Prepared a Garden after Chemotherapy

After I had finished 12 weeks of Chemotherapy, I felt weak, could barely breathe and had little energy. I spent a few minutes each day sitting in my back yard. I started picking up the trash that had accumulated in the back yard. I found that I could do this for a couple of minutes and then had to rest. As each day passed, I started picking up sticks and then rocks that I would carry and made a large pile of rock.

A neighbor loaned me a small electric tilling machine. It was very light and nimble. I plugged it into an extension cord and started turning the soil. I had to be very careful because there was still so many rocks and sometimes it would jam in the tines. I used a hoe to turn the soil, pull out the rocks and then turn the soil. The process was work for 2-5 minutes and then rest for 3 minutes or so. Each day, I found that I felt a little stronger.

Chemotherapy or... DIE!

I went to talk to my bishop to get counsel. I told him that I was trying alternative approaches for my cancer treatment. I told my Bishop that I would rather die than undergo chemotherapy, surgery and/or radiation treatments. They are destructive and painful. They require a lot of courage to face and they only treat the cancer with little hope of a cure. He asked if it was because of the cost? No, it wasn't the cost. I explained it was more of a principle. In the long term, I wanted to avoid damaging my body as much as possible. Treatment may help you stay alive but it creates a lot of problems too.

I changed my mind and submitted to chemotherapy when the pain and swelling from the tumor got too bad. The tumor enlarged to the point that I couldn't eat more than 2 teaspoons of food at a time and I was starting to have trouble breathing. I had a port installed and started Chemotherapy at Central Utah Clinic July 2013.

 It took 5 hours, 5 days a week with a week in between to recover. Each day, the nurses  inserted a large needle into the port in my chest above the left breast. The nurse would start each session with a large bag that contained saline solution that took about 20 minutes to finish dripping. I would then have to use the restroom about 3-5 times during the session to help protect the kidneys. This was followed by a smaller bag that contained anti-nausea medicine and up to three chemo drugs: etoposide, cisplatin  and a shot that I got once a week, bleomycin, that was administered with a syringe and cost $3,000! On the "recovery" week I received a bleomycin shot. I remember watching all of the air bubbles in the tubes afraid at first that this was dangerous. Sometimes the nurse would bleed off the air and reassured me that I wasn't at any real risk.

Before the chemo started, I was taking ibuprofen and Tylenol in large doses around the clock. After the first chemotherapy treatment, I felt significant pain relief and after the first week stopped taking pain meds. I didn't notice any side effects the first week apart from fatigue. I think the tumor sucked up most of the medicine since it was growing so fast.

An Ironman Hopefuls Thoughts on Cancer

I'm an athlete. I trained for two years to prepare my body and mind to participate in an Ironman Triathlon. This required discipline. I spent 3 hours a day training, monitoring heart rate, and measuring my performance. I learned how to eat or "fuel" for short or long runs. I learned how to use electrolyte supplements to ease muscle cramps so I could train longer. I hired coaches to help me improve my technique and form with swimming, running and biking. I would concentrate on improving just one or two things in each training session. I focused on improving on what I had done before and shunned any comparisons to others. This was a personal challenge, to improve on my own terms and no one else.

And despite all of this, Testicular cancer manifested in my body. A tumor that ballooned to the size of a basketball that crushed two vertebrae, lumbar 1 and 2. It strangled my stomach so I could not eat more than 2 teaspoons of food at a time and made it hard to breathe. I lost over 60 lbs. and ironically, I looked like I was 6 months pregnant with all of the symptoms, i.e. back ache. I was reduced to sleeping most of the day and kept up at night with dry mouth and a back that ached so badly that I had to muffle my cries in a pillow to not alarm my wife and children.

Death was a looming possibility. All of my efforts seemed to be in vain. I tried many medical devices and healers applied their skills with little effect. Everything that I thought I knew was thrown back into my face in a merciless mockery. I felt guilty for having this sickness. How will my family survive without me? Why did I let this happen? Where is the justice in having this condition? Where art thou God? His answer was simple: "right here. I never left you." I underwent 12 weeks of chemotherapy, you can read about it here. It was harsh, I almost needed a blood transfusion a few times because my white blood cell counts went so low and I had a fever several times. Friends and family prayed for my recovery.

I was comforted and strengthened when I needed it most. My sister Lynell, my brother Mark, my aunt Elma, my cousin Theresa, my nieces Melissa and Leah and my mother came to visit. I had a vision of our family line going back to the patriarchs of old, a wonderful gathering of the family where we sat down for a meal while hearing the stories of our ancestors and afterwards danced together. The witness of the holy ghost was very strong as I related what I saw.

I have made many changes to adapt to living with cancer. I started juicing raw carrots, apples, beets, ginger, turmeric and other mixed greens and fruits. I eat salads with mixed vegetables and nuts as condiments. I drink Peppermint and Essiac tea instead of water. I perform a daily cleansing with a coffee enema. I spend a few hours in quiet meditation and prayer. I write. I work part-time as a technical writer. I walk a mile or two to stretch out my back. Recently, I have been having 3 chiropractic and 2 massage visits a week.

Recovery is coming along well. I track my progress with blood tests, e.g. Alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP) and Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). I monitor the size and shape of the tumor by laying on my back and pressing down into my abdomen. I feel the lump in my back. The shape and size changes daily. I have my doubts some days. I refused an Retroperitoneal lymph node dissection (RPLND) surgery because I thought the price was too high: a kidney, lymph nodes and probably another round of chemotherapy. I still have the goal to complete an Ironman Triathlon.

How to Avoid Sickness During ChemoTherapy

One of the biggest challenges of chemotherapy is to stay healthy. Chemotherapy kills your white blood cells which is a critical component of your immune system. Every time I had a small fever, Dr. Wallentine would prescribe an antibiotic, which you guessed it, weakens your immune system, forming a depressing downward spiral. This is one of my biggest gripes about Allopathic medicine. We used Young Living Thieves cleaner to disinfect the bathroom. This was critical since I was in and out of the bathroom frequently. The benefit of using the cleaner is that it is composed of all natural ingredients.

 

For convenience, we used Chlorox wipes to clean door knobs and table surfaces. We also had hand sanitizer bottles at the door and asked visiting guests to clean their hands as they entered.

I always wondered why silver eating utensils are favored. They require a lot of maintenance to keep their shiny beautiful appearance. I thought it was interesting that one of the few possessions that the pious Bishop Myriel from the story Les Miserables had a set of silverware that he used to eat his daily supper. Hospitals used to use silver nitrate to prevent neonatal conjunctivitis. Silver has antibiotic properties. The Greeks and Romans used to store all of their perishable liquids in silver containers. And prior to the invention of refrigeration, it was common practice to drop a silver coin into a container of milk to retard spoilage. I don't own any silverware so I added a teaspoon of ASAP10 Colloidal Silver solution to my drinks to kill any stray bacteria.

The side effect from chemotherapy I struggled the most was mouth sores. Cancer-related mouth sores are sores or ulcers that form on the inside lining of your mouth or on your lips. The mouth sores appear burn-like and can be painful, making it difficult to eat, talk, swallow and breathe. Sores can appear on any of the soft tissues of your lips or your mouth, including your gums, your tongue, or the roof and floor of your mouth. Sores can also extend into the tube (esophagus) that carries food to your stomach. I would wake up frequently during the night with my mouth sore, dry and painful. I found that sucking on a popsicle helped. I applied bag balm but the most effective relief came from dipping a q-tip into a bottle of  Myrrh essential oil swabbing it over my lips and inside my mouth and then sucking on to coat my throat. It also helped to eat watermelon in the morning.

How Essiac Tea Helps my Cancer

I'm brewing up another 2 gallon batch of Essiac or Cassi Tea this morning.  The process requires two 12 quart stock pots. I fill the first pot with 2 gallons of water and bring it to a boil. I add a cup of Cassi-Tea mix and stir for 10 minutes. I lower the heat, cover and let it sit for 6 hours.

The tea is a mix of 4 herbs: Sheep Sorrel, Burdock Root, Slippery Elm Bark, and Turkey Rhubarb.

A simple and elegant combination of herbs that I have walked past in my hikes. As a 5 year old I loved grabbing Rhubarb from a neighbors garden and still admire this hardy plant. I've hugged an Elm tree and enjoyed it's shade in the summer. I started drinking Cassi Tea about 7 months ago.

I talked to my sister Lynell on the phone and she reminded me that Essiac or Cassi Tea would help speed my recovery. At the time, I was sitting in a La-Z-Boy recliner recovering from 12 weeks of chemotherapy. I was starting to feel better but wanted to make sure that I did everything I could to cleanse my body of the chemo drugs and the cancer cells that were still active. I purchased the tea from an herb shop in Orem called Healthy Herbal Nutrients or HHN. It cost about $43 dollars with Utah state tax. The kit contains 4 packets of herbs in the correct proportions. I poured each pouch into a 22.8 cup Flip top Snapware airtight storage container. I shake the container to mix the ingredients and it renders 7 cups of mix.

The tea tastes like tree bark mixed with some roots dug out of the ground. I used to play alchemist when I was younger mixing up grasses, barks and leaves to see what it would taste like. I drink a cup of Cassi tea in the first thing in the morning. I notice that the tea helps keep me regular, gives a little energy boost and helps me feel better. My cancer indicators hcG and AFP levels continued to go lower. The tea is great for a host of other health problems too.