Changes you made after diagnosis?
Comments
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I agree. Get rid of the people who negatively influence you. You don't realise the damage they do.
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A note re juicing: I only juice veggies. Primarily greens, cruciferous veggies, celery, cucumber plus tumeric, ginger, garlic, & the odd beet or carrot. A giant bowl filled w veggies makes about 8 -10 oz of liquid. No way could I eat that many vegetables. This is saving my life right now, as 10 days past my chemo my appetite is still ultra low!
Once a day, I smoothie a small amount of fruit (berries) w/ some kefir (nut based), flax seeds, a green powder and an organic whey isolate protein powder (one part of dairy that's ok).
I was a nightly 'light' drinker before finding my lump. I did not get drunk but I always had a nightly drink, and I ate quite a bit of meat/saturated fat. Those are the biggest changes for me.
I will continue the fasting-mimicking diet at least quarterly after treatment because there is a lot of research that it is a form of "reset" button on the immune system, that helps the body rid itself of bad cells. I will keep going on the supplements and clean diet and no alcohol till I get past the TNBC recurrence window.
It makes sense to me that 250,000 years of evolution primed us for a feast/famine system of eating... Now it has become feast/feast, which we did not evolve for.
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Agree with comments about people stress. Job stress also plays a part. If you are coming home stressed that is not good. Often job stress carries over and affects your home life. We often think there is nothing that can be done but there is. Talk to your boss. Ask for help from coworkers. Possibly make a change. With this diagnosis it is more important than ever now YOU COME FIRST. I am lucky that in the nursing profession it's easy to transfer to a lower stress position, cut hours etc. It was really hard after 35 years to cut back my hours. I love my job but it's fast paced, high stress. If you are stressed please ask for help to lighten the load.
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There is always a tipping point. Saw my surgeon today to remove a hard growth on my mastectomy side. We will not know what it is for a few days. Nobody seems to have a clue. It was not attached. It may be skin cancer, which I have had a few times, or a cyst, or a cancerous bc tumor. It is a head scratcher. Whatever, it is gone. That poor breast. Just keep chipping away at it. My surgeon says I deserve some luck. My year has been awful.
Had to go buy all new underwear and clothing. Nothing fits anymore. The belly fat is nearly gone. Maybe another 5-7 lbs. When the winter comes, which I dread, I will join a gym to do some strength training. Meanwhile I am loving the weather for biking. Truly glorious.0 -
I am pretty sure my BC relates to several things:
1) I never had children. (no children means constant menstrual periods. Constant estrogen in my body. My tumors were ER/PR positive)
2) I took birth control pills as a teen (a study came out recently showing this increases your risk of BC significantly)
3) My sister had BC even tho we are negative for the genes. (She had stage 0 DCIS.)
Not to mention I was never too too careful about what I ate in my younger years. Used hair dye. Toxic makeup etc.
When I was a kid, the mosquito truck used to come around and spray disgusting smelling gas..lord knows what was in it. Wouldn't surprise me if it was carcinogenic.
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Also, as far as what I've done since my treatment..I changed my diet..more veggies. Less meat. No processed food.
I have not been successful at cutting out sugar, tho.
I've been working out regularly. Now my natural boob is much smaller than my fake one and they don't match
I will probably go back to my PS about that.0 -
I grew in NJ. The Raritan river was highly polluted from American Cyanamid. We waded in many times. As I grew older, high school, I wrote many letters to my house rep about all that pollution. Much was done. My dad sprayed with DDT around the farm a lot. I was also following talking as he sprayed. Moved to NC eventually. The Catawba was highly polluted. A stream running behind my homes was really bad. I became an activist. However, I waded in that stream to get samples many times. Some years later, I rode horses in an indoor riding arena that had rubber footing. My lymph nodes went crazy. It was proven that rubber material was carcinogenic.
Did all this contribute to my bc twice? Could be. My sister does not have bc. My deceased sister did not either. My path in life was quite different. However my sister, like me, has skin cancer. We both remember many bad burns. We were both swimmers. Both lived in TX as well with a blazing sun. We both spent time at the Jersey shore.
I cannot change my past, but I can acknowledge I got bc twice, and thus my lifestyle had to change if there is any hope of surviving cancer. Whatever I was doing was NOT working.0 -
I didn't read the whole thread but wow this is really interesting reading responses. I agree dhanno that having toxic people in yr life is soooooo not good!!!
I'm not sure if I've shared here yet. Cancer struck me between the eyes like it does for most people. Never saw it coming!
My maternal gma was dx in the early 90s first time. Second time in 98.
My maternal aunt dx in 2017 two wks prior to my dx. She had lobular Br cancer. She is cancer free now.
My mom has had biopsies in the past but all non cancer.
I did genetic testing. Trying to answer the why I got it. All was neg.
I’ve been vegan for 20 years. Prior to that vegetarian. Occasional fish at restaurant or turkey at thgiving. So not completely vegan but def mostly. No alcohol no drugs no smoking. Very active on our farm working. Daily chores/exercise. Have very supportive husband and family.
What I changed?
1. I started intermittent fasting. Read the facts on this. It's life changing.
2. became more plant based. Cutting out oil for the most part. Cut out refined cane sugars. Became a consistent label reader when grocery shopping. (Sugar is in everything!!) cut out processed food for the most part.
3. Assess my life on a periodic basis how to simplify and cut stress out.
I've wondered if most people who get cancer are more of the type A people? I've met quite a few who were definitely people going through life in 1st gear. I tended to be that way pretty much my whole life! I have learned to not do that as much. I'm having to learn to veg and relax. To say no to added responsibility when I can.
Stress I believe plays more of a role in cancer than we could ever know. I don't think you can fully get rid of it. But starting to say to people who want to give you more to do, “no I can't add that to my 'life plate'"is a start. Sometimes that's impossible. But cutting back stress where you can is a good start. Every little cut back makes a difference.
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I have been doing a lot of thinking about why I got BC. The first in my family. I also had bone cancer as a teenager. I have had a very stressful life living with a verbally abusive husband (narcissistic personality disorder). Every day he would put me and the kids down. In addition to this my mom is not very health mentally/emotionally and my dad died this year of ALS. Thankfully I started doing yoga a couple years ago, did Zumba every week despite having lost my leg to cancer. A month before finding out I had cancer I told my husband finally that I want a divorce. That is what spurred me to get the mammogram! Somehow I am still going to get this divorce! Looking at cutting dairy, sweets, processed food. Drinking glowing green smoothie every day
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Goodness, we have all had quite a life journey. How many people are currently miserable, with few even knowing because we held it in? Many times we think we shared, but really we did not. I hear women say they have sacrificed so much, but often family members are oblivious to that personal sacrifice. Often people suffer in silence. Some years ago, I did something radical and left home to pursue a dream. I was gone for over a year. It was a very difficult time and highly stressful, but I learned so much. What made it much harder was the fact that my women friends abandoned me. Every one. They felt I had no right to pursue something personal while asking my husband and son to make sacrifices to allow that journey. Why would they abandon me? It really hurt me a lot. I have realized many years later, it was because they were miserable in their lives, and wanted to take time as I did, and resented that I just did it. It changed me. I would do it again, no regrets, but sisterhood was severely lacking. That lacking isolates women and often why they may suffer in silence. Trust must be earned.0
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1redgirl,
I had a similar experience when I divorced. A very close (I thought) friend backed away from me and it was incredibly hurtful and baffling. I think it was because she is miserable (yet enmeshed) in her marriage-- it totally threatened her to visualize change/ leaving as an option.
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PS Not to be too political, and no offense meant to others who disagree, but I think I got cancer because of the Trump Presidency! Only half kidding. I grew up with narcissistic parents and was incredibly triggered by the feeling of "whoa, the person driving the car is drunk, and I am in the backseat and can't do anything to fix it." Growing up in a traumatizing environment is absolutely correlated with adult cancer. See the ACEs studies.
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Don't let politics negatively affect you like this, it's not worth it and it's all a puppet show anyway
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interesting thread. Learned a lot.
On Kadcyla, any suggestions on supplements I can take while I’m on this medication.
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