High-dose Vitamin C IVs & Laetrile

July 1998

After a 6-hour drive on a Sunday afternoon, I arrived at the Holiday Inn in Suffern, NY where I would be staying while undergoing a week’s worth of testing and treatments at Dr. Schachter’s clinic across the street. The next day I met with Dr. Schachter, and he outlined for me everything I would be doing that week and what I would need to do when I returned home.

He told me I would be meeting with a nutritionist, a psychologist, someone to advise me on the proper supplements to be taking, a technician who performed electrodermal screening on me (a procedure used to screen all the systems, organs and functions of the body via computerized instrumentation that measures the energetic aspects of the body using the nervous system through the electro-acupuncture points. Got all that?), lifestyle (exercise and stress management) counseling, and daily sessions in the IV room where intravenous drips of Vitamin C with laetrile and alternating Hydrogen Peroxide IV’s were administered. Dr. Schachter informed me that I would have to order the laetrile myself, have it shipped overnight and bring it to the IV Room as the clinic was not allowed to provide the laetrile per FDA regulations. He also let me know that I would need to find a doctor in my hometown that would be willing and able to administer these IV’s on a regular basis. I felt overwhelmed and defeated when I left his office because I was sure I would find no doctor in my area who would be willing to administer these IV’s——something so crucial to my recovery. Back in my room at the Holiday Inn, I quickly ordered the laetrile from a lab in the Midwest (that lab has since been raided and shut down by the FDA). I then started calling doctors in my hometown and the surrounding vicinity to see if they would be willing to do the IV’s for me; and, if not, could they recommend someone who might. After many calls and disappointing responses, I finally found an MD about a 45-minute drive from my home who was willing to do the IV’s. HALLELUJAH!! After several days of meeting with various practitioners at the Schachter Center and purchasing numerous supplements, my credit card was embarrassingly declined because I had exceeded my credit limit. I had to scramble to get the credit limit raised and knew I needed to do something as soon as I got home to get the cash to pay for these very expensive treatments which were most definitely not covered by insurance. That’s one of the major drawbacks of alternative, holistic and integrative medical treatments: everything must be paid for out-of-pocket and costs can and do escalate rapidly!

Upon returning home, I decided to cash in a Deferred Compensation Plan that I had been paying into for many years. This plan was intended to supplement by pension and social security when I retired. Since my mortality was now staring me in the face and I didn’t know if I would live to even see my retirement, I decided to use this money to pay for my past and upcoming treatments. Because of my cancer diagnosis, I was able to withdraw the money without a penalty, despite not being of retirement age. This was a Godsend and enabled me to have some peace of mind knowing that I could now pay for the treatments that would be required: Three Vitamin C IV’s with laetrile per week at $90 per IV alternating with two Hydrogen Peroxide IV’s the following week at $75 a pop! This would continue in a gradually decreasing schedule over the course of two years. Added to this was the expense of all of the supplements that were recommended to me. I was extremely fortunate that due to the length of time I had worked for my employer, I was entitled to five months of paid sick leave. Believe me, I know how rare that it is and I was profoundly grateful for it. It gave me the time to explore various supportive treatments that I felt would help me heal and removed the stress of my job as a middle manager in the County Social Services Department. I was damn lucky in the financial and stress-reduction facets of this situation and I never forgot it or took it for granted for one moment.

I spent the remainder of that summer going to the doctor’s office for my IV treatments and I became a very familiar face in that office due to my thrice weekly visits. A good book made the 2.5 hour IV treatments pass quickly, as did interesting conversations with one or more of the other patients in the IV room. I sought the names of psychologists and social workers that dealt specifically with cancer patients since I really wanted someone that I could talk to about the emotional issues that were coming up as a result of the cancer diagnosis. I found one woman in my vicinity who seemed to fit the bill, and I promptly made an appointment with her. I met with her in her office one sunny afternoon and related my experiences up to that point. She asked me about my treatments and I filled her in on what I was doing. At that point she stopped me and told me she couldn’t take me on as a client because she wouldn’t feel comfortable working with someone who wasn’t doing traditional cancer treatment. I thanked her and left. I guess I had to appreciate her honesty, despite being really pissed off.

Through extensive research on Rife technology (mind you, I’m no scientist), I ended up purchasing what I felt to be the best Rife machine out there at the time at cost of approximately $2500. The Rife machine was invented in the 1930’s by Raymond Royal Rife. He contended that cancer cells emit a certain energy frequency and when a matching frequency is sent to the cancer cell by his machine, the cancer cell is “shattered”, much like a glass is shattered when a certain high musical note is sung. I programmed the recommended cancer frequencies into the machine and used the machine at least twice a day. I even invited a couple of female cancer clients from the IV room to come to my home to use the machine free of charge. They both came a couple of times a week for a number of weeks, but they both eventually passed away from their respective cancers. After several months, I honestly couldn’t tell if the machine was helping me or not. I ended up selling it on eBay. I know there are a number of so-called Rife machines out there that are fraudulent. I do believe in the theory behind the technology and I’ve read about how it was suppressed by the medical establishment in the 1930’s. The trick is finding the Rife machine that truly duplicates Rife’s technology and achieves the professed results.