I Bet My Life on Alternative Medicine

9/18/13
Rejecting Conventional Medicine, I bet my life on Alternative Medicine and am here to tell the tale 8 years later. In April 2005 I was diagnosed with prostrate cancer and began a journey which had me seeking answers in Baltimore (my home town), Phoenix, Arizona, New York State, New York City, Portland-Maine and Nova Scotia, Canada.  It started with a somewhat elevated PSA (6) resulting in me getting a biopsy which indicated I had prostrate cancer. The indications were moderate but still
significant. Like now, this was a bit of a mystery in that I felt fine.  The urologist who did the biopsy and was eager to talk treatment with radiation became very angry minutes after giving me the bad news (like he had a problem not me!) when I told him I had already decided on my next step if the news was bad and was headed up to see a Doc who practiced "Complimentary Medicine" in New York state, a man with great credentials, both academic and in practice.  I wanted to explore less potentially dangerous alternatives. This Doc was all too representative of what I was to later find to be all too common arrogant, ignorant and perhaps self-serving behavior at the expense of the patient in this (urology) branch of  the medical profession.  The next day, after the bad news, I drove to New York State and stayed over night. Bright and early the next morning I was at the Complimentary Medicine Doc's office. "Complimentary Medicine" (CM) purports to combine the best of Alternative and Conventional medicine, an ideal combination where you are getting the best of the 2 approaches guided by an objective knowledgeable (in both fields) professional. Unfortunately, I was to find this was not the case, and concluded the MDs (conventional practitioners) were ignorant of the Alternative approaches having been only trained in the conventional and were really just using their self designated "Complementary" description as a marketing tool -- admittedly effective -- since I sought out and retained a number of them before figuring this out.  I had a nice visit with the Doc, had a bunch of tests and then he suggested I immediately head down to NY city for an ultrasound test of my prostate with a Doc who had the very latest equipment.  So I rushed down to NY City on this Friday afternoon,  got the ultrasound (probe up your butt) and this Doc then rushed me over to a nearby MRI facility to do some additional checking.   Then, as the sun set - I can still see the warm orange glow- on this late Friday afternoon rush hour in New York,  I drove out of the city to  95 North for the 5 hour trip to Portland, ME. There I was to stay the night, leaving the next morning to continue my drive to my summer home in Nova Scotia.  I was energized by all I'd accomplished in one day offsetting any exhaustion yet deep in thought when suddenly the phone rang. I picked up and it was the ultrasound doc with more bad news.  He found a tumor which required urgent treatment.  The good news was he knew of a new procedure in Mexico where they had the latest equipment for laser pinpointing and destroying cancer.  This procedure wasn't yet approved by the FDA but it was the place where all the Doctors were now going for their own treatment.  I thanked him, very grateful, for his diligence in getting back to me so quickly with this valuable and possibly life saving  information, though it certainly wasn't what I'd hoped to hear.  Needless to say, it gave me much to ponder on the long night drive to Portland. The next few days I holed up in my favorite inn in Portland, drove to to the nearest Apple store (then in New Hampshire) to get a printer so I could fax info, did research on the Internet, took supplements suggested by the CM Doc in New York State and late Monday  got thru by phone and fax to a Harvard Med School associated MD author of a new book on the prostate which I had found in my searches while waiting for biopsy results.  This Doc essentially told me the NY City Doc was full of sh()t.  He said there was no way to identify prostrate cancer with ultrasound.   What a relief!  I also talked to the NY State Doc who said he thought the NY City Doc was overreacting.  This made sense to me as my DRE (Digital Rectal Exam) had not detected a tumor.  It occurred to me that the prostrate biopsy (which I later concluded to be a very invasive and potentially damaging procedure unlike other biopsys) had produced what the NY City Doc saw as a tumor (if in fact he did see anything beyond what his relationship with the Mexico clinic may have gave him an incentive to think he saw).   And as time went by in the months to come I was to see horror stories on the Internet about men who had gone to this Mexico facility, he so urgently promoted,  who had been severely burned and damaged by this procedure and unable to get thru to their customer service for assistance.    The next day. as I drove from Portland and took the car ferry across the Gulf of Maine to Nova Scotia, I had more time to ponder  before arriving late Tuesday at my house (and sanctuary) in beautiful rural Nova Scotia.  Here from my sun porch, where I set up my research facility to further my quest for information and decision, I look out over a peaceful cove leading out to the peaceful and sometimes stormy sea where I see the Gull Island light house 3 miles out in the Atlantic ocean. All alone, undistracted, but with phone and Internet allowing me to connect to anyplace in the world I am in the perfect place to sort this thing out.  My first step is to follow up with questions for the CM Doc in NY State.  And as I do, I find his answers don't check out and he contradicts himself.  At one point he more or less says the patient has to figure this out for himself  and I get the idea that I am better off without him since I am finding him quite untrustworthy.  My next phone contact is with a top ranked urology Doc at Johns Hopkins.  I am delighted to get thru to him by phone (these guys aren't easy to get to quickly) but in my business experience I had developed some cool techniques on how to get thru to do deals whose success now accounts for my retirement time and resources to pursue this quest.  And, this Doc was doing a study which is soliciting subjects for "watchful waiting" (measuring PSA and biopsys prior to treatment).  We have a very nice conversation after reviewing my biopsy report which I'd faxed to him.  The bottom line according to him:  in 3 years, untreated I could have a very serious problem or I could be OK.   I have often thought about that over the succeeding 8 years.
Gotta break now.  Off to an appointment with a new Johns Hopkins primary care doc (my previous one not seen for several years has retired) .  I'll continue this story tomorrow and I think you'll find what happens next equally interesting.  The message I want to leave with you is you simply can't leave it to the Docs.  You must question and take responsibility for the decisions which are yours not theirs to make.
OK. I'm back from the my new primary care Doc.  Very nice visit with her (a young resident ) and her boss (whose father in law is around my age and also (like me until now) takes no drugs.   I found my new Doc is very knowledgeable regarding the next drug (Methotrexate-MTX) I am likely to be taking as it is used in treating rheumatism, her major. She tells me it has a far longer history and is actually safer than the one I am taking now (Prednisone) which will be fazed out over time.  As this is exactly the opposite of what I had thought, it is indeed good news to hear.   I tell her about my controlled experiment (Coconut oil on my left arm, vs Steroid cream on my right arm).  And she says the left arm looks better.  Score 1 for natural treatment!  While the difference is slight, wouldn't you prefer the natural?  This is an experiment of only a few days so far so let's wait and see what happens here.  Big Pharma, however,  scored next when she talked me into a flu shot and neumonia shot.  But as I told them they got me now.  At least for the time being, and these shots are required for my taking (MTX) for which at this point I'm not ready to preclude the opportunity.
That's it for now.  Please tune in tomorrow for the "rest of the story".