AN INTERVIEW WITH A RETIRED FIRST RESPONDER ABOUT HIS FIGHT AGAINST CANCER
As with all spirited first responders, John Paulson took the road less traveled. Years of responding to fire calls carried significant risks to his health risks and potential hazards for his overall well being- all in the name of saving lives and protecting our community.
Today, John suffers from what is alleged to be an aggressive form of prostate cancer. He is being treated locally with radiation therapy and other modalities while continues to monitor his state of health. He is also researching on the many strategies that are now available from the scientific and functional medicine communities as well as the conventional treatment community.
As an advocate, firefighters like John get to share his experiences with the hopes of driving others to conduct better research on what's right for them, ask more questions, build a team of supporters and value the second opinion. He opens with his insight and his journey and his desire and demand for answers.
Let me start with the first place where I screwed up; I didn't listen to a buddy of mine approximately five years ago. His name was Sal Banchitta when he told me then to get checked up (now the F.A.C.E.S. mantra: "Get Checked NOW!"). That's the biggest thing. If you have any concerns or any signs - and can talk about it to someone, it doesn't hurt to get checked. It doesn't hurt to look into it. You got nothing to lose.
There are all kinds of avenues I'm finding out now. I have a great support team around me. I'm really blessed because I got my wife that's involved in it. One advice would be to stay open and take advice from others... seek out if you don't feel good. Definitely get checkups. Annual checkups is the first. Also think PREVENTION. There's also a lot of advocacy groups available including this one (F.A.C.E.S.) and now, my job now is to expand on what you guys are doing and get the word out. So that's where I'm at with it all.
In the beginning (of being diagnosed) it was quite overwhelming. There's a lot of stuff out there! So you start looking through it and you start highlighting some areas, then it starts making some sense-- not completely at first, but now you're starting to put the puzzle together. So then at that point, I found myself to be blessed because my wife understands it more than me.
I started by going to my family practitioner. They have their input and their take on it. So now it's up to me-- I'm getting as much information as I can about cancer. The information is there and if you don't understand any part of it, you could find people that can explain it to you.
(To be continued after this extra)
RESCUE SERVICE FACES RISE IN CANCER RATES by: William J. Boger / President, Local 1568 Cancer is a very real and pervasive enemy to firefighters. The fires we used to fight were made of natural products like wood, leather and natural cloth fibers. Now, the fires we fight are filled with carcinogenic mixtures of plastics, synthetics and other chemicals. While we do a good job of protecting ourselves with gear, breathing apparatus and decontamination procedures, the toxins are unfortunately still absorbed into our bodies. In fact, cancer is now the leading cause of firefighter deaths and 66% of firefighter deaths between 2002 and 2019 were from cancer. According to research by the CDC/National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH), firefighters have a 9 percent higher risk of being diagnosed with cancer and a 14 percent higher risk of dying from cancer than the general population. HENRICO PROFESSIONAL FIREFIGHTERS ASSOCIATION LOCAL 1568 - IAFF RICHMOND, VA |
I learned to ask- and for this, I am more educated as far as my alternatives. I'm here to tell you, I'm no brain surgeon. I'm not an oncologist. But I could tell you one thing, (based on what I learned), I am not going to do chemotherapy! There's just no way. From everything I see and read, I find chemotherapy just destroys you.
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| Ret. FF Cousin Sal Banchitta promotes "Get Checked Now!" |
So what are my options? Here we are... here is a list of things that you can now do (gesturing a list with his hands). 20 years ago, I suffered from cluster headaches. Nobody could figure out how to get rid of them. And I found an alternative. And I have not had a cluster headache in over 20 years. And guess what? None of it was because of taking any prescribed medications. So it was all alternative lifestyle change. And I know I could do the same thing with this. So out of this, I guess my advice would be to take the information and study it carefully. You've got questions? Ask about it.
FRUSTRATION ABOUT THE SYSTEM
To this day I'm still frustrated about doctors and getting the run-around! I have curtailed my, language during this interview, <laugh>. However I'm really fed up with the traditional doctors and their system and I'm far from the first to feel like just another number. Getting treatment is much like a manufacturing plant. When I go into the urology department and when I go into the radiation place, I'm just so taken aback. They don't have a clue as to how I feel as to what's going on with me. They look at numbers-- and half the time I don't even trust them that they're looking at the right file.
Recently, I decided to move forwarded with the hormone treatment and the radiation. And the more and more I think about it, I ask myself "what the hell am I doing this for?" In my last visit,I walked in there and the doctor asked me, "well, how you doing?" That may seem like a simple question but when your cancer care specialist is asking, that's the one question that I was hoping he had an answer to.
"How am I doing? You're asking me? ... asking me how I'm doing? Man, I should be asking you how I'm doing!"
"Oh, well we don't know yet- it's a process". I realized that what someome with cancer needs after a battery of treatments are UPDATES, DATA, PROGRESS REPORTS... anything that defines why we're doing all this. This instead reflects on how I feel about the whole medical system.
I sense cancer treatment is a lot of trial and error. You've heard of the joke about doctors practicing medicine. It really feels like they're practicing on you to see what the hell's going on. And in the meantime, all these pharmaceutical drugs that you're taking, you have no idea what it's actually doing to you. So I really am big into alternatives. Now with that being said, I proved that alternatives work with my cluster headaches. I am gonna prove that alternative treatments also work with this (cancer), but we don't know the future. But at this point in time, I'm sure there's something else I could try or do. (It's time for more reading and learning) I'm not jumping into all the conventional medicine until I see all the alternatives.
 DIGITAL IMAGING CAN REVEAL LINKS TO TESTICULAR CANCER & RECURRENCE 4/D DOPPLER ULTRASOUND view of Cancer in the Testis  What makes this a case of concern are the numerous WHITE DOTS (calcification) around the black area which are micro-calcifications, otherwise called testicular microlithiasis (TM) or micro-stones. According to a 2018 study, this uncommon condition of micro-stones is being linked to testicular cancer (as well as male infertility) increasing one's risk as much as 1200%. While this is not technically a precancerous condition, any man with these micro stones should be checked periodically whereby small tumors can be treated focally if caught early. Since this 9mm tumor cannot be felt by itself, the simplest way to accurately identify the cause of the enlarged testis is with a high resolution sonogram. Aftermath: Standard treatment for this condition is typically surgery (or cut out the entire testis). The patient refused this treatment solution and was instead treated focally with various nonsurgical options, later resulting in cancer recurrence. Recurrence in the lymph glands is readily diagnosed by sonogram technology. Since the metastases usually spread around the abdominal aorta, the mass is commonly misdiagnosed as an aortic aneurysm. Periodic abdominal sonography screening is recommended. Courtesy of: www.CancerScan.com Additional source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6202617/ |
MEET PRENUVO: ADVANCED FULL BODY MRI FOR CANCER SCREENING & MONITORING
On April 20, NYCRA NEWS conducted a special interview with DR. RAJ ATTARIWALA, Nuclear Medicine Radiologist, PhD Biomedical Engineer and Founding Radiologist of Prenuvo. Known commonly as "Dr. Raj", he shares his commitment to improving on the current state of modalities in cancer diagnostics by offering advancements on the performance, range and design of our current MRI technology. "In simplistic terms, having a full-body access comports to the fact that everything is connected in one way or another. Tumor cells start somewhere, but they can spread almost anywhere they want. If we find a cancer in stage one (which usually means confined to the organ of origin) what happens afterwards is to ask if it is IN FACT confined to that organ, or if it has spread somewhere else. This is called staging." (See full feature)
The NY Cancer Resource Alliance is proud to honor the work of Dr. Donato Pérez García - leading global expert in IPT/IPTLD (Insulin Potentiation therapy)- a bioregenerative medical procedure. Dr. Donato has been practicing the IPT protocol since 1983 and is a current and active physician in Tijuana, Mexico. He is Certified in Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Therapy. He is also a Member, Advisor and Professor of the Medical College for Regenerative Medicine. He focused his research on the expansion of cancer treatment, arthritic conditions and an array of chronic illnesses since founded by two prior generations of his forefathers in the 50's. See his exclusive interview available only on NYCRA NEWS.
Unending Battle in Multiple Fronts to Help ALL Responders  As for my recent firefighters, we learned from 9/11 about the "dormant" cancers that seem to trend in appearance and recurrence. Toxicologists also found newly formed compounds from big fires that are (now) to blame for activating physiological reactions and illnesses- often found in retired rescue workers. I am grateful for the WTC health program, the Victims Compensation Fund and other government backed initiatives to support these victims- but what about the rest of the fire service? In the words of Ret. FF Dan Noonan - ret. FDNY, "there are many fires... it's OUR duty to stay on top of them all!" |
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