Centro Medico del Noroeste

Bienvenidos a Mexico! About 20 miles south of Yuma, we crossed the Border without any issue. San Luis is a sweet little border town, San Luis, AZ and San Luis, Mex... I liken it to Texarkana! ;-) So, five minutes into Mexico we arrive at our home away from home for the next 12 days.

After a quick trip up the "elevator", almost immediately upon arrival they put Dad on an IV and tell me to rest! I've got a real bed (hospital bed, but better than a fold-out bedside chair!) and I start settling in, putting clothes away, etc. Due to a little misunderstandng on both our parts, I was still stressing over a few caregiver details for the first little while...feeling like (where's the rest I was promised?!) At some point they finally pop in to check on me and see that I'm on the brink. They thought we were in the room sleeping and I didn't realize they were right across the hall for me to call on at any time! They were SO apologetic when they realized I've still been bearing the heavy caregiver role this last hour or so...when they realize I haven't rested at all, they spring into action making sure I know all I need to know and practically hogtie me to the bed while they take care of things now. Aaaahhhh.....

English-speaking staff leaves around dinner time, so now I have to really dig deep into the reserves of all those (2-3) Spanish classes I've taken, kept FreeTranslation.com up on the computer tab and watching the few English channels with their Spanish subtitles! I think I'm catching on....slowly! ha!

Dad goes through a daily regimen of vitamin IV drips, Hyperbaric (Oxygen) Chamber, and Infrared (I call it oven-time on his bed) treatments. He also gets 3-4 detox drinks and about six vitamins he needs to get down everyday. A couple times, they took his blood and ran it under a UV light, which kills all the bacteria and other bad stuff, then they pump it with a growth factor to help multiply the good white cells, incubate it for 24 hours and give it back to him! A transfusion with his own blood made stronger! Here are a sampling of pictures that show each of these processes:



And last but not least, here is our wonderful team of doctors and techs (the ones I see everyday. There's a whole lot more people behind the scenes who really know their stuff!


Dr. Edgar Payan (The Man in Charge)



Father/Daughter Tech Dynamos Luis & Yadi



With Ismael, everything is "Molto Bene!"



Eric is our very attentive Weekend Guy



Teresa is one of the ever-patient nurses that were so attentive to our many needs.

Hello Yuma!

11/15/2011- We get up at O'Dark:30 to catch our flight. I had called to get the wheelchair transport service to pick us up at 5:30... they get there at 6:00, but we get to the airport with plenty of time to spare - actually almost too much time as Dad starts to get agitated with the wait. Although we've been talking about the trip, trying to build it up these past couple of days, he's still not quite sure about what's going on. We give him a Benadryl to help relax him say our goodbyes to Mom and wheel onto the plane.

We have to change planes in Phoenix, which was about the worst experience EVER! We landed and had 30 minutes to hike it across two concourses and board the plane to Yuma (recall, airlines start boarding 30 minutes prior to takeoff). Even with the little airport wheelchair guy helping with Dad, we get to the gate for immediate boarding (we're the last ones to get there) and we have to go down an elevator to go outside and load up a ramp! The little boys that were supposed to be helping us were no help whatsoever. *I* lifted Dad from the airport wheelchair to the aisle chair, with no help from either one of them, then, thinking they had the ramp to plane thing under control, I went on up to my seat on this puddle-jumper aircraft (seats two/aisle/two) thankfully we were in the second row (or at least that's where I saw two seats and I took them!) They're taking unusually long to board, so I get up to check and see if maybe he's being difficult. They've gotten him up to the last three feet where the ramp narrows and I hear him yelling, "You're breakng my arms!" One's in front, one's behind and they're just clueless. Dad isn't even sitting on the seat and the seatbelts they've got crossed in front of him are,...and I yell, "You're choking him!" so, the one fellow between me and Dad scoots in a little closer to him and I reach between the guy's legs to boost Dad back up onto his seat. About five more minutes of ordeal and he's in the seat. All fired up! But he gets settled down and the flight attendant offers him a bite-size Snicker from her own snack stash as this is only an hour flight, there's not even drink service. He takes a 1/4 bite of that little candy.

Finally, we land! to the two BEST wheelchair assistance guys! I said, "You guys need to go train those boys in Phoenix!" ;-) Anyway, this is one of those sweet little airports like you see in the old movies, no big terminals/gates, just walk in off the tarmac, across the hall and you're out the door!
So, we were met, practically "at the gate" by Dr. Fredda Branyon, Clinic Founder/Director, and Larry O'Toole who has become my best friend in the last five days. I just cried! It's like a deep sigh of relief, we finally made it! Hope is in sight! Larry & Luis take Dad to "the facilities", then we load up and we're on our way into Mexico!


BY THE WAY.... THANKS SO MUCH to Dad's friend Doug who flew down from Indiana to help with the transition from the hospital, being home for a couple days (needed that forklift strength!) and making the plane rides with us to Yuma. Even though we were seats apart, it was such a comfort just knowing you were in the near vicinity if I needed your assistance. ;-)
HELLOOOOOOO YUMA!

"New Hope" on the Horizon

So, I finally get on the computer and google "homeopathic doctors" and I think the second link on the page was to New Hope Treatment Center in Yuma, AZ...but the clinic is actually in Mexico. I remembered that somewhere very early on in this little adventure, someone told me about a Hope Clinic in Mexico, and that's all I needed to see. I called them and the relationship began. Larry and Nancy in the office were so sweet throughout the next few days. Larry was always available for an encouragement, I felt like I was the only person on their client list. They knew the urgency of our situation and they cared...unlike certain aforementioned doctors of the American Medical Establishment.

So, back to the hospital hallucinations/delusions for a minute. I thought, since dad was currently afraid of me, I'd try to enter his new world and tell him we're "hatching a plan for his escape." One of Dad's best friends, Doug was flying down from Indiana so we could "break him out of this hostage situation". And Doug did fly down that evening (Thursday, 11/10). Alas, by the time he got there, Dad had finally come down off his manic run and was so groggy he didn't even realize Doug was there - and so began a longer than 24 hour sleep.

(Insert: a part of the story that's important, but don't know where else to put it... during this general timeframe, I'm trying to get medical records released to the New Hope Clinic from the Arlington Hospital... Medical Records Dept can't release until he's been discharged, talk to the doctor...so, I did...he says he can't but will see... later in the day, I happen to pass him as he's talking to a woman in the hall and I hear my situation, so, he points her to me and she says she'll get it taken care of (and also that she's very interested in the homeopathic methods of treatment). Well... I couldn't remember her name, just a position that ended up not being hers, so, nobody knew who I was asking for and nobody would call the dr to ask him who I was trying to find to see if she had sent our records over to Yuma!)

Friday, I had my own annual doctor exam to attend (gotta take care of the caregiver!) and while I was out (almost returned) my family calls in a panic from the hospital that they're talking about discharging him with a potassium* pill that he can't even swallow because he's not awake!! The man is in a deep sleep and they want to kick him to the curb!?!?! AUGH!!!!! (*FYI, low potassium contributes to hallucinations, etc.) I got back to the hospital in quite a heat. This meek child has definitely found her voice during this whole process! As I was practically running through the halls to get back to our floor, (providence of providences!) I ran into the lady from the day before! She said the records should have been sent by now.... turns out she's some big hospital administrator....our doctor's boss! haHA! Okay, so anyway... get upstairs, create a little scene, finally one of the case workers stops me long enough to let me know that the records have been sent... sighhhh...... okay, I can breathe a little easier now....and they finally get in touch with the doctor to learn that he is not discharging dad yet... and he's ordered up a new IV of potassium drip. THANK YOU! To borrow an old friend's expression...Holy cowherd!


In the meantime, Doug is hard at work, trying to find somebody local, and he does! There's a chiropractor in West Fort Worth who specializes in manipulating organs that have gotten themselves all twisted up! Sounds strange, but this apparently contributes to a lot of cancers and other maladies. So, Doug and I drive out and visit with Dr. Jim for awhile and Doug has found a friend for life. Dr. Jim is like-minded to the belief structure of my dad and all his friends...I believe it too..it's just hard to explain here. Anyway, so that seals the deal that Dr. Jim just HAS to come and work on dad... Doug spares no price to help his friend, "The Leg(endary)" (after famous movie actor, Randolph Scott). ;-) He comes for the next three nights and we see good results, but slow...We have to get him to AZ, get him eating, get him stronger NOW!

So, after a whirlwind weekend of getting Dad home from the hospital and reacclimating to the home front (he sleeps most of the two days we're home). Sunday, Doug has his wonderful secretary doing some major overtime, finding us flights out for Tuesday morning. Monday I hit the ground running to get all the last details straight for our trip to Mexico for the next two weeks. Thankfully Dad had a CD with me named as a co-signer that was just about the right amount to get him into the program...a couple wire transfers and we're set! WHEW!

A light break in the drama...

I just found these two pics taken the weekend before we started the whole hospital route. Just wanted to share a couple of the last good moments...


A little more fresh air, but it's cold out here! (with daughter, Debby)






After the exhausting ordeal of taking a shower (even with a seat), he had to stop at my bed for a little nap. I just had to catch this sweet moment between him and Mom.

Makings of a Conspiracy

So, the week we got home, he was beginning to have some pain alternating between his left knee and left hip. My smart brother suggested crutches, as we were basically hobbling him around ourselves. I got him in to a chiropractor that could start working on his back, trying to give him a little relief in that area... As we neared the end of October, a friend of ours offered use of her old walker. This was definitely easier than maneuvering the crutches, and that seemed to help, but he just kept getting weaker. Took him to the ER one Saturday night (10/21), just to get him checked out, with the weakness/low intake, just figured it would be safe to get some fluids into him and have all his vitals checked out.

In the meantime, we finally found a doctor who would see him with just his retired military insurance...(forgot to mention, he never set up his Medicare, since he's never had reason to go to a doctor these past 18+ years! Can't even remember the last time he's had a cold!) Went to our "meet & greet" appt on 10/24

I get the immediate impression this guy was not excited about our natural plan of action...so it goes in the American Medical community. But he ordered a CT scan (a week later) and a followup appt for a week after that! Seriously!? Two weeks for looking into a serious cancer situation?!?, but I guess since we're not going the traditional "cut and burn" route, they're not in any hurry to help us figure out what we're dealing with.

So, two weeks later, (Monday, 11/7) back to the doctor who comes in with his very somber look, saying basically, there's really no hope here... but, let's put him in the hospital a couple days, see if we can build up his fluids, get him a little stronger for you. To make a very long story short, since I'm really trying to get caught up to current days, a couple days later, now with no strength in his legs at all...dad was going through a variety of hallucinations, he was frantically telling us to get furniture moved around the room (that wasn't there), for one of the milder moments. The mania continued for about 36 hours he didn't sleep, talking constantly, no rest for a weary brain (or weary daughter at the bedside for that matter). At our lowest point, in the middle of the night, he was so agitated he was ripping out his IVs and I finally had to have him restrained. ugh.

So the following morning, when he was trying to get out of bed, and I grabbed his feet to put him back in, he pulled back so I could see his intent was to kick me with both feet in my chest. Thankfully, he's slower than my reaction and not strong enough to hurt me...but his thoughts were that he was being held hostage in some dumpy garage in WV (I got that information when I let him talk to Lisa on the phone, hoping her voice would bring him around. Instead he used the phone call to beg for help, that he was being held hostage by the worst kind of people he could think of. Anyway, he was in about the worst possible place he could be, and he was afraid of me. Thus we have our conspiracy...

During all of this, I'd had a visit from the oncologist whose outlook was just as bleak if we didn't go the chemo/radiation route..."3 months if you don't do what we tell you to do". He wouldn't give an iota of attention to my attempts to explain to him, show him studies where the natural route has worked...but since there haven't been any accepted clinical studies in his medical journals, he wanted nothing to do with the rantings of a daughter doing what she knows in her heart can have success.

Now the Journey Really Begins...

Home at last in Arlington. Getting Dad settled in to his new surroundings, where he's stayed many times, but only for a maximum of about three nights. Thankfully, he believes the sofa bed is quite comfortable. ;-) It's low enough to accommodate his ever weakening knees and soft enough to cushion the big knot on his liver that has contributed to his lack of sleep (he's a belly sleeper). So, he's finally beginning to get some sleep after two months!
Poppy-Dog even took shifts as bedside nurse! ;-)


Things started off alright, he's still eating (tiny portions, but something anyway), and he's still cooperating taking these three handfuls of pills every day (refer to earlier pics I hope to get loaded from my phone soon!) And I try to get him outside to walk back and forth across the back yard a couple times a day, here he is talking to one of his friends, soaking in some fresh TX autumn air.

Now, something I've learned already in this process is that Cancer feeds on sugar, so I proceed to remove everything from his diet that even breaks down to sugar... basically all the white stuff, bread/crackers/pasta (flour), potatoes (including chips): things that he really likes...of course he knows he can't have the real favorites, like ice cream, anymore. But, he just starts eating less and less (when he wasn't eating much to begin with. I did find alternatives (other root vegetable chips, which are actually quite tasty!) and gluten free cracker/pasta options, he likes those better than the chips, esp. the crackers... but I'm trying to get him to intake more protein than bready product...not enough calories, strength/muscle building food...so, I'm trying not to feel guilty about depriving him of some of the simple pleasures, trading quality for quantity of life? Figuring, if I can get him more days, he'll be able to enjoy these things again to some degree in the future. Then there's the fight with the vitamins. It didn't take long before I was breaking those down into juices, easy enough since most of them are capsules, got a tablet cutter, then crusher. But there's a reason those things are designed to be taken whole. They're awful when broken open, and mixed with all these other awful powders, no matter what liquid medium you choose!

Toward the end of October, I was glad to get a meal of vitamins in carrot juice into him because I knew that at least there was some substantial nutrition in the carrot/spinach/green pepper/broccoli/any other veggie I could find to throw in and an apple to sweeten a little. All the while, we're also mixing baking soda in his water to keep his alkaline levels up, because "cancer can't live in an alkaline environment". Oh, and there's one more potion in the mix. I came to call it the soda syrup. Basically, it's like a Trojan Horse to the cancer. A 3:1 mixture of any sweet syrup (honey, molasses, maple syrup, we finally landed on brown rice syrup as most mild) to baking soda. The concept is, that like the glucose mixture used to carry radioactive isotopes to the cancer cells for a CT scan, this glucose mixture carries the pure alkaline baking soda to the cancer cells for a one-two punch! ;-) But, he never quite acquired the taste for the stuff, saying it was too sweet! (I always thought it was too salty myself!) Anyway, for a dose we were supposed to get 4x/day, we were doing well to get in two.


Took this pic early on thinking it would be a baseline of how bad it had gotten, not dreaming it could get any worse. And I promise he is wearing his shorts here! ;-)

Bringing him home...

So, I call my brother Larry and both of our wonderful bosses say, "GO!" and by Monday morning (thank you retired airline employee, Mom) I'm on a plane to Charlotte, NC where my sweet Bubby picks me up on his way up from Columbia, SC and we head on in to WV.

We arrive at Lisa's to see our very frail looking dad lying on the couch, but he gets up and we have a sweet mini-family reunion moment. I've seen Dad over recent months, and have noticed him losing weight and looking a little "older" - He is 83 after all! - but Larry hasn't seen him for awhile, so it was pretty tough on him. Lisa jumps right in to showing me the vitamin regimen she's got him on...HOLY COW at the pills and potions! I said, "There's no way I'm gonna remember all this stuff!" but she reassured me and gave me the list and schedule. (POST PICS)

So, we stayed there a couple days then hit the road to Missouri to pack up the little rent house. Stayed with Dad's friends, Larry and Sue, and the boys worked hard the next couple days while Sue and I managed Dad (resting for the most part) and errands.

Everything packed, Sunday October 10, South to TX!

So, How did this all get started?

On August 1, 2011- On one of his many cross-country road trips, my 83-year old Dad was visiting with his friend Doug in Indiana. While there, Doug went out to see his chiropractor, and Dad said he could use an adjustment too. (this is how Dad tells the story...) So, he went in to this fellow he never met, and the chiro grabbed his own left wrist with his right hand and proceeded to "club" him on the right scapula, then on the upper spine, then on the left scapula (shoulder blade)...each hit getting progressively more forceful. Well, he went home feeling a little bruised, but figured that feeling would go away with time/rest.

After a couple weeks of no rest, no relief, he finally decided to let his friends Larry and Sue, back in MO (where he's been living for about 10 years(?)) take him to the hospital to get some x-rays. That is where we learned about the more serious issue, cancer.

Now, to hear him tell it, when he called me on the phone that night, he said, "They've found a little spot of cancer on my liver, we're gonna get this thing licked naturally, with vitamins and nutrition," (...no big deal). So, I said, "okay Dad, well keep me posted!"

September 25, Now, he's outside of Parkersburg, WV, staying with friends Mark and Lisa, a lady he trusts implicitly with her wealth of naturopathic knowledge.
He calls me in tears to tell me that he's got cancer, and he wants me to get my brother Gary to come help him pack up the rent house he's been staying in and get him moved back to WV... okay, this sounds a little more serious than a little spot, so, since he was so emotional, therefore cryptic on that call, I called Lisa back to have her give me the details. We're actually dealing with a couple pretty good size tumors on his liver and kidneys..

Next day, he calls back feeling a little better, they've been to see a couple folks there in town and he's feeling confident again that we've "got this thing on the run", don't bother coming up just yet.

Next Sunday, October 2, another phone call, same basic conversation. I called Lisa back again to get the full story again and now they've gotten their own test results back. It's Colon Cancer, which has metastasized to his liver and kidney. In addition, he's got a hernia, scoliosis, diverticulitis.... I think that's enough to get the picture.

Why didn't I start this earlier???

It's November 18, 2011 and I'm sitting on a couch inside a hospital room in San Luis, Mexico. I'll get to that in a few minutes, but I just wanted to take a minute to get you up to speed. I've never been one to journal much. But when I brought my dad to live with me on October 10, 2011, a few days later I started taking notes more just for vital statistical information, but so much has happened since, that instead of trying to relay the story a thousand times over, I decided, this would probably be the best way to record the adventure.