Why do I feel good today?

July 2nd, 2010

When I lie around trying not to dwell on the long-term effects the buildup of chemotherapy is having on my body, I am grateful for an un-orthodox cellular detox procedure that has become an essential part of my healing process. I believe that it helps counteract the ill effects of whatever the eff makes up chemo (I’ve tried googling the ingredients without luck)

It’s controversial, at least on the Internet, so bear with me as I try to describe it. There also are people who argue that acupuncture and chiropractics have no medical benefit.

Once a week I visit Lynn Arthur for an ionic foot detoxification, followed by a session of reflexology.
The footbath helps draw toxins and parasites out of my body (photographic proof below); the reflexology restores energy to my battered system.

Here’s a brief description from a website devoted to the process: “An ion is a charged atom or molecule that has gained or lost an electron, thus creating an electro-magnetic field capable of neutralizing oppositely-charged particles such as toxins in the human body.”

Toxins stick to cells, thereby blocking those cells’ ability to absorb nutrients and expel waste. (Cancer tumors are cells that have become deformed or mutated for some reason) The 2,000 pores on the feet are the largest in the body so they are the best escape routes for the toxins. I am not qualified to explain the science behind it (if there is science behind it), especially with my newly fogged brain.

But this I can describe: the amazing transformation of the salted water over the course of the hour. It turns from clear to bright yellow to a murky orange-green-blue. Black flecks like pepper litter the bottom of the soaking tray, as does a sludge that looks like something from a septic tank. I have actually seen worm-like parasites emerge from my pores (creepy, yes, but everyone has them – see photo) even though I’ve been a semi-regular parasite detoxer for 10 years. Lynn, who has practiced alternative health methods for 32 years, knows what the excretions are and where they’re coming from (many are from my liver, gall bladder and lymph system, not surprisingly).

I emerge energized, and regular readers of this blog know that’s a rare state for me. After yesterday’s session, I walked three miles this morning. (Added bonus: she told me when I started in May that a bothersome and bulging 15-year-old varicose vein inside my left thigh would disappear with the treatment. I wondered how that possibly could be a result, but noticed this week that it’s gone. Crazy!) Many of her patients are children with autism and concentration disorders.

I can’t explain why it works, but yesterday Lynn gave me a copy of tests commissioned by a very well known doctor in Fresno who, aside from his prestigious mainstream Western medicine duties, relies on alternative medicine to maintain his own good health (she obviously wouldn’t let me use his name). He and his wife use the baths to remove heavy metals from their systems in the hopes that it will prevent Alzheimer’s. He sent Fresno’s awful water to a testing lab, along with water run through the ion process without feet, then water after both he and his wife had soaked. The Fresno water was filled with mercury, arsenic, copper, lead, uranium, barium, cadmium, chromium, nickel, selenium, zinc, aluminum and beryllium, to name a few. The same water run without feet showed fewer contaminants: .0003 ppb of arsenic (the Fresno water had 2.5); .027 of copper (Fresno 23); .16 of lead (Fresno 1.4) and .45 of nickel (Fresno 5). None of the others registered. The water in which the doctor and his wife had soaked contained trace amounts of 16 of the metals, but in amounts differing from each other, presumably excreted from their bodies.

Sometimes Michelle goes with me and her sludge water ends up looking very different from mine.

So what does it mean? I don’t know. It’s scary to find how little is known about things that drug companies can’t patent – like my $26,000 Neulasta shot.

I only know that it makes me feel better. And maybe I am negating the long-term health effects of these horrible toxins that are dripped into my heart by nurses wearing haz-mat suits.

That possibility that I am eliminating the harmful residual makes it worth it, even if you think the only real effects on me are mental and emotional. You know, the ones commonly know as “placebo.” I have seen and felt the results and believe otherwise.

After going from feeling great two months ago to feeling like I’m walking in the shadow of death, the times that I feel good again are precious to me and keep me going. Lynn, one of the coolest people I’ve met in Fresno, makes me feel good. And that’s all that really matters.

The setup and my feet (remember chemo patients can't have pedis)

At the risk of gross out, this is after 30 minutes. See the big parasite in the middle?