We have decided to start another round of natural treatment, unless we hear otherwise about my MRI from UCLA. I always send a copy of my MRIs to UCLA, where I’ve had the last 2 brain surgeries done by the most amazing surgeon, for them to review. They actually first caught the tumor recurrence last year, whereas the local radiologist thought the tumor was stable. So it’s always somewhat edgy waiting for Dr. Liau’s email, telling me what the brain tumor board thought about my scan. We are praying that they either concur with the local reading, or that they have even better news.

Tonight I will be starting a round of High Dose Vitamin C with DMSO…yup, back to the odor. A little depressing, but all for a good cause. I will be doing this until next Thursday, when I see my doctor again. I happened to come across this article today, which was so exciting to me. My decision about doing the Vitamin C was being questioned by somebody in the medical field, so I thought I would do a bit of research to make sure that this was a good decision. Check out this article:

Vitamin C Injections Slow Tumor Growth in Mice

High-dose injections of vitamin C, also known as ascorbate or ascorbic acid, reduced tumor weight and growth rate by about 50 percent in mouse models of brain, ovarian, and pancreatic cancers, researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) report in the August 5, 2008, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers traced ascorbate’s anti-cancer effect to the formation of hydrogen peroxide in the extracellular fluid surrounding the tumors. Normal cells were unaffected.
Natural physiologic controls precisely regulate the amount of ascorbate absorbed by the body when it is taken orally. “When you eat foods containing more than 200 milligrams of vitamin C a day — for example, 2 oranges and a serving of broccoli — your body prevents blood levels of ascorbate from exceeding a narrow range,” says Mark Levine, M.D., the study’s lead author and chief of the Molecular and Clinical Nutrition Section of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the NIH. To bypass these normal controls, NIH scientists injected ascorbate into the veins or abdominal cavities of rodents with aggressive brain, ovarian, and pancreatic tumors. By doing so, they were able to deliver high doses of ascorbate, up to 4 grams per kilogram of body weight daily. “At these high injected doses, we hoped to see drug-like activity that might be useful in cancer treatment,” said Levine.

Vitamin C plays a critical role in health, and a prolonged deficiency leads to scurvy and eventually to death. Some proteins known as enzymes, which have vital biochemical functions, require the vitamin to work properly. Vitamin C may also act as an antioxidant, protecting cells from the damaging effects of free radicals. The NIH researchers, however, tested the idea that ascorbate, when injected at high doses, may have prooxidant instead of antioxidant activity. Prooxidants would generate free radicals and the formation of hydrogen peroxide, which, the scientists hypothesized, might kill tumor cells. In their laboratory experiments on 43 cancer and 5 normal cell lines, the researchers discovered that high concentrations of ascorbate had anticancer effects in 75 percent of cancer cell lines tested, while sparing normal cells. In their paper, the researchers also showed that these high ascorbate concentrations could be achieved in people.

The team then tested ascorbate injections in immune-deficient mice with rapidly spreading ovarian, pancreatic, and glioblastoma (brain) tumors(this is the higher grade version of my tumor). The ascorbate injections reduced tumor growth and weight by 41 to 53 percent. In 30 percent of glioblastoma controls, the cancer had spread to other organs, but the ascorbate-treated animals had no signs of disseminated cancer.(This is amazing. These tumors are capable of doubling in size every week. Once they have spread, life expectancy is often a few weeks) “These pre-clinical data provide the first firm basis for advancing pharmacologic ascorbate in cancer treatment in humans,” the researchers conclude.

Interest in vitamin C as a potential cancer therapy peaked about 30 years ago when case series data showed a possible benefit. In 1979 and 1985, however, other researchers reported no benefit for cancer patients taking high oral doses of vitamin C in two double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials.

Several observations led the NIH researchers to revisit ascorbate as a cancer therapy. “Clinical and pharmacokinetic studies conducted in the past 12 years showed that oral ascorbate levels in plasma and tissue are tightly controlled. In the case series, ascorbate was given orally and intravenously, but in the trials ascorbate was just given orally. It was not realized at the time that only injected ascorbate might deliver the concentrations needed to see an anti-tumor effect,” said Levine, who noted that new clinical trials of ascorbate as a cancer treatment are in the planning stages.

Data from Levine’s earlier studies of the regulation and absorption of dietary vitamin C were used in the revision of the Institute of Medicine’s Recommended Dietary Allowance for the vitamin in 2000. In the current study, Levine led a team of scientists from the NIDDK and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), both components of the NIH, as well as the University of Kansas. “NIH’s unique translational environment, where researchers can pursue intellectual high-risk, out-of-the-box thinking with high potential payoff, enabled us to pursue this work,” he said.

This is just my prediction, but because of this research, eventually the pharmaceutical companies will come out with a new drug that contains Vitamin C, but is mixed with a chemical so that they can patent it, and eventually make an insane amount of money off of it. Natural substances can’t be patented, so chemicals have to be added. They often will add chemicals that allow the body to absorb the drug better (which is positive), but there is often a price to pay in the list of 100 side effects of that chemical, such as…..cancer. Yes, counter-productive. In my case, we are mixing the Vitamin C with DMSO. The DMSO is the carrier that will drag that Vitamin C into my cells. Cancer cells are naturally very attracted to DMSO, and the DMSO essentially pokes holes in the cells, allowing the substance they are bound with to permeate. It is a natural substance, with no toxic side-effects. Now doesn’t this seem like the more logical way to administer treatment? I think so, too. (climbing down from my soap box)

So that’s where we are now. Other than these silly medical nuisances, life around here is crazy. Tyler is going to start school in 2 weeks, which is SO weird. These past 5 years have felt like 10 with all that has gone on, yet it doesn’t seem possible that my son is starting school, already. He is very ready for some stimulation, I think. He’s very social and his mind is constantly churning, trying to figure everything out. Today we were talking about Auntie Kristy (my brother’s wife) being pregnant. He asked when she was going to have her baby and I told him in January.

“Really? She wants to have her baby in the winter? Hmm….I guess it takes awhile to make a baby, though, so that’s probably good. It takes God at least a couple of days”.

Out of the mouths of babes. I love their innocence. They have such a pure and optimistic view on life at this age. I often think that life would be so much more enjoyable if we could step back into that childlike mindset. It’s kind of ironic that children’s minds are considered naive, yet I think that it takes great maturity to be able to get back to that place where you have the trust and faith of a child.

Other than that, my husband is insanely busy. You would think that the dairy driveway was an expressway with all of the traffic going all day long. They are emptying lagoons right now with 3 tankers, the milk truck comes twice a day to pick up milk, Marvin’s dad is hauling random things throughout the day, we just had a hay barn built and we are currently having a new milking parlor built. So between all of that and the normal traffic of employees and people that actually live on the dairy, it’s crazy.

And Trent is just….well, Trent. Adorable with Marvin’s white hair, but just a little me running around in a 2 year old body. His characteristics are so much like me, that it makes me a firm believer in generational sin. Temper, things always on his terms, etc….he is the taste of my own medicine that everybody always promised me that I would get. He is challenging, but so much fun. I love this age.

As always, thank you for your continued prayers for healing. We are so blessed.

SO, after a week of nerve-wracking anticipation, the official word is that the MRI and PET scan results seem conflicting. Nice, eh? The PET scan is showing the area of tumor to not be uptaking any sugar. The PET scan in June showed that it was taking up sugar 2.5 times faster than the rest of the brain. So this either means that the tumor has responded to treatment and is downgrading/dying, or that the test was a false negative. The MRI, however, shows a slight increase from the MRI in April, indicating tumor growth. To be specific, the area of tumor has grown by .08 inches (yes, very mild). There are several things with this. This could be growth that happened between the beginning of April, when I had my MRI to mid-June, when I started treatment. I wasn’t on any treatment for those 2 months, so that’s entirely possible. Or it could be swelling from the response to treatment. The tumor will swell slightly upon die-off. Or, it could be that the tumor is actually growing. The tumor is not enhancing, which is very good. This suggests that it has remained a lower grade tumor despite the pathology of a high grade tumor after my February surgery.
What’s the next step? Good question. At this point, I am trying to get another PET scan schedule to rule out a false negative test. If we can do another scan and prove that the results are true, then this is EXCELLENT news. I think that I will for sure continue doing IV therapy of some sort, especially if the PET scan results are the same. The idea with this treatment is to stay after this thing, in hope that we can finally break it down. The clinic in Oklahoma said that brain tumors can be quite pesky, as we’re quite aware, and take 3-4 rounds of treatment.
The other possibility is that I will start on Temodar (chemo pills), but continue to do IV therapy, which actually compliments the chemo and makes it more effective, as well as keeps my immune system strong. This seems like a logical next step, as Temodar has very mild side-effects. Radiation is definitely out of the question. This will be a very last resort.
So this leaves us at needing a ton of prayer for wisdom. Please pray that I will be able to get another PET scan and that this tumor is indeed responding to treatment. We know that God is good and has us in His grip. He’s definitely putting us in a position where our faith is continuing to be tested, but what better peace is there knowing that He is in control?
Thank you so much for all of your prayers. We have definitely felt them over the past couple of weeks!

I still don’t have any written reports back from my PET or MRI, which I’m hoping to receive today, but from my MRI scan yesterday, the tumor looked stable. We don’t know for sure until we see the radiologist report, but we will be thrilled with that news!!! We want it to shrink or disappear, of course, but if we can keep a high grade tumor from growing in 4 months time, we’ll take it!!! I’ll post more when I get the official report.