ࡱ > 7 t+ bjbjUU D6 7| 7| t' l $ v v v v ; " $ H H H H H H r H 09jQI v 0 ; \ H f J August 20, 2001, 7:30 am I am sitting in Charlottes garden overlooking a magnificent vista of the hills south of San Diego. The stratus layer is low and the hilltops are obscured. It is warm and I hear roosters crowing. I slept well last night but woke up this morning with a headache and the same dizziness as yesterday, perhaps worse. Charlotte says its a good sign of some changes but she is upset that she did not set me up with a coffee enema last night. She mentioned that the hospital does not use normal utensils and plates, only plastic. She asked if I wanted to borrow a set of stainless steel silverware for Gayle and myself. I, of course said, yes. Charlotte is being so helpful. I am sure I am being accorded this personal treatment because of my relationship with Howard. I wonder that she can be so assured about the therapy and so dispassionate (no professional) about the risk that my life is in. I chalk it up to confidence and that is comforting. Oasis of Hope Hospital, Tijuana, Baja Sur, Mexico Well, I am here and trying to figure out the routine. It has been an absolutely hectic day so far. The only unofficial thing I have had time to do is to set up my computer, make sure I could hook up to the Internet, and write in this diary. We arrived at the Oasis of Hope Hospital at about 9am. The drive from Charlottes house in southern San Diego took at most 35 minutes. We just breezed through the border crossing and the whole trip was nearly all on freeway. The hospital is within five miles of the border, a block or two from the Pacific Ocean. The building is fairly small, perhaps 60-75 beds. It is very modern and, I would estimate, less than 10 years old. The Gerson program uses one of the first floor wings with about 10-12 rooms (although I imagine more rooms would be made available if necessary). The hospital calls itself a Cancer Care Center so that seems to be the specialty. I believe they do alternative medicine programs and that most of the patients are foreigners. Ill find out more later. The wing I occupy has the Gerson Office at one end (opposite my room) and the nurses station at the other end. My room is quite spacious, the size of a typical US hospital semi-private room with a bathroom attached. It has two beds, a single typical hospital bed and a double companion (acompanante) bed. There are two small tables that were covered with medical, hygienic, and Gerson reading material when we arrived. The view out my window is of a large open field and on the other side is a high school, Colegio Inglise, which apparently is not in session. The Gerson program is well staffed. There were two or three administrative types in the Gerson office guarded over by an imposing photograph of Dr. Max Gerson. Also there is a staff of 2-3 nurses and orderlies, who, I assume, work some sort of 24-hour schedule. In addition, there are two full-time Mexican doctors who are Korean and Haitian respectively. I was greeted by one of the admin types who gave me a tour of the hospital. My First Coffee Break Charlotte insisted that before anything else was done that I should start on the enema regime. So I was given instructions on the procedures (which are pretty elaborate) and with the help of one of the nurses (male) proceeded to do my first coffee enema. The main mechanism of torture is a bucket holding a quart of coffee with a long tube coming out the bottom. The coffee is found in a big urn near the nurses station. The bucket gets filled with 8 oz. of coffee concentrate and equal parts of hot and cold distilled water out of a water cooler. Then one retreats to ones room, flipping a sign on the door to read Coffee Break and does the deed. The bucket hangs from an IV stand and there is an on-off clip on the hose to control the administration of the coffee. It takes about 5 minutes for the stuff to drain in. And then one tries to hold it for 12 more minutes. It takes a strong sphincter muscle to cope, but is not really that bad. Mild cramps seem to occur every few minutes but they pass in a few seconds and, in summary, its more boring than anything else. There is also a pretty complicated clean-the-bucket procedure when one is done. Dr. King After the initial enema was done, I had a meeting with the doctor on duty, a Mrs. Dr. King (didnt catch her first name yet). Charlotte implied that she much prefers the Haitian doctor but he is on vacation this week. Dr. King, although a fairly young woman, walks with a cane due to arthritis in her knees. Charlotte says thats the wrong message to be giving to patients. Nonetheless she defers completely to the staff. She operates as a consultant to the staff and the patients but the staff has the final responsibility. We discussed my medical history along the same lines as my talk with Charlotte the night before. When we were finished, I asked if she adhered to the Gerson therapy. She said when she was in the hospital she ate the food but at home with her family, she did not. She added, however, that she had faith in the therapy and she had seen good results (in most cases, she added). The Protocol Just before lunch, I was presented with my protocol. It is an hour-by-hour schedule of my medication and procedures. Its pretty amazing: I drink 13 juices hourly between 8am and 7pm. These consist of 1 orange, 5 apple-carrot, 3 carrot, and 3 green juices (mostly lettuce and other leafy vegetables). They are served in 12 oz Styrofoam cups which, if you add it up, totals more than a gallon of juices a day (156 oz. per day, to be exact.) I am scheduled for 4 coffee enemas per day at 7am, 10am, 2 pm, and 8 pm. This is less than normal because of the fact that Dr. King is worried that I have had a hemorroidectomy (an ass job) and the therapy sometimes causes a reoccurrence of the conditions cured by prior surgeries. I also take supplements consisting of Acidol-Pepsin capsules, Thyroid pills, Niacin tablets, Pancreatin tablets, liver capsules, and CO Q10 capsules (iodine, I think) all at a scheduled time. Each juice is spiked with potassium salts of three types. The juices, except those drunk at mealtime, are delivered to my room by one of the attendants. The pillbox is filled each morning at the nurses station. Finally, much to my surprise, I discovered that there is some crossover from other hospital cancer programs that are not strictly Gerson. I am to receive Laetrile daily in an IV. In fact, as I write this, my right hand is somewhat encumbered by an IV needle stuck into my right wrist. The IV takes about an hour, but the needle will remain in my wrist for several days which sounds like a big pain in the ass. Charlotte says it helps and does not interfere in any way with the basic Gerson program. Laetrile, apparently selectively raises the temperature of cancer cells and this tends to make them more susceptible to the bodys normal immune system. Once a week, I will take a high temperature bath that, supposedly, will accelerate this process. Gayle, take note, after the bath I get a massage. Maybe I will come to like massages. I doubt it! The First Oasis Meal I have, so far, eaten one meal her at the hospital (lunch). The food is served buffet-style in the dining room and laid out on two tables, one for the regular Oasis patients and one labeled Gerson Patients. The hot dishes are together but some of the trays are labeled Not for Gerson Patients. I would say that lunch was pretty amazing within the confines of the rigid Gerson diet. All food served in the hospital is certified organic. I had the obligatory Gerson soup and a big baked potato (without any thing on it, not bad), several types of salads, and some cooked leafy green vegetables (genus uncertain). I ate quite a bit and actually skipped desert (fruit) because I was both full and late for my two oclock unmentionable. My Fellow Patients However, the most amazing part of lunch was the interaction I had with some other patients and their companions. The hospital seems fairly empty at the moment, a situation confirmed by Charlotte. Three Gerson patients checked out today and there is only one other Gerson patient who I have not yet met. So the people I have talked too are here for other therapies. While I was standing in line trying to figure out what to do, two other patients came over to introduce themselves and to invite me to join them for lunch. I piled on the food and went over to the long table where this group was sitting. I didnt talk to all of them, but those I met were very very interesting. I spoke with a couple from Tacoma forty-something (she has a brain tumor), a couple from Australia (she has esophageal cancer that is affecting something else (?), and a couple from Indiana who are not patients but he is a minister and he and his wife are here as volunteers trying to attend to the spiritual needs of the seriously sick. The Australian couple is particularly interesting. He was born in China, lived there through the revolution, and has returned there as a businessman (he speaks fluent Mandarin). She is Scottish and her family emigrated to Os with all expenses paid for by the Australian government (in the post war period, I believe). The Tacoma couple described themselves as former Health nuts. I wonder what contributed to her disease. I look forward to talking to them all at future meals. What was most surprising were the blunt questions about ones condition. Are you the patient was the first question I was asked (I hope that was because I looked healthy). What kind of cancer do you have was the second? Are you in the Gerson program. Did you meet Charlotte? (they all know her even if they are not Gerson patients.) They all seemed impressed that I learned of my disease only four days ago. I get the feeling that some of them are much more seriously ill than I am. Well, this is probably enough diary for today. Lets see what tomorrow has to bring. t+ j U j%9 U j U U V & t+ R S ` : ; / 0 E -# .# A# () )) + + r+ s+ t+ 1h/ =!"#$% 1h/ =!"#$% %9 D d % z C V A > . . \ P h o t o s \ T i j u a n a \ R o o m 2 0 1 . j p g R W8 ږ`Fy\.j 38 D F+8 ږ`Fy\.j JFIF C C " } !1AQa"q2#BR$3br %&'()*456789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz w !1AQaq"2B #3Rbr $4%&'()*56789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz ? U(V#A JtY"d*E