Saturday, March 1, 2008

Treatment Update

Hi everyone -- I'm still here! Things are going well -- I'm starting the second month of my pancreatic enzyme treatment, my last PSA reading was below 3, and I feel great most days.

This has been a *very* wild month -- the pancreatic enzyme treatment is turning out to be much more difficult than I thought. Parts of it are easy and parts are definitely not. In the next post I'll give a sketch of what the treatment looks like on a daily basis. (As my nutrition coach, Pamela, says: "it's a full-time job!")

I just wanted to check in and wish all of you a happy Texas Independence Day (March 2nd) Enjoy!

4 comments:

Jill said...

Hi Nick,
I'm also doing the pancreatic enzyme therapy. Are you working with Dr. Gonzalez?
I've going into my second month and it's definitely a challenge. The most difficult thing for me is giving up my go with the flowness and becoming beyond high maintenance.
I just started a blog about living with my treatment. It's http://kickingcancersbigfatass.blogspot.com/
Peace and happiness!
Jill

Nick said...

Hi Jill,

I considered working with Dr. Gonzalez, but chose instead to work with Pamela McDougle in Boise. Same basic treatment, with a couple of differences: 1) her pancreatic enzymes are 15x stronger, and 2) I'm using a near-infrared sauna twice a day to help detoxify (since the enzymes are stronger).

My understanding is that since she's not as focused as Dr. Gonzalez on proving her case to the medical establishment, she can be flexible and change the supplement mix and treatment as developments warrant (whereas Dr. Gonzalez' treatment has been stable since he started in 1986).

The stronger enzymes are not necessarily a great thing, though...I have been *severely* depressed this month, and have never had a problem with this before. Hopefully this will turn out to be a "healing crisis" as the enzymes detoxify my system. For now, though, it is definitely a challenging process!

Congrats on your therapy and best of luck with it, I will check out your blog for updates!

Nick

Jill said...

Hi Nick,
Sorry to hear about the depression, but just as all clouds have silver linings the reverse seems to be true as well. Hang in there and hopefully this too shall pass.
Keep in touch and I'll check back with you often. I'm pulling for you, and if you need an ear I have two good ones!

Nick said...

thanks Jill, I appreciate the support. yes, those silver linings can be very tricky! It's strange to have worked so hard to get to the point of taking the enzyme therapy, and then for it to be hard in unexpected ways. (Although -- ha! -- my whole episode with cancer has been very unexpected!!)