I am still somewhat in shock. About a month ago, a bleeding "pimple " on my arm was diagnosed as mel, Breslau thickness 2.6 mm, making me Stage 2 , I guess
There I was thinking I was very healthy, at age 61, and still pretty active – skiing, gym, riding my bicycle to work, and an aspiring, but totally inept, surfer. Little did I know that the nasties were at work inside me.
This web site has been extremely helpful in understanding both the medical aspects of the desease and the frame of mind needed to beat it.
I am still somewhat in shock. About a month ago, a bleeding "pimple " on my arm was diagnosed as mel, Breslau thickness 2.6 mm, making me Stage 2 , I guess
There I was thinking I was very healthy, at age 61, and still pretty active – skiing, gym, riding my bicycle to work, and an aspiring, but totally inept, surfer. Little did I know that the nasties were at work inside me.
This web site has been extremely helpful in understanding both the medical aspects of the desease and the frame of mind needed to beat it.
Two questions I would like to pose to the knowledgeable who frequent this blog:
1. An SLN biopsy operation has been scheduled for next week. If it turns out positive for cancer (and I hope not), standard medical practice seems to indicate that the next step is to take out all the nodes in the area. However, at the same time, reading some recent papers, I detect that the doctors are having doubts whether removing the nodes, other than the sentinels, does much good. In fact there is a big study underway comparing the life expectancies of those who do a lymph node disection with those who don't. Any thoughts?
2. I have been reading Alexandr Solzhenetsyn's book – Cancer Ward. Its a fine , even perhaps great, novel (he got the Nobel prize after all), and lays out the reality of cancer. In the novel he describes the curative powers of what he calls Chaga or Shaga, which is a mushroom that grows on dead birch trees in Siberia. His own experience with cancer relates to his time in a prison camp in Siberia where he developed stomach cancer. He learnt about Shaga from some of the local hunters, who brewed up this tea made from mushrooms for all their ailments. Solzhenetsyn claims it cured his cancer. I found the stuff in a local Russian store and have been diligently drinking 3 cups of tea a day made with it. It is quite pleasant tasting, and ,as I discovered , is extremely high, in anti -oxidants. My question is: Do any of you have experience with Chaga and its curative powers with respect to mel?
best wishes
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