Hello Everyone,

I would like to entroduce myself, i am currently 18 years old, just turned 4 days ago, and last summer i had my rhabdomyrosarcoma come back in my cheek. At the moment i was very shocked, and scared, because ive done all the chemo and stuff before, and it was horrible. Lucky for me it was discovered in an early stage, and it has not spread to any other places. From that moment, i decided that it was never to late for chemo, and conventional treatments. i left the hospital insearch of a natural way to fight my tumour.

It has been 6 month since my decision, my tumor has grown from about a peanut size to about a golfball size in the first 4 month, but it has not grown for the past 2 month, and its possibly getting smaller. i am very confident about what i am currently doing. It is mainly dependent on pumping up my natural body strengths, ozone therapy, chinese herbs/medicines, and recently started careseng and may possibly start gendicine. I hope i can get the support here at this forum, and one day i will win this fight, and be here to help you all.

Thanks =)
James

James, I would love to believe you will have success in your unorthodox approach and certainly wish you all the best. For me, life is a numbers game and the numbers favor traditional treatment methods as providing the best chance for surviving.

Maybe someone here has some experience with your diagnosis or better yet, experience with natural treatment methods and they can either validate your decision or give you a reason to re-consider.

James,

I have no experience with rhambdomyrosarcoma but am a survivor of squamous cell carcinoma. For me, traditional and timely treatment is my best chance to enjoy the precious gift of life.

I wish you the best but cannot support anything other than traditional treatment at a comprehensive cancer center.

James

Welcome to OCF.

I have a few questions about your type of cancer as this is a forum devoted to head and neck cancers. Isnt rhabdomyrosarcoma mainly an intestinal type of cancer, sorry not familiar with it. Your doctors diagnosed this to be in your cheek and its not oral cancer? Just curious as my oral cancer tumor was located in my cheek. Is ozone therapy available in Canada?

I am a firm believer of conventional methods of treating cancer. This is the proven treatment method which saves lives. Are your parents or guardians actively involved with your treatment options?

Best of luck with your choices.

I am not a doctor and I do not play one on TV, however I researched a lot before I finally got a diagnosis. Everything from vitamin C to carrot juice is offered out there, with no good data. A minister friend of mine decided to try the carrot juice diet, by the time he decided to go in for help the cancer was EVERYWHERE and we will all miss him�

The one horrifying conclusion that I came to was that tumors assimilate other structures, like in my case the lymph node had taken over an artery. If that �tumor� was to suddenly die off then there is nothing to hold the artery wall together???

The numbers from every nation posting said I had better than a 70% chance of survival with approved treatment even as advanced as I was. Our old friend �Chemo Shark� was proven good at going after any small spread� I had even considered waiting 5 months to try to finish up at work, I am so glad I got talked out of that.

If you find that magic bullet let us know!

UncleVern

About 35% of people with rhabdomyrosarcoma develop it in the head and neck region, though it can occur in most other areas of the body. It is usually found in children under 15, which I assume was were you were with your first battle with this. As you likely know there are four types of this, one which is far more dangerous (they all are, but one is very aggressive). None of them are actually considered oral cancers. However, you are welcome here, though the posters will have little experience with your disease, and therefore likely less than helpful.

But what you are hearing here in the replies so far, is that we are a group of people that believe primarily in science, what has evidence of efficacy in effective control, if not cure of our disease. There is NO PUBLISHED EVIDENCE that any of your current choices to avoid conventional treatments and try to boost your natural defenses have any impact on the disease at all. As you have stated in your first post, yours is getting bigger, not even staying the same. This should tell you something. That your path is not working. In cancers the only opportunities we have to beat them, are when they are small enough for existing proven treatments to have effect. By the time this has grown enough, there will be no going back and saying -well I guess I will have that chemo, radiation, surgery or whatever now. It will be too late to have those things work for you. I do not say this to seem mean spirited or less than understanding of your fear or desire to not experience the difficulty of conventional treatments. I hope that it makes you seriously think about what you are doing.

Certainly your family, your doctors for sure, must be encouraging you to not go down the path you are currently on. You have seen that while people here emotionally will listen, it is already obvious that they feel like you need to get back on the path of conventional treatment no matter how difficult you find that path. We have had posters here before with oral cancers that have posted about making choices that involved similar directions as yours. It is hard for any of us to feel empathy for someone who willingly chooses something which has no evidence of positive impact, and support them in this direction. Do not be surprised if those here are less than supportive of your decisions.

I do not wish to seem harsh or dismissive. Since there is likely not a support group for your disease, you are welcome here as it is actually happening in your oral environment, though not technically one of our oral cancer diseases. But we do not have much information to assist you, nor will you find lots of people supporting this decision of yours. You may find this all less than warm and fuzzy.... The last caveat is; while you are certainly entitled to your opinions and directions, made with all the experience of a very young man, please do not post to others any encouragement that they should follow your path of non conventional treatments on this board.

If you must pursue the course of alternative "natural" treatments, bear in mind that the cancer itself is "natural".

I suggest that you consider pursuing the conventional treatments at the same time as the natural alternatives as long as they don't interfere with each other (in which case I would personally let the conventional treatments take precedence) -- I know this is the tougher road to take, because the conventional treatments are very uncomfortable, but there it is -- One course has the numbers to back it up and the other goes on almost pure faith -- Ya pays yer money and ya takes yer choice!

Problem is, presuming you survive it all having taken the parallel courses is that you will spend your elder years (would that be your '30s? <g>) wondering which one worked, but some mystery in life is better than no life for sure!

Oh sorry, i didnt know that rhabdomyrosarcoma wasnt considered oral cancer ><, but thanks for letting me stay here anyway, i felt like i needed a place to tell my story for now. As for treatment, my parents are really unfavoring the conventional treatment, but the doctors, they ofcourse want me to undergo conventional treatment, we have had this conversation together and we managed to talk ourselves into trying a naturopath way first since my cancer wasnt considered as deadly unless it spreads. Anyways, thanks for the replys it really made me feel better reading them ^^

To christine : ozone treatment is available in BC vancouver area, not in a hospital but in naturopathic clinics, so we cant run the carecard, but it is availiable.
If you are undergoing conventional treatments, my naturopathic doctor said that many many of his past patients have had ozone for a few days before going chemo and they see a drastic decrease in sideeffects from chemo, some even had nothing but a few hairs drop. I am not 100% guaranteed on this but it seems helpful either way you chemo or no chemo =)

James I feel sorry for your parents watching you make the decision to try this unconventional treatment. They gave you life and probably a lot more in your short 18 years. I would suggest that you try both the conventional treatments that are known to prolong your life and your alternative therapy together so that they will have the opportunity to see you mature.

Patty

James, when you first posted, I believed it was YOU who wanted to try the "natural" approaches -- Am I correct now that it is your PARENTS who want to do this and that you favor the conventional treatments?

If so, I strongly urge you to keep on trying to get the conventional treatments as your doctors are recommending. Relying on unproven natural treatments when your life is concerned is not a good course of action to take.

Is there a financial reason that your parents are opposed to conventional treatments? If so, there may be ways to pay for it.