Back on the Balance Beam

One of the advantages of putting together my own health care plan is that there are so many options to choose from.

And, the major disadvantage of putting together my own health care plan is that there are so many options to choose from!

This week has been pretty confusing, as Liz and I have been weighing the pros and cons of continuing with Dr. Thaller's treatment vs. starting one of the other promising treatment regimens that I've run across.

On Dr. Thaller's side: he's a great guy with a fabulous curing attitude; the four treatments he offers are very highly-regarded*; I'm not even halfway through the series of dendritic cell treatments; and frankly, I want to try *anything* that has a good chance of helping me to heal.

On the other side, it's soooo doggoned expensive. The next treatment series will be $18,000…and there are two other series waiting for us in the next couple of months at the same cost. Since so many people have been so amazingly generous with their contributions, I want to make sure that their money is well-spent.

There's also some doubts about the dendritic cell therapy, which is the core of the next few visit to Dr. Thaller. Ralph Moss (the most competent researcher I've come across) said that many people consider this line of inquiry to be "yesterday's news". (To be fair, there are lots of people praising it to the skies as well.)

In the midst of this confusion, I've been reading about two other therapies that might really help out someone with an advanced cancer like mine.

The first is Dr. Pfeifer's prostate protocol . He's the head of the Aeskulap Clinic in Switzerland, and developed a series of four different supplements for men with *very* advanced prostate cancer (even worse than mine). There's just been an EU-wide study on it that concluded it produces a 50% reduction in PSA in 70% of the patients treated. (PSA decreases if your cancer is decreasing).

The second is the combination supplement-and-diet regimen of Dr. Nick Gonzalez in New York City. He started out at Sloan-Kettering examining a "folk" remedy that had achieved some notoriety back in the 70s (actor Steve McQueen was on it). He found out it had a 93% *cure* rate, quit Sloan-Kettering, and started his own practice administering the regimen.

The case reports are really breath-taking for this treatment. Take a look at them and you'll understand why we're on the fence about what to do next.

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* Dr. Thaller's 4 treatments are local deep hyperthermia, Newcastle Disease Virus, Coley's Toxins and dendritic cell vaccine. (there's also Vitamin C and oxygenated blood infusions, but those are just gravy.)