Why is travel such a comfort after loss? Is it that being on the move gives shape and purpose to a life when there is no shape or purpose left? My first thought after Laura died was to cut free of my normal existance, which was in tatters, and take refuge in travel. I went…
Tag: gerson clinic
Mucosal Melanoma: Celebrating the Survivors
Today is the one year anniversary of the day that Laura was rushed to Beth Israel Hospital to see a top cancer specialist. On a routine exam in the morning her gynecologist found a golf ball size mass in her vagina. Two days later we were told it was mucosal melanoma. 11 days later we…
What a difference a year makes
This time last year, Laura and I had no inkling she was sick. There were a few clues, but we missed them. During 2012, she had binged a lot on sugar and put on a lot of weight (some experts say that cancer tumors feed on sugar). During the summer of 2012, Laura’s blood work…
Gerson Revisited – part three
How many enemas & juices are enough? ‘In the beginning the most important part of the therapy is an intensive detoxification of the entire body,’ wrote Dr Max Gerson in A Cancer Therapy (p193). To achieve this, Dr Gerson immediately started his cancer patients on the full protocol of 13 juices and 5 enemas each day….
Gerson Revisited – part one
After Laura died a couple of people sniffed, ‘Well we knew the Gerson diet wouldn’t work. Carrots and enemas – how could it?’ Other people have asked what I think in hindsight about the Gerson Technique. So here goes – Pain + Stamina – The doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering told us that doing the…
Fever + Cancer
Laura’s has had an unimaginably hard week what with her on/off fever, rigors, drenching sweats (three nights in a row), coughing and vomiting. Yesterday, at the suggestion of her oncologist, we visited a local urgent care unit for a chest x-ray. It showed no metastasis (YHEA!!!!!!) and no sign of pneumonia (which the oncologist feared)….
Blood Work Update
Dr Cervantes at the Gerson Clinic in Mexico isn’t happy with Laura’s blood work. Her sodium and chloride levels have dropped too low, her LDH (the cancer marker) has leapt up to 390 and he is worried she isn’t eating all her meals, especially on castor oil days. This is a big deal. It’s really…
Weekend Warrior Schedule
We’re trialing a new version of the Weekend Warrior schedule for our kind-hearted volunteers. We’ve pruned the schedule way back so it’s now 3.5 hour shifts (instead of the mammoth 5 hour shifts of yore) and we’re asking for just one Weekend Warrior for each shift (instead of two people each morning and one person…
Gerson French Fries
On castor oil days Laura usually can’t eat her soup, never mind her baked potato, because she feels bilious and poorly. But we’ve discovered a neat trick, Gerson ‘French Fries’. You bake them in the oven for an hour @ 350 F (absolutely no salt or oil!). Even on her worst day, Laura will happily…
The Importance of Gruel
Gruel, the milky white juice that you get when you boil organic rolled oats in a lot of water for 15 minutes (and then strain off and discard the oats) seems to be the key to keeping Laura’s stomach happy. When she drinks a little before and after every enema, her stomach is less upset,…
Blood Work Update
Today, Laura had her first phone check-up with Dr Cervantes at the Gerson Clinic in Mexico . He reviewed her blood work and said her urine PH 8.5 is too alkaline (apparently this happens to most Gerson patients after 6 weeks), so he wants her to eat a little animal protein. Her ears perked up…
Tumor Necrosis
In The Gerson Therapy book (2001) one patient Kent Gardner describes his throat tumor when it starts to die off as ‘rotting in my throat..it produced a constant, horrible smell unlike anything I had ever experienced – even after working for 24 years as a taxidermist!’ Eventually it fell off and he swallowed it. Sounds disgusting…
My Dear Mum
It has been quite the year. First my very dear mum, who has enfolded me in love all her life, had a stroke in the fall of 2012, then my soul mate Laura was diagnosed with melanoma of the cervix in May 2013. And now this Thursday, September 5th, my mum is going to have…
Sniff Sniff..
When I first met Laura she had a terrible sense of smell. It worried me a bit. Diminishing sense of smell can be an early indicator for Alzheimer’s. But since Laura has been on the Gerson diet, her nose is now so sensitive it’s like a super power. If I so much as pull a…