The Journey Begins

I was diagnosed with colon cancer in May 2013. The few months preceding, I had been having digestive issues. Nothing that was bad enough to see a doctor though. I was having bouts of diarrhea and then I was constipated. It wasn’t until I started crampingW, that I knew it was serious. Still, I was hopeful that some apple juice and exercise would do the trick. Nope.

Here’s a little backstory. I was the primary breadwinner in the family, I had some significant amount of stress. This is what was going on when I was diagnosedHIP

My husband and I were in the process of adopting two children through foster care.

My newly adopted son was severely ADHD,(boy howdy!)

My daughter that was away at college was in a physically abusive relationship.

My other adult daughter was having a hard time financially, and I couldn’t help her.

My husband was trying to get a new business off the ground and the income was hit and miss, feast or famine. Mostly famine!

I was a full-time commission employee, my income was suffering because of the new kids, Affecting, my health insurance which was costing nearly as much as I was making, so I dropped it.

We had just purchased our dream home, but it was a major fixer upper!

We had the tenant from hell in our previous home!

NO KIDDING I GOT CANCER. Something had to give.

It was then that I was diagnosed with colon cancer. So here I am, trying to “heal myself” so to speak. I thought it was just the stomach flu. I finally went to urgent care and paid out of pocket. They told me I had the stomach flu (!!), viral gastroenteritis. “Stay hydrated” they said. I went back 2 days later because I had some cramping and I was running a fever. They did some blood work and said I had a bacterial infection, and prescribed me antibiotics. (I had no idea what that meant at the time.). Two days later, no change. I went back, they said come back tomorrow, we’ll do an x-ray. I went back and had the X-ray completed. They said go straight to ER you have a bowel obstruction!

After dropping the kids off at my sister-in-law’s house we went to ER. I didn’t know you could be admitted so quickly! I had emergency surgery a few hours after being admitted. Not surprisingly, the bacterial infection was because I was septic. Luckily for me, the bulk of the waste was trapped in a loop of intestines.

That was May 20th 2013, my 51st birthday. Had I done a colonoscopy on my 50th birthday or sometime during that year, I wouldn’t be dealing with this shit. PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT….Get you colonoscopies done!

They removed 18 inches of my colon and my appendix. They also gave me a port.

I was initially diagnosed with stage 2 colon cancer. I was upstaged the next day after the pathology report came back with tumor deposits. My surgeon likened them to confetti sized pieces of tumor floating freely in my abdominal cavity. It was caused when the tumor broke through the colon wall. He said there was no way to know how many there were left inside.

I didn’t know this at the time, nor did my doctor (I don’t think), but those tumor deposits were the precursor to peri mets. This would have been the perfect time for HIPEC, unfortunately my oncologist had no idea what that was, nor did I. (This is the perfect time to suggest getting an oncologist that specializes in your particular cancer.)

After recovery, several months later, I started my first set of chemotherapy -FOLFOX. 6 months, 12 rounds. It sucked, I survived. I have a lasting gift of neuropathy in my fingers and toes. It comes and goes depending on the season/temperature.

I had been introduced to cannabis oil shortly after I went on the first chemo. I was told it was cannabis oil, but it wasn’t. I think the person that gave it to me thought it was. In actuality, it was a tincture (I’ll explain that later.) I took it for nausea. It sorta worked. But a few tokes seemed to work immediately. I still hate smoking it.

But that did introduce me to cannabis, so for that I’m grateful.

After chemo, I took a two month break before my follow-up appointment. My CEA (carcinogenic embryonic antigen- it measures cell growth) had started at 5.3 after surgery (anything under 3 is ” normal”). I didn’t really understand the importance of CEA at the time, otherwise I might would have had more questions and taken it more seriously. My CEA had creeped up to 12 during chemo. After the two month break, it spiked to 65!!

My oncologist asked me to do a PET scan. When we went in for the results of the PETScan, he sat in front of me, looking at them, not saying a word. You could read his face, he had not looked at them prior to sitting down. “I’m surprised you didn’t know about this, you have a tumor somewhere in your abdomen that is so large I can’t tell which organ it’s attached to”

It was a whopping 6 INCHES by 8 inches. Its funny, I thought I had just gained weight. By the time they removed it, it was 7″ x 9″.

He recommended a surgical consult immediately, which I did. I ended up having my second surgery almost a year to the day after the first. The tumor ended up being completely encased in my right ovary, which was removed intact. I also had tumors in my left ovary. They did a total abdominal hysterectomy. They took out all of my reproductive organs, my cervix, and my omentum. It turns out that tumors that grow in the reproductive organs, grow very quickly, as they are hormonally driven.

I recovered relatively quickly. I completed another 12 rounds of chemotherapy, FOLFIRI. This time, I lost my hair. All the while I keep asking my oncologist, what about those tumor deposits? His reply, “let’s worry about them when they show up on scans” Yikes!

After finishing the full 12 rounds of chemo, I watched my tumor marker numbers continue to creep up over the course of a year with nothing showing on scans. I was getting worried, I needed a second opinion, and a new oncologist.

I considered all the big names Johns Hopkins, MD Anderson, you name it. A friend of mine who also has colon cancer and was at that time (and is still currently) NED, suggested I look at UCI medical center. In fact she was flying from Sacramento down to southern California just to see her team. That really resonated with me. So I took her advice.

I fell in love with my new oncologist. He’s awesome. He suggested an MRI instead of the pet scans that my previous oncologist did.  He found a lesion above my liver, recommending we go in and remove it immediately that was February 2016.

He went in laparoscopically but warned me he’d probably end up going open. In recovery, I awaken to realized I wasn’t opened. I was kind of happy, until I found out they had aborted the surgery. The surgeon said I was so peppered with tiny tumors, none of which were showing up on scans. That was the wrong surgery, a month later I had CRS/HIPEC- Cyto-reductive surgery followed by (simply)Heated Interperitoneal Chemotherapy.

About the same time, I was introduced to Rational Therapuetics, Dr Nagourney. He does tumor assays, testing your actual live tumors with a variety of chemo therapies. This includes chemos that are for other cancer types. Not surprisingly, none of the colon cancer chemos were effective, and only one other chemo for skin cancer, was mildly effective. This came as no surprise.

I had CRS/HIPEC March 2016. It was a brutal twelve hour long surgery. The tumor burden was so heavy, I’m surprised now they didn’t abort. I’m so very grateful that they didn’t. What’s was amazing, prior to surgery, I felt great! I didn’t feel or look sick at all. It turns out peri mets are very slow growing, and aren’t seen on scans until they are larger. By then, it’s a blanket.

Interesting enough, I had started real cannabis oil a couple months prior to that surgery. It’s possible it was keeping me stable enough to make it as far as I did.

I was in the hospital for a month.  Two days after surgery I went septic. I had another emergency surgery. My parting gift was a temp ileostomy and a foley (bladder)bag. I was put on bed rest to allow everything to heal. When I began walking again, I simply couldn’t. I made it to the door, completely winded, it was indeed brutal. Recovery was long and difficult. I used a wheel chair, a walker, a cane. It makes me truly appreciate my body and the health I continue to have. I am nearly 100% today. They removed nearly all of my colon ( I have six inches left), removed my gall bladder, scraped my diaphragm vigorously for a good long while (my surgeons words), resected my liver, scraped my bladder (puncturing it- which is common), pretty much everything was touched and scraped.

After four weeks, I probably shouldn’t have, but I was released. I was still very very sick. I was vomiting multiple times a day. The doctor wanted me to go two days without vomiting. I hid my vomit for two days. Later I found that my epiglottis was damaged. I still occasionally vomit, if you can call it that. It’s just overflow bile, slippery slimey bile.

I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t think I was going to survive that surgery, or the recovery. I was sent home open. I healed from the inside up. I came home with the temporary ileostomy and a bladder bag. Bless my sweet husband, he changed my dressings and took care of all my bag changes too.

I was pretty incoherent for the first month. with a ileostomy and foley bag, it was difficult to tell how much liquid was going in me. I went into kidney failure( now called acute kidney injury). My husband began weaning me from opiodes. (They were the cause of the dehydration and kidney failure.) I recovered from that, but I have to really keep an eye on my hydration. Sometime after that I started taking cannabis oil again. I started learning about how it works and how much to take. I found a supplier. And I started reading and asking questions and experimenting with dosage and dosing.

I couldn’t walk from my bed to the bathroom without being extraordinary winded. I could hardly walk from one end of the house to the other. I used a walker, a cane and a wheelchair. To look back at that journey is amazing. The thing that shines through it all is my husband. I doubt I’d be here today if he wasn’t by my side, holding me up or pushing me forward. Literally! He’s always supportive of each of my crazy ideas, and there have been a few! More coming soon!

I had my ileostomy reversed about five months later. Eight months after CRS/HIPEC(Nov2016), I had a somewhat superficial tumor above my liver. It came out quickly and easily. Outpatient surgery! I did another set of chemos recommended -5FU. That was Jan 2017. After that set of chemos, I had a long run of good health. I was staying on my cannabis oil. Getting my bloodwork every month, getting scans every three months and Drs appointments every six weeks.– plus port flushes.

Also, after recovery, I decided to take cannabis seriously. I researched and learned, I found a good group and learned some more. I’ll share the name of the group if you’re interested, I started using cannabis oil religiously. Like a prescribed medication. Like my life depended on it. It did.

Immediately, I found out I wasn’t taking nearly enough. In order to determine your dosage, you must first know what percentage THC you have.

Also, you NEED THC, you can add CBD to it but THC is what kills the cancer.

YOU’RE going to get high. It’s not a big deal. You get used to it, and can actually function to some extent. A wonderful side effect, you’ll sleep like a baby! I realize there’s a stigma with this, not everyone wants to get high. Those are the side effects. I’ll take those over chemo any day!

So the short of it- I take between 600 and 1000 mg of THC a day. I take 200 mg as an oral dose before bedtime, I take two 400 mg doses as suppositories. One at night time before bed, and one sometime in the middle of the afternoon.

There’s a lot of confusion AND misinformation about suppository dosing. I was led to believe that the rectum can’t absorb oil, which makes sense to me. I mean why would you want your rectum to absorb anything? So I switched back to oral dosing, the exact same dose I was taking as a suppository. I was very stoned, but I managed.

And my tumor marker numbers started going up. I’m very lucky that CEA has been a good indicator for me. For many people it is not.

After a few months, I looked at my charting and I compared it to my dosing. I saw a correlation of when I switch suppliers, when I change how I dosed, and when I went on a very short-lived maintenance dose. It became apparent to me that my markers were going up because on how I was dosing. I’m assuming that oral dosing isn’t as affective as suppository dosing. I don’t know if it’s just me, or if it’s my type of cancer.

Every single time I decreased my cannabis oil dosage, my tumor marker numbers went up. If I became lackadaisical with how I use my cannabis oil, my tumor marker numbers would go up. I also noticed that when I switch to my oral dosing, my tumor marker numbers went up. It was amazing to watch.

That said, in late May of 2018, my husband planned an epic three week vacation. We flew from our home in California to Atlanta Georgia. We rented a car and had an epic East coast road trip.

Flying with cannabis oil is a federal offense. I took a chance and took my oral doses with me, about 21 capsules. I mixed them in with my vitamins. I knew for a fact trying to sneak in 42 syringefuls of cannabis oil would get me arrested.
And when I got home, my tumor marker numbers had spiked and spot showed on scans.
At this point I was flipping out. I had run out of cannabis oil, and I was fighting a case of the stomach flu, which hit me pretty hard because I only have 6 inches of colon left.

Once I recovered from the stomach flu, I started back up on my cannabis oil, plus chemo. My Oncologist just wanted me to do four rounds of chemo and I agreed. I did it alongside cannabis oil. My tumor marker numbers dropped over 50%. They continued to drop for a few months after.

That was in November of 2018. My tumor marker numbers have been all over the place since then. I think much of it had to do with stress. I was again under an enormous amount of stress do to my ADHD son. We finally got that resolved by starting him on meds that work. We also tried CBD it didn’t help.

Since starting my son on meds, my tumor marker numbers are going down again. I’m not out of the woods yet. My surgeon and oncologist, along with the tumor board are reviewing my case. I’ll update when This finally happens.

I recently purchased a Green Oil Machine. I’ve done one test batch, which I ruined. I’m getting ready to do a second test batch. Wish me luck!
I’m also getting my gardens ready to grow. I have a funny feeling I’ll be on cannabis oil for life.

May 2019

Status update, and some changes in my protocol.

For nearly the past year, I have been trying to get a handle on my CEA (tumor markers). When we went on vacation, I couldn’t legally fly with all my cannabis oil, so I didn’t take it. My markers spiked. Then spots showed on scans. Finally, the kicker, I started expelling it. I can’t keep it in. My markers are completely out of control. My last results (over a two week period) went from 65 to 115.

I went in for a presurgical consult to discuss removing a malignant lymph node. While I was there, I requested IV hydration, as I’ve been battling dehydration. On top of that, I was super itchy. Turns out I wasn’t dehydrated, I had a blocked bile duct, and it was creating havoc in my body. Without bile, I don’t poop. I felt very sick, this had been sneaking up for a while.

I was admitted to the hospital for a blocked bile duct. They placed a stent, and I was released. My digestive system is a mess. Plus to add insult to injury. I had a colonoscopy a few days later. Thankfully, it was clear.

In the meantime, I had stumbled across Joe Tippens story (mycancerstory.rocks). He was introduced to fenbendazole, which is a dewormer for animals. It was originally approved for humans, prior to becoming an animal medication.

The story kind of went like this. In 2008, in a research lab at MDAnderson, they had already seeded mice with tumors, awaiting treatment. The mice developed worms. They used Fenbendazole on them to remove the worms, accidentally, curing the mice of cancer…oops! Don’t you hate when that happens? Nothing was done with this info.

A Scientist at Merck Animal Health (the makers of Panacur) must have heard about it. When she was diagnosed with Glioblastoma (brain cancer) she decided to try it on herself. She had great results! She cured herself in eight weeks!

She reached out to her colleagues at OSU and asked if anybody knew anyone else that had cancer. Joe had just been given the “ go home and get your affairs in order” talk two days prior.

Joe had been diagnosed with lung cancer. The first doctor didn’t think he could help, and actually told him that. His second set of doctors thought they had a chance at it, and treated it with radiation. The radiation was successful, however, the cancer had already metastasized throughout the rest of the organs in his body and he lit up like a Christmas tree.It was at this point that he was introduced to fenbendazole.

He took it over the next four months.  His next scan was clear! Three more months went by, and his scan again was clear!

So I purchased eight weeks worth of PANACUR. I’m still taking my cannabis oil, but only what I can take orally. Wish me luck!

I’ve started a “Panacur for Cancer “Facebook group if anyone’s interested in following. We currently have about a dozen members, a few who are coming up on first scans. ( I didn’t realize Joe had one). Edited: The Facebook group name was changed to Fenbendazole for cancer.

Yesterday, May 30, I had my first bloodwork since starting Panacur.  My CEA is down 17 points in twelve days!  Something  is definitely happening!

I had an oncologist appointment yesterday. We discussed going back on chemo next week. He drew labs, everything is normal. My CEA is down another five points from last week.

On a side note. We “breathed” the word fenbendazole to my oncologist, who has always been supportive. He is NOT. And what was even more amazing was that he had never heard of it. How in the world could he be unsupportive of something he’s never heard of?

7/2/2019 Another Fenben/Panacur update:

I did a week of Chemo, Folfiri with Avastin. It was brutal. I barfed for nearly two weeks. I was exhausted. I didn’t want to eat or drink anything. I went to ER for hydration. For the next week, I had such low energy levels, when I went out, I had to use a motorized cart. In only one week, I’ve lost my hair…again. I seriously considered NEVER doing another.

However, my tumor markers dropped a whopping forty points! From 93 to 53! And again, a week later, another five points.

I don’t know if the difficult chemo had something to do with the fenben. I was thinking it might have been a healing crisis. I could also picked up some kind of other big or virus.

Regardless, I’ve never had such a good result whilst on chemo. In fact, the last time I was on folfiri, my markers increased!

I had asked for a week off, but ended up taking two weeks off. I do chemo again July 8.

Update: July 12, 2019

I went to my oncologist appointment on July 8. I did my bloodwork. It was all out of whack! Hemoglobin high, creatinine high, red blood off, white blood off, everything was a mess. I was anemic and had low iron. He cancelled chemo, and sent me to get a blood transfusion. I took two units. My numbers are still slightly off.

During this mess, my CEA spiked thirty points! My July 8 CEA WAS 73! I can’t help but wonder if it was inflammation of some sort that had my numbers all off.

I don’t know if it was caused by the fenben or the chemo. I’m mostly back to normal, with only slightly elevated numbers. We had planned vacation for July13-28. I didn’t want to cancel it, so asked if I could go on xeloda instead. He agreed.

I was on xeloda for four days before the next bloodwork was drawn. It dropped back down to 45 . It’s all over the place.

I’m excited to see what my CEA is on ~July 26.

August 1, 2019. Update: finally got to my cea on July 30. Unfortunately, it’s up 13 points. It’s been so erratic, it’s driving me cray cray.

August 7, one week later. Huge cea spike…to 114!

I also did another round of chemo. It was more brutal than the last. I started on Wednesday of this week. I turned it off four hours early, as I couldn’t handle anymore. That is definitely my last chemo.

If my markers don’t show improvement, I’ll be very upset. I don’t know what’s going on right now. I’d like to think it’s tumor die off clogging my lymphatic system, that’s hopeful thinking I know..

I ended up spending the night at the hospital, they pumped four liters of hydration into me. I was very near kidney failure, as they were spasming, and my body had this electrical vibration, almost convulsing. We called 911.

Luckily, I didn’t actually go into kidney failure, the blood results were ok. But I’ve been extremely ill for five days now, I don’t know how much more I can take.

Sept 7, 2019

I had my first scan since starting the fenben protocol a week or so ago. It wasnt bad, but it wasnt great either, hence the reason to not rush here and share it, though I do have something exciting to share after my update, so please read on.

My last scan showed mostly stable, as in of the five tumors that are currently known, four have either shrank slightly or remained stable. One grew slightly. I’m not incredibly concerned about it growing, as Ive seen videos of tumor cell death, and in the process of apoptosis (dying), they swell before imploding. So I’m hopeful that’s what’s happening.

All in all, I feel good. I have decided that at least for the near future, Im done with chemo.

Now on to the exciting thing.

Someone shared this article on one of my groups. Ill break it down after so it makes a bit more sense:

” Killing cancer simply put by a biochemist, when THC connects to the CB1 or CB2 cannabinoid receptor site on the cancer cell, it induces an increase in ceramide synthesis that leads to cell death. A normal cell does not produce ceramide when it is near THC; therefore it is not affected by the cannabinoid.
The reason the cancer cell dies is not because of the cytotoxic chemicals, but because there is a small shift in the mitochondria. The purpose of the mitochondria within a cell is to produce energy for the cell to use. As the ceramide is produced, it turns up the sphingolipid rheostat. This production increases the mitochondrial membrane permeability to cytochrome c, which is vital protein in energy synthesis. The cytochrome c is then pushed out of the mitochondria, which ultimately kills the source of energy for that particular cell.
The presence of ceramide leaves no possibility of cancer cell survival. This is because it causes genotoxic stress in the cancer cell that generates a protein call p53, which disrupts the calcium metabolism in the mitochondria. Ceramide also disrupts the cell’s digestive system that produces nutrients for all cell function, and actively inhibits pro-survival pathways.
The key to the cancer killing process is the accumulation of ceramide in the system. This means that by taking THC rich cannabis extract (with the minimum of 55% THC) ,at a steady rate over a period of time the patient will keep metabolic pressure on these cancer cell death pathways. ‘

Its funny in a way, I always said that THC just made the cancer cells high. In my humble opinion, that is exactly whats happening. and they can no longer divide. THC saps their energy, much like it saps mine when I take too much and end up couch locked, with no energy, unable to move.

I was aware of this happening, but I didnt see the correlation between that and fenben until now. This is big for a few reasons.

What the article doesnt mention is how fenben works with THC/FECO.

While at my oncologist about a month or so back, I was picking his brain about the p53 mutation. I had asked him if someone had found a treatment that targeted p53. His reply was IF someone found a protocol that targeted p53 and were successful, theyd win the Nobel Peace Prize. Well guess what targets P53? Fenbendazole. I dont know if that is the only mutation that fenben targets, but it could explain why some people dont see results.

Now this explains alot of things when Fenben and FECO are used together, and why some people don’t have success. First, Fenben works for some without THC. That is because some peoples tumors express enough P53 without THC. Secondly, some people who do express p53 dont express enough, or at all, THC will make that happen. So, basically, that means that the fenben protocol added to the THC protocol will affect all cancers. Individually, its a hit or miss.

Still, we have a problem with finding quality THC, and trusting that what you are told you are buying is exactly what you’re getting. Many people don’t even know how much THC is in the oil they are getting “from a friend”. Then you have to get enough in you, which is often more than some can handle. Finally, bio availability. Some people cant absorb the oil properly. I know I cant take oils by mouth and get good absorption due to having my gall bladder removed.

Also, and this is probably just as important as bio availability. Cost. If you aren’t making you’re oil. you’re buying it. FECO costs anywhere from $20- $60 a gram. When you’re taking between 750 mg and a gram a day, that gets really expensive! At one time I was paying about $1200 a month for my FECO use.

I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but this protocol will probably never go mainstream, as THC will never go main stream. As long as we can make it on our own, I doubt any pharmaceutical company will touch it. This makes our group/forum even more important.

Sept 16,2019

I stopped chemo about a month ago. I decided to change the way I dosed fenben based on how I had success with cannabis oil. I have no gallbladder and six inches of colon. My body doesnt digest and absorb things the normal way anymore. Bile is made in the liver and stored in the gall bladder. It is delivered on demand when eating something greasy or oily. Without a gall bladder, bile drips into the stomach and intestines all day. I dont have enough bile to absorb a greasy meal and that affects how I absorb fatty foods. Which consequently affect how I absorb fenben, since it needs fat. That is why I went to suppositories. When I had great luck with cannabis as a suppository, it was an obvious route for fenben.

I have GREAT NEWS!

Since starting fenben as a suppository only about two weeks ago… My tumor marker numbers have dropped from 115 to 61!

I stopped chemo about a month ago.

This is HUGE.

I’M OVER THE MOON

Edited to add: I make the suppositories with straight fenben I purchase from NationalfishPharm.com. I mix with mct coconut oil and suck into a needless syringe. I dose directly from the syringe..

I’m currently taking 250 mg orally, and about 500 mg with mct coconut oil as a suppository. Ive been doing ten days on three days off.

Oct 7 2019

The Fenbendazole suppository is made by mixing the Fenbendazole with MCT coconut oil, both to increase bioavailable and to aid in suppository delivery.

I had been making the suppositories in 1 ml syringes. It’s a royal pain in the butt, pun intended!

So I decided to try a larger syringe. I went to 3 ml syringes. I preload them with 500 mg straight Fenbendazole and top off with coconut oil. Much much easier. These are still easy to slide in, though the lip on them take a little effort to get past.

FYI, they separate in the tube, a vigorous shake mixes them right back up.

October 9, 2019-December 2019

Welcome aboard the CEA crazy train!

On 10/19, my CEA SPIKED TO 147.2. (Doubled!) That’s the highest it has ever been . I couldn’t rationalize why. I didn’t think it likely that it was related to tumor growth.

My next on 10/30 dropped back down to 71.

Next CEA 11/13- 75.6

11/27 CEA was 143.9. I also had an MRI done.

December 11, 2019

Got the MRI results. It basically showed stable, no regression no progression. It was a different kind of MRI that was supposed to see Peri Mets. None showed. Neither I, nor my oncologist actually believe the scan. It’s highly LIKELY that I have Peri Mets.

CEA was stable as well, 145.1

January 3, 2020

Happy New Year and a belated Merry Christmas (or Holiday of you choice!)

I’ve given myself the gift of blissful ignorance this year! I have chosen to hide my head in the sand, and live a normal unworried life! And it was glorious and so so worth it!

But it’s time to get back on the horse and get serious! I’ll update soon!