Hello CCJ,and others...
I wish to Thank You for your words above, I was very disillusioned this morning after reading C's response, you have lifted my spirits again. First I wanted to mention a new treatment I have read about for GIST just in case you haven't heard of it. It is called Gleevec and has shown a lot of promise for your condition, it is I believe a form of Chemo that was originally targeting something else but Doctors realized it's benefit for GIST patients. There is quite a lot of info about it on the web , but here is a site you could try ,
http://www.advancesinoncology.com/oncology/treatment-developments.a...
I have been trying to find test results re my recovery but do not have anything much, I live in Canada and they seem to not be so big on blood count numbers and letting the patient know all the specific results that Americans seem privy to, I am however going to make a request of my Doctor to get copies of some of the more scientific data and put together a more precise history for anyone who is interested to read. I wish I had kept a log myself of exact dates etc but hindsight is 20/20 and I had other things on my mind at the time.
I can tell you I was diagnosed in May of 2001 with stage 4 adenocarcinoma of the stomach, right at the junction of my esophagus (in fact the doctors thought I would need surgery and a shunt put in just to get food past the tumor.)
After am MRI a liver biopsy , chest xrays and CT scans it was discovered that the Cancer had already spread to my liver (which was 15% involved at that time).
I started taking
Essiac , tried a macro diet (couldn't handle that, I lost to much weight, so just concentrated on eating lots of veg, fruit, little meat and dairy, wholegrains etc). . I really did not want to have chemo as I had heard all the horror stories and the Oncologist said it would probally only buy me a year anyway. When I went back for the results of my next CT scan a couple of months later they showed my liver was now 35% involved and the Oncologist said at that rate I'd only have a couple of months. So I went for the chemo to try and gain some time for the herbals to work, I started the chemo on Aug 18th, they inserted a picc line that infused me 24 hrs a day , every 3 weeks I went up for a big hit that took 5-6 hrs . The drugs used were, cisplatin,epirubicin, and 5-FU . Needless to say it was not a pleasent experience. They took me off the chemo on Dec 23rd 2001 when scans showed the stomach tumor was no longer showing and there were about 4 or 5 small tumors left in my liver. The Doc said it was just a matter of time before they started to grow.
I kept taking the
Essiac (which I believe greatly helped with the side effects of the chemo, I actually kept my fingernails... unfortunatley I can't say the same for my hair) and numerous supplements, the diet , fresh
juicing etc for 6 months and there was no change in the size of the tumors which pleased the Oncologist. Then after someone on a Cancer Chat forum sent me an e-mail sugesting I tried the Pau d'Arco because it had cured their colon cancer I began to take it also. Almost immediatly I felt relief, The constant bloating and extreme gas in my stomach (that literally felt like a fist) disappeared, I went for a CT scan about 3 weeks after starting the Pau and the Oncologist was amazed (he actually looked enthused, rare for him) the remaining tumors in my liver far from growing were now beginning to shrink. The Oncologist said that it was not a delayed chemo reaction as I had ended that 6 months ago and it was no longer in my system. I kept drinking the Pau d'Arco and he kept giving me scans every 4 weeks, and every time the tumors were smaller and less. I just received the results of my March scan yesterday, NO cancer anywhere, no lymph node involvement or swelling, nothing...
I have a neighbour who came to me and wanted to know what I was taking as his sister-in-law had been basically sent home to die after she stopped responding to chemo and her Cancer was growing out of control, she came to see me herself and I gave her some of my own Pau d'Arco to get her started right away, she e-mailed the next day saying she had more energy than she had had for months, one week later she told me she had regained her appetite and gained 5 lbs,( she had used to weigh 170 lbs and was 115 when she visited me) about 3 weeks after starting to drink the Pau d'Arco she had a CT scan and to her Oncologists surprise her Cancer was now receeding and he offered to let her try chemo again, which she finally did . She stopped the chemo a little while ago because the side effects were so bad she had to have fluid pumped out of her stomach twice per week. She has never stopped taking the tea or
Essiac and now is taking it alone and swears she won't go for chemo again. I bet she will really start to see progress once the poisons are out of her system.
Sorry for the length of this rambling dialogue (and the awful spelling), and I will try to get more specific data, I hope "C" will read this and realize I am not just trying to make money off of other peoples misery and I do forgive you your sceptisism, I have to admit before I was diagnosed with Cancer I was not nearly so open-minded as I am now, and yes I am trying to sell you something... I'm trying to sell you on giving Pau d'Arco a chance ..just like I did when I was told about it. I wish I had kept that ladies e-mail address because I would say THANK YOU many times over.
Again Thanks to CCJ and I wish you and anyone reading this Good Health and many Happy days.
Sincerely Rob.