My alternative road to health
Not that 62-year-old Michael Sheehan was ever weak. A successful life and pensions broker, married with three daughters and a son, he had a lot going for him.
At least up to February of last year. Already being treated for the blood condition haemochromatosis which led to cirrhosis of the liver, he felt particularly unwell on a trip to the US. On his return after numerous tests, a tumour was found in his liver and he was given a prognosis of no more than seven months to live.
“I was advised to put my affairs in order,” says Michael. The diagnosis was a shock but it didn’t drag him down. “I gave myself five minutes of weeping and regrets, but I never really said ‘Why me?’ instead ‘Why not me’ – this sort of thing happens all the time.”
Having recovered from the shock, Yvonne, his second eldest daughter, like her father, set aside her emotions quickly and asked him how far he would be prepared to go in considering alternative treatments for his condition.
Working in New York, she was somewhat removed from the family’s day-to-day worries and stresses, and believes it helped her to calmly research various cancer treatments. “Dad said that he promised my mother he would be around for another 20 years and asked me to help with the research,” she says. (Yvonne’s log of her journey with her father is at www.conqueringcancernaturally.com.)
Working in communications management and being resourceful and results-orientated, she armed herself with spreadsheets and began to cross reference a wide range of alternative and conventional cancer treatments on the web.
They looked at the Gerson, Budwig and Bill Henderson regimes involving various diets, but the final choice was the Herzog clinic in Germany offering a range of treatments by an oncologist, including chemotherapy.
After a series of tests there, Michael was advised to continue with the chemotherapy tablets he was prescribed in Dublin to contain the tumour. He was also offered a controversial treatment known as hyperthermia to enhance the efficacy of the chemotherapy. With this, the body temperature is raised to prompt the multiplication of white corpuscles, just as the body does naturally with infections, building up antibodies to fight them. The patient is sedated while the treatment is working and the head is kept cool with ice.
Michael also had lymph drainage massage and magnetic field therapy and was impressed with the range of ultrasounds and tests done on him for food intolerances.
The whole body is treated at the clinic to build up immunity and fight infection.
Michael is on a diet which is mainly vegetarian and includes fish and well-sourced, top quality vitamin-rich fresh fruit and vegetables. Fibrous cereal products are part of his daily diet along with carrot and beetroot juices, his daily after-work drink to strengthen the system and detoxify.
He is allowed only occasional sweet treats as sugar is believed to feed cancer. He also takes a number of high-concentration vitamin and mineral pills and his GP administers weekly vitamin shots, which he recently learned to administer himself.
He takes Essiac herbal tea and sticks to an exercise regime which was prescribed at the clinic to keep the body active, stimulating his system to produce endorphins.
These days he has the energy to do gym workouts a few times a week, and he walks four or five days a week. He feels more energetic, is putting on the weight he lost, and friends say he looks much better.
“Even now when we describe what we are doing, we still would not give anyone blanket hope for any condition or veer them away from conventional treatment,” says Yvonne. “All we know is that at least we have bought time, and my father is looking and feeling much better.”
He is still on chemotherapy tablets twice a week and his GP takes weekly blood tests which are sent to the clinic in Germany for analysis. If the balance is wrong, something is done about it.
So with all of this is Michael ever going to be cancer-free? “That’s what I asked when I went to the Herzog clinic”, he says. “I was told I could live a long life with the 7cm tumour which has shrunk.”
Michael also set about seeing if there were inner psychological traps that might have turned his body against him. Was he holding in some deep-seated tension, were there unresolved problems which were undermining his physical condition?
He went to a psychiatrist and learned about himself. He discovered that, despite enjoying work, he tended to stress about it.
He has since put measures in place so that new partners share in the running of the business, while increasing his source of income. Sorting out his private affairs has reduced stress too.
“What’s keeping me sane is an acceptance of my condition, and I’m not afraid of what’s ahead.”
Three weeks at the Herzog clinic cost €13,000 for a range of treatments and accommodation. Other sessions have cost less, around €10,000 and ideally he will go four times a year.
His insurance company refused cover on the basis that it is ‘alternative’.
The Irish Cancer Society offers a detailed ebook on alternative therapies, Cancer and Complimentary Therapies.
When asked about alternative approaches a spokesperson said: “Generally, alternative therapies are used as a substitute to conventional therapies. Such alternative therapies include diet and megavitamin therapy, and immuno-augmentative (immune boosting) therapy. Most medical healthcare professionals believe there is no evidence that such treatments can cure or reduce cancers.
“One of the main reasons why medical healthcare professionals have been reluctant to accept alternative therapies is that most of the treatments have never been scientifically studied or validated. Because of this, they also believe that, in some cases, these therapies may even prove to be harmful.
“We base all our positions on quality, peer-reviewed research. “
* www.cancer.ie/cancerInfo/complementary
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