On the Road Again

Originally (and I know some of you have followed this litany from the first post in 2013) I began this journey taking the "off-road" track: starting with mistletoe, going to a clinic in Tijuana, rejecting chemo. Hence, my naming this blog the Road Less Traveled. Since then, I have taken many detours and most recently have subjected my body to several big pharma chemo drugs in my war on cancer.

On this most recent off-road track (the chemo track), my cancer has progressed.... sometimes slowly..... but definitely on the downward trend. After coming off of the most recent IV chemo drug (Taxol, the standard for breast cancer), a PET scan was administered. The results were not good: the liver lesions have increased in size and number. This helped my decision to get off of the Taxol -- not only to give my bowels (and my body in general) a break, but because it obviously was NOT keeping the cancer under control.

What to do? Well, ever since my return from the clinic in Tijuana in September of '13, I have wanted to re-try vitamin C IV therapy. Why? Because in December of '13 (I think I documented this more thoroughly in an early blog -- see archives), I saw a Bio-feedback practitioner who helped determine that the therapy that did the most benefit for me in Tijuana was (to my surprise, quite honestly) the IV vitamin C. Even though I attended the clinic in Tijuana for only 3 weeks, an amazing amount of progress was made on my very sore, swollen, and visibly inflamed breast; soreness was gone, swelling and inflammation were greatly reduced after only a week-and-a-half.

Why did I never try IV vitamin C after I learned this news of its success? Because evidently taking vitamin C can keep chemo from "doing its job." It is contra-indicated as a viable treatment when on chemo (per oncologist).

So now that I am off of the chemo, I am on IV vitamin C therapy. It was difficult finding any places that offer such treatment; I ended up going to NIHA (National Integrated Health Associates), a place I have always avoided.... had heard some good/some not so good about the place. I just grabbed the first place I could find b/c I wanted to get going on this ASAP. So after an arduous process of getting the whole thing in place, I am now on IV vitamin C therapy (alternating with hydrogen peroxide) three times a week. The schedule is grueling, the cost is astronomical (all out of pocket -- no more Medicare coverage).

I have 3 IV sessions per week, each one about 2-3 hours in length (almost twice as long as the IV chemo was). In order to save $$ on parking ($9 per visit!!!), I have been taking the Ride-On bus from Silver Spring to Friendship Heights (location of NIHA). Found out you can get an old-fart SmartTrip bus pass; bus trip costs only $1 during rush hour and it's FREE non-rush! (cool, huh? getting old CAN be awesome!)

Started all of this vitamin C-stuff on March 14. Plan is to go 12-16 weeks, then schedule another PET scan and monitor progress. We shall see what we shall see. Meanwhile -- pray, hope, and live each day to the max. Liver lesions or no, I am enjoying spring and music-making.