<p>Arabian Nights - love it! I am sending positive energy and images of light and healing your way.</p>
<p>Like many others, I too eagerly await your next writing/tale.</p>
<p>sunrise-believe it or not, next weekend we are surprising one of our sons and flying to see him perform at his university in…The Arabian Nights. No joke. Sending all the positive vibes possible.</p>
<p>Sending positive energy your way (although I feel like I am the true recipient?)</p>
<p>I’m sending you my positive energy!</p>
<p>We are with you, sunrise! I loved your last installment. Is one of the non-conventional approaches you are considering the one recommended by your Israeli friend?</p>
<p>Just found this thread today and want to wish you all the best as you’re going through this!</p>
<p>Oh, Creekland, you are a virgin (to this thread!)</p>
<p>Welcome to a one woman freak show!</p>
<p>sunrise,
extraordinary - yes, freak - no!</p>
<p>I’m thinking of you, sunriseeast, and sending you positive energy from the Midwest.</p>
<p>I was also wondering whether treatment in Israel might be on your horizon.</p>
<p>actually, the experimental treatment I have in mind is not the Israeli cancer immunotherapy treatment. That treatment went into the clinical trial phase,and unfortunately, not available in USA. It’s only available in Europe (not sure about Israel either). At this point, I have no desire to “move” to Europe for the sake of this trial. Not desperate enough yet, and there are other trials and options.</p>
<p>Rather the treatment options I have in mind involve drugs that are not approved for cancer treatment by the FDA. Numerous research discovered that there are quite a few drugs that were originally developed for treat different condition that happened to be effective for cancer. The problem is, a lot of these drugs had expired patent. Hence, nobody is interested in doing clinical trials that cost $300 - 400M. Without clinical trials, no FDA approval for cancer treatment. Without FDA approval, no insurance coverage. Without FDA approval, outside the conventional medicine, and many cancer centers won’t prescribe them to the patients for various reasons (the biggest: liability issues). Individual doctors without the institutional guideline to follow can be a bit more flexible. This is the kind of avenue I am pursuing.</p>
<p>For instance, did you know that malaria drugs, HIV drugs, and diabetes drugs all show a great deal of efficacy against cancer? Yet, you won’t get these drugs from the likes of MSKCC, MD Anderson, Dana Farber etc since they are outside the boundary of mainstream medicine. Most conventional doctors are not even aware that these are viable options. </p>
<p>I found a doctor, who used to work at MSKCC, and left to open a clinic where he can push the envelope. that’s the angle I am pursuing. Of course, I will make sure that these drugs are safe to take. And by all indications, they are. </p>
<p>The funny thing is, my doctor at MSKCC recommended him to me when I expressed my desire to step out side of the conventional medicine (I told him: I am a very high risk patient: I need to think out of the box). This doctor later told me that he thinks very highly of my Dr. S at MSKCC.</p>
<p>Cancer patients who turned to the “dark side” (non-conventional medicine) are very reluctant to tell their regular doctor about it - and vice versa. In my case, I feel like a man whose wife and mistress happily agreed on a time share arrangement. Regarding who is the wife and who is the mistress, I will let the two of them duke it out.</p>
<p>I kind of imagined you to be the type of cancer patient to push the envelope and draw outside of the lines!! Glad you found another dr. willing to go there with you - sending positive vibes your way!</p>
<p>Maybe some day it will be Tales from the Dark Side?</p>
<p>Well, since you all heard me whining last few days about my latest treatment setback, I would like to share something good.</p>
<p>over the weekend, my H and I went to visit S2 at his college (overnight trip). It was for an award banquet for students.</p>
<p>I don’t want to provide too much detail, but suffices to say, he got the best award he could possibly hope for: the overall best student award, reflecting academic, leadership, and all other dimensions that matter in his chosen field among freshmen. If he keeps at it year after year while in college, it translates into a really fantastic career development path going forward. </p>
<p>His beaming face was priceless. As you all know, with the latest set back, I was in a somber mood, and this really cheered me up! This is a kid who was in his older brother’s shadow all his years growing up until he went off to college. S1 is a freak and a force of nature, and it’s hard to shine brightly when the room is already lit with megawatt light bulb. I have always told S2 your brother is good at what his has chosen to do, and you are terrific at what you have picked" But, these days, he finally internalized that. These days, when I see the two of them together, I can see how S2 stands all with his older brother, and with how much respect S1 is treating his younger brother. It’s beautiful to see. </p>
<p>One benefit of an advanced stage cancer patient label is that now I can brag about my kids. People probably give me a pass on that — “that poor thing. She HAD TO say something positive about her life once in a while…” This is a new week beginning. I am up to whatever comes my way…</p>
<p>good Monday to you sunriseeast. you can brag about your kids indeed. I also have two sons, and they are high contrast in every way and four years apart. One is extravagantly friendly and expressive and politically active, the other is cautious and reserved and sporty and business-oriented. I was struck with both of them however in this regard: I didn’t fully understand their individual styles, resiliences and friendship needs till we came to know them in the wider world outside of our home town and observed how they made their way socially and academically as unique people. The “introvert” has three times more friends than I could have predicted. The “extrovert” is uncompromising and totally self directed.<br>
Isn’t it a pleasure though to get to know your own sons more fully and part of that does happen because they are apart and free of accommodations made to siblings in one household.<br>
Because my sons have different temperaments, and because my husband and I are swiftly becoming the matriarch patriarch of a very small family with elders passing on and frail now, my next wish for them as they age up…is that my two sons find each other and forge a strong friendship to support each other when we are no longer able to be their home base. They were far apart enough in age to have kept out of each other’s spheres but they didn’t bond as deeply as we see siblings bond in other families. </p>
<p>I tell my sons when I see them that this is the decade…their twenties…when they can build and expand their chosen families of dear friends to see them through life’s bumps and celebrations. They just don’t have a large clan of relatives and cousins to be there in our absence. I have held on to my college friends because of a weak family of origin…and they have filled out our lives and also stood in as uncles and aunts to my sons. I hope both of them build friendships to last for the long haul…but I also hope that they will take comfort in each other as grown men. </p>
<p>What a treasure to have witnessed seeing your second son’s strengths in the wider world acknowledged, praised and recognized. You did a fine job of teaching him to appreciate the many gifts of an education and I am glad you are getting to see into the future when both of your sons are young adults who might indeed admire and support each other. </p>
<p>I read your take on your treatment alternatives at this juncture with interest and am glad to know that there are honorable physicians out there who won’t give up and who will seek out treatment courses outside of the beaten path of protocol treatments. Please keep us posted as you seek out this consult and new treatments to prolong your life and well-being.</p>
<p>Congratulations, sunriseeast! And a hearty congrats to S2. I love hearing about your wonderful sons. Clearly, you have instilled in them the tools they need to move forward and have a full, meaningful, and successful life. They both sound like incredible people who will continue to flourish even after you are not on this earth. You deserve to be very proud.</p>
<p>Hugs to sunrise east. Sincere congrats to your family on S2’s award. All your boys (H included) seem lovely. Thanks for keeping us (your cheerleaders) updated.</p>
<p>sunrise, every time I see the title of this thread I am reminded that you started it out of concern for your sons. You recognized many pages/months back that they were going to be fine, no matter what. It must be wonderful to have your confidence reinforced in this way.</p>
<p>I’m so happy to read about the award your S2 received. Something tells me your sons take after their mother.</p>
<p>I agree with DB.
Sunriseeast, is your S available? He sounds like someone i’d like to set up with my D! ;)</p>
<p>Lilmom,</p>
<p>which one? S1 is currently taken. S2 is not. He has a lot of female friends, not a girlfriend.</p>
<p>By the way, I think it’s a good sign that both of my sons have good female friends. I am always suspicious of men who do not have good women friends. I think men who relate well to women as friends, as people, colleagues, partners, etc are the ones who make a good husband and father down the road. Passion comes and goes, but understanding and empathy are what sustain a long term relationship in the end.</p>