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Stage4 kidney cancer

To all those walking in my path … it’s normal to be scared and skeptical at times when faced with something that seems to take all the control of your LIFE out of your hands and places it in the hands of strangers.

Just think positively and do not put your eyes on the path, but look up into the sky and breathe the fresh air, for it is here that your strength and healing will come.

You should know that I’d never been admitted to a hospital for anything before all of this happened. Sure, I’d get colds and the flu, but basically I was an average healthy person. I had worked for 26 years as a police officer and retired early as the commanding officer of the Investigation Bureau of the County Prosecutors Office in Somerset, N.J.I had learned to be invincible and deal with anything I had to deal with.

But I certainly wasn’t prepared to deal with kidney cancer. That happens to smokers and people who abuse themselves. Not me.

I’m truly a novice at all of this. But I’ve read several books and researched macrobiotics (MB) for hundreds of hours on the Internet. My girlfriend at the time and my four wonderful and loving adult kids also have spent hundreds of hours researching cancer treatment options.

I didn’t have the luxury of time when I was diagnosed with Stage 4 kidney cancer (renal cell carcinoma) on Oct. 30, 2002. On the day before Thanksgiving, Nov. 27, 2002, the top kidney surgeon at Sloan Kettering Medical Center in New York removed my right kidney – and a tumor the size of a football. An exploratory examination and biopsies were done. I was told they got it all.

Three months later, I learned that the cancer had spread to my liver and lungs. In a six week period CT scans showed the cancer tumors had grown 35 percent. Doctors ran more tests and consulted with other “medical experts” at Sloan Kettering. They decided that the best approach would be a clinical trial drug called Interferon. This drug had some success (15 percent) with slowing the growth of kidney cancer in clinical trials. I was told there is NO MEDICAL CURE for Kidney Cancer.

On my oncologist’s recommendation, I started weekly Interferon treatments. The side effects and success ratio from this and the other traditional medical options (chemo, Interferon, etc.) were well known. Doctors are not well versed, though, on nutritional aspects of healing or food in general. In my case, Stage 4 kidney cancer meant a 15 percent success rate with conventional medical treatment. But the definition of “success” was never clear, their hopes were that it would give me a few more months to live, certainly not cure me.

About five weeks into my Interferon treatments, I had to be taken off the drug because of the deleterious effects it was having on my white and red blood cell counts every week. The doctors told me I’d have to give my body about eight weeks to rebuild from the damage the medication caused, and then they could try something else. They had no hopeful answers as to what was next with traditional medicine. Recovery did not look like an option.

In May, 2003, I started a very strict macrobiotic healing diet (also known as a cleansing diet). This was five months after my surgery … and I’ve never looked back. The knowledge and counseling of a good MB nutritionist was most helpful. My first counselor was Elaine Nussbaum, from here in New Jersey, and another MB cancer survivor. Elaine and Janet Vitt Sommer are my heroes. Their own path to recovery from cancer gave me hope and vision for my recovery. Their kindness, caring and thoughtful advise helped save my life, and I love them dearly.

I was determined to find a way to have “quality of life,” no matter what the time frame might be. I was torn between going with the medical recommendations to try other clinical trial drugs or with staying strictly on the MB approach. Early in my macrobiotic journey, I was hesitant and skeptical. I needed major persuasion and information to get started. There are so many wacky things on the Internet – some legitimate, others just scams or hype.

What convinced me that MB was the way to go was having the ability to control something in my life. That convincing came from attending classes and also speaking to dozens of Cancer survivors at my first Macrobiotic Conference. I didn’t know if the disease would respond to a macrobiotic approach, but the diet certainly couldn’t harm me. My research told me it made sense –even though I had no experience with it. It was something I could work on with a positive mindset, when everything surrounding me in the medical arena seemed negative and unclear at best.

In a short period of time I was already feeling the positive effects of the MB diet. For example, I’d been on Atenenol to control my high blood pressure for 15 years. In 30 days, the diet had reduced my blood pressure to 120/74, allowing me to stop taking that medication. Today in 2010 it is the same.

My doctors told me to eat whatever I wanted. They didn’t tell me that sugar and processed food, feed and energize disease and cancer. Doctors also didn’t tell me that my body would be less able to properly fight off the cancer growing inside me if it was using all its resources to digest meats, diary and heavy fats. I later learned that doctors typically get about four to eight hours of education on nutrition during eight years of medical school.

Please, DO NOT take this as MD bashing because it’s not intended to be that. It’s just fact. I owe a great deal to my surgeon at Sloan Kettering for his expertise in removing what had to be removed. He is the best in his field. But neither he nor my current oncologist know about or acknowledge macrobiotics. And they should!

I learned all of this by attending a national conference on macrobiotics in July of 2003 at the Kushi Institute Summer Conference and listening to about a several medical doctors who have traveled the same journey as me (many diagnosed with terminal cancer with two weeks or two months to live). I met more than 100 people there who share the same basic story as mine.

In August 2003, my CAT scan showed a 25 percent reduction of the liver tumor. My doctor told me to come back in six weeks for another scan. The October scan again surprised my oncologist, who couldn’t explain another drastic 45 percent reduction in the tumor. I reinforced the fact that I thought it was my diet. He simply responded by saying, “Just keep doing what you’re doing.”

Then, on Dec. 16, 2003, another scan showed no evidence of tumors. The doctor came into the room and said, “I don’t know what this miracle stuff is you’re doing but I don’t see anything on the scan.” He politely listened to our brief but enthusiastic explanation and said “keep doing what you’re doing and we’ll have you back in three months for a routine scan.” He didn’t ask any other questions once he found out it was the result of the diet I’d been on for SEVEN MONTHS!!

I wanted a quality of life no matter what the long-term prognosis might be. The need to have some control and input led me to MB. Thank God it did. It’s also very important to have a spouse or a partner to support and assist you. It would be very difficult without that.

I’m not unique. I’m fortunate to have been exposed to macrobiotics and have a dear and beloved friend, who helped me to see the path and stay the course.Macrobiotics is more than a diet. It’s an approach to balanced living, based on a balanced, wholesome diet (with natural foods),moderateexercise, and an understanding of harmony in our environment (our world and our body).

I haven’t come to understand all of the philosophical principles that are written and spoken about in MB yet. But I accept them as part of a bigger picture that will come to me in bite-sized pieces on my journey to better health and longevity. I initially focused on a strict healing diet,but after about a year started eating a standard macrobiotic diet. It takes discipline and commitment, but I have more energy and vitality than most men my age.

The greatest thing I have received from this MB journey is the ability to become responsible for my own life and health. I control my body’s energy and health by what I feed it. When I keep out toxins, feed it properly, and exercise moderately, it takes care of itself.

Robert (Bob) Mikell
Washington, NJ
908-689-6905
www.cooking4life.com
email: rkmbiz@comcast.net