Today was a beautiful spring day in Duderstadt. It was warm, sunny and the picturesque streets were bustling with activity. It seemed like the entire town turned out to stroll along the cobbled streets of the historic city centre. I soaked up the sunshine while I could, but that is not what I am here for.
I was booked for two procedures today, starting at 11am. Local hyperthermia and ozone. Hyperthermia was as simple and painless as the day before, but my oh my, the ozone.
I had many ozone infusions before, however this was the first time that my port could not be used. It is still infected and I am still desperately trying to save it. (This blog post may shed some more light on why). So, a cannula into the arm it was to be.
Just to remind everyone, me and needles do not get along. Its some psychological thing that I can’t seem to be able to get passed. As soon as they apply a torniquet and ask me to pump my arm I start to get hot flushes. When the needle goes in, I start to feel faint and if it lasts a long time, I usually start to feel sick….. or worse. If its a picc line or a cannula, I am in trouble and if they miss the vein and have to re-try several times, the odds of me passing out are about 50/50. I don’t mind blood, I don’t mind giving myself injections, or even sticking port needles into my port for do-it-yourself IVs, but when it comes to needles and my veins….. Well I just don’t get it. The bright side is that this made it impossible for me to become a hardcore drug addict in my youth.
Now, the ozone therapy is in a league of its own. The treatment requires about a pint of blood to be drawn first and that takes time. Being asked to pump my arm during the procedure did not go down well either. After enough blood is taken, it is ozonated and put back. To cut a long story short, I was not a happy camper, and came very very close to losing my breakfast.
After the experience I decided that till my port is healed or replaced, no more ozone for me.
Why ozone? Well, the first theory is that cancer hates oxygen and the oxygen super saturated blood makes life difficult for cancer cells. Maybe. The bigger benefit I feel is the impact ozone has on inflammation. Some inflammation is needed for healing and is good, but mostly inflammation helps cancer to proliferate. For this reason I have been getting ozone IVs at every chance.
Time to relax now. May do some shopping and hit the hotel spa and salt room for some meditation a little later. Tomorrow I get Zometa (off-label), a medication typically used to treat bone mets. I’ll explain why next time….
