Sat. Nov. 21. Hi, everyone! Realizing with everything that’s happened and being gone, I’ve lost a sense of where we are in the month. Some of you are beginning to share with me where your angst is, having shielded me. Thanks for letting me have a respite and also for letting me reenter gently. I just sent my story into Oprah but more for the story of my high school friend, Jane, who is hospitalized right now. Please direct your thoughts and prayers to her as she is dealing with internal bleeding and the long haul of a rare form of cancer(since May 2007) and hopes to be home for Thanksgiving. Two of my Alamosa High school friends (we’re all part of the bracelet gang), are cooking Thanksgiving meal and taking it over to Jane and family in Parker, Co. I’ll be spending it with James, Jeni, and my 3 grandkids at Jeni’s sister’s home, so that will be great!
Just wanted to share with you that yesterday I spent some research time on rimedex, the drug that Dr. Sangha suggested. Called my friend, Sue, who has been on it. She’s questioned why I had both breasts removed, and was very forthright in standing behind my decisions. Her side effects from the drug have been hot flashes, a bit of trouble sleeping, and joint pain. She uses other drugs to manage the side effects. I spent time on the internet reading about it and tamoxifen understanding more that rimedex reduces the amount of estrogen output and tamoxifen inhibits estrogen production. When I went into Dr. Sangha, he asked me to ask him all my questions, which I did and he methodically researched everything, asking for reports, calling up the path lab, and drawing out for me the size of the cancer tumor. He and I had a good exchange, a real dialogue, and he never at any time questioned my choice to not use the drug at this time. He said that he would be glad to see me in the future, and he or Dr. Duven should stay in touch with me every 6 months for 5 years. The negatives he confirmed were: hot flashes, joint pain, and bone loss. And then he added, that it’s very expensive. $350 a month and hopefully insurance would do a co-pay. Sue hit the donut hole on hers and said something about $1300 for her.
As we said the other night at my sharing my cancer experience in front of some of local Shaklee builders and leaders, and a colleague who has had cancer 3 times, that you pay sooner or later. Buy the darn supplements now, bit the bullet, because the costs of drugs, surgery, and repeated Dr.’s visits will get ya later. I truly feel at peace with my decision to not do the drugs. The percentages of possible improvement of risk of nonreoccurance of cancer is under 10% over a lifetime. I know I have to be very dililgent and proactive with a program of treatments I can continue until I’m 121. (I told Dr. Sangha I would come and wish him a happy 122nd birthday when I’m 121–you gotta mind your elders). I was doing research up to 10 minutes before I left for his office. I had hoped he would say something that would clearly show I needed to do what everyone else does. I feel like a pioneer without a scientific roadmap to follow. “Would he be interested in what I do?” I asked. “Have there been other studies done on doing natural alternatives?” He clearly stated there’s no drug company that would do a study if there’s no money to be made.
So, I spent a couple of hours last night reading up, and I’m overwhelmed with the hype and claims laid out there. Almost a hate-mongering chat on the internet. I don’t hate drugs and Dr., I’m grateful for the advancements being made. I don’t believe that Shaklee alone will cure me, but I lay great faith in the science of the products and the heart of the company and besides it helps my own business by my using my stuff. But I want to live, which means I have to do a lot more than rely on just supplements. So that’s the roadmap to chart that is doable with my life demands. Being self-employed, and single I have me to depend on for economics.
Guess, I keep a journal of what I do, think, eat. And from that, I can lay out a roadmap to regain total health from cancer. Suggestions? I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed but truly excited to pull together all the resources from friends and people that have suggested things.
Well, off to hear my 7 students play piano before 3 very wonderful teachers, and then a facial this afternoon for a high schooler and her mom.
Be well!
Love, Ann
Thanks, Sally,
I hope others will chime in, too. Guess I didn’t make myself very clear. I needed to research the drugs and interview Sue in order to have an intelligent conversation with Dr. Sangha. I didn’t make up my mind until he had gone through the data, much of which he had to gather while I sat there because of my questions. Like me, Dr. Sangha wanted the facts before just telling me to do what he would say to just anyone. There’s over 100 different types of breast cancer cells, the similarity is that breast cancer cells for some reason easily set up housekeeping elsewhere in the body. Dr. Sangha asked the pathology lab to explain certain words which weren’t defining enough to him about what that meant by size and by speed. I appreciated that he depended on someone’s best expertise for ME and didn’t assume anything. Then based on that data, he plugged the numbers into the computer program and out came the statistics for possible risk of reoccurrence doing the rimedex and not doing it. He, it wasn’t any different than what he had surmised when I saw him 2 weeks ago.
I have tried to approach this the same way. I know what I know, but I don’t know what I don’t know. So by reading up, I could ask him questions intelligently to get more information. It’s that due diligence thing Susie always talks about on the tax seminar. He seemed to respect that I had done the homework and so he went the extra mile for me. And he also didn’t kick me out, but left the door open. I need to have a Dr.’s team in place if there’s a need for a plan B. I’m feeling at peace about it feeling very led by God. So with that chapter in place, I decided to explore the internet for what types of protocols others have used naturally that I could read about and that’s where I found a sense of fear–us against them–kind of attitude. I can take the good information out of that in small doses, giving that a rest today. I’ve learned a lot and getting an appointment set with my homeopathic doctor and stepping up the exercise. So……..it’s happening, getting my plan down, figuring out what my habits and leanings are so I can stick with it for a long and healthy lifetime but with enough flexibility built in to accept new info as it comes in. And I do appreciate a dialogue. Am writing down what I’m doing so there is so documentation in place. If anyone has suggestions for respected documentation rules, let me know. Ann
Ann, stop researching the drugs now (if you haven’t all ready) I absolutely think you have made the right decision and are being much more proactive than people who trust the drugs and think that will save them and are surprised to find themselves dying..i.e. my Dad (passed away in 2001) and my cousin (passed away last night) You have got a wonderful support team with Dr. B and Dr. Gelband, your massage therapist and all the other things you do for wellness, you are a shining example to the rest of us 🙂