Excellent Resources for Cancer

- Compiled by Oceana del Fuego

Oceana has been asked by two naturopathic physicians to begin assisting people in facing a cancer diagnosis in a new and different way. She feels that she has received the best in alternative and traditional medicine.

After trying many different modalities in her healing journey, Oceana has compiled this list of things that made a significant difference. She has no financial ties to these businesses and receives no financial rewards for your patronage. The one exception is the Internet pharmacy, where the reward is noted in the description below.

Oceana wishes you courage, loving support and clarity in your healing and in your life. Donations are gratefully received (suggested donation $10). 

If you find even one resource that is helpful, then it will have been worth my while. These are all resources I have experienced personally as I received the best in alternative and traditional medicine.

A printable version of these Cancer Resources is available here. (PDF)

Best wishes to you in your healing and in your life. You are loved.

Doctors

• Dr Lyn Hanshew www.AskDrLyn.com Dr Lyn has been invaluable to me and has helped me feel better quickly. She does a teleconference that is free. Look up the date time, number to call and password on her web site. While you are there read all of her credentials. She does independent research and has no financial ties to any of the products she sells. Dr Lyn is one of the most loving people I have ever met.

• Dr Daniel Newman www.DrDanielNewman.com Dr Newman is a medical doctor, naturopath and Chinese herbalist and acupuncturist. He skillfully blends the Eastern and the Western. He was an invaluable help with difficult treatment options. He spends a lot of time with his patients, so he answered many of my questions more thoroughly then the oncologists did and made sense out of my experiences for me. Also, he has had cancer himself.

• Dr Kou www.DrKou.com Dr Kou has also really helped me with his many years of experience with cancer and his skill with herbs and acupuncture. I trust his read on my health which he does using traditional Chinese methods. He has been a source of accurate information about my healing process and a great resource with practical questions like “what should I eat?” when my digestion was so disturbed. He holds his patients in a space of deep, courageous compassion. He made an affordable treatment plan for me and I feel better after each appointment with him.

Books

• "Grace and Grit" by Ken Wilbur – This is the most helpful book I have read about cancer and the “cancer experience”. Please be aware that his wife dies of cancer in the end and that is hard to read. The book includes sections from her diary and chapters he wrote as her caregiver. It addresses the really difficult issues including coping with people who say things that aren’t helpful.

• "Remarkable Recovery: What Extraordinary Healings Tell Us About Getting Well and Staying Well" by Caryle Hirshberg and Marc Ian Barasch.

• "Sauna Therapy" by Lawrence Wilson, MD – This is an informative book about how to use infrared sauna as part of your healing. This book also includes very good information about healing crisis and how to weather them without panicking. I bought the sauna that Dr Lyn recommends and I have been very happy with the relaxation and peacefulness it brings me. Also the infrared heat feels very nurturing. I look forward to my sauna time and think of it as meditation time. I wish I had bought the sauna years ago just for the relaxation aspect. There is also plenty of science to back up the benefits of regular infrared sauna sessions. Infrared sauna is one of the few things that remove radiation from our bodies and it also destroys the mutated cells so they are not able to reproduce.

• "A Homeopathic Approach to Cancer" by Catherine Coulter and Ramakrishnan This book contains protocols for using homeopathy to heal cancer. It is worth looking at. The protocol requires a commitment and you will need a doctor familiar with homeopathy to assist you. I bought the book and gave it to my naturopath as a gift.

• "Little House on the Prairie" by Laura Ingalls Wilder It might seem a bit odd to include this here, but I found that I needed extremely light reading and I am finding this series to be delightful and interesting historically.

Support

• Swedish Cancer Education Center Art Therapy – The Swedish Cancer Education Center is available to anyone with a cancer diagnoses, whether or not you are a patient at Swedish. Many of their programs are free. I have found Art Therapy extremely helpful each week.

• Gilda’s Club - This is the group founded by Gilda Radner. We are very lucky to have a Gilda’s Club in Capital Hill in Seattle. They have a variety of support groups, classes and activities all of which are free (except their fundraisers). I especially recommend the Beams and Dreams Boating Excursion in the summer which I just loved.

• The Caring Bridge www.caringbridge.org This is a free web site so you may post your story including updates as often as you wish. You may also include photos. You may decide if you want to see who is reading your posts or not as you have control over who looks at your site. It is a wonderful resource that was invaluable to me. It is exhausting to tell many people individually how you are and some of those stories (hard doctor’s appointments for example) are ones you don’t want to be saying over and over anyway.

• Lotsa Helping Hands www.lotsahelpinghands.org This is a website you can set up so friends can look up what help you need and volunteer to help you. In my particular case, I didn’t really use this because my needs were and are very task-based, not time-based. For example, I need someone to help clean the house until it is done. This site is set up for things like “I need a ride to treatment on this day at this time”. It is excellent for that kind of thing and is a wonderful tool to try.

• The Bridge to Heal Cancer www.ShamanicJourneys.com This is a free healing guided visualization done approximately once a month as a phone conference. You can listen to (or download) prior phone conference visualization sessions here. Nicki is very loving and I have found these sessions to be very helpful. I always feel better after doing one. If you are open to looking at the world and life through shamanic eyes, this is definitely worth trying.

• Harmony Hill Retreat Center www.harmonyhill.org This is a wonderful retreat center on the Hood Canal that offers 3 day retreats for those with a cancer diagnosis and their loved one. All retreats are free. They also do 3-day caregiver retreats which are also free. They offer a variety of one day programs as well. It is a wonderful place that serves fabulous organic meals.

• Cancer Life Line 24/7 Telephone Support 206-297-2500 or 1-800-255-5505. www.CancerLifeLine.org This is a free service for those with the diagnoses and also their friends and family members. It is wonderful to have someone to talk to when you are having one of those days or someone says something that is very upsetting (usually without intending to). They also offer a variety of classes which I haven’t experienced.

Miscellaneous

• www.gratitude.org – Wonderful web site where you can light a candle for yourself or someone else. Also, you can receive a saying about gratitude each day.

• Canada Drug Web site www.canadadrugs.com I have been fortunate to not need many drugs, but the one drug I take occasionally costs $3.50 a tablet (which includes shipping) from Canada Drug vs. $18.00 a tablet at the pharmacy. If you tell them I referred you, we both get a $25 credit. They have an American toll free phone number and take American debit cards and credit cards.

• Belleruth Naparstek www.healthjourneys.com offers excellent guided imagery CD’s and MP3 files. She has one specifically for radiation and chemotherapy treatments. I found the radiation recording helpful. I especially like the recording she did for the Immune System as immune system resources are hard to come by.

• Awakening Light Gong taught by Professor Chen – for Puget Sound area class go here: www.soaringcraneqigong.org If you don’t specifically see this class offered, email and ask Teri.

Miscellaneous Things That are True As of this Writing

• Disability and other financial aid is available when you are undergoing treatment. Once treatment is completed, those funds are only available if you are Stage IV.

• It is a good idea to keep a copy of your medical records. If you order them yourself the normal policy is to charge you by the page. If your primary care doctor orders them, s/he gets them for free and may be willing to copy them for you.