I know I know…..I’ve been quite the blog update slacker. I know some people have been looking for an update and curious how things are in the world of Lisa. It means a lot and I appreciate your care and concern. My trip to Switzerland was of course emotional as it’s always a reminder that I am dealing with cancer. Not to mention I was not with Mike for Valentine’s day which obviously sucked. My mother is nothing but amazing and I love spending time with her. We downloaded a scrabble app and since we are both scrabble lovers we enjoyed passing some time with mother daughter scrabble. It was a constant light flurry the entire two weeks which was beautiful but not great to venture out in. Overall, it was successful as I got some good news regarding blood levels, tumors being benign and improvements in thermography and other tests. In regard to the tumors being benign, I have several bumps that have been worrying me but an ultrasound as well as other blood levels indicated that these were fibromas and not cancerous. I have a lot of lymph congestion causing the toxins and crap to have a difficult time getting out of my body. My tumor marker for S100 melanoma went up to 2.60 which definitely is not ideal. It could be much higher but ideally it needs to be 0.00. However, tumor markers are tricky as they are affected by lots of different variables such as inflammation, injury or surgery. Between my arm and my brain I’ve recently had all three. Being that my fourth cancerversary was this past February, I showed some frustration and “okay, what the hell is taking so long” attitude toward Dr. Rau. All this money, supplementation, and effort….cure me already!!! If it was just that easy….
He understood my frustration and comforted me reminding me how strong my attitude is and that is important to keep that up. Which I do indeed, I was born a fighter and always had strength to overcome obstacles but hello? I am human and have my “when the f**k is this going to be over” days. So given my frustration and the klinik’s recent peeked interest with a mushroom treatment, Dr. Rau thought it would be worth a shot to put me on a new treatment to just add to the cancer killing regimen.
So, I managed to bypass taking shrooms in my younger years but here I am at 30 experimenting with the poisonous white fungi. Yup, I said poisonous!!!! .Amanita Phalloides also known as the death cap mushroom resembles your average white edible mushroom yet it is rated amongst the most dangerous poisons found naturally. The substance has the potential to kill any cell in the body, both cancerous or healthy. So…..why am I taking this you wonder?
Chemist and immunologist in Germany have discovered a way to combine the toxic mushroom with an antibody. The antibody acts as a “cab” and transports the toxic mushroom to kill foreign organisms and cancer cells, yet overlooks the healthy cells. So the amanita basically latches onto a cancer cell protein called EpCam and very accurately kills the cancer within that cell. This is very well a death cap mushroom if taken alone however when it is combined with the antibody it leaves the healthy cancer cells alone and just targets the cancer cells.
Much research on amanita phalloides has been done in Germany and it has been found to be successful with colon, breast, and pancreatic cancer as well as Leukemia. Of course many of these studies were in petri dishes and on lab rats but it is being used more and more over in Europe, specifically Germany and Switzerland. Since it is an accumulating treatment, after six to eight weeks of placing ten drops of amanita four times a day on your tongue, they suspect flu like symptoms and just feeling crappy. These symptoms are supposed to indicate if the treatment is working… So I’m at week 5 and I will see what the next couple of weeks bring. Thus far I can’t pinpoint any side effects from the amanita. I just envision it burning away at any cancer cells in my body.
Funny story....My aunt struck conversation with this woman that she sees at the diner every so often and the woman mentioned that her father had stage IV melanomoma, was very sick and had tumors in his organs about 17 years ago. She said that something made him go on this mushroom treatment and after feeling pretty crappy for some time, tumors went away and he didnt have an issue with the melanoma again and 17 years later is still fine. Now that to me is a sign. I believe in all these types of little signs I get along the way. We have to believe and have faith.
Life goes on…..despite all the cancer bullshit….things have been going well. Mike’s birthday was a couple of weeks ago and we had a beer tasting party. I just LOVE themed parties with all the decorating and menu planning. Even better is having everyone together and enjoying the fun moments life has to offer. And this past week, my first nephew was born…. Dana and Anthony now have little boy, Anthony Amato Jr!!!!! Babies bring such joy to life and having another little one around is going to be nothing but exciting.
 |
| Did you ever?! Baby AJ |
+(640x457).jpg) |
| BEER TASTING PARTY GOOD*TIMES |
Thank you so much for the continued support. I know life goes on and gets crazy but I know some of you think of me here and there and believe me I feel that energy. For those of you who have been there for me throughout it all with calls, texts, and emails I truly appreciate it. The support really makes the fight that much easier and reminds you to not give up.
May are the activities to support melanoma. On May 5th we are running a 10k (6 miles) to support healing cancer biologically and on May 19th there is a 5k WALK (3 miles) to support the fight against melanoma. Both are at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow. The more people the more support. Let me know if you are interested.
http://ccmac.org/
http://www.run-li.com/2011/
Much Love,
LiSa
