Metastatic liver cancer

This post is an introduction to alternative cancer treatments, mainly a repeat from Kistan2’s question which we will print out below as it is part of her liver cancer story. Many hugs to you Kistan2 and thanks for sharing.

Our next post is about an alternative that sounds good in the sense of giving a person suffering from liver cancer a better quality of life. Yes, I am very prudent using the term : "alternative cancer treatments" as I will keep on saying that:

the only way to eradicate cancer is to prevent it!

This is a political choice and as you have noticed, it isn’t in any of the 3 remaining candidates program for the US presidential elections

Why a political choice? Because they can implement policies in order to :

• make sure we can breath in healthy air
• make sure we can drink healthy water
• make sure we can eat healthy food

Not healthy according to "their standards", but healthy to eradicate cancer big time.

All we can do at this point is try to eat as much healthy organic food as possible, reduce on red meat and increase on doing exercises.

Liver Cancer Story from Kistan2

My 43 yr. old husband was diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma early February of this year.

[ hepatocellular carcinoma is a type of liver cell cancer: a malignant growth made up of liver epithelial cells (cells forming the covering of most internal and external surfaces of the body and its organs) that tend to infiltrate the surrounding tissues and give rise to metastases ]

The oncologist that we consulted with all concluded that his mass was to large to operate on and it was too dangerous for the other recommended treatments.

Our only option was the liver cancer drug - Nexavar which he began on Feb. 12th.

Since then his oncologist has also combined the treatment with an infusion of Avastin (which is not approved by Blue Cross Blue Shield).

Since the infusion I have watched my husband go downhill with extreme high blood pressure which leaves him weak and fatigued most of the time. He barely leaves his bedroom and when he does it’s only to eat.

To me, he is getting more jaundiced which is not a good sign.

We have two young children (3 & 12) - I feel saddest when I think of the kids without their father around.

This disease has turned our whole world upside down - I am praying for a miracle but from what I’ve read about this disease, it just doesn’t look good.

Everyday I feel like he is drifting further and further away from us and I live in a constant state of sadness and loss (even though he is still with us).

I’m always on the Internet looking for alternative treatments for his cancer. Has anyone ever tried alternative medicine and have gotten good results from it?

Metastatic liver cancer addings…

• Kistan2 says : To me, he is getting more jaundiced which is not a good sign. I also thought father was getting more jaundiced, so I asked my doctor and he said : not at all. So in all cases cancer: always ask for a (second) doctor’s opinion.
• The drug our GP doctor suggested was Xeloda, which is a pill taken orally and should only work on the tumor without messing up the entire body. Yet our oncologist said: it is still a chemo-therapy causing the common well-known side-effects. He suggested to not give any treatment, therefore we didn’t have the "chemo-therapy" side effects. But you do need to be prepared for the side effects of:
• a growing liver that pushes against all organs in the belly, causing enormous pain
• a failing liver that can’t clean all the blood which sooner or later starts affecting the brain (like people poisoning their blood do to not enough food… hallucinations are to be expected)
• As long as your husband is there, he is there: do cherish these moments as good as possible!

Please do leave a comment:

did you try alternative medicine and
what were the good results from it?

We also listed a small introduction to alternative cancer treatments at our liver cancer survival rate page.

Technorati Tags: alternative cancer treatments, hepatocellular carcinoma, Introduction to alternative cancer treatments, Liver Cancer, liver cancer story, quality of life, suffering from

Have you heard of EDTA chelation?

This is considered to be safest and most effective treatment against heart diseases and other chronic degenerative diseases as compared to conventional treatments.

It is a therapy where EDTA , a synthetic amino acid, is repeatedly administered in the patient’s body and this will over time reduce plague and other mineral deposits throughout the cardiovascular system by just dissolving them away.

Many doctors who prescribed EDTA chelation therapy regularly are amazed when heart patients who undergo this treatment achieve remarkable recoveries after failing all standard treatments.

EDTA has been the standard “FDA-approved” treatment for poisoning from aluminum, lead and mercury for more than 50 years.

The potential benefits of EDTA Chelaton is immense and varied as it also reduces blood cholesterol levels, lowers high blood pressure, decreases muscular degeneration, removes small cataracts, prevents cancer, dissolves kidney stones, reduces varicose veins, prevents osteoarthritis, restores impaired vision and more

One then wonders why is it then this therapy is only practiced by 2000 doctors in the US ? This is mainly because there is no large pharmaceutical company advocating the use of EDTA as the patent ran out nearly 30 years ago so basically there are no huge profits to be made out of marketing it. It is as simple as that.

Palliative care : Questions from Sue and answers from our metastatic liver cancer experience.

Sue’s palliative care questions

Sue left this comment at do you have a liver cancer story?

God Bless You for what you are trying to do.

I am taking care of my 81-year-old mother who up until last year looked and behaved like a 50-year-old. It is so hard to see her in the state that she is in now. She is so weak and does not want to eat anything. I beg her to eat because of all the meds she is taking but she does not want anything. She does drink a lot of water though. She does not want to go to palliative care and so I am doing the best that I can at home. It is so scary and sad.

How do I know when the end is approaching? I would appreciate any help you can provide.

Metastatic liver cancer answers

As you would have noticed: Sue doesn’t mention if her mother has cancer or not. But she does stress :

I am doing the best that I can at home. It is so scary and sad.

Again, although this blog is about metastatic liver cancer, we don’t look from the doctor’s point of view, but from the eyes of the caregiver, be it Sue, or you…

Do what you can for your cancer loved one : it’s the best gift for him/her and yourself

It is so hard to see her in the state that she is in now. This is a feeling we felt as well…

When you are doing the best you can taking care of a palliative cancer patient, you do have to tell yourself that you cannot do more than you are doing.

You give your loved one the live in the best way you can, although we all know that a "normal person’s day looks more full". Father knew that he was given people "more work than they should" although he never asked for that.

Compared to putting a person in a cold hospital environment, far away from the people and place they love the most: taking care of a person at home increases the quality of life of the person you are taking care of BIG TIME!

It always helps when people have talked about this before they get sick, but most likely you don’t have that luxury now. We for sure didn’t but we did know father, we did know what he loved, so we tried to give that as much as possible. That’s all you can do Sue…

She doesn’t want to eat…

Give food in small portions. Father’s belly was a few times bigger than during the times when he didn’t have his metastatic liver cancer. Just imagine you have no more space in your belly: how would you feel adding food to it?

We did give "astronaut drinks" : you can buy them in the local pharmacy: they are very nutritious and father loved them. Having cancer, being tired… most likely everything that’s makes life more easy is welcome.

We also gave father’s favorite chocolate desserts: yes, he had liver cancer, but at that moment the cancer is much more dangerous than a piece of chocolate. But in the long: expect that the next day will most likely be a bit less of everything you experienced today… So appetite became less, his eating became less and his body absorbing the food became less.

She is so weak…

Sometimes father couldn’t stand up out of his bed. We we always afraid father would fall because he looked so weak. Yet he managed to climb the stairs a few times still…

On the other hand, our uncle who had kidney cancer just fell next to his chair when trying to stand up from it, and in the process broke his hand and hip…

So again: you do the best you can and also hope for the best (uncle was monitored by his dear wife 24/7 as well, but 24 hours minus going to the toilet… and after coming back: broken hip and broken hand…)

In an ideal world there are more than 1 care-takers around 24/7. We had about 3 family-members doing that, which is a different story than when you are on your own like Sue.

She does drink a lot of water…

That’s good news, father didn’t drink much…

If there is too much water in the body, it will start accumulating from bottom to top (feet become bigger…).

If there is not enough water, then the skin will become dry. Pull your skin up and see how it bounces back. Then do it with the person you care about: if the skin is not bouncing back, it’s an indication that the person is getting dehydrated.

Again: when talking about terminal cancer: all will get worse every day, so you have to do a difficult balancing act between:

• enough water,
• enough food, not too much pain and
• enough stool…

And these are just the primary needs of life, we didn’t talk quality of life yet…

How do I know the end is approaching?

First you take the liver cancer prognosis from your doctors as a guidance. Then you make sure like we did: get palliative nurses in every day and make sure the house-doctor comes in every once in a while. Like that they can tell you following their experience "if the end is approaching or not…".

Yet they are not eager to give you that information because nobody can predict the future. It’s a give and take between the care-givers and at the end stage of father’s metastatic liver cancer: the nurses did put their attention to mother: telling her to take better care of herself. Meaning: the end was near "when mother was almost finished and father was as well"…

In medical terms: the liver cancer patient will get jaundice (yellow eyes). Now I one day thought father’s eyes were yellow so I asked the doctor. And the doctor said: you father’s eyes are as normal as possible… In other words: if you don’t have the medical experience, even yellow eyes are not easy to spot.

According to our doctor the last days are approaching when the cancer patient becomes itchy all over… We never experienced this either: father passed away in his sleep…

When you are very close to the person, you feel when the end is near though: the last day father took all the blankets from his bed (it is said in the common believe that that’s a sign of a person that is changing this life for the next). But more compelling were his words to mom: "if I had to do it all over again, I would have done it with you for sure"… Very clear words from a very weak person…

That night his breathing became weaker and the next day there was no more breathing…

Myself I had the feeling that father was "getting worse" suddenly, so I told all my brothers and sisters: if you do want to come still: better come soonest. They all came that week-end: father must have seen that we all managed well without him and the next week he passed this life for a life without pain…

Do you have a liver cancer story?

If you have a cancer story, please share it with us in a comment: it’s more easy to say: you have cancer than it is to deal with cancer… But we see that people that lived with a loved one having cancer do have similar questions, anger, feelings…

So share your story : it will help others and you will find out yourself that you are not alone…

Technorati Tags: blog, Cancer, cancer answers, cancer experience, cancer patient, CANCER STORIES, care questions, caregiver, god, Liver Cancer, liver cancer story, lot of water, meds, Metastatic Liver Cancer, old mother, Pain, Palliative care, point of view, stress