At this point, I hope you have read the article titled "At The Oncologists" and are considering your treatment options. My oncologist put it in simple terms when he said that there are many tools with which to fight cancer. His are, basically, surgery, chemo, and radiation. For a naturopathic doctor, the tools include herbs, supplements and dietary changes. For me, the tools are lifestyle choices that include lowered stress, exercise, healthy eating habits, supplements and education. Researching all of the treatment possibilities, allopathic, naturopathic, or other alternatives, are crucial to survival and should not be taken lightly. If you check your brain at the door and do not get actively involved by educating yourself or hiring someone who specializes in researching cancer and available cancer treatments, you are forfeiting your right to manage what happens to you and will, undoubtedly, pay the price down the road.

Conventional, or allopathic medicine, tends to be physician centered, and reduces the healing process to it's components, including symptom elimination, chemistry, and physiology that can be measured by scientific methods. Naturopathic medicine is more patient centered and tends to subscribe to the philosophy that, with the guidance of a naturopathic doctor and the help of nature, people have the ability to heal themselves. Naturopaths work with the body's natural defenses to help heal the patient. Nutritional Consultants try to bring many nutritional factors into balance in order to help the body heal itself. Allopathic medicine should not be in direct conflict with naturopathic medicine and Nutritional Consulting, but can be integrated to provide total care of the patient. 

Whatever tool box you decide to choose from, there are certain measures that can help ensure your success. If you choose chemo, radiation and surgery, it would be prudent to visit a naturopathic doctor, if possible, to help with supplements and herbs that modulate the immune system and ward off side effects. Other alternative care strategies may also help with side effects, such as yoga, acupuncture, acupressure, etc. If you get a massage, make sure the practitioner has good knowledge of people with cancer, as tumors can get broken up and dislodged during deep tissue message. This can lead to spreading (metastasis) of the cancer and should be avoided at all costs. A certified nutritional consultant, who specializes in cancer, would be an excellent person to have on the cancer management team and can help steer the patient toward a diet to boost the immune system and ward off side effects. Whereas a naturopath will have helpful suggestions for improving nutrition, a nutritional consultant is like a coach who will help you make a plan for implementing changes. In other words, the naturopath will recommend changes based on diagnostic tests, but the nutritional coach will help you figure out how to make the changes and incorporate them into daily living. So, either way, allopathic or naturopathic, a nutritional consultant is necessary. 

Also, when considering treatment, it is important to know exactly what you are getting into. A recent report came out that stated that doctors often down play side effects so as not to scare the patient into deciding against a treatment based on the side effects. It is also common for doctors to report what they have been told based on pharmaceutical company literature, much of which, will not accurately describe the severity or extent of the side effects. Another report also showed that many doctors prescribe placebos without the patients knowledge. It can, also, take years for protocol to catch up to the research, so out-dated methods may still be in use by well-intentioned health care practitioners. It is up to us, as consumers, to do our due diligence before accepting any kind of treatment.

It is also extremely important to understand the difference between life saving treatment and "preventive" treatment. For example, when I was 15, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma after a golf ball sized tumor was removed from my right clavicle. Further testing showed cancer in my spleen, which was removed. More tests revealed no cancer. At the time, protocol was for high dose radiation to the neck, chest and abdomen (mantle). There were many side effects, including burned skin and taste buds (everything tasted like charcoal) and psychological effects. What my parents and I weren't aware of was the late effects of radiation that would follow me into adulthood, like susceptibility to breast cancer, permanent lung and heart damage, atrophied neck and shoulder muscles, TMJ, etc. Also, within a year, I relapsed, only this time, the cancer was in the lymph nodes around my lungs. Later, while researching the late effects of this radiation treatment protocol, I would discover that it causes cancer in lymph nodes around the lungs. Now I am in a vicious loop of trying to stay one step ahead of the late effects in order to manage them, for life.

Some side effects that have been portrayed as temporary, may be permanent. For example, when I was 15 and receiving radiation, I also took some oral medications as part of the treatment. When my perfect 20/20 vision became blurry and I was having difficulty with long distance vision, my doctors told me it was a short term side effect of the medication and that it should resolve. However, this has not been the case and my vision has slowly declined through out the years. When I had ABVD at age 35, I was told that the brown color that showed up on my skin anywhere I had scratched or bumped, would disappear after treatments. Also, not the case. I have brown scratch marks on my arms and back that have not gone away in the past 11 years. 

Also, 11 years ago when I discovered a tumor in my left armpit that was removed and found to be Hodgkin's again, further tests revealed there was no more cancer in my body, but, I decided to have ABVD chemo, as I was told that it was necessary and life saving. At the time, it was not made clear to me that this was a "preventive" measure and not necessarily life saving. Because of this decision, I now have permanent side effects which involve my lungs, heart, circulation, etc. and am vulnerable to secondary cancers. This was many years ago, but this method of operation is still prevalent, in oncology today. If I had known then what I know now, I would have chosen less invasive ways to manage my cancer since I was, technically, cancer free at the time of treatment with ABVD. The side effects of the chemo were devastating, physically, mentally, socially and economically and were down played, briefly touched upon or omitted entirely. This, in my humble opinion, was unwarranted over-medication and if the word "preventive" had been used in the same breath as "chemo", my decision to treat at that time probably would have been much, much different. This was a double whammy as it is now evident that ABVD was the wrong protocol for B cell predominant Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

Just goes to show you, what you don't know CAN hurt you.

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