Round Two

We made it!  We are here in New York, and have come to the end of our first day at the Schachter Clinic.  What a long day.  I don’t understand something about these cancer clinics.  I don’t understand why they don’t allow patients to have a lunch break.  Our first day at the Burzynski Clinic back in February was so unbelievably long.  You get there when the doors open in the morning, then have appointment after appointment until the administrative staff follow you out at the end of the day to lock up.  We were exhausted and starving by the time we got back to our condo.  It was the exact same routine this time around.  We were at the clinic at 8:30am.  We had back to back appointments until 1:30pm, then Adam was hooked up for IV treatments for three hours.  We finally got back into the car to head back to the hotel after 5:00pm.  I was so hungry I could have eaten the steering wheel.  But, who cares about me… what about the patients?!  These poor sick people need to eat, for crying out loud!  Adam survived, naturally, but I just don’t understand why they do this to their new patients.

Anyway, the first day went swimmingly.  We first went over Adam’s medical history with the physician assistant, then Adam had some blood drawn for labwork.  We met with Dr. Kopelson after that, and we both really liked him.  I spent a moment perusing the titles lined up on his bookshelf, and I was really impressed.  I’ve read most of them, so we were literally on the same page!  He has prescribed IV Vitamin C, amygdalin/laetrile, and something I can’t pronounce or remember at the moment.  Adam will also be taking a boatload of vitamin supplements, but that’s no surprise.  A couple of them where ridiculously expensive, though.  I can’t wait to see how God works out the finances on this one!  Then again, He came through when we were paying the Burzynski Clinic for 6 months, and if He can do that, He can do anything!!  Adam will start adding one supplement every other day until he is following the full protocol, which I think included about 10 supplements.  Our diet is already spot on, and the nutritionist was very pleased.  We just need to tweak a couple of details, and it’s now essential that we get grass-fed pastured meat, and highest quality fish for our protein sources.  Adam has been told to completely avoid commercial meat, poultry, fish and eggs.  Thankfully we live in the country and have a lot of choices as far as pastured meat goes.  I just wish it wasn’t so horribly expensive.  And the vegetables really need to be organic from here on out.  Especially with juicing, which we’ve been advised to do 2-3 times per day.  Dairy needs to be raw, and grains need to be whole and organic.  I’m glad I know all this already, but it also helps to be reminded.  I’ve been sliding on the quality of food we’ve been eating over the past year, mainly due to financial pressures.  However, it really would be better for Adam to miss a few meals, then for him to consume dangerous pesticides or hormones.  In fact, with two children in our family having neurological conditions, and with my various minor health issues, we ALL need to be eating like this.  We’ll find the money somehow, even if I have to turn tricks to make ends meet.

It looks like we’ll be staying up here until the end of next week to ensure that Adam gets plenty of IV treatments in before we head back to Virginia.  There are a few clinics within an hour from Berryville that do IV treatments, so we now need to figure out which treatments they offer and how much they charge.  Adam will need to have two infusions per week of the three supplements.  This treatment will be his new part-time job and will unfortunately involve some commuting.  But, it will certainly be less grueling than the Burzynski treatment, and will make Adam feel BETTER not worse while he’s on it.  He was literally bouncing after he got his Vitamin C today!  So we are both feeling excited and positive about this new phase of treatment.  And we’re praying that this approach actually works.