Changes Don't Come Easy

Yesterday, I took one Pregabalin tablet after lunch and then drove downtown to meet my hypnotherapist. One of the side effect of Pregabalin was drowsiness. I did not feel the drowsiness until two hours later. By then, I was back home from town. I took another tablet at 10pm, had my supper and then went to bed. The drowsiness took effect and I fell asleep. I better not drive when I take this medication. After taking the medication for one day, half the pain gone!

Yesterday afternoon, I received a SMS from my hypnotherapist. She was wondering if I am able to give empathy help to one of her stage 4 lung cancer patient who seems to have lost motivation. The wife of the patient came running to her crying for help and my hypnotherapist said I could help to motivate him. I said yes, prepared some juices to drink and take along and then drove to my hypnotherapist's clinic in Kuala Lumpur. The patient lives a few doors away across the road. My hypnotherapist gave me a briefing about the patient and also showed me the radiologist report (taken in July). After reading the report, I thought deteriorated a bit but not that bad (considering my own report is worst than his). My hypnotherapist said according to the report, his physical condition should not be so bad.

I met the patient, in his 50s by his bed side. He has been immobile for a week or so. The wife told me that her husband has taken the 1st round of 6 cycles of chemotherapy. The first two cycles, the tumors regress a little but did not respond from the third cycle onwards. By the time the 6th cycle came, her husband was suffering from severe side effects. After the chemotherapy treatment, a CT scan was performed in July and the tumors grew in size and numbers, it also spread to the throat and the stomach. The doctor has recommended another round of chemotherapy starting in October 2011. The wife is not too keen on taking the chemotherapy after see how her husband has suffered from the side effects. As it is now, he has constipation and had no bowel movement for one week. He is not able to walk and having aversion to cold, lying in bed. He is also suffering from poor appetite. I was told when he was doing the 1st round of chemotherapy, he was eating at the nearby hawker stalls. Many MLM distributors came and sold supplements which was supposed to help him. Now the patient needs support, where are these MLM  distributors? Not only the patient did not take many of the supplements, they are not even sure what the supplements are for.

I gave a pep talk to the patient urging him not to give up. I also explain to him what cancer feeds on and we should take foods that are good for the body and not for the cancer. I also told the wife at this juncture, there most important question is what treatment is your husband going to do i.e. go for the second round of chemotherapy? I have refrained from giving any of my views about chemotherapy. I said once the decision has been taken, I can provide some information what she can do to help her husband. Meanwhile, I told her to contact my hypnotherapist (who is also a medical doctor) to get some medication to solve the constipation problem immediately. If medication does not help, I have suggested doing water enema. My hypnotherapist has suggest to the wife that her husband be given something light to eat like porridge and fresh juices (such as vegetables, carrot and apple+carrot) to drink in the meantime. I also reminded the patient to watch his diet carefully and that is one weapon directly under his control. From his reaction, I am not sure if he can take the strict Gerson diet.