In the early stages of the movie " Braveheart " there is a scene where William Wallace's father has been killed in one of the battles to free Scotland. The young boy ( Mel Gibson ) wants to fight back and avenge his fathers death. His wise uncle approaches him and states " Before you use this ( sword ), you've got to use this, he points to his head and applying wisdom.
Most of us are unprepared when we are given a diagnosis of cancer. Initially it can be a terrifying feeling followed by emotional and physical shock for a period of weeks to months. If one wants to live, it is paramont during this period to focus one's attention on survival. Webster's dictionary discusses intention as a purpose and objective," the determination to act ". Many cancer patients that I have counseled over the past seven years have had difficulty even initiating their focus on intention. Many others lose it along the way. A significant percentage of patients want their children, spouse, friends, or medical clinician to make decisions for them. Many of them fail to step up to the plate and face the Evil that is standing before them. This can be a grave mistake. Many new agers will tell you to go on with your life and wish it away, others perhaps vegetarians will suggest that a special diet will solve the puzzle. Others perhaps mindful Christians, will try and pray the diagnosis of cancer away. Let me be very clear, CANCER IS EVIL. When someone receives this diagnosis it would behoove them to get ready for battle. The bible describes putting on the armor of battle , defending yourself with the shield of faith, and picking up the sword of truth. The diagnosis of a tough cancer behooves one to do all of the above and more. It is and should be the Turning Point and Defining Moment In Ones Life. Our minds and bodies are terrified. Most of us are in such a stage of shock, that it's difficult to even feel and listen to one's soul.
Studies are starting to show, that patients who take charge and learn assertive behaviors have far better outcomes that those who don't .
I cannot tell you the number of phone calls that I get each month from patients and family's that are at the end of their rope. The chemotherapy has stopped working, the complications are mounting and their medical centers do not have the answers.
Over 1,600 patients go down each day in the United States and that number is not going away.
My diagnosis was so rare I realized that the only way to survive was to surround myself with the best experts ( Western and Holistic ) and support systems in the world. Within days of coming home from the hospital ( Extremely ill ) I was on the phone daily calling all around the United States and the World for help. I tried to build a survival team of various experts around the world that knew about liver sarcoma. After I had visited a number of medical centers in the midwest, it was decided that I should try a trial of very high doses of interferon. ( Biological Chemo) During one of these sessions, ( at a large medical center in Metro-Detroit )
my oncologist walked in next to me and said, "Mark, it doesn't matter what we try ( He went on to name a number of chemos and experimental drugs ) there is no hope for you." "It would be better now for you to get your affairs in order and enjoy what short time you have left". He gave me this advice as I was laying there receiving chemotherapy and sicker than a dog. I was very discouraged when I left his office that day. I pondered those remarks and got madder than hell. I decided to refocus my intention to survive and give myself those treatments at home. After I fired him he kept calling me and my family for weeks to get me to come back in. Later I found a wonderful oncologist in northern Michigan who was open to trial chemos and integrative adjunctive therapies. Over the next seven years, I had to refocus my energy , a number of times. Day after day, night after night, week after week, for seven years, I was on the phone or on my computer searching for answers.
The danger never seemed to leave for very long. One day about three years into my journey, I went to work doing consultations at a rehab center. I had been feeling very weak for a number of days and feeling worse. I attributed this to side effects of my chemotherapy. I was standing there examining a patient and started getting dizzy. All of the sudden my world started falling down around me. My heart started beating in an irregular manner and it felt like it was going to explode. A physician ministered to me and put me in a car with himself and nurse driving. When we arrived at Henry Ford Medical Center ( Detroit ) I was pallor and my pulse was thready. A Trauma team stabilized me and started scanning my body. As they took me out of the scanner a physician came up and said " Mark, dont move an inch. Your medi-port has dropped into the right ventricle of your heart and is starting to go into your lungs.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Discent Into Darkness / The New World of Cancer
I was discharged that evening on the day of my formal diagnosis. My finance' at the time took me to the trilogy " Lord of The Rings ". I remember lying asleep in her lap for most of the performance. Little did I realize that the characters and paradigm of these scenes would play an important role in my survival. The next six-eight weeks, I recall, were living hell. I was a physical and emotional wreck. The pain continued to get worse on my side causing significant insomnia each night. I felt terror day and night. With each visit to the medical centers in the midwest, I was given the same reponse. "We're sorry, dire prognosis, no hope". Many of them suggested a similar treatment, "Interferon" to stave off the progression of the deadly cancer cells. The also described how between 25-30% of patients with my diagnosis would be gone in the first 12-18 months in people with my clinical picture.
A colleague of mine had given me the office number of one of the most eminent liver surgeons in the world. He had a distinct european accent and practiced out of Sloan
Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. After I got done describing my pathology reports to him there was a long pause-then he stated the same four words that I had started to but into: "There is no hope". Downtrodden and discouraged, I started on a journey to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. During this time, I continued to loose weight and was terrified night and day. The second day of driving, I recall was uneventful untill we got into Tennessee. I looked up into the sky to see a beautiful flock of birds flying in formation fairly high into the sky. They seemed to be leading our car. At the time I thought it was rather strange. They seemd to be leading us. About twenty five minutes later, we looked up and saw this enormous cross sittting in the median of the expressway. I would say it was 250 feet high.
It was so expansive and statuesque it reminded me of a silver stealth missle. I can still recall the sun as it glistened off the top of it. I asked Greta to pull the car over to the side of the road. I got out and went to a wooded are and stood next to a tree. ( I felt dizzy and exhausted ) I knelt down and started weeping and crying. At that moment I could feel the agony and poison start to leave my body. I cried to God for help. A few moments later I could actually feel movement inside my heart. This was followed by a voice in my chest that told me " It is I, take my hand, there is a way through this." For the first time in months I actually felt some softening and inner peace in my heart. I Felt Hope.
Upon arrival in Houston, we found out that my medical records had been displaced. Instead of a week of consultations and a treatment plan, they decided to redo all of my tests and keep me there for a month. ( Costing over 6 thousand dollars ) Again, the terror returned, the fevers, the agony. the horror.
I prayed and was guided to visit a movie theater in between my tests. That same trilogy " Lord of The Rings " was playing and I decided to see it in its entirety. I marveled at its imagery and metaphores. Here they were, four little Hobbits, followed by a small band of rangers, elves, and dwarfs, trying to stave off evil and save mankind form destruction. They were led by a grandfatherly wizard named Gandolf. He was a very mystical figure who seemd anoited with magical powers. His message was one of caution and wisdom. During the performance, I saw many battle scenes with the same metaphore "good verses evil". The evil one named "Saramon" would attempt over and over the gain control over the one ring that could put and evil spell over the earth and mankind. Fighting many battles and aginst all odds Gandolf, the Hobbits and Aragon fought savagely to save earth and the world they loved. Those scenes really got underneath my skin and started to give me hope. Time and again I would watch these small creatures go through living hell to save mankind.
I decided that I would do anything to survive. Moreover I started to realize that the only way I was going to live was to do three things. 1. Set my intention to survive. 2. Give my life and soul to God and ask for his guidance. 3. Start giving to others. That evening I got a phone call from Dr. Jerry Jampolsky, founder of Attitudinal Healing. After sharing with him, about my anxiety and fears I recall him saying."Mark, you know the purpose God has given you, as long as you are still breathing, I want you to pick up that phone and start calling people who are worse off and give them strength. I remember hanging up the phone realizing that I had a new purpose and mission. Those words of wisdom helped save my live.
A colleague of mine had given me the office number of one of the most eminent liver surgeons in the world. He had a distinct european accent and practiced out of Sloan
Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. After I got done describing my pathology reports to him there was a long pause-then he stated the same four words that I had started to but into: "There is no hope". Downtrodden and discouraged, I started on a journey to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. During this time, I continued to loose weight and was terrified night and day. The second day of driving, I recall was uneventful untill we got into Tennessee. I looked up into the sky to see a beautiful flock of birds flying in formation fairly high into the sky. They seemed to be leading our car. At the time I thought it was rather strange. They seemd to be leading us. About twenty five minutes later, we looked up and saw this enormous cross sittting in the median of the expressway. I would say it was 250 feet high.
It was so expansive and statuesque it reminded me of a silver stealth missle. I can still recall the sun as it glistened off the top of it. I asked Greta to pull the car over to the side of the road. I got out and went to a wooded are and stood next to a tree. ( I felt dizzy and exhausted ) I knelt down and started weeping and crying. At that moment I could feel the agony and poison start to leave my body. I cried to God for help. A few moments later I could actually feel movement inside my heart. This was followed by a voice in my chest that told me " It is I, take my hand, there is a way through this." For the first time in months I actually felt some softening and inner peace in my heart. I Felt Hope.
Upon arrival in Houston, we found out that my medical records had been displaced. Instead of a week of consultations and a treatment plan, they decided to redo all of my tests and keep me there for a month. ( Costing over 6 thousand dollars ) Again, the terror returned, the fevers, the agony. the horror.
I prayed and was guided to visit a movie theater in between my tests. That same trilogy " Lord of The Rings " was playing and I decided to see it in its entirety. I marveled at its imagery and metaphores. Here they were, four little Hobbits, followed by a small band of rangers, elves, and dwarfs, trying to stave off evil and save mankind form destruction. They were led by a grandfatherly wizard named Gandolf. He was a very mystical figure who seemd anoited with magical powers. His message was one of caution and wisdom. During the performance, I saw many battle scenes with the same metaphore "good verses evil". The evil one named "Saramon" would attempt over and over the gain control over the one ring that could put and evil spell over the earth and mankind. Fighting many battles and aginst all odds Gandolf, the Hobbits and Aragon fought savagely to save earth and the world they loved. Those scenes really got underneath my skin and started to give me hope. Time and again I would watch these small creatures go through living hell to save mankind.
I decided that I would do anything to survive. Moreover I started to realize that the only way I was going to live was to do three things. 1. Set my intention to survive. 2. Give my life and soul to God and ask for his guidance. 3. Start giving to others. That evening I got a phone call from Dr. Jerry Jampolsky, founder of Attitudinal Healing. After sharing with him, about my anxiety and fears I recall him saying."Mark, you know the purpose God has given you, as long as you are still breathing, I want you to pick up that phone and start calling people who are worse off and give them strength. I remember hanging up the phone realizing that I had a new purpose and mission. Those words of wisdom helped save my live.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
The Missing Link in Cancer Survival / New World of Cancer
During the winter of 2002 I was told that I had a very rare form of liver sarcoma. After I had visited a number of major medical centers....I was told the same two words 'NO HOPE'.
A friend of mine had heard of a well known oncologist at the M. D. Cancer Center in Houston. She encouraged me to consult with him. After the examination he discussed with me that I was up against a vicious opponent. He shared with me something that very few cancer patients ever hear. He told me that if I wanted to stay alive...I personally would have to find three contingency plans to stay alive. These would be backup strategies that I could pull out of my pocket at anytime to increase my chances of survival. If I would use up one or two of them, I would have to find more.
These essential words of wisdom did indeed save my life. Day and night I searched through cancer center libraries, the internet, and oncology journals. I joined internet groups and blogs to find answers and clues. Finally I did indeed find three
strategies that did save my life and used up all of them.(They will be discussed in later chapters)
The majority of cancer patients ( with advanced disease ) put most of their hope and faith in one physician or medical center. When their labwork and scans start going south and they become deathly ill...oftentimes the professionals taking care of them DO NOT have the answers to save them. That is why it is IMPERATIVE that patients facing a tough cancer diagnosis MUST find a lead researcher/medical liason to assist them. They must seek out multiple opinions and strategies early on and come up with three contigency plans to extend their lifespan.
This important homework assignment that Im giving to you could very well tilt the balance in your favor in the battle between life and death.
© Mark Roby 2010
A friend of mine had heard of a well known oncologist at the M. D. Cancer Center in Houston. She encouraged me to consult with him. After the examination he discussed with me that I was up against a vicious opponent. He shared with me something that very few cancer patients ever hear. He told me that if I wanted to stay alive...I personally would have to find three contingency plans to stay alive. These would be backup strategies that I could pull out of my pocket at anytime to increase my chances of survival. If I would use up one or two of them, I would have to find more.
These essential words of wisdom did indeed save my life. Day and night I searched through cancer center libraries, the internet, and oncology journals. I joined internet groups and blogs to find answers and clues. Finally I did indeed find three
strategies that did save my life and used up all of them.(They will be discussed in later chapters)
The majority of cancer patients ( with advanced disease ) put most of their hope and faith in one physician or medical center. When their labwork and scans start going south and they become deathly ill...oftentimes the professionals taking care of them DO NOT have the answers to save them. That is why it is IMPERATIVE that patients facing a tough cancer diagnosis MUST find a lead researcher/medical liason to assist them. They must seek out multiple opinions and strategies early on and come up with three contigency plans to extend their lifespan.
This important homework assignment that Im giving to you could very well tilt the balance in your favor in the battle between life and death.
© Mark Roby 2010
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Rare Cancers / Never Give Up
My symptoms had been mounting for months. Malaise and fatigue had been my companions each day as I awoke. I had also noticed a subtle pain in my right upper quadrant of my abdomen for the past eight weeks.I tried ignoring these issues-attributing them to my workaholism over a lifetime. Moreover I decided that my abdominal pain was a result of the daily weight lifting routine before my nighttime runs.
The day in question started routinely. I had showered and then went to the medical center to start a ten hour stint in the emergency room. Around 7 p.m. that evening I got home and started my nightly 4 mile run. I can remember it like it was yesterday. The temperature was around 25 degrees and the snow started to fall. I had worked ten days straight and so looked forward to these periods of solitude.
I recalled that the discomfort I had been feeling in my right abdomen had started up agin during this run. When I came home, as I opened the door of my condominium my whole world started crumbling down around me. I had difficulty breathing and felt an excrutiating pain in my right ribs as I collapsed. As I lay on the floor the pain came in waves. Even though I didn't know it at the time, I had lost 15 lbs and had a fever of 102 degrees. I somehow made it to my car and drove to the trauma center of s large medical facility around Detroit. The staff thought I might have an acute abdomen so all they could do was to give me IV fluids and oxygen. I could have nothing by mouth and only tylenol for the pain. It was one of the worst nights of my life. The next morning after a battery of tests, I called my father to come in. While he was standing next to my bed, the emergency room physician walked in and said he had some bad news. The tests, he said had shown that I had cancer all over my liver. They were going to keep me in the hospital to find out the primary source. Tears started crawling down my face as my father held me. We were both speechless. Here I was a naturopathic physician and semi- vegetarian looking death straight in the eye at 50 years old. One week later after a very painful biopsy I was told I had one of the rarest liver sarcomas in the world.
© Mark Roby 2010
The day in question started routinely. I had showered and then went to the medical center to start a ten hour stint in the emergency room. Around 7 p.m. that evening I got home and started my nightly 4 mile run. I can remember it like it was yesterday. The temperature was around 25 degrees and the snow started to fall. I had worked ten days straight and so looked forward to these periods of solitude.
I recalled that the discomfort I had been feeling in my right abdomen had started up agin during this run. When I came home, as I opened the door of my condominium my whole world started crumbling down around me. I had difficulty breathing and felt an excrutiating pain in my right ribs as I collapsed. As I lay on the floor the pain came in waves. Even though I didn't know it at the time, I had lost 15 lbs and had a fever of 102 degrees. I somehow made it to my car and drove to the trauma center of s large medical facility around Detroit. The staff thought I might have an acute abdomen so all they could do was to give me IV fluids and oxygen. I could have nothing by mouth and only tylenol for the pain. It was one of the worst nights of my life. The next morning after a battery of tests, I called my father to come in. While he was standing next to my bed, the emergency room physician walked in and said he had some bad news. The tests, he said had shown that I had cancer all over my liver. They were going to keep me in the hospital to find out the primary source. Tears started crawling down my face as my father held me. We were both speechless. Here I was a naturopathic physician and semi- vegetarian looking death straight in the eye at 50 years old. One week later after a very painful biopsy I was told I had one of the rarest liver sarcomas in the world.
© Mark Roby 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
The New World of Cancer
As I write this article, I am sitting deep in the woods laying in a magical meadow. All around me are the mystical sounds of nature. I can hear a myriad of birds singing their love songs to each other. The chipmunk, squirrels, and little creatures on chirping. I can hear the wind as it curses through the pines and leaves. As I breathe in, I am encompassed and enveloped with the wonderful scents that have helped to heal me over the past seven years.
There is enormous healing power and energy in nature. Much more than most people realize. It is a shame that there has been a significant rift between conventional medicine and the so called alternative/holistic field. Both sides offer enormous benefits to patients worldwide.
I would personally like to speer-head a truce between the two sides. A marriage (of sorts) of these two parties is way overdue. My very survival was largely dependent upon realizing and actualizing both sides.
The majority of major medical centers across the country that I visited told me to stay away from natural medicine. Many told me that these supplements would decrease my survival time and increase my demise. I was very saddened by their response. After I left each facility, I reassessed my nutritional and natural protocols. Moreover, I researched everything that I did. Then I came up with new plans to complement the conventional treatments that I was receiving. I took supplements including wheatgrass, vitamin D, fish oil, quercitin, bromelain, and others. My research led me to starting a strict alkaline diet and juicing.
Kathleen and I would often take treks towards the ocean and woods during my medical journeys. We would meditate, pray, hug trees, and let nature heal and renew us. God put the good earth and all of the power within it for a reason. It's high time that we accept and utilize this wonderful, precious and sacred resource. The patients I talk to and counsel are starving for their souls to be fed. Moreover, their immune systems are craving precious nutrients. The latest cutting edge/integrative advances will be coming here soon on my new website: www.cancerstrategies.org and www.cancer-central.net. Please also, don't forget these words that saved my life: "It's possible. There is a way. Never give up."
© Mark Roby 2010
There is enormous healing power and energy in nature. Much more than most people realize. It is a shame that there has been a significant rift between conventional medicine and the so called alternative/holistic field. Both sides offer enormous benefits to patients worldwide.
I would personally like to speer-head a truce between the two sides. A marriage (of sorts) of these two parties is way overdue. My very survival was largely dependent upon realizing and actualizing both sides.
The majority of major medical centers across the country that I visited told me to stay away from natural medicine. Many told me that these supplements would decrease my survival time and increase my demise. I was very saddened by their response. After I left each facility, I reassessed my nutritional and natural protocols. Moreover, I researched everything that I did. Then I came up with new plans to complement the conventional treatments that I was receiving. I took supplements including wheatgrass, vitamin D, fish oil, quercitin, bromelain, and others. My research led me to starting a strict alkaline diet and juicing.
Kathleen and I would often take treks towards the ocean and woods during my medical journeys. We would meditate, pray, hug trees, and let nature heal and renew us. God put the good earth and all of the power within it for a reason. It's high time that we accept and utilize this wonderful, precious and sacred resource. The patients I talk to and counsel are starving for their souls to be fed. Moreover, their immune systems are craving precious nutrients. The latest cutting edge/integrative advances will be coming here soon on my new website: www.cancerstrategies.org and www.cancer-central.net. Please also, don't forget these words that saved my life: "It's possible. There is a way. Never give up."
© Mark Roby 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Cancer & Angiogenesis
From the journal of Angiogenesis Research (Sept 2009):
Editorial:
"The concept of tumor angiogenesis and therapy was proposed by Dr. Judah Folkman, who published the first and probably one of the most cited articles in 1971 [1]. In that article, Folkman showed and discussed early evidence that solid tumors could not grow beyond several millmeteres in diameter without blood vessels and they might be held at the nonvascularized dormant state. He proposed that tumors produce soluble factors to stimulate vessel growth and inhibition of tumor angiogenesis might be a novel approach for cancer therapy. While these hypothesis sounds logical and reasonable now, Folkman experienced unusually unsympathetic criticisms from his colleagues at that time. It took him nearly 30 years to convince the scientific community that his hypothesis was the correct one. We are all very grateful for Dr. Folkmanm's persistence, which has opened one of the most exciting and fast-expanding research areas in biomedical research. Today, millions of patients suffering from cancer and non-malignant diseases receive anti-angiogenic therapy. For those who work in this field, we are extremely fortunate to see Dr. Folkman's extraordinary achievements that have changed not only our lives but millions of patients."
Dear Friends and Colleagues:
This editorial surrounding the abstract reminds me of a wonderful quote by Albert Einstein, he stated: "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." I'm extremely grateful to Dr. Judhah Folkman for the wonderful gifts that impacted the New World of Cancer. His work helped to save my life and millions of others. During my illness, (liver sarcoma) I was put on two targeted chemotherapies that helped to stave off my tumors. The first was called Avastin which I was on for 2 1/2 years. Even though there can be significant side effects, I was spared most of them. This drug benefited me by keeping my tumors stable for a long time. The second drug was called Sutent, a drug primarily used for kidney cancer. I was in clinical trials for two years at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center (NYC) while on this chemo. Again it did a great job keeping my liver stable until the liver transplant at the Cleveland Clinic early this year.
There are also a number of natural phytochemicals with anti-angiogenesis properties that I will be discussing. Combining a strict anti-cancer diet, along with conventional medicine, can go a long way towards prolonging a person's survival time. Keep saying to yourself, "It's possible, there is a way through this, I will never give up."
Reference
1 Folkman J: Tumor angoigenesis: therapeutic implications. N Engl J Med 1971, 285:1182-6. PubMed Abstract
© Mark Roby 2010
Editorial:
"The concept of tumor angiogenesis and therapy was proposed by Dr. Judah Folkman, who published the first and probably one of the most cited articles in 1971 [1]. In that article, Folkman showed and discussed early evidence that solid tumors could not grow beyond several millmeteres in diameter without blood vessels and they might be held at the nonvascularized dormant state. He proposed that tumors produce soluble factors to stimulate vessel growth and inhibition of tumor angiogenesis might be a novel approach for cancer therapy. While these hypothesis sounds logical and reasonable now, Folkman experienced unusually unsympathetic criticisms from his colleagues at that time. It took him nearly 30 years to convince the scientific community that his hypothesis was the correct one. We are all very grateful for Dr. Folkmanm's persistence, which has opened one of the most exciting and fast-expanding research areas in biomedical research. Today, millions of patients suffering from cancer and non-malignant diseases receive anti-angiogenic therapy. For those who work in this field, we are extremely fortunate to see Dr. Folkman's extraordinary achievements that have changed not only our lives but millions of patients."
Dear Friends and Colleagues:
This editorial surrounding the abstract reminds me of a wonderful quote by Albert Einstein, he stated: "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." I'm extremely grateful to Dr. Judhah Folkman for the wonderful gifts that impacted the New World of Cancer. His work helped to save my life and millions of others. During my illness, (liver sarcoma) I was put on two targeted chemotherapies that helped to stave off my tumors. The first was called Avastin which I was on for 2 1/2 years. Even though there can be significant side effects, I was spared most of them. This drug benefited me by keeping my tumors stable for a long time. The second drug was called Sutent, a drug primarily used for kidney cancer. I was in clinical trials for two years at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center (NYC) while on this chemo. Again it did a great job keeping my liver stable until the liver transplant at the Cleveland Clinic early this year.
There are also a number of natural phytochemicals with anti-angiogenesis properties that I will be discussing. Combining a strict anti-cancer diet, along with conventional medicine, can go a long way towards prolonging a person's survival time. Keep saying to yourself, "It's possible, there is a way through this, I will never give up."
Reference
1 Folkman J: Tumor angoigenesis: therapeutic implications. N Engl J Med 1971, 285:1182-6. PubMed Abstract
© Mark Roby 2010
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