Posts by Jamie Rivera78

Larry Walker24 said:If your granddad and your old man both battled cancer, there's a massive chance you're next on the list!

Oh yeah, you'll definitely quit smoking once you're staring down a terminal diagnosis.

Look, labeling people like that just isn't right. I'm totally against smoking, but let's be real—plenty of heavy smokers dodge the bullet entirely. It takes a perfect storm of bad luck for cancer to actually take hold. Luckily, we can actually control a lot of those risk factors, so most people carry at least some weight for what happens to them. Cancer doesn't just strike by random coincidence.

Eric Hall51 said:It’s really eating at me that both my old man and my grandpa on his side dealt with cancer. My dad first had this tiny bit of jaw cancer—only a few millimeters—but then after he passed, the autopsy showed a massive 7cm tumor in his lungs. My grandad also had lung cancer and died from it. Both of them were heavy smokers, and honestly, I smoke too. Now I'm wondering: what are the actual odds that I'm heading down that same path? Is it even worth stressing about if I don't try to quit smoking?🤷..........thanks

Man, it's pretty stupid to even be asking that if you aren't planning on kicking the habit. It's common sense that smoking cranks up the risk through the roof. Cancer is always some weird cocktail of circumstances—it doesn't just pop up out of nowhere for zero reason. Look, there's never a bad time to cut down on risks, wherever you can grab them.

Grace Campbell88 said:Hey everyone,

My dad ended up in the hospital two weeks ago. He’d been coughing like crazy a week before that, but everything seemed totally fine two weeks prior to the cough. Since then, things have just spiraled out of control. We don't have all the test results back yet, but the doctors told us (the family) they found cancer in his abdomen and it's spread to his lungs—at least for now. They basically said there's no point in pursuing any more treatment. That's how they put it, though when they say "cancer in the abdomen," I'm guessing they mean stomach cancer 🤷. Dad is pretty depressed, even if he doesn't fully know the extent yet; he suspects it's cancer, but he probably hasn't realized just how far gone it actually is. In about three weeks, once the full labs are done, they'll let him come home—meaning, he'll be staying with me, where my mom and I will take care of him with some help from the rest of the family.

What am I feeling? Mostly just massive sadness and total shock, followed by this constant dread—this daily anxiety wondering when they're going to break the news to him, how he'll take it, and this terrifying fear that this is just the start of a long, grueling nightmare that we know exactly how it ends. He’s mentally fragile and pretty unstable, so I have no clue how he's going to handle this.
Am I ready for this? Losing a parent? I'm not exactly old enough for this crap, but honestly, nobody ever is. I'm a wreck; I've barely been able to function for a few days now, even though I know I have to. I'm scared to death, and there's just no escaping it. And yeah, I'm endlessly, endlessly sad.

Things are rough, and I totally get why you're hurting. Sent you a PM.

Man, sorry you’re dealing with all that payment headache. Honestly, if you use Betfair—which has the best odds by a mile—everything runs smooth except for when you try to pull cash back to a Mastercard. If you're looking elsewhere, Pinnacle is always the go-to for the sharpest lines.

Gary King2 said:Starting off as Alice, so first things first: hey everyone!!

I’m new here, both to the forum in general and this specific thread. I don't have much time since I'm actually typing this while on the clock at work, but I've been scrolling through some posts and I just have to say, I'm blown away by what I'm reading. At the same time, I want to offer my sincere sympathies to all the members and their families.

I stumbled onto this forum by accident while hunting for info on cancer, trying to help out my loved ones somehow.
Basically, out of nowhere about 6 months ago, I found out my cousin has cancer. Even though saying "cancer" sounds incredibly heavy—and honestly, I'm no expert, so forgive me if I use the wrong terminology while I'm still learning the difference between various tumors and melanoma—it's a lot. He's 29, same as me, and we've been close since we were kids. Now that he needs help more than ever, I'm trying to step up however I can, which is why I'm posting this.

I don't have a ton of details yet, but I know he had this mole on his leg that he accidentally scraped off playing soccer. It kept bleeding a little bit, but he didn't bother seeing a doctor because he thought it was pointless—a massive mistake that turned out to be the root of everything. Eventually, things took a turn for the worse; his immune system tanked and his bloodwork looked sketchy, so they rushed him from the hospital in Indianapolis to Washington, D.C., specifically to the MD Anderson Cancer Center, where they diagnosed him with a malignant tumor that has spread to his stomach and lungs. After his first round of chemo (not sure which kind, just know it was 5 days/vials), word is it retreated from his lungs, but stayed in his stomach and spread to his head. To make matters even worse, he picked up hepatitis at the hospital in Indianapolis, and then ended up with paralysis on the right side of his body because they were careless and gave him an IV in a hallway. It’s just been one disaster after another.

I didn't think I needed to know his entire medical history, but I'll dig deeper and report back. Mainly, I wanted to ask: what are people's experiences with that hospital or the institute? I haven't seen anyone mention them here. Also, are there any supplements he should be taking to boost his immune system? He lost 20 pounds in 3 months, but the oncologists haven't prescribed anything for weight/immune support. On his own, he's taking appetite stimulants.

One more thing I haven't seen discussed: he has swollen lymph nodes all over his body, some as big as his hand, and nobody seems to be doing anything about it. Shouldn't they be surgically removed if they can't be managed otherwise?

I don't know how clear this paints the picture of his situation, but I'm just looking for a rough idea of the best next steps.
Thanks in advance for the help!!

I have to back up the previous post. My cousin isn't doing well and the disease is clearly progressing. It's almost certainly melanoma, and when it gets to that stage, the prognosis is brutal. Despite all the therapy, modern medicine just doesn't have a cure for melanoma.
I sent you some of my personal thoughts via PM.

Jacob Fox6 said:At this rate, they’ll probably end up losing their paychecks too, and then where would we be... might as well just head out to some remote cabin in the woods to get treated...

And honestly, it just doesn't sit right with me because most specialists—you know, those guys who haven't even finished their sub-specialties yet and have maybe only spent about ten years in med school... they end up making less than some lawyers who have way less stress on their shoulders, fewer responsibilities, and much shorter workdays. I look at these lawyers, whether they’re family friends working at big-name firms or just local attorneys, and the whole picture just feels wrong. It really doesn't feel right at all... Plus, it totally bugs me when someone with just three years of an economics degree suddenly becomes some pseudo-manager pulling in a massive salary while being practically illiterate...

Look, I honestly can't see eye to eye with you on this at all... maybe if you actually shadowed a doctor at a place like the Mayo Clinic for just one single shift—from that first morning round all the way until they clock out—then you could try telling me I'm wrong. No one is saying there aren't other tough jobs out there, but even a construction worker, and I totally respect the grind, isn't spending ten years mastering a single skill set like a physician does. It’s really just about finding that sweet spot between the level of training, the actual workload, and the paycheck... because by the time a doctor finally finishes their residency, someone else has already wrapped up a master's degree and is halfway through a PhD at another university, and that's just the reality of it. Medicine is such an outlier because of how long it takes and how deep the knowledge goes, which is true in any civilized society... doctors, lawyers, and those elite executives (not the ones we usually see around here in the States) are basically the intellectual cream of the crop everywhere in the world. It’s only in certain parts of the world where people sit around arguing about why someone with just a high school diploma should be making the same money as a licensed physician...

Being a doctor in America is honestly such a curse because, given how much knowledge, sacrifice, and sheer time you pour into it, you still end up getting dragged through the mud for no reason at all... There are all kinds of doctors everywhere in the world, and just think about it—every year we graduate around 250 medical students, and not one of them is struggling to find work since there's always a massive shortage of doctors here, so if you take those 250 students and assume maybe 20 of them turn out to be bad doctors, that’s actually a pretty decent ratio. A doctor isn't there to hold your hand, they're there to apply their expertise to whatever is wrong with your body and try to help... Once you finish med school, and even just a few years after graduating, the way you see the world changes completely. Medicine is a calling, which is why people enroll in that school in the first place, but a job is a job. A doctor has to be objective, not subjective. Sure, being subtle helps, but they see death and conditions that most patients can't even fathom, so how could those same patients or anyone outside the field truly understand when they aren't used to seeing death and severe relapses and constant vomiting every hour like we are...? It's just impossible. A patient might sit there looking pale while the doctor lays out a grim health situation and then heads to lunch to process it all, but for someone who doesn't live that life, trying to understand is just futile... It's practically and theoretically impossible.

Clearly, you didn't actually read what I wrote. I’m not out here saying people should work for free—even though let's be real, there are plenty of folks in this country grinding away for nothing. What I actually said was that in the medical field, thank God, the paychecks actually show up on time. Is that really so hard to grasp? Most private doctors who aren't tied to government bureaucracy make a pretty damn good living.
Honestly, it feels totally ridiculous to act like certain jobs belong to some untouchable "elite." Since when did we start measuring status based on how many years you spent in school? Yeah, okay, med school is a grind and it takes forever, but everyone knows that before they even sign the papers. If someone can't hack it, they should’ve picked something else. Lawyers have to study constantly, professors are always hitting the books, and civil engineers aren't exactly sitting idle either.
The real issue here—the thing that actually matters—is how medical staff treats their patients. It drives me absolutely insane when I see that "looking down your nose" attitude, or when you get that vibe of, "Why should I explain this to you? You clearly don't get it." Look, sorry, but I actually care about what meds I'm taking and the specific chemicals they're planning to pump into my bloodstream. In my book, explaining a medical procedure isn't just an option; it's a fundamental job requirement, maybe even basic human decency. People using the healthcare system are paying a fortune for it, so they have every right to get a clear breakdown of their condition and what's coming next. My experience with private doctors has been mostly solid, but when it comes to doctors covered by Medicare, the quality is all over the place.
Bottom line: patients are BUYING healthcare services, and a customer has every right to demand service that matches what they're paying for. At the very least, if the equipment is outdated and crappy, they should make up for it with better communication. That's the only way the whole thing actually works.

Jacob Fox6 said:

Treating patients like they're just some frustration to be vented on isn't okay, and it honestly makes the whole profession look terrible...

I totally agree, but you really can't just generalize everything like that.

I've heard people blame dissatisfaction on low salaries and crappy working conditions way too often. Honestly? I'd say the conditions aren't even better or worse than what most other jobs in the US deal with...

You really can't compare those two things at all because healthcare has to be held to a different standard. And look, when it comes to pay, every single doctor who complains about it is actually 100% justified. You've got six years of med school, then residency which can take forever, plus specialty training for at least three more years... not even counting masters or PhD work. First off, just look at the sheer amount of time poured into becoming an expert. Secondly, just look at how those same doctors who started out so passionate are being treated now... if a doctor can't give you a specific treatment, you're gonna blame them, not the system that's breathing down their neck preventing them from even prescribing it...

Besides, this kind of situation isn't anything new, and every aspiring doctor knows the score before they even enroll. Yet interest in medicine has never been higher. Isn't that a little weird? The hospitals are in absolute shambles, yet everyone wants to be a doctor. Is the motivation pure humanitarianism, or is it something else entirely?

Actually, interest in medicine is totally tanking, so you've got it wrong there... Nobody wants to kill themselves over medical school just to fight for scraps against someone who finished a quick three-year program under the Bologna system. The comparison is just impossible. Plus, doctors are actually grinding away while others just sit there with their hands in their pockets. Don't try to generalize and draw parallels between things that have absolutely nothing to do with each other...

I have to generalize sometimes, even if it bugs you. It's simple: salaries across the board are low because the economy is a mess. For tons of professions, you spend forever in college, only to struggle finding a job and getting paid peanuts. Healthcare workers rarely get fired—honestly, I think they get paid better than other jobs with similar education levels. And it's not just doctors busting their backs; plenty of others do too. A lot of them work for basically nothing. Luckily, in medicine, the paychecks actually show up on time, right?

I’m pretty much certain the whole thing is crawling with Candida from top to bottom. Hit me up in my DMs.

velvetfalcon44 said:Starving yourself just tanks your metabolism first. Then, your body starts cannibalizing protein from your muscles... yeah, even your heart muscle. Your hair falls out... your teeth get loose and start dropping. You end up with sores all over your skin and mouth. Eventually, you just kick the bucket.
I don't buy for a second that cutting out protein does anything good for the body; it’s the exact opposite.
Plus, back then, the patient was being treated under Breuss's direct supervision. If something went sideways, he'd use some magic intuition—maybe grab a pinch of some herb—and suddenly, boom, a miracle happens. Nowadays, there might be some clinic out there, but who's actually watching over a patient using this method here?
And once they're starved out and totally drained, only to realize the cancer isn't budging, they're basically left just handing their soul over to God.
That's why everyone should make their own choice, but from where I'm sitting, this stuff doesn't do squat for serious tumors. Even things like shiitake mushroom extracts, Immunomax, Biotta juices following the Breuss way, beta Glucan, or IP6... they barely help.
To me, it's just outdated quackery that people cling to when they're desperate.

You're just talking out of turn. The woman who did this didn't lose her hair, her teeth didn't go shaky, and she didn't break out in sores. She went through the whole cycle and healed herself. Believe it or not, I know that's exactly how it went down. On top of that, she says she's never felt better. Her skin was perfect, too. Sure, the metabolism slows down, but she got cured, and that's the bottom line. They'd only given her a year or two to live.

velvetfalcon44 said:No way in hell the body can survive on just juice for a month, especially if you're stuck in bed most of the time. You end up with muscle atrophy until you're basically skin and bones, then all those secondary illnesses pile on. Before you know it, you're bedridden from pure weakness, end up in the hospital, and then our corrupt healthcare system and nurses who couldn't care less because they're too busy watching daytime TV take over.
For basic daily functions, your body absolutely needs proteins. This totally clashes with Brojs's fuzzy theory that cancer feeds off protein intake, so we should just cut it out. Honestly, I’d go even further and say you need massive amounts of protein. If I had cancer, that's exactly what I'd do.
His book is pretty thin on details, though it does mention patients need to stay mobile—but let's be real, you aren't exactly hitting the gym if you've got lung cancer or some other heavy-duty diagnosis, maybe only with the milder stuff.
Then he suggests some kind of onion broth... please, it's all just onions and water... 🙂

It wasn't a month; it was 42 days. Sure, you lose some muscle mass, but that's a small price to pay for getting better. The body taps into its existing protein stores, and if you follow the rules, you'll recover.
The method works way better if the patient hasn't already gone through chemo and radiation. Your organs need to be functioning, and the patient needs to have at least some strength left. With terminal cases, don't expect any miracles.
I personally tried this regimen for 15 days. I felt surprisingly good the whole time, and it actually cleared up some minor health issues I was dealing with.
That said, if I were fighting cancer, I wouldn't be loading up on extra protein either.

velvetfalcon44 said:Forget all that juice-only stuff. It’s useless...
I already know people who tried treating themselves with mushrooms, shiitake, biota juices, etc.—it's all total crap.
That old guy Brojs in that book doesn't even give you a real recipe with actual measurements; it's just some outdated nonsense that makes zero sense...
It just sends you down the wrong path.
Look, Noni, beta Glucan, Shiitake juices and fungi, biota juices (per Brojs), IP6 with Inositol—all of that is basically whistling in the wind against cancer that's already taken hold. Period.
And they peddle this stuff through these so-called "expert" doctors who just want to cash in on someone else's tragedy.

Personally, I know two people who recovered using nothing but Breuss. (I actually talked to one of them a few days ago—she’s alive and kicking 20 years after following the Breuss method.) To me, it isn't complicated at all; everything is laid out crystal clear. An outdated recipe?? You think there's some "newer" version?
If anyone actually cares, they can find the details over at alternativa.

Look, we’ve already seen that going full radical with breast surgeries doesn't necessarily mean you're getting a better shot at survival. It’s the same deal with preemptively ripping out organs—it’s not like it just adds years to your life. While doctors are still all over the place with how they handle this, the trend is definitely shifting toward being more conservative. People are moving away from those massive preventative cuts.

Scott Allen10 said:@Jamie Rivera78/">@@Jamie Rivera78

Look, since you're basically a hardcore, die-hard alternative guy who’s been anti-vax since day one... please, for the love of god, just stick to the actual topic here. Stop throwing out these random stats and those wild "Big Pharma is poisoning the world" conspiracy theories.
If you want to rant about that on Reddit... fine by me. But take it somewhere else.

Man, you really went overboard with those personal jabs. Honestly, it feels like you don't give a damn about people's actual health.

US pulls cervical cancer shot following reports of illness
Feb 10, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Associated Press) — Health officials here have pulled tens of thousands of doses of a cervical cancer vaccine off the market. This comes after two teenagers ended up in the hospital right after getting their shots, according to local authorities on Tuesday.

A massive batch—we’re talking nearly 76,000 doses—of the HPV vaccine was yanked from circulation. A government announcement confirmed the move after two girls over in the Miami area fell seriously ill just hours after being jabbed.

"One of the girls finally made it out of intensive care this weekend, while the other one is still hanging in there. Both ara in stable condition," a spokesperson for Miami health told the Associated Press.

Both girls had been vaccinated just last week as part of a huge government-run immunization drive aimed at teens.

Look, according to the CDC, cervical cancer used to be the absolute heavy hitter—the leading cause of cancer death for Women in The United States. But, fast forward 40 years, and both the case numbers and the death tolls have plummeted. The common theory? It's because more women are getting those routine Pap tests, catching pre-cancerous cells before they actually turn into the real deal.

If you check out the U.S. Cancer Statistics: 2004 Incidence and Mortality report, back in 2004, about 11,892 women in the U.S. were diagnosed, and 3,850 passed away from it. The American Cancer Society puts up similar numbers, guessing around 3,870 women would lose their lives to cervical cancer in the U.S. in 2008.

But here's the kicker. We’ve already seen 18 girls—some just 12 years old—lose everything just because we tried to dodge the "possibility" of cancer later on. Then you've got others hitting massive, life-altering health crises just weeks after getting the jab, or dealing with miscarriages and babies born with defects. It's heavy stuff.

Also consider this : Cervical cancer usually develops in Your latiti 20. Now, the window of protection for Gardasil is supposedly only about 5 years. Think about that math: if you get the first round at 10 years old, you're looking at needing two to four more boosters just to coast through your 30s. You're basically signing up to deal with the potential side effects of Gardasil over and over and over again.

But alright, here’s the real gut punch. I want you to read this part a few times. Really let it sit with you...

The data shows there are roughly 30 to 40 cervical cancer cases per million women annually in the 9 to 26 age range—which is exactly the demographic Gardasil is aiming for (and what they used for testing).

According to Merck, Gardasil cuts pre-cancer rates by somewhere between 12.2% and 16.5% for the general public. So, instead of seeing 30 to 40 cases per million in that specific age group, the vaccine might nudge that number down to maybe 26 to 35.

Do the math. To save just 4 or 5 girls from getting cervical cancer, you’d have to vaccinate an entire million girls.

On top of that, since about 37 percent of women who get cervical cancer actually die from it, vaccinating ONE MILLION girls only prevents maybe 1 or 2 deaths every single year. And we're talking about a $360 million annual price tag to achieve that, not even counting the endless, priceless suffering of all those other women.

Brenda Sanders46 said:Someone already hit you with this one; those four things are linked to the development of cervical cancer.... You working for Schering or Merck or something since you're spitting so much venom at Merck? Sorry, that last part was directed at Jamie Rivera78...

While we’ve got massive ad campaigns for Gardasil blowing up all over the place here in America, Spain withdraws cervical cancer Shot after illnesses Feb 10 because the side effects were just too much to handle.
Looking at the data, Gardasil eventually saves maybe 1 or 2 lives for every million people who get the jab.

darkmaker70 said:My mom was diagnosed with colon cancer last spring. She had surgery pretty much right after, where they resected part of her bowel. The biopsy came back as Dukes C.

She went through 7 rounds of chemo and 25 radiation treatments. All in all, the side effects weren't quite the nightmare we were bracing for, though she lost a ton of weight and dealt with some digestive issues—mostly constant diarrhea.

Now she’s just doing follow-up scans per the oncologist's orders—lung RTG, abdominal ultrasound, cardiac catheterization, and tumor markers—and everything looks okay so far.

BUT here’s what I’m actually trying to figure out, and I’m hoping someone here can give me a straight answer: is there any single test that can tell us, without a shadow of a doubt, exactly what those tumor cells are doing? Like, are they dormant or starting to spread... and where could we even get that kind of testing done?

Sorry if I'm repeating things already discussed here; I'm struggling to dig through all the old threads because, honestly, between a tiny baby and everything else, my free time is basically zero.

Long story short, there isn't one magic test that gives you 100% certainty on whether the cancer is progressing or not.

wiredpilot27 said:Ugh, listen up, people... I just got back from my doctor, and she’s basically telling me "it could be hemorrhoids—you need to take some Advil and start eating that Culturelle yogurt"... seriously!

You could've just assumed that. Honestly, there are way too many panic merchants around here ready to jump straight to surgery for everything. Glad you're doing okay.

Angela Wright said:You don't get what I'm saying, and you aren't even trying to wrap your head around my opinion. Honestly, I don't have the bandwidth to break it down for you. I've got actual work to do at the association. Chaos
👋

That kind of reaction—just shutting down and being totally intolerant—is always a dead giveaway that someone's run out of actual arguments. Time will tell if you were right or just talking trash.
Good luck with that.

steelfalcon15 said:I’m with Angela Wright on this—we need to start an association and actually get to work, because nobody else is going to step up, and they certainly aren't going to hand over the cash (Jamie Rivera78 really exposed how it all boils down to pharmaceutical interests and PROFIT 😠)

I’ve already hashed this out (via email) with slyseal28 and Angela Wright, so they have the full scoop on what’s actually happening here. Nobody is going to run a hundred clinical trials for us, and let's be real: no patient is just going to volunteer their medical records out of the goodness of their heart (exceptions prove the rule!). If we want to see actual results, we have to start moving right now, so that when it's our turn—when we're the ones facing whatever flavor of cancer comes our way—we actually have something to show for it. For our mothers, grandmas, and grandpas, the clock has already run out.

Look, it's obvious that conventional medicine doesn't hit the mark every single time (even if there are plenty of success stories), and clearly, alternative stuff doesn't work every time either (though people recover from that too). I am CONVINCED that recovery is hyper-specific to the individual. We just need to crack the code on why certain therapies work for some people and not others—whether it's based on sex, blood type, age, diet, where they live, lifestyle, etc. Once we map out those patterns, people will actually know WHICH therapy works for them instead of flushing massive amounts of money down the drain on treatments with questionable results.
Why don't Big Pharma companies look for these rules, or publish them if they actually find them? Because they make way more money 😠 if EVERY single patient buys their drug, rather than just targeting the 10% who are actually known to respond to it. 😠 😠

I truly hope we have the grit and the willpower to go to war with these profiteers and build something for our own future. Instead of just bickering on internet forums, we should unite and pour all that energy into something that actually helps everyone and leaves us with something to be proud of!

Chemotherapy might actually help with some rare types of cancer, but that's more the exception than the rule. For the vast majority of patients, chemo is just uselessly poisoning them at the exact moment they should be trying everything to clear out the toxins already piling up in their systems.
It feels like you're looking at this from only one angle. If you want, shoot me a PM; we can bounce some ideas around.