pudge's story (weblog)

If Pudge was a participant in the second Phycotene study I would say that he would have probably been categorized in the 70 percentile group that had shown just a little regression after 1 month of treatment, but even that has not happened yet.

I have slowly increased the concentration and doses of Phycotene given to Pudge stemming both from impatience and desperation. Could I have possibly given Pudge too little of the treatment in the beginning and the cancer has now built up a tolerance to Phycotene? Am I now giving him too much? I have been taking the role of a scientist but the truth is I am not and with Pudge as my patient, emotional detachment not possible. Maybe its time to stop this madness, and seek professional help once again.

I am now conceding that the treatments will most likely not help Pudge as I had hoped, only delaying the inevitable. After his surgery I had mentioned I would be happy if Pudge lived for just 1 month. Pudge has for the most part achieved that. I will continue to make the remainder of his life as comfortable as possible.

It’s surprising to me the resiliency of hamsters. Pudge underwent a very invasive procedure where an incision was made from the base of his ear to about the top of his chest. The fur around this area is growing back now and there is no trace of a scar at all. Where an after effect of the surgery does exist is in a seemingly unrelated area. During the surgery complications arose around Pudge’s ear where the tumor encompassed the area around the ear canal. To remove the tumor, several blood vessels around the ear area had to be cut and as a result Pudge’s right ear had begun to shrink. We were told that it would eventually fall off. The 4th visit to the vet resulted in its removal as a final check up to Pudge’s recent surgery. Pudge’s right ear now falls into the category of a nub.

As days now turn to weeks, improvement has yet to be made. It is obvious now that the second tumor on Pudge has not regressed; my earlier hopefulness caused an illusion, of a size decrease, but instead of an actual decrease it was just an impairment of my own judgment.

It seems the fight for Pudge’s life will not be as easy as the ‘stroll through the park’ as I had first thought.

Pudge is well enough now that he could be moved back to his usual spot in the living room but out of concern of the second tumor, I want to keep him close in case any unforeseen complications arise. Our first hamster peanut died overnight from his tumors with no warning.

‘Saturday’ marks Pudge’s third visit to the vet who said he looks well and is glad he has recovered so fully after the surgery. The second lump is indeed another tumor but as far as we can observe it is not as bad as the first one. I asked to see the first tumor again which is being held in a jar at the vet office, and was surprised to see how large it was, (slightly smaller than a oval shaped golf ball). The vet measured the new tumor to be 1” by 2”. The vet added that this tumor could be removed, as it would be a simpler operation, a good option to have but we will continue the Phycotene/Essiac treatments for now. Pudge’s demeanor during the office visit was so calm that the doctor was able to remove his stitches without anesthesia. Pudge is well on his way to recovery from his surgery.

It is normally an irritation, but under the circumstances, being woken up several times during the night and early morning to a spinning exercise wheel is a pleasant sound. Pudge is beginning to develop a distaste for the treatments and I can’t blame him, in its liquid form Phycotene does not taste very good. Nowadays he is beginning to learn a technique where he tucks his head under my fingers and deflects the syringe with his arms...adorable.

As Phycotene is essentially an antioxidant, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to instill a supplementary side diet, (side dish), to his normal hamster feed. Following Pudge’s surgery, I thought it may be difficult for him to gather enough strength to pull himself up to his water bottle, since then I have been making available to him a variety of fresh foods which naturally contain liquid. I don’t remember the source, but I once heard that it is beneficial to receive hydration from fresh foods as they carry vitamins more readily rather than its dried counterparts. In creating Pudge’s daily ‘side salad’, it is just a matter of looking through the refrigerator and picking out common things that we eat which are also appealing to hamsters. Pudge’s favorite fresh foods in descending order are: Tofu, blanched broccoli, soybeans, peas, spring lettuces. It seems the denser nutrient rich foods are preferred, the exception being tofu, which is his favorite, probably because of its high water content; it must be refreshing.

It’s hard to admit but the tumor looks bigger…in comparison to older pictures I am almost sure of it. As speculated earlier, I may have been observing Pudge too closely to notice a difference in size, it was confirmed when I took a step back and looked at some earlier pictures of him. In contrast to Pudge’s initial faster growing tumor, the changes in the second tumor were almost invisible on a day to day basis. I could hypothesize that the Phycotene treatment may be having a small amount of beneficial impact, perhaps at very least stalling the tumor growth, however at this point I don’t know how this can ever be confirmed.

We are continuing to watch Pudge to see if any behavioral changes occur. On the good side of things Pudge continues about his daily activities and still loves his fresh veggies, especially his new favorite: Tofu.

The tumor near Pudge’s chest appears to be somewhat smaller, but is definitely still present. Could the tumors smaller appearance be attributed to the fact that I have become accustomed to seeing it everyday? The first Phycotene experiments sited at Harvard observed regression from their hamsters in just 4 days; here on day 6, I have nominal, if any, progress. I am beginning to doubt the validity of the study, as it may have been a bit overly optimistic in its findings. Another uncertainty I have is the translation of dosages from the original tests to Pudge’s doses. I am hoping now that there is some truth in the second set of Phycotene studies where treatment was administered for 1 month before any results were taken.

In a gut wrenching shock the morning brings about an increase in size of the new lump to about the size of an almond. This comes after a night full of activity from Purge and once again no change in behavior. With an almost panicked concern we checked in regularly on his condition. In another shocking surprise a mid-morning check with Pudge’s reveals that the lump has altogether disappeared…humph. It seems that this mysterious lump was indeed a sunflower seed, then an almond. I guess his recently incapacitated cheek pouch is once again feeling well enough to serve its purpose of storing food once again.

Hamsters have an expressionless demeanor where I can derive about 3 different states of mind and being: the first is one of sleepiness, exhibited by turned back ears, slightly closed eyes, and a soft warm body. The second emotion is excitement, trademarked by sudden movements, scurrying and erect ears. The last emotion is ‘deep thought’ where hamsters sit in a daydream like trance on their hind legs in complete state of contemplation. If there were one more emotion I could add to this list today, (perhaps from my own internal relief of knowing the new lumps are not new tumors), would be a happiness where I could detect a trace of a smile under his ever-twitching nose communicating through body language a sense of contentment.

Concern once again fills our hearts today as the Pudge’s right cheek pouch, still freshly shaven from surgery, is once again showing signs of another growth. Another lump has appeared overnight, behind the stitches, roughly the size of a sunflower seed.

Once brewed, the Essiac tea keeps for about three weeks in the refrigerator, we still have the batch we made while awaiting the Phycotene. With the new signs of a new threat, I have decided to introduce Essiac back into routine in conjunction with the Phycotene perhaps needing both a preventative measure as well as a proactive one.

Change of the tumor size is slight if occurring at all. All we can tell today is that it is not getting bigger. At different times of the day our hopes are both up and down as it sometimes looks smaller, sometimes bigger. It really is a judgement call with no real way to scale the lump other than a visual estimate.

One thought that goes through my mind while awaiting any signs of regression or progress, it is this: in the scientific study, the hamsters were given the same supplemental treatment that Pudge is receiving, but it was administered in a different way. The Phycotene was injected into the hamsters in a concentrated form (.1 micrograms); Pudge is receiving this orally about 1/400th of a human dose, in about .3 ml of water. I am hoping that the product holds true to its outside labeling which uses the word ‘nanoclusters’ which are supposedly complete clusters of the nutrients and Pudge is benefiting from this technology, and not just receiving orange fodder from the capsule.

Through Monday morning and today Pudge received two .3 cubic centimeter (cc’s) doses of Essiac tea. As we had hoped, we found no further enlargement during this time. With an overnight shipping priority on the Phycotene it arrived promptly today, which will mark the end of the Essiac treatment and the induction of Phycotene.

In order to estimate an appropriate dose of Phycotene to administer to Pudge, I had to do some rough calculations. One rough way to do this as suggested by a herbalist for Pudge’s case was to take the mean body weight of a human (150 lbs) in relation to 1 dose and divide up the dose proportionally with Pudge’s body weight…according to this calculation Pudge’s dosage would be something of 1/450 of a human dose. The vet added that in creating dosages, body mass and metabolism also need to be taken into account. The label on the Phycotene bottle reads 1-4 pills daily, which for accuracy’. Keeping in mind that herbal remedies are not accurate in of themselves, the estimated amount to give to Pudge will indeed be rough.
My initial calculation is to split the contents of the capsule into 8 equal parts, then mix the contents with 3 ml of water to create a feedable solution. I would then take .3 ml of this solution and feed to Pudge through a syringe: this will be one dose; one dose per day. This is my initial estimate for dosages and will adjust these as I go on.

Phycotene is a specialized supplement, therefore it is not available in many retail stores, I had to purchase it online. In the meanwhile, as a preventative measure, I started Pudge on the Essiac treatments. Essiac also seems to be a rare item however I did find two local grocers specializing in organic foods who carries this item. In Seattle, both PCC Natural Foods and Whole Foods stock Essiac tea. Whole Foods sells this in a reasonably priced bulk bin, (about $3.50 per 1 oz of dry tea). Whole Foods also carries Spirulina, and as Phycotene is a derivative of the Spirulina algae, I located one of the herbalists and discussed a few issues concerning the nature of Spirulina. It was explained that Spirulina contains nutrients that have detoxifying and anti-inflammatory properties. It is another way to receive ‘whole food’ nutrition which gets metabolized by your body in the same way a typical food would be ingested.

What I am aiming for in Pudge’s case is to introduce to him the specific carotenoids taken from the Spirulina algae which in the Phycotene lab studies, the hamsters exhibited a specific regression of cancer cells while none of the healthy cells were adversly affected. However it will be a couple days until the miracle nutrients arrive…Essiac tea will hopefully stunt any further growth of the tumor for now.