RADIOTHERAPY

Dad was prescribed his one and only radiotherapy course.
Each day he has to report to the centre for a 5-10min radiotherapy session. No pain, no difficulty.
However, it is giving him a not so good appetite. Otherwise things seemed to be going fine.
Onco has asked him to take some chemo drug to increase the sensitivity of the cancer cells.
We decided to drop that. do not want him to feel any further physical discomfort,. Onco could not assure us that it would help, or how much it would help anyway.



He'll also have to follow up with radio onco each week. I discovered that the follow-ups was almost merely to help dad manage the side effects.I think mainstream medicine is pathetic when it comes to cancer management.

CT SCANS, PETS scans and Radiotherapy

Dad is planning to start radiotherapy soon and the oncos have scheduled a series of scans.
It is amazing how little infomation the doctors are giving from the (i quote minister) '$8 package). They send you through the factory line. If you don't ask any questions, they send you through the factory line silently; you may well be contributing to the statistic of the 5-yr survival with 5 percent.

There r a number of tests you have to do before u start on radiotherapy.

1) CT Simulation

The simulation has a shelf -life of about 3 weeks, so do not embark on it unless u are 100% sure you have decided to start your radiotherapy within the 3-week time frame (we were not told on this).  A few dots may be marked as tattoo to help radiographer position the equipment during future treatment.You have to fast about 4 h before.  Procedure takes about 45 min.

2) PET scan

some 'spots turn up in the CT scan. Another way to better ascertain the nature of these 'spots' is to do a PET scan. Sometimes u can get better info. The idea behind it is to see if the pancreatic cancerous cells had/had not spread. This will affect the dose of radiation treatment that may be given. (S$1500 non-medisave deductible for a subsidized patient)

You have to fast 6 h before the scan.  Before scan, you have to be injected and 2 cups of drinks have to be downed. then you have to wait for an hour before they can scan you. Guess what, dad fasted, got injected, drank 2 cups of whatever, waited for 45 min just to be told that the machine generating the dye is not working for that day. Scan aborted. talking about much ado for nothing.

3) Renal scan (kidney)

This kinds of help to minimise the effect of radio on the kidneys, they know where the kidneys are and can target the treatment better. We were told it will take half a day. In actual fact, the actual procedure goes like this -

Arrive and inject. Once injection is done, you can go anywhere for the next 3 hours. The scan will only be carried out (30min procedure thereabouts) after 3 h has passed.

Maybe it is the post-election flu. I just wonder how far S$8 can go in reality.
As a subsidized patient, dad is really getting a lot of subsidy; the medical costs are VERY high so we still end up having to pay quite abit!
Thank God there is such a thing as MEDISAVE, so one had savings o use for medical purposes.
and yet there r many restrictions about using it. Max for scan is $600 per yr for Medisave claim. 1 PET scan alredy cost S$1500. Within a period of 3 months, from diagnosis till now, dad has gone through 2 CT scan, 1 CT simulation, 1 PET scan and 1 renal scan. You get the picture. Mr George Yeo is well-liked. WP wins the GRC. Part of it is related to my dad and his scans.

I wonder how all the uncles and aunties i met at the NCC (whenever i went with dad) afford all these.

Mum told me of a one of her friend who had cancer but cannot afford treatment. She is relying on donation of free paracetamol supply as pain control measure from her peers who visit polyclinics for follow ups and asked for subsidized paracetemol prescription.

From Dr Mercola's website on Kelley's enzyme therapy

Appended from Dr Mercola's website

The "Impossible" Recoveries of Dr. Kelley's Cancer Patients

After going through thousands of Kelley's records, Dr. Gonzalez put together a monograph, divided into three sections:

1. Kelley’s theory
2. 50 cases of appropriately-diagnosed lethal cancer patients still alive five to 15 years after diagnosis, whose long-term survival was attributed to Kelley’s program
3. Patients Kelley had treated with pancreatic cancer between the years 1974 and 1982

According to Dr. Good, the president of Sloan-Kettering who had become Gonzalez' mentor, if Kelley could produce even one patient with appropriately diagnosed pancreatic cancer who was alive 5-10 years later, it would be remarkable. They ultimately tracked down 22 of Kelley's cases. Ten of them met him once and didn't do the program after being dissuaded by family members or doctors who thought Kelley was a quack.

          The average survival for that group was about 60 days.

A second group of seven patients who did the therapy partially and incompletely (again, dissuaded by well-intentioned but misguided family members or doctors), had an average survival of 300 days.

The third group consisting of five patients, who were appropriately diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer and who completed the full program, had an average survival of eight and a half years! In Dr. Gonzalez' words, this was "just unheard of in medicine."

One of those patients included a woman diagnosed by the Mayo Clinic with stage four pancreatic cancer who had been given six months to live. She'd learned about Kelley's program through a local health food store. She completed his treatment and is still alive today, 29 years later...........(full article here)

Alkaline Water

http://www.cancertutor.com/Cancer/IonizedWater.html
has a pretty comprehensive writeup and links to  alkaline water.
I append a paragraph from there:-

Ionized Water
Ionized water works on cancer in three major ways.
Because it is a good antioxidant, meaning it has a very negative ORP value (Oxidation Reduction Potential), it neutralizes free radicals (i.e. ROS - Reactive Oxygen Species), making many oxygen molecules available to the cancer cells; either to slow the growth of cancer or to kill the cancer cells. This is done with the hydroxyl ions in the ionized water.

Unlike hydrogen peroxide, which adds oxygen molecules to the body (i.e. they don't already exist in the body), ionized water makes existing oxygen molecules, already in the body, available to the cancer cells by giving them electrons. This actually has advantages because it removes damaging free radicals at the same time.

Ionized water is also very alkaline. Cancer cells do not thrive in an alkaline environment:

What I used at home is http://www.watersource.com.sg/

And it serves me well. Very convenient and easy to use,

but the price may be a little steep @S $2 400.

I know of a source that sells an attachment to the tap and out will also come ionized water. 

This filter is from Korea and it costs about S$300.

Even easier to manage is this jug Constance gave me, from Novita
 . It cost below $100, but you have to change the filter once a month. After using for a period of time, u have to rinse the whole jug to get rid of charcoal (super fine powder).

Nature’s Glory also carry a water filtration (ionized/alkaline) which cost S$1799.

 which is better? I muscle check through. The one from watersource came up tops. Then again, it may be different for different household.

i'll share more about alkalinity, alkalising and green food soon.

养生功

New morning routine is to go to the park near Blk 130@ marsiling , atop the hill
To learn this taiji yang shoeing gong with Veron's mum.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKNwMrQ5fxg&feature=youtube_gdata_player
7am-8am . Everyday!
Mum, dad, me. :)
Let's hope this strengthens our system

book on alternative medicine /cancer

Bill Henderson's book is by far the most informative and useful i found among the many readings i have done.
i bought the ebook.
http://www.beating-cancer-gently.com/

cancer is curable. Not everyone wants to be healed

This is a really great site about the subject.
http://www.beating-cancer-gently.com/

After spending one and half month poring over the literature online and offline,
i've come to conclusion for now, that every ill-ness is curable.
Not everyone can be healed.
Not everyone wants to be healed.

Our patterns imprint plays a large role.
People wants to be healed. But they may not want to heal themselves.

They want to carry on doing the same thing, which is very much why they end up with the particular 'medical' condition (either chronic or acute).
If along comes a 'pill' that they can pop and all is well for them to carry on what they are doing, they'll most likely 'get well'. Everyone loves that. all i need to so is to put a few pills into my mouth, and carry on doing what i like and be 'well'. Check out the flourishing supplements industry.

However, when a bigger condition erupted, such as cancer, diabetes, chronic low back pain, which are the culmination of the years of neglect they have been giving to the body, people start to say these are 'INCURABLE'.
'INCURABLE' defined, to me is - no amount of pill popping will help.

However, Cancer is CURABLE, as Marcus FDM has rightfuly said, not by drugs, but by pure knowledge. And what comes along with this knowledge is a non-compromisable LIFESTYLE CHANGE. And it seems that most people has, in their mind, decided that the LIFESTYLE CHANGE is more unbearable than the 'medical condition' itself?
and LIFESTYLE CHANGE can mean:-

• taking a walk IN THE PARK every morning
• eliminating sugar from your diet
• including fruits and vegetables in your diet
• eat less meat
• sleep at least 6-8 hours a day
• limit work stress
• drink plenty of water

MY! Isn't that just too much to ask for?
People think they want to get well. They may not be willing to make the change.
Because making a change cause us to move out of our comfort zone. It needs us to be honest with ourselves.
It forces us to face the priorities in our lives.
It is not difficult. It is just UNCOMFORTABLE to begin with. We JUST WANT TO STAY COMFORTABLE. Never mind if we shorten our journey here.
ANYWAY, what are we here for again?