It’s is a while since I posted here, so I thought it was about time that I did. Just over a month ago, I requested to go off the Medication (Everolimus and Lenvatinib) for a month so that, I thought, I could get back to feeling normal and not so tired. It worked for a few days, but then I started some sort of infection, I think it was sinusitis, that gave me severe headaches. I had been feeling low for a while before I stopped the medication and not been going to the gym. My plans were to restart when I was off the medication, but this infection put paid to that ides, I didn’t do anything for a few weeks. I went back to the gym last week and had a good workout, but everything conspired against my going again this week. I really need to get back into the habit.
I had new scans on the 30th November – a CT scan of my body and an MRI of my head. I won.t get the results until my next appointment with the oncologist, probably early in the New Year. Some people are very eager to get their results, and fearful at the same time. Fortunately I am spared this anxiety – I just take it as it comes. I have been blessed recently with fairly good results, with at least nothing getting any worse. If I get a bad result, I will just take that as meaning that I need to do something differently, whether lifestyle, supplements or medication. Perhaps not having the results yet is a good thing – I am resolved to enjoy Christmas and relax my diet a bit so that I can eat some of the goodies on offer.
The organisation Kidney Cancer UK runs a couple of Facebook groups for kidney cancer patients and their carers. It carries some encouraging stories of medication eradicating all traces of cancer, and harrowing tales of treatments not working, horrific side effects and significant suffering. I realise how fortunate I am to be relatively unaffected. I would however like to be free of this disease. I plan to trawl through all the posts on Facebook just to see what works and what the side effects are so that I can discuss alternative treatments with the oncologist.
That all for now on the health front, but there have been developments in my life of faith and I will write more posts there.
I hadn’t been near my computer for a while, so this blog is badly in need of updating.
My recent scans were goodish news – my lung metastases have reduced from 4 to 2 and are inconsequential as far as size goes. My brain metastasis is really the only cause for concern and that is stable – no increase in size, but not the reduction that I would hope for.
I am still on Everolimus (5mg) and Lenvatinib (10mg) and the side effects are not too worrying – mainly tiredness and lack of energy. Not like when I was on a higher dose of Lenvatinib when I had no appetite and was nauseous much of the time.
I am still going to the gym and that is doing me good, but I haven’t been much in the last two weeks for a couple of reasons. One is that I have had a persistent minor chest infection – the sort of thing that one would normally shake off in a few days, but for the medication which compromises the immune system. I take things like Vitamin D to help boost my immune system, but it is still not what it was. The other reason my gym time has reduced is that I am not allowed to drive, and public transport means that I have quite a long walk from the bus stop to the gym. That walk was great when the weather was better – a nice walk mostly through a park, but it is somewhat less appealing when the weather is cold and wet as it has been recently.
I asked my oncology consultant about getting my driving licence back. I haven’t had any problem with fits or blackouts since my treatment over 3 years ago. He agrees that he is not really the person to judge on brain issues, so he has referred my request to the consultant who treated my brain tumour in Birmingham. I have yet to hear back.
I was a member of a gym until lockdown, when it closed, and never went back because of the discovery of my brain metastasis and the debilitating effects of the medication. As a result of the nausea, loss of appetite and tiredness, I didn’t exercise for a long time and lost a lot of weight, mostly muscle. Over the last year, I have been feeling a lot better and getting out and walking a bit and riding a bike, but I have hardly put back on any weight and my lack of strength is really noticeable.
So when my son came to visit and wanted a gym so he could work out, I bit the bullet and went along too. We cycled to the gym, which was a challenge in itself seeing as how it is across a bit of a valley, so half way is easy and half tough, especially coming back after a workout. I renewed my membership and have given myself the target of going 3 times a week to start.
My first workouts have been fairly gentle, using much lighter weights than in the past. There is no point overdoing it and I am in this for the long haul. One of the major problems with ageing is loss of strength (I am 80) and I am very keen to counteract that. The other thing I want to achieve is to correct the loss of weight with muscle rather than flab.
I do not know what effect this will have on the cancer, and I probably won’t know for a while. It is not likely to show any effect on my scans this month, but it will be interesting to see whether there is any improvement or regression in subsequent scans. For now, the only thing that matters is that I feel good with just a few workouts behind me. The medication still makes me feel a bit tired, but I certainly feel more energised after a workout. I shall record progress as time goes on.
A frequently asked question is what is the best diet for kidney cancer. Unfortunately there is no scientifically proven best kidney cancer diet, though there is a fair amount of research that gives us some pointers as to what we should and should not eat and drink.
The China Study
A while ago I wrote about The China Study which concerns research into the effect of diet on health. Its basic conclusion was that the healthiest diet for a range of diseases, including cancer, is a vegetable based wholefood diet. Wholefood being food as close to its natural state as possible. So vegan “meat” would not cut it – if you look at the ingredients of some of that stuff, you will see why.
Since then I have read interesting articles questioning the conclusions. One rebuttal I read was by Denise Minger who is not a dietician but a statistician. So she has not done any original research on diet, but she has analysed the raw data that were collected as part of The China Study and showed that the conclusions drawn from the study are not entirely justified based on statistical analysis. She links to all her blog posts on the subject HERE.
So where does that leave us? Interestingly most integrative cancer doctors do broadly recommend the same diet as promoted in The China Study, and claim that their patients have benefited by adopting such a diet. Some do not insist on an entirely vegan diet, some do.
Eliminate Dairy?
Where most agree is in the absolute elimination of dairy. T. Colin Campbell, the author of The China Study, did experiments on rats with cancer and found that feeding casein to the animals caused their tumours to grow and that removing the casein stopped tumour growth. Casein is the protein in milk, but as Denise Munger pointed out, this was not the whole of the milk, and so feeding it in isolation might not be realistic. She therefore questioned the validity of these experiments, plus of course that the experiments were on animals.
Because of the near unanimity amongst integrative cancer doctors advising against dairy, I have eliminated it from my diet. However Dr Flavin does “permit” limited amounts of goat and sheep cheese. Her website is HERE.
Animal Protein
When integrative cancer doctors permit animal protein, they are quite restrictive, as in this article by Dr Kevin Conners. I would recommend his website, by the way, because he freely gives out lots of good information, in line with his Christian ethos.
Some cancer doctors say that a certain amount of fish is fine. Not necessarily related to cancer, but in terms of longevity pescatarians do as well as vegans.
Vegetable Based Wholefood Diet
A proponent of the vegetable based wholefood diet is Ocean Robbins whose book Real Superfoods is available through Amazon. His emphasis is on general health and longevity rather than dealing with specific diseases. He wisely makes the point that there are some pitfalls going to a vegetable based diet, including making sure to get sufficient minerals and vitamins, either with food or supplements, and being careful not to elevate blood sugar with too much fruit.
It is of course possible that the authors of The China Study came to the right conclusion, even if some of the data analysis is slightly suspect. It is certainly true that the average Western diet of junk and highly processed foods and snacks is unhealthy and likely responsible for an increase in cancer and heart disease and many of the other things that ail us. The manufacturers make sure it tastes good to keep us addicted. We need to kick the habit.
Wellbeing
What is evident is that we can get away with eating and drinking rubbish for a long time, and then our bodies break down with something like cancer or any of the other diseases plaguing the modern world. Obviously, when this happens we really need to go to great lengths to make ourselves as healthy as we can – mentally, spiritually and physically.
This means we have to place more emphasis on healthy eating, healthy living including exercise and freedom from stress, and our mental and spiritual wellbeing. Mental and spiritual wellbeing is something that doctors rarely touch on and, in my view, is the most important. I have written previous articles which I hope will be helpful. Here are links to them:
Some of these articles show how my faith has been fundamental in coping with cancer. What is amazing is that faith is freely available. All you have to do is open your mind and ask. God listens.
Gratitude: A post about the importance of being grateful, even if we have cancer, to enhance our mental and spiritual health.
Meditation: A proven way of enhancing our physical, mental and spiritual health
Love: The importance of loving ourselves as well as others, and the importance of being loved
More Diet Recommendations
There are diet recommendations on the websites of Cancer Research UK and Kidney Cancer UK. The video on the Kidney Cancer UK website refers to the government Eatwell Guide shown below.
The things that I personally change are the elimination of dairy and the elimination of meat. A common recommendation, if you are going to eat meat, is to drastically reduce or eliminate red meat and processed meat. Bear in mind that the Eatwell Guide is designed for healthy people to stay healthy, not for sick people to get healthy. My belief is that we need to go further to get well.
The Cancer Research UK diet recommendation is a bit different and in my view a bit of an improvement. You can view it on their website HERE.
And the Vegan Society has a vegan version of the Eatwell Guide, for if you decide to go vegan, or nearly so. That is on their website HERE. That is more in line with the way that I am currently eating where I substitute almond milk or oat milk for dairy.
Drink
I absolutely recommend not drinking anything with artificial colouring or flavouring. Neither do I recommend anything with sugar or artificial sweetener. I am naturally wary of any food or drink produced in a factory, preferring natural foods.
Alcohol is generally not recommended either from the point of view of toxicity and potential strain on the liver. That said, I do enjoy a very occasional glass of wine. Making it very occasional, it will do less harm and will be more enjoyable, The only problem with wine is that you need people to share it with because it has limited life once opened.
The other thing is that if we have had a partial or radical nephrectomy, we need to keep the remaining kidney healthy and that does mean drinking enough water. It seems that the recommendation is about 8 glasses of water/tea/coffee per day. I filter my drinking water with a Brita filter: there are many styles of filter available on Amazon and Brita also do a special kitchen tap including a tap for filtered water.
I have just had my recent scan results and am not quite sure whether to be disappointed or elated. The tumour in my brain has not increased and is pretty much the same, whereas some of the small nodules in my lungs are a bit smaller, others unchanged.
So it is very good news that things are directionally right, but after all the hard work I would have hoped for more improvement. My diet is pretty strict in terms of no dairy, no sugar, no meat and only occasional fish. I sometimes think it would be really nice to have toast and marmalade for breakfast and I occasionally long for something like apple pie. I don’t make exceptions because of the risk they may become too frequent.
I have been trying to exercise too, mostly walking. The wet and windy weather is a bit off-putting and I very much feel the cold. I am really looking forward to warmer weather and the possibility of getting out on one of my classic racing bikes. I do ride my mountain bike a bit, but it just doesn’t have the wonderful feel and pace of a thoroughbred racing bike.
I thank God that overall I am in pretty good shape. Everything under control and I have even been able to do some heavy lifting in the garden.
I make no secret of the fact that I believe that holistic therapies can play a part in healing cancer alongside conventional therapies. I certainly do not feel inclined to abandon conventional therapy in spite of the sometimes awful side effects. The Everolimus and Lenvatinib that I am taking sometimes leaves me feeling a bit limp and washed-out, but the current dosage is not too bad most of the time. I just hope it is doing some good.
The one thing that most holistic practitioners recommend is carrot juice. Juicing is a bit of a bother, but at least you control the quality of what goes in. Two of our closest stores stock organic carrots (I try to buy organic where feasible and affordable). Aldi sell them in 0.75kg bags and M&S in 1kg bags. I usually juice a bag at a time and add a celery stick also some extra-virgin olive oil to the juice. The reason for the oil is that some supplements I take are fat soluble and I take them with the juice. One lot of juice usually lasts a day and a half to two days. I bought a relatively inexpensive Housnat juicer from Amazon and it has given sterling service. I didn’t want to spend too much because I didn’t know whether I would be able to persist with this. However, I find myself happily doing this every other day and I do really like the juice. It tastes delicious to my mind.
This is the juicer I bought some months ago and feel that it has paid for itself. It is quite easy to use – I cut the carrots into strips and feed them down the tube from which they get mashed and squeezed with the juice pouring down into the jug and the squeezed out bits being deposited into a container. I have heard of people putting some of these squeezed out bits on their porridge (which is also considered to be quite a healthy breakfast – I get organic oats from Aldi and make it with water because I avoid dairy and sweeten with a small amount of manuka honey).
It may seem a waste just using the juice from carrots, but that is where a lot of the goodness lies. There is no way that I could eat the required amount of raw carrots to get the same benefit.
The illustration above shows fruit and vegetables being juiced, but I prefer to make vegetable smoothies in a blender. I typically blend a stick or two of celery and a few inches of cucumber, both beneficial for cancer, with a bit of almond milk and I sometimes add an apple because I think it makes the end result a bit tastier,
While contemplating my situation the other day, the hymn “Fight the good fight” came to mind. As someone who is completely unable to sing, I don’t often think of hymns, but this one seems to me very apt, both from a faith and a health point of view.
Whether you agree with the Christian emphasis or not, the advice is just excellent. We are encouraged to live this life without fear and with determination to do our best. These are the words:
1 Fight the good fight with all your might, Christ is your strength and Christ your right. Lay hold on life, and it shall be your joy and crown eternally.
2 Run the straight race through God’s good grace; lift up your eyes, and seek his face. Life with its way before us lies; Christ is the path and Christ the prize.
3 Cast care aside, lean on your guide; his boundless mercy will provide. Lean, and the trusting soul shall prove Christ is its life and Christ its love.
4 Faint not, nor fear, his arms are near; he changes not, and you are dear. Only believe, and you will see that Christ is Lord eternally.
Naturally I would like everyone to enjoy the benefits of faith, but either way there is a load of good advice contained within the Bible and within Christian songs and literature. Some of it, like this hymn, is very stirring. Other things are very calming, like Jesus’s encouragement “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11v.28-30). There are certainly times when our cancer makes us feel “weary and burdened” and at those times I am really thankful for my faith because I never feel anxious or depressed. I praise God that He makes this joy so freely available.
I was recently reminded of Paul’s letter to the Christians at Philippi (aka the book Philippians in the Bible). Paul wrote this while imprisoned in Rome, yet it is full of love, joy, gratitude and hope.
One part that resonated with me was “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4v.6). He goes on to say that he has learned to be content whatever his situation. This is such perfect advice – especially for those of us with cancer or in some other life-changing situation.
Certainly faith gives me real calmness over my condition. Only God knows what the outcome will be, and I am happy to accept my fate, whatever it might be. In the meantime, I do everything I can in terms of diet, exercise and lifestyle to be as healthy as I can be and to feel as well as I can. Whereas some people are anxious about what the results of their scans will be, I simply see them as indicators of how things are going and whether I need to try something else. Accepting one’s fate certainly doesn’t mean being resigned to it and giving up. I am reminded of the hymn “Fight the good fight” and I think I shall do a blog post on that. It is very apt and very stirring.
I wish this peace of mind on everyone. What is so wonderful is that it is freely available through faith in Jesus Christ. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7v.7-8). Throughout this cancer episode I have come to believe that mental and spiritual health are more important than physical health. I would like all three of course, but am really grateful for what I do have.
I have very recently been loaned a copy of The China Study and am so impressed that I have ordered my own copy. In essence, this is a very detailed and scientific investigation into the effect of diet and nutrition on disease, not specifically cancer, though cancer features quite prominently in the investigation. It is very well written and easy to read
The reason that this book is called The China Study is that the bulk of the research on people and their diet and their diseases was conducted in China. The advantage of China is that the vast majority of the population is of the same ethnicity and that it is a vast country across which diet and lifestyles vary. That removes questions of whether different findings relate to ethnicity, as would be the case if comparing one country with another, and it still enables the study of different outcomes from different diets.
The book was first published in 2004, but I am reading the later version, updated in 2016 and as shown in the illustration above.
Content
The book covers more than the China Study – it is essentially a very interesting, and I find exciting, history of the development of research into the connection between diet and disease, primarily the authors’ own experience and experimentation, but also the work of others. The author, T. Colin Campbell was director of the China Study, which was a collaborative program with American, Chinese and British researchers.
As well as the observation of human diet and disease, there is also reference to animal studies which are more controlled, but not necessarily applicable to humans. The applicability to humans is confirmed by the population studies.
What is quite dramatic in the animal studies is the way cancer growth (my main concern!) is turned on and off by changes in diet. That of course cannot ethically be conducted on humans, but what the China study shows is that the diet differences between different Chinese communities correlate with disease or health in the same way as the animal studies.
The diseases other than Cancer that are studied are Heart Disease, Obesity, Diabetes, Autoimmune Diseases and a few others. My main concern is Kidney Cancer, because that is where mine originated. Unfortunately it does not get a mention because it is not as common as many others. Nevertheless, there is good reason to believe that the same dietary advice applies.
The authors are American and there are a lot of comparisons of the prevalence of disease in the United States and China. America comes off quite badly, but it isn’t just America – there are other countries with prevalent diet-related diseases. Some reasons are geographic, some cultural and some relating to affluence.
Why Don’t We Know About This?
That really was my first question. Here we have a well-researched study into diet and disease – both the management and avoidance of disease – and we are not hearing about it unless we are motivated to do our own research or get lucky in hearing about these things through the grapevine. In my own case, I was aware of some of the dietary findings, but not about this book and the science behind it.
To be fair, I did check the websites of Cancer Research UK, The British Heart Foundation and Diabetes UK, and they do include some dietary advice. Certainly this advice is not too far removed from the findings of The China Study, but it does not go the whole way and does include things that the China study indicates are probably undesirable.
We do expect the medical profession to keep up to date with all the research that affects their specialism. As far as diet goes, I don’t know whether they are not aware of works like The China Study, whether they don’t accept it or whether they are reluctant to suggest anything outside the accepted treatments of whatever disease they are dealing with.
In my own case, when I first consulted an oncologist, I did tell him that I was considering the ketogenic diet, having read some research that indicated it might be beneficial. Instead of telling me that was a bad idea (which I subsequently discovered to be the case), I was only told that it was a hard diet to follow and that best was a balanced diet. A balanced diet wasn’t defined, but I presume they would accept what was on the Cancer Research UK website as meeting the necessary criteria.
Another factor of course is that the medical profession are probably not involved until we have a disease that needs medical attention. They are in the business of fixing problems rather that preventing them in the first place. The difficulty with something like cancer is that it is likely the result of years of environmental and dietary abuse of our bodies, and curing it is a lot harder than living a healthy lifestyle that prevents it. A doctor cannot say that this diet or that diet will make it go away, or even effectively supplement the accepted therapies for cancer. What they can do is prescribe surgery and/or radiation and/or chemo where there is an established track record of these therapies – with the knowledge that they are not effective in every case, that some cancers won’t go away and others will cone back.
Conclusion
I am not qualified to repeat the findings of The China Study with any sort of suggestion that it will make your condition any better. I can only suggest that you read it for yourself and make up your own mind whether this is for you. You should feel free too discuss it with your oncologist. For myself, I had already adopted a diet that is quite well-aligned with the recommendations of The China Study and my recent scan results were quite encouraging. At the same time as amending my diet, I have continued my prescribed therapy of Everolimus and Lenvatinib and will continue to do so.
Addendum
I have done a bit more investigation since writing this article. The results are in this later post on Kidney Cancer Diet. What I learned is that detailed statistical analysis indicates that the conclusions of The China Study are not as well supported as they claim. So although there is some evidence that the conclusions might be broadly correct, it is not proof that they are. My later post discusses some of the other cancer diets that organisations and doctors are recommending, including the recommendations of Kidney Cancer UK and Cancer Research UK. I think there are some good guidelines, but ultimately you have to find something that works for you. A mostly vegan diet seems to be working for me at the moment, but if scan results show it is not working, then I will modify it in line with any more research that I do.
The poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley was catapulted into the public consciousness by the 2009 film of that name about Nelson Mandela and post-apartheid South Africa. The poem helped to carry him through his imprisonment and is perhaps part of the reason that he emerged without resentment and vengefulness. Henley himself was no stranger to misfortune, having had part of a leg amputated at a fairly early age. He suffered ill health and did not live very long, dying at the age of 53. This is the poem:
Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul
Invictus is the Latin word for unconquered or undefeated, and is a marvellous example of how we should live our lives – as the master of our fate and captain of our soul. With God to help us
Invictus is kept in the public consciousness by the Invictus Games, the name of which is written with the letters I AM highlighted in a different colour. Was this in the knowledge that I AM is one of the names of God? Possibly not.
The poem is not overtly Christian – “I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul”, but the sentiment is entirely consistent with Christianity, except that he seems to have a rather gloomy expectation of the hereafter. I also believe it is a good fit with life with cancer: whatever it throws at us, we are personally responsible for our reaction and how we learn from it.
I certainly didn’t have this poem in mind when I formulated my approach to my cancer, so am somewhat blown away by how accurately it expresses my feelings about it. Initially I was rather inclined to leave it up to the medical profession, but then being told that I will probably never be free of cancer, inspired me to start taking responsibility.
I wasn’t given much dietary advice and the subjects of mental and spiritual wellbeing, and their importance in healing, never arose in conversations with oncologists. That is not a criticism of oncology today, because I realise that they are constrained by their training and even by their ethical code which prevents them talking about things that are not “proven” to be of benefit. Drug trials provide evidence of efficacy and side effects, whereas there is no “proof” that a particular diet will have a beneficial effect or that the mental and spiritual measures that I have already touched upon will promote healing. All I can say with certainty is that they have done wonders for my morale and that the recent scan results are very encouraging. And if they cease to be encouraging, that would indicate that there are further learning opportunities and different ideas to investigate and try out. “I am the master of my fate”.
A couple of days ago I had my scheduled appointment with the oncology consultant. I was both eager and anxious for this appointment because I was to get the results of my recent scans. The CT scan of my body does not worry me greatly, although my lungs have four small metastases. Left to themselves, they are too small and slow-growing to be of much concern to someone my age, and they are totally symptom-free. On the other hand, the tumour in my brain stem is a major concern, and I have an MRI scan of my head for that. It was the symptoms of loss of balance and difficulty pronouncing some words that led to its discovery. If it grows too big, it will affect the ability of my brain to control my body, with devastating consequences.
The good news is that the MRI head scan showed that the brain tumour has shrunk significantly, as has the surrounding oedema, since my last scan 4 months ago. Praise God! This was my first scan since going back onto the Everolimus and Lenvatinib therapy at a reduced dose of Lenvatinib, so good to know that the reduction hasn’t done any harm.
That is not to say that the good result has come easily. First off, I give thanks to my Christian brothers and sisters who have supported me and the medical staff with their prayers. I firmly believe that this helps in general and specifically in steering us towards the right treatment.
The drugs have unwanted side effects, the worst for me being low energy and tiredness. On top of this, I have made major changes to my diet and supplementation to both detoxify and to consume those things that fight cancer and avoid those that tend to promote cancer growth.
The biggest dietary change has been to completely exclude sugar, red meat and dairy. I thought of going completely vegan at one time, but have since learned that the occasional organic free range egg is fine, as is a little white chicken meat, some fish, and cheese from sheep or goat milk. But I certainly miss my bacon at our monthly men’s breakfasts at Christ Church, Brownsover, which were about the only times that I had a full English breakfast. I still attend these for the company and the invariably interesting discussion after.
Very topical, as Christmas approaches, is that my alternative treatment involves both Frankincense and Myrrh, as oil in a blend of oils that I apply around my head and neck because of their anti-cancer properties. What we apply to our skin is absorbed into the body, which is why we need to be so careful about what cosmetics we use, as well as any chemicals with which we come into contact. Frankincense and Myrrh get several mentions in the Bible, not only as gifts to the newly born Jesus, so that reinforces their value. I also take Frankincense internally in the form of Boswellia Serrata capsules.
God, through His creation, has provided us with many natural medicines that we can use. In fact this was all that people did use until the pharmaceutical industry took off and persuaded people that man-made medicine was the way to go. Certainly the industry has done good, as well as a lot of harm. I think we have a problem in that a lot of the old “folk” remedies have been forgotten, but fortunately they are being rediscovered. Cannabis, for example, is a wonderful medicine for many ailments, including cancer, but is sadly hardly available legally in the United Kingdom, apart from the non-narcotic component CBD, which is legal and also beneficial, but not to the extent that the whole plant is.
Clearly the thing to do now is to continue along the same lines of medication and diet, perhaps refining it as I learn more. But as they say: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Probably the best advice I can give myself for now. But I would really like to be free of the medication, so that I can feel normal again. Perhaps the oncologist will agree to a break of a month or two when my brain tumour is smaller.
Cancer is not much to laugh about. Right? But actually laughter is good for us as I was reminded the other day by a doctor who suggested watching comedies rather than the news.
Sadly the news is rather depressing these days with wars, weather, politics and the economy. In fact there are a number of articles online about this very thing. One I found is entitled “Is Watching the News Bad for Mental Health?“. It is slightly out of date having been written when Covid was at its height, but it nevertheless made the point how damaging it can be to get too much news. And if it affects the mind, it affects the body and affects our healing. Certainly we need to keep informed, but we need to avoid being worried or upset about things we can do nothing about. I remember recently hearing someone say that he rationed his news intake to one day a week, when he did his catching up on what was going on in the world. And when he did that he used sources with differing political biases so as to get a more balanced picture.
I guess the beneficial effect of laughter has been known for a long time, but is not something that I have thought about. I don’t see The Readers’ Digest any more, but I remember seeing copies some 60 years ago with a page or more of humour “Laughter is the Best Medicine”, and likely they still have it.
I did an internet search on the beneficial effects of laughter and there were loads of results. One from the Mayo Clinic HERE. So there is plenty of evidence that we need to laugh for the sake of our mental and physical health. If we have a physical health condition like cancer, it doesn’t do us good to dwell too much on the negative aspects of it. A good laugh gives us a break and does us good.
I looked up a few joke websites and they didn’t do much for me. I guess we are all different in this respect. I am not a great fan of stand-up comedy either. Other people just love it. But I have been having a great time looking at sitcoms on catch-up TV and there are some good funny films an catch-up TV and streaming channels too. We each need to find what we enjoy that makes us laugh and then use it to help heal our bodies.
I have pointed out in other blog posts that recovery from cancer needs to be a matter of healing the whole person – body, mind and spirit. Laughing is something that we can practice to assist that process.
This is one of a series of three posts on connections between faith and healing. The others are on Meditation and on Love. These three are not of course exclusive to the Christian faith, or even to faith at all, but they are integral to the Christian faith. And they all support healing.
You might well think “I’ve got cancer, what do I have to be grateful for?” Actually for quite a lot, probably including the cancer.
Gratitude is scientifically proven to have health benefits. Quoting from the Mayo Clinic website ” Expressing gratitude is associated with a host of mental and physical benefits. Studies have shown that feeling thankful can improve sleep, mood and immunity. Gratitude can decrease depression, anxiety, difficulties with chronic pain and risk of disease”. Who would have thought it?
This is yet another area in which healing parallels faith. The Holy Bible has a vast number of statements or exhortations concerning giving thanks to the Lord in both the Old and New Testaments. As a Christian, I am so fortunate in being able to thank God for the wonder and beauty of His creation and for all the blessings I have received in my life. When the cancer or its treatment gets on top of us, it may be hard to think of the things we have to be grateful for, but there is always something or someone to be grateful for.
I try to make it a habit at the end of each day to think of everything that I have to be thankful for that day and thank God for the things and people that have been a blessing to me. If you don’t believe in God and believe the universe created itself, your health will still benefit from gratitude for the good things and good people in your life. Gratitude is an overwhelmingly positive emotion that drives out the negative emotions that hinder healing.
And we must remember to thank people personally for the good things they do for us. When Jesus healed ten lepers, only one bothered to go back and thank him. We must make sure we are the one in ten. The person we thank invariably appreciates it too, so they benefit as well as ourselves.
What rather surprised me was that a number of people who specialise in treating cancer said that patients were grateful for their cancer. It forced them to take stock of their lives, reassess priorities and recognise what was most important to them. So yes, some people are even grateful for what their cancer has done for them. Certainly, however dire our situation, we need to be grateful for the good. Concentrating on the good generates more good.
One way of training ourselves in gratitude is to keep a “gratitude diary” in which we jot down things and people that we are grateful for at the time. Then when things are bad, we can look back and see that there is a lot to be grateful for. Training our mind to be positive through Meditation, Love and Gratitude can only improve our lives and our health.
This is one of a series of three posts on connections between faith and healing. The others are on Meditation and on Gratitude. These three are not of course exclusive to the Christian faith, or even to faith at all, but they are integral to the Christian faith. And they all support healing.
Dr Flavin wrote a lovely article on Love and it’s role in healing. I strongly recommend reading it HERE: In particular she emphasised loving ourselves. And illustrated her article with examples of people who unconsciously sabotaged their healing by not thinking they were worthy of it. Here again, health connects with faith. Christians absolutely believe that God loves each and every one of us. So who are we not to love ourselves? (And others!)
This is a bit of an eye-opener. Love in relationships is already well-documented to have a beneficial effect on health. But there isn’t so much on the importance of loving oneself and feeling worthy of love and worthy of healing. The importance of the mind in healing the body is now well-recognised, so we need to do everything we can to make our minds healthy, so as to promote healing rather than hinder it. I hope these three posts – Meditation, Love and Gratitude will help. These are things that we have to work on ourselves, all the time. They are the perfect medicine – without harmful side effects.
A necessary part of loving ourselves is also forgiving ourselves for the things we wish we hadn’t done (to put it mildly). But as Christians, we believe that God forgives us. So our reaction has to be to forgive ourselves and, where possible, apologise to those we have wronged and make amends where we can. Of course people may still not forgive us. It took me a while to recognise the blunt truth that it’s their problem. As we say in the Lord’s Prayer “Forgive us our sins (trespasses) as we forgive them that sin (trespass) against us”. That makes very clear our responsibility to forgive others, and this is now known to be essential for our mental and physical health.
Not forgiving leads to anger and resentment, which only hurts the person who doesn’t forgive. If we can make it easier for others to forgive us, we should do so, but ultimately it is their responsibility to themselves. Forgiving ourselves is not always easy, but we have to learn to do it. Guilt is a very negative emotion that can sabotage our health or prevent healing. It helps to be able to confess it to the Lord and ask for forgiveness and for help forgiving ourselves.
Loving ourselves means wanting to be the best we can be. We all have different gifts and different limitations, so we need to make the most of what we have and the least of what we don’t have. If we are sick, it means striving to be well and making the most of the life we have. It is not a case of “I’ll be happy if ….. “. Happiness is knowing where you are going and taking the journey. I am reminded of The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. Christian starts on his journey which is filled with joy, learning, struggles and mis-steps. And he gets to his destination. Not everyone does, but you have to love yourself enough to keep on trying.
This is one of a series of three posts on connections between faith and healing. The others are on Love and on Gratitude. These three are not of course exclusive to the Christian faith, or even to faith at all, but they are integral to the Christian faith. And they all support healing.
According to healthline “Meditation has been shown to offer many benefits. Although it’s well known as a technique to reduce stress and anxiety, research shows that it may also help enhance your mood, promote healthy sleep patterns, and boost cognitive skills.”. And there are other potential benefits too, which you can search on the internet. But even without digging further here are 3 or 4 major benefits for the cancer patient – reduced stress and anxiety and better mood and sleep.
The Bible has many references to meditating on God’s word and in the words of Psalm 46.10 “Be still and know that I am God”.
In the case of Christians, we can meditate on Scripture. I recently read a book on Biblical Meditation, which advocated meditating on a verse or short passage of the Bible, and finding that helped to receive better understanding of the passage and meaning for our lives.
Also, we can meditate on the glory of God and His creation and all the wonderful things He has done which brings us back to “Be still and know that I am God”.
Prayer too can be a form of meditation. Prayer is not just a matter of “asking for stuff”, but a matter of communicating with God. Thanking him for His blessings, recognising where we have fallen short, and requesting His help. And staying still to understand His response.
Inevitably, I think of meditation in a Christian context. But if you are not a Christian, you can still obtain benefit from meditation. There is a lot of on-line help to do that. And while you are meditating, God just might speak to you if you ask Him. Who knows? As with all things, keep an open mind.
The human body, including the mind, is a wonderful thing with a huge capability of healing itself. Think of all the injuries and diseases that we overcome without medical intervention. When it more seriously breaks down, as with cancer, then we need to marshal all our body’s resources to combat it. Our mind is such an important part of our healing and we have to give it our full attention, That is what these three posts are about – Meditation, Love and Gratitude. in the words of the Roman poet Juvenal “mens sana in corpore sano” which translates as healthy mind in healthy body. We need to strive for both.
As a result of my brain tumour growing slightly, I haven’t forsaken conventional medicine at this stage. I am back on Everolimus and Lenvatinib. Neither have I given up on holistic healing. I am hoping that the combination of conventional and “unconventional” will reduce the tumour to the point where I am comfortable giving up the drugs.
There is plenty of evidence that cancer is caused by the myriad of toxins in the environment and that we absorb into out bodies. Our bodies are excellent at fighting against these toxins until they are overwhelmed and we get sick.
While I was off the medication, I started to modify my diet, transitioning from a fairly conventional diet to a wholefood vegetable-based diet. In principle, that is a vegan diet, but eschewing anything processed, like pretend meat, sausages and burgers.
However, a really important stage in healing is detox to get rid of the many toxins that are in our bodies and mitigate the effects of any new toxins we are exposed to. I am following Dr Dana Flavin’s protocol that is on her website: Long-term Detox -A Lifelong Detoxification Plan for Protection – Collmed. I just received my order for all the nutrients and supplements yesterday and started on the protocol last night. It seems like a lot of tablets and capsules, but each one with good science behind it.
Equally important is to avoid exposure to new toxins. This means reducing EMF exposure and checking out all the chemicals, cleaners and cosmetics we are exposed to, and chucking out those which are dangerous.
It was suggested to me that perhaps I should separate this blog into two blogs – one for Faith and one for Cancer. Here is some of my rationale for keeping things the way they are:
Healing
Every holistic healer and many in the medical profession will say that the mind is an essential part of healing. In fact there is evidence that mental trauma can make you sick in the first place. It is generally recognised that mental well-being is essential to physical well-being.
There is no doubt in my mind that my Christian faith contributes massively to my mental well-being. Two very powerful contributors that faith provides are Gratitude and Forgiveness.
Gratitude is so healthy because it is so positive. We are grateful for what we have and not anxious or envious of the things we don’t have. Christians are indeed extremely grateful for the redemption offered by Jesus Christ. Gratitude goes beyond that, for the beauty of God’s creation, for shelter, for warmth, for food, for other people. As I write this, I am additionally grateful for the warmth of the sun on this slightly chilly autumn day and for the beauty of the flowers outside the window. As I prepare to go to bed at night, I thank the Lord for all the blessings of the day.
Forgiveness is absolutely essential. If we do not forgive, we can become bitter, resentful and angry. All very negative emotions that damage our health. I remember a few years ago I was angry with the police for falsifying their testimony to make it appear that I had committed an offence that I didn’t commit. It made my blood boil, I lost sleep over it, it affected my whole life. I didn’t know it at the time, but I already had kidney cancer and I do not doubt that my mental state made it worse. Then I became a Christian and learned to forgive and put it behind me. Not forgiving hurts us and not those we don’t forgive.
We are forgiven by God through faith in Jesus Christ, so who are we not to forgive others? Like many others, I have difficulty forgiving myself for. things I have done that hurt others. But that is something we have to learn too – make amends where we can and ask forgiveness where we can, and then put it behind us. God doesn’t forgive us for us to feel guilty, but to feel free.
Mental Outlook
Gratitude and Forgiveness are two essential ingredients of mental well-being. But faith gives us more than that. I was diagnosed with a tumour in my brain stem. A devastating diagnosis, except I wasn’t devastated. I put that down to my faith which the Lord had given me just a few months before. What my faith gave me was acceptance. Not acceptance that this was fate and let it take its course, but acceptance that I had to do what I could to get well. And if I didn’t get well, so be it. That was over 2 1/2 years ago, since when there have been a few ups and downs with beneficial treatments and medication side effects. And a lot of learning too about cancer and the causes of cancer and about alternative healing, both the scientifically sound and the scientifically unsound.
All the while, my faith has given me a positive outlook. Of course, I am not absolutely joyful when suffering medication side effects, but extremely grateful for all the times when I feel better and have energy. Not only do I pray for healing, but also that the rest of my life will be useful. When I first prayed for healing, the answer I got was “Why?”. That is a very good question and if we are sick, we need to know the answer. That question did rather change my outlook.
Body, Mind and Spirit
Our body, mind and spirit are inextricably linked. Our bodies will not be healthy unless our minds and spirits are too. And that is why I have linked my cancer and my faith together in this blog. Although old in years, I am young in faith and continually learning, and some of that is reflected in this blog. All blog entries are categorised by Cancer or by Faith, so you can just choose to read one or the other. This post falls into both categories, and I hope helps the reader recognise the importance of making the whole person healthy,
I had an appointment with the oncologist last week, at which I got the result of my scan of a couple of weeks ago. Good news and bad news.
Head MRI Scan Results
The good/bad news was that the size of my brain tumour had increased by 3mm to 17mm. As mentioned before, I had declined further medication at my last appointment, about 8 weeks before this one. so whereas an increase in the tumour is disappointing, it could have been a lot worse.
I think the reason that it was probably a bit better than it might otherwise have been was that I modified my diet to cut out high sugar foods and most red meat and eating more fruit (it is blackberry season after all) and vegetables and making vegetable smoothies. I have also been taking some supplements with known anti-cancer properties.
What I didn’t do was detox, which most holistic cancer practitioners say is essential, and I didn’t cut out all dairy, which is also much recommended. I do have this weakness for butter and cheese, which I had probably best put behind me.
Next Steps
I decided to go back on the medication – daily 5mg of Everolimus and 10mg Lenvatinib, down from 14mg. My reasoning was that if the tumour grows too big, I will be seriously impaired as it reduces the connection between my brain and the rest of my body. It was the effects on my balance and speech that led to the discovery of the tumour in the first place. I am hoping this return to medication will be temporary while I learn more about detox and diet and natural healing.
As noted in my last post of August 4, “Feeling Good”, I was having a really good time off the medication – less tired, more appetite, no nausea, no pain, more energy and able to enjoy exercising, mostly riding a bike or walking. So going back on the medication was not an easy decision and it remains to be seen whether the lower dose of Lenvatinib reduces the severity of the side effects.
The reason that I am looking at alternatives is that the choice with conventional therapy is between living with the side effects of medication or a shorter life feeling good. Either way, it will get a bit unpleasant at the end, either because the tumour grows unchecked or because the medication stops working. nobody is making any predictions how long it will take in either case.
So what I have started doing is seeking the help of a natural healing doctor who has a record of success in helping people overcome their cancer, in order to get the advice I need about detox and diet. I am glad that, as a Christian, I have a positive outlook and can meditate and pray, because the mental and spiritual aspects of healing are not to be underestimated. Watch this space.
I have been on a combined therapy of Everolimus and Lenvatinib for metastatic kidney cancer in my lungs and brain since November 2022, so about 7 months. In that time my appetite has been badly affected and I have frequently felt nauseous. As a result of which my weight has reduced from 80kg to 68kg, which is quite a shocking reduction, seeing as how I wasn’t overweight to start with for someone of my height and build.
Added to my woes, I am just starting to feel better after 3 whole weeks of feeling really bad. It started with flu-like symptoms of headaches and aches and pains, then I developed a swollen and sore throat, badly affecting my voice, and then developed a mucus cough which I am at last getting over. A compromised immune system is one of the effects of the drugs and I assume that is why I have felt so bad for so long, with the sort of thing one expects to shake off within a week.
I had my regular meeting with the oncologist 2 days ago, on Thursday 6 July, and told him that I wanted to go off the medication for a bit so that I could get to feel normal again and hopefully repair my immune system. He agreed, but cautioned me that if I go off them too long, he will be unable to resume the same treatment, and he would have to start me on another drug.
At the same time, I have been looking at alternative therapies that might be kinder on the body and let me live a more normal life. I was learning particularly that some doctors are having impressive results treating cancer naturally as opposed to the traditional treatment of “cut, poison and burn” as surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are popularly known. I have had all those, though the chemo is via a daily oral drug rather than being hooked up to a machine periodically.
Natural therapies make so much sense with three main components:
MENTAL, EMOTIONAL, SPIRITUAL wellbeing. These are widely recognised as having a major impact on our healing and health. I know in my own case I have had a bad time with anger, unhappiness and toxic relationships. Many people have experienced these or had other mental or emotional trauma. I manged to put much of it behind me when I became a Christian – being forgiven makes it so much easier to forgive. God forgives us but people may not be so forgiving, in which case all one can do is apologise and see whether there is any way to make amends. Sadly, if people are not forgiving and are angry and resentful, it only hurts them and ultimately hurts their health, as it undoubtedly did mine.
DETOXIFY. We are surrounded by toxins. They make us ill. They stop us from getting well. We need to detoxify our lives as far as possible and this means getting harmful chemicals out of our lives – things like cleaners, cosmetics, weedkillers, insecticides and so the list goes on. we should look at the ingredients of everything we use. Some things are hard to change – such as the impurity of our tap water. Although there are stringent requirements for the amount of various impurities in parts per million, there are so many impurities that added together, they form a substantial amount. So not only do we have to minimise ingesting new toxins, but we have to detoxify to get rid of the ones that remain in our bodies. This is something that I am researching how best to do and will update with my experience.
DIET. The consensus seems to be in favour of a mostly vegetable diet. Some advocate Vegan, some Vegetarian and others cutting down drastically on meat. There are differing opinions too on eggs and dairy. Where there is unanimity is on drastically cutting down on sugar and processed foods and refined grains, with an emphasis on buying organic where possible, which can unfortunately be expensive. Many doctors recommend various natural foods and food supplements with known anti-cancer properties
I am still in the process of researching and learning. Two websites that I like are the following. The people who started them are very generous with the information that they make freely available and both have plentiful experience successfully treating patients. They are:
What I particularly like about Dr Conners’ website is that it starts with a quotation from the Holy Bible, which is very apt and which well describes his philosophy.
I will provide updates as I go along and have some experience and results to share.
Another cancer therapy that I looked into was The Gonzalez Protocol. Rather than go into all the detail, I have linked that to The Nicholas Gonzalez Foundation website where you can read all about it. It also links to the work of Dr. Kelley on which Gonzalez based his protocol.
I completed the application for this therapy, but did not proceed with it for a number of reasons.
COST (including travel) – I forget the exact costs now, but it would be necessary to pay for private doctor’s appointments, not covered by insurance or health service, and to pay some thousands of dollars per month for supplements. Added to which, the nearest doctor offering the protocol was 60 miles away and, having had to surrender my driving licence, I would also have had the inconvenience and expense of rail travel.
LACK OF TRANSPARENCY – There was some information available on what the supplements were, but not enough to be able to get them anywhere else and therefore not knowing if they were good value for money, or even healthy in the long term. Apparently it was typical to need 20 or more supplements a day, the exact requirement being based on hair analysis, the accuracy of which I have seen questioned.
STOPPING CONVENTIONAL THERAPY – Not that I am a great fan of conventional therapy which intermittently causes me a lot of grief, but if conventional therapy is doing some good, it would be nice to have something that made it even better, rather than give it up for a bit of a leap in the dark.
LACK OF SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE – True there is anecdotal evidence of wonderful recoveries from cancer, but that is mainly from their website and we do not know what proportion of patients died and whether any treatments failed completely. Follow this link for some information on trials. I did read a report about one trial participant who had such a hard time on the protocol, that he ended up wishing he had only had conventional treatment and ended his days with more dignity.
GONZALEZ’ DEATH – Dr Gonzalez dies at the age of 67 from a suspected heart attack, which to my mind indicates a lack of health awareness.
My conclusion was that it would be better to continue with my conventional treatment, while continuing to research and investigate.
I am pleased to say that I have come across information on cancer treatment that is open, transparent and believable, but it would be premature to say anything about it until I have followed it and seen some results.
It is now just over a week since I have been taking steroids (daily 2mg Dexamethasone) and they seem to be working. I have had more energy and less nausea, though Thursday morning just gone I did wake and threw up, but felt fine after. None of the persistent nauseous feeling that I have had previously. It was more like having eaten something disagreeable and then feeling fine once one was rid of it. I was only prescribed 2 weeks of steroids and it will be interesting to see how I get on when they finish. It will be another 2 weeks after they finish before I see the oncologist again.
This is all a bit earthy, so don’t bother reading it unless you are suffering similarly, or know someone who is.
The first half of last week was pretty bad for the side effects of my Everolimus and Lenvatinib medication. Sunday was not too bad. I just felt a bit queasy and had no appetite. Monday was rather the same and things turned down on Tuesday afternoon. Sadly I had to miss Christ Church, Brownsover, men’s Film and Chippy evening that day through not being able to keep anything down. This nausea and lack of appetite lasted through Thursday. Although I was very bad again Thursday evening, things did look up a bit after that.
Thursday morning I had a face to face appointment with Dr Ik Shin Chin, a doctor who had recently joined Dr Yakhub Khan’s oncology team. I did have a telephone appointment with her 5 weeks prior, but this was our first actual meeting. I was weighed prior to the appointment, showing that I had lost another 4kg, over half a stone in old units, that I really don’t want to lose. Total lost so far 14kg or over 2 stone. Not good.
We discussed the two side effects that were giving me the most trouble. One was the nausea, vomiting and attendant loss of appetite; the other was the tiredness and lack of energy. She decided to prescribe a short trial of steroids (daily 2mg of Dexamethasone). Also a more powerful laxative than over the counter types in case I needed to take Ondansetron again.
Getting Better
Friday morning I took a final Ondansetron and started on the steroids – one tablet with breakfast. I actually felt better that day, though I can’t say which medication was responsible. Saturday I rather surprised myself. Lyn was planning to drop round to her daughter, who lives quite close, to help with the construction of a raised bed in their garden. I decided to go along too, not planning to do anything other than sit in the sun and give advice. It turned out I did quite a lot – just no lifting of the heavy timbers, which I left to the younger folk. I had to take a few more rest periods than in pre-medication days, but altogether quite promising.
And yesterday I felt fine after a good breakfast of toast, fruit and my diet of tablets, and then walking the half mile to church and then back after the service. Praise God.
I am sure that I am like many with cancer in looking into alternative therapies as maybe having a better solution with fewer side effects than conventional therapy. It is quite possible for an effective therapy to exist prior to being fully evaluated and becoming mainstream. Prior to that, any success is purely anecdotal and needs to be viewed with caution. Caution is also required because there are always con artists ready to take advantage of the desperate, as many cancer patients are.
I have reviewed several therapies which I shall deal with separately, starting with the combination of a Ketogenic Diet with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) as expounded by Dr Thomas Seyfried in his work and theory of cancer as a metabolic disease.
The theory of this therapy is quite simple and persuasive and is based on 2 things: 1. That tumours thrive on blood glucose and that a ketogenic diet reduces blood glucose, and 2. That tumours grow without oxygen (the Warburg effect) and that flooding the blood with oxygen will reverse growth.
Ketogenic Diet
This has become a popular diet for weight loss and weight loss is almost invariably what comes up when you do an Internet search on it. The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet with adequate amounts of protein. If anybody is contemplating it, I would suggest they do their own research because it is far too complex with too many implication for me to summarise here. One argument against it as a cancer treatment is its similarity to the Atkins Diet which has been tried unsuccessfully as a cancer treatment.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)
This involves breathing oxygen in a high pressure (hyperbaric) chamber. It is a proven treatment for accelerating wound healing, for recovery from radiation therapy and for ‘long Covid’. It is not yet proven for the treatment of cancer.
Experimental and Trial Results
The most easily found experimental results on the Internet used mice as the subjects and are impressive. However there are some caveats, including of course, that mice aren’t people. Clinical trials on people aren’t conclusive but do indicate that this regimen may be beneficial in conjunction with other therapies. Here is one link that may be of interest: The Ketogenic Diet and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Prolong Survival in Mice with Systemic Metastatic Cancer | PLOS ONE
My Conclusion
I did seriously consider adopting this treatment in addition to the drugs I am taking (Everolimus and Lenvatinib). We have a hyperbaric facility locally, so the only issue there would have been the expense. I did start on a ketogenic diet, which suits me reasonably well because it contains many things that I like to eat. What put me off was that in 4 weeks I lost 10kg, which I couldn’t really afford to lose and which I am having a hard time gaining back. I decided not to proceed with this regimen for three reasons: 1. The medication I am taking appears effective and tolerable; 2. I would like to see more positive human trial results before committing, and 3. The expense of HBOT.
I would not discount the possibility of this treatment in future if the drugs become ineffective and if there are more positive human trial results.
I haven’t updated my health status for a while, for the simple reason that there is not much to report. I had a telephone appointment with the oncologist a few weeks ago. There wasn’t much to say on my part. I continue to feel very tired much of the time from lack of sleep and weakness caused by the medication. And I continue to feel nauseous from time to time with everything coming up about every week or 10 days. The Ondansetron quickly gets me over that, fortunately.
I have blood tests before every appointment to make sure that everything is in order and that I am tolerating the medication (Everolimus and Lenvatinib). The last blood test results were all good, so that I am continuing the medication at the same dose. I have a face to face appointment next week, but won’t know much more until after my next scans in about a month. From the point of view of quality of life it would be nice to reduce the medication, but I wouldn’t want to do that until after my next scans, the last ones being so positive.
I had my regular appointment with the University Hospital oncology team this morning. These are approximately monthly and this month it was by telephone with a new registrar Dr.Chin, whom I have yet to meet. I have a blood test just before these appointments and the purpose of the appointment is to review how I am feeling, to review any side effects of the medication, to review the blood test results and to prescribe the next month’s medication. So I discussed all this with Dr.Chin and, since everything is proceeding normally, she will be prescribing the same doses of Everolimus and Lenvatinib as before. The only really annoying side effects are low energy, poor sleep and nausea. No change there. We are at last getting slightly better weather with some nice sunshine, but I’m really looking forward to when it is warm enough to sit outside and catch some rays to boost my Vitamin D levels, which are so important for one’s immune system.
Life with cancer tends to be a series of ups and downs. Times when everything is going great and times when one doesn’t feel too good, usually because of the cancer treatment side effects..
During the last week I had a blood test for anaemia, which is one of the potential side effects of Everolimus and Lenvatinib. The result I got last Friday was that I needed iron and folic acid. It was suggested that I have an intravenous infusion for the iron, as being a bit kinder than tablets and an appointment was made for Monday, 6th March.
Sunday 5th March was a bit of a high. I was feeling good and walked the half mile to church and was able to stand easily. Previously, when suffering groin pain, I had to use the chair in front for support to ease the pain. Then, after a cup of tea and a biscuit, I walked the half mile back home.
Later that Sunday was a bit of a low. I felt really queasy again and took an Ondansetron tablet, then another before going to bed. I felt OK Monday morning but took another Ondansetron to be sure. Then off to the Maple Unit at St. Cross Hospital in Rugby for my iron infusion. This is a fairly new unit where they treat haematology and oncology patients.
The Maple Unit is a very nice new facility with very pleasant and efficient staff. The checked my blood pressure and temperature and then hooked me up to a drip for the best part of an hour. The time passed fairly quickly checking my emails and drinking a cup of tea.
The next day, Tuesday the 7th, was Lyn’s birthday so we went to lunch in the Orangery at Kilworth House. The orangery itself is a very nicely restored Victorian structure, light and airy during the day and the food is very good. We sat by a window and the sun was streaming in.
Sadly the meds got the better of me and I was only able to eat a very little, but what I had was excellent. There was a slight disappointment for Lyn who wanted the Stone Bass on the menu, but they had none. Their supplier had let them down. She had to settle for a more mundane fish. This was the only time that we had been there that they didn’t have something that was on the menu.
February 23, 2023 was a miracle day for me. I had an appointment in the Oncology Department at University Hospital, Coventry for feedback on my latest MRI and CT scans. Great result – my brain stem tumour has shrunk from 22mm down to 16mm. I haven’t been too concerned about the 4 tumours in my lungs because of their small size. A couple were about 2mm and they reduced to about 1mm. I think the largest is about 10mm. We decided that I would continue on the combined therapy of Everolimus and Lenvatinib.
The good news didn’t end there. As mentioned in My Cancer background, I have been suffering from a severe groin pain for some months when standing and walking. A few weeks ago I had a couple of days when it almost went away and I was able to walk about a quarter mile on those days. When I woke up on February 23rd, the pain wasn’t too bad and by lunchtime it had gone. I celebrated by walking a whole mile. I had quite got out of the habit of walking and my muscles weren’t used to it. I was feeling quite exhausted, but elated, at the end of it.
I was concerned that the pain might come back today, a day later, but only the faintest hint of it this morning
I have written a blog post on Miracles to express my thanks and to say how these improvements connect with my faith.
As stated elsewhere, I am on a combined cancer therapy of daily 5mg Everolimus and 14mg Lenvatinib. The major side effect that I have already commented on is nausea. Last time, I quickly resolved it by taking Ondansetron. Just make sure you have a supply of laxatives if you do the same.
I thought it might be helpful to list some of the other side effects, so that you know what to expect. It would also be useful to know if you have a different experience. Please leave a comment if you do. Generally, I am tolerating the drugs quite well and the side effects are not having too much of an effect on my life.
Tiredness and Weakness
Both drugs come with the common side effect of feeling tired or weak. Lenvatinib comes with the common side effect of trouble sleeping. I am having all these to some extent. Sleeping is variable. I have some very good nights, but some bad ones too where I am just lying in bed for hours not sleeping. Overall, I am not drastically sleep-deprived, but would like a bit more sleep. I am trying to combat these effects with more exercise. But exercise is a bit of a challenge when you are feeling tired and weak.
Itching
Again, both drugs have the common side effect of itching skin and that affects me. I do not notice it too badly during the day, but it is sometimes really annoying at night.
Red Hands and Feet
Both list redness of the hands and feet as being quite common side effects, It affects my feet more than my hands and doesn’t trouble me. My feet are not unduly sore or anything like that.
Changed Taste
I am finding that a lot of things taste different from before. Not for the better, either. Oranges taste bitter. Good red wine tastes worse that the cheapest red wine you can buy. I didn’t drink that much anyway, but it is a pity not to be able to enjoy it. Also texture matters more. I stopped liking steamed potatoes, but am fine with mashed or fried.
Mouth Sores
I am getting occasional mouth sores, which are a listed side effect of Everolimus. They are not really worrying so far, but would be if they got much worse. I have just started using Bonjela on them and that helps.
That is about all that is affecting me that I notice. There are potential effects on the kidney and liver, which would be detectable by blood test. I have blood tests every month and am told that the results are satisfactory soo far. I will report it if anything changes
Yesterday I woke up feeling a bit iffy, but had a light breakfast of tea and toast. About midday I ate a crumpet. About mid-afternoon, I was starting to feel quite nauseous and took an 8mg Ondansetron tablet. This is the same anti-sickness substance that I was given in the IV drip at the time of my last episode. In spite of that I was sick during the evening, and took another tablet after that. That seemed to do the trick. My stomach settled down and I wasn’t at all troubled during the night. I took another tablet this morning and will take another a bit later just to make sure. I was prescribed two a day when necessary.
This is a fairly common side effect of Everolimus and Lenvatinib. At least in my case it isn’t continuous and I hope other sufferers find the same. It may be a coincidence that this episode and the last both started on a Monday. Or perhaps it is in some way a consequence of “Sunday dinner” and a different eating pattern on Sundays. I am making sure to keep a note of what I eat and when to see if there is a correlation and therefore a way to avoid nausea.
Please leave a comment if you have experienced anything similar on Everolimus, Lenvatinib or other drugs, and what works for you.
It has been a few days since I gave an update on my cancer. In a way that is a good thing because I have just been sailing along quite happily, taking my medication and feeling quite good. I haven’t felt queasy since the last episode almost three weeks ago. I’m eating normally though I do have a reduced appetite and I try to keep myself well hydrated.
I had a couple of scans last week – a CT scan of my body and an MRI of my head. I will get the results in about 10 days when I see the oncologist. I am hoping and praying that the tumour in my brain will have shrunk a bit. Next update when I get my scan results.
To try to make this website useful, I looked for the sort of things that people search for on the internet. One thing that a number of people ask is something like “Why does God allow cancer”. I am by no means a theologian, so this is just my take on the subject as someone who has both faith and cancer.
Free Will
First off, I believe that God gives us Free Will, which means that we are free to go off and do what we want, which is not necessarily what God wants for us and which is not necessarily good for us. We are of course restrained by the law and by discipline in our upbringing, but that still leaves us with considerable freedom.
That is on the individual level. On the group and population level. we have the freedom to mess up our environment, fight wars, massacre people we disapprove of and countless other evils.
We also have the freedom to do immense good and offset the bad things that people do, to alleviate disadvantage, to help others and all sorts of things that are pleasing to God and to humankind.
Causes of Cancer
Many cancers are a result of this free will. It may be what we knowingly or unknowingly do to ourselves – what we eat and drink, the chemicals and pollution we expose ourselves to, and probably other things besides. And then there is what others do to us – atmospheric pollution, toxic factory effluent and so on. So what we do to ourselves or what others do to us can cause cancer.
Why don’t we have immunity to cancer? I have no answer to that although it was recently discovered that some people do have complete immunity. Perhaps it will lead to effective cures. The human body is a miracle of design in its capability, both physical and mental. It is also very resilient – up to a point, after which it breaks down. It is interesting that there are pockets of disease-free longevity in the world, where people live long because of their active lifestyle, good diet and congenial society.
So even if what we do to ourselves and what others do to us explains a lot of cancers, it doesn’t explain cancers in the very young. I can’t remember where it is in the Holy Bible, but I recall a passage where Jesus is about to heal a man born blind and his disciples asked whether the man’s blindness was a result of his sin or his parents’ sin. He replies that it is neither but so that God might be glorified in the man’s healing. Whatever the outcome, a sick child brings out the best in people – the medics, the parents and others and that is certainly pleasing to God. But I don’t know if there are any answers. I certainly don’t know any. And it is distressing when a child dies, whatever the cause.
I don’t know the cause of my cancer, just that if I had done a lot of things differently I might not be in this state now. There are times in my life when my diet has been terrible; I have exposed myself to chemicals and dust without proper protective equipment; I have not always exercised enough. I have smoked and probably lots of other things too. Some of it through ignorance; some of it through being young and feeling invincible. It can catch up with us.
Faith Helps
However, what I do know is that cancer is easier to bear if you have faith in God and in our Saviour, Jesus Christ. In theory my condition is terminal. In practice, through God and prayer and the medical profession, I have exceeded my life expectancy. Praise God. Thank you.
I am currently on these two cancer drugs designed to prevent tumour growth and to prevent the formation of the new blood vessels they need. Unfortunately they come with side effects and one potential side effect is feeling sick. That hit me big time back in mid-December 2022, when I felt really sick, was sick and couldn’t keep anything down. That ended up with me being dehydrated and going to hospital where I was kept in and put on a drip with fluids and anti-sickness medication. Then I was OK until last Monday. Fine at breakfast and lunch. Then later in the day started feeling queasy, couldn’t eat an evening meal and was subsequently sick. I thought I might feel better the next day, but didn’t. I didn’t want to eat anything and only sipped water in a vain attempt to stay hydrated. Was sick during the day and 3 times that night. Next morning I called the Macmillan Nurse at University Hospital, Coventry and she arranged for me to go in to the oncology nurses’ clinic shortly after mid-day. I duly went and, as I find usual there, was given first class treatment, by really pleasant and efficient nurses. They did the usual checks and put me on a drip, again to hydrate me and inject anti-sickness medication. The medication went in first and then several hours of hydration. While that was going on, I started to feel much better and they kindly ordered me some food – my first in over 48 hours. I left about 5:30 feeling like a human being again and many thanks for the wonderful care I received.
