Alternative Medicine

In my last post I mentioned going to a naturopath, or you might have heard the term homeopathic doctor.  Let me give you some background on my thoughts on alternative medicine.  My family went to a homeopathic doctor for certain conditions growing up.  For instance, when I was 12 or so, I had this weird outbreak of warts all over my body.  It hurt to rest my elbows on a table, and you can imagine how embarrassing this was in 7th grade.  We went to the conventional doctor, and his solution was to scrape them off using a scapel-type blade. OMG that hurt, but yes, get them off of me!!!!  I still have one scar on the back-side of my thigh.  But they came back, immediately, and a little more aggressively.  So on to the homeopathic doctor we went.  Homeopaths treat the whole body, not just the symptoms, so there are a lot of questions that are totally unrelated to what's wrong - for instance, how are you eating, sleeping, pooping, etc?  And you walk out with these little pills, I call them sugar pills because they're sweet, and just put them under your tongue a couple of times a day.  Miraculously the warts disappeared, very quickly.  It was like they melted away.  This is why I believe in a balance between conventional and alternative medicine.

Let me be clear - I also believe in conventional medicine.  Antibiotics have helped me several times in my life, although I also think that our society relies a little too much on them.  Therefore, I usually try to treat something alternatively before going to a conventional doctor.  I'd say it works 50% of time.  Not bad :)

I've always wanted to find a naturopath in Charlotte and had never gotten around to it.  My brother found one for me, and I had a brief consultation with him to talk about my needs and his treatments.  He was specific that he doesn't treat cancer, so he referred me to a certified homeopathic oncologist in AZ that does long-distance consultations. We also talked about treating my body for the surgery and making me strong for the upcoming battle.  I scheduled a follow up with him to begin the process of talking about my body. As I described earlier, homeopathy treats the entire body, so there was a 3 hour session of talking about everything from sleeping, to dating, to family, etc.  We came out with a plan for treating my colon, to help it get stronger, and detoxing my liver since it needs as much help as it can get.

Many of my family members have strong beliefs in the benefits of alternative medicines, which also means that some do not believe in using conventional medicine.  I've received a lot of information from various friends and family on various treatments using alternative medicines.  In this day of information overload on the Internet, you can imagine all the stuff that's online.

My mom has been staying with me over the last two weeks, preparing meals and juicing to strengthen me, and there was a point where if she wasn't cooking, she was sitting in my lounge chair with her iPad googling "cancer cures".  I asked her to write down all the things she wanted me to research taking, and the list was over a page long.  If roles were reversed, I know I'd be googling the same thing, but this was a wake up for me - I need to define what I want.

I'm already taking Vitamin C (10,000mg), Fish Oil, melatonin and probiotics.  My brother sent me Asea and Protandim, and I don't really know what they are, but they don't interfere with chemo.  I'm drinking 1 tsp of Baking Soda twice daily for one week, then only 1tsp once daily, to increase my body's alkaline levels (since you want to be alkaline, not acidic) - and taking periodic baths with 2lbs of Baking Soda.  I got liver detox, colon strengthening stuff, and phosphorus 30 from my homeopathic doc.  I drink lemon water in the morning to jump start my colon.  I'm drinking 5-6 fresh juices a day, and we've just moved from carrot/apple to green juice.  And I'm eating like a gluten-free vegan.  Oh, and I'm peeing on Ph strips a few times a day to measure my body's alkaline levels.  I'm tired of hearing all the other things that I should be doing.  And I'm tired of having to think, research, rationalize whether I believe in any other alternative treatments.  Haven't I changed enough? Yes, I'm fighting for my life, but I need to actually enjoy my life too.

I came to a conclusion - I believe in chemotherapy.  I will be getting chemotherapy on 10/18 for three months.  I will also be meeting with the homeopathic oncologist on 10/15 to discuss homeopathic treatment for my body during chemotherapy, and then I'll decide if I will add anything else (or remove anything) from my "home treatments".

I know some friends and family may not agree with my decision to have chemo, but I ask that you please respect it and not try to talk me out of it.  The last thing I need is to not believe in my treatment.  I need to be optimistic, and any contradictions at this point will not be helpful.

I also ask my friends and family that may not agree with my alternative treatment to respect my decision as well.  Hearing about how some quack doctor blah blah blah is not helpful either :)

I know that each of you are only thinking of helping me, because you love me, but the best thing you can do right now is to support my decisions and be a cheerleader for me.  I need positivity in my life, and I'm constantly amazed at the amount of love and support that I've received.

Thank you!
Sarah xoxo

Guess who's got a date?

...date to start chemo, that is! I went in for my follow up visit to Dr Thies, my local surgeon that performed the colectomy.  He said my wound was healing very well.  So I can do yoga now (yay!), I can take a bath (yay yay!), and I can start chemo the week of 10/15.

I emailed the Nurse Practitioner for Dr Zafar at Duke that we met on Monday, really nice, informative woman named Leigh, and told her all the info:

• I want to have all treatments at Duke
• I want to go with the oral 5FU instead of the IV
• I want to get my port placed by my local surgeon, instead of having to go back to Duke
• And I'm able to start chemo the week of 10/15

I also asked for a recommendation of what day of the week to start chemo.  Unfortunately there are no clinics on Friday or Saturday, and Leigh and Dr Zafar are in clinics Monday mornings and all day Thursdays, although Leigh is in clinics Monday - Thursday, so I can do it without Dr Zafar.  She recommended Thursdays since patients that are working like to have the weekend close to rest.  And she mentioned that we can always switch the days up later if something else becomes more convenient. So I'm leaning toward Thursdays.  

She also said it would be great to have my port "installed" locally.  A port is a small catheter to my heart that will be placed under the skin by my collar bone.  This will allow easy administration of all drugs, fluids, etc, and allow them to take blood from me easily.  So no more IVs, and getting stuck with needles - yay!  Dr Thies informed me that I'm gonna have to clean/flush this sucker - ewwww! And that there is a risk of inflection if you don't clean it well and often.  So having a local doc around to assist with that makes me happy :)

I also visited a homeopath naturopath yesterday, so I'll tell you more about him later.  But I've got to start getting ready for work.  Yes, I'm back in the office!  I went back on Wednesday and arrived to a decorated cubical.  My teammates rock!  Here are a couple pics :)

My New Blog v2

I accidentally deleted my earlier post (oops), so here's the replay:

After additional research, I decided to add this blog in addition to the CaringBridge site.  I recognize how some folks rely on RSS Feeds to stay up-to-date, and it's only a matter of cut and paste to manage both :)  If you're not familiar with an RSS Feed, check out the Google Reader.  It enables you to subscribe to a website so you can then read new "articles" all in one place.  I use Google Reader to stay up to date with all the different web sites and blogs about Mobile Banking, which is my field of expertise.  It's quite handy - check it out!

Also, I've had a request to create a blog entry about symptoms for issues with your colon, and I'm all for education and awareness.  So look for a posting on pooping - coming soon!

Drop me a line, or a comment, if you've got a question, or a suggestion, for a future blog entry.  I'm game!

TTYL
Sarah xoxo