Bill's Cancer Cure
Copyright 2006.

Preface
Bill's Cancer Cure is a fictional short story.  Any resemblance of
any character, place, thing or event in this story to any person
present or past or any real place, thing or event is coincidental and
unintended.

It was a beautiful day.  The crisp air still under the clear blue sky.
Another meeting of three retired gents was taking place.  Sam, Jack,
and Bill have been getting together at this spot for years, always
eager to shoot the breeze, tell tall tales, and catch a few rays along
with fresh air.  Bill and Sam were sitting on the park bench as Jack
rolled up his wheel chair beside them.  "Good morning", said Jack,
slightly out of breath.  Bill replied, "Good afternoon Jack, its
afternoon."  As Jack and Bill spoke they noticed that Sam was not
paying attention.  He seemed to be day dreaming.  They stopped talking,
waited, then Bill asked Sam, "Sam, wake up, what are you doing,
dreaming?"  "Ah, what?" said Sam.  "Are you OK Sam?" asked
Bill.

Sam spoke up "I'm not sure, I think I am.  I mean, you now when
something happens and your not aware until long after that it happened?
Like you see blood on your finger, you notice you cut yourself, but
you don't know how it happened or when.  I think something like that
happened to me but much worse."  "OK I'm game, go ahead" said
Jack.  Sam continued, "Well several years ago I had spasms in the
nether regions.  So I went to my Doctor, he checked me out, I had an
ultrasound, and he said it's them herbs you're taking.  Stop taking
them.  Of course I didn't, and the spasms went away.  It was actually
a different herb called Cat's Claw that seemed to cause the spasm.  I
thought, Oh maybe there is an impurity in it or it's a bad batch or
something like that."  "So you stopped taking it and that's the
end of the story, right?" asked Bill.  "No", snapped Sam.
"It's just the beginning.  What was in the back of my mind was that
Cat's Claw is an immune system booster that supposedly has some
anti-cancer properties.  What if when I started to take the Cat's
Claw that my body started to fight something that was there?"  Jack
asked, "So then you had cancer?"  Sam continued, "The Doctor said
no, so I couldn't have, right?   So then six months later I get the
flu shot and then I start to get diarrhea, a little at first, then more
often, then like every day for three months.  Then it got harder and
harder to go and then it stopped.  I thought, finally I'm back to
normal, damn flu shot."  "I never heard of flu shots doing anything
like that before", said Bill.  "Maybe it was a real mild bout of
that Guillain Barre Syndrome thing", said Jack.  Sam asked Jack,
"Is that a TV repair term, Jack?"  "Hey Sam just admit TV repair
guys are the smartest", Jack replied.  Sam continued, "OK Jack TV
repair guys are very, very smart.  So I thought I'm good now.  Then
after a few days I think um like I should be going but nothing.  Now
it's a week and I feel real full, I start to get worried.  I start to
take Stresstabs multi-vitamins, Opti-Minplex + D multi-minerals, Ginger
Root capsules, and forced myself to drink lots of water."  Jack
asked, "Are those the 500mg Ginger with 5% Gingerol?"  Sam replied,
"Ya, that's right.  I took one capsule then two then three.  I took
more until I maxed out at 6 capsules four times a day.  I took Ginger
once before along with Cranberry for Prostatitis instead of antibiotics
and it worked, so I thought it was pretty safe.  That was until my
heart started to flutter."  "You know," said Jack "Ginger is
great for flavoring food and an upset tummy but at high doses it's
different.  If you were taking Aspirin or Coumadin to prevent blood
clots you could of hemorrhaged to death or had a stroke.  On top of
that it is dangerous if you have a heart rhythm problem."  "Well
I'm alive so I guess I'm lucky as well as stupid," said Sam
continuing.  "My heart scared me a bit so I stopped the Ginger.  But
as soon as my heart was OK I started again at a lower dose.  I took as
much as I could until my guts and liver began to ache.  That was about
five days, then I stopped everything except the water for about two
days."  Bill asked, "You felt good when you were doing this?"
"Of course not" said Sam "I was real tired, slept a lot, felt
real rotten and weak, it got so bad I felt I had to throw up but
couldn't.  I think the Ginger really prevented me from throwing
up."  "Well then" said Jack.  Sam went on, "well my guts
started to work a little, they were still pretty jammed up, so after a
couple of days when I felt good enough to continue, I did."  "You
did that for another week?" asked Bill.  "Oh no" said Sam "I
only did it as much as I could which was about three days."  Jack
said with a shrug, "Ah ha so you almost killed yourself to cure
constipation rather than have an enema."  Sam said "If it was
constipation, once it cleared I would have been back to normal quickly.
It would not have felt like a big stopper was in my intestine.  And
would not have taken months to heal up.  On top of that I had to do it
again three years later.  But the second time it was very easy took
only a couple of days, but my heart fluttered again.  Maybe going to
the dose that affects the heart is the key.  The first time I think I
was lucky I caught it early enough that I still had good enough health
that I made it through without kidney failure."  "Or your liver
shutting down" said Jack "look if you thought you had the Big C you
should have been in the hospital.  They could have watched your heart,
given you dialysis if your kidneys got overloaded.  You may have
something there about the Ginger dosage.  I read something on the
Internet about mitochondria going hyper in cancer cells, maybe the high
dose Ginger flips a switch and resets them back to normal.  But since
they are damaged or unstable, every once in a while they will need
another reset.  Or like the other article I read about mice treated
with Ginger for colorectal cancer, you're just a lucky mouse that got
the right treatment by accident."  "Well I'm convinced," said
Bill "you had cancer, colorectal or prostate or whatever and you
accidentally found a cure.  Maybe it's just that or maybe it's for
all cancers.  I'm going to make a ton of money."  Jack mockingly
said, "Oh ya, Bill's Cancer Cure."  "Why not?" questioned
Bill.  "Preposterous!" blurted Jack getting quite excited "you
can't say anything, you only have Sam's story.  He never even had a
biopsy or any proof that he actually had cancer.  And his treatment
could be dangerous, if someone was sicker than he was or had a heart,
or kidney, or liver problem they could die."  Bill shot back, "you
can't let people die!  Maybe it is just testimonial evidence, but
even anecdotal evidence is evidence.  Have you every seen Ball
Lightening?  Well I have and it is real."  "Look," said Jack,
"all I'm saying is that you can't go around shooting off your
mouth.  This kind of thing needs a large double blind study that takes
years and costs millions."  "Ah Jack" said Bill as he turned red
as a beet, "who is going to do that?  We're talking about Ginger
here.  Remember Ginger as in Ginger Ale, Ginger Snap cookies and Ginger
a million different foods?  Not one company is going to spend any money
to develop Ginger anything even if it's a cure for cancer."
"Gentlemen, gentlemen" piped up Sam "got yah!"   Bill shouted,
"you bugger!"  Jack added, "good one!"  They had a good laugh,
sighed, leaned back, and caught a few rays.  It was a beautiful day.