BBC Animal Voiceover

Watch this with your kids. Very funny.

The Smell of Cancer - An Update

Cancer still stinks. Thanks for all the suggestions for solutions to the smell issue that you posted in the comments. I tried a lot of them. I tried rose hip oil in my drain. It smells fine in the bottle but once it's in the drain it smells like rotten roses. It's an ok alternative to just plain nasty. For instance, when I used it, people can still tell there's a smell but they think there's no possible way it could be coming from a human being. I've tried layering the drain in ziplock bags but that doesn't really help either. Just putting vapo-rub under my nose isn't an option since I have to consider the well being of any poor co-worker who is forced to sit in my office for any length of time. Without a solution I would soon find myself without anyone to help me out at work.

Yesterday I did find something that helped. I went to see the ET nurses (ET in this case stands for enterostomal therapy) at the Foothills hospital and they hooked me up. The set me up with a paediatric ostomy bag that I can fit over the drain. It works well at controlling the smell BUT it provides no real anchor for the drain. With no anchor for the drain, the tube moves in and out when I move around and that hurts like hell. So my options at this point are: wear a bag and be in pain or be somewhat comfortable and smell like a family of skunks. I will work at trying to find a way to anchor the tube in the bag but I'm not sure how to do that. I'll have to get my thinking cap on.

On a related note, I went to see Dr. Buie today. Luckily I had Penny with me so she could ask him all the tough questions and put some gentle pressure on him to try and solve this drain thing. He said in no uncertain terms that surgery is the only way to fix the problem. The likelihood of it healing up on its own after nearly 2 years is basically non-existent. But even with that in mind, there is no clean cut answer. The ideal scenario is to put up with the drain until I get a cure and then have surgery to remove all the damage. Even then the surgery is risky due to the amount of scar tissue in the area from previous surgeries and radiation. Interrupting chemo now to have the surgery would be risky since I could have a complication (more likely now with chemo on the go) and spend the remainder of what could be a short life in the hospital. However if my CT scan on January 4 shows that the chemo isn't working then it might be a good excuse to stop and have some surgery while we regroup and come up with other cancer-killing options. We also discussed a less invasive surgery which wouldn't really solve the problem but could make the situation better in terms of pain and smell. The bottom line is we have to wait for CT results January 4 to make any decisions. Wait wait wait. A common theme these past two and a half years.

A Guy

A guy goes to the supermarket and notices an attractive woman waving at him. She says hello. He's rather taken aback because he can't place where he knows her from. So he says, 'Do you know me?' To which she replies, 'I think you're the father of one of my kids.' Now his mind travels back to the only time he has ever been unfaithful to his wife and says, 'Are you the stripper from the bachelor party that I made love to on the pool table with all my buddies watching while your partner whipped my butt with wet celery?'

She looks into his eyes and says calmly, "No, I'm your son's teacher."

The Smell of Cancer

I hate the smell of cancer. I guess the disease itself doesn't smell but all the treatments have a smell. The antibiotics have a smell, the chemotherapy has a smell (and a taste), the anti-coagulent they put in my port after chemo has a smell that I can smell without using my nose. The chemotherapy daycare unit has a smell. The hand sanitizer has a smell. The bandages and associated packaging has a smell. But the worst smell, by far, is my drain. It smells like a hyena with dysentery threw up on a pile month old salmon carcasses. Normal rational thinking might lead you believe that my ileostomy might be source of such vile odours. But you would be wrong. A bag full of shit has nothing on my drain. I'm running out of options to try and tame the smell. I've tried bags and bags inside of bags. I've tried deodorizers of all makes and strengths but nothing seems to do the trick. The only thing that comes close is if I use an ileostomy bag to cover the drain. But the flange that I have to stick to my belly hurts like hell to have in place. So i'm left with the choice between debilitating pain or eye-watering stink. I must apologize to my colleagues at work who have had to sit next to me on the days I chose not to be in pain.

I' hoping to find someone who can help me through this. If you're a nurse and you can refer me to someone with a strong stomach and an intimate knowledge of solving drain issues drop me a line. I would love to hear some opinions from a professional or anyone!

I write this having just got my chemo for the week. It's only been a few hours but I'm feeling fine. The real crap will start tomorrow morning when I get out of bed feeling hung over and smelling like a family of beached belugas.

Chosing Alternative Therapies - Like Picking a Good Junior Mining Stock

For my cancer treatment so far I've been relying on the doctors (and nurses!) at the Tom Baker Centre here in Calgary for most of my treatment. I've dabbled in the natural or ‘alternative’ medicine arena for some things like reiki, juice plus and improvements to my diet but have never fully committed to incorporating full on naturopathic therapies into my care; until now. In the past two weeks I've been gathering information on naturopathic cancer treatments from various sources and have consulted 2 naturopaths formally and one informally (thanks Louise!).

All in all the process has felt a bit like trying to pick a good junior mining stock. No matter how much research you do and who you talk to, every company seems to have a good story (and a snazzy website). While some confidence can be gained by digging deep into the details, if often comes down to a gut feeling or in some cases, a guess. And so it is in trying to pick the best alternative therapies for treating cancer. I can only hope that in some of the stuff I try, there is a little gold.

Last Monday I did a phone consult with one guy name Dr Ghazali who works in a clinic in Fort Langley BC. I sent him all my info ahead of time and we spent an hour on the phone. He is certified as a naturopathic oncologist. He knew all about my chemotherapy, treatments and surgeries and asked a number of relevant questions about my care to date. He was well prepared and had a very organized plan for me to follow. I had originally wanted to talk to him about the hyperthermia treatments they offer there but I ended up getting lots of other great information as well. He gave me a diet to follow (whole foods), gave me a list of supplements to take and went over the options available for additional alternative therapies. He suggested full body hyperthermia (in Germany!), IV vitamin C and IV mistletoe treatments. I really liked how he said "if I were you, this is what I would do". I hate trying to pry opinions out of doctors. Anyway, he was great, knew his stuff inside and out and had a solid plan for me.

The other naturopathic doctor I met with was Dr Drobot. He came highly recommended but fell short of my expectations. I did a $1000 plan with him which basically told me a) my liver is stressed b) my immune system is suppressed and c) my gut is stressed. So what he told me was that I have cancer and am on chemo. The tests he performed were: live blood cell analysis, urine test, computerized regulation thermography, heart rate variability, digital pulse analysis and bio impedance analysis. After the testing, we sat down and talked about the results for an hour. He never really laid out a detailed plan. He sort of directed me to a few websites, suggested a few treatments (vitamin C, miseltoe, hyperthermia and ozone) and gave me a few supplements. Basically I was supposed to do a little reading and think about what I had learned from the tests (nothing really) and decide on what supplements/treatments I felt like doing going forward. It didn't feel like a good experience at the time and I didn't come away feeling empowered like I did after my conversation with Dr Ghazali. Dr Drobot did suggest a few things that Dr Ghazali suggested too so I'm starting to believe in some of this stuff. There definitely seems to be some similar themes from the doctors, from books and online. The common themes were: IV miseltoe, IV vitamin C, and hyperthermia, as well as a few supplements and a better diet.

In the end I have decided to do the following:
-eat a whole foods diet

-limit my sugar intake (we’ll see how that goes over Christmas)
-take a variety of supplements
-Avemar
-Juice Plus
-Essiac tea
-Cod Liver Oil
-Green Tea (5-10 cups/day OR an extract in pill form)
-Melatonin (has some anti-cancer benefits as well as helping with sleep)
-Tumeric (the spice – comes in pill form)
-Unda 243
-Unda 20
-Regulat (these last 3 were suggestions of Dr Drobot I plan on running this by Dr Ghazali to see what he thinks)

-Take regular IV vitamin C and IV miseltoe treatments here in Calgary
-Look into whole body hyperthermia at a clinic in Germany in the new year

-I will of course also continue with my regular chemotherapy regimen at the Tom Baker

I'm really not sure if any of this will do any good but it sure feels good to be proactive about the whole process because there is no worse feeling than the hopelessness of sitting at home waiting to die.

It's December

Which unfortunately means Movember has come to an end. You can still donate on my Movember page if you forgot to do it or didn't have time before now. Thanks to everyone who donated. Together we raised almost $800 for prostate cancer research!

By the way, I'm thinking about taking a week off from chemo. I think my body needs to heal. I've had lots of nose bleeds lately as well as lots of blood in my drain. I also feel tired and my recovery from the crappy part of chemo is taking longer and longer with each round. A week off would help my blood get back to normal as well and give my immune system a bit of recovery time. I don't think a week off would hurt my mental health either.

I met with a couple of naturopaths this week. I have lots to digest and will report on my findings here very soon as promised.