Lynn Capehart Wellness Project

CHERYL IS SUFFERING FROM A SERIOUS SIDE EFFECT OF THE MRI DYE

I started to worry when Cheryl missed her second weekly check-in. I couldn’t get a response to voice mails and texts. Her computer was glitching so I didn’t bother with email. After almost three weeks out of contact she finally picked up the phone one morning, only to tell me in a hushed tone that she couldn’t talk because she was in the hospital.

Three days later I got a voice mail from her telling me she had been too sick to even have a conversation. That they didn’t know what was wrong with her. That she had been tested for several diseases, including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which were all negative.

What? Didn’t I just cure her of cancer?  

GADOLINIUM CONTRAST MEDIUM IS THE DYE USED IN CHERYL’S MRI

Gadolinium Contrast Medium (GCM), (aka, MRI Contrast Medium), is used in a third of MRI’s, and was injected intravenously as part of the scan. In magnetic resonance imaging, GCM makes the scan clearer and easier to read. It makes it easier to see soft tissue abnormalities, disease processes such as inflammation, or a tumor.

Using GCM is akin to taking a photo and then photoshopping it to sharpen the focus. GCM is how you photoshop an MRI scan. The dye can easily be seen traveling through the bloodstream, and blood goes everywhere inside your body.

GCM has a carrier molecule called a “chelating agent.” It helps to ensure that GCM is distributed equally throughout the body. Equal and balanced distribution is important in order to overcome GCM’s known toxicity, while still maintaining important contrast properties. One of the worst things that can happen is to have GCM clump up in spots and not remain equally distributed.

Under ordinary circumstances GCM is almost entirely expelled through the urine within 24 hours. The problem is some people have trouble getting GCM out of their system once the MRI is over. That is what Cheryl is facing now.

GCM SIDE EFFECTS ARE RARE BUT DO HAPPEN

• The minor side effects from GCM are headache, nausea, and dizziness. They occur in only 5% of patients. Even more infrequently, a feeling of coldness may occur at the injection site for a short period.

• More serious allergic side effects are experienced by about 1 in 10,000, and include difficulty breathing and swelling of the lips and mouth. These reactions occur immediately, usually while still in the MRI department, and typically respond well to emergency drug treatment.

• Also serious is when the body cannot excrete the dye in a timely fashion. It usually settles in the lower extremities causing an inflammatory reaction and grave water retention.

• A small fraction of people contract a serious and sometimes life threatening disease reaction called Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis (NSF). NSF manifests as localized thickening and tightening of the skin. It can lead to internal organ damage, because the same thing can happen to connective tissue. NSF only occurs in people with impaired kidney function. That is why anyone with kidney problems is not supposed to be given GCM.

(Molan, Maurice, Dr., Goergen, Stacy, Prof., (2009) The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists. “Gadolinium Contrast Medium (MRI Contrast Agents).” http://www.insideradiology.com.au/)

CHERYL’S SIDE EFFECTS

It is too soon to tell if Cheryl has NSF specifically, but she does have a nasty set of GCM side effects. She also has serious kidney impairment.

Cheryl has had renal colic for almost five years, ever since her kidneys were injured in a serious auto accident. There is ample information in Cheryl’s medical records regarding this accident, including MRIs, ultra sounds, and other tests.

Ordinarily renal colic is a type of pain due to the presence of kidney stones. Cheryl does not have kidney stones, but she has severe pain that comes in waves, and clearly she has kidney impairment. Nevertheless, Cheryl was given GCM, which is not supposed to be given to anyone with kidney impairment.

Her doctors never discussed the use of GCM with Cheryl. She was given tests for kidney and liver function prior to the MRI, and they indicated no problems. But there was never a conversation about its use and the danger it presented to her. If they had bothered to read her medical records carefully or discuss it with her she could have avoided all of this misery.

Cheryl is in real distress right now and has several excruciating problems due to the side effects of the GCM dye:

• There is substantial swelling in both legs and feet that make it difficult to stand and walk. Sitting on the front left ankle and right hip are water sacs the size of large grapefruits. Both are tender and painful. When touched it is obvious they are filled with liquid.

• There is a sensation of extreme cold that extends from her left hip all the way down past the affected ankle sac. It is also present in her right foot. These areas feel normal when touched, but to Cheryl they are painfully cold.

• There are dark lines about a quarter inch thick encircling both ankles. Her skin color above the line is her normal white color, but it is a darker grey color below the line. Cheryl feels very sick, nauseated and achy like with the flu. She had to quit one job because she is exhausted all the time.

• There is a serious problem with her mouth. Her teeth and gums are sore and painful, making it hard to chew. She has a bad, metallic taste in her mouth that ruins the taste of whatever she eats. She rinses with salt water every couple of hours, trying to get rid of the taste.

CHERYL’S PROGNOSIS

Her doctors say they have no idea what is wrong with Cheryl, or how to fix it. Yet they also say this reaction occurs from time to time with the use of GCM. So which is it? And why the mystery? If the doctors have seen this reaction with the dye before, why are they giving her all sorts of tests to find out what is wrong? Why are they not attributing it to the dye?

This is the same irrational logic of Cheryl’s oncologist. He witnessed the elimination of the cancerous tissue and the benign tumor shrinking, but still wanted to cut into her to get at what was left of the tumor. Why not wait and see if the tumor continues to disappear on its own? It is shrinking after all. And it’s benign, so why the rush to cut?

For now her medical team continues to test for any number of diseases, whether or not it is possible for Cheryl to have contracted them. They simply don’t know what else to do. I am worried that they may do more harm before they are finished.

I ask myself why practitioners in the medical industry don’t react well to new information and try to utilize it to get a better outcome for their patients. Why aren’t they more curious? When the oncologists saw that whatever Cheryl was using had caused the cancer to disappear and the benign tumor to shrink, why weren’t they more excited? Where was the passion? Why didn’t they question her and try to find out more so they could learn and help others?

It’s seems like medical school deprives them of the ability to seek out new truths, and think new thoughts. It shuts down the creative process so that they never question what they have been told and never seek further clarity.

Making it all worse is their certainty that they are always right, to the point of arrogance, which is not supported by reality because they are wrong more often than they are right. They have failed miserably in carrying out their Hippocratic oath to first do no harm. Cheryl is one more small example in a sea of mistakes.

All Cheryl’s doctors had to do was talk to her about the MRI and the use of GCM. They would have discovered she had the accident that damaged her kidneys and would not have used GCM. In that case Cheryl would be celebrating her recent win over cancer, and getting on with her new life, instead of having to face all this additional and unnecessary misfortune.

CHERYL’S NEXT STEP

Cheryl was scheduled for an x-ray of the benign tumor on June 27, 2016 to see if it continues to shrink. The appointment was canceled because she was too ill.

I have added L-Cysteine and Vitamin C to her regimen to assist her body in detoxifying, and bee pollen and honey to calm her allergic reactions.

Supplements
Supplement	Breakfast	Dinner	Brand	Strength
Beta Carotene	100 softgels	100 softgels	Puritan’s Pride #1223	25,000 IU
Note: Cheryl was taking 125 BC twice daily to cure her cancer. Two weeks after the cancer was gone, I dropped her dosage down to 50 twice daily. But due to the obvious inflammatory reaction she has had with the dye, I moved her back up to 100 twice daily.
D3	2 softgels	2 softgels	Puritan’s Pride #19377	5,000 IU
Note: D3 is important only as a crucial support vitamin for beta carotene.
Sunflower Lecithin	4 softgels	4 softgels	NOW at Vitamin Life	1,200 mg
L-Cysteine	3 capsules	3 capsules	Puritan’s Pride #0100	500 mg
Note: L-Cysteine may cause allergic reactions in people who are allergic to shellfish, but not always. In fact, Cheryl is allergic to shellfish but she needs this so bad that I want to try it with her anyway. She will start with lower doses and work up to what is listed here. She will be on bee pollen for a week before she starts L-Cysteine, in order to calm her immune system so it won’t react to the L-Cysteine.
Vitamin C Crystals	½ tsp	½ tsp	Puritan’s Pride	2500 mg
Note: Vitamin C is used only as a support for the L-Cysteine, because it facilitates its assimilation.
Bee Pollen	1 tbls pellets	1 tbls pellets	Locally Sourced	NA

I realize that my universal cancer cure won’t go far if it remains solely on my blog. So I am writing a white paper to submit to a peer review medical journal. Maybe they will listen. They certainly need to.

(Note: Can anyone tell me why the lines in my charts and boxes show up in the WP edit but disappear when published? I use the charts and boxes to separate information and make it easier to read. I am so sick of this problem but can’t get any help from Word Press. Thanks.) 

PLEASE DONATE NOW TO HELP OTHER CANCER PATIENTS                                             www.paypal.com for: lynncapehartnonprofit@outlook.com                                         Some people can’t afford the cost of the cancer supplements, as inexpensive as they are in comparison to prescription meds. Their insurance will only pay for conventional medical treatments. You can make a tax deductible donation through paypal.com to help them. Any amount, even $5.00 can help save a life. Please donate today. If you do not have a PayPal account, please contact me to make other arrangements to donate. lynncapehart@gmail.com Thanks.

 

 

 

 

Read Full Post »