More Micronutrients

Thank you so much for the beet advice! I just made a new juice, a different recipe, and peeling the beet fixed the problem! No grit. So far I'm on my second glass and I don't have any of the dirt. What a relief! Woo hoo!! I'm totally getting nuts with the juicing. Yesterday I made three different batches each as a new recipe. Since I was on the high doses of artemisinin three days out of every week and I wasn't supposed to eat antioxidants, these juices and my blended drinks are H.E.A.V.E.N. to my body.

This recipe is amazing. I'm being good and following recipes since I have such a horrible track record. I figure I'll play around and learn all of the suggested pairings, then when I really get the hang of this I will be able to figure out fun variations of my own. Below is the recipe from today.

Beet Detoxifier
1 Peeled Beet (Include greens & stalks)
4 Stalks Celery
4 Carrots
1 Inch Ginger
1 Lime
1 Green Apple

For breakfast I created a new smoothie, and it was delicious!

Breakfast Smoothie
1 Small Head of Napa Cabbage
1 Large Banana
1 Tablespoon of Orange Flavored Fish Oil

Don't confuse the smoothies with juices. The smoothies you end up eating the entire piece of produce, unlike the juice where the pulp and fiber are removed. I like to vary between the two options. It's important for me to get a lot of the cabbage, kale, watercress, etc. But, at the same time, it's really hard to ingest a whole blender of liquid. That's why it's nice to have a micronutrient dense juice too. I've read that the juicing allows your body to absorb all of the enzymes quickly since the fiber is hard for the body to digest. Removing the fiber speeds up the absorption.

This juicing kick is such a great distraction. It's perfect timing in fact. I have less than two weeks before my MRI and I'm nervous as hell. We stopped the growth of Hermie from October to January, but now I've been on a whole new protocol. Instead of doing the trio of sweet wormwood compounds, I've mainly been taking the artemether which is the fella that crosses the blood brain barrier. We have a friend who used this protocol and cleared up her brain tumor (same type as mine), but it's still scary when you try new things. I'm mostly scared because I didn't eat as strictly as I did for the previous MRI period. It's hard not to overanalyze, and that's why I need distractions.

This morning, I woke and met up with my friend Jessaca and her baby girl. We walked over to Green Lake, and wandered to the playground. It was wonderful to see them! I miss my Wenatchee girls. After that I took a nap until 2:30 pm. I sleep a lot, but while I'm up, I need things to do to keep my mind sane. My life consists of sleeping, juicing, blending, laundry, running, showering, etc. Just the basics - but I like it that way. If I do too much I get run down, and then I get sick. I've come to the point where I'm pretty clear where my energy boundaries are, even though sometimes I still push it and wear my body out. It's always worth it though :)

Last night Meghan and I ran Green Lake, then swung into my house so that I could make her my favorite green apple, carrot, and ginger juice. She was pretty impressed, and laughed hysterically, when she saw our fridge. To be honest, it's been a long time since I've seen anyone else's fridge, so I didn't really know what the big deal was. She grabbed my phone though, to take a picture. I wish I could see what other people's fridges look like. There must be some delicious looking food or something? I still like whole real food, like normal meals, but I really enjoy cleansing my body with veggies and fruit. My body feels so much better. Especially the green drinks. Tonight, Danny has class so I'm on my own for dinner. I think I'll tackle a new green juice. I'm excited about it! In the meantime, I still haven't ran the lake yet today so I'd better get to it. I'm not going to lie, it's beautiful out and I wish I was sitting at Duke's on the patio with a large Hefeweizen and a side of their delicious cabbage salad, but oh well. Maybe later in the week.....who knows.

I'm Pooped.

I've had a wonderful past several days, but as it says in the above title, I'm pooped. Thank you Jenny for coming on Thursday, then Jess & Michelle on Saturday, and finally Sarah on Monday. I am dizzy with exhaustion, but it was absolutely worth it. Between visits I read an amazing book sent by a dear friend from Friday Harbor (another brain tumor fighter), titled The Power Of Two: Surviving Serious Illness with an Attitude and an Advocate, by Gerri and Brian Monaghan. It is an uplifting, yet serious book that helped stoke the fire inside. I need success stories to keep a positive outlook. Anyway, my head feels like it's exploding. In fact, don't tell anyone (ha ha...just kidding - I realize this is the internet), but I'm still in my pajamas. I've been in bed all day. I had big plans to try and get to the bank to fill out some paperwork (we're pulling away from those big nasty banks and headed to our old credit union). Oh well. I will not be leaving the house today.

We also adjusted my artemix supplement last night by adding a pill of piperine (it helps the artemix absorb while in the large intestine). There's just so much research to be read, and it's some pretty deep stuff. It's tricky because it's important to keep up and read as much as possible with this artemisinin, but at the same time I'm absolutely exhausted. Danny, my brother, and my dad have been helping sift through the research, (mom's studying MRI stuff). We even have my friend Meghan's husband Sean, and his father reading up on it (Thanks guys!!). There's just so much to know, so much to figure out. It's overwhelming. I don't understand why there aren't more doctors recommending these supplements. There are all kinds of success stories in Asia, and Europe, and success even in the research studies in the United States. Why aren't doctors prescribing artemisinin in the United States? Why do they want me to do radiation when it won't prolong my life? Radiation won't kill or stop the brain tumor's growth, and it will not shrink it. However, sweet wormwood COULD. What is wrong with this picture?!?! Depending on the dosages and protocol, we are finding research with an average of 40-50% success rate of either stopping, shrinking or killing the brain tumor cells. Why isn't this information out there for other brain tumor patients? We're told by our "amazing oncologists" that they don't know what causes brain tumors, and that there really isn't much you can do other than wait and watch. Then, once it starts growing again, they zap the tumor with radiation which won't even increase survival time. What is happening here? The sweet wormwood has almost zero chance of neurotoxicity (only in extremely high doses), and if there are any toxic effects they are reversible with steroids and other medications - no effects have found to be permanent (except for the published account of a poor child who was given a massive dose via suppository - it was in an anti-malarial move). What is happening, or what HAS happened to our medical system that we don't appreciate several century old medicine like herbs and instead favor a failing system of zero success. I don't get it. It leaves me confused.

I'm overwhelmed with things (way to state the obvious Jess), and I need to catch up on rest before my surgery on Friday. It's finally time to have that moderate dysplasia surgery on the nasty mole on my right breast. The doctor says I can't lift more than 10lbs after the surgery for 2 weeks. TWO WEEKS? Whaaat? Instantly I thought to myself, "How much does the vacuum weigh....?" Is that sick or what :) Anyway, I'm sure the restrictions are just to be safe, at least they'd better be. I can't promise that I'll lay off the vacuum. I have a black hairy dog and a gray fuzzball of a cat - two weeks is a death sentence. We will have shag carpet within four days. Gross.

Ok, sorry for the random post. Back into bed.

Watercress & Wunder Runners

Recently, a fellow brain tumor fighter sent me all kinds of information on Artemisinin, sulforaphane and sweet wormwood. The research is incredibly promising, and it looks like I will be starting an alternative treatment based on the research. The best part, according to the research though, is that I had already been including a lot of the main foods that cause the death of the brain tumor cells. A lot of the research is relating to sulforaphane in the brassica family, and sweet wormwood. Although I have not been taking any supplements, I have been eating a diet highly enriched with the brassica family. In fact, I just ate my breakfast of an Omega 3 organic free range egg (it gets the extra omegas from flax in the diet), sprinkled with turmeric (a healthy teaspoon), placed on a slice of sprouted bread which was stacked high with watercress leaves (brassica family) and sprinkled with a clove of diced raw garlic. Needless to say my breath is ripe, but my macha green tea is helping calm it down.

My Little Watercresss Plant

I bought a living watercress at my PCC the other day. I've been picking off the leaves of the poor plant every time I walk past it. It's delicious! It's spicy, and helps disguise the garlic, which is a plus.

I don't always eat so wonderfully, for the record. I have to be honest. Last weekend was our third annual Oktoberfest Marathon Relay, and it happened to fall on a double birthday weekend. The birthday girls were Meghan, and Jenny. So, of course, I brought two dozen organic cupcakes (gotta love that it's all organic ingredients, it makes it sound healthier, but the truth is that they were loaded with scrumptious mind altering SUGAR. Yum!). I didn't make them, which is probably good because I would have eaten my weight in icing. As it was, I ate all kinds of delicious crap. It was fun! And then on Sunday night Danny and I realized, that once you get the taste of blood it's really hard to stop. The cravings are tricky, and it's so easy to go get crapy food. Crapy food melts in your mouth then hits your stomach like a rock. Healthy food has crunch and within moments you have more energy and you feel better about yourself. Even knowing that, it can be really hard to forgo the instant gratification that my tongue is pleading for.

Here's a photo of our group. I'm so proud of everyone. This marathon relay was my dream, it's my little baby. I always wanted to get a group to celebrate running and friendship. It's just a very, very happy thing for me. I've got a great group, and I can't wait for next year!! I guess you could say that my only long term goal right now is to be healthy for next year's race! Is that weird? Maybe I should have a different goal. I guess it's the only long term goal that I have because I'm always afraid to plan too far out. It's also the only thing on my calendar that's a year away. I can train for it too, which keeps it easy to use as a long term goal. It's concrete, and I like that. Anyway, here's the fabulous crew......

Operation Grab-A-Stein III