Very encouraging news!!

[patti]

I’ve been waiting for today for several weeks now and it finally got here!! A few weeks ago mom’s naturapath sent her to a “chinese medicine man.” He’s actually a doctor of naturapathy at the college here in town. When we saw him he told us he had treated a lot of MDS cases. Healing every one of them with chinese herbs. Needless to say I was a little skeptical. Not knowing what type of MDS the people had etc. etc. But, we were willing to try anything as mom has continued to go down and have serious heart trouble. At the time he saw mom he told us, “red cells, they’re easy to fix. Whites and platelets, they’re a little harder. But we can do it.” Those words ran through our minds for two weeks waiting and wondering. He put mom on a chinese herbal formula that is formulated just for her. Don’t ask me what the herbs were. Our regular naturapath knew what they were but it was all chinese to me! Well, two weeks later her reds are holding. She’s had zero, nada,nunca, none heart trouble since the day after starting this stuff. She’s been having transfusions every two weeks for at least the last four months if not longer. And today, she didn’t have to get one. Can we go two more weeks? We’ll see. But we are so optimistic tonight. Even if we get 3 or 4 weeks out of this, we’ll take it!

We also met our new doctor today. He is a very nice guy and we are pleased with the switch. We will continue to see mom’s NP every two weeks and this guy every 2 months. They’re in the same practice and medicare requires us to see a doctor every so often. At one point he told us that whatever Bonnie (the NP) was doing was working so we should keep doing it. I almost fell out of my chair! She’s doing nothing. Mom is busting her tail to take care of her body with food, supplements, sleep, etc. Why is it these guys cannot accept that maybe nothing they’re doing is helping and everything that’s being done naturally is working? Well, as floored as we were we had a good laugh all the way home. Mom feels good and we are excited to see what the next two weeks bring.

If any of you are on the fence about doing natural and medical treatment combined, I wouldn’t hesitate. Mom is still doing the neupogen as the chinese guy instructed her to. He even surprised us by saying that there are times he recommends low dose chemo in addition to the chinese but this wasn’t one of those cases. So balance is the important key. For today, we’re grateful she has no more heart pain and is feeling good and maybe, just maybe, her RBC’s are climbing – or at least not falling.

Patti

[Sandy L]

Hi Patti

I have not been on lately and when I came on today and saw the great news I was overjoyed. I hope Mom continues to well. Think about you and all my other forum friends often. Can’t wait till tax time is over and I can read the posts regularly. Mike is doing well and they are trying to stretch the Vidaza treatments to 6 weeks. Again – So happy with the great news.

Sandy

[CarolineG]

Patti,

That is wonderful news !!! It must be a relief to all of you to have some new hope. I am thrilled for you.

How often does your MIL have to see the Chinese Medicine Man?

Did you tell the new Doctor and NP what your MIL is doing with the Chinese herbs?

Keep up the good work and keep in touch.

Blessings,
Caroline

[pigduck]

Hey Patti,

It’s great to hear that the Chinese medicine man can help your mom. Would it be possible for you to obtain maybe… some sort of list of the types of herbs used? Maybe then we too can ask our medicine mans about it?

Hope to hear from you soon.

[lucym]

Patti,
Awesome news, I am so happy for you and your MIL. Please keep us all posted always looking for something that works. All the Best Lucy

[patti]

Caroline,

Mom only sees the chinese guy every 2 weeks for this first month and then maybe every 4 weeks after that. We did tell the new doc about the new herbs. That’s what was so crazy about what he said. I’m tellin’ ya, MD’s just refuse to believe anything but standard medicine can help people. And did I mention how much CHEAPER it is?! Gee whiz.

Pigduck, I wish I could help you with the herbs she’s taking. I know all of the standard American ones but those don’t seem to be the ones helping. It seems like it’s the chinese herbs and I can’t even pronounce them let alone figure out what they are (his handwriting isn’t the greatest). I think your best bet would be to research someone in Malaysia that does cancer naturapathy. If they’re good, they’ll either know how to do the chinese herbs or they’ll know someone who will know how to do it. Boy, I really wish I could be more help because I believe this stuff is worth trying. If I can figure any of them out I’ll send them to you.

Patti

p.s. hi Sandy!! Haven’t heard from you in awhile. Tax time is almost done!

[Jimbob]

The “chinese medicine man” is not that unusual. The Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, which was co-founded by my acupunturist/naturapathic doctor, teaches how various herbs, acupuncture and other types of Oreintal Medicine can bring bad blood counts back into line and possibly help repair diseased blood-making bone marrow. I was using many of the means that were suggested and I was getting better BUT…. I became too soon too over-confident that it not only was working but that I had the disease beat. I over-stressed my body, mind, emoitions, etc before I was really ready and brought about an extreme leukemic event. I thank God that I has also gotten everything in place just in case I needed a SCT. Wwhatever treatment plan one decides to follow, I suggest that one take recovery in small steps instead of taking a big leap like I tried.

[sfongo1]

my dad came down with MDS from side effect of chemo for stomach cancer. he is 82 yrs old had 6 mos to live at best and had advanced MDS. the dr. had little hope of his cancer treatments and recovery but we believe in chinese herbal healing. a few wks ago, his red ct was 5 and his platelets was down to 8K and the dr. said he was going to bleed internally and there was nothing more the dr. could do for him. we added rehmannia into the herbal soup that mom usually makes every week for stamina, circulation and immune support. she has also made a separate brew of korean ginseng weekly for him since the beginning of his cancer diagnosis. she also brewed reishi mushroom tea for him because the acupunturist told us that it would help eliminate chemo toxins so that it didn’t stay in the body and destroy healthy normal cells. although he has had about 10 shots of procrit, it was not working, but i pleaded with the dr. to continue with the shots. it wasn’t til we added rehmannia to the herbal soup that his health turned around. the 1st week, the red ct went up to 7 and platelets 9. he had more energy and truly felt he had more strength and less shallow breathing. the following wk, the red up to a little over 8 and didn’t know the platelet results were, but his blackish purple marks from infusion was dispersing and you can see the ruby red of fresh blood under his skin healing where there were once bluish-black bruises. after the 3rd week, the dr. discontinued with the blood transfusions. i think chinese herbs work and get a good acupunturist-herbalist dr. rehmannia is a blood builder and strengthens the bone marrow. it increases the blood supply. we know that this is true for us. mom makes the herbal soup and boils it for several hours with some chicken breasts and is ready to drink. dad has been drinking 1-2 cups per day and we are delighted at the results.

[patti]

Jim,

I think that is what the college is called that mom is going to. It’s a subsidiary of the Naturapathic College and is in the Pearl District (they used to be in SE Ptld). Is that the same one your talking about? I’m curious if you saw Dr. Kou? That’s who mom is seeing.

All the best,

patti

[Jimbob]

Patti,
Same college but my doctor was Satya Ambrose. She teaches at both colleges and has a private practice where some of the students do practicals.

[patti]

Jim,

I was thinking about what you said about taking too many big leaps during the healing process. I told mom that if we could get her transfusion free for 3 months we were going to take a vacation! I’m guessing from what you said that maybe that wouldn’t be a good idea???? We’re dying to jump in the motorhome and go for 3 weeks. We haven’t had a vacation since mom got sick. If this stuff really starts working how long should we wait before packing her up and going?

Patti

[lucym]

Patti, Jimbob,
Can you tell me how one would find a reputable chinese herbalist? Thanks Lucy

[Jimbob]

Around here, the best way was to ask for a list from the National College of Natural Medicine but now, of course, one would go to the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine. Away from here, I would think getting in touch with Naturapathic doctor would be a place to start, if Oriental Medicine is not listed as a sub-type of doctor in the yellow pages or by state board of doctors. Some insurance companies might even list Dr of Oriental Medicine under alternative or complimentary forms of medicine.

[patti]

Lucy,

We got ours from mom’s regular naturapath at the hospital she goes to. I think following what Jim said is the way to go. You might also try talking to friends and see if anyone goes to a naturapath. Then you could call their naturapath and see if they know a chinese medicine guy. My thinking is at least that way it will be recommended via someone you know who sees a naturapath. Otherwise, you’ll have to yellowpage it.

Patti

[Jimbob]

patti,
I don’t think that jumping in the motorhome for 3 weeks is a bad idea, unless you’re going to make your mother-in-law do all the driving and setting-up at the campsites! We have a Minni-Winni and go out whenever we can. We did a 5 week trip to Chicago and visited relatives along the way 5 months after I was DX’d in 2003. It was great! I was able to relax as my wife enjoys driving and thrives on the work when we stop. I hardly have to lift a finger. This summer we are planning a trip to Vancouver Island.
The kind of thing I was warning against is more along the lines of “getting back into the FULL swing of things” without taking baby steps, first. Dummy here decide I was feeling so well that I threw Thanksgiving and Christmas diners for 30 people with a surprise 30th anniversary party for my wife with over 75 people in between. I did ALL of the planning, prep work and most of the cooking. During this time, I also arranged for my daughter’s travel and shopped with her for a house-full of furniture. At the same time, I had the house reworked for a new furnace/airconditioning system with electronic and UV filters. In other words, I ignored that I was not what I used to be and nearly did myself in. Any one of those things might have been okay but not all of them, one after another. Little steps then working it up slowly before taking on a marathon.

[Author]

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