Everyone has a point of view.....

Amanda spent the weekend in hospital, due to our lovely GP having concerns that her blood calcium levels were increasing above what is considered to be the norm.  By the time her first blood test at Nobles Hospital was taken on Friday evening, her levels were within the standard parameters once again... but they kept her in for observations.  There were also white blood cells in her urine, suggesting there may be an infection.  They offered her a course of antibiotics (before it had even been cultured), a general 'cure all' antibiotic, a fix it all solution.  She refused it stating she wanted to see if there was an infection or not before taking a course of antibiotics.  When the results came back they showed there was no infection.  So Amanda would have been given a course of antibiotics for no reason whatsoever.  
Her calcium remained consistent throughout the weekend, and she was discharged on Monday afternoon.  
When there is cancer in the bones, the tumours can leech out calcium in to the blood.  This can cause all sorts of problems.  Confusion, twitching and nausea being common.... of which Amanda was suffering all.  It can eventually lead to
seizures or coma.  They attached her up to a drip of saline assuming it was down to dehydration.  What they didn't ask her was, 'Amanda do you drink constantly throughout your waking hours?', as her answer would have been YES.  I think the weekend in hospital was an entire waste of her time.  On the other hand it's better to be safe than sorry with hypercalcemia.  She still has 'The Pain'.... It's too much.  There will need to be something done to address the cause of the pain in the coming weeks.  Be it an operation or radiation to the cervical spine, she needs something to enable her to cope.  The pain killers seem to be doing more harm than good by putting the liver and kidneys under undue pressure and leaving her groggy and confused much of the time.  If they were 'killing' the pain, we could accept this, but they are not.  They are muffling the pain to a 4 or 5 out of 10 if she is still.  If she is moving the pain can still reach 8 out of 10.

We were hoping to go to the hyperbaric chamber today, but her pain was too much.  It's upsetting to know that there is a facility literally 3 miles down the road that could help with the pain in a matter of weeks, but she can't even get out to take advantage of it.  So close yet so far.

I had an interesting 'conversation' on Facebook with a stranger last night, there was sarcasm involved, but we both remained polite.  His final comment was thus:

'Mark, thanks for your comment, and you and your wife have my very best wishes. I read 

some of your blog and I hope you'll take this comment in the spirit in which it's intended. I have to say

that your blog makes extremely painful reading because you appear to have embraced "alternative" or

"new-age" approaches to cancer treatment that have not been proven to be effective. A huge industry

based on pseudo-scientific nonsense, buoyed by a healthy but overblown mistrust of the medical and

pharmaceutical industries has emerged over the last several decades, purporting to offer kinder and

often diet-based alternatives to "conventional" cancer treatments. Many people have embraced these

"treatments" only to find that they work no better than placebo, but cost considerably more, including

one's valuable remaining time that could have been better spent. I sincerely hope it's not too late for

you and your wife to step right back out of the box and reconsider your choices.'

I'm sure there are lots of folks reading this blog who think we have 'embraced alternative or new age approaches to cancer treatment that have not been proven to be effective'. 

This is what I thought when Amanda initially wanted to veer away from the conventional approach to cancer treatment.  So firstly I read about the efficacy of chemotherapy (various combinations), what goes into it, how it affects the body as a whole, then finally the clinical trial results and what the oncologists expect when they treat someone with chemotherapy.  This wasn't all gleaned from internet chatrooms and websites.  It was hard research.  I did the same with radiation, herceptin and tamoxifen.... The other treatments Amanda was offered initially but turned down.  I read about the actual trials ran by the companies that produced these drugs.  Finally I looked in to bisphosphonates, something that has been used for many years, that is now being reinvestigated due to their effects eventually stopping osteoblasts (bone cell makers) as well as the osteoclasts (cells which remove old bone, making room for osteoblasts to work).  Anyway I'm sure I've written plenty about these drugs.

We then investigated the alternatives.  What choice do you have when conventional medicine aim to get you to five years then give themselves a pat on the back for destroying your immune system, digestive system and parts of the endocrine system for years on end, leaving patients susceptible to illness or death from many other causes, not just their cancer.  They radiate, in the knowledge that their radiation in the long term also causes cancer, but because they're not expecting patients to live for very long, they see it as an acceptable form of treatment.  Then there are the hormone treatments..... 

The alternatives treatments don't cause harm to the body, though bloods need to be reviewed regularly to ensure kidney and liver functions are acceptable.  Many German cancer clinics use complementary therapies alongside reduced and targeted chemotherapy approaches.  There are plenty of clinics and specialists that have cured, thousands of people suffering cancer.  Yes certain approaches suit certain cancer, suit certain people, and some sufferers are simply too far gone to be treated successfully.  In some instances this is due to the extensive damage caused by the chemotherapy and other drugs.  They don't offer to cure everyone, but in many cases their stats are equal to or better than the chemotherapy approach.  There are thousands of examples of living proof.  We've also read the biography's of cancer survivors, there are many websites now set up by people who are living their way through cancer using alternative methods, and documenting it as they go.  Not everyone will live, this is true.  But there are safer methods to treating cancer that achieve better results than chemotherapy and radiation.  It takes a lot of reading, and you have to filter out the dross from genuine examples.  But the majority of folks don't want to know.  And to be honest I'm not here to convince them.  It is only through their very own experiences that are forced upon them by living this life that some people's eyes will open to the corruptness of big pharmaceutical companies, to the multi million dollar business that is cancer.  

GlaxoSmithKline are presently being investigated by the Chinese Government for trying to bribe government officials, doctors and lawyers to the tune of 489 million dollars, FOUR HUNDRED AND EIGHTY NINE MILLION DOLLARS!!!

If they are willing to cough out bribes to such monumental (a drop in the ocean for a Big Pharma) amounts to get their pharmaceuticals used throughout China just imagine how dishonest and ruthless they can be with everything else.  It makes you question how many times they've done it already.

Big Pharma  -  just look in to it.  This example is right on the money, it's up to date and in our faces.

My Facebook stranger then went on to say

'Many people have embraced these "treatments" only to find that they work no better than placebo, but cost considerably more, including one's valuable remaining time that could have been better spent. I sincerely hope it's not too late for you and your wife to step right back out of the box and reconsider your choices.'

People are treated everyday and cured by alternative cancer treatments.  People are also cured of many other psycho somatic conditions by the placebo effect.  This shows just how powerful the mind really is.  There are many studies showing the affect of the placebo effect in itself, so I feel this comment was incorrect and slightly ignorant in using the placebo effect as an example.  The placebo effect is a term coined due to the beneficial effect of people who believe they are being treated by something that will potentially cure/heal them.  

These medicines do not cost considerably more either.  A course of Tamoxifen costs in the region of £40,000 per annum, I only know that because the Macmillan nurse told us.

'One's valuable remaining time could have been better spent'  -  This chap has obviously had no friends or family involved in conventional cancer treatment.  For the majority of people that go through chemotherapy, radiation and hormone treatments, their time is spent pretty sickly, fatigued, wiped out.  Some lucky folks take it better than others, but it's no walk in the park.  Our time was spent travelling for 18 months around South East Asia and India.  This would not have been nigh on impossible with ongoing chemotherapy.  Silly boy.

'I sincerely hope it's not too late for you and your wife to step right back out of the box and reconsider your choices'  -  There was no box other than the alternative cancer therapy box offering the potential of survival past 5 years from the outset, hence the reason we researched as many viable alternatives as possible.  Our choices are ongoing.  

All women with Amanda's 'strain' of breast cancer have a 70% chance or recurrence within 3 years, some are unfortunate enough for spinal cord involvement, about 10% of the recurrences.  These statistics are with or without chemotherapy.  Chemotherapy made no difference to this 70% of women.

I do feel that when someone like the chap who remains unnamed says 'I've read some of your blog' then he has gleaned nothing.  I may as well have posted a complex recipe for him to follow, then he would have come back and said, 'I've read some of your recipe, I'm not a baker or a chef and I haven't read much about baking in general, but to be honest I'm not sure your recipe is going to work, and Betty Crocker makes a good mix where I just add water, and seeing as I don't think yours will work based on my uneducated views on this matter, I'll stick with the pre-packed Betty Crocker cake mix'.  This is of course a less life threatening example.  But to make such ignorant comments does leave me aghast.

Manx Tails, a little magazine that comes through the doors of the Isle of Man householders every fortnight or month (weeks and months have blended in to one) has a legendary writer called Terry Cringle.  He gives his views on everything, from dog walkers to the universe.  But in the last edition he had a flutter with the topic of cancer.  Stating there were risks of getting cancer from this, that and the other, and that the increasing numbers in people suffering from cancer were due to us humans living longer.  Poppycock!!!  Great word.... Had forgotten about it.  Note to ones self, use Poppycock more often.  If that were the case, the rise in cancer figures would begin to affect the over 60s.  Where as most of the women suffering breast cancer seem to be getting younger.  This is the same for most cancers.  Come on Terry, do a little research before making such wreckless statements.