Days 43-49: cricket and dowsing
25 May 2011
I've always liked cricketing metaphors. That's why I decided to record my cancer diary by numbering the days from the date of diagnosis. My aim is to notch up successive cricketing-style milestones.
So the first aim is the half-century of days. Then I'll aim to reach 100 days. Once that's achieved it's going to be 50 weeks, then a century of weeks. And then it's into measuring progress by months and years. I'll be happy to score another 50 years (that'll take me to the ripe age of 104) ... but don't think I'll go for the full century on that measurement.
So I write this on my 49th day and - appropriately - I'll be spending it watching Hampshire v. Lancashire in a 4-day, traditional county cricket match at the Rose Bowl in Southampton. It's the first time I've been to a county match since I was a schoolboy, when I used to cycle across my home county to watch Essex play in Colchester and Chelmsford. It's one of the symptoms of my new, more relaxed approach to life. Or, to misquote the poet William Henry Davies: 'what is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare (at cricket)'.
So, as I pack my binoculars and straw hat for the match, I'll briefly recap on the past week. The second chemotherapy proved better than the first. I managed to avoid the sickness and nausea. However the fatigue was worse and continued for longer. I'm realising now that, effectively, you have to write off the first week of each chemo cycle.
By the 4th day after chemo I was just exhausted. I spent much of the next three days sleeping and feeling rather low. My mood was not helped by the discovery that I had been the victim of on-line financial fraud, with large amounts of money vanishing from an on-line account ...and this just days after another fraudster had hacked into my mobile phone account, leaving me worried about password security and computer viruses. It's ironic that I'm supposed to be banishing anxiety as part of my way of dealing with the cancer. I'll just regard these as little tests to see how well I was doing.
By the 7th day after chemo I did feel strong enough to go to watch Fulham v. Arsenal in the final game of the football season. It's about a half-hour walk from the station to the ground and normally I stride it pretty quickly, usually overtaking most others along the way. This time, after a good first 15 minutes, I found I was getting slower and slower. Soon even the slowest walkers were overtaking me. I felt like a 90 year-old shuffling along the embankment path. Still, I enjoyed the game and felt that normal life was beginning to return.
On the 8th day I felt much stronger again. This was the day my wife, Chrissy, had arranged a visit from a 'holistic geobiologist' who was here to survey our house for geopathic stress. Now I'll admit to be being fairly sceptical about this but - like most things - I was willing to give it a go.
Roy was a fascinating character. An ex-forester, a former policeman in London's Soho district, and a triathlete who's represented Great Britain, he retrained in dowsing and geobiology in Germany. Geobiology goes back to the 1920s when an eminent dowser made the claim that cancer was caused by energy lines that ran under the beds of people who had died from the disease.
Using dowsing rods and a suitcase full of scientific instruments he set about checking our house for geopathic stress. This is the harmful radiation caused by electromagnetic disruption from things such as underground streams, mineral deposits, or fault lines. Happily our house and garden were given the all clear.
So next he tested for electro-magnetic fields, for 'electrosmog' and 'bed geomagnetic anomalies'. When he came to both my study and our main bedroom his instruments gave off alarming signals and noises. One culprit was the cordless phone. It turned out (and he was quite right about this) that we had mistakenly set up two master cordless digital units for our phone land-line. One of these was in the bedroom, which should have been only a so-called 'daughter unit'. DECT cordless phones emit radiation 24 hours a day, even when you are not using them. And we had two of them, one transmitting close to where we sleep.
A second culprit, less surprisingly, was the wi-fi system in the house. The wirless transmitter is placed very close to where I sit at my desk. A third problem was found to be our bed, which has a metal frame and bedhead. This was causing electrical disruptions exactly in the place where our heads are on the pillows during sleep.
All of these issues are easily addressed: a new cordless phone system using an ECO system which cuts out most of the radiation emission (he recommended the Siemens Gigaset ECO models), a hard-wired router which sends the internet signal through your home's electrical ring circuit, and a new wooden bed.
At no point did Roy suggest that any of these issues were remotely a cause of my cancer (if he had detected geopathic stress that might have been different). Indeed I did not tell him until well into his visit that I had cancer. But his point is that the body needs to recuperate and to restore the natural energies and needs the right environment (especially in the place you sleep) for that.
I found it an interesting day. I do not pretend to understand the science of it all and I would refer you to the very knowledgeable post below from Chris Thomas, a friend of mine who urges caution in these matters.
Anyway, since then I have been almost back to my old self and able to get on with work and normal living. It struck me at one point that chemotherapy provides a rather good analogy for living with cancer. During the day-long treatment I was attached to an intravenous drip for 8 hours. I could move around but I had to take the drip, mounted on a stand on wheels, with me wherever I went.
That's what cancer is like. You can do lots of normal things. You can feel well. You can function. But you are aware - all the time - of that thing that is trailling along with you all the time.
But one day I will be saying goodbye to it -- I'm sure of that.
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Lee Phillips - 25 May 2011
Chemo
Dear Mike
My dad had the same chemo regimen as you for the same condition - a stage IV adeno - the exhaustion for him was the worst aspect. However, he had an outstanding response to it - the alimta seemed quite the wonder drug for him and led to what his onc called a 'complete response': they couldn't find any evidence of cancer on the CT scan and after four weeks off the chem (he completed 4 cycles), he was over the worst of the fatigue. I'm hoping for the same for you.
Dad's a never-smoker too, and he's been lucky enough to test positive for EGFR, and started Tarceva four weeks ago (if only complete response = cure!), which he's tolerating well. And Tarceva does work effectively for some people without the mutation too.
I'm wondering if you've been tested for the ALK rearragnement, another common variant in non-smoker adenos. The Cancer Grace website and forum - no affiliation! - (cancergrace.org) goes into much more detail about this than I can here. The drug is crizotinib.
Best wishes to you.
Jennifer Begg - 25 May 2011
Being yourself
Hi Mike,
Your updates do make me smile and I'm so happy you're managing to carry on with things as best as possible during your chemo. I can't say I get the cricket thing (I'll get Simon to explain it later), but I really admire the way your incorporating a wide range of therapies with a great attitude and an open mind... from you Mike, I would expect no less ;O)
Take care,
Jennifer x
Chris Thomas - 25 May 2011
Electrical Radiation in Your house.
Like most people I was really shocked at hearing about your diagnosis and also sorry to hear you have been a victim of online fraud as well, I am sure fraud is the last thing you need at the moment.
Now I was compelled to write as an I.T Techie and Radio engineer to give my views on that survey you have had. Firstly whilst its probably best not to have your head near to the router, Wi Fi signals are very low power, much much less than a mobile phone especially a mobile phone near your head so I feel heating effect from that WiFi radiation will be very tiny and dont forget you will also still have wifi signals at similar strength from your neighbours. If you go for a hard-wired router (homeplug) which sends the ethernet signal through your home's electrical ring circuit you will have more signal in your house because every mains cable in your house will be radiating signal. Mains cable is unscreened so it will radiate. Yes the signal will not be up in the microwave band but there will be more electrical noise in the house. This type of signal causes interference to any local Short Wave radio listeners. Ofcom are currently investigating the issues. Connections are often slower than WI-FI. If you want to eliminate WI FI have a proper ethernet cable fitted where you need it.
As for your DECT phones - All cordless phones have average output powers of around 10 milliwatts (10 mW, one hundredth of a watt) during conversations, although the instantaneous output power can vary over time due to the structure of the signal. That is a tiny amount of power! Cordless phones only need to emit a fraction of the power of a mobile phone.
So I have been and gone all techie on you but most importantly I dont want you to be at risk of being taken in by all this geopathic stress stuff. I would always be happy to give my advice.
Also I was wondering if you have had your house in Devon tested for Radon Gas which I am aware can be a problem in that area?
I wish you all the best
Chris T
Jo French - 26 May 2011
Not being too nice - honest!
I know that we promised not to be too nice to you(!) and I’m not sure I totally understand the cricket metaphors, but I did just feel I have to tell you your erudite blogs about this horrible disease and the equally horrible treatments (currently available) are so warm, witty and wise that you are still doing what you do best ... educating.
You obviously have some very good friends and so many of the comments are wonderfully supportive, moving and challenging, but your Dad's comment about 'the battle' is my favourite! I totally agree that there is no shame in a good battle fought bravely but lost ... mind you; we definitely want your battle to be won!
See you soon
North Kingston Pilates Class Literary Society Pal !! xx
graeme packman - 26 May 2011
Radon
Helen and I are following your your blog closely and are looking forward to meeting up with you and Chrissy, all being well, at the Parlour in about 3 weeks time.
One comment from one of your previous correspondents (Chris Thomas I think)that I would reiterate is about having the Parlour checked for Radon.
Having lived in Devon for a few years I am well aware how widespread a problem this is, particularly with the type of property that you have.
I have always tended to think of the problem as a Cornish issue but it does affect Devon too and given the other checks you are making I would recommend this one- although I do not have any technical expertise upon which to base this recommendation.
Graeme
Hugh Parker - 28 May 2011
Alternatives to medicine
Mike,
I wish you all the very best in your fight against cancer. Apart from anything else, I do so purely selfishly, in the hope that your journalism goes on for as long as possible.
I want to caution you against listening too uncritically to the alternative medicine people. AM is an interesting cultural phenomenon based on an irrational lack of confidence in the knowledge, experience and skills of the medical profession. While imperfect, medicine is about seeing what works, and using it. There is a name for an AM treatment that's been shown to work: medicine. Several traditional herbal treatments have been shown to work, not least a willow extract now commonly known as aspirin. For those AM treatments that haven't been shown to work, we need adjectives, though, not nouns: distracting, and profitable.
If fixing your feng shui, crytal therapising your chakras, dowsing your electro-whatever, and taking chalk pills which were once soaked in purified water make you feel better, then go for it, but if there's ever a choice between the advice of a competent, trained, experience medical professional operating within a large supervisory structure, and the advice of a complementary wishful thinker, please, please, take the advice that will keep you with us for longer.
All the very best.