Treatment Decisions

Last week I completed my first week of actual treatment which included both radiation through BAMC and several different treatments through the integrative oncologist naturopathic doctor I’m seeing.

The biggest decision I’ve had to make through this entire process has been whether or not I want to pursue a ‘traditional oncology’ approach or a ‘natural medicine’ approach. There are a lot of opinions about which approach is better, scientific ‘evidence’ for just about anything, and people on both sides trying to make money off of you. It’s a decision that requires a lot of wisdom and discernment, but in my case, I had two pieces of information that made the decision easy for me.

1. Based on the treatment currently available from a conventional medicine side, my oncologist early on said “you will never fully cure this cancer, there are things we can do to manage it which may work for many years, but the rest of your life will be spent managing this cancer.” Maybe I’m just stubborn, but I don’t believe that is the only option. What I do believe though is that if I only pursue their treatment path, then this will be the final outcome.
2. The conventional medicine protocol for this treatment doesn’t involve any sort of drugs or treatment for the first three months. While doing some integrative oncology treatments like vitamin-c IVs while taking chemotherapy can cause unintended side effects, this first three months without being on any drugs allows me to try natural medicine approaches without a concern of the two negatively interfering. In other words, I can fully pursue both paths forward for 3-months without having to decline treatment in either world.

For the sake of the community of people with ASPS I wish I could try one type of treatment at a time so once I do fully cure this cancer I can point to exactly what did it, but my plan is to do everything I can from every different avenue. For me, this is going to be a three-pronged attack which will include:

1. Lifestyle Changes: Diet, exercise, and sleep.
2. Traditional Oncology: Radiation, surgery, and possibly drugs later.
3. Integrative Oncology: Vitamin-C Infusions, mistletoe, hyperbaric oxygen, hyperthermia, ozone therapy, and supplements.

One thing seemingly missing from my list is prayer and relying on the Lord to heal the cancer. I was asked a couple of weeks ago by a care coordinator here at BAMC why it seems that in her experience ‘religious’ people seem more inclined to pursue natural treatments either instead of, or in conjunction with conventional treatments. I think it’s because we know that we are made intelligently by a creator who provided us with the whole world as a way to provide for our every need. The world is broken due to sin and that’s why we have to deal with cancer, but to paraphrase my Integrative Oncologist, “our bodies don’t act randomly, they respond; they are designed to heal, not destroy themselves.” There is an analogy for cancer as a weed and soil problem. When you have a weed problem, you need to go remove the weeds (conventional oncology) and then address problem with the soil that’s allowing the weeds to grow in the first place (integrative oncology / lifestyle changes). Ultimately I’m trusting the Lord as I attend to the weeds in my body, but as David Trombly says “carrots or chemo, God does the healing.”

What I don’t want to do is make my cancer story a manifesto on natural versus traditional healing. I still have cancer in my body and at this point I have no way of knowing if the Lord is going to heal me and if he does heal me, I likely won’t even know specifically what worked. One thing that I really appreciate about Chris Wark, one of the more well known proponents of natural healing, is that he emphasizes that everyone has to make their decision theirselves on how they are going to battle their cancer. It’s a hard decision to make with sincere people begging you from each side. My hope here is just to provide some insight as to how I’m going about this decision.

Treatment Progress

Lifestyle Changes:

I have made several big lifestyle changes already. The day after I found out I had cancer, a friend from church sent me a link to a Chris Beat Cancer podcast episode interviewing a Marine Pilot named David Trombly. From that point on I focused on lowering the amount of environmental exposures around me so that my body could focus more on the cancer. I started eating only organic, changed out all my soaps and cleaners for ones with less chemicals, and got air, water, and shower filters. I’ve also been on a plant based diet for about three weeks now, have been getting at least eight hours of sleep each night, and have been pretty consistently working out six days a week. I am meeting with a nutritionist later this week who focuses on cancer patients, so my diet may change soon to be more in line with what she recommends. For anyone that knows my mother, you can probably tell that I’m just going back to how I grew up. Despite how much I bugged my mom growing up about eating organic and washing my fruit before I ate it, she may have been right after all…

Traditional Oncology:

The first step in the traditional oncology world is radiation which I started this past week. The radiation appointments are five times a week but are quick and painless. I lay on a custom mold to keep my body and arm in the right position, and after getting my tattooed dot to lineup with the laser, they take a few X-rays to confirm the alignment and then leave the room while the machine does the radiation. The actual radiation is only about 15 seconds from each direction and I don’t feel a thing. I was initially pretty weary of doing radiation, but the side effects and risk are minimal since it’s not near any vital organs and is directed to primarily hit my bicep and only a small portion of my bone. I had the option on whether or not I wanted to do radiation, but the medical world says that the surgeon can take smaller margins around the tumor if it has already been radiated which therefore reduces the amount of bicep I’ll lose and could eliminate the need to do a bicep reconstruction surgery down the road. I will continue to do the radiation for four more weeks.

Integrative Oncology:

There are many alternative therapies such as vitamin-c infusions, hyperthermia, mistletoe, and ivermectin which are not currently prescribed by conventional oncologists, but have been getting lots of attention recently. I had done a fair amount of research on these different types of therapies and could have tried some of them on my own, but ultimately came to the conclusion that most of these would need to be pursued under the guidance of a doctor who can determine the proper amount and frequencies for my safety and to give the therapies the best possible chance at working. I have three to six months before my traditional oncologist would want me to start taking drugs which could negatively interact with any alternative therapies, so I am viewing these 3-6 months as my opportunity to give the integrative oncology methods the best chance possible of healing the cancer. There are a couple of well known integrative oncologist clinics around the world and a few fully equipped ones in the US. Fortunately, one of those clinics happens to be here in San Antonio. There’s no way to know for sure, but I think one of the reasons the Lord has me in San Antonio is because it allows me to complete all of my treatments as my oncologist would recommend while also pursuing treatment at this clinic. Another huge benefit is that my traditional oncologist is open to me trying these other therapies. He doesn’t believe they will make a meaningful difference, but this allows me to be honest with everyone while still trying everything. I did the clinic’s one week cancer intensive last week which included extensive bloodwork, vitamin-c infusions, hyperthermia, mistletoe, hyperbaric oxygen, ivermectin, and various supplements. From here, they recommend I do vitamin-c infusions, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, mistletoe therapy, continue on several supplements and prescriptions, and fast for 24-hrs a week for the next month. At that point, the traditional oncologist team will complete more scans and re-stage me for surgery. This will provide the data needed to determine the effectiveness of the treatment as well as incorporating some more treatments for the several weeks after my surgery while I’m doing physical therapy. Overall, it’s been great to not have to do all the research myself and to be able to be able to trust the professionals. The place is called Root Causes Medicine in San Antonio if you want to look it up.

Results:

It will likely be about a month before I would see any signs of progress from any of the different types of treatment, but I was really encouraged on Friday when I had some swelling and warmth around the mass in my arm and was exhausted that evening from the week of treatment. The swelling has since gone away and it’s hard to tell if the swelling was from the radiation or the natural treatments, but either way, it’s the first time in the roughly 5-7 years of having this cancer that my body has actually reacted with any sort of visible immune response to the cancer. I am treating it as a positive sign that my body is starting to notice the cancer and respond to it.

Thinking Through Things

This week I read two different verses that I think are worth sharing. The first one is Philippians 4:7 “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus,” specifically “which surpasses all understanding.” Throughout this entire process, I have been at a lot of peace despite the sudden changes. There may have been several things that contributed to that peace, but one thing that continued to strike me was how much more concerned people were for me than I was for myself. I would walk away from conversations thinking “should I be more concerned about this” or “why am I seemingly at peace about this despite what everyone says I should be feeling”. Early on, before I knew the extent of the cancer in my body, I knew that the typical progression is primary mass -> to lungs -> to brain. I had no symptoms, but with everyone expressing their concern for me, I wondered on multiple occasions if the cancer had already spread to my brain and was effecting my ability be as distraught as I seemingly should have been. It wasn’t until this past week that I reread Philippians 4:7 that I realize more what it means by a “peace that surpasses all understanding.” The peace that I have is beyond understanding so much so that I was trying to explain it away through things like brain cancer! Side note: in case you missed any previous updates, I don’t have brain cancer 🙂

Another verse I’ve been thinking about has been 2 Corinthians 12:9 “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” I am fiercely independent which has contributed to a lot both the successes and failures I’ve experienced in my life thus far. I now have this very obvious example of a weakness that is a great opportunity to share with others “the reason for the hope that’s within me”, yet my gut reaction is still to just act like everything is normal. Someone at the grocery store asked me if I had rabbits when he saw the absurd amount of carrots I was buying. I just laughed it off and said I was “really into juicing” and missed the opportunity to share quickly share with him that I know the Lord’s in control. I think there’s something to be said for not introducing myself with “Hi, I’m Ryder, I have cancer”, but am still learning to lay aside my pride and take more opportunities to share the hope that I have. I’m still a work in progress on this one.

San Antonio Life

I stayed quite busy this week between the radiation and the integrative oncology intensive. I was still able to get out a good bit though. I went to a church last Sunday and met another young engineer who recently beat cancer. Him and I were able to get dinner together which was great. I also went to a young adults group out here and was able to meet someone from the area who had some local church recommendations for me.

I have about half of my stuff in Columbus MS still and will eventually be able to get them to TX, but this week a friend who now lives in Niceville was visiting his family near Columbus and was able to get all of my garage stuff out of my storage unit and back to my parents house. That was a big blessing and will make the move easier.

The highlight of the week was my grandparents coming out for the weekend. They were in Austin earlier this week and stayed the weekend in San Antonio to spend some time with me. We went to downtown San Antonio, went up in the Tower of the Americas, and saw a movie. Between seeing them this week and seeing the friends from Pensacola at MD Anderson last week, San Antonio really doesn’t seem all that far away.

Outside of seeing people as much as I can, I’ve been spending more time working out, playing guitar, exploring the area, reading, and mainly just trying to avoid doom scrolling… I’ve been able to spend a lot of time on the phone with family and friends and have been enjoying the slower paced life. I went to a church this week that seemed pretty solid and may start consistently going there.

Thank you all. I’m praying daily that this cancer will be a strong witness to many people.