Smart Bomb

Good Morning! I just finished making my breakfast drink. Guess what came in the post yesterday......three guesses.....just kidding! It's my Vitamix!! I made a smoothie yesterday with two bushels of upland cress, and a banana. It was pretty freaking spicy, but upland cress, even in dietary amounts helps stop angiogenesis to tumors. Angiogenesis is the generation of new blood vessels, and blood is what carries the food to the tumors. No blood - no food - no tumor. It's the PEITC in upland cress that does the magic. If you can eat foods high in PEITC, your body will love you!

Just a little bit ago, I made a new smoothie - it's so much fun playing with this new toy. The Vitamix came with two cook books (Ani's Raw Food Essentials, and Live Fresh) - both vegan & raw. The recipes look amazing, and I'm so excited to walk over to PCC to pick up ingredients for my first recipe! This morning, though, I figured I'd just make due with what's in my fridge and cabinets. So here's what I did:

One banana
Three large leaves of purple kale (deveined)
Half the blender full of baby spinach
Two to three cups of water (depending on the thickness you desire)

1 Tablespoon of chia seeds, soaked overnight

An overflowing tablespoon of Barlean's Greens

My favorite smoothie glass is Dan's Guinness cup :)
The blending of this machine is unreal.
My old blender would leave chunks of banana, it was so dull.
Not this guy, the drink was so smooth - DELICIOUS. 

For my taste, this smoothie was a bit too sweet. Barlean's Greens is very sweet, and earthy. I should have omitted the spinach and just filled the blender with kale, that would have made it more bitter and balanced it out, I think. Still good though - I'm just not used to super sweet stuff.

While I was blending, I couldn't help but dance with Bingie. Life is so great! That article on www.mygreenlake.com was so wonderful, and fun. I'm so lucky to live in Green Lake, and I'm so grateful for the fact that the brain tumor has not grown in the past three months. I truly believe, that if I work hard, and take this seriously, along with my artemisinin, I can heal my body, and say good-bye to Herman. People still don't totally know the most effective dosing, or how often to administer, but researchers are getting closer and closer. Artemisinin is a natural chemotherapeutic that doesn't have side effects (unless you take an absurdly crazy accidental dosage). There are so many stories of artemisinin healing cancers - all cancers. I was forwarded a video from YouTube overnight from our buddy, and it confirms and summarizes exactly what I've been reading with research. It's so inspiring! I'm pasting it below so you can watch it if you choose.

I realize that what I'm doing to try and heal my body is considered "alternative." It's outside mainstream western medicine, and often in our society seen as "quack". The standard of care is surgery, radiation, chemo, another surgery, etc.. But, in my situation I have nothing to lose. I've done the surgery, and radiation wasn't going to extend my life so I don't see why I would fry my brain just in the hopes to slow the onset of symptoms. I've talked to my doctors, both my radiation oncologist, his nurse, a neuro oncologist, his nurse, and even a few residents, but no one seems to be able to come up with a good argument to sell me on this whole radiation thing. I'm not saying I'll never do it (it's dangerous to say never), but at this point it doesn't make sense.

For now I'm going to focus on eating healthy, healing myself cell by cell, happy thought by happy thought, run by run, laugh by laugh, hug by hug, smoothie by smoothie. If you have cancer and you're reading this blog, please know that you're worth the fight. People want you to live. Don't listen to the people that say you're going to die. Don't listen to yourself when you think you'll die. Learn from others who have outlived their diagnosis - they're holding keys that can unlock your survival. Don't give up!

Here's a photo of the lake from yesterday. It was stunningly gorgeous outside, a crisp 50 degrees with a little breeze. I walked and walked and walked, which felt amazing since I can't run yet. The fresh air, and happy faces made me smile. I've decided my favorite thing to see is people walking hand in hand. What a simple and beautiful act. It reminds me how connected we are.

Warning: Graphic

Well. I did it. I went in for the "little" procedure to remove the rest of my naughty mole that wanted to turn into cancer. I kept my chin up and tried my best to joke with the DR & the assistant, telling them how bummed I am that they're working on my smaller breast. They laughed with me, and kept the mood light. I made it through the numbing (which they warned me would cause my heart rate to increase), it took three shots of numbing stuff, and soon, we were on our way. As soon as they started cutting, I could feel tugging, and snipping. All of a sudden, as I was trying my best to power through, my hands got really sweaty, and a wave of nausea came over me and I knew I was having an aura.

I tried to keep calm, knowing that freaking out makes the seizures come on faster, exactly what you're trying to avoid in that moment. My parents were out in the waiting room with my purse where I keep my pre-seizure pills which efficiently stop the auras from turning into a full blown grand mal. I quickly said, "Guys, can you stop. I'm having an aura, I need water now - cold water - and I have a pre-seizure pill in my purse in the waiting room. I need it. Please go get it. RUN." It was so scary. The assistant ran to the waiting room and grabbed my purse from my mom. In the meantime, the DR soothed me, helping me drink the cool water. When the assistant arrived back in the room, he took out two pills and I placed them under my tongue, waiting for them to dissolve. In the meantime, I practiced deep breathing, and the boys calmed me down by discussing puppies. They were serious heros, so kind.

I made it through the rest of the procedure which lasted about 45 more minutes of cutting, tugging, and then two different strands of stitches, both inside and out. They separated the skin from the tissue and pulled them together, yanking, and that might have been the worst part. That or the cauterizing - one of the places they cauterized I felt a deep burn. Ouch. I honestly had no idea what I was getting into. I thought this was going to be more routine. I've learned that I can not handle awake procedures. Next time I'm going to have to tell the DR that they need to put me asleep or something.

Even yesterday, and this morning, I'm feeling completely nauseous, and ill. I feel very vulnerable for seizures right now. I can't explain it. It's just a feeling that I get. That's why I didn't blog yesterday. I'm trying to take it easy.

It will be one week before I can get my heart rate up, so I guess it'll be easy to keep things light and simple. I'm dying to run through. That always makes me feel better. When I get to the seventh day, I think I'll be like a race horse just bursting through the gates.

I emailed back and forth with a friend recently and she told me to just listen to my heart and that I'll know when it's right for me to start driving. It is painfully obvious that I should not drive for a long time. I shouldn't even think about it. Although we had been clear for the past 5.5 months of little to no auras, this one was very severe. It is a miracle that we were able to stop the seizure. What a relief. I just need to focus on being healthy, exercising, eating right, sleeping well, and worry about things like driving later. I will not put other people in danger just because I want to go to Costco to save on Dave's Bread. Gotta keep things in perspective. I'm just grateful that I can walk to PCC. A few extra bucks to avoid running someone over is quite a deal!

Here's a few photos of my little missing mole. Sorry, it's totally gross, and pretty graphic, but this is a blog to share about my journey. Hope you aren't offended: