My take so far
The health journey I have started since 3 March is now more than 2 months. The journey has brought me to interesting experiences; some good, some bad and some just dead end. I would now like to share some of my healing experience; medication, diet, spiritual and psychological experiences. Many friends has recently emailed me to say the info here is useful for them; some have relatives and friends diagnosed with cancer.
I must emphasise that everyone has to find his or her own combination of therapy. Some may work for me, some may not. Ultimately, each person must find a combination suitable for that stage of the health. So I don't endorse any of the therapy which I am currently on now, only that at this stage of time, I find the combination suitable.
This blog is a very long one; to compile my therapy so far. So here goes...
Medication
Conventional medication.
Dexo steroid - to minimise swelling. Taken for short term, and must be tapered off slowly. Side effects on the kidney and face swelling. Against the advise of the doctor, I abructly stopped it before my seizure episode. Maybe that is one of the reason.
Bone metastasis pill - to minimise calcium leaching from my bone metastasis. Havent started this yet.
Pain killers - took this after my IJN operation. Has long since stopped.
There are not many medication for cancer. The conventional treatment for cancer is surgery, chemo and radiotherapy. There may be some trials for orally taken medication. You have to talk with your doctors about coming or on-going trials.
There is a pill called Iressa which is already in the market. NCI has a trial a few years ago where patients are given free Iressa pills. Iressa has proven, for some patients, to to arrest lung cancer. The cost is around RM7000-8000 per month. The NCI doctors recommend Iressa as the 3rd line of defense after 2 courses of chemo, one reason being the high cost. And if Iressa is proven not useful for a patient, it is taken off. If it is useful, then it would be heartbreaking if the patient
has to stop taking Iressa because he/she can't afford it for the long term.
Complementary medication
Comprise mostly of chinese herbs. I took Prof. Chris Teo's since I was diagnosed with cancer in March. A thing I learnt is that you MUST monitor the effects of your herb intake. The sinsehs I have met told me it is not advisable to continuously taking chinese herbs without monitoring. Chris Teo's herb has helped a lot of people, I think his centre is the most systematic in recording the patient's progress. He has written many books documenting the herbs.
Except that there is no meridien monitoring of the herb's effect. But I urge cancer patients to give his herb a try. I am also concerned that there is no mention of ingredients of his herbs. This makes things difficult if we want to take other chinese herbs in combination with his. I hope to talk to him when I meet him end of this month.
The sinsehs I have been meeting lately have also been prescribing various herbs too. One particular sinseh comes regularly to monitor how I respond to the herbs. I think this should be the way. The medication are taken boiled or as soup.
I am also taking homeopathic medication. I go to see the homeopath once a week to monitor my condition.
Diet
I am on a total vegan, salt-free and white sugar free diet. I am following loosely Gerson therapy which emphasised on this, and juicing. My diet consist of:
-Freshly prepared ORGANIC fruit and vegetable juicing; 6-7 250ml mug per day (Gerson recommended 13 glasses)
-Minimal plain water because they dilutes stomach acids and affect the absorption of the juices.
-Liquid are also obtained from the medicated and herbal soup.
-Hippocrates soup twice a day(Gerson said this is formulated by Hippocrates himself!)
(Details of this diet can be obtained from books of Gerson Therapy. I use the book entitled "The Gerson Therapy" by Charlotte Gerson and Morton Walker; ISBN 0-00-715608-1; thanks to Harold, Marzuki and Mazita for this gift; www.gerson.org)
-Cryptomodales pills ( a type of chlorella algae) for protein
-Extract of cryptomodales for cell repair.
-Occasionally fermented food of OMX.
These are products of 2 direct selling companies.
-Vitamin C 1000mg
-Royal jelly and propolis
- will start on the CoenzymeQ10 pills for my heart. After my heart surgery, my pulse is still in the region of 3-digits. Many has advise Co-enzyme will help.
Meals consist of lunch and dinner of whole organic vegetables. Mostly steamed. Liberal amount of potatoes and green veges. No mushroom because they are very complex and difficult to digest fungi (they are not considered as vegetables in Gerson therapy!). I take also liberal amount of oatmeals.
I am emphasising more on the nutrient part of my therapy, rather than medication. My body needs the nutrient to build up. I know there are doubts whether a strict vegan diet is able to supply the nutrients especially the protein. Well, from what I understand, bioavailability of vegetable protein is very much higher than other forms of protein. Gerson said "bioavailability protein derives from potatoes, vegetables, juices and oatmeal". You have to read the biological basis of the Gerson therapy from the book, I can't do justice to them in a blog.
One somewhat contrarian advise from Gerson is the prohibition of soybeans and soy products. For many eastern therapy especially macrobiotics, soy products like miso is like the ultimate anti-cancer supplement. Gerson's reason for the prohibition:"high fat content, high sodium content, toxic inhibition to nutrient absorption, and/or elevated protein content". The soy products prohibited includes tofu, tempeh, miso, tamari, Bragg's liquid Amino, textured vegetable protein and soy milk."
I guess you have to evaluate for yourself the different advise. For me, if the prohibited food is not critical and has substitutes, I will go the conservative way and avoid it. So I avoid soy products.
Spiritual and Psychological
These aspects are the ones I must improve a lot on. When I wake up, I pay refuge to the Buddha for blessing the day. Whenever I am in doubt, I always imagine the Buddha beside me. What I want to achieve is a more systematic way for my spiritual well being.
I do occasionally metta meditation which I intent to do now daily. I think of all the people I know and send them loving kindness or metta. There are many people I know who have their own health and personal problems, I visualise taking these problems into my heart, cleansing them in my heart, transmuting the bad cells to good ones, and sending the good light back to them. I imagine them transformed from sadness to gladness with the good vibes.
Many of you have been included in my metta meditation, so this meditation take up a lot of time. I know many of you are thinking and praying for me, I assure you it has not been a one way street effort; I have also been thinking and sending metta to you. Time well spent I must say and I hope I have touched you somehow. The ultimate objective is to reach beyond the people I know,and to do metta to all suffering beings in the universe.
For me personally, I am trying to visualise and emphasise on refreshing my body in my mind's eye. I imagine the Buddha sending a bright white light with blue edge (why? It just come like that!) to my body as I lie down. I breathe in the light and sends it all over my body. All cells; cancerous and healthy cells delight in this light. The cells are happy to receive the light. Ultimately, the light keeps the healthy cells strong, and transmute the cancer cell to normal cells. I also invite the cancer cells to liberate themselves and get themselves a better existence where they don't suffer nor bring suffering.
There are many methods for spiritual and psychological well-being. I need to spend time to find one suitable for me. I want to fill my thinking time with positive thoughts; negative or stressors will be minimised. Of course occasional negative thoughts will intrude but it's ok. What is important is we are aware and able to leash them, and substitute good thoughts.
As mentioned in an earlier blog, I consider myself a spiritual rather than a religious person. My affinity with Buddha is because I consider him as the most unobstructive religious teacher. He does not conjole, he just consider himself a teacher who shared what he found out about the laws of the universe. Sometimes well intentioned friends and relatives tried to share their faith with me; I thank them for their kind gesture. But sometimes to receive the benefit of their faith, conversion is required, sometimes I have to accept their faith. I find this unpalatable. I prefer to go beyond religions and go to the higher level; the spiritual level.
Qiqong and life force exercises
I have learnt qiqong before, and I am re-learning again. I must confess I don't know for sure how qiqong works. But I understand that if the qi flow are obstructed, energy channels will be affected. Obstruction will bring about diseases which is actually the body's attempt to tell us that our meridian is blocked. That is why qiqong emphasise so much on smooth flow of the meridians. A good qi flow will wash away bad cells and any blockages. I will share with you my knowledge as I learn more about this.
I must emphasise that everyone has to find his or her own combination of therapy. Some may work for me, some may not. Ultimately, each person must find a combination suitable for that stage of the health. So I don't endorse any of the therapy which I am currently on now, only that at this stage of time, I find the combination suitable.
This blog is a very long one; to compile my therapy so far. So here goes...
Medication
Conventional medication.
Dexo steroid - to minimise swelling. Taken for short term, and must be tapered off slowly. Side effects on the kidney and face swelling. Against the advise of the doctor, I abructly stopped it before my seizure episode. Maybe that is one of the reason.
Bone metastasis pill - to minimise calcium leaching from my bone metastasis. Havent started this yet.
Pain killers - took this after my IJN operation. Has long since stopped.
There are not many medication for cancer. The conventional treatment for cancer is surgery, chemo and radiotherapy. There may be some trials for orally taken medication. You have to talk with your doctors about coming or on-going trials.
There is a pill called Iressa which is already in the market. NCI has a trial a few years ago where patients are given free Iressa pills. Iressa has proven, for some patients, to to arrest lung cancer. The cost is around RM7000-8000 per month. The NCI doctors recommend Iressa as the 3rd line of defense after 2 courses of chemo, one reason being the high cost. And if Iressa is proven not useful for a patient, it is taken off. If it is useful, then it would be heartbreaking if the patient
has to stop taking Iressa because he/she can't afford it for the long term.
Complementary medication
Comprise mostly of chinese herbs. I took Prof. Chris Teo's since I was diagnosed with cancer in March. A thing I learnt is that you MUST monitor the effects of your herb intake. The sinsehs I have met told me it is not advisable to continuously taking chinese herbs without monitoring. Chris Teo's herb has helped a lot of people, I think his centre is the most systematic in recording the patient's progress. He has written many books documenting the herbs.
Except that there is no meridien monitoring of the herb's effect. But I urge cancer patients to give his herb a try. I am also concerned that there is no mention of ingredients of his herbs. This makes things difficult if we want to take other chinese herbs in combination with his. I hope to talk to him when I meet him end of this month.
The sinsehs I have been meeting lately have also been prescribing various herbs too. One particular sinseh comes regularly to monitor how I respond to the herbs. I think this should be the way. The medication are taken boiled or as soup.
I am also taking homeopathic medication. I go to see the homeopath once a week to monitor my condition.
Diet
I am on a total vegan, salt-free and white sugar free diet. I am following loosely Gerson therapy which emphasised on this, and juicing. My diet consist of:
-Freshly prepared ORGANIC fruit and vegetable juicing; 6-7 250ml mug per day (Gerson recommended 13 glasses)
-Minimal plain water because they dilutes stomach acids and affect the absorption of the juices.
-Liquid are also obtained from the medicated and herbal soup.
-Hippocrates soup twice a day(Gerson said this is formulated by Hippocrates himself!)
(Details of this diet can be obtained from books of Gerson Therapy. I use the book entitled "The Gerson Therapy" by Charlotte Gerson and Morton Walker; ISBN 0-00-715608-1; thanks to Harold, Marzuki and Mazita for this gift; www.gerson.org)
-Cryptomodales pills ( a type of chlorella algae) for protein
-Extract of cryptomodales for cell repair.
-Occasionally fermented food of OMX.
These are products of 2 direct selling companies.
-Vitamin C 1000mg
-Royal jelly and propolis
- will start on the CoenzymeQ10 pills for my heart. After my heart surgery, my pulse is still in the region of 3-digits. Many has advise Co-enzyme will help.
Meals consist of lunch and dinner of whole organic vegetables. Mostly steamed. Liberal amount of potatoes and green veges. No mushroom because they are very complex and difficult to digest fungi (they are not considered as vegetables in Gerson therapy!). I take also liberal amount of oatmeals.
I am emphasising more on the nutrient part of my therapy, rather than medication. My body needs the nutrient to build up. I know there are doubts whether a strict vegan diet is able to supply the nutrients especially the protein. Well, from what I understand, bioavailability of vegetable protein is very much higher than other forms of protein. Gerson said "bioavailability protein derives from potatoes, vegetables, juices and oatmeal". You have to read the biological basis of the Gerson therapy from the book, I can't do justice to them in a blog.
One somewhat contrarian advise from Gerson is the prohibition of soybeans and soy products. For many eastern therapy especially macrobiotics, soy products like miso is like the ultimate anti-cancer supplement. Gerson's reason for the prohibition:"high fat content, high sodium content, toxic inhibition to nutrient absorption, and/or elevated protein content". The soy products prohibited includes tofu, tempeh, miso, tamari, Bragg's liquid Amino, textured vegetable protein and soy milk."
I guess you have to evaluate for yourself the different advise. For me, if the prohibited food is not critical and has substitutes, I will go the conservative way and avoid it. So I avoid soy products.
Spiritual and Psychological
These aspects are the ones I must improve a lot on. When I wake up, I pay refuge to the Buddha for blessing the day. Whenever I am in doubt, I always imagine the Buddha beside me. What I want to achieve is a more systematic way for my spiritual well being.
I do occasionally metta meditation which I intent to do now daily. I think of all the people I know and send them loving kindness or metta. There are many people I know who have their own health and personal problems, I visualise taking these problems into my heart, cleansing them in my heart, transmuting the bad cells to good ones, and sending the good light back to them. I imagine them transformed from sadness to gladness with the good vibes.
Many of you have been included in my metta meditation, so this meditation take up a lot of time. I know many of you are thinking and praying for me, I assure you it has not been a one way street effort; I have also been thinking and sending metta to you. Time well spent I must say and I hope I have touched you somehow. The ultimate objective is to reach beyond the people I know,and to do metta to all suffering beings in the universe.
For me personally, I am trying to visualise and emphasise on refreshing my body in my mind's eye. I imagine the Buddha sending a bright white light with blue edge (why? It just come like that!) to my body as I lie down. I breathe in the light and sends it all over my body. All cells; cancerous and healthy cells delight in this light. The cells are happy to receive the light. Ultimately, the light keeps the healthy cells strong, and transmute the cancer cell to normal cells. I also invite the cancer cells to liberate themselves and get themselves a better existence where they don't suffer nor bring suffering.
There are many methods for spiritual and psychological well-being. I need to spend time to find one suitable for me. I want to fill my thinking time with positive thoughts; negative or stressors will be minimised. Of course occasional negative thoughts will intrude but it's ok. What is important is we are aware and able to leash them, and substitute good thoughts.
As mentioned in an earlier blog, I consider myself a spiritual rather than a religious person. My affinity with Buddha is because I consider him as the most unobstructive religious teacher. He does not conjole, he just consider himself a teacher who shared what he found out about the laws of the universe. Sometimes well intentioned friends and relatives tried to share their faith with me; I thank them for their kind gesture. But sometimes to receive the benefit of their faith, conversion is required, sometimes I have to accept their faith. I find this unpalatable. I prefer to go beyond religions and go to the higher level; the spiritual level.
Qiqong and life force exercises
I have learnt qiqong before, and I am re-learning again. I must confess I don't know for sure how qiqong works. But I understand that if the qi flow are obstructed, energy channels will be affected. Obstruction will bring about diseases which is actually the body's attempt to tell us that our meridian is blocked. That is why qiqong emphasise so much on smooth flow of the meridians. A good qi flow will wash away bad cells and any blockages. I will share with you my knowledge as I learn more about this.
posted by Hee Boon at 11:41 am
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