Herbal brews from Penang

By Nov 2011, I was already quite sick, and I decided to stop taking the ayurveda herbal brews.  I contacted Carnivora about my condition and was advised to start on an intense program.  I had for sometime been on a low dose maintenance program.

I was to take Carnivora liquid extract + Lymph Drainage + Hoxsey Red Clover + Sweet Wormwood (Artemisinin) + Essiac Extract Concentrate.  All these are in liquid form and are added to water and taken 3 to 4 times a day.  I could purchase all the items except for Essiac Extract Concentrate which was out of stock.

A friend had heard that I stopped the ayurveda herbal brews and recommended a botanist/herbalist in Penang, who was reputed to be able to help patients with cancer.  I was worried about the pleural effusion coming back again so a family member contacted the Penang herbalist about my condition and was told to give him 2 weeks to try his herbal brews.  I was also to stopped all other medication including the Carnivora combination.  His herbs were all grounded and prepacked.  I was to take 5 bowls of herbal brews each day.  One for phlegm, 2 for lungs, 1 for liver and 1 for breast cancer.  The herbal mixtures were not to be combined and had to be brewed separately.  As I was in pain, I had to add the pain mixture to each of the brews.  I started his herbal brews on 23 Dec 2011, the day I was discharged from hospital.

Family members helped to brew the herbs for me.  Initially, we used gas stove and clay pots.  While boiling, it was not easy to have exactly one bowl of herbal brew, we gauged and usually I ended up with less than the suggested one bowl, which I did not mind.  It was a tedious process as we had to strain and filter the liquid from the grounded herbs, so we bought an electric herbal boiler.  It automatically stopped boiling when the liquid in the boiler reaches 80% of a full bowl.  We put the grounded herbs into a cloth filter bag and it saved us a lot of time and effort.

However, I ended up drinking more herbal brews because the automatic boiler was so efficient.  My appetite was already no good and the herbalist treatment included a strict diet of no meat and no oil.  I could not stick strictly to his recommended diet as I am unable to survive on fruits and vegetables alone.  An all vegetable diet will give me indigestion, which will in turn cause me to have a fever, throw up or passed out.  Fruits make me phlegmy as I have a cooling constitution.

All herbal brews tend to be black.  And with so much black liquid in my body, even my stools came out black.