Tijuana: Wed 29 June 2011
Took one for the team today! Yep, my first ever coffee or anything for that matter enema. It went pretty well actually, and I'll spare you any further details on that, other than to say that I will be taking two a day for the next two weeks, which should result in a total detox.
It was a beautiful day today, with the sun shining almost all the day, this is quite unusual here as Playas de Tijuana has it's own little microclimate with the fog often rolling in off the Pacific Ocean, it can remain fairly overcast here, while just a few kilometres up the road in downtown Tijuana it can be baking sun.
Dr Mora gave Maria a concentrated Coley's shot today, and gave me a course in how to prepare and administer the shot, as I will be doing this back home. I will even be giving Maria her shot tomorrow. We had a long talk about a medicine called Zometa, which is used to prevent and reduce bone metastases. Whilst Maria is extremely cautious and sceptical of normal medicines, Dr Mora explained extremely thoroughly the ins and outs and safeness of this medicine. He also took a lot of time in explaining how whilst the Gerson treatment is based around natural and nutritional balance, we can sometimes use some of the non agressive, non poisonous drugs to possibly aid us. This is also interesting of just this Gerson clinic, in that it endeavors to improve the treatment in accordance with medical progress. Anyway, he has told us to take our time and think about it, as it is ultimately Maria's decision, and something they will never push upon her, so that is what we shall do, think about it.
Rest of the day, fairly normal. We had a course again today, showing us how to prepare the coffee for the enemas, along with how to prepare the Castor Oil enema, which is taken once awake on the Gerson treatment. The coffee is a specially prepared blend that comes from Canada. It isn't Nescafe.
We popped over the road to the supermarket today, which has it's own crazy valet! He stands there with a whistle and then whenever anyone comes with a car, he 'helps' them park it with aid of different whistle pitches. I'm sure they would never manage it without him. We bought a couple of Avocados, as Maria likes to make her own face pack comprising Avocado and Aloe Vera. The fruit and veg at the supermarket seems so fresh, will take a picture next time.
The Coley's came on pretty strong later on, with Maria, holding a steady 38 degree fever, as well as experiencing the spreading pain that sets in across the back while the vaccine is working. While she took a lie down and watched a film, I took a quick spell in the Gym. Managed to do a quick compact 30 minute Bikram Yoga session, alone! First time I have done the yoga without a mirror, it is a true test of concentration and thus balance. I started a 3 Km run on the treadmill after this, but after nearly 2 Ks, the machine just stopped abruptly with 'error code 22'. This was quite a pain when I had been joggin at 9km/h and suddenly down to 0km/h. I had to run a bit on the spot just to warm down.
Maria also had Hydrotherapy today, which is basically a spa whirlpool with aromatherapy in a cosy room, with candles and music and I think she really enjoyed this. I think I will hop in next time.
Not much sign of Audrey today, I think she is preparing for her surgery tomorrow. Good Luck Audrey, she's a tough cookie.
Well, that was about it for today. Quick episode of Sopranos and then bed.
Day Six
Tijuana: Tue 28 June 2011
So all in all a quiet day. Maria had a Coley jab early on, which later on in the day managed to just about hit 38 degrees centigrade. My tooth doesn't hurt quite as much today, but I think it will take a few days to heal properly.
Had a good chat with Dr Mora today and gave him a copy of the latest pathologist reports from Maria's last PET scan, which had been written in Swedish and we had the joy of translating. I can assure you translating medical stuff is no easy job.
Weather was pretty overcast today, so we only managed to venture out onto the sun deck for a few minutes, but it was too cold.
Gar was in the hospital today, but I think he was extremely busy with Audrey most of the day and also in the cancer board, where all the doctors meet and discuss the patients, so we didnt meet him yet.
At 3 pm, we had a quick cooking course in how to make the Hippocrate's soup, which is kind of the basis and at the root of the Gerson diet. Recipe to follow.
Have been reading some of Max Gerson's book, "A cancer therapy" and came across a very interesting quote, actually from Leonard Wickendon. It read as follows; "It has been emphasized before that cancer develops in a body which more or less has lost the normal functions of the metabolism as a consequence of a chronic daily poisoning accumulated especially in the liver". Go figure, but basically makes a lot of simple sense.
Well, as said earlier, fairly quiet today, watched a film, lights out at 11 pm.
So all in all a quiet day. Maria had a Coley jab early on, which later on in the day managed to just about hit 38 degrees centigrade. My tooth doesn't hurt quite as much today, but I think it will take a few days to heal properly.
Had a good chat with Dr Mora today and gave him a copy of the latest pathologist reports from Maria's last PET scan, which had been written in Swedish and we had the joy of translating. I can assure you translating medical stuff is no easy job.
Weather was pretty overcast today, so we only managed to venture out onto the sun deck for a few minutes, but it was too cold.
Gar was in the hospital today, but I think he was extremely busy with Audrey most of the day and also in the cancer board, where all the doctors meet and discuss the patients, so we didnt meet him yet.
At 3 pm, we had a quick cooking course in how to make the Hippocrate's soup, which is kind of the basis and at the root of the Gerson diet. Recipe to follow.
Have been reading some of Max Gerson's book, "A cancer therapy" and came across a very interesting quote, actually from Leonard Wickendon. It read as follows; "It has been emphasized before that cancer develops in a body which more or less has lost the normal functions of the metabolism as a consequence of a chronic daily poisoning accumulated especially in the liver". Go figure, but basically makes a lot of simple sense.
Well, as said earlier, fairly quiet today, watched a film, lights out at 11 pm.
Day Five
Tijuana: Mon 27 June 2011
What a day! So a nice breakfast followed by a little walk down to the beach. An abundance of squirrels running around, they're the new rats, I'm sure. The bad news is that it seems the headache I had been getting for the last couple of days, may have actually been due to an infected tooth, ow! Spoke with Soroya, who has booked me in for a 2 pm appointment after lunch.
Dr Mora came down with Maria's blood results. Everything was in order and pretty much within all the recommended levels. This is great news, and what was really interesting is that her protein levels were adequate and remember she hasn't touched any animal proteins in over a month. Dr Mora, spent a good deal of time just explaining what all the different blood tests were and what they meant, something that has never happened in the dozens of times she has had blood tests back home.
Oh well. D-Day, we have eaten lunch and it's time for me to go down to reception where a driver will take me and Soroya (who will act as my interpreter) to the dentist. Good news is that within a couple of minutes the dentist had confirmed that i had an infection around an old tooth; the bad news, it has to come out; the extra bad news, it was a root filling.
Cut to 3 hours later and 6th x-ray, and finally the last of the tooth had been removed. An extremely careful dentist who decided he would take his time rather than just yank the thing out in ten minutes. Although I must admit, my mouth and lips got pretty dry. The cost for this monumental amount of dental surgery, 40 bucks! If anyone from the LA area wants a recommendation of a dentist just across the border, drop me a line ;-)
Got back to the hospital and to my partner in crime, Maria, who was actually beginning to wonder where I had gotten to, and if I had enrolled in a Mexican street gang, and discussed my woes and the pain I had been through. Man flu!
Got to dinner time and there is no way I'm going to be getting any solids in my mouth, so waited a couple of hours, and mushed up my food and ate most of it through a straw. Opted not to take the painkillers I had been prescribed, although I did chicken out and take the anti-biotics, just to be safe?
Crashed out to Black Swan with Maria, and stopped it about half way through before we both passed out for the day.
Day Four
Tijuana: Sun 26 June 2011
Awoke again bright and early at 5.30 am. It must be these earlier nights. Had a shower, although it wasn't so easy as the shower head has fallen off, so we now shower under a jet of water. It works! As Dr Mora said the other day, this place isn't as fancy as some of the hospitals that are almost like spas these days, but the help you get here outweighs all of that, and I have to say, I whole heartedly agree with that.
Again, a fairly quiet day, I guess most of them will be as this is a recovery phase where one should take it fairly easy. I am really beginning to get into the diet now. Before, back at home I really over ate. I would find myself not only eating the wrong food, but too much of it. I had tried several times in conjunction with my Yoga training for example to cut back on my diet, but it seems that not only is it about quality but quantity. I can now eat what I would consider a laughable amount of food, and not feel hungry again afterwards, and I don't even have cravings between these meals. Whilst up on the sundeck this afternoon, by the way, we had tremendous weather today, I got a waft of some grilled chicken from the surrounding neighbourhood, and whilst I can say I still find the smell attractive, I didn't get a craving, and I consider this a good sign. The amount of information we have recently digested regarding nutrition, dangers of sodium (salt) and produced foods, I think I can safely say that it is time for a change in my diet. I encourage you to see some of the lectures by Gar Hildenbrand here along with a film he made where he travelled around the USA meeting some survivors of sometimes terminally diagnosed cancers that followed the Gerson protocol sometimes along with the Coley Vaccines. What you take away from this film with you is the sincere belief that our health system, not just in the US, but also back home in Sweden is so unknowledgeable and based on profits for pharmaceutical companies. I was always skeptical about such conspiracy, whistle blowing films before, but the facts are there, and the simplicity is that we (society today) is malnourished and has a lot of resulting sickness and disease based upon such deficiencies. I shall be putting up links on the right side-bar later to some very interesting documentaries.
Well, I'll just hop off my soap box for a few moments and tell you about the rest of the day.
At dinner we met one of the other patients here, Audrey, who in her early eighties is returning to the hospital for further treatment. A very alert and extremely knowledgable lady, it was really interesting to hear her stories about how things had changed in the US during her lifetime.
Cracking sunset this evening, caught the sun a little today, so just off to rub some natural aloe vera into my rosy arms before bed.
Day Three
Tijuana: Sat 25 June 2011
Woke up at 2.30 am to dogs and party in the street! Didn't manage to get back to sleep. Breakfast with Dave and Denise before saying goodbye to them as they head back to Pittsburg. Following breakfast we decided to head out for a walk, and apart from a brief spell on the terrace the evening before, we hadn't actually been outside since we arrived, let alone left the building.
We went for an hour long walk down to the beach front and along the boardwalk, all the way along to the border. This is something we shall try to do every day, weather and Maria's condition permitting.
Pretty quiet in the hotel at the weekends, Maria had a Vitamin C IV and the usual monitory checks, but all in all a quiet day for treatment.
Following dinner, Baked Potato and Asparagus, we went upstairs to watch the Gold Cup final on TV between Mexico and USA. The game finished 4-2 to Mexico, I don't think the Americans were very happy.
Early night tonight, due to lack of sleep, turning in at 9.30 pm.
ps. Thanks Mariama for scanning the 20 something pages of journals and mailing them over.
Day Two
Tijuana: Fri 24 June 2011
Woke after a great night's sleep at 5.30 am, and watched the end of the film we had tried to watch the night before. Breakfast was porridge and toast, which even had some homemade jam with it.
We met Dr Mora, who seemed great and amazingly focussed. It would be easy to be fooled by his young looks if he weren't so knowledgeable. He spent a good hour talking to us, giving us a brief overview of how the treatment might pan out. What is interesting here, is that they take each case and break it down and then try several different approaches to treating it. This is a very different way of working and feels extremely more personal. The other thing to remember is that there are very few patients here. The hospital doesn't take more then six!
Dr Mora explained Coley Vaccines and how they would be used to help try and kick-start the immune system, and retrain it to fight infections.
Lunch was a delicious sweet potato along with a bean soup and salad. This increased the gas levels in our room for the rest of the afternoon!
After lunch Maria got her first Coley shot and began feeling the pain in the shoulder later in the afternoon. Dinner was a baked potato and aubergine along with soup and salad. Spent dinner talking with Dave and Denise again. My plan is to also start taking enemas tomorrow, I have also told Dr Mora that I wont take any special 'visitor' alternatives with my meals, such as chicken or pasta, thus I will be eating more or less the same diet as Maria. I can say that after just a few days of radically changing my diet I feel amazingly different. Had a really shitty sinus headache bugging me for most of the afternoon.
Day One
San Diego / Tijuana: Thu 23 June 2011
We were picked up by the hospital's director at our hotel and driven down to Tijuana, Mexico. This of course involved a border crossing and registration. Arrived at the hospital and were introduced to some of the staff and taken to our room, which overlooks the Pacific ocean.
Soroya, head of patient relations and Lourdes (Admin), were on hand to say hello.The nurses and everybody we have met so far are really kind and caring and interested in Maria's case. Dr Martinez did some brief checks on Maria.
Nurse 'Fila' (I think that was how you say it), explained quickly some medication and also the coffee enemas, although Maria had been doing these previously for the last two weeks. We met another couple Dave and Denise who were really friendly and Dave was just coming to the end of the three week course of treatment. They had nothing but praise for the treatment and the staff at the hospital. They mentioned Gar Hildenbrand and Dr Mora (who will be Maria's main physician here), again singing their praises and saying how intelligent they were. We had been watching one of Gar's lectures on a DVD that day, and yes, this guy really knows nutrition and pretty much everything else inside out.
4 pm and Maria has an IV containing multivitamins as well as a shot (Litherin I think). Food has been totally OK. I have not been following such a strict raw diet that Maria had been following, so the change for me was quite substantial, though totally manageable. Feeling very tired, must be jetlag catching up, time for bed.
Had no idea what to expect here in Mexico and the CHIPSA centre, but the feeling is good. Better than all this though, is that I get to spend over a month of dedicated time with the girl I love.
Getting Here
Stockholm: 21/22 June 2011
A backstory ...
In the summer of 2009, my girlfriend Maria was on holiday with our then newborn baby Pella and spending some time with her Father in Spain. Maria had been having problems with persistent coughing and been diagnosed a couple of times with pneumonia. She was sure however, in her self that something wasn't quite right and her father decided to take her to a private clinic and run some tests.
On the evening of 12 August 2009, I was sat at home alone watching a film after a day at work. I was staying at home at this time as Maria had taken a long break in Spain, and I had quite a lot of work on. The phone rang, not unusual, as we always kept in touch at all times. Maria told me straight out in tears and barely able to talk that "they had found a tumor in her lungs". My world stopped and an indescribable weight dropped in my stomach. I didn't know what to do or say, I was totally numb. I rushed over to Maria's mum's place and met her with her brother where after a very traumatic night we managed to get Maria on the next plane home to Sweden.
Following comprehensive tests, Maria was diagnosed with an inoperable adenocarcinoma lung cancer. The tumor was growing and the doctors put Maria on a course of Chemotherapy along with Radiotherapy. After several months and more scans, it seemed as though the cancer had shrunk and was inactive. Not enough to operate but nonetheless dormant and not posing any threat. We began to enjoy a normal life and start enjoying time together as a family with regular scans to keep a check on the sleeping giant.
In may of this year, we met Maria's oncologist for an update on the latest PET scan. The news wasn't good. The tumor had awoken and now spread to 4 or 5 different areas of the body. Our world bottomed out again, but only for a day. Maria decided straight away that we had done enough moping the first time and we could now attack this with a strength from the (second) beginning. Her doctor suggested taking a new biopsy a procedure she had done a year ago, which involved opening the throat going down and fetching a sample of the tumor (not very pleasant) and then seeing if she would have the correct mutation of cancer for a new promising drug that had finally started to do tests in Sweden. We had heard about this drug a year before and had travelled to Italy which was one of the few places that was doing the early trials on the drug. The new drug Crizotenib, had indeed had fairly good results, but it is just that, a new drug. Nobody knows what the long term effects may be, and the common side effects included tiredness and nausia, and this was a drug that you would pretty much have to take for the rest of your life.
Maria decided that she didn't want to go down that old road of conventional medicine this time. The doctor had also suggested that Radiotherapy and possibly some Chemotherapy would be required if we were to follow the normal path. So after some research and reading around, we heard and read about a natural alternative called DCA (Dichloroacetic Acid) which had also had some pretty impressive results, however no clinical trials and after reading about the history of the research it appeared that the path of development and progress seemed to have dried up around 2007, although DCA is selling very well, in all shapes and sizes.
A bit more reading and searching and Maria came upon the Gerson therapy. A course of treatment developed by Max Gerson a genius doctor from Germany who discovered that (simply put) a course of controlled nutritional diet could help the bodies failed immune system recover and ultimately fight the host disease. The Gerson Institute whilst being based in the USA, had a lot of it's early development based in Mexico, where it is stilled practiced today. One of the centres specializing in the Gerson therapy is the CHIPSA Immunological Center in Tijuana and this is where we went to start a 4 week treatment.
This blog, is by no means meant to be any accurate scientific journal, or guide. It shall merely be a daily collection of observations and happenings during the course of our time here at the CHIPSA hospital. It wont be structured and may seem really lame at times. However, it is my own journal, and it may be of some use to someone, somewhere in the future, who knows?
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