East Meets West – Tazmin’s Journey with Cancer, Part 2

We came from here:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/926761/

Hello everyone. :) I’m sorry I’ve taken so long to start a new thread. I’m still dragging along after my bout of flu and I think what few active brain cells I had left have now died. ;) I appreciate everyone’s support through this experience; you’ll never know how much it has meant to us.

As many of you know, our Keeshond, Tazmin, was diagnosed with a chemodectic tumor on her heart last November. It is cancerous, and while it is not operable, it is slow growing. Because of the tumor, the pericardial sac which surrounds the heart was filling with fluid, placing great strain on her heart and lungs. To relieve this stress, Tazmin underwent a surgical procedure to place a window in the pericardium so that the fluid can no longer build up in that manner. Then after a 3-week wait to heal, she underwent a 5-day regimen of radiation treatments the week before Christmas and appears to have come through it fairly well.

On Wednesday, December 31st, we had our appointment with the holistic vet, and it was quite interesting. However, I must admit to feeling a bit stupid because I don’t understand quite a bit of what the vet talked about, and it’s made it difficult for me to verbalize our experience with Dr. M. I know this is long, but please try to bear with me.

As she explained it to us, traditional western medicine approaches cancer with “kill it kill it kill it”, and I understand that. However, traditional Chinese medicine approaches cancer and says, “hmm, something is out of balance which caused the cancer to grow. How can we bring everything back into balance so that body can heal itself?” I think there’s something to be said for that, too. So the trick here will be to integrate both east and west, as it were, and keep Tazmin as healthy as possible, as well as see if her body can repair itself to some degree.

According to Dr. M.’s website, about 3,000 years ago, in China, the Five Element Theory was introduced. This theory is a way of looking at the world, relating elemental phases to weather, seasons, health, sounds and many other things. It is one of the diagnostic theories of Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine (TCVM) which has been proven and tested for millennia. Dr. M. uses all five branches of TCVM – Acupuncture, Herbs, Tuina (massage), Food Therapy and Qi Gong (energy work) to lead your pet back to health.

Dr. M. spent about 2 hours with us and took copious notes. She asked a lot of questions about Tazmin – not just about her health and history, but about her type of personality, too. According to her, Tazmin is a typical “fire” personality – happy happy happy, but also a drama queen. (I had to laugh, because it reminded me of when Tazmin was a puppy and the car door had accidentally shut on her paw because she was wiggling around in my arms when I was trying to get her out of the car. She yelped and I panicked. I jumped back in the car and drove her straight to the vet. The vet asked which paw had been hurt, and I wasn’t sure. So he tested all four of her paws by pinching them, and she yelped for all four paws! We were never sure which paw, but it didn’t matter because she wasn’t hurt. She was a drama queen even then!)

According to Dr. M., it isn’t surprising that Tazmin’s tumor is on her heart. There are inherent weaknesses within each personality type, and by understanding this, we can live our lives nurturing our weaknesses to the best of our ability. One of the weaknesses of the “fire” personality is the heart.

Dr. M. placed 3 acupuncture needles on Tazmin – one above her right eye on her forehead, and one on each rear paw. She sat on the floor and talked with Tazmin, making her do things for treats, and Tazmin was totally unconcerned with those needles. It’s as if she never even felt them going in or coming out. After several minutes, the vet removed them.

She looked over the ingredients in Tazmin’s food, and for the most part thought it was a very good anti-cancer diet. She did suggest adding several things to Tazmin’s diet: a 1-inch piece of raw or cooked organic grass-fed beef liver daily, organic cod liver oil (it has vitamins A & D) daily, organic kale and a little bit of fruit such as watermelon, honeydew or cantaloupe melon daily. Bananas are too sweet, she said. It’s all about balance – yin and yang – and we don’t want to be giving Tazmin anything that has too high a glycemic value because that fuels the cancer. Dr. M. is also going to be sending us some Chinese herbs to give Tazmin, and then she wants to see her again in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, we’re supposed to be keeping an eye on Tazmin and taking note of any changes – write it down, the time of day, the weather when it happened, etc.

So maybe you can see why I feel a bid stupid. This yin and yang thing has me spinning. Have I thoroughly confused you? I want to ask Dr. M.’s permission to post her web address in case you want to read her information for yourself. I don’t think she’ll mind, but I thought I should ask first.

Thank you for bearing with me through my long story. Tazmin is happy and appears to be feeling well, and if you didn’t know her history, you wouldn’t know her dim prognosis. We still don’t know how long we have left, but then we never did, did we? We didn’t know how long we’d have her from the day we brought her home as a puppy. None of us knows how long we’ll be here, so we should enjoy and treasure each day for the gift it is.

Take care,

~Marilee

This message was edited Jan 4, 2009 11:10 PM