Introduction

[Guest guest]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to this list so I thought I'd introduce myself and hopefully get

some advice. My brother who is 51 years old has rectal cancer. January of

1998 he was rushed to the hospital because he was so ill he couldn't get

out of bed. They discovered he had a large tumor in his rectum that had

eaten away at the lining and all the bad stuff that your normally get rid

of with a bowl movement was getting into his body. He had such a bad

infection he almost died. They did surgery and removed the tumor and

unfortumately half of his butt and all of the skin and muscle from the back

of one of his legs. He was in BAD shape. I guess I should mention that

he's an alcoholic, that's how all of this got so bad. Anyway, it's been a

year and a half now. The tumor grew back and caused lots of pain. He was

sent for radiation therapy and chemo therapy I think it was in February or

March. The tumor shrunk to almost nothing and it hadn't spread. We were

all hopefull that he'd be ok for a while. That didn't last long. The

tumor is now growing back and he's been told that there is nothing that can

be done for him. They can't do surgery because of the extensive work done

the first time around. He'd have a big hole and no way to cover it up.

They did plastic surgery and now there is no more skin for grafting left.

They told him that he couldn't do radiation again because there is only so

much they can do for a person in a lifetime. Another thing to mention here

is that the only insurance he has in Veterans. He is on Veterans

disability.

Is there a website I can go to to learn about alternative medicines that

might help? Is there anyone on this list who might have advice I could

share with my brother?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully I explained his situation

enough.

Thanks

Kris