The New ALPHABETICAL CANCER PREVENTION Blogs

That's right. Starting very Monday (or Tuesday if there is a Holiday) I will be blogging a list of cancer prevention tools we can all use to help us with our fight against cancer.

As I advise in my new book "Running From The Cancer Cooties" cancer is like one big life lottery and everyone is born with a ticket. We all have cancer cells inside of us that are capable of taking off with our lives. We don't yet know exactly why they take off when they do, but we do know there are ways you can increase your chances of it doing so. And like with any lottery, the more" tickets" you have, the greater the  chance you have of "winning."


For Example:


If you smoke or chew tobacco, you have bought yourself another ticket in the cancer lottery. (Tobacco use is the single greatest avoidable risk factor for cancer mortality worldwide, causing an estimated 22% of cancer deaths per year. In 2004, 1.6 million of the 7.4 million cancer deaths were due to tobacco use.)


If you sip on more than 1 alcoholic drink a day for women or 2 for men, you've bought another ticket.


If you are overweight with a sedentary lifestyle, you don't even have to get up to get your extra ticket. It's right there around your waist. 


If you have a poor steady diet consisting of too much sugar and empty caloric foods like white flour, white rice and processed products, then you are eating another ticket.


Wallowing in toxins by using sun-tanning booths, chemically saturated skin, hair and beauty products like make-up and nail polish raises your chances another notch.


The bad news is that this is one lottery you do NOT want to win, because the truth is, having cancer is CRAP! When you hear the diagnosis that your number has been called, it will be one of the worst days of your life.


 Our doctors and other health professionals do what they can to help us deal with cancer once we get it, but if you wait for that moment, it could  be too late. Cancers can grow quietly and quickly and before you know it, they're too big to remove and have traveled your bloodstream into other parts of your body. They can spread faster than gossip in a small town.
 Or you could end up like many of us survivors with grueling tales of painful surgeries, of missing body parts, missing hair, fingernails and of distresses that still carry on. Of dealing with depressions and aches and drugs with disruptive, even harmful side-effects for the rest of our lives. The medical world can only do so much. Cancer is much bigger than any of us could ever imagine. It is a fight to the death between you and something evil that lurks just beneath your surface. Something that counts on taking over if you give it even the slightest chance. 


Why let cancer get a foot hold in the first place? I am not alone in believing Prevention IS the key.


 I will be researching each topic, trying to give you as much information on the subjects as I can, but ultimately, if it concerns you, you should do your own investigating for even more information and answers. 


We each only have so much time on this earth. Personally, I'm trying to buy as many days, healthy ones, that I can because my work is not even close to being finished here. If I can, I would like to educate the entire world about the importance of cancer prevention. And that goal starts with one person at a time. Meaning with YOU.


Check back every Monday/Tuesday to learn more.
The Alphabetical Cancer Prevention Blogs begin on Tuesday October 11, 2011.

The Probiotic Confusion

·      At lunch today, the ladies were talking about yogurt and how confusing it can be when approaching the dairy case. There is regular full fat, low fat and no-fat. Full sugar, low sugar and yogurt with sugar substitutes like aspartame (rat poison?) or Sucralose. Personally, I have been using the no fat, sucralose sweetened fruit- added Source. The problem is I felt like I was missing something as the Source does not say it has "added probiotics" like some of the other yogurts do. 


Is that something I need?
After doing a bit of research this is what I discovered:

I

IP Probiotics are the “good” bacteria that help promote a healthy digestive system. Two such bacteria cultures, Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus are used to make all yogurts. The National Yogurt Association (NYA) developed a “Live and Active Cultures” seal to identify a yogurt that contains 100 million cultures per gram at the time of manufacturing. Yogurt companies must pay several thousand dollars each year to use this seal on their products. Smaller yogurt companies may not participate due to the high cost of using the seal, even though they may contain live and active cultures. These days, several yogurt companies are now putting additional probiotics and cultures (such as Bifidobacterium BB-12) into their yogurts and making claims regarding immunity and digestive health. These cultures are safe for consumption and some research shows that they may improve the health of the immune and digestive systems. Keep in mind that eating a yogurt with added probiotics could be one of many ways to enhance your immune system or improve digestive function. Research has shown that regular yogurt (without additional probiotics) can enhance the immune and digestive systems, too.


Now I don't feel like I'm missing out anymore and will stick with my Source. I think between it and my healthy diet, I don't really need any more insurance that I am doing what I can for my body. Moderation is still the key to life! 

That Second Glass of Spirits

I can claim chemo brain or ADD for forgetting your name or for missing an appointment...BUT I will not tolerate my own ineptitude for getting my facts all messed up when it comes down to my writing. Ask my husband, I am not a "fact magnet." I can't remember what someone told me downtown to tell him when I get home. "I ran into Mary and she said she had run into some friend of yours, can't remember who she said, at some function she was at sometime last week, or was it last month?" Drives him wild!

It must also drive him wild that I am working on a non-fiction book titled "Running From The Cancer Cooties." It's okay when I'm writing fiction to get a little goosey with my details, but not with this and I whole-heartedly agree.

That said, I have tried very hard to get my facts straight in the book. Now in my second editing, I have been going over my "tips" located throughout the book and collecting references to back up what I am saying.
During this process, I have found an inaccuracy I have been spouting to most of my girlfriends about alcohol and your health. I have been saying that after three drinks a week, any alcohol becomes detrimental to a woman's health, when in fact that is only true for breast cancer survivors. Indeed, the rate of recurrance rises drastically to 34% after that point. So now I can honestly say "No, one was enough. Any more could kill me." Dramatic, but true

If you have survived breast cancer, here’s an important article to read at: http://www.breastcancer.org/risk/new_research/20091210b.jsp

O.K. and for you non-cancerous survivors, here's something for you to read at:http://www.health.com/health/article/0,,20410314,00.html  titled: Is Alcohol Actually Good for You? What's Right and Wrong With Drinking

One paragraph states:  What the experts say: Studies clearly show, too, that more than one drink a day makes you more prone to breast cancer. Researchers at the European Cancer Conference recently reported that the risk rises 10% for women who have between one and two drinks a day, compared with women who have less than one, and the risk increases by 30% at more than three drinks per day. And don’t think you lower the risk by drinking wine instead of beer or something harder. The same research says any kind of alcohol ups the risk. Uterine cancer risks go up at two or more drinks a day, as well. What does alcohol have against breasts and uteruses? Experts say it seems to boost estrogen levels, which in some cases cranks up cancer risks.

I stand corrected.

But, it still comes down to playing with a loaded gun, if you ask me. Not many of my friends limit themselves to one a day. Especially once the weekend is here.

Let me ask you this. Do you want to be where I have been? Do you want to suffer with your scars and cut-up body parts? With every look in your mirror? Is over-consuming (meaning 3 drinks a day) every weekend worth what this could do to your family and friends if you are one of the ones that doesn't survive cancer? 

This applies to pre and post-menopausal women. You can run but you can't hide.

I hate to be the heavy here, but a fact is a fact. Please keep this in the front and not the back of your mind the next time you raise that second glass of spirits to your lips. 

And let's all drink to our health! Make mine a double water, heavy on the anxiety-free, please.

 

One Year Mark

It has been one year since receiving  the phone call telling me I was an official breast cancer statistic. I thought you might like to know where exactly that puts me.
I am trying to get back to "normal" but it isn't coming easy. I am starting to think that maybe I never will reach the ease of my prior days in regards to my physical activities. The area on my torso where the lymph nodes were removed still feels sore and a lot like a thick rubber band is attached whenever I try to stretch it. It always feels like I had the workout of a lifetime two days before, leaving me stiff and tender.
The actual surgical scars on my breasts have healed nicely and are fading into the background. They don't trouble me.
The bottom of the right breast that went through the partial mastectomy is a bit deformed looking with dimpled skin.One half of that breast feels as solid as statue marble in contrast to the jiggly, fatty  tissue in the other half. It's not all bad. Now my husband has a choice...soft  or firm.

My right breast has been pulled by sutures to sit slightly higher than the left breast. Not on purpose, it just ended up that way. The nipple aims off to the right, like a mis-aligned headlight which I physically move straight once confined by a bra. It's not a complaint, it's what I look at in the mirror. It could become a complaint if it doesn't let down in the next few years. I'm giving my surgeon the benefit of the doubt that it will eventually relax.

Speaking of, bras still cut into the lymph node incision area, so I prefer to go without one most of the day. I have soft sided sports bras that are far more comfortable for when I want to go out.

The lymph node scar is still a bright pink in color and as said, causes me the most discomfort.But if the nodes hadn't been taken, we would never have known the cancer had made it that far, waiting for the chance to keep going. The thought still keeps me up some nights.

After my brother passed, I fell into a depressed state for two solid weeks. It was hard to find the energy to do anything, to find a reason to keep going through all this. I ate a lot of comfort food, but only if it was something that required virtually no effort on my part. Like instant mashed potatoes with gravy ready in two minutes. Hamburger and onions mixed with a cup of sour cream. Grilled cheese sandwiches with a mountain of ketchup. With the anti-cancer drugs driving my hunger to a new high, it was easy to pack on an extra five pounds I will have to deal with. There's always something unpleasant  to have to deal with it seems.

That's why the recent reunion of my girlfriends was such a welcomed event last week. We had the guitars and harmonica and sing-song going until the wee-est of hours. Buoyed by so much love, one couldn't help but want to be there for them as much as they are here for me. It's not my time to go anywhere yet-I still have work to do. I think I had to go through this so that I can help the next women heading through. How could I have known how to help if I hadn't experienced it? All of it?


My lung capacity is still not where I feel it should be by now. I am 5 months post-treatments. Sandi and I still jog 40 minutes 2-3 times a week, but at the end of the run, if I exert myself, I can't seem to catch a breath and have ended in tears of frustration in the middle of the road struggling to get any air in. The more I try, the more frustrated I got which upset me further, clamping a hand around my airway.Sandi reminds me to exhale as much as I can before trying to inhale. It takes a few seconds to catch up. A few terrifying seconds.
I have been referred to a lung specialist who I will hopefully be seeing this year. You never know with the medical line-ups these days when you have something that is not life-threatening at the moment. There are so many needing immediate care. It's going to get worse with us Baby Boomers aging the way we are.

My hair has come in ten times as thick- like the hair on the butt of a dog, I whine. It has mini poodle curls that I hate, but at least it's there and its warm. I can't take it off in the middle of a hot flash anymore. That part sucks because the flashes still come around ten to twenty times a day. They are more manageable and less frequent if I don't drink, eat meat, sugar or dairy and get some exercise. "Might as well shoot me," my husband says. Good thing he's not on The Plan.

Sandi will continue to inject me with Zoladex once every three months to prevent the production of estrogen in my body. I will be taking Tamoxifin to protect me from estrogen as well.

My biggest issue is morale which I struggle with daily to keep up. The reunion did wonders, but then I got a call that a friend who has been through breast cancer in her left breast, through surgery and radiation, discovered two more lumps in her right breast. She's just started her chemo and is at the "hair tugging" stage. My heart was so saddened to hear and I cannot imagine what she must be feeling. At this stage where you have the belief that they got it all by cutting, poisoning and nuking it and are continuing to battle it with  drugs you start to feel a bit safe. Your trust and faith slowly starts to return. "Maybe I am out of the woods?" You start sneaking back a little more chocolate, a Chai tea latte, okay two, three, whatever, and then the phone rings. Another friend's mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The physio's receptionist, also a friend...more pancreatic cancer.

Needless to say I am back on the strict diet today.

In a nut shell... I'm okay. I'm alive, with hair and two breasts and I am still able to do most of what I did one year ago.But  I also have a new respect for  good health. For being able to do something without hurting. I took it  for granted all of those years.

It's one of life's lessons we have to learn. Take care of your body because you (well, most of us) only get one.

One year. One life. One big bowl of cherries to keep it that way.

The Bearded Lady

Hormones.
Those wacky, weird things that take you on a free roller coaster ride once a month. The troublemakers that have you stuffing your pie hole with  as many fattening things as you can find, while in the middle of a diet because you DESERVE IT GOD DAMN IT! When else would you ever get a desire to eat a bucket of greasy KFC even though you know what it will do to your cholesterol readings, to your butt, to your poor liver?
Hormones will cause alcohol cravings, especially when you're by yourself. And we're talking about the entire wine bottle plus possibly a second one being opened as you weep through The First Wives Club DVD or the like.
The binge-ing  doesn't make you feel any better, but you can't seem to stop for any reason.
 It is a time of ultimate non-sense. Literally.
 It's pathetic. There's no control. No will power. No power at all. They turn you into a ragged doll.

Well, try that on a daily basis and then welcome to my new world.

Whatever is in this Zoladex and Tamoxifin has me trampolining up on highs  and down on lows like an Olympic gymnast. I can go from joy to manic depression in the time it takes a bird to discover I just washed my car.
There isn't enough food in the fridge to satisfy me. I watch, defeated, as my waist spills over my waist band, while my dress gets snugger and the scale number increases.

The hot flashes continue as often as traffic light changes, but the good news is they have either leveled out or else I have simply gotten used to them? Like a tick in the corner of an eye, they get ignored. They are not important so why give them any credence? They've become the easiest part of all of this.

Sleep? What's that? Bedtime is more like a horizontal roller derby event. With absolutely no sex involved because who wants to do that? There is no libido. That went out with the chemo. And if I do participate in any mattress games, I am sore the next day from dryness. Add sperm retention to the drug's side effects. And I don't know about your man, but mine doesn't get happier when he's retaining. And if he's not happy, nobody is going to be happy. Ever, ever again.

And thinking this fun would have to have a limit, because, I mean, how much else can one take, I happened to look in a mirror.

Why do we do that?

No, not another nose growing. Not longer lashes but you're thinking along the right lines. More hair. But not on my head. I'm growing a beard, Ladies and Gentlemen. Step right up, get your tickets here to see the lovely bearded lady from Houston. Complete with side burns, neck fur and all.

This is silly. I can fix this. Its not the end of the world. I bought some facial wax because my girlfriend uses it. You heat it up, apply and pull off. Simple. So they say.
The smoke smell lasted three days in our kitchen and a week right inside of the microwave. Seems I got it a bit hot. I spread the wax on with a thin Popsicle stick and let it harden as recommended. Then you have to peel it back.Well Holy Mother. My face came off with each tug. Tears welled up, my body went into one long hot flash from the stress and my husband came home to ask what the heck was that smell?
And I still had to get the blob of wax, settled like caramel off of my jaw line.
"Just be a minute, Honey."
Fudge.

Off to the professional I go. For a cheek wax. That's about five times the area of the eyebrow waxing that I managed to live through once and never again. My eyebrows puffed out an inch from my head and stayed that way over 24 hours.
With a face job, you can see the new wrinkles form with each tug of the waxed strip they pull from your skin.
Ready?
For what?
Owwwwwwwww. I've had tattoos that hurt less.
I would say this hurt even  more than the partial mastectomy.
And in both incidences, at least I was offered drugs!

So, the next time you want to moan about your PMS symptoms because you're miserable and out of control- give me a call. I'll come over with some chocolate and my new waxing kit and we'll get you straightened out.
You'll feel nice and smooth when I'm done.
And guaranteed you won't feel like your hormone issues are any worse than the rest of ours!

Calling All Cancer Survivors

I had a very informative chat today with a woman named Maria at the Canadian Cancer Society. I called their toll-free number because it had been given to me when I first learned I had breast cancer in case I wanted to be "paired" with a breast cancer survivor. I vaguely remember being told about it, amidst a thousand other things more important to remember at the time. You initially get hit with such a barrage of  info sheets, booklets and pamphlets on top of your own research through the Internet and books. At one time I had seven books about cancer stacked beside my bed for some gruesome late-night reading.

Sadly, I forgot all about it until I was rooting through my "cancer bag" information sheets and there it was.

I called them now that my treatments have finished because I was going to add their information to my book, Running From The Cancer Cooties and wanted to make sure the service was still available. And, I admit, I was curious about what I had missed out on.

The CCS has a pool of volunteers who are cancer survivors. These generous people are willing to be contacted by newly diagnosed cancer patients who are in need of a mentor or friend to help them down the new path they've suddenly found themselves on. These people have been there and they have been trained to help you. They take courses on how to talk with you, how to better relate what they went through so that you will benefit the most from their knowledge. For better or for worse, you have someone willing to help you understand what you will be facing.
You phone the CCS up, they take your information and they "pair" you with someone compatible, someone willing to talk to you over the phone or through e-mails about whatever it is you need to know.

Where was my head at when I was given the number? I sure could have used this service!

I think the majority of my high anxiety throughout the entire ordeal was from never knowing what exactly I faced next. The cancer books and info pamphlets told me basically what was going to happen, but they never quite got to the real truths of everything. Like are their hairdryers in the hospital rooms? Don't laugh- it was one of my burning questions and it was the difference between packing an overnight suitcase or an overnight bag for my two day hospital stay. I never travel light. I hate needing something that I have at home, so I drag everything with me.
Of course I had plenty of serious questions. Like what happens after the biopsy comes back positive? What happens after surgery? What is this staging everyone talks about? Are you on a special diet? Questions like what does the chemo drug feel like when it hits your veins? Does it burn or sting? (No, it doesn't) Can I wear nail polish when going through chemotherapy? (you can, but preferably you shouldn't in case something goes really sideways) How big will the next incisions be for a second surgery? Will they use the same scars? How long will I be on a couch for after surgery? Will I be able to do much the first few days?

I was so impressed with the program that I got thinking, there's a list of things I would like to share with the people coming behind me, as well. That's why I am recording it all in a book.

Marie told me that one year after my last treatment, I am eligible to sign up as a CCS volunteer. I fill out an application and get a reply back about the next steps. If accepted, there will be on-line interviews, orientation and training. Phone calls exchanged. It sounded like a very thorough process. Psychological training and counselling included. You won't just be talking to some wing-nut who is a little lonely. This will be a person who seriously wants to help you. The old "pay it forward." Do for others what others have done for you, possibly? Whatever their reasons, these people are there for you. I would like to be a part of that.

But Man, I could have used some of that help not that long ago. Just someone to say to me, Whoa. Relax. It's all going to be okay no matter what happens. Quit suffering. It doesn't have to be this way.

If you are a survivor of any type of cancer and want to volunteer, or if you are going through the cancer trip and want a peer to talk to, please, please call

1-888- 939-3333

Friends Can Make All The Difference

I was in a book store today  looking to buy something for a friend when I came across a classic title on a little hardcover. "Life is Crap."
For the next five minutes as I flipped through the imagined hardships of the author I laughed my fool head off. I had people in other aisles breaking out in laughter because of how hard I was laughing.
It was just so darned funny to see my life in comic mode. The feeling of having toilet paper stuck to your heel while a dog lifts its leg and pees on your briefcase, as you open a letter with the words "you're fired" on it. I laughed so hard that the black cloud hanging over my head rose up and blew away. I walked into that store with it raining down on me and left lighter and straighter, stepping out  into the sunshine I have been missing for three weeks. Finally.
Thanks everyone for helping me to get to this stage with the kind words and cards and stories and pictures and love. I think that little book was the proverbial straw that broke the camels back. Now things can begin to resume again.
I am back in the writer's chair and trying to plow my way through Book Three, titled Running From The Cancer Cooties. It's memoirs, a collection of the Cancer Blogs from the past year. Amazing that it WILL be a year July 27th.
On that exact day, I will be here at the house surrounded by great friends- one flying up from Vancouver, one coming from New Zealand, a hand full already here. A Ladies Nite Out party will ensue two days later on the 29th. Lemon meringue pie martinis, non-alcoholic Saudi champagnes, wine of every colour. There will be a harmonica and guitar, singing, bon fire and remembering the days when we were in our thirties, feeling old, feeling fat, feeling the pressures of trying to do a thousand things at once and still keeping up the smile. I look back at that phase of my life now and wonder "what was I thinking?"

What did we know? What did we know? What do we know now?

I know that its one thing to say we should live life to the fullest and another to get busy doing it. I don't mean running harder and faster to pack more in. I mean making sure that when a moment arises, you grab it. Don't weigh out how much more work something will be. If it involves friends and making more memories, just do it. Put down your life for a moment and take the time to be with the people you love. You can never get back this exact stage of your life that you're in right now.

I know that whatever the excuse, we need to get together more often to celebrate life with our good friends now while we're able and alive instead of later at each other's funerals and services.
If there is one bit of advice I would like to leave my kids it's to surround yourself with good people. And then never let them go. In the world of Internet and e-mail and Skype, we are never further away than the time it takes us to turn on a computer.These people can make all the difference in your world.
Here are a few great quotes about friends:

A good friend is a connection to life - a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world.  ~Lois Wyse


A friend can tell you things you don't want to tell yourself.  ~Frances Ward Weller


A friend accepts us as we are yet helps us to be what we should.  ~Author Unknown


Friends are relatives you make for yourself.  ~Eustache Deschamps

You can always tell a real friend:  when you've made a fool of yourself he doesn't feel you've done a permanent job.  ~Laurence J. Peter


A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be.  ~Douglas Pagels

The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.  ~Elisabeth Foley

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out.  It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being.  We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.  ~Albert Schweitzer

It takes a long time to grow an old friend.  ~John Leonard

06/02/02
"We all take different paths in life, but no matter where we go, we take a little of each other everywhere." 
---Tim McGraw


11/30/01
"I believe that friends are quiet angels who sit on our shoulders and lift our wings when we forget how to fly." ---Unknown


07/31/01

---Unknown