Germany Treatments
December 12, 2008
First, let me say thanks to everyone who helped me get to Klinik St.George (Hospital St. George) in Germany. The medical care was excellent and hopefully will show good results when I have my scans in a couple of weeks. I thought you would all like to know what the trip was like including the hospital and the treatments.
Klinik St.George is actually a small licensed hospital in Bad Aibling, Germany. Bad Aibling is a small town about one hour from Munich by train. It is not very far from the Alps. The towns name means Mud Baths and is historically famous for health giving mud and mineral baths. The town consists of homes, hotels, various small stores and restaurants, one move theatre and many pharmacies, and doctors’ offices and a few health food stores. Actually, almost every other building was a doctor’s office or pharmacy!
Hospital St.George is a converted small hotel with two wings and a lobby/business area in the center. The inpatient rooms occupy one wing. The other wing is occupied by the various types of treatments rooms as well as an out patient clinic. Over the reception area, in the center, is the whole body hyperthermia unit and its inpatient recovery rooms as well as the main nurse’s station.
While there I met six or seven staff physicians and quite a few nurses as well as the various therapy givers. (Some were nurses, some had other credentials.) One of the newer physicians was Hungarian but had completed an internship or residency at Mass General about 12 years ago, so he and I were able to chat about Boston.
As an inpatient, my daily schedule was fairly full. The nurse would come in around 7 or 7:30 am and check my temp and blood pressure. Then I would get an injection of an immune system booster. Following that I would go to the cafeteria for breakfast (the food was not very good.). I would also be given my assortment of pills for the day. In addition to what I had brought with me, they added about 6 or 7 more per meal to what I had been taking. After breakfast, I would get an 2 hour IV of Vitamin C. Usually, during that time, the physicians were making their rounds and anywhere from 2 to 5 of them would come in to talk with me. Following that IV, I would either get another IV (for about 90 minutes or so) or I would go for local Hyperthermia over my liver and stomach. This would take about 90 minutes. If I did not get the IV beforehand, I would then be given it after the local hyperthermia. For those who are interested, the local hyperthermia is done with a very hi-tech instrument which emits radio frequency waves through a water filter. The rf waves are selectively absorbed into the denser tumor tissue with little injury to the healthy tissue. The water medium keeps the device fairly cool to the touch but inside, I could feel parts of my liver and stomach getting very hot. Ideally, they are trying to heat the tumor tissue as hot as possible. Following the local hyperthermia, I would on some days, be given IV ozone treatment. In this treatment about a pint of blood is removed via IV, mixed with ozone and then put back in circulation via IV. Well that was my basic schedule. I generally finished around 4 or 5 pm each day. On Fridays, I also got more detox therapy in the form of a colonic.( Saturday I had off). On Sundays I was allowed to only eat breakfast but was given electrolyte rich broth to drink all day while I also took laxatives. All this was to prepare for the whole body hyperthermia on Mondays (for me). Prior to the whole body hyperthermia I also received an enema. The hospital has done over 12,000 whole body hyperthermia treatments and has discovered that patients have much less pain afterwards if the bowels are clear.
Whole body hyperthermia is about a six hour or so procedure. The purpose is three fold; to raise the core body temperature high enough that the more heat sensitive cancer cells die off, to change the proteins in the cancer cells so the immune system can recognize and attack the cancer cells, and to make the cancer cell membrane more permeable to chemo therapy, both natural and orthodox chemotherapy. Here's what was done: I would go up to the hyperthermia room and was asked by the nurse to lie down on the hyperthermia bed. This bed is almost the same as a hospital bed but with some additions. Overhead is an array of water filtered Infrared lights. Around the bed, is a kind of see through curtain which is mostly closed during the hyperthermia. After lying down , I was hooked to various monitoring devices: Blood oxygen sensors, EKG, lung function monitor, thermometers inserted everywhere! Then, in my case, a chemo IV was hooked up with about a 35% dose of the same drugs as at Dana Farber plus one additional drug. Of course there is also a saline IV for fluid. Then I was given a strong sedative by IV and I went to sleep until the nurse woke me up six or seven hours later. While I was sleeping, my core body temperature was slowly raised to about 107 degrees and kept there for a couple of hours and then slowly lowered back to normal. Afterwards, I was put in a room next to the nurse’s station and monitored hourly until about 3 am when I was allowed to sleep through until Tuesday morning. Then I was shown back to my room and allowed to eat breakfast. I was then given an IV of Chemo with a pump for the next six hours or so. Because my energy recovered relatively quickly I was back to the local hyperthermia by Tuesday afternoon. Other than feeling achy like from flu and feeling tired the whole body hyperthermia was not too uncomfortable. Of course, I was asleep during the actual procedure! My energy was mostly recovered by Wed afternoon. Even Tuesday night, I was able to walk down the street to a restaurant for dinner.
Being there alone and doing all this was emotionally challenging to say the least. I appreciate the cards and emails I received while there, and since I have gotten back.
I did have a chance to talk with several other patients while there. The patients I met were from Germany, the USA, Ireland, and Israel. Some were there for the first time and some for their follow-up visit. Most had been referred by friends who had successful outcomes. Hopefully, I will be joining the successful list.
Thanks again to all who helped make this possible and who have supported me.
Joe
Klinik St.George is actually a small licensed hospital in Bad Aibling, Germany. Bad Aibling is a small town about one hour from Munich by train. It is not very far from the Alps. The towns name means Mud Baths and is historically famous for health giving mud and mineral baths. The town consists of homes, hotels, various small stores and restaurants, one move theatre and many pharmacies, and doctors’ offices and a few health food stores. Actually, almost every other building was a doctor’s office or pharmacy!
Hospital St.George is a converted small hotel with two wings and a lobby/business area in the center. The inpatient rooms occupy one wing. The other wing is occupied by the various types of treatments rooms as well as an out patient clinic. Over the reception area, in the center, is the whole body hyperthermia unit and its inpatient recovery rooms as well as the main nurse’s station.
While there I met six or seven staff physicians and quite a few nurses as well as the various therapy givers. (Some were nurses, some had other credentials.) One of the newer physicians was Hungarian but had completed an internship or residency at Mass General about 12 years ago, so he and I were able to chat about Boston.
As an inpatient, my daily schedule was fairly full. The nurse would come in around 7 or 7:30 am and check my temp and blood pressure. Then I would get an injection of an immune system booster. Following that I would go to the cafeteria for breakfast (the food was not very good.). I would also be given my assortment of pills for the day. In addition to what I had brought with me, they added about 6 or 7 more per meal to what I had been taking. After breakfast, I would get an 2 hour IV of Vitamin C. Usually, during that time, the physicians were making their rounds and anywhere from 2 to 5 of them would come in to talk with me. Following that IV, I would either get another IV (for about 90 minutes or so) or I would go for local Hyperthermia over my liver and stomach. This would take about 90 minutes. If I did not get the IV beforehand, I would then be given it after the local hyperthermia. For those who are interested, the local hyperthermia is done with a very hi-tech instrument which emits radio frequency waves through a water filter. The rf waves are selectively absorbed into the denser tumor tissue with little injury to the healthy tissue. The water medium keeps the device fairly cool to the touch but inside, I could feel parts of my liver and stomach getting very hot. Ideally, they are trying to heat the tumor tissue as hot as possible. Following the local hyperthermia, I would on some days, be given IV ozone treatment. In this treatment about a pint of blood is removed via IV, mixed with ozone and then put back in circulation via IV. Well that was my basic schedule. I generally finished around 4 or 5 pm each day. On Fridays, I also got more detox therapy in the form of a colonic.( Saturday I had off). On Sundays I was allowed to only eat breakfast but was given electrolyte rich broth to drink all day while I also took laxatives. All this was to prepare for the whole body hyperthermia on Mondays (for me). Prior to the whole body hyperthermia I also received an enema. The hospital has done over 12,000 whole body hyperthermia treatments and has discovered that patients have much less pain afterwards if the bowels are clear.
Whole body hyperthermia is about a six hour or so procedure. The purpose is three fold; to raise the core body temperature high enough that the more heat sensitive cancer cells die off, to change the proteins in the cancer cells so the immune system can recognize and attack the cancer cells, and to make the cancer cell membrane more permeable to chemo therapy, both natural and orthodox chemotherapy. Here's what was done: I would go up to the hyperthermia room and was asked by the nurse to lie down on the hyperthermia bed. This bed is almost the same as a hospital bed but with some additions. Overhead is an array of water filtered Infrared lights. Around the bed, is a kind of see through curtain which is mostly closed during the hyperthermia. After lying down , I was hooked to various monitoring devices: Blood oxygen sensors, EKG, lung function monitor, thermometers inserted everywhere! Then, in my case, a chemo IV was hooked up with about a 35% dose of the same drugs as at Dana Farber plus one additional drug. Of course there is also a saline IV for fluid. Then I was given a strong sedative by IV and I went to sleep until the nurse woke me up six or seven hours later. While I was sleeping, my core body temperature was slowly raised to about 107 degrees and kept there for a couple of hours and then slowly lowered back to normal. Afterwards, I was put in a room next to the nurse’s station and monitored hourly until about 3 am when I was allowed to sleep through until Tuesday morning. Then I was shown back to my room and allowed to eat breakfast. I was then given an IV of Chemo with a pump for the next six hours or so. Because my energy recovered relatively quickly I was back to the local hyperthermia by Tuesday afternoon. Other than feeling achy like from flu and feeling tired the whole body hyperthermia was not too uncomfortable. Of course, I was asleep during the actual procedure! My energy was mostly recovered by Wed afternoon. Even Tuesday night, I was able to walk down the street to a restaurant for dinner.
Being there alone and doing all this was emotionally challenging to say the least. I appreciate the cards and emails I received while there, and since I have gotten back.
I did have a chance to talk with several other patients while there. The patients I met were from Germany, the USA, Ireland, and Israel. Some were there for the first time and some for their follow-up visit. Most had been referred by friends who had successful outcomes. Hopefully, I will be joining the successful list.
Thanks again to all who helped make this possible and who have supported me.
Joe