Father and Colon Cancer

Diet and Nutrition
1

Hey everybody.

About 8 months ago, my father (who is 57) had an episode of which he noticed a large amount of blood in his stool. He scheduled a colonoscopy, but then his symptoms stopped, so he cancelled the procedure. I tried to get him to go in anyways, but, as we all know, people tend to be stubborn, especially when it keeps them in the dark in relation to a potentially deadly disease.

Fast forward to this past Friday - he has been suffering from blood in the stool again, causing him to go to the bathroom every few hours to evacuate the blood in his colon. His general practicioner advised him to get it checked out but told him it could just be internal hemorrhoids. While this is true, he, in my opinion, did not place enough emphasis on getting checked out as soon as possible. I badgered him as much as I could, and ended up all but physically dragging him to the doctor.

When he finally got in there, my fears were confirmed: he has colorectal cancer. A mass was found 25cm into his sigmoid colon, and it was fairly large. A few polyps were taken care of while they were down there, and they then ordered an X-ray of his chest and a CT scan.

X-ray came back clear. CT scan showed a small spot (2 cm, I’m not sure how truly small that is in relation to the grand scheme of things) on his right lobe of his liver, and one lymph node was slightly enlarged in his groin area. To my knowledge, everything else (pancreas, stomach, rest of intestines, etc) were clear.

Upon switching doctors due to people dragging their feet, we are meeting with a liver doctor tomorrow (Wednesday) who will be able to tell simply by looking at the CT scan whether or not the spot on his liver is cancer. My gut says it is, and I’m praying that the first doctor didn’t miss anything on the scan, and its not in both lobes…which would be bad.

Assuming that goes as it should, meeting with colorectal doctor/oncologist Thursday, and then he is scheduled for surgery Friday.

Im sorry for typing so much about this, I wanted to give as much info as possible I guess, and I guess its a way to confront this stuff too.

But I have a request from some of the people on this board.

As you can imagine, I want to stay completely on top of this, and do everything possible to bolster his chances of beating this into the ground. While I do have some knowledge of what might be helpful, I am asking that if anyone has any experiences with any nutritional therapies, new research, special cancer centers, experimental therapies, ANYTHING which you’ve come across to show chemoprotective properties, then please, share them with me. Anything in terms of diet, medications, things to ask your doctor to do, frequency of follow ups, etc.

If you have anything to share, anything you feel “in the know about”, please do so.

I know there is a lot of stuff out there which is supposedly great. Some stuff looks quite fishy to me. I am doing my own research, and this is just one facet of that.

So guys, if you have any tips or information you’d like to share, please let me know.

I would appreciate it more than you can imagine. This is the most stressful thing I’ve ever gone through, and I’m scared to death.

Thanks in advance.

-Justin

PS: By the way, I learned from him that he has had some blood in his stool (I’m not sure how much - enough, though- and I’m not sure how frequent) for probably 2-5 years. Of course, he convinced himself that it was just “one of those things.” So please, as is drilled into our heads on a daily basis, if you notice anything strange about your health…get checked out.

2

Hi - sorry to hear the news - a family member had a cancer scare a while ago so i did a fair bit of research back then…

Alot of alternative therapists suggest that sugar feeds cancer cells, while cancer cells can only survive in an acidic cellular environment - 99% on this forum would agree that refined sugar and excess carbs and over-acidity are bad news for general health, so both definately need addressing in my opinion. If you look at the research of Dr Young on acid/alkaline balance, he suggests that tumours are actually an attempt by the body to capsulise rancid cells -stopping them from casuing cancer in other cells. The guy might be considered too extreme for some (especially bodybuilders because he is anti high protein), but his basic theories are very interesting and may be of help.

Personlly, if I had to prescribe an anti-cancer diet, it would aim to rapidly alkalise the body - check your father’s urine/saliva pH and the chances are it will be very acidic. In addition to dietary manipulation, there are some substances which I think are used for this process, specifically in cancer patients - Cesium chloride is the big one on the internet.

Good luck

3

Very sorry about your dad. I agree with the previous poster, cancer does feed off sugar which is why when they do a PET scan, they inject you with glucose. Cancer cells will take up sugar at a rate of about 2X faster than a normal cell.

This is just what I learned from having breast cancer last year. If you’re thinking diet and naturopath ways to supplement his MD care, check out this book:

When I was diagnosed, they told me my tumor was 5CM in size. I worked with my naturopath and used that book extensively. I juiced veggies, took my supplements, worked out, etc. By the time I got to the mastectomy, I had 3 small tumors. They can’t confirm it but it appears my tumor broke apart.

If there is anything else I can do or any other questions you have, please PM me.

I think its great you’re doing so much research, so many Americans just assume their doctor knows everything. I found that wasn’t the case… I knew mine was cancer but was told by one dr that I was too young and I should come back in 6 months. Keep researching for your dad!

4

Besides getting him in front of the best doctors you can,

You are probably already doing the best thing by far that you can do for your father. Let him know how much you Love and Respect him (as you obviously do).

Be there for him and give him something to live for. Give him something to fight for. Spend as much quality time with him as you can.

I know you do not want to think about the worst case scenario, but I swear by this advice.

This is your chance to really talk to your dad. This is your chance to ask him questions and have conversations that you may not have had before. Take advantage of this time as much as you can.

Hopefully, you will have many more years to do so.

God Bless and I wish you and your father the best.

5

Best of luck with your dad. As we get older (I’m 48) with the everyday aches and pains you don’t want to run to the hospital all the time, yet some things do bear out.

I will pray for you and your dad. How is he feeling?

6

Thanks everyone for your responses.

I will definately check out that book.

As an update, we met with the liver specialist today, and he looked at the scans. He is pretty certain that the spot on my dad’s liver is indeed a metastasis from the colon cancer, but can’t be positive because the CT scan which was done was insufficient in terms of detail.

He repeated the scan (I believe this time doing a scanning CT) and we will have that data in our hands with us tomorrow as we talk to the oncologist and colorectal surgeon.

What I’m worried about now is whether or not the first scan missed anything and led us to false hopes. If there is indeed truly only one lesion on the liver, they will section it, in addition to the colon operation, and hit him with some chemo and things will be pretty straight forward.

However, this is barring there is no other tumors found. He said that he wont TRULY ABSOLUTELY know the condition of the liver until he gets to the operating room. Which scares the hell outta me. Basically, if there is more than one tumor mass and its in other parts of the liver…well, not much you can do.

As far as how he’s feeling…well, other than still going to the bathroom all the time (the mass leaves very little room for stool to pass through his colon to his rectum, requiring many small visits) he “feels” fine. Its starting to hit him in terms of the seriousness of the surgery now, as he was hoping the lesion on the liver was something else.

But, all we can do now is pray there is only one lesion there. He is scheduled for surgery Friday regardless of the CT results.

As far as my relationship with my father goes…yeah, things like this have crossed my mind a lot. I’m close to both of my parents, and we have a good relationship, which makes this more stressful.

I moved out from their house a year ago, and recently moved again, so Im farther away from them than I want to be now, but will be making as many trips as neccessary to facilitate the most productive situation possible. I’m also in school, with a heavy semester coming up, and work looms as well.

My dad would advise against it, because he wants me to focus on school, but if I have to take a semester off, thats what I’m going to do.

Anyways, thanks again everybody for sharing your thoughts and offering help, they will be added to the arsenal, and I appreciate any futher responses anyone wants to share.

7

Sorry to hear it and I wish him good luck.

Even if the spot in the liver is cancer, ask about…burning it…I can’t think of the technical name, but if there is only one liver lesion it can be burned and the colon lesion taken out. The problem is that if it has spread beyond the colon the one lesion that you see may not be all there is.

Oh and for a 2 cm lesion the report of the CT should tell you what they think it is.

For state of the art conventional treatment, you can check out…

a site run by a science writer. For a relatively small fee (coupla hundred) you can get a report which lists the state of the art standard treatment for this (or most) kinds of cancer, and who across the country is doing it.

PM me for alternative resources.

Oh and one thing to keep in mind, and I hope this is not too much honesty. Some people when diagnosed with cancer would do anything…crawl on their hands and knees over broken glass to get better.

Other patients…well like the mother of a someone I know who just died. She really was not into fighting the cancer and she died quickly.