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Mike Traphagan

I spent the two weeks off for Christmas in Colorado (Denver) with my family. Up till Christmas, I had not lost any hair from my treatments. I thought I was not going to lose any hair. It wasn't until December 26th that I started to lose my hair. It was from the radiation because I only lost my hair on the sides, where I had the radiation. When I returned to teaching after my second round of chemo and radiation, the kids thought it looked cool and thought I was trying to sport a new "doo."

I told them it was the most expensive haircut I ever had in my life.

The remainder of my treatment consisted of six six-week cycles of chemo, which I could do at Presbyterian, a hospital in Dallas near my apartment. I scheduled my treatments on Friday afternoons after school let out. If I got ill, I hopefully could be okay for school on Monday. I am proud to say I only missed one day of school all second semester.

After each six-week cycle, (four weeks on and two weeks rest), I would have a MRI to show the progress of the tumor. I also had to fly down to M.D. Anderson so they could change my chemo treatment, if needed. My reports were always great and they increased the amount of chemo I was taking once or twice. After the third cycle, there was no change, good or bad. It concerned me because I did not want to have to do this all over again.

During my treatments, I was studying alternative methods of treatment.

I had taken a close look at two natural methods - Essiac Tea, produced from four natural herbs. The other was shark cartilage. I decided to start taking shark cartilage. I had read a book, reviewed some articles, and listened to a tape on shark cartilage. The shark cartilage was a godsend. I was planning on ordering shark cartilage from a company back east on a Saturday. I went to my mail box that day and found a small package. It was from my dad's brother, Joe, who lived at a retirement community in Arizona. The strange thing about the package is that I had not seen my Uncle Joe since I was a child. I guess my dad and Joe had differences and were no longer speaking. He had heard through the grapevine about my situation. He relayed a story to me that told of a bed-ridden woman in the retirement community. She began taking shark cartilage and a few months later she was attending dances again and "cutting a rug."

I also researched Essiac Tea. It just so happened a teacher at South Garland High School had a son in his twenties who had been diagnosed with a large tumor near his heart that made it very difficult to breathe. The doctors tried their treatments, but the tumor kept growing. They said they could not do anything more for him.

At that time Essiac Tea was not readily available or what was available was expensive. My teacher friend went out and got the ingredients for the tea and made her own. She also supplied the tea to me, and I took it for months. I am happy to say that the last report on her son is very encouraging. He is doing great and leading a normal life. I believe he still takes Essiac Tea, shark cartilage, and a variety of food supplements (vitamins) as a preventative for future problems.

Since they were both natural ingredients, I asked myself how could it hurt and took both during my final three cycles. They were part of my everyday routine. I would get up in the morning and place a heaping tablespoon of the shark cartilage powder in with a non-acidic juice and mix them in a blender. I took it on an empty stomach, hoping more cartilage would make it into my blood system. I took the Essiac Tea before going to bed. It was a liquid, so I filled a coffee cup with distilled water, added a tablespoon of tea, and heated it up in the microwave. Sure does beat radiation and chemotherapy.

Towards the end of my sixth and final chemo session, I started to have problems with my speech, balance, and writing so I scheduled another MRI. I thought the tumor was growing again. About two or three days later, I had messages from both Dr. Levin in Houston and my neurosurgeon in Dallas. They both said

I could now have surgery because the tumor had encapsulated itself.

In other words, the tumor was anchored to the brain by a system of blood vessels. Tumors need a good blood supply to keep growing. I equate the tumor I had to a tree in the ground. If you attempt to cut a tree off above the ground, chances are the tree will grow back. To kill the tree, you need to kill the roots. My tumor was the tree. The roots were the blood vessels, and the soil was my brain. The only way to kill the tumor was to destroy its blood supply (roots) and starve it.

When I was studying shark cartilage, it said it acted as an antiangiogenisis, or in other words, inhibited blood vessel formation. Sharks have been around for over four million years so that was good enough for me. The shark cartilage did exactly what it said it would: cut off the blood supply to the tumor and kill the tumor.

Why has this not been publicized? That's another story. Bureaucracy and politics play a major role.

I had the tumor removed on January 3, 1994. They sent some of the surrounding tissue from where the tumor was removed to two different pathologists. Both came back negative, meaning all the cancer had been removed. In my first outpatient visit after my surgery, my doctor said while shaking his head,

"I don't know what you were doing, but keep on doing it because it's working."

The funny thing is my brother told him after my surgery I had been taking shark cartilage since my third cycle. What my doctor was saying indirectly was keep taking the shark cartilage. I have never discussed the shark cartilage up to this point with my doctor. But he knows what happened.

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This is a personal account and is not intended in any way to provide medical information.
©Mike Traphagan, 2001
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