Food as Medicine

Yesterday I drove for the first time. It was a bit challenging because of the twisting and turning. I did it because I wanted to go out but don't think I'll make a regular habit of it yet. I should be careful not to speak to soon though since I have appointments next week I need to get to and haven't arranged rides.

I went to a class called Food as Medicine that is taught at some of the big cancer centers like MD Anderson that have CAM programs as well. It was quite good and I got several messages that I was right where I need to be. Yes! Thank you source! It was taught by Dr. Debra Symons (Dr. Debbie) and I really liked her. She is an ND and I've made an appointment to attend her clinical yoga class to get my range of motion back post surgery as well as a 1 on 1 consult to discuss ways to manage side effects of chemo. She had a lot more personality than Pfau but the bottom line is that I will consult with both and take the best they have to offer to create my own regimine.

I learned that for women no soy, no lavendar and no grapefruit. These are all pure estrogen and since we are exposed to so much estrogen in our environment we don't want to add to it. I found this interesting since I use all lavendar; it's in my laundry soap, my hair care and skin care products. Back to the drawing board on this.

I need to share with Dad that sage tea helps with high blood pressure.

If you get migraine headaches frequently it's a sign that your liver and colon need to be cleansed.

She argued to drink distilled water only. There is a lot of debate about this and I'm going to have to do some more research.

While I was there I thought a lot about the woundology of dis-ease. Some people get stuck in this. Do I do this? Do I find some sort of comfort in this place? Is it familiar and comfortable in some way? Am I content with my illness? I don't think so but I will ponder this and see if this is the case. Dr. Debbie shared that some women have admitted to them that they prayed for breast cancer as a punishment for some life situations. This certainly isn't my situation but at some level I have to think it worked for me and that is scary.

I got some great tips for treating naseau after chemo and some great ideas for taking charge of chemo and making it mine instead of something scary that I must face alone. More on that in a minute. I also received a free cookbook called "One Bite at a Time" by Rebecca Katz. This is a fabulous book. These are nourishing recipes for cancer survivors and their friends. I laid in bed this am and read it cover to cover and it made me want to go to Whole Foods, do some shopping and some cooking. I wonder if I can get friends and family to cook for me from this book while I do chemo. She spent a lot of time talking about how chemo changes taste and how there were things you could do to make the food taste good and be healthy so a person undergoing treatment would eat it. Reality though is that this cookbook would be good for anyone period but it's great healthy food.

Another tip Ms. Katz shared is that there are times when chemo patients eat little (a noursihing broth is good during this time) and then the next week they might eat like a line backer. No one has really discussed this with me. All I've heard really is that food becomes the enemy because normally you loose your taste buds and get mouth sores. My friend Katie said she lost 35 pounds on her chemo routine. I'm already down to my lowest weight since pre kids and think if I lost 35 pounds that wouldn't be a good thing. I also don't really want to gain weight either. I've lost 8 pounds since surgery on the 11th but certainly not on purpose. Boy my ideal would be to hire someone to come in and prepare food for me and mine daily so I don't have to worry about it. Wonder if Ms. Katz hires out?

Many people have asked what they can do to help support me during this time. Well I've actually come up with some ideas. So here they are:
1. Come in and cook a few meals for my family and stick them in the freezer. I of course want to use my new cookbook because we really are what we eat and I want to feed my body well.
2. Send a funky or pretty scarf that I can wear when I am bald.
3. Make a mp3 file with funny jokes, stories or words of love that I can download to my mp3 player and listen to while I am doing chemo.
4. I plan to take my laptop to journal my experience of course. It has a DVD player so funny movies would be an option too.


Last night I watched The Inn of the 6th Happiness. This was recommended to me by my beloved friend Donna Goff. It's based on the life of Gladys Aylworth who was a missionary in China. The movie is a 1958 job with Ingrid Bergman. It was a great flick and I was so inspired by the strength and courage of this woman. It's my new favorite movie and I encourage every woman to watch it. Who knows maybe I'll start giving this to all my good girlfriends. We need inspiration now and again.

Katie and Anna are out hiking this morning with the Alicea family. Poor Steven couldn't go because he hadn't finished his schoolwork for the week. I keep encouraging him to finish so he has freetime for the rest of the day and tommorrow too. These lessons can be so hard to learn and 13 year old boys seem to have a harder time focusing than girls at that age.

Yesterday I cut my hair even shorter in preparation for losing it. We are going to have a family photo taken in a few weeks before I start chemo. It's been a long time since we've done this and I'd like to have some hair.

I plan to have a quiet day surfing the net and catching up on life. It's a great day to be alive. Try to practice acts of random kindness today. Peace.