It is usually an unexpected turn of events that leaves a family caring for someone.  What it means is that our lives go from super busy and tough-to-manage to what now may seem impossible.  Caring for anyone, especially a loved one who is ill with cancer, can be mentally and physically exhausting.

When we, or someone we love, take on the role of caregiver, we can often see what they don’t – we see the toll it takes on them and the stress it puts on their family and home.  Even if they pick up the mantle of caregiver with love and pride, the outpouring of emotions and hard work toward a patient ill with cancer can be overwhelming.

So what do we do to support a loved one in that role – and how do we do to get support if it’s us?

First, simply show up.  Just because a family develops a routine does not mean that they couldn’t use a break – or an ear. Don’t be afraid to ask about their story or look for how you can support them.  An open line of communication is priceless, and sometimes we do a magnificent job of looking like we’ve got it all under control – but we don’t.  If you’re the caregiver for a loved one with cancer, resist the urge to say “Fine” when someone asks how you are. Allow yourself to be honest about what’s happening on any given day.  Keep those lines of communication open with your own support network too. Sometimes having someone to listen to us is the best medicine.

If you see someone you care about struggle under the burden of caregiving, trust your instincts.  The list of small things you can do to help is limitless:  Cook a meal (yes, this is obvious, but it’s also always helpful).  Offer childcare for their kids so the caregiver can focus on their patient – or even themselves.  Put together a pampering basket of books and music. Offer to spend time with the cancer patient – sometimes just keeping them company allows the caregiver and their family to regroup for a little while, even if you’re in the next room.

The bottom line is, don’t be afraid to let someone be there for you – take the risk to reach out and be there for them. 

To your health and well being,

Samantha Mayfield
Intake Coordinator
Camelot Cancer Care

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is widely sought by cancer patients and survivors. In fact, a recent study estimates that it is used by over 75% of cancer patients. In 2008, the National Cancer Institute supported over $121 million in CAM-related research.

When we have cancer – or care for someone who has cancer – we know we need to rest and relax our bodies and minds, but that is often easier said than done. Yoga is a tool that helps patients to rest and relax, and naturally calms anxiety. We are only now beginning to understand the profound impact of the mind-body connection as it relates to cancer, and yoga – an ancient tradition involving meditation, deep breathing and movement – can be beneficial for many serious and chronic health conditions. This is not a theory – according to the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual report on progress against cancer, those who add palliative care, like yoga, to their treatment programs live longer and have better lives than those who focus strictly on their physical well-being.

For instance, researchers recently discovered that more than seventy-five percent of patients being treated with chemotherapy suffer from insomnia — three times as many found in the public at large. In addition to the normal wear and tear on the body, patients who develop insomnia are also much more likely to suffer from fatigue and depression – something cancer patients (and their caregivers and loved ones) simply cannot afford.

A study focused on cancer survivors found that only 4 weeks of yoga actually helped them sleep better, experience less fatigue and improved their overall quality of life. And as we know all too well, cancer patients not only fight to stay alive, they also fight to maintain quality of life.

Another powerful example of this is the research done by Dr. Michael Irwin, a professor of psychiatry and bio-behavioral sciences at UCLA.  Dr. Irwin is researching the use of tai chi in cancer survivors. Like yoga, tai chi incorporates stretching, gentle movement and emphasizes the mind-body connection.

For cancer patients with stage three or stage four malignancies, quality of life is essential. While we all know that every day of life is precious, these patients and their families live with a constant reminder of the clock ticking. Every moment spent in fatigue or depression is literally a lost treasure. The simple gifts of yoga – increased flexibility, healing energy, a calming influence on the nervous system, and relaxed mind and body, are literally priceless.

The restorative poses of yoga and tai chi, the long slow deep breaths, the mental focus – all of these things combine to give the body a chance to rest and give the mind a chance to relax. And fortunately, in today’s online society, a yoga practice can still be done with a trainer in a studio – or even in the privacy of one’s home, with family and friends. In fact, this may provide a strong bonding exercise and a natural support group for the patient and their loved ones.

For MUCH more information on the topic, please visit the article “Yoga for Cancer Patients and Survivors,” by Julienne E. Bower, PhD, Alison Woolery, MA, Beth Sternlieb, and Deborah Garet, MPH. You can find that article at http://bit.ly/YogaForCancerPatients.

Samantha Mayfield
Intake Coordinator
Camelot Cancer Care

One thing every cancer patient and their loved ones knows, beyond a doubt, is that life is a gift. It’s a reality that the rest of us can sometimes forget – that there are no guarantees. One day at a time, that gift means that we are here, threaded into one another’s lives.

A Healthcare Proxy is one of the most important gifts you can give your loved ones, believe it or not. It signifies who, among your family and friends, you have formally asked to step in and make decisions on your behalf should you become incapacitated or unable to make decisions during your illness. This is something you should do formally – taking the time to ask the person and to explain in detail what your wishes are. It is never easy when someone is ill. These are difficult conversations, but they not only spare everyone involved from guesswork, guilt and worry, they also sometimes open the lines of communication with the most important people in our lives and give you a chance to truly communicate with each other.

While there are many documents we should all have filled out and clearly labeled in our homes, or even available on line, in the case of a Healthcare Proxy, you should literally have this document in your possession at all times – literally in your purse or wallet. (And remember that the laws about how a Healthcare Proxy needs to be executed and utilized vary from state to state. Check with your attorney or your doctor to be sure yours are executed properly.)

What IS a Healthcare Proxy? Quite simply, a healthcare proxy is what is called an advanced directive – that means a document that allows you to appoint an agent on your behalf, who is empowered to make healthcare decisions in the event you cannot. The idea is that the patient’s wishes are followed even if they are incapable of communicating them. This can often unburden our loved ones from making difficult decisions in some very tough situations.

Be sure that your chosen person is comfortable to advocate for you and feels confident in the choices you have made about your healthcare, under all circumstances.

Remember that these documents vary state by state. You can download your individual State’s Advance Directives by clicking here.

Samantha Mayfield
Intake Coordinator
Camelot Cancer Care

As any family with a loved one who has cancer knows, finding support is vital to keeping EVERYONE healthy through the process, even if it’s just one day a week. While friends and family are great, in the event you decide to hire a home health aide, there are questions you should definitely ask before giving that person access to your home and your family.

Here are five questions to help you get started with the process and find the best person to support you and your patient through this time of recovery.  It’s very important to remember to take your time and be sure that the aide has the other qualities most important to you and your family too, however.  Take the time to ask your family members what those qualities are – for instance, is it vital that the aide is quiet – or would you rather have someone friendly and bubbly?  That’s just one example, but the time you put into the hiring process at the beginning can save you hours of frustration as you go through aide after aide if you DON’T do your due diligence properly.

5 Questions to Use When Choosing a Home Health Aide

1. Is the Home Health Aide certified and formally trained and how long have they worked in your community?

2. Is the patient’s course of treatment documented, detailing the specific tasks to be carried out by the home health aide?
3. What are the financial procedures of this provider?
4. What procedures does this provider have in place to handle emergencies? Are its caregivers available 24 hours a day, seven days a week?
5. How does this provider ensure patient confidentiality?

In addition, definitely request that your potential Aide supply you with a list of references (and call them all).  These may be doctors or nurses, discharge planners, patients or family members that they’ve worked with before.

Samantha Mayfield
Intake Coordinator
Camelot Cancer Care
 

There are so many curative treatments that we, in the western world, have yet to discover – or to embrace once they are discovered.  Why?  Why is a complicated issue – certainly the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry does not wish to offer healing and treatment that can be found growing wild, unregulated.  In the case of Cat’s Claw (Uncaria Tomentosa), it is indigenous to the Amazon rainforest, and has been used for two thousand years by the indigenous peoples of South and Central America for everything from acne and diarrhea to diabetes, inflammation and cancer.

As we become an ever-increasing “global community” and grow more and more curious about the longevity and health of other human beings, scattered around the planet, more and more often we discover that the commonly used “household remedies” are not to be cast aside in favor of processed, expensive and often damaging “conventional” therapies. Cinnamon and oatmeal, for instance, are natural remedies to high cholesterol.  And drug companies have jumped on the bandwagon, investigating and producing cinnamon in a pill form.

Likewise, Uncaria Tomentosa has been heavily researched for medicinal use and immune modulation. Immune modulators are basically nutrients and drugs that stimulate the immune system by increasing (or causing) its activity in the human body. Cat’s Claw is said to do both (although clinical trials up to this point have not proven or disproven its efficacy).

For cancer patients specifically, researchers have reported that cat’s claw can aid in DNA cellular repair and prevent cells from mutating, and that it can also help prevent the loss of white blood cells and immune cell damage caused by many chemotherapy drugs.

Cat’s claw has been studied for over 20 years is available easily in capsules and tablets, both of which have become widely available in most health food stores at reasonable prices. It is taken today to boost immune function, as well as an all-over tonic and curatively for arthritis and inflammation, bowel and colon problems, and as we shared earlier, as a complementary therapy for cancer.

While the unique chemical breakdown of Uncaria Tomentosa (Cat’s Claw) is probably beyond most of us, other than a small group of botanists and medical researchers, what we do know is that this plant has several unique factors that produce alkaloids responsible for strengthening the immune system. With the supporting evidence toward its use in treating cancer, inflammation, viral infection and vascular conditions, this is definitely an herbal treatment worth learning about in today’s “western world” where we are exposed to an endless barrage of cancer-causing chemicals in our food and environment and grow sicker with each generation, despite all of our wealth and endless opportunity.

Samantha Mayfield
Intake Coordinator
Camelot Cancer Care

Suzanne Somers is famous for her alternative approach to health. So when she lost most of one breast to cancer 10 years ago, she wasn’t about to settle for just any old implant. Here, the story of how she waited for — and got — the breast she’d always wanted.
 

http://www.everydayhealth.com/breast-cancer/suzanne-somers-and-the-future-of-breast-reconstruction.aspx

Coley’s toxins (sometimes called Coley’s vaccine, fever therapy or mixed bacterial vaccine) is an alternative cancer treatment that utilizes a culture of two types of killed bacteria to elicit an immune response.  This immunotherapy treatment is especially effective in certain bone and soft tissue sarcomas.

The idea for the use of these toxins in alternative cancer care came from research in Germany. The formula we use at Camelot Cancer Care was originally developed in 1893 by Dr. William Coley while he was a surgeon at New York’s Memorial Hospital.  He had published research about the relationship between an infection and a regression of cancer, which we now know to be due to the immune system’s crucial role in killing cancer.  The mix of the dead Streptococcus pyogenes and Serratia marcescens bacteria prompts the immune system to fight the bacteria and it attacks the cancer cells as well.  The immune response causes a fever, and some researcher suggests that the rise in body temperature also has an effect on the continued development of cancer cells.

Coley’s toxins are delivered intravenously – at Camelot Cancer Care, patients receive their treatment painlessly through a picc line or their port if they arrive with one installed. When receiving Coley’s toxins, patients may experience temporary nausea and chills as their fever spikes, but their symptoms usually return to normal within a few hours of the treatment.  This immunotherapy is excellent for combining with other treatments for a more complete alternative cancer treatment program.

In addition to DMSO cancer treatment, three new natural treatments are beginning to be become better recognized for their cancer-killing properties.  These alternative cancer care supplements are natural botanicals with few to no side effects, and their cancer-killing properties have been demonstrated in research at major universities.

Camelot Cancer Care is excited to incorporate these three botanical treatments into their treatment regimen.

1.  Feverfew.  Feverfew is an herbal remedy used to relieve coughs and colds, and it’s also a folk remedy for migraines.  In 2005, scientists discovered that an extract of feverfew is effective against a particular type of leukemia.  It’s the first agent shown to be effective against this type of leukemia, and its properties mean that it’s able to kill malignant cancer cells at the stem cell level.  As most research shows that cancer is a result of mutated stem cells (cells that can become anything), this is an exciting development and an excellent addition to an alternative cancer treatment program.

2.  Easter Lily.  Easter lily is used as food in China as well as in traditional Chinese medicine, and researchers at Cornell University have been studying the anti-cancer properties of the Easter lily blooms.  Initial studies show that the extracts of the blooms are extremely cytotoxic to MLF-7 breast cancer and HL-60 leukemia cells.

3.  Jewelweed.  This plant, often used as a poison ivy treatment, is also known to stimulate the immune system and help the body fight off cancer.  This topical treatment also contains anti-microbial compounds.

A healthy and high-functioning immune system is one of the body’s most important weapons against cancer.  While cancer is normally attributed to causes other than the immune system, research has shown that building up a strong immune response can help the body fight cancer – a point well-recognized by mainstream medicine and alternative cancer treatment clinics.

The immune system helps fight cancer and heal the body in two ways.

1. An enhanced immune response helps the body recognize malignancy better.  A malignant tumor occurs when DNA damage to the cells eliminates the function of “programmed death,” causing them to grow and divide without stopping or dying the way a normal cell would.  This forms a growing tumor that will eventually spread to other parts of the body.

The immune system, in addition to recognizing pathogens like viruses and bacteria, can recognize malignant cells as something that should be destroyed.  This means that a body with a stronger immune system will have an easier time destroying cancerous cells.  With assistance from immunotherapy treatments like vitamin D3, vitamin B12 or a Myers Cocktail of vitamins and electrolytes, many patients’ bodies will be even more capable of fighting cancer.

2. The immune system helps fight opportunistic infections that overtake a weakened body.  When a patient’s immune function is low and their body is stricken with cancer, they are less able to fight off infections unrelated to their disease.  Their resistance to pathogens is lowered, and opportunistic infections – infections that take over the body when immune function is low – can make sicknesses like pneumonia and influenza deadly.  This resistance is lowered even more by some traditional cancer treatments like radiation and chemotherapy.

By using immunotherapy to keep the immune system in high function, doctors can help prevent opportunistic infections and also renew the body’s ability to fight malignant tumors.  As an alternative cancer treatment program, immunotherapy has a number of benefits for the patient’s health and future.

After having DMSO cancer treatment, many patients’ scans show bodies free and clear of cancer.  Post-treatment cancer care is also an important part of an alternative cancer treatment program.

DMSO, a natural byproduct of wood pulp, is a substance clinically proven to kill cancer cells by reactivating programmed cell death and allowing the immune system to better fight tumor cells.  This shrinks tumors naturally – and when paired with vitamin C and the B-vitamin laetrile, the treatment becomes even more effective.  Camelot Cancer Care’s patients receive their treatments in comfort during their daily two-hour sessions at the clinic.

Even after PET scans show a body free of cancer, it’s important to adopt a post-treatment care regimen to extend the benefits of DMSO.  This also lessens the likelihood that cancer will recur and helps patients lead healthier lives.  Though it is always recommended that they consult with their doctor, post-treatment care usually consists of a four-day DMSO treatment regimen once every six months.  The treatment is administered as an IV via the patient’s existing PICC line or through a new, temporary IV line.

It’s also important for patients to maintain the lifestyle changes they began during treatment.  Patients should continue to eat a balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains; exercise regularly if their condition allows; and avoid smoking or excessive alcohol consumption.  As many vitamins (like vitamin C) have been proven to have cancer-fighting antioxidant powers, many Camelot patients also receive an arsenal of vitamin supplements that should be continued post-treatment.  Patients should also avoid exposure to environmental toxins proven to cause cancer, such as heavy metals, pesticides, mold and certain cleaning fluids.

Given comfortably at home, a four-day follow-up round of DMSO treatment costs only $600 plus shipping when shipped to the patient’s house or $800 when administered by the staff at Camelot Cancer Care in Tulsa.  By repeating this process every six months, cancer survivors will be better-equipped to take care of themselves and live long and healthy lives.