Elaine returned from ten days at the Park Attwood clinic in Worcestershire on Wednesday, 1st November. The clinic was in a truly beautiful setting. The day I went to pick her up the sun was shining on Autumn leaves, still on the trees, there were books and beautiful paintings throughout the building and a wonderful panoramic view in the reading room.
Elaine had Viscum treatment based on extract of mistletoe. This was administered initially by a drip, and later by injection. The treatment continues so Elaine will, later today, be giving herself the next injection. This treatment is designed to provoke a fever which in turn provokes an immunological response which, it is hoped, will work on the cancer as well as the fever.
The treatment is based on anthroposophical principles rooted in the works of Rudolf Steiner. There were many Germans working or staying at the centre, and of course Elaine had interesting conversations with many of the patients, including a German artist in her eighties and a retired Rear-Admiral.
The clinic discovered that Elaine already had a temperature when she arrived, and had a urinary tract infection. She didn’t know about this and it could have explained some of her recent tiredness. This was treated with compresses & uva ursi tea and has now gone. Elaine did suffer with gout for much of her stay. They didn’t want her to take the normal anti-inflammatory tablets which would also lower the fever. This meant she wasn’t able to walk around the grounds as much as she would have liked. Or get the train home!
We’ve tried to explain the logic of the treatment. It was noticed in the 19th century that people used to get bad infections after their cancer was operated on. There were no antibiotics of course so many people died from the infection. Of those who survived, it was noticed that the cancer returned less often than with those who had not had an infection after the operation. In the 70s I had warts appearing on my hands, may be 8 or 9. I didn’t go to the doctor but they disappeared completely after a very bad dose of flu which laid me up for a week. It was learning about Elaine’s treatment that let me make sense of the connection.
Elaine certainly seems stronger since she returned, although activity still tires her in a way it never did before. She had also been complaining of pains in her liver – these have gone for the moment.
Hi Elaine, Only just found your blog and caught up with what’s going on.
I’m sure I’m probably putting this message in totally the wrong place but I just wanted to send love and get a message to you.
You and I go back a long way and there is much unrecorded women’s movement stuff (HB version) involved in that connection. Julie tells me of a young woman from Leeds keen to do some research. We maybe all remember some things/different things. Any head space for such tracking?
I’m away for a couple of weeks but will contact again if ok with you. I’m sure Julie and maybe Linda will be in touch too.
I’ve seen you disappear out of sight UP the Keighley Road on a bike leaving a comicbook cloud of dust in my face while I struggled to walk itto walk it pushing stylish bike belonging to Christine). I know you can tackle bloody anything. Love Ness
Thanks, Chris, for the encouraging report. The idea of provoking a fever in order to stimulate an immunological response makes a lot of sense. With regard to Elaine’s upcoming chemotherapy, I was just reading in the October 28 issue of The Economist (p. 90) about new research by Anil Potti et al of Duke University in North Carolina that proposes genetic analysis to “predict which type of chemotherapy would stand the greatest chance of zapping cancer cells. Their method is based on finding a rough match between the genes that are activated in an individual’s tumour and those that are typically busy in different chemtherapies perform at their best. As they explain in Nature Medicine, the more similar these two profiles, the more likely it is that a patient taking a drug will benefit from its tumour-destroying potential.”