die CANCER die!!

Here! Have a carrot!  In fact, have a POUND worth.  IT KILLS CANCER!!!

You know, for the most part, I am living my life the way I normally would.  Going to work.  Doing service work (IT'S TIME FOR WOOD BADGE!!!!!!)  Having my grown kids over for dinner.  Posting smack on Facebook.  So some must be wondering, how are you doing?

UPDATE!

I'm doing well.  If this were an emotional disease, I would totally be kicking its butt!  Unfortunately, it's a physical disease that you can't even tell you have in the early stages.  I feel fine.  But I still do, maybe, have cancer.  I say maybe, because we MAY (by some miracle) be KILLING it with vegetables!  More about that later.

Last Monday, we visited with another Urologist to get a second opinion and order more tests that our first very confident Urologist wasn't too keen on ordering.  We have an MRI scheduled for May 7th in which he will be able to actually LOOK at the cancer and SEE its extent.  That will prompt a decision as to what to do next to explore further.  Another biopsy?  And if so, what kind?  (Anal (yikes) vs Perennial (Ouch!)  (Perennial is another word for crotch.)  And also Genomic testing to see, via the genes the cancer cells are made up of, how aggressive the buggers are and what their intent is and how quickly they will move on that intent.  From all that information, we feel like we will be able to make a very good decision as to whether to do ACTIVE SURVEILLANCE, which means to watch and see what it does, or some sort of treatment.  The new Urologist, who is also an Oncologist, and whose own father died of cancer, was very compassionate and had a lot of options, some of which we hadn't considered before.

A second diagnosis and opinion is crucial.  But it is also like "here we go again!"  Nerves everywhere.  Will the cancer be worse than the first diagnosis?  The unknown really is frightening.  We hope to get this second diagnosis completed quickly, get a plan, and move on.  If I truly know what it is I am fighting, I can deal with it.  And likely win.

Now, let's talk about those cancer-killing veggies!

Days after my initial diagnoses, a sweet sister from my congregation, who is a nurse, just dropped into my office and handed me a book about a guy who beat cancer.  At first I was overwhelmed as it was one of many books, miracle cures, and other advice that I was being given.  But Hanna started reading it and telling me there was good stuff in there.  The guy had Colorectal Cancer, had the tumor removed, and instead of going through the usual Chemotherapy, opted to just live a healthier lifestyle.  The cancer never came back.

He ate A LOT of veggies in his healthy life style.  He figured his body could heal itself with proper nutrients and that Chemo was anything but healthy.  Hanna suggested we adopt, at least partly, his diet.

VEGGIES?????  Not me.  I was adamantly not interested.  My Urologist had made fun of the suggestion of a plant-based diet.  (He is a top notch surgeon and believes surgery will fix everything.  I get that and respect that.) I told Hanna I would rather die of cancer than eat nothing but veggies all day, every day.

So she did the unthinkable.  She prayed that my heart would be softened.  I hate it when she does that.  Well, actually I don't.  Just a few days later, I had this strong impression that I should just give it a try and see what happens.  And what happened?  I feel GREAT!  Many of my aches and pains, especially in my back, are GONE.  I have energy.  I sleep better.  My blood pressure has dropped to the point where I am considering going off my meds.  I handle stress better.  Depression is fading.  I've been losing about two pounds per week. I no longer crave french fries and sugar.  No one knows if this is impacting the cancer.  But it is impacting my overall health which means my body is stronger and more able to fight disease, or, the implications of invasive cancer treatments, whatever they may end up being.

The main change in our diet is the cancer-killing veggie juice.  Right now I am personally consuming the following each week, all juiced and drank throughout the day.  (about 32 oz per day.....a quart mason jar).

9 pounds of carrots.
8 pounds of beets.  (Makes the juice look like blood.......real cool!)
8 pounds of apples.
6 pounds of celery.
3 pounds of lemons.
21 knuckles of tumeric.
11 knuckles of ginger.
11 cloves of garlic.

It's actually pretty flavorful with the ginger, lemon, and garlic.  DIE CANCER DIE!!

We also reduced the amount of meat we are eating, especially red meat.  We have red meat just a few times a week instead of daily (at least).  And eat only 4 oz or less at a meal rather than the 12 oz juicy steak cut.  Salmon and Cod are now regulars at dinner time.  And we have tons of steamed veggies with it to fill us up.  Mostly broccoli, carrots and asparagus.

We have large veggie salads for lunch with either tuna (the kind that has minimal mercury in it) or turkey.  (Not processed lunch meat turkey..........the real stuff.  You can cook that any time you know, not just at Thanksgiving.)  And Hanna is making a home-made "get rid of the processed crap" salad dressing to top it off, made mostly of oil and vinegar and spices.

We really changed up breakfast.  We used to have meat (bacon, sausage, ham, chorizo) and eggs.  Now we limit that type of breakfast to once a week (it's a real treat now).  We now rotate between anti-cancer shakes (spinach, flax, chia seeds, berries, protein powder, almond milk) and grain cereals (oatmeal and cream of wheat) sweetened with bananas and raspberries (with almond milk).  We add flax and chia seeds too, just because we're cool that way.

Snacks?  Fruit and nuts.  I love pears dipped in unsweetened peanut butter or red grapes.  Or a slice of unsweetened whole wheat bread topped with peanut butter and banana slices.

Foods we try to avoid in their entirety:  Dairy products, sugar, aspartame, eggs (except that once per week splurge).

We have our cheat days, planned or unplanned, especially when someone else is doing the cooking or we are entertaining guests.  But when that happens, we do our best to use great portion control.

We also continue to walk daily, consistently, at a brisk pace.  About 1.5 miles on work days and 3 miles on days we are off.  Up and down a hill.

I actually enjoy my new diet.  I feel full after eating and actually get hungry now.  I don't crave snacks and sugars.  Hanna's prayers answered!  Plus the people that sell us the veggies are really happy too!

I'm no doctor, dietitian, or scientist.  But it seems to make sense that just having a healthy body would help deter disease, even cancer.  We all have cells.  Some will get crazy and do weird things......like cancer.  It isn't a disease that is "caught".  It just happens.  It is logical that the healthier the body, the less likely that cells will mutate and try to take over and kill.  And cells that are trying to do that will shrink and shrivel if proper nutrients are dumped their way.  So why not try it?  What's there to lose?  A few pounds??

With that, I'll end.  I'm going to go drink a carrot.

Note that right here I tried to find a picture of a HUGE carrot chasing a frightened cancer cell.  Unfortunately, it appears that no one on the internet has yet created such a picture.  So you will have to settle for this picture of this very serious British carrot farmer offering you some organic carrots.  Enjoy!