2015 Still Fighting the Fight

Things have not changed much over the years, and we are still fighting the good fight.  However, now the fight includes the Veterans Administration, as well as the cancer,  for the 4 years we've been here in the rainforest.

Mr Miller has had stage 4 prostate cancer since 2009, and here it is halfway through 2015. He has gone through the whole gamut of conventional and alternate treatments and cures.  I make cannabis oil once a month and he ingests that 3-4 times a day. The good thing about marijuana's cancer effectiveness is that it helps keep the cancer from invading soft tissues.  To this date it has not infiltrated his organs except for the bones.  Nothing in the liver, lungs, pancreas, etc.  So something is working.  In addition to this he takes 4 cancer pills a day, plus supplements vitamins and alternative beverages including Chaga.

He has  taken a whole host of "cutting edge" drugs,  The last two, worked fairly well.  The current conventional cutting edge drug is Enzalutamide or Xtandi.  The cost is $7000 a month born by the VA.  The one before this cost $5000 a month, but that one elevated his liver enzymes to more than 10 times the upper level of normal..one of the scales of laboratory measurements.  And so this would cause liver failure.  It worked to stop the advance, but it would have killed him through liver failure. 

The Xtandi does not mess with his liver at all.  And his PSA (I call it his 'chemical PSA") because it is unnaturally low, is 0.2.  It was 18 a few months ago as we waited to get approved for taking this drug by the VA.  And that is another whole blog which I'm not going to write..at least at this time. So Mr. Miller will stay on this drug until progression...which WILL happen one day unless a miracle intervenes.

The good thing about living in Paradise while dealing with dying is that every day is a joy.  We wake up to beauty, birds incomparable sunrises and sunsets.  That helps make every day exceptional.  And we take many trips out of the country both for medical reasons and for enjoyment.

Our most interesting trip, two years ago, was to Lourdes, France via Barcelona.  Lourdes is believed by the faithful to have healing waters, and there are 52 authenticated miracle cures attributed to its waters.  Many, many other healings and improvements in health  have also been recorded.  We flew to Barcelona visited the city for a few days then took a train across Catalan, through the miles and miles of vinyards along the way, and finally to Lourdes and its healing waters and immense cathedral.  Millions of people visit this shrine annually, and light candles or place written notes of their "intention" into a box in the shrine. The faithful form a never ending parade around the grounds to the holy water.  Miller drank and washed in these waters, but the baths were closed due to a river overflow and the threat of pollution.  And we brought some water home, and lit "eternal" candles, and were overwhelmed with the spirituality there.  You could feel the "belief" in the air.

Since then we have returned to Spain, the Costa del Sol, just for a getaway, where we found that the Mediterranean was as cold as the waters of the Atlantic near Cape Cod Massachusetts in the early summer..maybe 65-66 degrees?.  Brrrr.  Of course by now we are used to the 80 degree water in our new home country's oceans.  (Yes we have been granted residency here.) 

Costa Rica is a very Catholic country, and 85% of the locals are Catholic.  Even the busses have "God drives my vehicle" on them.  Obviously there is no separation of Church and State here.

In this country there is a shrine, in Cartago, to "La Negrita" Our Lady of Los Angeles, that also draws a huge crowd to the Basilica in Cartago on her feast day in early August.  Pilgrims flood here by the millions as well,  for a week every year, and many of the faithful travel more than 25 miles from San Jose to Cartago on their knees. 

Whether or not I have a strong faith in this healing, I do believe that positive thinking and strong belief can influence how the body fights disease--kind of like hypnosis.  The power of the mind to control every cell in the body is indicative if not reflective of this capability.