Thursday July 30th 2009

DAILY

• ESSIAC tea (orally) 10 ml + 1ml extra Sheep Sorrel Decoction Twice a day.
  
• DAY 20 PREDNISOLONE 1ml x2/day (An 80% reduction from the original dose)
• DAY 30 OPC one capsule twice/day - South African 'anti-cancer' herb
• DAY 29 CF IP-6 & Inositol one capsule twice/day
• DAY 45 HYDRAZINE SULFATE

JUST TODAY

• SHEEP SORREL DECOCTION ON GAUZE compress : on back left leg lump.
  
• SCHRHINNUM 3 doses 8 hours apart. Twice today.
  

Sheep Sorrel Decoction : Soaked Dressing on tumor lump
Excited! The mast (?) cell tumor on Lucy's back leg shrank by about 30% in 24 hours with the Sheep Sorrel decoction soaked dressing. I shaved that area yesterday lunchtime and tapped a soaked gauze dressing on there. Before doing this, the lump was one hard irregular shaped mass, about half an inch high and diameter of 3/4 of an inch. Today it is smaller and softer and seems to be breaking down.
Shaved Chest & Heat Wave
Due to the heatwave and the need to apply soaked dressings, and have a better look at what is going on with the enlarged lymph glands, I shaved Lucy's chest area again yesterday. She seems quite happy about it. It's amazing how soft her skin is!
You always hear that heat waves are not good for people with chronic ailments, so I am paying particular attention to keeping her cool. She gets hosed down in cold water two or three times a day as well as keeping her in the shade as much as possible, and less exertion than normal. However I feel it's good for her to run a little every day to keep her lymph system active. (Not sure if that is scientific... but feels right to me).

Food & Energy
Appetite very good still, despite being on a reduced steroid (Prednisolone) dose of only 1ml (=5mg) twice a day. She is happy and playful, despite the temperature in Vancouver today being over 32 degrees! Big smiles.

a shamanic photo from our trip away.. a jaguar and a dog

Wednesday July 29th 2009

DAILY

• ESSIAC tea 10 ml + 1ml extra Sheep Sorrel Decoction Twice a day
• DAY 19 PREDNISOLONE 1ml x2/day (An 80% reduction from the original dose)
• DAY 29 OPC one capsule twice/day - South African 'anti-cancer' herb
• DAY 28 CF IP-6 & Inositol one capsule twice/day
• DAY 44 HYDRAZINE SULFATE

JUST TODAY

• SHEEP SORREL DECOCTION ON GAUZE compress : on neck for 30 minutes, and on back left leg lump.
  
• SCHRHINNUM 3 doses 8 hours apart. Tonight and twice tomorrow.

Appetite normal. Not so voracious as the steroid 'obsessive' eating drive that she was experiencing on the higher doses. Her lymph nodes seem to have stabilised again, although still bigger than they were on the higher dose of steroid. I am feeling positive about the steroid reduction again today.
It is very very hot in Vancouver, so we are staying inside in the cooler air mostly. Luckily our back garden is in the shade, so we can go out back to play for a while every now and then.

Poop back to normal. Perhaps she was cleansing something from her system yesterday?

Shaving her fur. I plan to do this later today. We are having a heatwave here, and lots of dogs walking by have had the clippers treatment :) I am also going to shave the area where that new lump is, so I can put a Sheep Sorrel soaked gauze pad onto it.

Tuesday July 28th 2009

ESSIAC tea 10 ml + 1ml extra Sheep Sorrel Decoction Twice a day
SHEEP SORREL DECOCTION ON GAUZE compress : on neck for 30 minutes
DAY 18 PREDNISOLONE 1ml x2/day (An 80% reduction from the original dose)
DAY 28 OPC one capsule twice/day - South African 'anti-cancer' herb
DAY 27 CF IP-6 & Inositol one capsule twice/day
DAY 43 HYDRAZINE SULFATE

APPETITE
Appetite low this morning. Ate some rice with an egg, after refusing raw dog food.
Lunchtime - would only eat dog biscuits... but ravenously.
Evening - ate with gusto, back to normal. Raw food.

SLIMY POOP
Her morning poop was rather small & odd looking. It seemed to have a slime on the outside layer. Looked like the kind of phlegm you would see when you cough up bronchitus.
Only one poop so far today... despite going for two more walks...

RIGHT BACK LEG - New MAST CELL TUMOR??
A small lump has appeared on the outside of her right leg-upper shin. It feels similar in texture and nature to the Mast cell tumor she had removed from under/just behind her right front leg last November 2008. Could it be another Mast cell tumor?
The vet told me it was very odd (impossible? or extremely rare?) for a dog to have two kinds of cancer at the same time.... and a Mast Cell tumor is not the same as Lymphoma... Is there a chance she does not have Lymphoma after all? But then why are her lymph glands so enlarged?
Time to revisit the vet? Perhaps she needs to have another lymphoma test or more blood tests?

Sunday July 26th 2009

ESSIAC tea 10 ml + 1ml extra Sheep Sorrel Decoction Twice a day
SHEEP SORREL DECOCTION ON GAUZE compress : on neck for 30 minutes
DAY 16 PREDNISOLONE 1ml x2/day (An 80% reduction from the original dose)
DAY 26 OPC one capsule twice/day - South African 'anti-cancer' herb
DAY 25 CF IP-6 & Inositol x2 - supplement
DAY 41 HYDRAZINE SULFATE


PREDNISOLONE dose is now down to 1.0ml (equivalent to 5mg of the tablet form she was originally on) which is an 80% reduction from the original dose.
Today I noticed that her throat lymph glands are bigger and harder again. So the reduction in the dose is now beginning to show in her body response.
This is a difficult time.. I am nervous, but still feel we are doing the right thing. The next few days are crucial, to see if her own body system will kick in and take over from the steroids. Her appetite is also reduced. She did eat, but not as eagerly as normal. Most people's reports seem to concur that the steroids cause a rampant hunger and appetite as well as to reduce the lymph swelling size. That certainly holds true for Lucy. We have been letting her eat as much as she wants.
Last night I also soaked a Gauze pad with Sheep Sorrel Decoction and wrapped it around her neck for half an hour.

We have just come back from a walk at Jericho Park. First we saw a Flicker bird... (first nations here believe the Flicker is a call to Prayer and to raise the Chanuppah (medicine pipe).
Then we sat for a rest in the shade, only to realise there was a large Grey Heron a few feet above us in the tree, watching the beaver pond.
And then we watched THREE Belted Kingfishers, as they fished (successfully).. watching the water from overhanging willow branches. I think it must have been a breeding pair and one offspring.


Here is my prayer for the Flicker bird to carry behind the veil:
Creator, Great Spirit, All That Is, All That Ever Was, All That Ever Will Be, As you are the perfection in all things, perfect flow, perfect health, perfect love, perfect cells, We acknowledge that we are a part of this magnificent design of life, and that we too, contain within us and are but one small part of the same perfection. We thank you for the beauty of the lives we live and the loves we all share. We thank you for lucy's big radiant loving self, and for the joy she feels in her body when she runs and plays and swims. We thank you for the perfect normal functioning of her cells returning now, as she re-aligns herself with your perfection, and chooses to stay longer in her beautiful strong and healthy body. For this we are so grateful. And so it is.

... and one photo from last night in East Vancouver at the Luminaires event. There was a massive thunderstorm and heavy rain, but in a lull in the storm you can see Lucy and I standing next to a solar powered 'Burning Man' chariot. Very cool design. The batteries for it are charged by riding a stationary bicycle, so it is powered by people power and the sun.