The Green-Eyed Cat Brings Wisdom

I ask for wisdom. I receive wisdom.

I found today two sites exploring alternative treatments for Multiple Myeloma. The first is worth visiting:

http://www.margaret.healthblogs.org

In Margaret's blog, she presents well-documented ideas about curcumin, a substance known to help MM survivors stay in remission. Curcumin, in case you didn't know, can be found in curries, especially tumeric. It can also be taken as a supplement, called Longevinex, which seems to be the best. But there is also something called Tumeric Force that may work, also. I know, for a fact, that MD Anderson was conducting a trial of Curcumin as a treatment for MM just last year, since my MM doctor there mentioned it. But the trial had closed already.

Margaret also discusses ginger as a method of reducing and preventing bone lesions. Of course, I love ginger. I drink it as a tea I make by shaving ginger root into a pot of hot water. It's spicy and helps reduce nausea (a problem these days.) Ginger always helps nausea. I wish I'd remembered to make my special ginger tea when I was throwing up my guts after the high-dose chemo. I did drink Ginger Ale, but it's just not the same as the tea. Maybe too much sugar?

I've also signed on to a list serve at:

http://beating-myeloma.org/

Besides providing a forum, it is also a great place to read about treatments both alternative and conventional or both for MM.

From reading these I re-discovered the power of the sauna in the treatment of MM, so I'm reinstating my membership (which I'd frozen) at Cooper Aerobics. It's expensive, but has a clean well-run facility with a dry and steam sauna.

Stress management is also important, as I know. I remembered a wellness class at Collin College (where I'll be teaching in the Fall) that offers yoga for free, so I'll start that tomorrow, if I can.

There is also a level 1 yoga class at Cooper Aerobics tomorrow, so I may just go there.

I feel better just making plans to get back to these alternative therapies. I say "get back" because I did all of them extensively before the transplant and with excellent results. My mProtein dropped like a stone in response to all the treatments both conventional and alternative that I did.

For, in addition to the Velcade (chemotherapy) and steroids (dexamethazone,) I did the following daily:

Ate food spiced with tumerick and curry
Drank ginger tea
Visited the sauna
Did spiritual work, usually through writing, breathing exercises, meditation and guided imagery
Walked two miles outside
Took a detox bath with Epsom or other salts
Exfoliated
Drank tart cherry juice (known to bring down mProtien)

I had good results from this combination of therapies. I won't need the chemo or the steroids, but the other stuff I'll gladly return to.