Tumor Update

Soooo....

More tumors keep showing up, and some of her old ones get bigger.

I veer between negative and positive states when thinking about it, but am taking action.

It’s discouraging to discover new red swellings. Yesterday I found one on her belly while I was trimming her nails. It’s very small and would normally not cause me concern except it has the tell-tale look of the others, like a dark red blister. It’s discouraging to see some growing. The one on her left upper lip grew suddenly two weeks ago, almost doubling. It itches, and I worry about her scratching it. I can feel the tumor’s hardness from inside by slipping a finger into her mouth. I’m starting to worry that it’s impeding full yawns. I worry about stress (hmmm, have to take care of myself too).

New belly spot

None of it seems to be bothering her. She’s full of energy, swimming almost daily in the lake here in New Hampshire and walking in the mornings with my mom. She’s flinging her toys with full force, so there’s not “pain” from the one on her muzzle as far as I can tell. She also vigorously defends us from wildlife here in the woods (ok, I appreciate her barking the bears away, but I’d rather she didn’t feel a need to be so “en garde” at night, it must be stressful). She looks forward to meeting new people. Her skin and coat look great, her appetite is normal (eager!).

In light of the changes I’m adding new supplements on the advice of her holistic vet Keith Weingardt:

Beta-Thym (by Doctor’s Mutual Service Company, their pet line is called Best For Your Pet) is billed as a natural cortisone. It’s ingredients (per tablet):

Beta-Sitosterol 200mg

L-Ornithine 200mg

Thymus Glandular Substance 100mg (yes, that is the official phrase, “glandular substance”)

For her weight she’s getting 2 tablets a day.

I have to admit, after reading the wikipedia entries for the ingredients I'm really not sure what it's doing, but am willing to give it a try if there's been good results with others.

Resveratrol Plus by Natrol has 100 mg of Quercetin and 100mg of Resveratrol in each tablet, She’s getting two of those a day. The original aim was for the quercetin, but this formula also had resveratrol to it looked like a good choice.

Resveratrol is extracted from Japanese Knotweed, an imported invasive plant here in North America that happens to be highly medicinal. Resveratrol is an anti-oxidant polyphenol called a phytoalexin that acts as part of the plants immune system. It’s been found useful against cancer, but is also a very good anti-inflammatory, it’s almost a wonder drug. I was actually trying to find some Japanese Knotweed while I was here in New Hampshire to harvest the root, it’s illegal to sell the plant, though one can sometimes find dried and powdered root in products. I highly recommend the book Invasive Plant Medicine by Timothy Lee Scott to learn more about this plant and others that we are trying to destroy.

Quercetin is a flavanoid that is available from many plants. It helps with itchiness from histamine production, as well as being an effective free-radical scavenger... all that good stuff.

While I usually prefer using whole plant material, sometimes it’s difficult to get enough of certain constituents into the body without extracting. The thing is, extracting also removes other complementary constituents that are in the whole plant. Perhaps using some whole plant with an extract would provide the desired synergy?

I wish it were easier to use topicals on dogs, to be able to attack it from outside as well as inside. I’d like to try the Chaga cream from Woodland Essence I have on some of the surface tumors, but I know she’d just lick it off. I think I’ll try it on the new belly one and see if I can teach her to leave it alone.

Cancer is such a mystery, but inflammation sure seems to contribute to it and become one of it’s hallmarks, at least in some types. I’m glad we’re upping the ante.