| March 15, 2007: One treatment down and 7 more to | | | | the Dr Susan Love Foundation with a good website. |
| go... | | | | People keep inviting me to lunch with friends of theirs |
| My treatments are every two weeks - in between I | | | | who have had breast cancer and who have |
| am supposed to climb back out of the hole and try to | | | | "survived." The first thing you look at is to see whether |
| make myself strong for the next time when they are | | | | or not their eyelashes have grown back because you |
| going to knock me down again. The first treatment | | | | can't believe they actually will. They do. |
| was 10 days ago. Every day seems to center around | | | | I ordered the wigs and the turbans and waited with |
| either killing part of me or boosting me up so that I am | | | | dread for the first poisoning. I also had to finish a root |
| strong enough to be knocked down again. | | | | canal first - one is not supposed to do anything during |
| There is a famous breast cancer surgeon, Dr Susan | | | | the treatment that would introduce possible infection. |
| Love, (same name - so odd !!) who calls it "slash, | | | | I found a lovely Chinese doctor who gives me |
| poison and burn." Hopefully the new directions in | | | | acupuncture and who always comes into the room, |
| research that are being taken will bring in something | | | | sits down beside me, puts his hand on my shoulder |
| more humane and effective. It's the equivalent of their | | | | and gently asks how I am doing today. Makes you feel |
| giving arsenic to cure syphilis back early in the XXth | | | | that you have a big brother who is going to take care |
| century. | | | | of you. Curtis is so intrigued by the idea of electric |
| My regular MD gave me some "tonic" last week. It's | | | | circuits in the body that he is reading a huge tome by a |
| made of plants, a dark brown in colour and as nasty | | | | Swedish MD, head of a large hospital and formerly on, |
| tasting as you can imagine. Now I am bouncing off the | | | | the Nobel prize committee (when dealing with cancer |
| walls with energy. Perhaps if I could meditate that | | | | one always states the person's credentials as there |
| would balance out the zinginess. | | | | are so many quacks out there). So now both Curtis |
| My oncologist is quite happy to co-ordinate the | | | | and I go twice a week to have pins stuck in us. He is |
| treatments with all the vitamin and herbs, etc that I am | | | | regaining the circulation in the pads of his feet which he |
| taking. It took me a while to find someone open minded | | | | had been slowly loosing over the years and is pleased |
| enough but I finally did. While he doesn't work at Sloan | | | | as punch. |
| Kettering but at NY Presbyterian (next door), he uses | | | | My goodness, this has turned into "an essay." |
| Dr Norton's protocol (the Sloan Kettering breast | | | | Lastly, I found a hospital study on the internet done in |
| cancer GOD). While Sloan Kettering may be THE | | | | New Zealand where 85% of the women didn't loose |
| place, I had a friend die a couple of years ago after | | | | their hair by sitting under a casque emitting electric |
| they misread her x-rays --- so no where is perfect. | | | | impulses several times a week. You are supposed to |
| (Her family is now rich from the law suit - but has no | | | | start 2 weeks before the first chemo, but I found the |
| mom. Enough said.) NYC is full of incredible world class | | | | study 3 days into the chemo. I traced the company |
| people - the challenge is to find the most humane | | | | who made the machine to Vancouver, called them up |
| ones. | | | | and asked if anyone in NYC had one. I was referred |
| Finding a surgeon was also a hunt: the first was a | | | | to a dermatologist in Brooklyn who sent me to a spa in |
| smart looking woman in a tight skirt, 4" heels and a | | | | Midtown. I sit under the casque for 12 minutes while |
| bevy of beautiful secretaries who all made you feel | | | | Curtis chats with the owner of the salon, Laslo from |
| plain, vulnerable and pitiful by comparison (which was | | | | Hungary, who told him that he looked just like his |
| my state of mind anyway, when I first discovered the | | | | father. I think Hungarians are charming just by the fact |
| tumor). She coldly announced my options, glared at me | | | | of being Hungarian. Must be taught in school there. |
| through hoody eyes when we announced we would, | | | | We'll see what happens - so far on day twelve it's still |
| of course, be seeking a second opinion, and my | | | | hanging in there - we'll see. :) |
| husband, Curtis and I left shaking. Two weeks later we | | | | The whole thing is like a military campaign. I'm taking a |
| were again sitting and waiting, Curtis trying to look | | | | ton of vitamins, get antioxidant IV drips from my GP, |
| cheerful and me huddled under my hospital gown, | | | | have my scalp rubbed and electrically "stimulated" one |
| close to tears. In marched another top-of the-tree | | | | a week, see the acupuncturist twice a week and try |
| surgeon, but this one had a grin and a bow tie. Any | | | | to have a massage when I can. Talk about |
| guy who wears a bow tie has a sense of humor. He | | | | maintenance! |
| gave us more or less the same choices and handed | | | | The thing they say is that you need a team - my |
| me his card with his email and said please shot off any | | | | "team" is my wonderful, patient husband, Curtis; my |
| questions and we booked a date. | | | | family and friends; the techies who work on my |
| There was only one place that I felt he slipped up and | | | | website and the printer who prints the cookbooks - |
| that was not ordering the test that they do in California | | | | they send me flowers and books to read and answer |
| and several other places which analyzes the tumor | | | | customer emails on the days I can't; my very caring |
| tissue to see what kind of chemo is most likely to kill | | | | GP, Patrick Fratellone; my DOM (doctor of Chinese |
| your particular cancer. Most MD's don't ask for it as | | | | medicine), Dr Chen - the man with the needles; the |
| many insurances don't pay for it. When I asked the | | | | Hungarian technician, Laslo, with the head stimulator |
| oncologist about it he said that it wasn't 100% reliable | | | | machine; my oncologist, Dr Pasmantier (who allows me |
| (neither is chemo) but still useful and that unfortunately | | | | alternative therapies and who is even a bit interested); |
| one needed a live sample for the test. I had no live | | | | my surgeon, Alex Swistel (the man with the bow tie |
| sample as I had not set it up beforehand - one has to | | | | and the grin who gives out his email address to his |
| do a lot of the "work" oneself and the choices are | | | | patients), My Columbian dentist, Martha (who does |
| numerous and confusing. | | | | flamenco in her spare time); my French massage |
| While searching for an oncologist, I read and read - the | | | | therapist (who lectures me); Ralph Moss who writes |
| internet is both a curse and a blessing. I came across a | | | | the Moss Reports on the internet (a voice of sanity). |
| Ralph Moss, who writes very useful cancer reports for | | | | Opps - almost forgot the nice people in the wig store.... |
| the general public. (He was recently on the New Your | | | | Off to eat a second breakfast of incredibly healthy |
| Times page on progress in cancer work.) I also found | | | | things, drink my wheat grass and raw vegetable juice. |