Diagnosed With Breast Cancer. Taking Ayurvedic Treatment. Having Breathing Trouble And Severe Pain In Legs. No Sleep. Suggest

Posted on Wed, 17 Jul 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Wed, 17 Jul 2013 Answered on

Sun, 4 Aug 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : My mom is 78 years old. She has been diagnized with Breast Cancer 4th stage. She seems to have this problem for the past 2 to 3 years. But she didn't let anyone know and kept quite all this time. As I am residing in Bangalore, I consulted with Oncologist with test reports like Biopsy, Liver function test, Kidney function test, Complete blood count, Abdomen scan and Chest X-ray. Ches X-ray shows that there is a heavy pleural effusion on both her lungs. Oncoligists said that it is difficult for her to tolerate chemo and radiation. As per my Dad's wish, we went with Ayurvedic treatment to keep her painless as much as possible. We visited K.Narayanamoorthy at Shimoga, Karnataka, who is very famous in this area for treating different type of cancer using ayurvedic tree barks. As per the instructions, we are giving the decoction of tree bark thrice a day with strict diet restrictions. As of now she has breathing trouble and severe pain in legs, lower and center of back side. I cannot give any allopathic pain killer as I was instructed not to give any when taking tree bark medication. Also she is not sleeping at all. Its been 4 days she slept. My main intention now is she should get a sound sleep and painless back. Please advice me any ayurvedic medicines in this regard.

Answered by Dr. Dr. Shruti Rijhwani (-4 hours later)

Dear sir,

Thank you for posting your query on XXXXXXX

Well looking into your problem and reading whole history your mother is suffering from stage 4 cancer breast . It is an advanced stage of disease thats why the doctors have advised you palliative treatment for pain and improving her qualiy of life .

She is experiencing breathing difficulty because she is having pleural effusion bilaterally and will continue to have it unless the fluid is drained . Her bodyaches and pain in back can be due to metastsis of cancer in spine .

Since you have belief in ayurveda the centre where you are getting her treated are the best judge . They will not even allow ayurvedic medicines for her .

In my opinion patients with such advanced stage cannot be cured and thus every effort needs to be done to assure a good quality of life and she will be requiring opioid pain killers for controlling her pain . Plus her effusion needs to be drained for relieving breathing difficulty .

Now its a choice taht you have to make .

Wish her good health.

Take care.

Dr. Shruti

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar