Cancer Support and Caregivers Who Are Trail Blazers!

[clay]

Thank you Anya!

That is great news for you as well...congrats!!!

Yes, it is a thread filled with good & not so good news sometimes, BUT it is a wonderfully supportive & compassionate thread. It got me through my journey....and still comforts me.

Hugs for everyone here.....

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by clay

Everything looks good...... I am now 5 years (come December) surviving!!!!

Thanks for everyone's kind words & support through this journey!!!

Congrats, Clay!

I have my annual CAT scan in a month (moved to annual this year). I am several months late on my colonoscopy. I get sick of doing them so often (every 6 months). The prep doesn't even bother me, it is just having to deal with medical stuff that gets annoying. And yeah, I guess I don't like being reminded of my history with cancer, either!

[easygoingfemme]

A year ago today I was four weeks out from some major surgery and was starting my first day of four months of some serious chemotherapy. I had shaved my head to donate my hair, rather than having it just fall out, and was in a dark scary place.

Today, I'm working in the morning, then taking my daughter on a college tour, and then I want to make a really good dinner. My hair is growing and I'm feeling healthy and strong. What a year...

The anniversaries are good for me to celebrate when I "reclaim" days because otherwise when I have these "one year later" moments it can just rear up anxiety and worry. The anxiety and worry still pop up, but I'm trying hard to crowd that out with positives.

Cheers, everyone!

[clay]

Thanks for sharing your heart with us EGF!

Reclaiming is an excellent way to "take back" your life!!!

I am well aware of "anxiousness" & "worrisome" ideations along the journey!!

Congratulations on your surviving that dark journey my friend!!! I am elated you are still among us!!!!

For what it is worth, I am in silent support for you.....go get 'em girl!!!!!

Originally Posted by easygoingfemme

A year ago today I was four weeks out from some major surgery and was starting my first day of four months of some serious chemotherapy. I had shaved my head to donate my hair, rather than having it just fall out, and was in a dark scary place.

Today, I'm working in the morning, then taking my daughter on a college tour, and then I want to make a really good dinner. My hair is growing and I'm feeling healthy and strong. What a year...

The anniversaries are good for me to celebrate when I "reclaim" days because otherwise when I have these "one year later" moments it can just rear up anxiety and worry. The anxiety and worry still pop up, but I'm trying hard to crowd that out with positives.

Cheers, everyone!

[clay]

Originally Posted by DapperButch

Congrats, Clay!

I have my annual CAT scan in a month (moved to annual this year). I am several months late on my colonoscopy. I get sick of doing them so often (every 6 months). The prep doesn't even bother me, it is just having to deal with medical stuff that gets annoying. And yeah, I guess I don't like being reminded of my history with cancer, either!

Thank you Dapper!

I will be thinking of you & waiting to see your posts after your exam!

Know you are always in my heart & thoughts DB!!!!

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by clay

Thank you Dapper!

I will be thinking of you & waiting to see your posts after your exam!

Know you are always in my heart & thoughts DB!!!!

Right back at cha, Clay!

My CAT scan is on 7/15/16. I am scheduled to see my oncologist on 7/19, but I need to change that because I have a conflict.

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by DapperButch

Right back at cha, Clay!

My CAT scan is on 7/15/16. I am scheduled to see my oncologist on 7/19, but I need to change that because I have a conflict.

Hey, guys. Please keep me in your thoughts tomorrow!

I also decided that it was more important that I leave one meeting early and be late for the second one in order to go to my appointment on 7/19. I don't want to delay hearing the results of my scan.

[easygoingfemme]

Originally Posted by DapperButch

Hey, guys. Please keep me in your thoughts tomorrow!

I also decided that it was more important that I leave one meeting early and be late for the second one in order to go to my appointment on 7/19. I don't want to delay hearing the results of my scan.

Sending lots of positive thoughts to you today and I'm glad you have a fast turnaround on getting your results back. I hope you can plan some good relaxing activities to help you through the weekend wait...

[DapperButch]

Tomorrow is the day (again!).

My colonoscopy is WAY past due. I am supposed to go every 6 months.

Please keep me in your thoughts....

[DapperButch]

NOOOO polyps at all! That is the FIRST time that has happened at a colonoscopy since my cancer (5 of them, I believe). Every freakin' time I have polyps. He says I can go out to once a year now. Last time he told me every 6 months for the foreseeable future. Yay!

Thank for your support, guys!

[clay]

Originally Posted by DapperButch

NOOOO polyps at all! That is the FIRST time that has happened at a colonoscopy since my cancer (5 of them, I believe). Every freakin' time I have polyps. He says I can go out to once a year now. Last time he told me every 6 months for the foreseeable future. Yay!

Thank for your support, guys!

Awesome news DB! I thought of you all day today!!

Thanks for this wonderful news.....love ya buddy!!

[easygoingfemme]

Originally Posted by DapperButch

NOOOO polyps at all! That is the FIRST time that has happened at a colonoscopy since my cancer (5 of them, I believe). Every freakin' time I have polyps. He says I can go out to once a year now. Last time he told me every 6 months for the foreseeable future. Yay!

Thank for your support, guys!

Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great news. Happy dancing for you

[clay]

FIVE years now cancer free.

Today marks the date 5 years ago I was in the hospital for 2 weeks, having half my large intestine removed & a complete hystero.

I was so very blessed to have it be Stage 1 & operable, plus I did not have to have any chemo or radiation, for which I was/am so very thankful!!

I will always remember how very supportive the folks in this thread were & the one special guardian angel I was gifted who came to be with me, having never met before, for six weeks. She went to hospital with & stayed with me there 24/7 for 2 whole weeks. Now that is a true friend indeed. We are still very close to this day and always will be.

Anyway I am celebrating my victory over cancer, today & I will always be grateful for all of you here. Thanks from the depths of my heart & soul..I heart you all!!!!

[easygoingfemme]

Happy Happy Anniversary!!!!!!!!!! That 5 year mark has to feel so good to check off- so happy for you!

[easygoingfemme]

A year ago today I had my last breast cancer treatment. This concluded 9 months of surgery, chemo, and radiation. I am so looking forward to starting my second year away from all of that. Today I have a nice day ahead with good friends coming for dinner. We hadn't planned it to fall on this day specifically but I'm glad we did!

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by easygoingfemme

A year ago today I had my last breast cancer treatment. This concluded 9 months of surgery, chemo, and radiation. I am so looking forward to starting my second year away from all of that. Today I have a nice day ahead with good friends coming for dinner. We hadn't planned it to fall on this day specifically but I'm glad we did!

Congratulations on your one year past treatment! Based on what you are saying, this means you are 1.75 years from surgery?

I've been wanting to ask you about something for a long time, and I think that other readers may find your response here useful. Subsequently, I am not writing this in PM.

After my surgery I became crazy nuts about eating vegan (plus shellfish...some people call this seagan), making sure all the foods I ate were also high in anti-oxidants, and went to see Dr. Keith Block (in Chicago), to do bloodwork to determine which supplements would be best for me and the doses. He has been doing integrative cancer work for over 35 years when no one else did (and are only starting to). His book Life Over Cancer is what I followed and as consistent with eating this way until a couple of years ago. www.lifeovercancer.com. I spoke about it ad nauseam on this thread as I very strongly believe in a mostly plant based diet and wanted all of my fellow "cancer survivors", to know about it. There is just too much data that tells us this. A lot of it is about inflammation.

(I do feel a need to admit that a year and a half ago I moved away from being strict in my eating. The bulk of the reason for this is that my old partner, whom I was with during my cancer and for more than several years afterwards, already ate vegan (plus shellfish), and was wonderfully conscious of buying organic and choosing vegetables and spices that have a lot of anti oxidants. However, I don't do a lot of cooking (although I have learned a lot and do more now), and chicken is quick and easy (so I eat that quite a bit), and I sometimes eat diary (cheese). I also don't completely avoid sugar, which I know causes tumor growth.) Anyway...

My recollection is that when you first came onto the site you had your own business working as a nutritionist or something or other that included how one eats and I believes supplements and the like. I believe that you eat vegan (or maybe I just assume it), and I know that you exercise regularly. You also seem to be conscious of the fact that part of good health is taking care of our stress.

Since my belief is that the way you eat and live your life is the key to the avoidance of chronic and terminal illness (cancer, heart disease), I was very surprised to read that you had cancer.

So, I need to ask if how you live your life is new, or if you have lived this way for a long time? I am especially curious how long you have eaten vegan/more of a plant based diet, as I believe that is the key to all of this. I believe that what we put into our bodies (especially what we eat), is what triggers or alternatively keeps from triggering, any predisposition a person has towards getting a chronic/terminal illness.

Thanks for your response in advance! ha!

[clay]

Congratulations EGF!! That is a major milestone. Thank you for sharing your story with us also! The 9th of Dec. marked my 5 year mark of being cancer free. I just had a CEA level done, and waiting to hear those results BUT I am optimistic it is all good!!

Take care. Share more of your journey as you are comfortable with....big hugs my friend...YAY!! I am really glad you are here with us!!!

Originally Posted by easygoingfemme

A year ago today I had my last breast cancer treatment. This concluded 9 months of surgery, chemo, and radiation. I am so looking forward to starting my second year away from all of that. Today I have a nice day ahead with good friends coming for dinner. We hadn't planned it to fall on this day specifically but I'm glad we did!

[easygoingfemme]

Hey Dapper,
Your memory is mostly correct- well done! I've worked for years as a holistic health counselor/nutrition educator. I went vegetarian at the age 12 (I'm 42 years old now) and have spent a lot of my life as vegan. However, as a recovered anorexic I live a life where I eat what I want when I want it and sometimes that means I eat chicken, turkey or fish. I don't really like sweets/sugary things so that cancer feeding food has never really had a frequent place in my diet.

I was diagnosed in May 2015, surgery June 2015, then 4 months chemo and 6 weeks radiation. My initial diagnosis was stage I so I thought surgery was going to be it but it turned out stage II so I went further with treatment. I also did an alternative chemo on weeks when I didn't have traditional chemo- with my naturopath. We did Vitamin C chemotherapy and acupuncture treatments throughout my "other" cancer treatments. Since my cancer was 95% estrogen positive (fed by estrogen) I take a drug that works to essentially prevent any other cancer cells that could develop in my body from absorbing estrogen. I'll be on that for another 9 years.

(I also want to say that my diagnosis stemmed from self exam at home, 6 months after I had a "clean and clear" mammo and ultrasound. So all of you here with breasts, please check them monthly! If I wasn't checking mine this could have been much worse)

I have most always kept a very clean healthy life. Eating well, exercising, keeping to a healthy weight for my body (Since I was about 20), not using toxic body products or chemicals in my house (not obsessively but living a mostly natural life) I followed all of the protocol for "preventing breast cancer" due to extensive family history of it.

So, it was a very traumatic feeling, betrayal, to after all of that, be diagnosed with cancer. Even though I knew my genetics would make me at a higher risk than most, I thought I was doing everything I should do to prevent it.

I went to a naturopathic oncologist for answers. She took about a gallon of my blood to check for reasons, nutritional deficiencies, inflammation markers, etc. When the results came in, she told me that I had the best biological terrain she had ever seen and didn't have any answers for me, other than genetics, on why I had developed cancer, especially at such a young age.

In my own searching for "why" I had to set my mind on some emotions that were stuck in me and I feel in my gut that was what allowed my cancer to grow. A dear friend of mine had died unexpectedly a year and a half before and I did not process my grief well. I stayed on my knees for a long time after that and am still processing it. I also had some unhealthy relationships (friends, family, etc) that I was accepting in my life and they kept me bottling up some hurt feelings and anger that I wasn't letting go of or dealing with. So that's the area I've changed the most I think. I'm sharper with checking in with my emotions. I've cut off toxic people who were in my life and keep a sharper check on fresh relationships that I develop and I keep stronger boundaries up with people who I think could threaten my emotional well being.

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by easygoingfemme

Hey Dapper,
Your memory is mostly correct- well done! I've worked for years as a holistic health counselor/nutrition educator. I went vegetarian at the age 12 (I'm 42 years old now) and have spent a lot of my life as vegan. However, as a recovered anorexic I live a life where I eat what I want when I want it and sometimes that means I eat chicken, turkey or fish. I don't really like sweets/sugary things so that cancer feeding food has never really had a frequent place in my diet.

I was diagnosed in May 2015, surgery June 2015, then 4 months chemo and 6 weeks radiation. My initial diagnosis was stage I so I thought surgery was going to be it but it turned out stage II so I went further with treatment. I also did an alternative chemo on weeks when I didn't have traditional chemo- with my naturopath. We did Vitamin C chemotherapy and acupuncture treatments throughout my "other" cancer treatments. Since my cancer was 95% estrogen positive (fed by estrogen) I take a drug that works to essentially prevent any other cancer cells that could develop in my body from absorbing estrogen. I'll be on that for another 9 years.

(I also want to say that my diagnosis stemmed from self exam at home, 6 months after I had a "clean and clear" mammo and ultrasound. So all of you here with breasts, please check them monthly! If I wasn't checking mine this could have been much worse)

I have most always kept a very clean healthy life. Eating well, exercising, keeping to a healthy weight for my body (Since I was about 20), not using toxic body products or chemicals in my house (not obsessively but living a mostly natural life) I followed all of the protocol for "preventing breast cancer" due to extensive family history of it.

So, it was a very traumatic feeling, betrayal, to after all of that, be diagnosed with cancer. Even though I knew my genetics would make me at a higher risk than most, I thought I was doing everything I should do to prevent it.

I went to a naturopathic oncologist for answers. She took about a gallon of my blood to check for reasons, nutritional deficiencies, inflammation markers, etc. When the results came in, she told me that I had the best biological terrain she had ever seen and didn't have any answers for me, other than genetics, on why I had developed cancer, especially at such a young age.

In my own searching for "why" I had to set my mind on some emotions that were stuck in me and I feel in my gut that was what allowed my cancer to grow. A dear friend of mine had died unexpectedly a year and a half before and I did not process my grief well. I stayed on my knees for a long time after that and am still processing it. I also had some unhealthy relationships (friends, family, etc) that I was accepting in my life and they kept me bottling up some hurt feelings and anger that I wasn't letting go of or dealing with. So that's the area I've changed the most I think. I'm sharper with checking in with my emotions. I've cut off toxic people who were in my life and keep a sharper check on fresh relationships that I develop and I keep stronger boundaries up with people who I think could threaten my emotional well being.

Thanks so much for your extensive response!

Although prior to cancer I didn't eat well, I was always at a healthy weight and pretty active. Hearing what you said about emotionally where you were makes sense to me. I have been fighting gender dysphoria my entire life. Part of me didn't even realize it was that and just placed it into other boxes (being stone, just having issues having "breasts", my social dysphoria was actually just social anxiety, my anger was because of ?, etc).

I am quite different since I got on testosterone and transitioned. I don't want to take the time to ramble on about it...which I could...but just suffice it to say that my emotional health and relationships is much improved since I got on testosterone, and got through the initial humps. I believe that if I had transitioned earlier, I may not have gotten the cancer. I believe that stress is such a huge factor.

I do want to clarify what you said...you mentioned vegan, vegetarian, and then said you will eat meat.
What did you eat for the 5 years prior to your cancer?
Does the fact that your cancer was estrogen based mean that your biological terrain didn't matter?
Do you mind sharing with me/us what you take for inflammation in the body (since that is the key to all)? Since you have this kick ass biological terrain, I don't want to miss any and I need to get back on supplements.
Thanks!

[easygoingfemme]

Dapper, I totally hear you. I'm so glad to hear that your emotional health and relationships are so improved since transitioning. It all makes sense. Would you still have had cancer if you had transitioned earlier? You'll never know. But I think we really need to listen to our gut when it tells us to pay attention to those matters. Regardless, holding onto stress and negativity will never be good for our overall health, cancer or not. So, we grow and learn.

The five years prior to diagnosis,I was probably 50% vegan/vegetarian and 50% having a diet that included fish, chicken, turkey. When vegetarian I would eat eggs but mostly stayed away from dairy. Vegan/vegetarian or not, food through the 5 years was consistent at about 90-95% whole foods/natural/cooked at home. I trend to eating more plant based in the spring and summer and crave more animal protein/fats in the fall winter and that's where my diet tends to swing.

I don't believe that the estrogen base and biological terrain related to each other in a way that my baseline health was irrelevant. It's just a type of breast cancer- hormone based or not. My grandmother and mother both had the same hormone based breast cancer. For some reason, it was able to grow despite my starting place of health. However, I can't help but think that it would have been a lot worse if my starting point had been worse.

I don't really take anything for the inflammation. Rather than that I make choices that reduce or don't cause inflammation. Such as, dairy, sugar, wheat, red meat- all cause inflammation in your body. So I don't eat them, or eat them in very minimal doses. I drink lots of water and exercise regularly and that keeps my body circulating and prevents some buildup of inflammation. If I feel inflammation, which I will if I eat some of those items or if I'm stagnant for a bit, I'll detox and go on a really clean plant based diet for a few days, guzzle lemon water, and snap out of it.

When I was in chemo and my body was going to be more prone to inflammation I took high level doses of turmeric, which reduces inflammation, and mega doses of three different prescription level probiotics and the probiotics can also reduce inflammation. Which, actually, I do still take probiotics, just not the mega mega dose, so I guess I'm still taking one inflammation fighting supplement.

I'm glad you're taking care of yourself and being mindful of your choices, Dapper. Life after cancer can be a big mind f*ck when you sit back and contemplate choices and decisions with an ultimate goal of never going through it again.