I was just sent this link and wanted to repost it here because it is informative and hopeful.
There are many researchers working on molecular types of therapies over chemotherapy to treat cancers. One such molecular therapy that is showing 83% rate of success is in those with a certain type of blood cancer -- a leukemia, and in a certain type of gastrointestinal cancer. The approach doesn't use chemotherapy at all. It comes in a pill format that targets a specific homogenous (single source, single type of cell) cancer cell. It hopefully means that in the future, similar treatments will be out there for people with heterogenous (multiple type of cell and possible source) cancer tumors like those found in breast and prostate cancers.
Here is the article that was sent to me which is worth the read:
http://news.yahoo.com/no-more-chemo-doctors-not-far-fetched-094524778.html
blogging my journey with breast cancer
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Dear Starbucks
Dear Starbucks,
I am a breast cancer survivor who had an estrogen positive breast tumor who is excited about health food markets like Whole Foods, Lazy Acres, Mothers and restaurants like True Foods that steam more than cow and soy milk. They also steam organic almond and coconut milk which are good choices for someone who is sensitive to foods that possibly boosts estrogen positive tumor growth.
The jury is mixed on whether or not to avoid soy milk (fermented, non-processed, non-refined soy in small quantities like those found in miso soup is healthy; processed refined is different and has been linked to cancers in animals). So, please start offering organic almond and coconut milk options for someone like me who desperately wants to sip a hot beverage at your location but currently can't find something on your drink menu for me other than hot water. Thank you.
Note:
The following link provides a glimpse into the controversy of soy. Basically soy that is natural and fermented vs refined and processed is better in general which means non organic highly procrssed soy milk would not be a great first choice for someone who has had an estrogen positive breast cancer tumor. Read the article as well as the posts by others to find both sides of the argument:
http://m.cancer.org/cancer/news/expertvoices/post/2012/08/02/the-bottom-line-on-soy-and-breast-cancer-risk.aspx
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Chemotherapy Completed: Modified Gerson Juicing Therapy
Today would have been the next round of chemotherapy -- but I'm officially done getting these cocktail infusions. Officially, I'm now done with two phases of my cancer treatment: the double mastectomy was phase 1; chemotherapy was phase 2. Next will be lab work to see how my body reacted to this process ... and then off to hormone therapy. In the meantime, today is day 1 of my next phase: recovery.
During this recovery phase I am starting with a cleanse to rid myself toxins that aren't needed in my body. In particular, I'll be following a Gerson Therapy Cleanse. It will last 2 weeks. This is what is looks like:
Daily
In practice, this is what is looks like:
I wake up and have a juice. Then, every hour I drink 8 ounces of some juice (alternating hours with a mixed green juice or a carrot juice) for a total of 13 juices in the day. In addition, I'll eat regular meals but the food will only be organic (which means no pesticides or genetically modified in any way) vegetarian. This means I'll have an organic Paleo vegetarian breakfast, lunch, dinner, with snacks in between. I'll also drink 64 ounces of water throughout the day (I have a 16 ounce container which I marked "drink 4-5 of these daily").
A typical day will look like this:
Supplements include:
iron
calcium
probiotic
vitamin c buffered
vitamin d
magnesium
B6
B12
COQ10
Phosphatidyl Serene
GAMA
Inositol
After this cleanse, I'll need to figure out if I am going to go vegetarian -- or go mostly vegetarian with some meat here and there....I'll cross that barrier soon enough.
So that's what's happening with me in terms of this year's cancer treatment: waiting for lab work and oncology appointment of June 28th 9am, doing a 14 day cleanse starting today, and waiting for a double surgery of reconstruction plus hernia repair first week of August. And of course in terms of just life in general we are currently waiting for son's appointments regarding his second seizure with Todd's Paresis, doing homeschool and planning summer school program which includes some fun camps for him.
Thank you for keeping me and my family in thoughts, positive vibes, prayers.
Note regarding photo: at the beach with almost an inch of hair coming back;)
During this recovery phase I am starting with a cleanse to rid myself toxins that aren't needed in my body. In particular, I'll be following a Gerson Therapy Cleanse. It will last 2 weeks. This is what is looks like:
Daily
- 13 glasses of juice
- regular organic vegetarian meals (To this I'm adding that these vegetarian meals are Paleo meaning no grains, no dairy, no legumes. If you google "Paleo bread" for instance, you'll see most recipes look just like bread but instead of using white or wheat flour you use almond flour or coconut flour or some other non-grain flour)
- poop elimination (Gerson calls for enema's; but when he was alive he didn't know about chia seeds! Chia is my choice)
- supplements
- positive thinking
In practice, this is what is looks like:
I wake up and have a juice. Then, every hour I drink 8 ounces of some juice (alternating hours with a mixed green juice or a carrot juice) for a total of 13 juices in the day. In addition, I'll eat regular meals but the food will only be organic (which means no pesticides or genetically modified in any way) vegetarian. This means I'll have an organic Paleo vegetarian breakfast, lunch, dinner, with snacks in between. I'll also drink 64 ounces of water throughout the day (I have a 16 ounce container which I marked "drink 4-5 of these daily").
A typical day will look like this:
- 5am juice 1
- 6am-7am exercise
- 7am juice 2
- 8am juice 3 plus breakfast (example: chia porridge, chia cereal of chia seeds with hemp seeds, almond or coconut milk)
- 9am juice 4
- 10am juice 5 snack (eg nuts or paleo -- non grain -- muffin)
- 11am juice 6
- 12 noon juice 7 plus lunch (example: avocado and veganaise on paleo-- non grain-- bread with salad)
- 1pm juice 8
- 2pm juice 9 plus snack
- 2pm-3pm or 4pm nap
- 4pm juice 10
- 5pm juice 11 plus dinner plus supplements
- 6pm juice 12
- 7pm juice 13
- 8pm get ready for bed
Supplements include:
iron
calcium
probiotic
vitamin c buffered
vitamin d
magnesium
B6
B12
COQ10
Phosphatidyl Serene
GAMA
Inositol
After this cleanse, I'll need to figure out if I am going to go vegetarian -- or go mostly vegetarian with some meat here and there....I'll cross that barrier soon enough.
So that's what's happening with me in terms of this year's cancer treatment: waiting for lab work and oncology appointment of June 28th 9am, doing a 14 day cleanse starting today, and waiting for a double surgery of reconstruction plus hernia repair first week of August. And of course in terms of just life in general we are currently waiting for son's appointments regarding his second seizure with Todd's Paresis, doing homeschool and planning summer school program which includes some fun camps for him.
Thank you for keeping me and my family in thoughts, positive vibes, prayers.
Note regarding photo: at the beach with almost an inch of hair coming back;)
MRI or CATSCAN?
I asked myself this question as a mom and clinician thinking on my feet the morning of June 13th in the ER after my son suffered his second tonic-clonic seizure of this year and the ER doctor was quick to turn to the CATSCAN as the first choice. This is an example of how life just happens regardless of whether or not one has cancer or is fighting cancer -- it's one heart-wrenched dilemma we faced during this cancer trail.
My husband said that he heard an NPR report on the recent studies of CATSCANS on children -- and how these have contributed to cancer in children. Of course I'm super sensitive about this topic being that I'm a cancer fighter -- the thought of my child developing a cancer makes me ill.
In neuroanatomy classes, as clinicians, we learned that when a patient goes into the ER and has a stroke then the choice of brain imaging is CATSCAN. Though it is the equivalent of roughly 300 x-rays, in the few minutes it takes to do it can reveal so much about a person's type of stroke or brain insult. You want to rule out a bleed, like a hemorrhage, because that determines the type of medication you give the patient. Imagine giving a blood thinning medication to a person who is already bleeding -- that person could bleed to death. In this instance you'd want a blood clotting medication. It's the doctor's call -- but we all can contribute to the discussion by providing clear details of the event and by careful observation.
In the ER my head was pounding 'think think think think think'.... why is she ordering the CATSCAN over the MRI? Is it a time sensitive thing she's doing because if he's behaving like there is a bleed then we need to go down the CATSAN route. Or, is it a convenience thing -- is it easier to schedule or cheaper to do?
In our son's case, there are so many things to weigh into the decision making process: his duplicate chromosome two has wreaked some havoc on his system -- making it more susceptible to things, everything from GI to lungs up through neuro stuff; but, he's also overcome things all along the way and we are super hopeful that one day, as an adult, these things will all be a distant memory buried in so many positive experiences filled with love. One day his body will be so strong that he'll be the case example of complete breakthrough -- like the athlete who makes an Olympics after being told that he or she would never run again prior to even qualifying for an Olympics due to an ugly injury. The other things to weigh in to the decision of CATSCAN or MRI is that he has a history of motor challenges in his brain. For instance, in apraxia, he knows what to say -- the formation of his words and ideas are fully functional in his brain -- but the connection to the mouth is off. Apraxia is motor related. He also has dysarthria -- another motor related thing stemming from the brain -- and this causes muscle weakness. In our case, the motor part causing the motor weakness is in the tongue and cheeks. The chromosome 2, the apraxia, the dysarthria are obstacles he's had to overcome obstacles -- he's worked so hard to get where he is today but these are always on the back burner in decision making processes when some big event takes place, like an ER trip.
This time the new thing that entered into the weigh in process was that after the seizure his tongue was paralyzed and so was his left arm. The first thing I thought was that he was having a stroke. So if this were true, a CATSCAN would be the first imaging you'd turn to because it could save one's life. Like I mentioned above, it is done within a few minutes and can image broken vessels causing bleeds in the brain if it's the type of stroke that is a bleed which calls for a clotting medication; if it's not a bleed type of stroke then one gets a blood thinner. If you give the blood thinner when someone is having a bleed then one can bleed to death which is why the CATSCAN and timing is important.
In our case, the paralysis came after the seizure. If no seizure happened, then it's safer to say it was a stroke especially if the tongue and arm stayed paralyzed. In our case, after about an 45 minutes (the time it happened plus the time it took to get to the ER, registered, and seen by the doctor) his tongue and arm slowly started to function again. Since the paralysis came with a seizure there is something called Todd's Paresis which mimics a stroke but isn't. In this case, the MRI is the best call since, though it takes about 45 minutes vs the few minutes of the CATSCAN, it does not expose the body to the 300 times radiation that the CATSCAN exposes one to. In fact, the MRI does not use radiation at all and therefore does not contribute to cancer.
Today we are recovering from a what was a cold; it's now a week since we had started a fever. He has an MRI appointment to rule out certain causes of the seizure. In our case, we are praying it was febrile and nothing else. We also have appointments set with his neurologist, GI, ENT, and pediatrician.
Like I also mentioned above, fighting cancer does not mean life stops. Life happens with all its easy and hard experiences and all these experiences have to be met face on. What did help the doctor in our case is learning how sensitive we are to cancer since I'm fighting (and it was obvious with my bald head); if I did not have cancer or concerns of radiation exposure then the CATSCAN would have been his only option -- which would have been ok if he was indeed having a stroke -- but he was having Todd's paresis instead.
My husband said that he heard an NPR report on the recent studies of CATSCANS on children -- and how these have contributed to cancer in children. Of course I'm super sensitive about this topic being that I'm a cancer fighter -- the thought of my child developing a cancer makes me ill.
In neuroanatomy classes, as clinicians, we learned that when a patient goes into the ER and has a stroke then the choice of brain imaging is CATSCAN. Though it is the equivalent of roughly 300 x-rays, in the few minutes it takes to do it can reveal so much about a person's type of stroke or brain insult. You want to rule out a bleed, like a hemorrhage, because that determines the type of medication you give the patient. Imagine giving a blood thinning medication to a person who is already bleeding -- that person could bleed to death. In this instance you'd want a blood clotting medication. It's the doctor's call -- but we all can contribute to the discussion by providing clear details of the event and by careful observation.
In the ER my head was pounding 'think think think think think'.... why is she ordering the CATSCAN over the MRI? Is it a time sensitive thing she's doing because if he's behaving like there is a bleed then we need to go down the CATSAN route. Or, is it a convenience thing -- is it easier to schedule or cheaper to do?
In our son's case, there are so many things to weigh into the decision making process: his duplicate chromosome two has wreaked some havoc on his system -- making it more susceptible to things, everything from GI to lungs up through neuro stuff; but, he's also overcome things all along the way and we are super hopeful that one day, as an adult, these things will all be a distant memory buried in so many positive experiences filled with love. One day his body will be so strong that he'll be the case example of complete breakthrough -- like the athlete who makes an Olympics after being told that he or she would never run again prior to even qualifying for an Olympics due to an ugly injury. The other things to weigh in to the decision of CATSCAN or MRI is that he has a history of motor challenges in his brain. For instance, in apraxia, he knows what to say -- the formation of his words and ideas are fully functional in his brain -- but the connection to the mouth is off. Apraxia is motor related. He also has dysarthria -- another motor related thing stemming from the brain -- and this causes muscle weakness. In our case, the motor part causing the motor weakness is in the tongue and cheeks. The chromosome 2, the apraxia, the dysarthria are obstacles he's had to overcome obstacles -- he's worked so hard to get where he is today but these are always on the back burner in decision making processes when some big event takes place, like an ER trip.
This time the new thing that entered into the weigh in process was that after the seizure his tongue was paralyzed and so was his left arm. The first thing I thought was that he was having a stroke. So if this were true, a CATSCAN would be the first imaging you'd turn to because it could save one's life. Like I mentioned above, it is done within a few minutes and can image broken vessels causing bleeds in the brain if it's the type of stroke that is a bleed which calls for a clotting medication; if it's not a bleed type of stroke then one gets a blood thinner. If you give the blood thinner when someone is having a bleed then one can bleed to death which is why the CATSCAN and timing is important.
In our case, the paralysis came after the seizure. If no seizure happened, then it's safer to say it was a stroke especially if the tongue and arm stayed paralyzed. In our case, after about an 45 minutes (the time it happened plus the time it took to get to the ER, registered, and seen by the doctor) his tongue and arm slowly started to function again. Since the paralysis came with a seizure there is something called Todd's Paresis which mimics a stroke but isn't. In this case, the MRI is the best call since, though it takes about 45 minutes vs the few minutes of the CATSCAN, it does not expose the body to the 300 times radiation that the CATSCAN exposes one to. In fact, the MRI does not use radiation at all and therefore does not contribute to cancer.
Today we are recovering from a what was a cold; it's now a week since we had started a fever. He has an MRI appointment to rule out certain causes of the seizure. In our case, we are praying it was febrile and nothing else. We also have appointments set with his neurologist, GI, ENT, and pediatrician.
Like I also mentioned above, fighting cancer does not mean life stops. Life happens with all its easy and hard experiences and all these experiences have to be met face on. What did help the doctor in our case is learning how sensitive we are to cancer since I'm fighting (and it was obvious with my bald head); if I did not have cancer or concerns of radiation exposure then the CATSCAN would have been his only option -- which would have been ok if he was indeed having a stroke -- but he was having Todd's paresis instead.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Last Week of Chemo
I have now reached the final week of my chemo infusions of taxotere and cytoxan. My reading and research have now shifted in focus: how will I plan my recovery from chemotherapy, how will I address menopause which is a side effect of chemotherapy, and what traditional, complimentary and alternative approaches will I use for hormone replacement, bone loss prevention and cancer reoccurrence prevention. If I knew the answers to all of these things I would be one darn lucky woman; the science field is trying to figure this one out, too. So, since I'm in the thick of it all plus my number one goal is long-term survival, then I have nothing to lose but to be informed and go the healthiest route possible.
This past week when my mommy-hat came off each night, I dove into some of the cancer books I bought in the beginning of this process. Three of the books in particular that I dove into are:
1. Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book
2. Breast Cancer for Dummies
3. Gershom Therapy for Cancer
4. Premenopause and What Doctors Won't Tell You
5. Menopause and What Doctors Won't Tell You
Each of these books offer a perspective that I think is worth the read. In particular, the idea of healthy eating, supplementing, exercise, and some form of positive thinking (whether it's from prayer, yoga, or other activities which includes laughter) contributes to healing. So far I've seen that all of these things have been super helpful in getting through the mastectomy healing process and getting through chemotherapy. I'll have to talk more about these in future posts as individual topics. In fact, I'll have to post my ABC's of what I've learned throughout this experience and what I'm continuously learning in this next stage -- all in the spirit of sharing information. I think that's what I'll do....
Thank you again for thoughts and prayers my way and my family's way!
This past week when my mommy-hat came off each night, I dove into some of the cancer books I bought in the beginning of this process. Three of the books in particular that I dove into are:
1. Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book
2. Breast Cancer for Dummies
3. Gershom Therapy for Cancer
4. Premenopause and What Doctors Won't Tell You
5. Menopause and What Doctors Won't Tell You
Each of these books offer a perspective that I think is worth the read. In particular, the idea of healthy eating, supplementing, exercise, and some form of positive thinking (whether it's from prayer, yoga, or other activities which includes laughter) contributes to healing. So far I've seen that all of these things have been super helpful in getting through the mastectomy healing process and getting through chemotherapy. I'll have to talk more about these in future posts as individual topics. In fact, I'll have to post my ABC's of what I've learned throughout this experience and what I'm continuously learning in this next stage -- all in the spirit of sharing information. I think that's what I'll do....
Thank you again for thoughts and prayers my way and my family's way!
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Dad's Dream
Dad Dream June 5, 2013
I haven’t had an emotional type cry in a long time -- in fact, the last was when I found out I had cancer. Once there was some kind of game plan I had been in game mode, tackling the hurdles in front of me with purpose, with strength of people behind me, with calm. Ok, so chemo brain is making more forgetful. There are other moments like when I passed the license exam in between mastectomy and chemo, seeing my hubby graduate, watching my son dance to a Peruvian song that I used to see in my dad and my step-mom’s house (It’s a drum and flute one that is a happy song that makes you feel the beat of the earth and make you want to dance).
This morning I woke up with tears and crying -- a happy cry filled with such vividness and realness that I felt like I was waking up and going to go talk with the people in my dream. The people in my dream were my dad and my step-mom. I woke right after hugging my dad so warmly and tightly. I woke up forgetting my dad died 11 years ago.
My hubby asked how I slept and I told him. He wanted to know about the dream, but I was scared I’d forget so I told him I’m going to write it down first:
In my dream my siblings and I were at my dad’s house. He was calm. He was peaceful. He was filled with purpose. He and my step mom were clearing out the house in a calm fashion. They told us that they decided they were going to sell the house, so we all jumped in and started helping them clean up the house. Most of the dream was about cleaning up the house and ridding it of clutter -- just keeping things that they wanted in a lighter style of life that would give them quality of life. I remember one of the last items was some sort of outside television unit that seemed ahead of its time. We wondered if it worked. It worked and I asked if I could keep it, so we all brought it out to the front of the house together. My dad seemed so happy.
Then randomly some of his friends that I did not know showed up. They were all sitting in the living room together on two adjacent sofas, talking. I started to ask where he and my step mom wanted to move to (they lived in San Mateo, CA) and my step-mom came in and said ‘San Francisco’. They found a place not too far from shopping, the concerts in the park, the zoo, the beach. They wanted to enjoy these things by walking to these places. My dad had this big smile. You can tell he felt this was right and he was looking forward to simple pleasures. This was huge. See, we had spent the last decade of his life trying to convince him into just enjoying simple pleasures -- but back then he reverted to the bottle and most of the time for a while he was not alert, asleep with a different type of dream and us waiting til that wave passed so that we could talk about why he chose that path. But in the dream, he looked like he gave up drinking, he was proud that he could make this decision, he was truly happy. I walked over to him and gave him a big, long hug in which I can feel the rise and fall of his breathing, the warmth of his skin, the calmness in his way. I said to everyone “THIS is my father” meaning this is the father I know, love, and believe. Then I woke up. Smiling. Happy. Though I had an OMG moment, forgetting for that split second that he was not on this earth, I felt at peace knowing he’s at peace.
NOTE: my son’s music class has been dancing to one of Peruvian songs I remember dancing to in my dad’s house with my step-mom. I’m filled with such happiness when I see him dance and have this song in his experience. Each time I want to also jump out of my seat and dance (I stay cool, but I’m dancing inside:). After I wrote this, I posted these links below and I was so happy to share it, and it was also a great opportunity to talk about Peruvian music, and the pictures in the last link
Here’s one I found on youtube of El Condor Pasa...thinking of my step-mom :)
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