Saturday, August 26, 2006

The Nutritionist

After receiving this disheartening and frightening news on a Friday I might add, so that I could ruminate over it all weekend, I decided by Sunday night that I would not accept this initial diagnosis. I would get more opinions and I would contact the nutritionist whose number I had written down a couple of years before on the recommendation of a family friend.

This family friend knows my parents and she was my tax preparer for many years. She told me about a story with her husband's failing health in the prior year (maybe 2004?) and that their visit to this nutritionist had saved his life and recovered his health. I made a note of her name and number and stuck it on my bulletin board for future need although I fully intended to visit her even without illness for her to cure.

I decided now was the time to call in her help. I was able to visit with her that next Monday, after having received the bad news from the surgeon. I desperately needed to hear about other options.

At the same time, on that same Monday, I went to the surgeon's office and collected up my MRI report, cytology report and slide from the biopsy and my mammogram and delivered them in person to the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center so that I might get another opinion from another breast surgeon who I would see that Friday.

My visit with the nutritionist was everything I needed at that time. She is 70 years old but looks 50 and is very energetic, optimistic and confident. She listened to my story and proclaimed that she did not think I had cancer at all and that I needed liver detoxification and support for it so that it could better detoxify on its own. She asked if I had a recent blood test and I said that yes I could probably get my doctor to fax it to her right now since they were in the office. The blood test was the standard CBC blood test and I got one every couple of years to monitor cholesterol and such.

I might add that I am not on any prescription drugs of any kind. No cholesterol meds, no blood pressure meds, allergy meds, you name it. I just take vitamins and Juice Plus on a daily basis. In medical terms I am sort of an anomaly - especially for my age. Most people my age are on some kind of daily meds by now, which is sad.

The doctor faxed over the blood test right away, which I really appreciated. Wouldn't you know that the two "elevated" levels noted on the blood test were cholesterol and bilirubin which both indicate a liver in need of some help. She had made this diagnosis without having seen the blood test.

Some background on this nutritionist. She was diagnosed with lymphoma 40 years ago and that launched her into research on nutrition as a cure and it resulted in her never having a single day of conventional treatment and her healthy appearance some 40 years later can attest to the soundness of her approach. I did not want to publish her name here because she lives a sort of idyllic life in the country in suburban Philadelphia. If you are interested in knowing her name for your own treatment email me via the blog profile.

Her prescription for me was as follows:

  • Vitamin C 1000mg - 10 times a day
  • Thymus PMG 1 tablet - 10 times a day
  • Livaplex 1 tablet - 3 times a day
  • B6 2 tablets - 3 times a day
  • Multiple Vitamin 1 tablet - once a day
I left the nutritionists office with a much more hopeful and uplifting attitude than I had when I left the surgeon's office, feeling that I might have to prepare my will.

I started to research nutritional aspects of treating cancer so that I could support in every way my body's attempt to get rid of this tumor.

The day when I picked up my reports from the first surgeon was also quite enlightening, since I got to see with my own eyes, the cytology report. Here is what it said. Probable Ductal Carcinoma of right breast - Recommend Excisional Biopsy TO CONFIRM.

So now we have some doubt that had not been communicated to me. Instead I got a surgeon who was certain it was malignant Ductal Carcinoma but when I read the cytology report I saw an imprecise diagnosis. So where was he getting off being so certain? He didn't tell me that cutting the lump out was the only way to be sure whether the cancer was malignant. The cells on the cytology slide were "abnormal" so they sort of looked bunched up more than regular cells. I was still not convinced that the lump could be confirmed as something malignant.

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