As mentioned in my posts on the 15th and 16th July, my regular readers will know that apart from having an aggressive cancer of the prostate I have, in more recent months, also developed a rather large kidney stone - of the uric acid variety - in my one and only kidney. Cancer took the other one back in 1995.

That being the case I have to take this kidney stone quite seriously and get shot of it pronto. Having only one kidney has made little or no difference to my health, or to my life-style, but to lose the other one would, I’m told, be quite terminal. And I guess I’m too old to be considered for a transplant.

Seriously though, I have to explore all avenues finding a way of dissolving the stone and expunging it from my body. To that end my urologist put me on Allopurinol tablets 300mg and Sodibic capsules 840mg last January when the stone measured 6cm. The aim was to dissolve the stone and also, stop uric acid forming.

Unfortunately, on my last test, instead of reducing in size the stone had grown to 8cm. But it must be said here that measurements made during ultrasound are not necessarily always accurate as they are subject to several variables, including human error. Anyhow, It was decided to continue with the same treatment for another four months but with the added proviso, that I stop taking the very high doses of vitamin C, consumed with the various berry and fruit juices I take several times daily to better manage my prostate cancer.

This does tend to leave me in a catch-twenty-two situation but my main concern right now has to be ridding my kidney of the stone. I will simply have to be careful in the monitoring of the prostate situation over the four month period. But I can’t say that I am entirely happy with this situation so, as is my nature, I will continue to look at the alternatives and keep my option open.

Having lived for many years in Asia and knowing and respecting the wealth of knowledge that there is in Chinese herbal medicine I decided over the week-end, at my wife’s bidding, to investigate this aspect. So yesterday we visited a Chinese Herbalist in Brisbane and came away with some PAI SHI pills, that will not only handle inflammation of the kidneys and urinary tract but also, dissolve both kidney stones and gall-bladder stones. Not that I have need of the latter as I no longer have one - gall bladder, that is.

The pills are based on ancient knowledge enhanced by modern techniques and clinical know-how. Over the past fifty years or so, my dear wife and I have made use of Chinese herbal medicines many times and we have never been disappointed. I can only hope that I will have a similar experience with it this time.

In fact, I do sometimes wonder why it is that modern medical science has tended to ignore the great wealth of knowledge and experience - acquired over many thousands of years - of Chinese herbal medicine. Is it a cultural thing I wonder? Or is it that modern medical science is co-dependent on the pharmacology industry? And of course, we know that the drug industry is not interested in any potent medicine from nature that they can not synthesize and make billions of dollars from.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 at 12:45 pm and is filed under Kidney Stone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.