A tumor is back…but it’s still good news.

My dear husband started to see blood in his urine here or there over the past coupla months. We weren’t worried at first, because when you are susceptible to bladder tumors, you have to do regular invasive “lookies” by the doctor to keep an eye on things. Use your imagination there. And it can cause some bleeding.

But clots in his urine were  increasing the past few weeks after he’d do something physical like hiking, and he had an appointment lined up already, which was two days ago.

And sure enough….he had a tumor about half the size of the doc’s thumbnail. So in a week, he will have that scraped off.

But here’s the good news: it’s only one and it’s not huge. The doc said “Keep up what you are doing, because clearly it’s helping”. So we will, especially the 100 mg Lugols iodine (50 and 50) and the baking soda to keep his urine pH up. I also had him do an Organic Acids Test, and we found out about certain other supplements he needs anyway. The way I look at it, the more you can discover and treat, the better.

And I’m going to focus again on finding good immune boosting supplements. I was impressed with what I learned about Jimmy Carter, who used a strong immune boosting drug called Keytruda to counter his cancer. I’ve read more about immune function promotion and it makes sense. He’s been on Beta Glucan and I’m going to search if we can raise the amount.

And, I was pleased to find out from Bob Raymond, the owner of Agent Orange Survivors group, that they do now correlate Agent Orange exposure to Bladder cancer: http://www.militarytimes.com/story/veterans/2016/03/10/agent-orange-exposure-linked-bladder-cancer-hypothyroidism/81583512/  So we now have to wait for the lumbering, thick-as-mud and poorly run VA to accept that correlation, as well.

So when it comes to the love of my life and keeping him around a lot longer, so far, so good.

UPDATE: all good again. Low grade cancer, the doc says, and close to where the other one was. Onward and upward.

A joyous Veterans Day! Husband is still free from bladder cancer!!

The love of my life just had a followup appointment for a Cystoscopy. For those reading this for the first time, it’s a way for the doctor to look inside his bladder, examining every inch of his bladder interior.

And we were concerned. At the last appointment, and though he was pronounced clear then as well, there was a suspicious and slight “raised area” … and this appointment was to see if it turned into cancer. Also, he’s had occasional tiny spots of blood here or there in the urine.

And what was seen today? NOTHING! The doctor turned the scope this way; turned it that way, and back again to be sure. NOTHING! No suspicious raised spot. He was clean!! Woooo hooooo. 🙂

So what was the occasional small evidence of blood? Probably scar tissue still dropping off from previous roto-router procedures.

You never know what is working, but along with the baking soda twice a day to keep his urine alkaline (7.5 – 6 pH), and the daily 12 mg of Astaxanthan (sometimes 24 mg), he’s now been on 100 mg a day of iodine for many months, dosed 50 mg in the morning and 50 mg in the afternoon with Iodoral pills. We were told that Dr. Flechas, a well-known iodine expert,, was pretty adamant that it will stop bladder cancer. And it appears to be so for my dear husband!

So he celebrates Veterans Day with a big happy Navy veteran smile! And I’m with him on that (and the thumbs up above is exactly what we both did toward each other did after the exam). 🙂

P.S. I’ve been writing about this since 2013, so if you want to read it all from the beginning, just go to the archives and October 2013. Enjoy!

All one can do is CELEBRATE!! Bladder Cancer did NOT win!

The good news starts out like this: Nearly a year ago in September 2014, I wrote here that it took a year before his bladder tumors came back again. That was good news since before that, they reappeared every six months. So that can only mean that all or something we have been doing has helped.

Now it’s August 2015, and he just had a Cystoscopy (the use of a scope to examine the bladder). And VOILA!! NO TUMORS. NO CANCER!! I could have done the jig right then and there in the examining room with him. i.e. the 100 mg Iodoral (pill form of iodine at 50 mg each, taken twice a day), the 24 mg Astaxanthin, and the baking soda routine to keep his pH at 7.5 – 8.0 has been working.

Now here’s two interesting aspects to this treatment: #1: he stopped the medical marijuana in January. It was making him have serious low blood pressure when standing, called orthostatic hypotension. In fact, it was SO bad that he fainted hard and ended up rupturing his spleen last January. So that leads to #2: he did NOT keep his pH high like that during January and February because of the rough condition he was in.  I worried about that. But, it doesn’t appear to have made things much worse considering that 8 months after that,  there is no cancerous tumor. So perhaps….perhaps…the 100 mg iodine via Iodorol and the Astaxanthin have played a big role. And perhaps, returning to keeping his pH where it should be in March has helped.

Now on the cautious side, there was an area that was slightly raised, but no sign of cancer. So, he’ll go back in for another cystoscopy in four months, just to check on it. And we will keep plugging away at anything we fing out about to counter his propensity to have bladder cancer tumors.

Right now, we are winning, friends!

2015: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly that I am going to create

When I last wrote last September 2014, I explained the good news–we had kept his bladder tumors at bay for a year! Considering how insidious all this is, that was good news.

Granted, he did have a small tumor sitting there. But it was doing just that–sitting there, not growing. It was being nice, even if it had to be there. And we felt sure it was due to all we were doing!

So our non-VA private doctor said “Let’s just recheck him next year, which would be June of 2015”. And so we continued with the baking soda (though three times a day) to keep his urine pH at 7.5 at the minimum and 8 at the max, Frankincense oil up to 6 drops, Astaxanthin, Lugols iodine at 8 drops which is just over 50 mg iodine…and will have him now move up to 10 drops, Apricot seeds for the laetrile at 20 per day now…and adding back in selenium. He forgot about the selenium recently after he had run out. Will probably go with quality Brazil Nuts this time, perhaps 5-6 per day.

I am also working closely with a doctor who is recommending certain tests…more on that later.

Anywho…the bad news is this: he is now bleeding again as revealed by his urine and with lots of clots. Has gone on for a week and this is the worst we have seen. He is scheduled to have the doc view what’s going on four days from now and scrape it off. But I think this HAS to be related to an accident he had in early January i.e. he ruptured his spleen via a freak in-home accident–it was due to the medical marijuana he was taking. i.e it was giving him orthostatic hypotension. He nearly bled to death. And he was off everything for almost three weeks. That worried me. And I can’t help but think this is related. But it is what it is, and we’ll see what they find in four days. Hopefully, it’ll just be one more routine scraping off of his tumor.

After the procedure, we will have to see if we can return to what we had in 2014–no scraping procedures, no growth i.e it does appear that all we are doing slowed things WAY down and kept everything to what the non-VA doc called it: pesky little tumors.

And here’s the potential ugly: I am going to push, push, push the Veterans Administration about this–to CONNECT this to his Agent Orange exposure. I have been getting guidance on how to do it via some other vets and will pursue them all to kingdom come. I want to do this out of  principle–that the VA needs to recognize what is happening to all these vets as they have gotten older and not throw it under the rug. This inspired me: http://www.va.gov/vetapp07/files2/0717857.txt  It could have been my husband! So much the same, even though my husband served 10 years before this guy. And the VA finally acknowledged the connection for this guy, so there is hope for my husband….

Granted, I care FAR more about keeping my dear husband around for 20 or more years. Can we do it? I can only hope and will keep doing what we are doing and adding more as we find it.

UPDATE 2-28-15: Turns out that the tumor appeared to be the exact same size–about the size of the end of your pinky finger. i.e. IT HAD NOT GROWN! We have masterfully contained the growth with what we have been doing. The bleeding was due to a vessel that had broken open and the clot just wouldn’t hold. So it’s gone…again…and we shall see if we have tweaked things enough to stop a return. You’d think that if we could stop the growth, we could stop the appearance…but we’ll see.

A tumor is back….but the good news is that it took a year. New tweaks ahead.

Today was my husband’s six month checkup/endoscopy. I say six months because last March, he tripped on an icy hill, hit his kidney area, saw blood in his urine, and wondered. But a scope showed no tumors. So it’s actually been a year since he had one!

So does that year equal we had some success? Possibly. Because before that, they reappeared in just 4-6 months or so. To go a year is success.

Also unique to this time, no bloody urine as has always been typical. The ONLY clue that “maybe” something was back was three weeks ago. He passed a small clot. No more and no other obvious sign.

Says our wonderful NON-VA doc: It’s small. It’s low-grade.

And said my dear husband: Thank God I didn’t have a scope at the VA. They ALWAYS hurt like the devil. This one did not.

And said his NON-VA doc: You have a choice. We can remove this soon, and the negative is that it can mean a “sooner” return, and another removal sooner. Or you can wait.

Bingo, I said. Let’s wait. Let’s tweak some things. So his surgery is scheduled for the first week of December. And my initial thoughts are this:

1) UP the baking soda to one teaspoon twice a day like he did before. He got to where he just did it in the morning, and did lemon juice sporadically the rest of the day. But I always thought it was too sporadic, as his urine pH was just too low/too acidic before bedtime, and too low/too acidic when he’d wake up. That’s a lot of hours to have acidic urine!

2) UP the Astaxanthin from 12 to 18 mg (or 24). When we completely removed the tumors before, he was on baking soda twice a day, and 24 mg Astaxanthin. I don’t know when he moved back down to 12, but he did. Back up he goes.

3) UP the Lugol’s iodine. He’s been on approx. 50 mg and I know cancer patients do at least 100 mg.

4) And this is new: Medical marijuana. We live in a state where it’s legal. He’s been on the candy form for many weeks. It OUTRIGHT has helped his sleep, which has been terrible for decades!! But it’s time to move over to the “bud”, which is 100% something, says his other doc. I will find out what as I’m brand new to this as he is. He will get some on Monday. And there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that it can shrink tumors. I’m completely impressed.

And over the next few days, I’m going to relook at his apricot seeds (he’s been on 15) and his Frankencense oil (never found how much to take, so he’s just done 3 drops a day).

The bad thing about all this is I won’t know exactly what slows things down….or STOPS them from returning. But it is what it is. As long as it works!! The latter is my hope.

As we approach approximately 11 months since his last bladder cancer recurrence….

….here is a study showing why bladder cancer patients might want to consider selenium:

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(06)70862-2/abstract

Cheers to being cancer free!!

So far, so good!! He’s still free of Bladder Cancer!!

I think we found the magic bullet(s) against my dear husband’s bladder cancer!

As of today, June 26th, 2014, it’s been about 10 months since he last found himself with bleeding in his urine aka the 4th return of bladder cancer. And the significance of it? For the previous two years, he has never gone this long without the return of the bleeding, signaling those nasty bladder tumors!!

So again, here’s what he’s been doing daily:

1) ~50 mg Lugols iodine in his morning drink (known to be very anti-cancer). We use the 5% Lugols in which one drop equals 6.25 mg iodine. See jcrows.com or other websites.

2) Three drops Frankincense Oil in his morning drink (studies found it to be anti-bladder cancer). We never found out how much to take, so just decided on this since it’s very potent. There are good brands on Amazon.

3) 15 maintenance Apricot seeds a day for the laetrile inside. http://www.naturalnews.com/031336_laetrile_cancer_cells.html

4) The use of baking soda or lemon juice in water to make sure he keeps his urine pH around 7 to 7.45. He does wake up in the 6’s frequently, but immediately gets it back up. He uses pH strips.

5) ~ 12 – 20 mg. Astaxanthin–very anti-inflammatory and a wonderful product!

Of course, we don’t really know what is keeping it at bay. Is it mainly one, or several, or all of the above? Who knows. I never had him try just one, because I wanted to STOP this. And we have. So we’ll keep on with them all. 🙂