I'm feeling fantastic at the moment, it's so good to feel energised and healthy. I tried a new juice recipe yesterday - celery, apple, carrot, parsley & spinach. I didn't have the pineapple juice mentioned in the recipe, but it would have given me too much fructose (two apples probablyalready exceeded my daily allowance), and the drink tasted fine. The recipe, instructions, and touted benefits are at this site
http://healthwyze.org/index.php/component/content/article/194-our-secret-weapon-the-green-drink.html
I'll have another for lunch, and see if the effect lasts.
I'm on so many supplements at the moment, it's hard to know which ones are responsible for feelings of wellness. Introducing one at a time allows me to see if there's any effect, but as a single case study, it's hard to know if it's a placebo effect, or an improvement that would have happened anyway.
I'm sorry if I've alarmed any of you with my last post (which mentioned a possible new lesion in the right hippocampus)- I've reassured myself that I don't have any new symptoms (e.g., headaches, seizures, blurred vision, nausea) that would suggest a new tumour. I'm less fatigued than I've been in months, and feeling stronger with every walk. My neuroradiologist friend will get back to me today after looking at my scans, so I hope the situation doesn't change. However, if there is something growing there, it needs to come out.
Hmm, I wonder if the thing in the right hippocampus might be responsible for my pre-Christmas difficulties in directing people around less familiar parts of Launceston (e.g. getting back from K-Mart?) I sometimes felt very unsure about which street to take, and was puzzled at the sense of disorientation. I assumed it was due to the parietal lesion. The only epilepsy surgery patient I can recall with specific visual memory deficits post-surgery was one with a new lesion (GBM) in her right temporal lobe. Of the patients who had longstanding right hippocampal lesions (hippocampal sclerosis, thought to be present from birth), the proportion with visual-specific memory deficits in our large St Vincent's sample was less than 5%, i.e. no greater than you'd expect in the general population. If I need surgery on my right hippocampus, the visual memory problems might get worse, but it's better than my health getting worse. Funny how people can function with bits of their brains damaged. I am so, so, lucky that I haven't been more significantly affected.
Sorry about that technical musing…a bit of a neuropsychological reverie.
Back to the real world. I had a great morning after dropping the boys off - I got the taxi driver to take me to the hospital where I caught up with several people, after savouring a wonderful breakfast (poached eggs, mushrooms, and bacon for $5). I bumped into one of the senior rehab nurses in the caf, spoke with Stella, my lovely barista with the phenomenal memory for people's names and favourite drinks. I went around to allied health (my old department), saw a couple more people, then went up to the stroke unit and had a good chat with the nurse unit manager, then went down to the oncology ward to let them see how I look when I'm healthy. I only recognised one of the nurses there, but she said she'd tell the others I dropped in and was feeling great. On the way to get some blood tests done, I bumped into two of the allied health managers, one of whom has recently moved into a new place with his husband. I'm so happy for them! Then I saw two psychology colleagues on my way to the taxi rank. I felt so full of happiness from seeing so many people that I didn't need to talk to the driver on the way home.
Ben always used to say that social interaction was like oxygen for me. I think it's even better - it's nourishing - I feel so energised from seeing and talking to these people. I am sad to hear about the recent passing of my friend who had lung cancer, and of the loss, last year, of a colleague's sister to leukaemia, but I was able to give her a hug and my condolences when I saw her this morning, not that it would help much, she was only in her 20s.
I read somewhere that cancer strikes one out of every three people at some stage in their lives. One in one million would still be too many.
Please, please, keep yourself healthy. Go for that daily walk, eat lots of fresh vegetables, not too much fruit, and investigate anti-inflammatory diets - restrict your sugar and fructose intake, avoid refined carbohydrates and starchy foods, don't eat too much protein, avoid foods with additives, soft-drinks, and too much alcohol. Eat healthy fats (coconut oil, butter, cream) and avoid polyunsaturated oils. Look after your psychological and spiritual well-being as well. Your general health should benefit, and you may just save yourself from getting cancer. Encourage your family and friends to adopt the same healthy habits. I pray that no-one reading this, or the people they love, will get cancer. It's a terrible thing. Not only does it sap your health and threaten your life, it consumes time and energy from days when you should be enjoying the sun, the air, and the company of others.
love and appreciation to all of you.
A blog started in 2013 to inform family and friends about my treatment and progress for early breast cancer. Then I went and got two brain tumours,,both GBMs, completely unrelated to the breast cancer, so the blog continues.
Background and overview
I learnt more about the health system from being an inpatient than I had in 20 years of working as a neuropsychologist. I was unexpectedly diagnosed with two brain tumours on 4/9/13. They turned out to be grade IV Gliomas (glioblastoma multiforme (GBM)). After removal of the right parietal and left occipital tumours, I received the standard treatment under the Stupp protocol (combined Temozolamide (TMZ) and conformal radiotherapy 5 days/week for 6 weeks), but the TMZ had to be ceased after 5 weeks because I had started to develop pancytopenia, where more than one of my blood counts had begun to drop. By Christmas 2013, I had become anaemic and needed a couple of blood transfusions. I ended up in hospital for 3 weeks of the 2014 new year after experiencing my first seizure (suggestive of a right temporal lobe focus) on 31/12/13). They were so worried about my bone marrow, they did a biopsy. Luckily, it was all clear of any nasty disorders. It had just been suppressed by the TMZ My blood counts slowly returned to normal with daily injections of GCSF, which stimulate bone marrow function, for several months. For 17 months I was doing better each day, without any physical impairments or major cognitive problems A third brain tumour was found in the right temporal lobe on 2/1/15, and removed 6/1/15, only to reappear on 17/2/15 after I started to feel vague symptoms at the end of 2014. I had my 4th round of brain surgery on 1/3/15, followed by stereotaxic radio surgery of a residual, inoperable, tumour, on 17/4/15. I've been feeling like my old self again since that highly precise form of radiotherapy, and it feels fabulous.
My way of coping.
I choose to live in hope that everything will work out for the best. I've learnt that even though things are sometimes unpleasant, life and love go on forever. I put my faith in the life force that created and unites us all in love, across all time, space, and dimensions. I refuse to succumb to fear, which is an invention of our imaginations. There are an infinite number of things to fear, both in this world an in our imaginations, and most of them never eventuate. I choose not to dwell on them, and to focus instead on counting my many blessings, current and past, and to have faith and hope that if I look after the present moment, the future will look after itself.
If you're reading, and haven't been in touch, please don't be shy, send me a brief private message using the contact form on the right. It's nice to know who's out there. Blogging can leave me feeling a little isolated at times (I used to have recurrent dreams of being out on a limb over a canyon, or of starting to strip off in a crowded waiting room). Your emails are appreciated, although I can't necessarily answer all of them.
