BRUMMBAERS-C-WORD-BLOG

baking soda, flax seed oil, vitamin C, coffee enemas,
raw potatoes, ad nauseam.
And not to forget: positive thinking, praying, meditation,
mantras, mudras, yoga, a pilgrimage (Lourdes or the Kumba Mela)
the healing touch, acupuncture, iscador, green tea, laetrile,
a stress free living...
– with so many cures,
you wonder why anybody would still die of cancer.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

GETTING HIGH IS A TEACHABLE EXPERIENCE

(Are You Experienced? Ah! Have you ever been experienced? Jimi Hendrix)

BRUMMBAER 2014

For the last ten years I have been beating back cancer, and consequently, I learned a lot. I survived some unlikely odds, like a 20% chance of survival with “Squamous head and neck cancer”, so many people ask me for advice. Lately most of the questions have been about the cancer fighting properties of Cannabis oil. A mighty rumor is hitting the cancer community: “The cancer killer Cannabis!” And they want it!

Usually people get cancer after their retirement, and surprisingly many of those I advised never smoked marijuana in their youth. Now they are 65, and to cure their cancer with cannabis, or at least ameliorate the pain, they need to get high. For the first time! This can be a frightening experience and might keep patients away from a promising therapy.

Of course, if a cancer-patient gets a little bottle with cannabis oil in the mail and all it says is to “take two drops” or something like that – this is not much of a preparation for the possible mind-expanding effects of an unfamiliar drug.

   Most people I know smoke marijuana or have smoked it – they wouldn’t be alarmed by the psychedelic splendor, the short-term memory loss, etc... They know well that the worst that could happen is an overdose which one will have to sleep off.
   But a first-timer on a questionable dose alone at home – that's just not right!
   One has to remember how much of an acquired taste, and how much of a learned high, this experience is. When the Beatles sang “I'd love to turn you on...” they were singing about personally initiating a friend and sharing the experience.
   And it was not necessarily that easy to turn somebody on, because I have seen people smoke hashish for the first time with no idea what might happen. Next thing they were rolling on the floor, incessantly laughing, because the idea that this hashish could have had any effect on them seemed just too silly...
When you do take it upon yourself to turn somebody on to a psychoactive compound – you as the knowledgeable guide are responsible for a successful transfer of knowledge and a pleasant experience.
   When I started to smoke (Moroccan kif at the time), I had no idea what to expect. There was no knowledgeable friend to introduce me -- I had read all the literature, but Baudelaire and the other adventurous literati of drug history did not prepare me for something trivial like the munchies...
   So I will tell the story of a friend of mine, to illustrate and remind, that people who want to take cannabis need to be turned on by a well intended spirit.
   Richie was in his mid twenties, grew up in Brooklyn, and already had a few years of jail and a few years as a junkie behind him. Now, in 1969, he lived in Frankfurt, dealt in hashish, and usually would carry a few bricks of Afghani with him, wrapped in an old newspaper, always ready to wipe out the scales, and to open up shop on the roof of the next parked car.
   When he got busted, we translated the report of the British Government about Cannabis and had it read in court. He was sentenced to the time he already had done (a couple of weeks) and was released. We became friends. Richie was a wild man. Lots of unruly, curly hair over a beautiful, classically proportioned face that could change expressions within seconds, from divine bliss to devilish mischief.

One day I was visiting friends of mine, who were students at Frankfurt University, members of the SDS. Members of the SDS (Sozialistischer Studentenbund Deutschland) were intelligent, progressive, curious, anti-authoritarian, and they all wanted to get high.

– Or to be fair: Most of them... There were exceptions!

   It was late in the afternoon, it was getting dark, and just as I wanted to leave, the doorbell rang.
   It was Richie, the latest LP by Pink Floyd under his arm.
   He obviously did not come unexpected, and instantly went to work. Out of his pocket he took a baseball covered with little mirrors, and with the help of a string he pinned the ball to the ceiling. Then he placed a little flashlight under the rotating ball, turned off the light, and the room was magically changed into a rotating star-field. He sat down next to the record-player, rolled a mighty joint, lit some incense, started the music, and suddenly we are all sitting in a circle on the floor, flying thru the universe, on a mighty cloud of smoke emanating from us.
   It was magic: It still was the same universe, but everything had changed – it was just a different perspective.
   That was how Richie turned people on!
   We have to remember that the initiation into the use of Cannabis, for medical or recreational use, is a personal teaching. If you face cancer or any other deadly disease, you need to be fearless and joyful – otherwise: why bother with a therapy?
   My suggestion: Find an experienced friend – or/and clean the house, maybe take a shower, pick some excellent pieces of music you like best, turn off the phone, and get comfortable. Cannabis has a very friendly, gentle character, most people do just fine.
   But then there will be cancer-patients, who just won't like being high at all – for them luckily the miraculous Cannabis plant provides CBD, a non-psychedelic cannabinoid – all the cancer-killing, none of the irritating high!

P.S. Richie burned his candle on both sides and I don't know if he is still around. But it's the time of the internet and if anybody knows... let me know. B.

"Are You Experienced?"

If you can just get your mind together
then come across to me
We'll hold hands an' then we'll watch the sun rise
from the bottom of the sea
But first

Are You Experienced?
Ah! Have you ever been experienced?
Well, I have

I know, I know
you'll probably scream n' cry
That your little world won't let go
But who in your measly little world are trying to prove that
You're made out of gold and -a can't be sold

So-er, Are You Experienced?
Ah! Have you ever been experienced?
Well, I have

Ah, let me prove it to you
I think they're calling our names
Maybe now you can't hear them, but you will
if you just take hold of my hand

Ah! But Are You Experienced?
Have you ever been experienced?

Not necessarily stoned, but beautiful

Jimi Hendrix

Thursday, April 10, 2014

BED, BATH, AND BEYOND....

IS IT SPRING YET?

Months went by since my last blog.

   February I started the BCG therapy, six installations in six weeks, only one third of the usual dose.
   I found the term “one third” a little suspect – doesn't “Western Medicine” use grams, milligrams, etc? But indeed, I found studies that claimed that one third of the usual dose was just as effective as the full dose. Now I wonder, why is everybody still overdosed with BCG, a vaccine with countless brutal side effects?
   The answer is most likely that the unpleasant side-effects of BCG are not side effects, but are the desired effects! Very much like chemo, BCG attacks the bladder, and we have to stop in time, when the damage still is reversible. Then we hope the bladder will be rebuilt – according to the original design, without cancer.
   I had two BCG treatments in the years before, after surgery. The first treatment (six installations) was tolerable, but also did not terminate the cancer. After another surgery, six more weeks of BCG was the standard treatment.
   This time the BCG got rid of the cancer, but also left me a “bladder-cripple” – as my second opinion MD called it – unkind, but correct! It took almost a year until urination frequency and pain was relatively normal.
   Having to pee urgently every 20 minutes is not a death sentence, it's so trivial it hardly compares with a bad headache – but after a year of non stop pain and peeing you will have turned into an hermit – at least until your bladder heals.
   So I wasn't too excited about the procedure. Nevertheless, the first two installations were tolerable. Starting Thursday mornings – I would be back on baseline by Monday.
   Then my luck changed – I did not recover from third installation within a week, and could not even hold my urine long enough for the 40 minute drive to the clinic. So we postponed treatment for a week. Installation number four repeated the pattern – another postponement.
   After the fifth installation I did not recover at all – at least so far! Since about a month ago, I spent my time on a pilgrimage between bed and bath. Every five minutes. The pain, along with the painkillers, the interrupted sleep patterns, put you into an unpleasant somnambulistic state.
   Somewhere far away a plane disappeared without a trace, and I'm not sure if the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” were among the victims...
   I was mostly alone in the house and last weekend started to keep records of my urination frequency. This does make a lot of sense, because it is a relatively objective measurement of the damage to your bladder.
   Since last Sunday I'm getting better, the breaks are longer, the pain – still have to take those painkillers, and relaxants, etc....
   This weekend in hindsight I see myself as a strange Kafkaesque creature, between bed, bath, and beyond, whose entire purpose in life is to record every time it has to urinate.
   I'm a lot better now!
   I still can't go shopping, but I'm up at the computer desk – at least some of the time.
   My urologist at UCLA, Dr. Chamie agreed that we fulfilled the purpose of the therapy, and I do not need to endure another installation.
   What am I doing now? A pound of Zhu Ling mycelia, a medicinal mushroom supposedly as effective in preventing cancer as BCG, is waiting to be turned into a tea. And cannabis oil is, and will be, very appreciated.
   In six weeks we will have a cystoscopy and find out if any of this worked.
   Until then I have to recover as fast as I can, because I don't want to die of boredom!

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

THE DEADLINE IS INTERNAL!

Last year's last blog ended like this: “...and, naturally, I will keep painting and animating and writing until they 'Peel My Cold Dead Fingers From Around My Mouse...'”
Particularly from Germany I got worried responses, like I was going to roll over and die. I was, of course, joking – I quoted the late Charlton Heston from a speech he held at the National Rifle Association – I just exchanged the word “gun” with my tool: the “mouse”.
No, I'm definitely not rolling over to die! That will happen anyway -- some day, but I have no power of decision over that matter. (As far as I know.)
The beginning of 2013 was everything but enticing: I was diagnosed with a returning bladder cancer, this time in a more dangerous variation – as muscle invasive. And, for a double punch, we had to move, because the house owners had miscalculated their finances.
I had the unbelievable luck to be a patient of some of the smartest and most generous doctors I ever met. So instead of getting a radical cystectomy, which still is the standard treatment, I happened to be one of the first people to experience the latest refinement in HDR Brachytherapy, applied to the bladder. It was explained to me that this therapy was only practiced in three places in America and that UCLA Radiation was one of them. I felt very lucky!
And lo and behold: The therapy worked, half a year later we can tell that there is no muscle invasive cancer left!
Too bad another, superficial cancer would use the opportunity to settle at the dome of my bladder, which was not planned for. So instead of starting the new year with a clean diagnosis, it will be another unpleasant struggle to get to a point where I'm healthy enough to make plans.
I have so many things to do, that even at the moment, unemployed and without deadlines, I hardly manage to get things done – too little time – even without a deadline. (No pun intended!)
The Deadline is Internal!
Last year I found myself confronted with a headline: “34 Medical Studies Proving Cannabis Cures Cancer!” I will put them into an appendix below.
I checked all 34 studies, they are all very interesting and informative, but don't live up to the headline. These studies are mostly “in vitro” or with mice and rats. There is just one study with humans, a pilot study of 12 people with brain-cancer. It's from 2006, all patients died eventually, because they used a group of terminal patients, all had failed standard therapy before. But the procedure was safe and seemed to slow down tumor growth at times.
All this sounds very promising, except for the endless tests and studies that the AMA and FDA demand, which will slow down progress, and it might be too late for me.
Safety and toxicity should not be a problem with cannabis – there are a few thousand years of usage without major accidents, but we also have to take into account that this is a very different world now. We are using chemicals, compounds that have just been invented, particularly to cure cancer, and we don't know what kind of unexpected synergistic effect they might have with cannabis.
Even with something as safe as cannabis, I would suggest utmost caution, because when you are the one that has the cancer – errors might result in your death.
On the other hand – doing nothing is not an option – and whatever it is you do -- or not do – might result in death anyway... So there...
But Cannabis oil is expensive if you take the recommended doses for cancer, 60 grams for nine weeks – about $5000!
Then, last day of the year, a friend appeared like an angel out of Knowhere and offered to provide me with the necessary substance. I was elated and could not believe my luck, which did not last that long... My friend's friend died, and for now everything that had to do with oil was postponed until some other time. Understandably.
Yesterday I sent the letter below to my doctors.
I find myself in the unique situation of somebody who just was the recipient of a great present where the latest and smartest technology was used with impeccable precision, and endless rechecks,
to make sure I would still have a bladder at the end of this, but no more cancer. And they did it!
It was my miserable bladder that already had to start on the next wave of attacks. To my advantage – the diagnosis is early, but what in oncology nobody wants to do is to understage cancer.
They will shoot with cannons at sparrows! (Not in my case, but they do – I've seen cannons up there, definitely cannons, big white cannons!)
To sum it up – I'm feeling better every day. There still is a long list of lingering effects from chemo and radiation, but mostly-- I'm not in permanent pain anymore!
Still, I will go to the doctor and say: “Ok, doc, fill me up! I was feeling way too good – I need a bit of realistic pain, to be reminded who I am!”
“But please be gentle, it is my third time only.”

This is my letter to my fantastic doctors:

Indeed the miracle has happened, we lost the muscle-invasive cancer, without removing my bladder!

That in itself is a success that goes far beyond what the standard therapy could have promised me.
So I want to thank everybody again for the excellent work and care that I received.
But it's too early to celebrate, because of this nasty little carcinoma in situ at the top of my bladder, which was just waiting for the holidays to be over, and is now busy turning into an even nastier, muscle-invasive version. Dr. Chamie, my urologist and head of UCLA urology, suggested the standard treatment of 6 weekly installations of BCG. I had two such treatments after bladder resections – the first time was tolerable, but did not get rid of the cancer – the second time it ruined my bladder to a point that I had to pee every half hour. For almost a year my bladder was chronically inflamed, as was my urethra, and my radius of activity was reduced to house and garden, everything else needed to be meticulously planned, so I knew there would be bathroom stops every half hour. To avoid this disability I have searched for an alternative to BCG, and below I will list what I found or know about. Sadly most of these suggestions are either not yet legal in the US, or they don't have randomized human studies available for a little more credibility.
But, one can dream! – And listing the impossible, might lead to a therapy that is possible within the legal space of evidence based medicine in America.
After I was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2007 a Swiss MD, who was advising me, pointed me towards a website of a Dr. Thiel, who was the head of urology in the German town of Heilbronn.
http://www.iontophorese-tumortherapie.de/iontophorese.htm
Dr. Thiel retired years ago and is now 84, but I have years of email correspondence and several notebooks with details of his method. He does not claim to have a cure for bladder cancer, but his first question after the tumor was removed from my bladder: “What are they doing for the prophylaxis?” Then I did not know that dealing with bladder cancer means mainly to prevent a recurrence. His “iontophoretic tumor-therapy” is about prevention, assuming that visible tumors have been surgically removed. Back in 2007 “iontophoretic” was a new word for me, even though the mechanism of moving substances by applying an electric current was familiar to me.
Since then I found a glut of studies about the “iontophoretic” or “electromotive” administration of drugs. (They already have an abbreviation for it: EMDA for Electro Motive Drug Administration.)
I think Dr. Thiel was the first one who applied the iontophoretic administration to bladder cancer, because only an electric charge will push the medicine through an impermeable bladder-wall into the muscle, where the future tumors lurk. Dr. Thiel has been largely ignored, but in the meantime in Italy – Di Stasi et al and Rossi et al have used EMDA to force Mitomycin C into the bladder muscle. I quote:

“BCG treatments followed by a novel delivery system using electromotively delivered Mitomycin C are showing some of the most surprising recurrence-free response rates ever seen in superficial bladder cancer treatments.

Sequential BCG and electromotive mitomycin (EMDA) versus BCG alone:

disease-free interval 69 months vs. 21 months
recurrence rates: 41.9% vs 57.9
progression 9.3% vs 21.9%
overall mortality 21.5% vs 32.4%
disease-specific mortality 5.6% vs 16.2%
Side-effects were mainly localised to the bladder.1

Lead investigator SM Di Stasi reports that after ten years of using this technique, systemic side effects are not a problem.”(Sequential BCG and electromotive mitomycin versus BCG alone for high-risk superficial bladder cancer: a randomised controlled trial. * Di Stasi SM, * Giannantoni A, * Giurioli A, * Valenti M, * Zampa G, * Storti L, * Attisani F, * De Carolis A, * Capelli G, * Vespasiani G, * Stephen RL. Department of Surgery/Urology, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy. Lancet Oncol. 2006 Jan;7(1):43-51. PMID: 16389183 )

These numbers are very impressive, if they are correct! (The recurrence time tripled!)
In Italy the company “Physion” is selling the necessary equipment and they have a flashy catalog like they are advertising a spa. See pic.

http://media.wix.com/ugd/68d4a7_26c8257280eba6107858301f48c56bd9.pdf

So far EMDA seems to be legally approved in Italy, Austria, Sweden, Germany, and lately the United Kingdom.

But, back to Dr. Thiel:
The second part of his method consists of the cancer killing substance he advocates in the context of iontophoresis. It is a mixture of 50% DMSO and 50% Proflavine hydrochloride. Dr. Thiel claims that Proflavine selectively kills only cancer cells. It seems that membranes that become permeable by application of an electric current allow the Proflavine to be deeply pushed into the muscle where it will destroy the DNA of every cell in mitosis. According to Dr. Thiel this process only needs to be performed once for a successful prophylaxis!
I have researched Proflavine, because in the seventies it had the odium of being carcinogenic, but there are few studies about the cytotoxicity of proflavine and related compounds indicating that it's not carcinogenic in the dose requested.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2987641/
As Dr. Thiel told me in his last email that his therapy requires Proflavine “in the lower milligrams” and is completely safe.
But he warned me about my selfish crusade to get a treatment that will cure at least this cancer. He predicted bruised egos, barking dogmas, and repeated collisions with the argument that is part of the history of medicine: “It doesn't work, because if it worked – somebody would be doing it!”
Hard to argue with that kind of sincerity. On the other hand, if that was how medicine works, we would still try to cure gonorrhea with colloid silver...and die from numerous bacterial infections...etc...
Dr. Thiel also doubted that the electromotive administration of Mitomycin C would do a good job penetrating the bladder wall, because the solvent is moving the Mitomycin C or BCG electro-motively along, but because the substance itself is not ionized, it does not allow an iontophoretic administration.
This, though, is essential for Dr. Thiel's treatment.
Lately it seems like the medical establishment is slowly catching up, but it probably is a little too slow for my cancer. I certainly do not expect to have Dr. Thiel's “iontophoretic tumor-therapy” offered to me in the near future. – Nevertheless, in Canada they offer the (above mentioned) BCG-EMDA/Mitomycin C treatment. It's legal, but obviously not paid for by the insurance...
It's $ 20 000 a pop!

So what can be done in America?

Mostly BCG! (It is still more promising than Mitomycin C, or Gemcitabine!)

Then there is Ofloxacin to deal with the adverse effects of BCG, but it also presents a set of undesirable side effects.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16890660

The combined thermo-chemotherapy for recurrent bladder cancer after bacillus Calmette-Guerin also seems to increase a positive outcome by a small percentage, depending on the individual case.

Conclusion: I know that all doctors are in agreement about the use of BCG ("the Gold-Standard"). I understand -- but having had very unpleasant experiences with BCG – I would either like to replace it with something equally potent, or find a way to reduce the BCG damage as much as possible. I also understand that the fact that BCG turned my bladder into raw meat, is not necessarily an unwanted side effect, but that that is the effect! When the bladder finally heals, it will hopefully be a reconstruction without the cancer. But I also remember my urologist's complete helplessness, in observing my mutilated bladder, with nothing to offer but "Hope". (And the snooty comment of my second opinion MD about me being a “bladder-cripple”. That was certainly true, but unless there is a treatment for this condition – it's not funny.)

Then, what else is there? Medical mushrooms, Zhuling or Reishi, are supposedly having the best results with bladder cancer. I have taken those, but one also needs to take a break once in a while, and I have to concede that my recurrence happened, when I took a break from the mushrooms, and at the same time fell into the doughnut hole with dronabinol. I could not afford the medicament without insurance.
On the subject of dronabinol: Cannabis oil has an almost mystical reputation as a cancer killer.
There is some very convincing evidence that cannabis oil works for all kinds of epilepsy, and there is an overwhelming amount of testimonials, of people who got “cured” from cancer.
However there are no studies to my knowledge that say anything about possible synergistic effects of BCG and Cannabis oil.
So by grasping for the stars, I hope I can find the best available treatment here and now, because I don't know how to live through another year of house arrest by my bladder, and a chronic urethritis that makes it impossible to get a job, and besides – it killed my social life, and has emptied my bank account.
...and that's all for now, soon we will talk, I just hope I have explained my situation and my hopes adequately.
Greetings Brummbaer Von Crenshaw

http://themindunleashed.org/2013/12/34-medical-studies-proving-cannabis-cures-cancer.html.

34 Medical Studies Proving Cannabis Cures Cancer!

The Claims:

Brain Cancer

http://www.nature.com/bjc/journal/v95/n2/abs/6603236a.html Guzman Pilot

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11479216 Rats
http://www.jneurosci.org/content/21/17/6475.abstract Rats
http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/308/3/838.abstract Mice
http://mct.aacrjournals.org/content/10/1/90.abstract In vitro... or?
Cures Mouth and Throat Cancer
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20516734 In vitro
Cures Breast Cancer
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20859676 mice
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18025276 mouse model
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21915267 mouse model
http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/early/2006/05/25/jpet.106.105247.full.pdf+html mice and rats
http://www.molecular-cancer.com/content/9/1/196 MMTV-neu mouse
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22776349 mouse models
http://www.pnas.org/content/95/14/8375.full.pdf+html in vitro
Cures Lung Cancer
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22198381?dopt=Abstract in vitro and Athymic nude mice
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21097714?dopt=Abstract in vitro and mice
http://www.nature.com/onc/journal/v27/n3/abs/1210641a.html in vitro and mice
Cures Uterine, Testicular, and Pancreatic Cancers
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/cam/cannabis/healthprofessional/page4 mice rats
http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/66/13/6748.abstract in vitro
Cures Prostate Cancer
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12746841?dopt=Abstract in vitro
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3339795/?tool =pubmed in vitro + pain
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22594963 in vitro
Cures Colorectal Cancer
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22231745 in vitro
Cures Ovarian Cancer
http://www.aacrmeetingabstracts.org/cgi/content/abstract/2006/1/1084 hamsters
Curse Blood Cancer
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12091357 in vitro and mice
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16908594 in vitro
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ijc.23584/abstract in vitro and mice
http://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/content/70/5/1612.abstract in vitro
Cures Skin Cancer
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12511587 in vitro and mice
Cures Liver Cancer
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21475304 in vitro and mice
Cures Biliary Tract Cancer
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19916793 in vitro ?
Cures Bladder Cancer
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/803983 statistics of 82,050 human marihuana- and tobacco-smokers
Cures Cancer in General
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12514108 in vitro and mice
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15313899 in vitro and mice
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15313899 in vitro and mice

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Another maybe...

I guess I was lucky! I did not have to wait for Friday the13th to get the bad news. I already got it on Thursday the 12^th.

   It also wasn't entirely bad – in fact: the therapy has worked, the muscle invasive cancer has disappeared. So I should be happy because the cancer I got rid of is the type that can unexpectedly lead to a quick death. But a new cancer at a different location showed up in the biopsies. It is what is called “superficial bladder cancer” and will, untreated, turn into a more deadly variety.
   So, no clean bill of health, no time to recover physically or financially.
   Dr, Chamie, the urologist in charge, was rather cheerful because, in his eyes we had won, defeated the muscle-invasive cancer and now all we needed to do was to get rid of this pesky superficial intruder. He suggested a course with BCG, the tuberculosis vaccine, that works by putting your immune system in high gear, hoping that it will kill any cancer cells that are left after surgery.       Statistically it decreases the chances of a recurrence by 60%, and it is commonly done. I don't think Dr. Chamie knew that I had two treatments with BCG already. The first treatment did not work well enough, the cancer returned, and the second time the side effects were so grave that it was clear that we should not repeat this.
   In 2008 I wrote about medical mushrooms and bladder cancer.:

I found three studies with control groups comparing the Zhuling mushroom in it’s effectiveness for a bladder-cancer prophylaxis with BCG, Mitomycin C and others. The Zhuling mushroom was infinitesimally more effective than even BCG, which itself has the best results among all the other maintenance-therapies. One of the studies says: “The effect of Zhuling was similar to that intravesical BCG. Zhuling was cheaper and convenient in usage, and no side effects.”

These studies were conducted at the “General Hospital of Jian Unit of People's Liberation Army” in China between 1991 and 1999. The largest group studied, consisted of 313 people, which isn’t a huge group, but to be considered.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1935440

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=PMID%3A%207842985%20

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=PMID%3A%2011829890

When I read about this mushroom that was equally potent as BCG, but without side-effects, again, I expected to find dozens of studies trying to find the principle behind this achievement, but there were none!!!

Since 2008 a few more studies on bladder cancer and medical mushrooms exist, which seem to support the anecdotal evidence. For example: In Vitro, in Hong Kong:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18444142

My own anecdotal evidence for the healing power of mushrooms stems from the time when the BCG treatment had left my bladder in a pitiful state. It was permanently inflamed, and I had to pee every 30 minutes with a painful chronic urethritis. It lasted over a year. I hardly ever got decent sleep and I was pretty hopeless. Then after drinking reishi tea (reishi-extract), within weeks my bladder normalized. That may just be coincidence and I treat it as such, but I'm looking at all the other coincidences and I'm sure there is something there.

   I used to buy zhuling in bulk -- It is affordable this way. I would simmer zhuling tea in an old Chinese ceramic teapot. Now I have run out of zhuling. It seems difficult to get it currently now I take reishi extract.
   More interesting, and lately all over the media – the cannabis products! I have been smoking cannabis since I was 18. Then, people did not worry about the masses of tobacco that went into a hashish-joint – they were worried about the few black clumps of resin. Ha Ha!
   When in 2003 I was first diagnosed with squamous head and neck cancer I stopped smoking anything. Nevertheless, when several months into chemo and radiation, one day I came home from a treatment and was in such pain and lethargy that I decided to make an exception, smoke some grass with my vaporizer, go to bed, and watch TV. I did. 5 minutes later I had the urge to get up, and next, I sat at the computer, typing away. The cannabis, almost like a pain-seeking missile, had not only deleted the pain I was aware of – it also got rid of pains that I was so used to I wouldn't notice them anymore. Now I noticed them, because they were gone. I never made a big thing of it because who would believe a lifelong marihuana- and hashish-smoker...
   It is just utterly amazing how well it worked, since I had only bad experiences smoking cannabis to deal with acute pain. I would inhale a joint and the toothache would not disappear, but rather get more intensive -- now in screaming psychedelic colors!
   But with chronic pain – unbelievable!
   On the other hand, cannabis and cancer are lately much studied and reported, but there still is no large double blind study on humans even though we find many studies in vitro, with the standard oncomouse, rats, etc... And hours of testimonials. Sometimes I wonder if there is a magic number that determines how many people have to tell you they got healed before a placebo effect sets in.
   As I understand: According to Rick Simpson, the inventor and spokesperson for “Phoenix tears”,
one needs 60 grams of oil and nine weeks to take it. But many years of cancer made me lose my job and bankrupted me. Social Security barely pays for my rent and I'm living by the mercy of others.
   So, there is a problem!
   But Christmas is coming and people are busy with their own lives, and not much can be done before the new year. So I will spend the holidays with my computer, looking for a cure for my cancer.
   Right now: I'm alive, everything else pales, when your life is on line.
   ...and, naturally, I will keep painting and animating and writing until they “Peel My Cold Dead Fingers From Around My Mouse...”

I guess I was lucky! I did not have to wait for Friday the13th to get the bad news. I already got it on Thursday the 12^th.

So, no clean bill of health, no time to recover physically or financially.

Dr, Chamie, the urologist in charge, was rather cheerful because, in his eyes we had won, defeated the muscle-invasive cancer and now all we needed to do was to get rid of this pesky superficial intruder. He suggested a course with BCG, the tuberculosis vaccine, that works by putting your immune system in high gear, hoping that it will kill any cancer cells that are left after surgery. Statistically it decreases the chances of a recurrence by 60%, and it is commonly done. I don't think Dr. Chamie knew that I had two treatments with BCG already. The first treatment did not work well enough, the cancer returned, and the second time the side effects were so grave that it was clear that we should not repeat this.

In 2008 I wrote about medical mushrooms and bladder cancer.:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1935440

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=PMID%3A%207842985%20

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=PMID%3A%2011829890

Since 2008 a few more studies on bladder cancer and medical mushrooms exist, which seem to support the anecdotal evidence. For example: In Vitro, in Hong Kong:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18444142

More interesting, and lately all over the media – the cannabis products! I have been smoking cannabis since I was 18. Then, people did not worry about the masses of tobacco that went into a hashish-joint – they were worried about the few black clumps of resin. Ha Ha!

When in 2003 I was first diagnosed with squamous head and neck cancer I stopped smoking anything. Nevertheless, when several months into chemo and radiation, one day I came home from a treatment and was in such pain and lethargy that I decided to make an exception, smoke some grass with my vaporizer, go to bed, and watch TV. I did. 5 minutes later I had the urge to get up, and next, I sat at the computer, typing away. The cannabis, almost like a pain-seeking missile, had not only deleted the pain I was aware of – it also got rid of pains that I was so used to I wouldn't notice them anymore. Now I noticed them, because they were gone. I never made a big thing of it because who would believe a lifelong marihuana- and hashish-smoker...

It is just utterly amazing how well it worked, since I had only bad experiences smoking cannabis to deal with acute pain. I would inhale a joint and the toothache would not disappear, but rather get more intensive -- now in screaming psychedelic colors!

But with chronic pain – unbelievable!

On the other hand, cannabis and cancer are lately much studied and reported, but there still is no large double blind study on humans even though we find many studies in vitro, with the standard oncomouse, rats, etc... And hours of testimonials. Sometimes I wonder if there is a magic number that determines how many people have to tell you they got healed before a placebo effect sets in.

As I understand: According to Rick Simpson, the inventor and spokesperson for “Phoenix tears”,

one needs 60 grams of oil and nine weeks to take it. But many years of cancer made me lose my job and bankrupted me. Social Security barely pays for my rent and I'm living by the mercy of others.

So, there is a problem!

But Christmas is coming and people are busy with their own lives, and not much can be done before the new year. So I will spend the holidays with my computer, looking for a cure for my cancer.

Right now: I'm alive, everything else pales, when your life is on line.

...and, naturally, I will keep painting and animating and writing until they “Peel My Cold Dead Fingers From Around My Mouse...”

Monday, December 2, 2013

YES NO MAYBE

   This was supposed to be the cystoscopy that should have told me if the treatment did work or not.
   I did not want to see any tumors or any other irregularities in my bladder. Because if there is cancer – all bets are off, I will have lost and I will have to figure out how to retreat gracefully.
   The procedure was done in the office of my urologist Dr. Ramin, where, without anesthesia, I can watch the inside of my bladder, and since we did this already numerous times, I'm fairly familiar the environment. I was not happy with what I saw. There were two distinctive bumps under the mucosa.
   Not very big, but one looked like it was going to burst any second. Dr. Ramin scratched his head and said that it looked strange, not like cancer – maybe a benign cyst from the radiation? A biopsy needed to be done, but since one of the bumps looked so explosive that a lot of blood could be expected. I had biopsies done before – without anesthesia – it does hurt, but a cystoscopy is not much fun to begin with. So, to deal with the blood, and the pain a second cystoscopy had to be arranged.
   This was not a YES or a NO – it was a MAYBE! Which is a bummer anyway...
   Then the next day my radiologist Dr. Kamrava called, and he had a different take on this. Before the Brachy-radiation they had placed “Markers” in my abdomen, to more precisely target the suspect tissue. I thought these were little pieces of gold leaf or something similar, which can be placed in the body, and are always visible on x-rays etc... Working with markers has the advantage that you are aware of any movement or displacement of the marked tissue within the body, so, if necessary, the treatment can be adjusted.
   Now I found out that these markers were not what I thought they were. I was injected with something like a saline gel, that is commonly used in plastic surgery to inject under wrinkles or scar tissue. In my case it served to distance the bladder from other organs, to reduce the collateral damage of stray radiation. The use of the saline gel is not experimental – the particular procedure – the HDR Brachy-therapy for the bladder – on the other hand is! Dr. Kamrava was sure that what we saw were the markers, and since the method is so new – my urologist would not be able to recognize this.
   So, there is hope, and tomorrow after the MRI, I should know more.
   And the cysto next Thursday should provide a final result about the effectiveness of the procedure.
   Then I can, or cannot make plans for the next three month.
   In the meantime I am learning how to wait! Not very successful, I'm afraid -- because with all the training in my life – I should be world champion in the “patiently waiting” discipline.
   I'm not.