10.01.06, More on Glyconutrients and Alternative Treatments

Sunday here on the ranch. As far as updates from the NCPB procedure I’m not sure there’s a lot to report, since it was so minor I think there’s little to keep track of, except for possible complications. None of those, it seems. Whether it was successful is also hard to say at this point since Dr. Saunders says it usually takes at least 5 days to “kick in.” The deadening of nerves to kick in is an odd turn of phrase. But I wait for the kicking in of nothingness, no more pain feelings fingers crossed I hope. We shall see.

Today’s post is mostly boring and treatment related, details for the info junkies or the concerned. Not much psychological investigation, nothing very profound, although a choice described about one new treatment option that might “give hope” to some (there’s a little cheese for you ☺).

Glyconutrients & the Great Open Mind.
I wanted to also give an update about continuing treatment/s and what I’m doing about the cancer. Right now, I’m in the second round of my second type of chemo treatments, the TGX as opposed to GTX approach. This, too, is too early to report on, though I will have my restaging on around the 17th of this month and new CT scans will tell how the various tumors are doing. Poorly we hope.

Also, I’ve been doing more checking and soliciting of what I think are qualified opinions and I think I’m going to try out this glyconutrient “treatment.” It’s something to run by Dr. Whiting, but I since there aren’t known drawbacks it should be a viable option. The fact that it’s distributed through an MLM, as I noted before, is less than ideal, but on the open-mind front I wanted to reassure the doubters that I don’t conflate the distributor and the product, so no worry there. The long and short of it is that their glyconutrient product, I believe sold through the company MannaTech or Manna Tech (sp?), is an extracted form of a carbohydrate called mannose, and some others added to it, from aloe vera. The claim is that our bodies don’t get enough of this anymore and by supplementing it our bodies are able to function at peak performance, fight disease more efficiently, and thus allow for other, actual drug treatments (since this one’s not a drug) to work better too. The company’s claims for success are, as you’d expect, as high as the sky.

Out of all the alternative approaches suggested to me this one stands alone, so far, in having some actual science behind it. No way to guarantee success with it, of course, but at least there are numerous studies saying that the science of it works, that in theory it might be a help. So it’s a nothing to lose — except some money — and possibly a lot to gain. I want to be cautious on the hopeful gains, for obvious reasons.

I realized today, too, as I was loading up my weekly pill box with the various drugs and supplements I’m taking, with Ms. K there watching the process, that I should clarify what kinds of things I’m taking. I do take lots of pills, but I think I might have given the impression that they are all actual drugs, mainstream pharmaceuticals, all prescription, anti-cancer, etc. Not so. K was even surprised a bit at the number of supplements involved. So that might be news to some of you. I only take a limited number of anti-cancer (chemo) drugs and the majority of the pills are supplements of various types (from fish oil, green tea extract, standard vitamins and minerals, etc.). I do try to keep my skepticism level high regarding all the suggestions I’m given, and I’m grateful for them to all who send them my way, it’s just that they all need to be researched, evaluated, and decided upon. In the end, I’m taking a fair amount of the non-prescribed, non-standard stuff — again the low risk and some potential return theory — and I hope this is comforting to some of you who have suggested alternatives I may not be following. The mind is more open than some may have suspected, is what I hope this indicates.

And a Franky Scale about 6 plus.