Kim's Adventure to Arcadia Clinic, Germany 2021

I leave Germany after 3.5 weeks a changed person in many ways. How can you not change after being in a different culture with not only Germans but Swedes, Slovenians, Brits, Spaniards, Finns, Aussies, and fellow Americans from all over the US?   So much to learn and experience and, although challenging at times, I grew to trust the motives of the doctors and nurses, something that hadn't happened like it did here. My fellow patients had stories of frustration with their disease but primarily in regard to the quality of care they had experienced in their own countries. Such brave people…some had chosen to go completely against the allopathic/conventional doctors’ wishes of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation and had done exhaustive research on integrative/complementary/holistic methods of healing. That’s why most were at Arcadia…to find ways to heal without introducing toxins into the body with poison, taking the offending parts out of the body, or burning the cancer.   We rec...

Each day by 5 p.m., the schedule of treatment for the next day is posted.  I breathed a sigh of relief last Friday when I didn't have whole body hyperthermia on my Monday a.m. schedule.  Rather, I had insulin potentiation therapy (IPT) both Monday and today, Wednesday.  So, yesterday was the day that most of us lament having...whole body hyperthermia!   Thankfully, I was in the room with the newer machine AND I was the only one receiving such treatment yesterday a.m. so I had the nurse's full attention.  She started the music and we started singing!😆This particular unit has the heat coming from below.  I was lying on this net-like hammock and the skin can get pretty toasty so the nurse was kind enough to put towels under my body to prevent burning.  Of course,    after one hour of "cooking", she was right there putting cold compresses on my head and neck and giving me sips of water.  It's a delicate dance to prepare for this treatm...

My guess is that many cancer patients struggle with this simple question when diagnosed and/or as s/he goes through some treatment for their disease.  I know I have but not to the point where I MUST have an answer to this question.  Often times I say to myself..."why NOT me?" I cannot begin to count the number of podcasts, videos, books, articles, people that I have entertained that have taught me something about cancer.  Believe me, I knew NOTHING prior to 2017 about cancer because I really didn't know anyone that was seriously ill with this disease so it never came to my attention.  It actually wasn't until recently that I began to entertain the idea that I had caused my own cancer.   Oh I know...the doctor, the pharmaceutical industry, etc., etc., wants you to believe that cancer is genetic.  Oops, there was NO ONE in my immediate family who had cancer.  Try to explain that one!  What I have learned...this is a MYTH, a LIE, NOT TRUE! ...

It's the weekend!  Everyone here enjoys this time without treatments and nurses/doctors poking and prodding (usually needles) into you.  Although we have some treatments we can administer ourselves each day, the down time on the weekend is to use as we choose and it does really help.  I find, just as when I am home, that by Friday night, I just want to "veg".   A good night's rest allows me to enjoy Saturday.  Here I have gone to Kassel the past two Saturday's and on Sunday go to the local gym and read and write and watch a movie, etc. The 9th and 10th days of treatment, October 14 and 15, 2021, were pretty typical in the cycle of what has become normal.  I had another IPT treatment along with local hyperthermia plus botanical infusions and intravenous oxygen therapy on Thursday and botanical infusions, intravenous oxygen therapy, a liver poultice treatment, and a singing bowl massage on Friday.  At the end of the week, it is terrific to have the ...

 It's Wednesday already and I have been negligent in writing anything about what's happening in Germany!  The weather has been cool, usually about 50's during the day and even into the 30's at night.  There is usually an overcast sky with a fews sprinkles of rain most every day at some point but it usually clears and you get some blue and sun for part of each day.  All in all, it is totally do-able so I'm enjoying the long walks around Bad Emstal especially now that I can actually go in stores or gyms.   Over the weekend (Saturday), a van load of us went to explore Kassel, the biggest city nearby.  I wasn't into the shopping but it was fun to enjoy lunch on a patio (a pizza and a diet coke!) and walk around and people watch.  They actually have a T.K. Max (not TJ Max) like we are used to at home.  The store was packed with people when we ventured in and there was the usual rack upon rack of clothing and other items to pick through to find thi...

Phew, I made it through the first week.  Some days have definitely been more challenging than others but I think I have had every treatment option at this point and will refine and repeat to best meet my needs over the next two weeks.   My first treatment today was a 20-minute treatment, oxyvenierung (oxyvenation for short) or intravenous oxygen therapy, to build the immune system, a major focus of most all treatments.  Of course, a weakened immune system will always lead to chronic disease of some sort, in my case cancer.  Based on the 40 infusions of either maximum dose or low dose chemotherapy these past 4+ years, my immune system has really been challenged with a toxic load.  Add in the fact that I have also been taking an antibiotic for about 10 months...my immune system needs a major overhaul!  Even before that, my immune system wasn't "up to speed" or I wouldn't have gotten cancer.     Well, the nurse takes a small needle (used in...

 Boy, they weren't kidding when the doctors said that the first week would be the toughest!  I didn't think any thing could be as bad as the whole body hyperthermia of Tuesday a.m. but then came Wednesday... As mentioned in the hyperthermia description of Tuesday, I should have received some infusions of vitamin C and/or ECGC (green tea extract) and/or curcumin and/or artesunate and/or DCA and/or amygdalin, etc.  But none of the nurses nor the doctor were able to access a vein to start an infusion of these botanicals so they gave up and just let me "bake"!   It had been suggested in my Tuesday meeting with Dr. Nour that I consider getting a PICC (peripherally inserted central catheter) line because of the challenge of finding a vein for infusions.  I have had 40 chemotherapy infusions and probably more than 60 vitamin C infusions over these past 4 years.  Originally (in August 2017), I was asked if I wanted to have a PORT so that there was easier acces...

Wow, these two days have flown by!  I didn't even have a chance to walk today and get my usual 7 miles around Bad Emstal.  It was probably for the best because I was too tired and it was a bit overcast, rainy, and cool.   I met my fellow patients yesterday for the first time and we seem like we have known each other much longer as of the end of today.  The patient to doctor/nurse ratio is just as I had hoped for (the individual attention... I have met with my doctor on both days.  There is one patient from Germany (the only one who speaks no English), two Swedes, a woman from Slovenia, a woman patient accompanied by her husband from NY, another woman from Sacramento, CA, a Chinese woman from Ireland, a woman and her husband from England, a young man from Kuwait with his brother, and an American who lives in Germany and works for the federal government.  Some of us are in our first of three weeks while others are in their second/third week of treatment....

It's Sunday, FINALLY!  I'm anxious for a negative COVID test tomorrow a.m. so that I can get started with testing and treatment.  It's been okay to have all this down time but I'm ready for a change in schedule. I'm on the second season of Ted Lasso (Apple TV and thanks brother for recommending it), watched the first Grey's Anatomy for the season, have read substantial parts of three books, walked 9.5 miles yesterday, and 8.8 miles Friday, and already have a run and a walk in today for over 6 miles.  Of course I am writing in this blog and taking pictures.  Since I am in quarantine, I'm not talking with too many people.  Actually I speak with the person who delivers my meals but only about the food and what a German word means in English. If you look at the pictures (I have added some since the last post),  https://photos.app.goo.gl/yanG9Ht3YD9iAjgN9  you will see pictures of my apartment and the clinic.  According to my schedule for tomorrow, I w...

Well, they surely will not find a body in this apartment that is malnourished if I were to die in Germany.  I have received three square meals per day and it has done the trick...the detox promised as part of the treatment!  Porridge with blueberries and cherries, one egg, two slices of bread with butter and jelly, coconut yogurt (pretty sure it was sugarless!), and slices of cheese was breakfast this a.m.  Lunch was some fish wrapped in zucchini, LOTS of cooked veggies, a berry smoothie, a piece of berry bread,  some couscous "thing" and a salad.  After each meal, I take long walks in an attempt to digest but also to learn about this little town of Bad Emstal.  It appears on the map in the area north of Frankfort as Kassel.   When walking around the town or even as we drove here yesterday, I noticed the fields of corn, beans, and others that had been plowed already.  Huge windmills are present in every direction you look and solar panels on ...