, voodoo, anecdotal and wasteful of time and money. So why are the politicians letting these ignorant parents torture thier children? So they can get a little 'x' on a ballot.

Chemotherapy is also a type of poison that can make anyone sick but we actually know it works in cancer treatment. IF you had a high level of mercury poisoning that didn't kill you and you had Chelation then the BEST outcome would be the removal of the metal. The therapy CANNOT repair the damaged neurons so it is NOT possible to CURE autism this way.

So in conclusion. Vaccines are good. Autism isn't stupid. Ignorance Kills. Stop Jenny McCarthy.

 Tomorrow will be my last chemo treatment! I will walk through those automatic doors only one more time to get toxic chemicals pumped into my veins. I will be hooked up for the last time to a pole through my port. I will only spend one more anxious night worrying about going to sleep before my treatment. I will spend only one more week with symptoms from chemo drugs. I will look forward to my future and planing fun things to do and not worry about if it is a chemo weekend or not. I will not have to take all that medication anymore. I will be free of appointments and weekly doctors visits. I will walk out of the infusion center confidently, triumphantly, and strong. Because I have kicked cancer's ass!

Cross posted on http://sprucehill.typepad.com/

For thousands of years, people in Asia have used lycium fruit and liquorice to help maintain good health and balance.

Forever Lycium Plus is a dietary supplement intended as a source of antioxidants, bioflavonoids and other beneficial phytonutrients.

Lycium fruit grows in China, where for cenluries it has been used as a traditional remedy tor a variety of ailments. Rich in amino acids (the building blocks of protein), and vitamins, lycium is known in China as a yin tonic. It is known for improving vision, helping the complexion, nourishing the liver and kidneys and for having general anti-ageing and strengthening properties. Traditionally it was used for treating dizziness and general weakness, low energy, pains in the back and joints. More modern uses include treating the toxic effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Liquorice is considered to be the most widely used herb in Chinese medicine. It is made up of over 150 chemical compounds, which have beneficial effects on inflammation, fevers, wounds, ulcers, sore throats and coughs. Although it is used specifically for treating various illnesses, its most frequent use by far is as a complementary herb in countless prescriptions, with its main function being to bring out the most beneficial effects of other herbs. This makes it an ideal companion tor lycium.

Liquorice Flavonoid Extract is a concentrated form of liquorice bioflavonoids. It is produced according to a proprietary process that removes most of the glycyrrhizin, an intensely sweet component of liquorice that has been shown to produce undesirable side effects. Based on modern studies, liquorice bioflavonoids are among the strongest antioxidants vet discovered.

Content

Microcrystalline Cellulose, Cellulose, Stearic Acid, Magnesium Stearatc.

Directions:

Take one tablet three times daily.

Characteristics:

• Powerful antioxidant.
• Good source of phytonutrients.
• Powerful tonic
• Beneficial to eyesight, skin, liver, kidneys and heart.
• May help counter diabetic eye and nerve disorders and effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.