UPDATE AFTER VISITING ONCOLOGIST HERE IN PA

December 22, 2013

Sending holiday wishes to everyone and hoping you have a Merry Christmas!

Anyone wishing to contact the clinic Marinus am Stein, they have posted the following:
The clinic 'Marinus am Stein' is closed from 20.12.2013 to 12.01.2014. 
In this time you can write us emails anyway and we will answer as soon as possible.
Also you can call us at the following days between 09:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.:
23.12.2013  / 27.12.2013  /   02.01.2013   /   10.01.2014.

Mike met with his oncologist here at home on the day before Thanksgiving - Wednesday, November 20, 2013.   He said he was pleased with Mike's results.   He said that the cancer that had been seen in the colon in April is not seen in the PET scan from October.  The tumors in the liver and lungs had shrunk by 50%.   He said that since Mike did not want to do any more chemotherapy, he wanted him to continue with the treatment that had has been doing himself all along.  Mike had a CEA test performed after this appointment, and we were told they would call us with the results.  A follow up appointment has been scheduled for February unless anything would change with Mike.  At that time, the doctor would order another CEA test and if things were up, would order further testing at that time.

We received a call stating that Mike's CEA level had gone up to 17.5.  When asked about whether it was wise to wait until February to have a repeat CEA, we were told that there are so many things  that affect the CEA level.   A smoker will have a high CEA level.  Mike has not smoked for over 20 years.  Anyway...they told us not to be to concerned about this rise.

Mike is continuing with his Vitamin C infusions, his infra red sauna treatments every other day here at home, his coffee enemas, his strict sugar free/carbohydrate free diet.  He eats organic chicken and fresh caught fish and seafood as well as organic vegetables.  He continues to take his supplements as well.

I am hoping that Mike will continue on a forward progress in his battle.   If he cannot be completely cancer free, I am hoping that he can continue to manage it and co-exist with it.  I will continue to post updates on Mike's treatment and health.

Again, Mike and I, as well as our babies, send wishes to everyone for a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!  We thank you all for your best wishes, caring thoughts, your love, your prayers, and your support during the past 9 months.

UPDATE ON NO UPDATE 11/06/13

I just wanted to get back on here for everyone wondering how Mike made out with his testing.   We have not yet officially met with the oncologist who ordered the PET scan and the CEA test.  Mike was supposed to see the doctor on 10/22/13.  However, since he was already taking time off work the next day for his biweekly Vitamin C infusion, he did not want to take additional time off work.   His employer/adopted family would not have had any problem with him doing so.  Hence, he reschedule his appointment to Wednesday, November 27th. 

The unofficial report is that the cancer has shrunk in the liver and lungs.   It states that the cancer visualized in the PET scan from April is NO LONGER VISUALIZED!  His CEA level is down to 5.  Dr. Weber wants Mike to continue taking the Artesunate (Chinese worm wood) and is having that sent to him. 

We are so thrilled and cannot wait to see what the oncologist has to say about this. Mike, as noted above, is continuing his biweekly Vitamin C infusions.  Through the LORDSCANCERCARE account that was set up for Mike, we purchased an Infra Red Sauna that he can use at home. He was previously seeing an alternative doctor to have this treatment done weekly.   Now he can do it in the convenience of our home and on his time schedule.  He is continuing with his diet - no sugar, no starches, eating wild caught seafood and fish, eating organic chicken and vegetables (only the ones that grow above the ground).   When Mike puts his mind to it, he can accomplish anything.

Mike made the decision back before we left for Germany that after he got back home, he was not going to have any further chemotherapy because of the damage that it does to the body. He does recognize that the chemotherapy did, in fact, shrink his tumor with the 7 treatments he had.  However, the chemotherapy also destroys the good cells in the body.   He states that he did not go to Germany to "pump up" his immune system so that his body could fight this cancer only to have it destroyed by further chemotherapy.

People have asked me what I think about this decision.  Although it may ultimately affect me, it is not my decision to make.  Mike was the one who was physically going through this poisonous treatment to kill the cancer cells.  I respect and support whatever decision he makes in his fight. 

I will add another entry once we meet with the oncologist and get his official interpretation.   At that time, since Mike no longer wants any chemotherapy, his port will probably be removed.   Again, if there is anyone reading this blog that has any questions about our journey and what we have experienced, please contact me at munuam@yahoo.com and put LORDSCANCERCARE  in the subject line.  I have been fortunate to correspond and talk with a few people who have contacted me, and I hope I was able to give them some information to help with any decision they may be trying to make about whether or not to go to Germany.  

CONTACTING ME

Wednesday, October 9, 2013



I have had a couple of people contact me after reading my blog chronicling our stay in Germany.

If you have any questions about our stay at Marinus am Stein or you would like to converse about our experience, you are welcome to leave a comment on this page,  and I will contact you.  Or.... my email address is  munuam@yahoo.com.   Please put LORDSCANCER CARE IN THE MEMO LINE.  I would be more than happy to talk to you about our experience.  

I was able to speak to a couple of Americans who had stayed at Marinus am Stein prior to our visit, and we found that by them sharing their experience, it made our decision to go there and our trip so much easier.  We knew what to expect.   To this day, we are still in contact with these new friends!

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2013

Wednesday, September 18th

Sorry it has taken so long to get to the blog but I have been trying to get everything put back in it's place after our journey home.  I was unable to post anything to the blog on Friday the 13th because the internet was down at the clinic.   The staff thought maybe it had to do with the rain we had that day.  I kept checking all day and into the evening.

We had our final meeting with Dr, Weber on Friday shortly after lunch.   He went over all the labs that were done showing how everything had improved.  He stated at that time that Mike did not have to schedule a return trip back to the clinic for treatment.  He did say, however, that we could come back just to visit. He advised Mike to have an MRI test in 4-6 weeks and a CEA test done with both results being sent to him at that time for review.  He stated that based on the findings, he could then advise Mike what he needed to do to continue with his healing.  He was very pleased with the progress that Mike made while he was there.
As I was realizing that we would be leaving Marinus am Stein soon and thinking about what Dr. Weber had done for Mike, I could feel my eyes welling up.  I could see Dr. Weber watching me and that he was aware of my emotions.   We all got up from our seats, and Dr. Weber came around his desk and hugged me.   I thanked him for having this wonderful clinic for people all over the world who have been diagnosed with this dreadful disease to come.   This would be the last time that we would see Dr. Weber as he was leaving the clinic mid-afternoon to go out of town to give a lecture.

As we left his office, Ivan and Kate were sitting in the hall waiting for their turn to go in and speak to Dr. Weber.   They could tell that I had been crying and thought we had been given bad news.  I had to say that it was good news, but that I was sad to be leaving the clinic and all the friends that we have made.    Kate and Ivan also then ended up crying.   Mrs. Dr. Weber was standing there as well and was witnessing what was going on.  I had to go over and hug her too and thank her as well for establishing the clinic.   Mike then had to finish up with his treatment for the day with hyperthermia while I went and found Christy to give her the news.   We hugged each other and celebrated the good news.       We then headed down to the dinning room for supper.  I had gone down before Mike and everyone was looking and waiting for him to walk in so they could congratulate him.     Leah and Christy were there to give Mike a hug.   We then retired to the landing to continue with the celebration,  Shirley's niece, who is in the military in Italy, came for a visit and since there was an opening in the clinic, the Webers let her stay there.  She was very nice and seemed to have a very fun personality.

My stomach was feeling upset so I excused myself to go up to the room to see if the internet was up so I could do the blog for the day.   Since I could not get on the internet, I decided to go to bed.  Mike came to bed around 10:00.   I was extremely sick the rest of the night and all the next day.   Mike made the nursing staff aware of what I was going through, and Stefka and Mrs. Dr. Weber kept checking on me.  I was running a fever.  Mrs. Dr. Weber gave me a nice reprimand for not calling the night nurse.  She stated that is why they have a night nurse.  They gave me medication twice that day to help with what I was experiencing.  I stayed in bed and slept until the next morning,

Mike and the others went to the train station to go up the mountain.  However, when they got to the station, someone who had gone up earlier told them that it was foggy and the view was not good,  Therefore, everyone decided not to waste their money.  Shirley's niece then took Dennis and Shirley shopping.  Mike, Christy, Leah, and Clare headed back to the clinic.  Along the way, they found the Pub that Chris from France would go to between meals and treatments to have a beer or two.   They had cappuccino and pastries.  I did get a shower and attempted to visit with everyone in the dining room while they ate dinner.  However, the smell of food got to me, and I had to go back up to our room and go to bed.   Mike stayed up and then said his goodbyes to everyone before calling it a night.  My stomach was still upset at this point.

Luckily I had basically packed everything earlier in the day on Friday because I would not have been able to do so being sick.   We arranged for the night nurse to wake us up at 5:00 the next morning to be ready for our 6:15 taxi pick up.  When I woke up, I was feeling so much better.  I was so thankful that I did not have to be flying home while sick.   Leah got up at 5:30 to say goodbye.   She came in and sat with us for a few minutes. Again, there were some tears as we said our final goodbyes.  The taxi arrived on time and drove us to the airport.   Going through the terminal and the process for boarding went smoothly.  It was easier than when we arrived and tried to make our way to pick up our bags and find our driver.   The return trip was a little more bumpy than the first flight.  We left Germany on 09/15 at 9:45 AM and landed in Newark on 09/15 at 12:45. PM.   It was a 9 hour flight.   Gary and Clare were there with open arms to pick us up.  We were so happy to see them.  We stopped for a quick bite to eat on the way and arrived home around 5:15 PM.   We had arranged for a friend to pick up our dogs from our groomer so we did not have that additional drive to pick them up and bring them home.   They were so happy to see us as we were them.

If you know of anyone who has cancer and has been told nothing further can be done or know someone who wants a better solution for treating their cancer, please have them check out German Cancer Breakthrough: Your Guide to Top German Alternative Clinics by Andrew Schloberg.   Without reading this book which reviews alternative cancer treatment facilities in Germany and surrounding areas, we would have never known that gentler, effective cancer treatment was possible   The services are not covered by insurance, but you will find that it is a much better solution than the traditional, cancer treatment prescribed by physicians here in the states and other countries.  I will continue a blog post when we have the results of Mike's blood testing and PET scan which is scheduled for October 16th.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

Tomorrow will give an update on the the last days in Germany and our trip home.  It is late, and I am tired from our flight home.

DAY 18 OF TREATMENT 09/12/13

Thursday, September 12th


9:00 PM
Today it has rained all day long and been quite chilly.  I just heard something which sounded like fireworks going off.  I am not sure if that is thunder bouncing off the Alps or not.  I will have to ask someone in the morning if that was what it was.

Mike got all his treatments and massage in before lunch.   We did not meet with Dr. Weber today to get all of Mike's records and final plan.   His medical records have not yet been translated so he wants us to meet with him tomorrow morning.   I know I have said many times how wonderful I feel Dr Weber is, but I wanted to make another comment about him   Every morning after breakfast and while Mike is undergoing his treatments, I sit on the 3rd floor landing to check out Facebook,  my email, start this blog, etc.  It is about 9:00 in the morning.   That is the time that Dr. Weber comes in.   His office is on the other side of the landing and our room located on the opposite side.   He comes off the elevator and comes over to shake my hand and says, " Ahh  Frau Lord, how are you this morning?"   Today, he had a huge stack of mail and magazines under his left arm and was carrying a medical container in his right hand.  He set down the things in his right hand so he could shake my hand.   He just makes himself so open and available to everyone here.  He then goes into his office and changes into scrub and his Birkenstock sandals.  He may walk by me several times while I am sitting there, and each time he will do something, whether it be raising his eyebrows or giving me the thumbs up symbol, to acknowledge me,

The dinning room was full this morning.   There was another German woman who came and an Oriental woman from near Sacramento who has breast cancer.   The clinic make it nice with the seating assignments by seating the English speaking patients with each other and then German speaking patients together.   Because we do not know German, we cannot find out the history of the German patients.  Lunch today was Bavarian marinated roast with homemade pasta and then pasta with cheese roasted onions, and ruccola. Mike and I both had the 2nd one which is the vegetarian choice,   The ruccola is another name for arugula.   When I looked this up it actually said this is considered an aphrodisiac.  Imagine that!  The marinated roast was actually sauerbraten.  Dessert was a fruit milkshake which was made with raspberries.   These are not as thick as we have them in the states.

Dave and his wife left today to go back home to England.   Dave came around to each of us to say good bye and I gave him a hug.  I could feel the tears wanting to spill over.  He will return in 8 weeks for further treatment.  Mrs. Weber and her two sons took them to the airport back home.  The clinic provides transportation from and back to the airport either with the clinic van or arranges to have pick up by a taxi.   They then also take care of the fee for this.

We met with Verena after lunch to pay our bill for our stay.   We previously wired a deposit of 12,000 euros which was approximately $16,300.   The remainder of our balance was 3797 euros or $5,055.   Our flight was $3,000.    We feel this was money well spent.   If you consider that Mike's one day of treatment back home costs, for one 8 hour day of chemo, $37,000.  We got a bargain here.   It is a shame that our insurances in the states will not consider covering this type of treatment.  With our savings and the help and generosity of so many friends and people we don't even know, we were able to make this trip a reality and get the treatment that Mike needs.

After lunch and then paying our bill, Christy, Mike, and I went with Ivin and Kate to Austria.   We went into a town called Kufstein.   Kate pointed out the moment we crossed the Germany/Austria line so we knew when we were in another country.  Kufstein is only about a 1/2 hour drive from the clinic.  We walked through a cute little village with cobble stone like streets and checked out some of the stores.    We went into a restaurant and had beverages.  Mike had espresso and I had hot chocolate,   We found a multi-level mall and checked out a couple of stores there.   It would have been beautiful had the sun just been out, and we had more time.   That did not stop us from making the most of our time there.

We got back to the clinic a little late.  They were again wondering where we were and if we would be there for dinner.   Dinner was mediterranean vegetable pan with basmati rice.  The vegetables were a mixture of carrots, squash, red and green peppers, onions, and mushrooms (which I picked out and gave to Mike). Soups today were clear vegetable and creamy kohlrabi with truffle.   The soups have all been very good. The creamy soups are all strictly liquid.  I had one soup for lunch and then the other for dinner.  Mike passed on both of them.

As usual, a few of us headed up to the 2nd floor landing for our evening conversation before retiring for the evening.

DAY 17 OF TREATMENT 09/11/13

Wednesday, September 11th

My heart is sad today thinking back 12 years ago when our country suffered the most horrendous attack on our soil and country.   I paused at 2:45, our time here in Germany, for a moment of silence to honor all those innocent people who lost their lives.    We will NEVER forget you.   

When we were in meeting with Dr. Weber to go over Mike's other test results, we mentioned to him about today being the 12th anniversary of 9/11.  He showed us a poster that he has on his bookshelf of the Twin Towers.  He said he can remember watching that on TV.  All Mikes other results were within the normal ranges.   He did say Mike was Magnesium deficient so he was going to start him on that.

I am sorry if there are some of you that tuned in earlier today to read the blog and were unable to do so.   My blogger account had been blocked because of some unusual activity.  It took me forever to try to get my account unblocked because the recovery method they wanted to use was to send a text message or a voice call to the cell phone they had on file.  Unfortunately, this is my home cell phone (which I have with me), but that phone does not have international coverage.  I kept working and working trying to get this straightened out because there was no way for them to contact me that way.  I was really stressing out about this because I thought how am I going to be able to share the happenings here with everyone.  But anyway..... I am back.

On top of that, I was already somewhat in a teary mood thinking about the significance of today, and then we received wonderful news about Christy.  Her tumor markers have substantially gone down.  Once she sat down and actually vocalized this and let it sink in,  the realization of what Dr Weber said actually hit her.  She let the emotion inside of her out and that brought tears to my eyes as well.   I was so happy for her.   It was then Dave's turn.  He went in to go over his MRI results with the doctor.   ( In the mornings, I sit on the landing outside of Dr, Weber's office.   Whenever anyone came out from their meeting with the doctor, I had always been apprehensive to look them in the eye in case they had not gotten good news. )  I had my head down working on my computer, and I looked up to see Dave's wife, Jennifer, giving me the thumbs up signal.  The tumors in his liver have shrunk.   He still has a lot going on in his pancreas.   They said that Dr. Weber wants him to come back in 8 weeks.   I have been crying every time someone gets their results, and Christy tonight said it best, "We all have a vested interest in each other".   This is so true.   We have become so close and entwined in one another's story and feelings that what affects them, affects us.

After lunch today Christy, Mike, and I started to walk into town to get some exercise and check out some other stores further in town that we did not venture to earlier.  It was chilly enough that we were wearing long sleeves.  It is supposed to rain the next two days so we wanted to get the walk in while we could.   We also checked out some locations for Christy to stay for the last 3 days of her stay here.  She started out in the clinic, but to cut down on the expense, she moved into a farmhouse where she is renting a room.  We went into the hotel here in Brannenburg to take a look at a couple of the rooms. They were quite small, but most of the time is spent here at the clinic so the rooms are enough to sleep in.  She has found a couple of openings so she was productive in her search.   This gave us some knowledge of what is available that can be passed onto others who may want to come here.

Today's menu:

Lunch was creamy asparagus or clear soup with parsnips.  Mike had the creamy soup.  I skipped that today. His main meal was Tyrol Onion roast with potatoes and butter beans.   He gave his steak to Dennis, who I said was the steak and potatoes kind of guy.  His butter beans were actually French green beans.  My meal was Sauteed Vegetables.  I was able to fill a soup bowl with the mushrooms that were in this and gave them to Mike to eat.  I just cannot eat these whole or sliced.   Dessert was chocolate creme with Pear.  It was a chocolate pudding with cut up pear

Dinner was cold buffet which was thinly sliced cheese and cold meat, rolls and butter, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers. hard boiled eggs halved, pickles and then fruit.

After dinner, we all went up to the 1st floor landing to talk and ran into Ivan and Kate.  Ivan was having trouble with his catheter and had blood in his urine.  He came back to the clinic to have the nurse check this. She in turn called Dr. Weber who said he was coming in.   Dr. Weber can in and made some adjustments to the catheter which made a big difference.   They were really concerned about this.   We were all so happy that it was not anything major.  Not long after that everyone called it a night around 8:00 and retired to their rooms for the night.