I am Malcolm from England.
I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in December 2000. I followed the conventional route and had radiotherapy and took hormone tablets. The radiotherapy gave me problems for 3 years when going to the toilet and I used to dread going as the pain had me in tears every time. Strangely enough when I was in India in 2003 I saw an ayurvedic doctor who gave me a cream and some herbal pills. Miraculously the problem eased and within 4 weeks I was pain free. I have had no problems since that day. This experience gave me the confidence and belief that out there somewhere there was something that would help me conquer my cancer and that one day I would find it.
Hormone treatment is a common way of treating prostate cancer. It suppresses the normal testosterone on which the cancer feeds. Unfortunately the treatment has some horrible side effects, the worst is an enlargement of the breast tissue which I personally found very embarrassing. Once I had what could only be called ‘breasts’ I felt I had to have them removed which entailed an operation leaving me with 4 prominent scars around the nipple. Further symptoms include having hot flushes and of course probably the worst to handle mentally, impotence. It is often said that the treatment is often worse than the disease. Eventually however the effects of the hormone drugs begin to fail and at that point the doctor’s screw up their hands and tell you there is nothing further they can do for you. A very depressing time. My hormone drugs failed in November 2006.
In December I was not feeling well at all. I had been fitted with a catheter as I was unable to pass water due to the cancer blocking the urethra. I was scheduled to have an operation on the 4th January to clear the blockage. Basheer was as usual scanning the www and came and told me to look at this site he had found which was having good results and was based in India. I was so weak and told Basheer that I was tired of looking at sites which promised much but actually delivered little. Basheer said he would save it for me as every night after 2 hours in bed I had so much pain that I had to get out of bed and sit in a chair. That night I sat at the computer and read all I could about the Cytotron and the treatment it provided. I was quite enthusiastic about what I had read and Basheer the following morning contacted Dr Kumar and asked if I could be considered to take part in the sympathetic clinical trials. Dr Kumar requested that we forward details of my medical history to him which we did immediately. Within 24 hours I had received a reply which indicated that I had satisfied the criteria and that they would offer me treatment in Bangalore.
Due to the TURP (the operation to clear the blockage) it was not going to be possible to fly to Bangalore until the 26th January. I had the TURP which was a success and then proceeded to make arrangements to get to Bangalore. I did not feel myself, I was lethargic and had little interest in anything. I could feel every day that I was getting that much weaker and I knew I was slipping away. As I was not eating I was loosing 1lb every day. I lost 28lbs in January!. My main concern was whether I would be well enough to travel to India as I was now relying on crutches and a wheelchair to move around and as I was not eating felt very weak.
The day of travel did come and somehow with the help of many very kind people at the airport I was on my way to India. As the plane took off I wondered if I would ever come back to England in anything other than a wooden box!
On arrival at the ‘Centre for advanced research and development’ (CARD) I was taken to get scans done which would identify those areas where there was cancer, markings were made on my body. Back at the centre the markings allowed stencils to be made which could be used to line me up under the Cytotron machine each day.
After only 4 sessions I started to feel a little better and I was also able to discard with one of my crutches. After 1 weeks treatment I was feeling much more myself and unbelievably was able to discard the other crutch.
As the sessions went on I became stronger and stronger. My appetite returned and I regained the most important commodity ‘hope’. I really started to believe because I was feeling so good that yes, I was going to beat this. When we had the pleasure of meeting your brother and his wife I was in my last week. Hopefully just seeing me with a glint in my eye and the fact that I looked so well, gave your brother the lift he required and again that special commodity called ‘hope’.
I will always be happy to discuss any part of the treatment with anyone and how it helped me. You can also quote me on this….That I firmly believe that this treatment saved my life and without it I would not be around today.
No comments:
Post a Comment