Posts Tagged ‘Progressive Medical Center’

Week 5, Round 3 …

Posted: May 1, 2012 in Breast Cancer
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So we are launching a new offensive now. I have resumed IPT after taking a month off. The disease is rapidly on the move, so we have to counter it quickly. There are things we do not have accurate information on like my estrogen receptor/progesterone receptor status and my Her2neu status. In metastatic disease, this can switch back and forth so treatment options can change and we don’t have a real accurate read on this one since they lost my seven litres of ascites fluid last year. So Thursday, I am succumbing to a liver biopsy. I have been avoiding it for the past year (that was their suggestion when they lost my fluid) but the time has come that we really need accurate intel and the only way to get it is from behind enemy lines, so send in the Recon!

The samples will be send to pathology and they will also be sent off for a Caris test which can tell which drugs will be effective for me, but does it based on genetics and such. These results will take weeks to come back, so in the meanwhile we are starting with four chemo drugs that previous testing indicates I have sensitivity to because we have to throw something at it quickly. I have also started using a product called DCA. I have been watching this for years and now it is time to pull out all the stops, so I have added it to my protocol as of last Thursday.

I had my first Progressive IPT yesterday. It was done with much more attention than it was at Immune Recovery. They had all of your stuff sitting there, at your chair, waiting for you. They monitored your O2 saturation and blood pressure the whole time and monitored your blood sugar the whole time as well. They took it when you first arrived, then to determine when you are at your therapeutic moment, then to determine when your sugar levels have come back to normal. And while you are getting your chemo, they put a FIR heat lamp over your cancer spots to further weaken the cancer cells. I have also added this exercise with oxygen thing they do here. There is a machine we call a Jiggler that … well, it jiggles/vibrates you. You stand on it, with an oxygen mask on. It uses vibration to exercise your muscles, but with the oxygen it is supposed to be helpful with cancer. Not sure of the mechanism of action, which is unlike me, but at this point, I don’t even care. God sent me to this place and I am going to trust them. The only thing I’m trying to micromanage right now is to be sure the financial arrangements are as we discussed.

On the home front, we moved out from the family and moved into the Residence Inn. It will be a much better arrangement for all involved, but it adds another $2700 to the monthly expense which, again, is a screaming deal since that is half what the room usually goes for, but it is still more than our mortgage payment … sigh. But the unfortunate truth that I am learning from the other Stage IV women around me, is that we just go from one thing to the next, much like we do in conventional medicine without the insurance help. So, what that means is we run up credit cards, we sell things, we refinance or take second mortgages on our homes, we file for bankruptcy, but we just don’t worry about the money. Cuz really, what else can we do??? We have to really just rely on God to provide. If I thought I had ever walked a faith walk before, I didn’t know nuthin about nuthin then!

So here I stay, putting one foot in front of the other, trusting in the miracle. And oh, the generosity of so many of you! I just am so humbled that total strangers would send their hard-earned money to help someone they’ve never even met just because a friend of theirs asked them to by sharing my story on Facebook. Simply amazing! I have had a couple of friends donate, then put out a challenge to their friends to match. I have been just stunned at the love I am being shown financially, from friends and familly, yes, but those strangers!!! That just takes my breath away!

Here we are after getting everything moved into the new place! With my new do. Not a do I prefer, but oh well.

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Week 3

Posted: April 16, 2012 in Breast Cancer
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We met with our naturopath this morning. What an awesome woman. In the midst of my bad day Saturday, I emailed her after I shaved my head and she added me to her schedule first thing this morning. We had a great meeting. She had been online researching appetite and cancer and had a couple of things she wanted to prescribe for me such as Ghrelin, a subcutaneous injection. Also, a prescription for Marinol … that is a synthetic version of THC. Now, the natural substance is by far more effective than the synthetic version. But the natural version doesn’t work for my particular anorexia situation any more, so I hoped perhaps the synthetic version would work. I am upping my curcumin and glutamine doses as well.

We are also going to stop all the pain management and electromedicine machines right now so I can focus on IV therapies. We have got to get me alkaline and we have got to get my appetite working or we are fighting a losing battle with the cancer. As it is, they all overlap and any one of them can kill me. So we are going to up my IVC to 100gms twice a week with alpha lipoic acid before the bag to potentiate it. We are going to add some glutathione for my liver and, if we need to, resume IPT. Of course, if we have to do that, don’t know where the money will come from, but I can’t worry about that right now.

I am also going to order and start a product called DCA that Russia is allegedly declaring a cure. Doesn’t take much and I will be ordering that tonight. So the saga continues …

Into the desert …

Posted: April 9, 2012 in Breast Cancer, Spiritual/Emotional/Energetic
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Toward the end of my hospital stay, when I was getting more awake too the whole experience, I was left with serious feelings of abandonment. I mean, here I had been following and serving Him all my life and this is is the result????? After believing His promises for so many years (I honestly believed I was healed of this cancer and would never have to deal with it again), and then I metastacized. How did this happen? If His Word is true, and if He doesn’t lie, and if He truly does love me, how the hell did this happen??? And even worse, if the healing promises are a lie, then what else in that Bible of mine is a lie? I mean, either it is all true, or it ain’t. Many folks like to pick and choose what they believe, and don’t believe in the BIble, but I don’t see it that way. If there are any promises in that book that are not true, then how are any of them true at all? See where I’m going here? If there are Biblical promises that are not true, then how do we know which ones are and which ones aren’t? So then, it was only a skip away to wonder if I’m really saved and going to heaven? See, if one thing isn’t true, is that thing true?? And how do you know? To me, either it all is, or it all isn’t.

I got so angry with God during that time. I railed, I cussed, I shook my fist, I screamed, I cried. I pretty much flung a big, fat temper tantrum. And I haven’t heard not one peep out of Him ever since. Now I know that He has big shoulders. I do not, for one minute, believe that He has turned His back and doesn’t love me any more, but I did pretty much feel like “if this is love, who the hell needs it?” My beloved mother used to say that if this was being the apple of His eye, she didn’t need that shit. Yup, my mom’s words. I was kind of feeling just like that.

This was not the first time I have been end-stage. I had been that way before when I first met Kurt Peterson. I nosed up and got back up to cruising altitude. But this time, I had been in a nosedive with my tail in flames, both engines burnt totally out. I came so close to my own demise that I was hardly aware of anything going on around me, even though I was conscious. My brother had arrived for a visit two days before going into the hospital and I don’t even remember his arrival. I don’t remember him getting out of the car, my hugging him, or even where I was in the house when he arrived. This was totally different.

As I had more and more realization of what had just happened to me, it just did not jive with my understanding of the character of God. There is no way I, as a parent, could stand idly by while my daughter suffered, cried, begged, screamed, mourned … I am aware He has done that before with His own Son … but He is God and I am not. This time, He watched me come really close to leaving this plane. And I thought it was torturous and sadistic. I mean, if it had been merciful, He could have shown me a little piece of what was ahead … one day. Or take me altogether. Shoot, I was right there. Many people have had that experience, and they come back here knowing what glory is there waiting for them, so they no longer fear their passing. I didn’t get tossed that little tidbit. Like how hard could that have been? I was right there … on the brink … how hard would it have been for GOD to either show me what was waiting there one day, or just take me on home so I would never have to experience this terror again?

And I was angry … oh was I ever angry! After all my trusting, believing, standing, praying, etc … this was what I got for my efforts? Screw that! So that’s where I was … pissed at God and He was just letting me be pissed. After all, He knew, before He ever created me, that I would be such a one … so if I didn’t cuss at him, did I really think I could fool myself into believing that He didn’t already know about it? Of course he did … He knows my every thought … created me to think the way I do … so if I can’t talk to Him about it, who can I talk to? So I did … but He didn’t see fit to answer. Thinking as a parent, neither did I when my daughter was flailing in the floor screaming. Then again, she was screaming because she wanted a cookie and I said no. I was screaming because I needed His presence … His reassurance … I mean one of the Biblical names for the Holy Spirit is Comforter … where is my freakin’ comfort???!!!

But in the desert, there is no comfort; there is no shade; there is no nourishment; there is no hydration. Just the stark, blistering sun, big spiders, cool lizards,and chilly nights. And dirt … lots and lots of dirt. But certainly nothing that I find life-giving. And I was suddenly smack in the middle of it.

Fast forward one year … because it was last Apr 11 when I was admitted to that hospital … my hair started falling out late last week … a week after my last chemo. I’m not sure how far it will go as I didn’t let it fall out naturally the first time. I knew that drug would take all my hair, so I took control of the situation and shaved it. The second time, I only expected thinning, which is what I got, but I stopped chemo in July and my hair was at its thinnest in Oct, so I have a delayed reaction of sorts. Given that, I have no idea what to expect … definitely very thin, but possibly all the way bald. It is coming out by the handful and much more painful than it was last time, so I don’t think it’s looking good for the home team. You will be watching it happen in pics.

Here is a shot of me in the ozone sauna that I will be doing later on today.

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Second day is done …

Posted: April 3, 2012 in Breast Cancer, Spiritual/Emotional/Energetic
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Today, I had another busy day. I swear, that place is like Disneyland … you start one place and every time you turn around, there is someone else coming to take you for some other therapy … acupuncture, HBOT therapy, some electro device called The Matrix, IVC, and major autohemotherapy (a safe way of administering ozone into the blood) are the things I know I’m doing this week.

We haven’t been able to look at our protocol/plan yet because they added us on, last minute. They’ve been busting butt getting me scheduled, for five days a week, for the next month. That is all worked out now, so we will get the plan tomorrow.

But today was another blessedly wonderful day. I started in the infusion room getting a small bag of alpha lipoic acid (ALA). Then I got a 75gm bag of IVC with K3 in it and nothing else in there. Perfection! At the other place, they would give the C, then the ALA … but here they give the ALA first because they say the ALA can potentiate the IVC much like insulin can potentiate chemo. What?????? How cool is that!!! Do they do that at the other place? Nope. There are just so many things they do here, just small things, that can make so much difference, but in my opinion, the folks down the road will not be taught. They don’t want to be taught. Especially by someone who has no title before her name or initials after her name.

But that’s over now and the folks here are so corroborative. I swear to you, if they took Medicare, I would seriously consider moving here just to be near this place. They are quickly becoming my family … I’m falling in love with every single one of them.

Anyway, I digress …. I got the ALA, then a big bag of C. They run it wide open here, instead of over 2-3 hours, if you can take it. For me, the ascites issue has to be considered. So we started a little slow today with the C, but then that bag was just not going down. Since I’m pretty sure I didn’t hit therapeutic blood levels at the other place, so when the bag was about 1/3 gone, I told her to let it rip and I’d holler if I needed it slowed. Wow, when it’s running that fast, you certainly can feel it! Who knew Vitamin C could make you feel so loopy????? But, as I figured, my belly is a bit large tonight. So we’ll have to try to figure out where that fine line is between filling me up with fluid and reaching the right blood levels.

After the IVs were done, we ate lunch, then I went on the Matrix machine and got some acupuncture while I was at it. Then I spent about 90 minutes in the HBOT chamber. It’s cool … it’s big enough that I can sit up in there if I want to. I never knew this before, but for some reason God is nowhere near that other place …. but guess where He does live? In the HBOT chamber!!!! Who knew? And I will tell you more about that tomorrow if they give me enough time.

Holy week … a brand new week

Posted: April 2, 2012 in Breast Cancer, Spiritual/Emotional/Energetic
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My first day at Progressive. Got off to a little bit of a slow start because I was an unexpected add-on to their schedule this week. But the vibe here is so wonderful that I couldn’t have cared less! Before long, I was escorted back to my first Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) session. I spent an hour in the chamber. I guess claustrophobic folks might have trouble with it, but it was much more spacious than, say, an MRI or CT scanner, but it is totally enclosed. There was enough room to where I could almost sit up, so it didn’t feel too enclosed. It was much like being in an airplane in that my ears popped while we were starting up, much like an airplane taking off. Same thing when we were done. Quite nice, really. I just plugged my earbuds into my iPad and listened to Darlene Zschech and had a wonderful time.

When that was over, we were served lunch. The organic chef was wonderful. She had a chicken-based veggie soup on tap and since I have such a hard time with food repulsing me when it’s in my mouth, she pureed it for me and it was so good. I was so happy that, though I couldn’t eat much of it, it wasn’t stressful for me!

Then I went back for my first IVC with them. It was just a small bag, but we will up that probably tomorrow. They had planned for me to have an ozone sauna but then we realized that since my port is going to stay accessed for the week, I couldn’t get in a sauna at all due to the sweat. Can’t get moisture behind that tape. So we figured we could sauna me first thing on Mondays and last thing on Fridays, before the access me and after they de-access me. They wanted three times a week, but two will have to do. Those port needle sticks hurt. And though we could spray some stuff on it to numb it, not real sure how well my skin would hold up, in that one small spot, being accessed all week and stuck 3 times each week. So no, we won’t be going that route. Not as big a wussy as I am!

One of the times I was taken to a different area, the gal was helping me get settled in. I was getting ready to hang my IV bag on the hook and she stopped me. She said I need to slow myself down and let her do it. I started laughing and told her, shoot, I had been traumatized for the past seven weeks where I had to fight for every little thing and hope to God they had it right because I saw them making mistakes all around me all the time. And lest you mistake, that wasn’t because the nurses didn’t know their stuff. It was just that the word had not been passed from on high in time for the nurses to get it done. This place? Oh no. They’re all about keeping you comfortable and keeping your stress levels down. Everyone there just goes out of their way for the patient.

I think it’s so cool that this miracle came through for me and my friend on the week before Jesus took that beating and those nails in His hands for my healing, as well as everything else. How perfectly timed is that? Might not be for everyone, but I love the fact that there is worship music in the infusion room … works for me!

I didn’t really get to look at my protocol today, but I’m supposed to tomorrow, so will have more of a feel what my weeks will look like. So tomorrow I get an IV first thing and we go from there. One of that gals I met at that other place was having just as much trouble there as I was and they weren’t even cutting her a good deal, so I encouraged her to at least have a look at the place. She did last Friday. She was there for treatment today! I had told her it was night and day different … she disagreed. She thought that was an understatement! So here is me in the HBOT chamber this morning. Not a great shot … was a bit dark in there … but hopefully you can see my happy smile!

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Out with the old …

Posted: March 30, 2012 in Breast Cancer, Spiritual/Emotional/Energetic
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I promised an update … and now that I’m out from under the contract at the old place, and locked into one at the new place, I can sing like a bird.

Last week, on the day I had that horrible experience of my last blog post, a new patient came in at the tail end of that fiasco. Her name is Maria and she is a gorgeous, strong woman who has her own ND practice. She also has breast cancer. She walked right in and asked the room, “Is anyone here doing IPT?” I knew from that that she was just as vocal and opinionated as I am. I thought to myself … this should be an interesting week once she gets to know this place. I was absolutely right. She had just as much trouble in that front office as I did. By the end of the week, she was telling him, professional to professional, how messed up it was there. She went running back to the clinic from whence she had come: Progressive Medical Center!

This past Wednesday, she texted me from there … “I just got my IVC and it’s clear and has K3 in it without my even having to ask.” I told her there’s no way I could afford it. She said to just come by that she would put in a good word for me with the owner. So we did. OMG, that place was just as amazing as I had thought it would be. Instead of looking like a third world clinic, it was really nice, but of course it is … they do accept insurance, but not Medicare. We asked if we could take a look around and talk to someone about what they had to offer and pricing. They put us in a room to wait for Dr Agolli, the owner. He is an NMD/PhD and he came in and we started chatting. He listened to us, considered our story and then had someone show us around. The place was so amazing. They have the infusion area, which I am familiar with … but then they have so much more I just couldn’t believe it. All kinds of frequency devices, hyperbaric oxygen, ozone, the list just goes on and on in comparison to the other place.

I was sold on the facility, but more importantly, I liked the feel of the place. The people there were all upbeat and laughing … truly enjoying each other, both staff and patients alike. The next thing that got my attention was when we were back in Dr Agolli’s office and I told him that I had had a drop in numbers the first week, at the other place, with no cytokines or chemo at all. He raised his eyebrows and said, “Well why didn’t they just try that for another week without chemo? You might not even need chemo at all.” That had been my exact thought. So he told us to come back the next day to meet with him and another NMD, Dr Burdette.

We did and everything sounded great … the treatment plan and all … but I knew they were going to break my heart as soon as we started talking money. Unfortunately, it had taken us seven full weeks to get over there, and $11k while we were at it. But hey, I’m in the flow and all will be provided, right? Nice thought … but deep down, I didn’t really believe it. So the money numbers started flying and, just as I thought, even with deep discounts, no way we could swing it.

I got upset because of some misunderstandings about the price, and the billing gal went to tell Dr Agolli we needed to talk to him again. While we waited, she came back in. I was crying and this gal put her arm around me and got so close to me, I swear she could’ve kissed me … distinctly uncomfortable, but she was the sweetest thing! She was saying, “Now honey, don’t you cry. Don’t be sad. Dr Agolli is the owner and he’s awesome. He’s gonna work this out for you … don’t you worry.” This from a billing person … and they usually ain’t all sweetness and light! I’m telling you, last week, the nurses walked right past me, crying and shaking, and never even looked at me, much less tried to console me.

I cannot divulge the details of the miracle that came to me that day. But when Dr Agolli came back in, he went through every conceivable option … financing interest-free for a year … but I wasn’t down with doing a few treatments, dying, then leaving my husband to pay for the tx that didn’t work. We talked about the fact that not only is the cancer killing me, the cachexia is racing it to the finish line. He came up with a solution that I can’t even believe. It was truly a miracle … where we are being provided for this time, instead of us providing for someone else. And the price, at least for the next month, is one we can manage.

So we relax this weekend in peace … and look forward to a whole new ball of wax … and a whole new vibe … next week. I guess sometimes, you really do get what you pay for. And sometimes, the miraculous happens and you get help the likes of which you have never experienced.

Thank you to those of you who have been praying for me during this time. Next week, I’ll be right back, right as rain, blogging about this whole new clinic experience! Stay tuned … it’s about to get exciting up in here!