Talking to God when you have Cancer

Someone recently told me that the hospital he was in when he was having cancer surgery, had a chapel which had daily communion services.  He said that - it was very well attended by people from the cancer ward.

The point was well made. When you near the point of no return to the life you once knew - you feel acutely isolated in time and space you feel your "oneness or unique aloneness" as never before.
Reaching out for support is therapeutic.  Its also very natural.

If you are not a spiritually attuned person - there is no shame in acknowledging your frailty.

I won't preach or tell you how to live your life, but I will tell you what I have done and what I do.

I have a friend who is not too far away and I call him and we talk.

On the surface its easy to see me reaching out for the phone. But there is more to it then just that.
My friend doesn't have a phone. He can be reached by thought. It sounds a little mystical doesn't it? It is.

My friend loves me and is willing to reach for me, when I call.  My friends' name is God.
I talk to him all the time. Its sort of a mental stream of communication. I thank Him for little things. I thanked him each time a nurse dropped by to see me in the hospital.  I thank him for good days and for my grandchildren's laughter.

But, when I hurt, I also talk to him.  Some people call this prayer. I simply call it - connectiveness to The Power.

I don't necessarily ask for life shaking miracles but that has its time and place too.  But I do thank him for the inner strength he is giving me, and for the right words to say to encourage others.

My friend is particularly there when I am totally alienated from the stream of life.

Personal notes and blog entries and are included in the Letters Welcome, contact us page beneath the blog heading picture.

Dumb Things People Say to you When you have Cancer

You can beat cancer if you have the right attitude.  This one is almost a mantra.  Everyone with

cancer hears it.  One question...does it mean that, if you die of it, you failed to make a character or personality adjustment. That being so..if you die of cancer...are you responsible fory our own death because of some sort of flaw in your character? What a guilt trip if you buy into it.

 But, its not a comment entirely without foundation.  It is most important not to despair.
 For me, this is where my deep faith in God enters the equation. I submit to God's loving protection
and for him to shield me within the strength of his big loving arms.

 I commit myself to not sinking into depression and the big black pit.  That is a really dangerous               place to go. This is where my attitude really swings into play.  I don't walk around with a happy smile on my face when I don't feel  happy......but I sure don't chose to crawl into the black pit of depression or engage in pity parties. I hope that you, dear reader, don't see my blog as an exercise in self pity.
Its not about "look how I have suffered". The purpose of the blog is to teach, instruct, guide and help others who are walking in my footsteps.

That being said, whenever I find my mental outlook slipping down the wet muddy hill I reach out and grab anything I can to stop the slide.  Each one of the encouraging videos on the page above this posting and below the heading picture has given me encouragement.

Develop your strategies to keep yourself from sinking into despair. Prayer, meditation, good music, inspirational readings or messages, or the repitition of certain habits or pleasing actions are good.
Take a slow, morning walk and take your camera with you. Record what you see.  Find a cancer chatroom - my experience has been that there are always people on there who enjoy helping and encouraging fellow journeyers who are the pit.

Yes - attitude is important, and it may mean simply - chosing to maintain a healthy mental balance or interpreting your life in such a way that despair won't take you down.

Comments welcome.

Do Cancer Cells Play Possum when under attack

The Toronto Star ran a story which I found on their online website today. It is important to understanding why some cancers don't respond to treatment. The article reports a study that suggests that some cancer cells, become dormant when they are attacked.

To read the article, please click here.

photo from: the Toronto Star, via Becky Shenk, Associated Press

My body's resistence to copper reduction therapy - and what I did about it.

If you're serious about fighting your tumours, I have a story to tell you.

About 4 months ago, I learned of the drug tetrathiomolybdate, which is popularly nicknamed TM.
And since learning about it, I learned that copper plays a significant role in the life of tumours.

It has to do with something called angiogenesis.  Tumours take on a life of their own and they like to grow.

I have focused in the past on the importance of maintaining your body as an alkyline host.
The thinking goes that cancer can't live in an alkyline environment.

I've also focused on the glucose appetite of tumours. Its important - not to feed your tumours, sugar.  That means being a stingy host and  avoiding feeding them glucose as found in  such things as sugar in coffee,  deserts, and alcohol.

I followed those strategies, not knowing that copper was also another concern.

Look at it like this. Copper plays an important role in angiogenesis - facilitating the development of veins within and surrounding  tumours, to deliver their bloody meals.

Now, if you are a serious about implementing a control strategy to keep tumour growth in check,
then I want you to read about something I did that was risky and I didn't realize it.

I have been eating millet because its alkaline. I was having it as a breakfast cereal and I was eating it as a rice substitute. And I have been eating lots of nuts - almonds, sunflower seeds, macadamia nuts, because as a vegan determined to avoid meats - I was eating these as a source of protein.

Check this out.

Copper content of some significant items in my diet.
Millet,                                     cooked  14%
Quinoa                                    cooked    18%

wild rice, cooked,                      10%
sweet potato, steamed 1%, baked without salt 16%

almonds, blanched                    85% unblanched and raw 112%

sunflower seeds unsalted,          123%
macadamia nuts raw and unsalted 51%
Walnuts black. dried                   85%


source. nutrtional value.self. Please click here.

I found myself eating a lot of nuts, to increase my protein level, since I was not eating meat. But, I was, unwittingly increasing my supply of copper, which was fasciltating the growth of my tumours and is supporting blood vascular (blood vessel) networks.

I have tried a variety of effective natural responses to overcome cancer but was not only unsuccessful, but my tumours kept growing - allbeit slowly. I noticed that my urea count in blood tests was low, and a doctor in training told me that it reflected my protein level.  So, I turned to nuts and ate a handful or two each day.

It stands to reason that I was increasing my body copper level - and copper has a tendency to gather in tumours. I was taking naturopathic treatments and the practioner told me that he didn't understand why my tumours weren't shrinking.  He has lots of clients whose tumours do shrink and they are not vegans.  The pieces weren't fitting together.

I believe that as my copper level increased so did my degree of angiogenesis. My tumours began creating an extended system of blood vessels to support their existence. And, as they expanded their network of food bearing blood vessels - they began growing a lot faster.  So I was caught in a vicious circle.

It's important for you to know that I have no medical training or education. . I am not a doctor. I have not taken a single science course at a graduate level.  So what you are reading is sheer speculation.

When I was taking TM, I had a couple of weeks with  predictable drops in my ceruloplasim (copper) reading. Following that, the decline slowed.  Dr. Kahn said, "In some people, their copper in tumours, hangs on".  So, he increased my dosage to 8 per day. (40 mg. ea.)  Fortunately, the decline continued - but it wasn't as dramatic as it was at first.

My ceruloplasim readings were 314,209, 198, 147 and finally 96. (American readers divide those numbers by ten).

My decline from 198 came after my dosage was increased to 8, from 6.

Dr Kahn, in his literature wrote that Ceruplasim counts do not drop for 1/3 of those who take tm.

Another item of interest if you should be considering the tm treatment and are into naturopathic treatment.  My body and tumours were stubbornly hanging onto their copper levels.  I told Dr. Kahn about me taking bee pollen and he suggested that I lay ofif it for a while.  My cerulplasim count has dropped to about the mid 80's. A suitable level for treatment.  He told me that another patient had trouble with her copper levels falling so he asked her specifically if she was on bee pollen and she reported affirmatively.."yes!"...and Royal Jelly too.  But, in her case, her ceruoplasim count didn't take an effective drop until she also stopped taking bee products.


My suspicion is, that my tumours grew when I increased my copper levels through consuming a lot more more almonds, macadamia nuts, walnuts and sunflower seeds.

The hesitation of my body in releasing copper was not good .Dr. Kahn has been looking for a reading of about 100. So, when he increased my dosage about 3 weeks went by before I discovered that I was taking in a lot of copper by eating copper rich nuts. Needless to say that, once I discovered this, I took serious control of the amount of copper I was consuming.  And, to my delight - my ceruloplasim number didn't stop in its decline...it continued. Not by massive drops but significant enough to provide me with great encouragement.

I write all this - for anyone going down the same road as I have been taking and in particular, anyone with showing a ceruloplasim resistance to TM copper reduction therapy.

Six Important Points for me in my Personal Cancer Journey

1. To face my illness with bravery and self respect
2. To treat my illness with a detached sense of intellectual curiousity - and this means studying with care each and every blood test and to take notes in every doctor's appointment and to understand as fully as possible given my lack of medical education.
3. To turn my struggle into a positive  experience to help others on their journeys
4. To keep my eyes wide open and take whatever route possible to help me defeat the enemy within
5. Not to be a burden to others - and this means being a contributing member to my family, as much as possible given my strength, and liberating my wife, as much as possible from her burden of care.  This meant me changing my ostomy bag in the middle of the night, when I was deep in the grips of post operative surgical pain...and it meant me being responsible for giving my own injections and keeping notes and dates of medical appointments. Then when I became a vegetarian, I found recipes and cooked my own meals. All of this was important to me, for I became responsible for my own care..and not a victimized by it. Besides that nobody was going to  knock on my door and hand me a silver bullet.
6. And number 6 grew out of point 5. It seemed most important to me to be responsible for my own cancer research. That meant, for the most part sloughing off the banal comments of others and charting my own course and setting my own sails.  I absorbed everything I could to strengthen my own ability to fight the illness.I prowled my way through cancer websites, and whatever academic studies of cancer I could find.  That was what led me into Dr. Kahns office at the Medicor Alternative Cancer Care clinic in Toronto. Nobody pointed me in that direction, save for his website. But, I should add that also grew out of me writing to two universities asking if I could be put on a test team of patients in their cancer research.

I will add more to this list as I go along.

Dr. Mehmet Oz's Cancer Fighting Diet

Dr. Mehmet Oz is a nationally renowned cardiac surgeon who is also an Emmy-award winning daytime television personality. Although his specialty is not oncology, people trust what he has to say about healthy living regarding cancer prevention. "Forbes" magazine named him the third most influential celebrity of 2010 and "Time" magazine included him in its top 100 Most Influential People of 2008. Oz has a way of making medical issues interesting and accessible -- even using quizzes and games to make his point on his TV show. One of his most popular recommendations is a cancer-fighting diet.


GROCERY SHOPPING
You can't go wrong in the produce aisle when selecting foods for Oz's cancer-fighting diet. Choose cantaloupe, which contains carotenoids that help prevent lung cancer. He also suggests cabbage and kale to help prevent prostate cancer. Eat soybeans, or edamame, advises Oz, to help prevent estrogen-driven cancers and prostate cancer. Whole grain oats is the cereal of choice because of the soluble fiber it contains to help prevent colon cancer. Also, look for cereal high in flaxseed and folate. Drink orange juice to reduce the risk of gastrointestinal and pancreatic cancer. Oz recommends substituting green tea for coffee to help prevent bladder and prostate cancer. Caffeinated coffee, however, can lower colon, breast, uterine and brain cancers, he notes. Pomegranate juice reduces the risk of colon and prostate cancers. Beer in moderation might protect against stomach cancer, but drinking too much of any alcoholic beverage can increase breast, throat and liver cancers, he cautions.

BREAKFAST
Oz recommends specific anti-cancer recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Blueberries, yogurt and green tea make up a cancer-fighting breakfast. Blueberries are an antioxidant, which help protect your cells and repels carcinogens. The lactobacilli in yogurt keep healthy cells from turning cancerous. The antioxidant properties of green tea rounds out a cancer-prevention morning meal.

LUNCH
Eat as the Indonesians do, and have tempeh with rainbow chard, flaxseed and tomatoes, says Oz. Tempeh is a soybean product that has been an Indonesian staple for hundreds of years. This versatile food picks up the flavors of other foods. People typically cut it into cubes and fry it until it turns golden brown. Tempeh is especially useful for post-menopausal women because it is a plant-based estrogen. Tempeh and flaxseed help prevent breast and ovarian cancers. Chard is an immune booster. Tomatoes contain lycopene, which helps prevent cancer cells from growing.

DINNER
For dinner, have the whole grain quinoa, an antioxidant with fiber that helps prevent colon cancer. Also, Oz recommends roasted onions and garlic -- vegetables that stop stomach, colon, lung, prostate, brain and breast cancers from growing. Mix carrots, squash and sweet potatoes in the roasting pan with them for their antioxidants. Have curried beans for the fiber in the beans and the tumor-suppression quality of the curry.

Source: Livestrong.com
           please click here
Picture from Wikipedia
          please click here

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