Doug's Battle for Health


Life's too good to leave it unfinished!


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June 2006
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Gotta Tri

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow,
learn as if you were to live forever."
Mahatma Gandhi
"We look forward to the time when the power of love will replace the love of power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace."
William Gladstone

Saturday, June 24th

A Growing Resentment


I am slowly beginning to understand why terminally ill and advanced age people become bitter. I think a major reason is resentment. I find myself always coming back to questions like, “Why me?” On top of the questions is what sometimes seems feels like the monumental effort I have to make to prolong my life.

For Cancer patients there is surgery and its recovery, chemotherapy, and radiation. You must deal with constant discomfort and pain that has no timeline. Visits to various doctors seem to be endless. I have been poked with more needles in the past year than I can count. Often times a needle will stay in my chest for days at a time. Walking distances and stairs becomes an effort. And in my case, a radical diet change that is so different from the Standard American Diet (SAD) that it is difficult to go out to dinner, grab fast food or even shop.

So a person can, and is expected to, “cowboy up” and deal with all of the inconveniences. What is most difficult is watching other people. I have always thought of myself as a live-and-let-live type of person. But lately I can feel myself becoming resentful of other’s easy lifestyle. How is it that they can be 50 pounds plus overweight and still eat hamburgers and desserts? How is it that they will drive around a parking lot to find the closest place when the walk would do them so good? How can people who personally know cancer victims continue to smoke? I realize cigarettes are highly addictive, but they have to try to quit. And a wholesale trust in drugs and doctors is a whole nother topic for later.

There is more but I think you get the point. I understand that people have a right to shorten their lives, but when I am fighting so hard to prolong mine, it is hard to watch them. I guess it is resentment or maybe envy. Not long after my post on Attitude, as a result of my trials, I have come to better understand the bitter people in this world and have less understanding for others.

Doug on 06.24.06 @ 10:24 AM PST [link]

Monday, June 19th

Colon Hydrotherapy


As I continue to explore any and all means of saving my life, I am pulled more and more into understanding the body’s functions and how they can go wrong. As part of the focus on dietary wellness and the whole digestive track, I am now at Colon Hydrotherapy or Colonic Irrigation. (Yes, you can have a career as a Colon Hydrotherapist.) This is the process of cleansing the large intestine (colon) and sigmoid (lower bowel) of metabolic waste without using drugs. Water is slowly pumped in while the therapist massages your stomach and then a waste tube takes away the results. It is designed to cleanse and detoxify the colon, liver, kidney and lymphatic systems. The reduction of toxic stress on the organs that are responsible for elimination will boost the immune system and absorption of nutrients.

As explained to me today, in my first appointment (I have three scheduled over 8 days), the water also helps to hydrate the colon, which is last to benefit from the water you drink. Usually you kidneys, thyroids, and even cells take priority before water passes to the colon. It has been found that the average America (not over weight or highly allergic) has 10 –25 pounds of dried fecal matter trapped in their colon. The main reason the colon is so unhealthy is our high-fat, low-fiber, refined junk foods including, flour, meat, fat, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, alcohol, preservatives and toxins. When the colon is congested with waste, poisons backed up into our systems.

The whole thing was a little uncomfortable both emotionally and physically. Once you get over the stranger getting very personal, you try to relax and let the process help you. Your stomach feels bloated and a little uncomfortable as the therapist massages and works your stomach. They also comment on the refuse as it passes through the tube. Mine showed signs of toxicity.

If you are not ready to take on colonic irrigation (thanks to my wife Jeanette for going first) there are some over the counter internal cleansers on the market. A popular one is Ultimate Cleanse (Herb & Fiber) by Nature's Secret. You can get it at http://www.911healthshop.com/ulcleanherfi.html if you are interested. In the meantime, I hope you maintain a healthy colon by eating a high fiber-low fat diet, drink plenty of pure water and exercise on a regular basis.

To your health – bottoms up! shocked

Doug on 06.19.06 @ 03:34 PM PST [link]

Monday, June 12th

Acid or Alkaline - What is your pH?


My research into health has caused me to stumble over a couple of references regarding the body’s pH balance. You want your body to be in the neutral range between 6.8 to 7.2. I read somewhere that every person who dies of cancer has a low pH level or high acid content. Low pH is also blamed for sleep problems, obesity, allergies, blood pressure trouble, depression, digestive trouble, hypoglycemia, arthritis, headaches, and all sorts of immune challenges. Studies have shown that cancer cannot live in an oxygen rich pH balanced cell. All of our diseases thrive in an acidic environment. Did you know that 38% of Americans will get cancer – at the turn of the century (1900) it was 3%. Diabetes has risen 400% in the past 20 years. And 50% of people over 70 will get Alzheimer’s – it didn’t even exist 60 years ago!

There are many things that can increase the acidity in your body. These are a lack of exercise, stress, medications, food and drink. Do they sound familiar? Once again, a call for a regular exercise routine, an effort to reduce stress, the drinking of lots of water (1 gallon or more a day) and meals with lots of vegetables and fruit. High alkaline forming foods include vegetables like spinach, celery, garlic, green beans, cabbage, lettuce, peas, carrots, red beets, lemon, eggplant, avocado, parsley, lime lemon and legumes and seeds like lima beans, soy beans, almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and flax seeds. Foods responsible for high acid in the body include artificial sweeteners, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, pop corn, beer, wine, liquor, coffee, ketchup, mayonnaise, fried foods, ice cream, vinegar, candy, soft drinks and chocolate. Coke has a pH of about 3. To neutralize the acid in a can of coke it would take about 30 glasses of water. When you drink cola, the body uses its own buffers to correct. These include the calcium from your bones and your body’s potassium reserves.

You can get a pH test kit at most health food stores. Checking your morning urine with a test strip is the best way to measure your metabolic pH. If you want to research further, books such as “The pH Miracle” and “Sick & Tired!” by Robert O. Young and “The Feel Good Food Guide” by Deborah Page Johnson.

“The doctor of the future will give little medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.” – Thomas A. Edison

Doug on 06.12.06 @ 12:40 PM PST [link]

Wednesday, June 7th

Family Photo


While I am off chemo and feeling pretty good, we decided to have some family photos done. We haven’t had a picture taken since Alex was little, as she cannot handle a sitting. Our friend Carolyn of Carolyn Uhland Photography came to our house and took pictures of us around our property. I thought I would share one.

family1-3 (59k image)
Doug on 06.07.06 @ 08:47 PM PST [link]

Monday, June 5th

Spinal Metastases


From my reading it is apparent that the backbone is a common site for cancers to spread. Metastases is the spreading of cancer from its original location to other organs in the body. Seventy percent of all cancer patients develop metastatic disease and of those, 40% are located in the spine.

The results of this last scan did show some positives as the cancer has not spread other places and the multitude of lung nodules, though still present, are not growing. My focus now is to see what we can do about this tumor in my 7th vertebrae. There are a couple of options.

I could go back on chemotherapy (probably my doctor’s recommendation), I could have radiation (yet to explore side effects) or I could opt for surgery. At this point, I am not interested in returning to chemo. I was reading in a book this weekend that certain drugs in your chemo-cocktail can so deplete your immune system that it actually allows the cancer to spread. That was an eye opener. Especially since one of the drugs mentioned is one that has been present in both treatment sessions. I even carried this one around for three days every two weeks while it slowly pumped into me.

I have been concerned as to why, after showing no tumors going into treatment, two months after treatment, it had spread to my lungs and spine. The doctor’s explanation was that it might have spread faster without chemo. I got very sick during that first round, ending up in the hospital for severe dehydration and a blood infection. The latter required me to self administer IV antibiotics three times a day for two months. Think my immune system may have been compromised?

So chemo is out and I am now looking at Radiation and Surgery. Surgery can leave me paralyzed so that too, does not look attractive. I am not excited about the potential of radiation as it can be quite damaging. Also, colon cancer is considered a radioresistant tumor. So it does not react well to radiation.

I did find a new technique that sounds interesting - stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). This is a precise laser radiation treatment can avoid the spinal column and works with radioresistant tumor. There is a new device called CyberKnife (http://www.accuray.com) that was created here in Sunnyvale. The treatment requires one to three outpatient visits and the patient does not experience pain. This new high-tech device maximizes pin-pint radiation to the tumor and avoids surrounding healthy tissue.

Doug on 06.05.06 @ 08:01 PM PST [link]

Friday, June 2nd

A Setback...


Well we got the results of my PET scan and they aren’t as good as we had hoped. The good news is that the cancer has not spread anywhere else. And the numerous tumors in my lungs have not grown or gone anywhere.

The bad news is that the nasty one in my 7th vertebrae has gotten larger and seems to be hardening or showing “an increased sclerosis.” We were very disappointed and heart broken as I had hoped for some good news.

I should not be too surprised however as the pain in that area has increased the past month.

Still in good spirits and fighting hard.

Doug on 06.02.06 @ 02:30 PM PST [link]



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