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Pain gets worse

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Lymphatic therapist changed my routine and wants the Velcro wraps on during the day and the gauze wraps at night. The Velcro wraps just keep the swelling as is. The gauze wraps help move it up. Unfortunately they move it inti my hip and back and leave me to massage it out all night. Haven't slept since starting this because the pain is intense and the massage produces marginal results. Likely would work for someone who sleeps horizontally, but not me. On top of Boney Mtn, Nov 2006 . Went to intervention radiologist yesterday . He had a couple options. First was injecting radioactive ytrium-90 into an artery that goes to the liver. Catch is that my bilirubin has to be 2 or less. Mine was exactly 2 last week. Other option is chemo covered polymer particles that are injected the same way. Chemo is less effective than radiation. So go get fresh labs and a fresh CT and decide what to do ... Both are just buying time since it doesn't address cancer in other body pa...

Start again

Started taking CBD oil by capsule so I know what the dose is. Probably not a quick pain fix, but of you don't start sometime.... At least I'm now dressed for bike riding . Lymphodema therapist recommended wearing bike shorts to increase compression in my midsection. Stupid ibuprofen didn't work last night, just added to my heartburn. Finally this morning, took all the wraps off my legs and by 1pm the pain subsided enough to let me get an hour's sleep. So seems most of the pain is from lymph being pushed up. The pump coming tomorrow hopefully will take care of that. It squeezes the lymph up your legs and pelvic region to the upper lymph nodes. Like being inside a snake that's moving up your leg. Went to see oncologist today . Said I didn't qualify for any trials because my liver numbers were off the chart. His only other options are low dose of chemo...which probably won't do anything. Yttrium chemo shot right into the liver to kill the cancer there ...

Not much new

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Well...graduated to two canes . Bit easier to get moving. Sometimes right leg just wouldn't budge, like it had no muscle memory on how to move forward.  And...now I have a walker for around the house, since it was too hard to carry stuff and manipulate 2 canes. Oncologist doesn't recommend restarting on Taxol as its been 5 weeks since I had it and it ran my immune system down. Since I have an FGFR3 mutation in my cancer cells, there are a bunch of promising trials going on by 5 different pharm companies that target cells with that mutation. Same advice I got from Cancer Treatment Center of America. Here is the trial they said I am eligible to be in. Could start in 2 weeks if accepted. Some wicked side effects listed in the contract; have to see if they have probabilities on them. https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02872714?term=Incb+54828-201&rank=1  S ome of side effects possible: Hyperphosphatemia, diarrhea, mouth sores, anemia, dehydration, blurred ...

Getting back on track

Cobra finally approved . Of course the woman who has to submit the authorization request for the lymphedema pump only works Tues-Thurs, so lose another week getting this thing.  Every couple of hours I have to try to manually massage my torso, thighs, hips and back to move the lymph to ease the pressure. Sometimes it actually helps. Decided to go back to oncologist and get a dose of Taxol just to hold off the cancer till ny other treatment is ready. Really didn't want to, but it's been too long with doing nothing. We will see if he actually has an argument in favor of Keytruda or he was just grasping at straws. Other treatment is outside the box, but I have seen the proof of it knocking out cancer in 6 weeks regardless of type of cancer. When it works for me I will be even more comfortable putting people ... in touch with the representative for it and share the proof. I expect to start that the week after this. After the treatment, then back to healing up from cance...

Better late than never

Forgot all about doing this over the weekend. Good info on Chris Werk's ( chrisbeatscancer) Q&A session,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjjZRghOCfw&feature=youtu.be Met with a dietitian to talk about the finer points and pitfalls of going vegan. Some great tips like eating vitamin C rich foods with iron rich foods to improve absorption of the iron. Since I had a problem with my hemoglobin being low, that's key. Some good ideas for snacks too. Peanuts don't have most of the benefits of tree nuts and not all tree nuts are equal. Brazil nuts are a source of selenium that others aren't. There are lots of non-soy based protein alternatives, especially in recent years. I've seen too many vegans who were undernourished because they didn't know what they were doing and didn't eat a broad enough diet to get sufficient iron, protein, and phytonutrients. Well so much for getting on the stationary bike . Got one foot on, but couldn't raise eithe...

Pluggin along

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  My friend Rita Ryan is going to laugh , point and say I told you so when I put this out there. Seems the best way to beat this is going vegan. No sugar, no red meat. So I'll have one last steak tonight and tomorrow be on vegie protein and iron. My mammoth hunting ancestors wouldn't understand, but considering my cousins and I have documented 200 years of cancer in the family, we must've been doing something wrong. Good thing beer is vegan   Family wants me to check with cancer dietician to see if organic is enough even including meat. https://mesothelioma.net/vegetarian-vegan-diets-cancer.../ From Rita Ryan Ha! Yes, finally! You need to cut out sugar/carbs too, they feed cancer. And beer has lot of carbs. But cannabis kills cancer! And cannabis is vegan, yay! Get the organic kind. I look forward to you falling in love with a plant based diet while enjoying medicinal marijuana. Please send pix!! Make sure you get enough plant-based protein. And stay away f...

New Directions

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Hard to watch one of my flawed heroes continue to slide. Jan Ullrich came in second three times to Lance and 3 times to earlier winners and won once. Generally the gaps between first and second are a minute or two. A little harder work in the off season, a change to pedalling style and he could have been one of the greats. But a habit of offseason partying had escalated to a difficult marriage and worse divorce and now this. Hope he gets the help he needs to turn his life around. [edit: Jan went into rehab and Lance went to help him and is bringing him to a center in Aspen] https://www.velonews.com/…/former-tour-de-france-champ-ullr One on my favorite cyclists and often called the best loved guy in the peleton, George Hincapie, on racing in Europe back in the day as a 19 year old, what a domestique really does besides get bottles of water from the team car, US Postal team, doping, proud moments, racing post doping and growing young riders.    https://youtu.be/MpeP...