Who Says There Is No Treatment for Pancreatic Cancer?: Navigating the Maze . . . Japan and Back

By Elizabeth Ann Crichton

A diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is generally seen to be a death sentence, and sadly for many, this is in fact so. The fear it engenders in the person and the confusion one feels is indescribable. It is also generally a fact that it is not an issue we have had to deal with, and so the options are confusing and limited in our minds, generally only confined to the medical model available and advised by beautiful and well-meaning doctors.
It was soon after she moved north of Sydney to start a new life in an ecovillage that Elizabeth was shocked to find she had a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer stage 2B and, after a major operation, chemotherapy, and an almost immediate recurrence of the tumor, was advised that no further treatment was available apart from palliative radiotherapy. At this point, she consulted Grace Gawler, who has invaluable knowledge of worldwide treatment options for the various cancer types, and so began a journey of recovery that took her to Japan for three months for immunotherapy treatment and proton beam therapy. In the book, she shares a very detailed personal account of her Japan experience in the form of emails sent home as she traveled the healing journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press AU
• Release date: Nov 2, 2017
• ISBN: 9781504311250

Elizabeth Ann Crichton

Elizabeth Crichton BAppSc(OT),ARMIT,CM (WPATA),EMDR 1 & 2, EFT Elizabeth lives a colourful and exciting life with varied working careers as an astronomical observer with the CSIRO working on a NASA project, a Diagnostic Radiographer, Occupational therapist, Meditation teacher, Transactional Analyst and Psychotherapist and in the latter part of her career ran a successful Private Practice. In conjunction with this she also held a comprehensive therapeutic group programme in a community centre, a training group for aspiring Transactional Analysts and taught Transactional Analysis in various colleges. She currently teaches and practices heartfulness meditation, is interested in nature and simplicity and is helping to create a sustainable community in an Ecovillage just north of Sydney.

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Copyright © 2017 Elizabeth Ann Crichton.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Although the treatment path I have chosen seemed the right one for me, all people, bodies and issues are different so decisions need to be made on an individual and personal basis. My suggestion would be to make contact with Grace Gawler, http://www.gracegawlerinstitute.com/ or email [e-mail] before deciding on a treatment path. She helps patients to navigate the cancer maze and all suitable options can be reviewed.

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The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-5043-1116-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-1125-0 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 11/20/2017

Publications, Papers and Articles

Practical Approaches to Mental Health Care, Jacobs,P, Crichton,E, Visotina,M(1989) Macmillan,Crows Nest, Australia

Development of Curriculum for the subject Psychosocial Rehabilitation, one unit of the subject the Seriously Mentally Ill in a distance education course for RIVERINA-MURRAY INSTITUTE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, BACHELOR OF COMMUNITY SOCIAL SERVICES to be known as BACHELOR OF SOCIAL WELFARE, 1986.

Contributor to Casemanagement, a two day workshop for presentation to staff in seminar form, 1987.

Programming –unpublished paper presented at the Rehabilitation Seminar, October 1984 and adapted for use in the publication ESTABLISHMENT OF COMMUNITY BASED LIVING SKILLS CENTRES – MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES, Life Skills Forum of NSW for Department of Health, NSW, 1985.

Contributor of one module in the Transactional Analysis Training Lecture Notes and Lesson Plans. WPATA, 1998.

Foreword

Cancer – The Great Adventure: Adventurers and explorers consciously set their challenges and make their plans. Oftentimes they take months even years to strategize every step of their prospective adventures. They have the luxury of making a conscious choice to venture into the unknown and uncertain; conquering mountains, sailing wild seas, riding the winds or exploring the depths of space. Such journeys always demand courage, faith and a sense of believing in oneself to achieve their desired goal.

A diagnosis of cancer is an adventure of a different kind; a marathon journey into the unknown that flaunts a high degree of uncertainty for safe arrival at the destination. A cancer diagnosis is not planned for, nor is it a conscious choice to take this precipitous journey. One-day cancer declares itself and everything in your life changes. Unspoken fears suddenly demand attention. Cancer takes us by surprise, bringing uninvited change and an absence of planning and preparation. Cancer does not discriminate, it crosses all borders and races and affects the wealthy and the poor.

Cancer is private and personal and even in the company of others and with the best support and doctors – one can feel alone and overwhelmed by the enormity of responsibility and choices.

Enter Elizabeth Crichton, an earnest seeker who has lived an interesting and eclectic life, which has infused her with a set of principles to live by. She demonstrates discipline and a committed attitude to getting well again. She lives her faith and has well exercised ‘spiritual muscles’, all the requirements for the arduous journey of recovery from pancreatic cancer. When you read her words nestled within these pages, one can see Elizabeth’s life path evolving; a planetary citizen who has led a good life, contributing to humanity and attempting to balance her love of science, service, spirituality and nature.

Then one day—pancreatic cancer!

I met Elizabeth because she engaged my services as her Cancer Navigator. (The role of a Cancer Navigator is to assist as an advocate, help with decision-making and via experience, can present options and introduce cancer experts who can provide second opinions and state of the art treatments.) Recommended by a friend who had experienced successful cancer treatment in Japan; Elizabeth contacted me to discover if any similar options were available for her situation. We had some very positive and proactive discussions. A thoughtful, intelligent and well considered lady; she soon embraced the concept of looking outside the square to extend her life and admirably, dared to take the risk to try.

During her first encounter with pancreatic cancer, she had reluctantly taken the surgical and chemotherapy path, which of course was sensible and appropriate at the time. However, when cancer returned in two places in her pancreas, she knew that there had to be another option. Elizabeth embraced her second-time diagnosis of pancreatic cancer with practicality, realism and determination. More surgery was not an option and standard radiation therapy was not likely to help. The choice of looking outside of the square was made easier due to no other treatment options being available.

Japan offered realistic options not in the realms of alternative medicine, although the treatments offered were an alternative. Professional and structured, Japanese medical science is impressive, advanced and clinically applicable.

Immune therapy made from Elizabeth’s own white cells and manufactured into a series of personalized vaccines, local hyperthermia and low-dose oral chemotherapy proved to be just the beginning of Elizabeth’s Japanese experience.

Travelling to Japan solo for a period of three weeks would be challenging enough for most people, but when the offer was made for a super high-tech therapy not available in Australia that would kill the cancer and be potentially curative, and require three months stay; Elizabeth said a resounding yes! The only hitch was it was super expensive, delivered at a hospital 200km north of Tokyo in the Fukushima prefecture and would necessitate a 3 month stay in a town that was predominantly Japanese speaking.

Acceptance of the treatment offer is not only a demonstration of Elizabeth’s will to live, but also her will to heal and to embrace and do whatever necessary to recover. Her attitude has been pivotal in the way she has handled information and treatments and her recovery process.

Support from Elizabeth’s Heartfulness meditation community back in Australia and in Japan also contributed significantly to her treatment success and outcome. For example, in a country so far from Australia, Japanese members of her meditation community helped by delivering meals in Tokyo and continued providing friendship once she made the decision to proceed with treatment at Koriyama (Fukushima Prefecture). Admirable and true spirituality in action!

I set out in this foreword discussing cancer as an adventure, a marathon. Elizabeth has embraced this marathon with grace, gratitude, determination and commitment. She was prepared to do the demanding work; endure the solitude of living in a non-English-speaking community; applying whatever it took to reach her goal. Even with support, this type of cancer journey is not for the fainthearted. I am delighted that Elizabeth accepted the challenge of writing about her experience whilst in Koriyama. Her story will serve as a valuable contribution for those patients whom may follow.

Elizabeth concludes that she has learned so many things on her cancer journey. Most of them she says, she thought she already knew, but now she knows from a far deeper level of understanding.

I am reminded of a much-quoted statement by Indian Leader Jawaharlal Nehru

Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will.

Indeed, Elizabeth has played her hand well!

Grace Gawler

Therapeutic Director

The Grace Gawler Institute, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.

Preface

So why am I writing this book?

I guess my belief that we are all part of the one, infact are all one, on the one journey even if not fully aware of it and hence share our common ups and downs, joys and sorrows, is why I am writing it. Love I believe is the glue that binds us; a force far stronger than any other and one that I have experienced so fully on my cancer journey. It is also why I have been communicating so often and in such detail with friends and family over the period of my stay in Japan and even before that. The fact that we share the same planet, the finite resources, breath the same air and are infact very dependent on each other, I believe, gives us