Cancer patients who are considering going to a stem cell clinic overseas in Korea or Mexico or the Philippines or Panama or ANYwhere can and should do ANY or all of these 11 things:
#1. Most IMPORTANT: (a) Find out if stem cell therapy is LEGAL in the country you will be in. Don't take the doctor's or a patient's word; for example, they may be legal in Mexico, Japan, & China but may not be in Korea, the U.S., or Panama; (b) TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR to see if he/she will CONTINUE to treat you once you return from overseas. Most doctors' malpractice insurance may not allow it if you continue with follow-up treatments or injections of unknown and unproven substances; (c) Don't take anyone's word that your insurance will pay for ANYthing overseas.
#2. When asked to submit to a cash-only $2,500, or other dollar amount, blood test - check with your state Medical Board to see if the laboratory is even CERTIFIED to do such. The number in TEXAS, for example, is (713) 767-3340.
#3. Read the website of the non-profit International Society of Stem Cell Research, http://www.closerlookatstemcells.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home1. They take submissions and investigate suspect stem-cell clinics.
#4. If a foreign doctor claims to be affiliated with well-known U.S. medical institutions, FIND OUT if they really are, i.e., MD Anderson phone is 1-877-MDA-6789; The Mayo Clinic phone is (904) 953-2000 (or email: CancerResearch@mayo.edu); Johns Hopkins phone is (410) 955-5222, etc.
#5. If a doctor claims to be an oncologist, find out if he/she really is. Ask for his official resume.
#6. Talk to other patients who have been CURED by the doctor in question, then make sure they exist--get a phone number, etc., and (important) talk ONLY with patients whose cancer NEVER ever returned for at least TWO years. If you can't find any, then there has been no one CURED. Do NOT talk to patients just recently cured in the last 6 mos and have not yet had a follow up CT or cancer test in (very important) a U.S. lab that is *NOT* owned by the same doctor. Ask them these 3 questions: a. Did they have a CONFIRMED (tissue biopsy--not just a blood test) diagnosis of cancer BEFORE they went overseas for treatments? b. Are they financially involved with this doctor or are they employed by this doctor? c. Ask how much the patient spent on EVERYthing; the TRUE cost of your treatments is not likely to be known up front, even though estimates are given. Stem Cell clinics usually charge $50-$100K CASH. But that is just the beginning. Ask if the patient ALSO had surgery, chemo, cyberknife, radiation, etc., and WHERE and at what cost. How often have they had to return for treatments--what cost? Ask the cost of their hotel ($250/night is not uncommon) and how long they stayed. Always plan to stay longer than you are told--get a 3-month VISA.
#7. If you receive any media info, letters, website info, etc. about cured patients, undated, FOLLOW UP AND SEE IF THEY ARE STILL ALIVE. Some might be dead. Ask the doctor to give them YOUR contact info, since the doctor may not want to give you theirs, although HIPAA (privacy) laws apply only in the U.S. where Congress created them. The Social Security Death Index can be found at: http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi
#8. If you want to make sure the foreign doctor really is a doctor, contact the places he claims to have graduated from. If doing ANYthing "medical" in the U.S., make sure the doctor is LICENSED. Phone the state medical board. For example, you can merely do an internet NAME search in TEXAS at: http://www.docboard.org/tx/df/txsearch.htm or fax your request to the Texas Medical Board at(512) 463-9416; or phone 1-800-248-4062.
#9. Google the doctor's name, the clinic name, the city. Search the full name AND just "Dr lastname" as well, i.e., "Kim Wang" or "Harry Goodkin" as well as "Dr. Wang" or "Dr. Goodkin." Read ALL the screens, not just the first one that shows up. You may find several former patients of that doctor. Google the name of the doctor's company and city, i.e., "Goodkin Korea" or "Immustim Mexico."
#10. If the doctor claims to have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, you can contact the Nobel Committee at: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/nomination/ Their email is: comments@nobelprize.org and info@nobel.se
#11. LAST: Check out a MEDICAL FRAUDS & SCAMS website: www.quackwatch.com in early 2012. The doctor there does incredibly thorough, documented research and posts his findings publicly. Take note, too, that if hospitalized overseas (stem cells usually cause high fever (rejection) and might call for hospitalization), doctors there may not have had the same length of medical training as U.S. doctors, and hospitals there may have limited drug supplies, especially anti-nausea meds (for chemo) and anesthetics, even soap. You would need to take a 3-month supply of all your own current meds. Ask the clinic for their "what-to-do/bring" checklist BEFORE you commit to wiring that $50,000 or whatever you have been told to send.
~
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Responsibility
No matter what decisions you make towards your own care... do yourself a favor and actually RESEARCH these options. Check blogs, news stories, check with other patients and most importantly, see what published medical successes are attributed with said options.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
She's Gone
My mother passed away Monday, November 1, 2010 at 6:00 pm.
I had flown in on October 20th because she had been hospitalized from a breathing incident she had the day before. She was released the day I flew in and later the same day, she received a hospital bed and other equipment to her house from Hospice.
Watching her struggle during this time was the most painful experience I have ever had. I have never felt so helpless in my entire life. My gosh, she had such fight in her but there was also another side of her that didn’t want to fight anymore. She was so tired.
The last three days of her life, she had taken such a drastic turn for the worse. I slept with one eye open on her bedroom floor and then, her first which was also her last night at a hospice hospital. She kept wanting to get up and go somewhere but her poor legs could not have taken her anywhere. I had to get up all night long and remind her that she needed to let her weak legs rest and that we’ll talk and watch the news in the morning.
The night before she passed away at the hospice hospital, I received a not-so-lovely email that I won’t go into. I was on the edge of my mother’s life. When I read it, I felt my face grow hot… then deep tingling in my fingers and then they went numb, contorted and froze until I could calm down. The nurse said I had hyperventilated. Never heard of that happening before but I guess stress can do a lot of things. Unfortunately, things had happened so quickly over those past few days that I was only focused on doing what my mother needed. I couldn’t leave her for a minute because she would pull off her oxygen or try to walk somewhere and surely fall. My mother needed things from me that I never thought would happen until much later in life. She had only recently turned 65. It was not supposed to be this way yet.
Earlier in the day that my mother died, her nurse came in to talk to me in her room. She told me that she believes my mother can hear her so she is going to tell me things she would also like my mother to know. The nurse explained some medical things and then told me the following: “Since you are here all day, you need to know that most patients will wait until their loved one(s) have left their room before they pass. It happens more often than not. A family will tell the patient that they are stepping out for a 30 minute lunch… but when they come back, that person will have died. You need to go for walks”.
A little later the same day, a hospice nurse (Marie, who had spent 3 hours with us the day before on a Sunday) dropped by her room. She went up to her, wiped some hair from her forehead and told her “it’s OK to go. Go into the spirit world. God bless you”. When Marie left, I kissed my mother’s hand and told her the same thing… “it’s OK to go”. As my mother was a fairly non-religious person, I told her… “be with Grandma and be with your brother. You will see the face of God and you will love Him as much as He loves you”.
I then went into the Sanctuary to talk to my husband and children on the phone. When I came back into my mother’s room, I felt “stillness”. It could actually be felt. I stood there and watched her… just stillness. I went over and kissed her hand again, told her I loved her and to have peace. No more fighting to breathe, no more struggling to walk, no more pain and no more endless nights. Just stillness and peace.
This blog was supposed to be about my mother’s experience with an alternative to American cancer treatment and those results. It now ends up being a public goodbye. She was concerned about the money she spent in Korea ($100,000 is not cheap) but as they say, “you can’t take it with you” and it did give us those four weeks of time together and that is priceless. My mind, heart and emotion will need to take me back before she became sick and remember so much good that enveloped her. She was a good person in every sense of the word. Kind to everyone and never judged. Cancer did not and does not define her.
Just a few days before I flew to be with her, we spoke on the phone. She told me how obvious it was that I loved her. I promised her that it would never be even a fraction less than obvious.
I wrote this poem years ago for an extraordinary woman, my mother, from a daughter that loves her.
“It’s my first Mother’s Day… as a Mom, that is
And I can’t help but recall when I was a kid.
As I sift back through those memories,
I’m so amazed and can hardly believe…
All that you did and all that you gave
Where do I begin? What do I say?
You are more to me than what you can see.
You are strength, love and sincerity.
There was only one person who could end a nightmare.
One person who knew no monsters were there.
Pennies on train tracks and making a wish,
Horses and sailing and hours of “Go Fish”.
“Rise and shine, Miss America”… do you remember?
Each morning you’d say this… it seems like forever.
Walking home from school, I got lost my first day
There you were around the corner and I saw your face.
You taught me to fly when I didn’t have wings.
I traveled to places I might never have seen.
If you hadn’t given me the courage to venture beyond,
Always knowing you’d catch me if something went wrong.
I wish…
You knew how much you’ve really given
And how much you’ve made me believe in
Pennies on train tracks and making a wish,
As I hold up my daughter and pass down your kiss”.
~~
I had flown in on October 20th because she had been hospitalized from a breathing incident she had the day before. She was released the day I flew in and later the same day, she received a hospital bed and other equipment to her house from Hospice.
Watching her struggle during this time was the most painful experience I have ever had. I have never felt so helpless in my entire life. My gosh, she had such fight in her but there was also another side of her that didn’t want to fight anymore. She was so tired.
The last three days of her life, she had taken such a drastic turn for the worse. I slept with one eye open on her bedroom floor and then, her first which was also her last night at a hospice hospital. She kept wanting to get up and go somewhere but her poor legs could not have taken her anywhere. I had to get up all night long and remind her that she needed to let her weak legs rest and that we’ll talk and watch the news in the morning.
The night before she passed away at the hospice hospital, I received a not-so-lovely email that I won’t go into. I was on the edge of my mother’s life. When I read it, I felt my face grow hot… then deep tingling in my fingers and then they went numb, contorted and froze until I could calm down. The nurse said I had hyperventilated. Never heard of that happening before but I guess stress can do a lot of things. Unfortunately, things had happened so quickly over those past few days that I was only focused on doing what my mother needed. I couldn’t leave her for a minute because she would pull off her oxygen or try to walk somewhere and surely fall. My mother needed things from me that I never thought would happen until much later in life. She had only recently turned 65. It was not supposed to be this way yet.
Earlier in the day that my mother died, her nurse came in to talk to me in her room. She told me that she believes my mother can hear her so she is going to tell me things she would also like my mother to know. The nurse explained some medical things and then told me the following: “Since you are here all day, you need to know that most patients will wait until their loved one(s) have left their room before they pass. It happens more often than not. A family will tell the patient that they are stepping out for a 30 minute lunch… but when they come back, that person will have died. You need to go for walks”.
A little later the same day, a hospice nurse (Marie, who had spent 3 hours with us the day before on a Sunday) dropped by her room. She went up to her, wiped some hair from her forehead and told her “it’s OK to go. Go into the spirit world. God bless you”. When Marie left, I kissed my mother’s hand and told her the same thing… “it’s OK to go”. As my mother was a fairly non-religious person, I told her… “be with Grandma and be with your brother. You will see the face of God and you will love Him as much as He loves you”.
I then went into the Sanctuary to talk to my husband and children on the phone. When I came back into my mother’s room, I felt “stillness”. It could actually be felt. I stood there and watched her… just stillness. I went over and kissed her hand again, told her I loved her and to have peace. No more fighting to breathe, no more struggling to walk, no more pain and no more endless nights. Just stillness and peace.
This blog was supposed to be about my mother’s experience with an alternative to American cancer treatment and those results. It now ends up being a public goodbye. She was concerned about the money she spent in Korea ($100,000 is not cheap) but as they say, “you can’t take it with you” and it did give us those four weeks of time together and that is priceless. My mind, heart and emotion will need to take me back before she became sick and remember so much good that enveloped her. She was a good person in every sense of the word. Kind to everyone and never judged. Cancer did not and does not define her.
Just a few days before I flew to be with her, we spoke on the phone. She told me how obvious it was that I loved her. I promised her that it would never be even a fraction less than obvious.
I wrote this poem years ago for an extraordinary woman, my mother, from a daughter that loves her.
“It’s my first Mother’s Day… as a Mom, that is
And I can’t help but recall when I was a kid.
As I sift back through those memories,
I’m so amazed and can hardly believe…
All that you did and all that you gave
Where do I begin? What do I say?
You are more to me than what you can see.
You are strength, love and sincerity.
There was only one person who could end a nightmare.
One person who knew no monsters were there.
Pennies on train tracks and making a wish,
Horses and sailing and hours of “Go Fish”.
“Rise and shine, Miss America”… do you remember?
Each morning you’d say this… it seems like forever.
Walking home from school, I got lost my first day
There you were around the corner and I saw your face.
You taught me to fly when I didn’t have wings.
I traveled to places I might never have seen.
If you hadn’t given me the courage to venture beyond,
Always knowing you’d catch me if something went wrong.
I wish…
You knew how much you’ve really given
And how much you’ve made me believe in
Pennies on train tracks and making a wish,
As I hold up my daughter and pass down your kiss”.
~~
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Deletion Completion
Well, I have deleted my Letter to Dr. Moon per a family member's request. That person is the only reason why I would do that. It feels dishonest to delete it and I am sick over doing it.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Sometimes the hardest thing to write is the "Title" of a blog...
Mom got out of the hospital late Saturday. She had been in there for a couple of days; taken there because of severe shortness of breath. She had also been experiencing edema and extreme tiredness. Mom recently had a pain medication implant put in, so the thought was maybe the shortness of breath was a side effect from that. But they found fluid in her lung and needed to drain it. They also found multiple nodules within the left lung. Of course, the hope is the nodules don't do anything... just stay where they are. She will also now be using oxygen 24/7. I know she doesn't want to have to deal with that but it will help her. Right now, she needs to recover from all of this. And she will. She would get right back out there even she had an anvil tied to her ankle... she'd drag it to work and throw it over her shoulder at meetings. That, ladies and gentlemen, is m'mom.
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