Post-Treatment in Canada

Treatments

I have now finished all the treatments I’ll be doing in Canada. So now to just recuperate a bit, and get ready to fly back out tomorrow.

I have done:

• Three treatments of local-regional hyperthermia (LRHT)
• One treatment of body warming therapy (BWT) aka whole body hyperthermia
• Two treatments of increasing does of IV mistletoe
• One treatment each of IV artesunate and IV ascorbic acid aka vitamin C
• One treatment of acupuncture

Additionally the doctors here gave me further advice on managing the side effects of chemo, most especially diarrhea. Funny, the last rounds of chemo had the opposite effect. Not sure which is worse, but having “regularity” is the best.

I was able to buy supplements at the integrative pharmacy which is downstairs from the clinic but is apparently not part of the clinic. So that is good to have as a resource.

Also, the clinic was willing and able to hold for me the CBD oil that I bought the last time I was here, that I cannot take back across the border. I’ll be dropping it back off to them today before they close, and before I leave the country tomorrow.

The hardest thing was the whole body hyperthermia. The rest is relatively easy.  That was tough. I’ll think seriously before doing that again.

Also, just dealing with post-chemo side effects is not fun, especially while traveling.

Doxil, one of the chemo drugs, is hard on the heart. I could really feel it this time. It causes my heart rate to drop quite low. My AppleWatch warns me if it drops below 50, which it does often, especially in the first week after treatment, and overnight it might even drop below 40! This worries me. My Colorado ND prescribed CoQ10 to offset that, which I have been taking, but still….

My standard Gyn-Onc is advocating doing a fourth round of chemo, and both my NDs are as well. But I’m really wondering if I want to do that to my heart again. It is kind of scary.

The standard Gyn-Onc is wanting to put me on PARP inhibitors afterwards, but the NDs are not sold on that idea. The doctor here is not convinced, thinks it is a relatively new and untested thing, and basically said, stay with the devil you know. So I’ll be pursuing some more information and advice, and mulling it over before I decide what to do next.

Walk

On another note, today between acupuncture and my last LRHT, I was able to eat a nice normal brunch, which tasted delicious! And then I went for a small drive along the river, and revisited a park and took a small walk along the river. Here are some photos. It is much grayer, cloudier, and cooler than at home. I miss the Colorado sunshine! Oh well, soon enough.

Tomorrow I’ll fly the friendly skies and be home again, Lord willin’ and the creek don’ rise!