Surviving Brain Cancer in a Precarious World

Part 28: A Wonderful Life...

As the chaotic summer of 2017 came to an abrupt end that only the Welsh Weather can deliver, we made sure to get to our nearest beach before things got really windy.

My wife and I had not been to beaches since the honeymoon so we made sure to also get to Newborough beach on Anglesey which is one of the best beaches we know in the UK.

At this time I knew my second 6th-month scan would be coming in September so I was also trying my hardest to make the most of the natural vitamin D again by grounding during my workouts 3 times a week.

I was feeling great with the workouts by trying to focus on yoga more seriously. It’s all seems to be in the breathing rather than the poses that I try hard to concentrate on. It's only when I do this that I realise my normal breathing is not great in terms of optimising oxygen intake.

I was also researching a lot about the Wim Hof method which is proof that breathing technique is an incredibly neglected part of medical science given the extraordinary control Wim Hof has shown in terms of body temperature in extreme environments.

Although I wasn’t very anxious about this actual scan I still made sure to medicate with full extraction cannabis oil caps and fasting before the MRI. I just made sure this time to only take 1 on the actual day instead of ending up “tripping balls”/stoned out of my mind trying to act normal at the restaurant we went to after the scan earlier that year.

So this time I was able to go enjoy my steak after the scan without the embarrassment of almost having a “whitey” in front of my wife’s sister who works at that restaurant.

Although the scan itself was no stressful, the results day was made terrifying because normally I buy my MRI CD right after the scan which then comes in the post during the week including the oncologists report so most of my scans previous to this had come with a letter in the mail saying “Yay you don’t have cancer!”

This time though the letter never came leaving me fearing the worst due to the simple change in what was routine. So when we went into the report room with the oncologist, it felt exactly like the first scan from the BBC THREE documentary where we simply had no idea if my personal protocol was working.

Luckily Dr Shenoy put us out of our misery pretty early by simply saying “all’s quiet on the Western Front” as soon as he walked in with the report. It turned out that there had just simply been a delay in the post this time so the disk arrived the next day.

So in September 2017 I now had my 6th clear brain scan to celebrate. Soon after, my auntie and uncle from Canada were over again to celebrate my Nans 95th birthday which was an amazing day because she is still so with it and really able to enjoy herself and make the most of the family being together again.

It seemed with every clear scan I was getting more and more messages from people all over the world that were also dealing with cancer for either themselves or as a caregiver for a loved one.

It’s easy to imagine being overwhelmed by this but for me, it was an honour to help and put my own success to good use which gives me a sense of purpose beyond all my personal responsibilities.

Each person that contacted me I tried my best to get to know so I didn’t come across as annoyed by their questions. My empathy here was that I too had been given no positive advice at the start of my diagnosis from the medical establishment who due to the 1930’s cancer act, can only support pharmaceutical or surgical protocols.

I made sure to not use language that would be too dictatorial and simply tell them what else can be tried so if they wish to do that instead of the standard of care or alongside it, it’s still the patient’s choice.

Because my own experience had involved both the standard of care and alternatives, I found it difficult not to tell them to avoid radiotherapy and do Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy instead. This is because if I had my time again I would just go for HBOT which puts oxidative stress on cancer cells the same way radiotherapy does but of course there isn’t the life-shortening radiation.

I’m well aware that radiotherapy can cause early senility but since it already happened I have to just not dwell on that and work hard to keep my brain as healthy as possible for as long as possible.

The sad thing about this long-term caveat to radiotherapy is that it exposes how palliative obsessed the standard of care is, they simply don’t believe you will live very long with brain cancer anyway so the long-term side effects are just shrugged off by most oncologists.

Although I don’t have access to HBOT in my area which can also help delay the long-term damage, it was reassuring to see more studies coming out showing how cannabinoids can de-activate a lot of the foundations of rapid brain ageing.
This is especially clear in studies where cannabinoids have been found to remove the plaque responsible for senile brain diseases like Alzheimer's.

Going into the winter now always feels like taking a deep breath before going underwater. So as the weather got colder, I made sure to switch up supplements to reflect the lack of sunlight such as increasing my DHA foods enriched by vitamin D which is why I believe mushroom season comes in the fall.

As this would be our first Halloween in our new home we decided to throw a party for our friends and neighbours. This gave me a chance to escape from the battle for a while and go all out with an imaginative costume.

We made sure not to put a theme in place, there are only so many times you can paint your face “Day of the Dead” style. So I came up with an alien wearing a Victorian suit with a voice changing inside the mask to really mess with people!
We even went to the trouble of buying a smoke machine, replacing the bulbs with blacklights, sticking fluorescent fake maggots to the ceiling around them and going to town with the fake cobweb.

For me, this was a brilliant party because since turning 30 and instantly having a cancer diagnosis, it’s essential to be immature and not take yourself too seriously or life will just be wasted on stress every day. Life is wonderful and when you get a chance to celebrate that, you have to take that extra effort to savour that moment.

To Be Continued…