Many of you have asked how Kyler’s most recent round of chemo went. It’s been a challenging week and we’re finally getting around to getting the word out about what’s going on.
Kyler did not go in for his second round of chemo Tuesday. A bit of background is in order to get everyone up to speed. Most of you know that since we found out about Kyler’s cancer that we have earnestly sought out ways to naturally help his body begin to do what it had not been doing, notably, destroying renegade cells before they got out of hand. We have not been excited about the prospects of radiation and chemotherapy knowing what would happen to Kyler’s body as a result.
Through a number of people God has brought into our lives we have been pursuing alternative methods to conventional medicine to fight this. There is a good deal of information about people who have been able to win this fight outside the borders of conventional medicine without the devastating side effects normally associated. We sincerely believe that God designed our bodies to be able to heal and repair itself if it would only be given the proper raw material to do so.
While there could be many reasons for someone to be diagnosed with cancer, most of them have to do with poor treatment of our bodies and environmental factors. To give Kyler the best chances possible, we have done our best to eliminate as many of the environmental factors as possible and drastically change our lifestyle as well as add significant amounts of nutritional supplements to give his body what it needs to fight this cancer.
We have gone to see a licensed naturopathic doctor who has helped us in shaping his daily routine to get what he needs to remain healthy and protect his body during chemotherapy as much as possible. She did her internship at one of the Cancer Treatment Center of America in Seattle. She affirmed what we had already been doing and fine-tuned a few things for make sure Kyler was getting everything he needed.
In addition to the unfavorable side effects of chemotherapy, we are discovering how ineffective it seems to have been in other medullablastoma cases and can possibly cause secondary cancers in the future. Many children don’t make it through the chemo treatments and succumb to infections or organ failure. Overall, 40% of cancer patients die of malnutrition. It’s not hard to understand when you see what happens to people during chemotherapy.
Knowing that 100% of Kyler’s tumor was removed, that it had not metastasized, that we’ve had two clean MRI’s and spinal taps, we thought we would begin a season of ‘watchful waiting’ during which we would aggressively continue Kyler’s CAM (Complimentary and Alternative Medical) therapies and receive regular screenings.
When we suggested this change in course of treatment to our doctor, she immediately said that if we pursued this she would have no alternative but to file a report with Child Protection Services and let the courts decide. She shared with us that in her 20 years of experience and from all the information she has that Kyler would have no chance for survival if we were to stop chemotherapy at this point. Apparently the dosage of radiation Kyler received is not sufficient on it’s own to kill any remaining cancer cells. They tried a clinical trial a number of years ago with standard risk medullablastoma kids (these kids had a better chance than Kyler does) where they received the same radiation dosage Kyler did and did not do chemotherapy. All of them relapsed and died and they discontinued the trial half way through.
Even though we firmly believe that the CAM therapies we are doing with Kyler would be successful in beating this, as many adults already have, because of existing laws we do not have the option for going this route.
Some of you may be aware of Abraham Cherrix situation and wonder how he could get approval to go with CAM therapies. A parent only has the option of resorting to CAM therapies if conventional treatment has been followed and there is a relapse giving the patient a much less favorable prognosis. He was also past the age of reason and could comprehend the issues involved and think for himself in this area.
In essence, a parent only has a choice to try and treat something with their child using methods outside conventional medicine when those conventional methods have failed and the child is in much worse condition than before. The medical community can then say, “Well, the best we could do didn’t work. You can try whatever you want.”
So, we do not have a choice in the matter since we do not have the strength to try and fight this in courts, have our kids taken away and Kyler forced into treatment. Our best option now is an integrative approach to treatment using both conventional and CAM therapies.
We go to San Francisco Tuesday for a second opinion on diagnosis and treatment options. If they are the same as what was found at Sutter Memorial, we will continue with chemo shortly.
It may be hard for some of you to understand our rationale and why we would even consider venturing outside conventional medicine. We have just read too much information like this http://ouralexander.org/chemo.htm that makes us uncomfortable with current practices.
The war on cancer is not being won.
What we do know is that we are not out of God’s reach and that we are trying to be obedient in doing what is best for Kyler.
Please continue to pray for Kyler and our family.
Here’s a picture of Kyler with our new kitty, Nozomi, which means ‘hope’ in Japanese. We believe God is our hope and he will be a good reminder.
