What I Learned from a PET Scan

> The "berry smoothie" drink I was given to highlight my digestive system is the worst smoothie ever. It's even worse than my kale, hemp seed surprise.

> Sitting alone in a dark room at 7 am when my baby kept me up a lot the night before equals a nap.

> Finding a nurse on the fourth floor at 6:30 am to access my port is more involved than the radiology nurse made it sound.

> PET stands for Positron Emissions Tomography. That sounds fancy!

> Being radioactive is painless.

> As nice as the technicians and nurses are, sometimes they still refer to patients as "that lady."

New Friends

We moved last week. 

I have some new friends:

1- Latex gloves. They protect my very dry, cracked, bleeding fingers from water, other kitchen dangers, and boxes. As one of the unforeseen side effects of chemo, my skin is amazingly dry. Wearing latex gloves when I cook, clean, open boxes, or sort through stuff has eased the pain of my hands a lot. 

2- Keith's pocket box cutter. It cuts tape and boxes and makes opening them or collapsing them a breeze.

3- Curious George cartoons on You Tube. They have entertained my baby many times when I needed to pack, clean, cook or unpack. Now I just need to wean her off of them.

4- Essential oils. I have been standing A LOT this past week, and a consequence has been increased neuropathy in my lower legs and feet. Using oils and resting my legs has helped a great deal. I really just need to figure out how to set up a household while sitting down reading a book.

5- Main floor laundry. No walking laundry up or down stairs. Enough said.

I'm sure that my neighbors are nice, and I've met a few who seem great. Soon I hope to add people to my list of new friends.

Allowing

My new favorite word is ALLOW.

I allow others the freedom to be who they are.

I allow others to have their emotional stuff/baggage and I don't have to fix it.
I allow them to be who they are without trying to change them.
I allow them to be, without my judgement.
I allow them to be happy, peaceful, successful, and to be safe and free.
I allow them to be them without my intervention.

I allow myself to be me.
I allow me to be beautiful, smart, happy, positive, fun, and healthy.
I will not downplay who I am for others to feel better.
I allow them their insecurities and their strengths, and I allow myself to be free.

I allow God into my life.
I allow myself to grow in His light.
I allow His plan for me to take priority in my life.
I allow His vision of who I really am to become my vision of myself.

Control has no place here.

Fear

Fear is an interesting emotion.

It stops action.
It creates other actions.
It causes people to overreact and have emotional outbursts.
It drives extreme behavior.
It leads people to seek reassurance from others they might not otherwise trust.
It often gets covered up by anger.
It is often misunderstood and mislabeled.
It gets held onto, as if that will make one safer.
It is usually suppressed.
It does not create positive emotions.
It has a very low frequency.
It is the opposite of faith.

What I have learned recently concerning fear:

*It is so conquerable!
*It does not have to drive us, but we can choose to let it go.
*Our thoughts are so very powerful, I create what I have in my life by my thoughts. Whenever I find negative thoughts creeping in, they get stopped and replaced with positive ones stating what is really true and what I really want.
*Fear has physical manifestations when suppressed for long periods of time. Holding onto that much stress has consequences.
*Faith is by far more powerful than fear.

Healing happens at all levels: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Work also needs to be done at all levels, and any work done in one area affects the other three. My healing experience is all incompasing. The more I work and learn and let things go, the deeper the healing gets, at all levels.

What a miracle healing is.

Pilgrim 5K

I participated in my first 5K race this fine Thanksgiving morning. It was a lovely walk with my 71 year-old mother. I had other sisters who participated, but they all ran and left us in the dust. 

One runner got hit by a deer; I bet that's something you don't hear every day about racing. The guy came around a corner, and a deer was there. Cool story in that runner's world.

I even had a piece of pie for dessert today. How did I manage that and still eat clean? Thanks to my awesome sister-in-law and this website: http://cleancuisineandmore.com
It worked out great!

I am amazed at the wealth of clean recipes available. I believe my taste buds have changed, and that I like foods now that maybe I would not have months ago. 

On another note, I enjoyed a lymphatic massage a couple of weeks ago. It did wonders on my feet that have been struggling a bit with neuropathy. I am also doing lymph brushing which has assisted my body in releasing toxins and other goo. For more on lymph brushing, check out this video, it gives some basic info: 
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZfMhXsjXeQ

Happy Holidays!

Tumors and Vertigo

I learned the other day at the doctor that the tumor in my breast has shrunk a lot. It was first measured (via an MRI) at 7 cm x 4 cm x 2 cm, so roughly the size of a long lemon. It is now (2 months later) about 2 cm, or the size of a small almond.

Both my doctor and his physician's assistant (PA) we're excited to see such progress. I got the impression from the PA that this was really rapid tumor shrinkage, and it was encouraging to hear.

On another note, I woke up Monday morning so dizzy I couldn't get out go bed for 20 minutes, and could barely walk. Someone else had to drive my daughters to school, because driving was out of the question. It improved later in the day, and by Tuesday was all but gone.

However, because I'm a cancer patient, I reported the symptom to my doctor, who sent me to an acute care clinic the same day.

Her analysis?

"Because you are a cancer patient, nothing is normal, so we have to check everything. But sometimes even cancer patients get normal things."
It wasjust an inner ear unbalance.

So no brain scan this week!
Bummer, that could be a fun adventure!

But it was a very fun adventure to go to an acute care clinic for the first time. Plus, I got to have my blood pressure taken close to eight times, all in different positions.
That was also a first.

So hurray for tumor shrinkage, and hurray for being normal!!

Questions

When visiting a doctor, it is important to ask questions.

It is even more important to ask important questions:

1. Why is this scan/biopsy/treatment necessary?
2. Will the information you get from this scan/biopsy influence treatment, and if so, how?
3. What are the expected side effects of this treatment?
4. Is side effect x normal?
5. I don't feel comfortable with treatment y, what else is available?
6. I understand this part, but I am not clear on this other part, will you explain it again?
7. Where can I get more information on this subject?

I don't ask doctors about diet recommendations because they typically don't know. I prefer to educate myself in that area.

Then there are the really important questions:

1. Where are you from?
2. Are you married?
3. Do you have any pets?
4. Where do your children go to school?
5. Have you ever been to Hawaii?
6. Do you like being a doctor? What is your favorite part?
7. Do you speak Chinese? (Yes, I really asked my doctor this, and he only speaks a little)
8. Where do you like to go on vacation?

These may seem silly, but I have found that getting to know my doctor as a person makes it much easier to talk about confusing or new medical terms and concepts. I feel much more comfortable calling with questions, and even joking with him.

So ask questions...you will be surprised at the connections you make.