From: Darin Anderson <andersonappraising@springnet1.com>
To: vianet@i-2000.com <vianet@i-2000.com>
Subject: father with leiomyosarcoma
Date: Saturday, March 07, 1998 1:57 AM

Dear Kent, I am thankful for your web page & have read many of the
letters from others with this same awful disease. I printed your entire
page to give to my dad & am happy to say, he is taking shark cartilage &
many other nutritional remedies you recommended. My father has been
recently diagnosed with leio. which has metastisized to the liver, not a
good thing. He has been in severe abdominal pain for over 3 years now
and has been on every pain medication there is, including morphine. He
has had nerve blocks and an implant for stimulating the nerves to stop
the pain. No one knew what they were looking for & thought he was
mostly making this up. I have had a fear for nearly 2 years that there
must be something pretty awful that is wrong with him, but the docs
pretty much gave up trying to find out exactly. He finally insisted on
another cat scan & gee there it is, already eaten up the liver.
Needless to say I'm still quite bitter about this, especially since I've
read so much about this cancer & it's hard to get rid of. Well, he
finally started mega doses of dacarbazine this week and is doing quite
well, though the dr. said they've been giving him major steroids with
his chemo to keep him feeling "good". So, the worst is yet to come,
which we already suspected. I guess I just wanted you to hear my story,
along with so many others. your story is amazing & I am so glad you are
still here! We need to here about more folks like yourself who have
survived so much, even with recurrence. If you have any words of wisdom
to pass on, it would be greatly appreciated. I would like to know about
anyone who has had mega chemo, or even experimental chemo, as this is
his only hope. There's nothing surgically they can do. He's been to U.
of Chicago, Dr. Samuels & Dr. Das Gupta (a surgeon) who referred him to
Samuels for experimental therapy. Thank you again, hope this finds you
well & enjoying your life! Christine.