Early
in September, a friend who had recently had a hysterectomy and two
treatments with carboplatin and paclitaxel for serious carcinoma
came to stay with me. She had discontinued the chemo after two treatments
of a projected six due to pains all over her body. I put her on
castor oil pacts, nettle tea, Reishi mushroom tea for the immune
system, fresh greens picked from the yard every morning to be put
in her scrambled eggs, and seaweed. I recommended that she discontinue
caffeine and referred her to my gynecologist for follow-up. She
is a Type O, who had been largely vegetarian before diagnosis. On
the recommendation of herbalist Susan Weed, reinforced by my own
experience, she began eating red meat again.
My gynecologist and I collaborated on a plan that consisted of a
gynecological exam and Pap smear, AMAS test to be done more than
97 days post-surgery (as per the literature provided in Oncolab's
information packet) and bloodwork after the chemo (to help us come
up with nutritional recommendations), which I sent to Lynne August,
MD, for the Health Equations' blood test evaluation. Pathology and
surgical reports indicated a good outcome without complications,
and the gynecologist's report stated, "Risk of recurrence extremely
low."
Toward the beginning, I found that my friend would get upset easily.
On occasion, pain in her arthritic right hip would be exacerbated.
Whenever either of these circumstances arose, I would instruct her
to eat burger, and the emotional upset or pain would clear almost
immediately.
Fortunately, I had two sets of bloodwork, one post-op but pre-chemo
and the other post-chemo. The most salient differences I found in
the two were a lowering of total cholesterol from 230 to 192, triglycerides
from 126 to 62, total protein from 6.5 to 5.4, albumin from 4.3
to 3.8, and globulin from 2.2. to 1.6. The lowering of cholesterol
can be explained by impaired liver function post-chemo. The lowering
of globulin explains immune system impairment. I looked up carboplatin
and paclitaxel in Donald Yance's Herbal
Medicine, Healing and Cancer1 and found that carboplatin
is supposed to interfere with DNA synthesis in cancer cells, and
paclitaxel is supposed to interfere with protein synthesis in cancer
cells. This explained the patient's extreme need for red meat and
also explains the body pain. I don't think any of her oncologists
discussed this with her.
Once we passed the 97-day mark post-surgery, we scheduled the AMAS.
The patient had reservations for her flight home, so we wanted to
get it done as soon as possible. On the first attempt, the phlebotomist
used a butterfly. Oncolab warns against this because the plastic
tubing can absorb antibody and lower the titer by ten to 30 points.
Even so, the titer was elevated, causing some consternation to the
patient. We repeated the test two weeks later. By that time, the
titer had dropped to normal. In this particular case, it had taken
not 97 days, but over four months for it to do so. Fortunately,
I was able to reach her with the good news about the second test
in the middle of her journey home.
Recently, I had an email from my friend. She said she was doing
well, except her hip pain had worsened. Her gynecologist there was
recommending a gynecological exam and Pap smear at the six-month
mark, which made sense to me. However, she was also recommending
a chest X-ray, endoscopy and biopsy, and colonoscopy. It seemed
to me that all of that was unnecessary, since the path and surgical
reports had shown no signs of potential complications, and the second
AMAS had been normal. Colonoscopy involves the risks of surgery
and anesthesia. Chest X-rays and endoscopy involve radiation and
possibly use of injected contrast media as well. We had originally
decided on the AMAS precisely so that she could avoid further expensive,
toxic, and invasive testing. I told her what I thought and that
I was passing her email on to my gynecologist for comment.
I would like to see much more widespread use of the AMAS for this
purpose. It could avert a great deal of expense, discomfort, and
anxiety on the part of the patient.
Nancy Offenhauser, DC
P.O. Box 583
Amenia, New York 12501-0583
1. Yance DR, Valentine A. Herbal
Medicine, Healing and Cancer.
Lincolnwood, IL: Keats Publishing; 1999.
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