Sedona Cancer Support Retreat

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS TO ASK

Questions to ask yourself

1. What illness are you healing?
2. What modalities are you using?
3. Which ones feel the best to you?
4. What emotional pieces have come up for you to acknowledge?
5. What has been the surprise benefit of this journey?
6. What is/are your fear(s)?
7. What aspect about cancer have you learned so far?
8. In what ways have you been inspired?
9. What life changes are you making?
10. What advice would you give to others? Cancer, or otherwise.
11. Who were you before this journey?
12. Who are you aside from this journey? 
13. Who do you want to become?

Questions to ask your doctor(s) – Chris Wark

What is my diagnosis?

• Is this a fast growing or slow growing cancer?
• How long has it been growing in my body?
• What do you think caused my cancer?
• Do you think my diet, pollution or stress had anything to do with it ?
• Was it genetic?

Treatment Questions

• What treatment do you recommend?
• What are the drugs you are going to treat me with?
• Are there any other drugs that I might have to take?
• Can I get a list of all the drugs that will be involved in my treatment?
• What are the short term side effects of these drugs?
• What are the long term side effects of these drugs?
• Do any of these drugs have life threatening side effects?
• How old are the drugs you recommend? How long have they been around?
• Is this treatment curative or palliative?

If curative:

• If the treatment you recommend doesn’t cure my cancer, then what?
• What is the recurrence rate after this treatment?
• Where does that statistic come from?

If palliative:

• What’s the point of chemo or radiation if it’s not going to cure me?
• How would drugs that make me sick give me a better quality of life?
• How much time do you think I have to live if I do this treatment?
• How much time do you think I have to live if I do nothing?

• What is the 5-year disease-free survival rate for my specific diagnosis with this treatment protocol?
• What is the 5-year disease-free survival rate for my specific cancer if I do nothing?
• How much does chemotherapy contribute to 5-year survival for my cancer?
• What about 10-year survival?

• Are there any studies comparing this treatment protocol to patients who did nothing?
• What if the treatment doesn’t work? Can I get a refund?
• May I have copies of the Material Safety Data Sheets on all the drugs I’ll be taking? I would like to take them home with me today to review them.
• Have you ever taken any of these chemotherapy drugs to understand what they are like?
• Would you do this treatment if you had the same diagnosis as me?

Or would you just try to make the most of the time you have left?

What would you do if you were me?

Are you married? Do you have children?

If your husband/wife had this cancer would you give them this treatment?

What if it was your child? Would you give them this treatment?

• Is it true that chemotherapy drugs can make cancer more aggressive?
• Does chemotherapy kill cancer stem cells?
• I read that many chemotherapy drugs are carcinogenic? Can this treatment cause more cancers in the body?
• Do cancer cells eventually become resistant to chemotherapy?

What do we do when that happens?

• What other treatment options are available besides what we’ve discussed?

DIET QUESTIONS

• What do you recommend I eat while doing chemotherapy?
• Is it ok if I have ice cream and pizza?
• What’s the best anti-cancer diet?
• Are there any foods that I should avoid?
• I was thinking about adopting a plant-based diet, eating lots of raw fruits and vegetables, and juicing, is that ok?

ASK ABOUT TESTING

• I would like to get the Oncostat Plus chemosensitivity test to see which drugs my cancer will respond to before starting anything. Can you order that for me?
• Will you be ordering genetic testing to make sure the drugs won’t be severely toxic to me?

For example, patients with a DPD enzyme deficiency makes 5FU severely toxic and deadly http://www.know-the-risk-of-5fu-chemotherapy.com

Spectracell Blood Test shows nutrient deficiencies in the body

GET REFERENCES

• How many patients do you treat per year?
• How many patients have you permanently cured of my disease?
• I’m really nervous about this and would like to speak to 5 of your patients with the same cancer as me that are cancer-free after 5 years. Is that possible?
• Do you have any patients with my kind of cancer that are in remission after 10 years? Can I speak to some of them? If the doctor balks at this…Would you be willing to call and ask them personally if they would talk to me?

TALK ABOUT MONEY

• What is the total cost of the treatment you are recommending?
• How much of that is your profit?
• I’m just curious to know how much money you are making off me as a patient.
• I read somewhere that private practice oncologists buy chemotherapy drugs wholesale and bill the patients or the insurance company at a marked up price. Is that true?
• Is it true that you make a profit on the chemotherapy drugs you prescribe? And that some have higher profit margins than others?

FINAL QUESTIONS

• If I decide to undergo treatment, will I be able to call you if I have questions after hours?
• I would like to take some time to change my life, would that be possible?
• How much time do I have to do this?
• How much time do I have to think about all this and make my decision?
• Is it possible for the body to heal itself of cancer?
• If I decide not to do treatment, in order to enjoy the time I have left, will you support me with periodic blood tests and scans?
• Can I get a copy of my medical records before I leave today?