Starting Chemo May 2019
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Jrom, Loved the pics , Happy Anniversary to you and Nat. You both look great! Very happy for you.
Mightlybird01 and Lacombattant-Loved your pics as well. Everyone looks so strong and healthy.
Palmetto- hope you're feeling better soon. Sometimes these things hang on longer than we expect. Happy belated birthday to you , and your Clemson team won, so I'm sure you enjoyed the game.
Hello as well to Happyanyway, April0315, BAMR, Santabarbarian, and G1973
Positive thoughts and daily prayers to my May chemo friends. Thought I would add my picture as well (wearing my wig of course😙).
Happy New Year to all. Pat 💞🎉
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That wig looks very cute on you!
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Santabarbarian- Thanks for the compliment, you were very sweet to say so.
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I love seeing all the pictures!! Happy Wedding Anniversary Jrominger. You guys look very happy.
UpstateNY, are you still wearing your wig regularly? It looks very nice on you! I ended up never even once wearing mine.
Happy and healthy 2020 everyone!!
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BAMR, I was feeling a little stiff in the mornings, I added a flax-seed supplement (I don't care for fish oil) and returned to yoga and that seems to have helped. I think the effects show up more after a year or so.
Nice to see everyone out and about and looking healthy and happy!
Happy New Year!!!
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So great to hear from everyone. UpstateNYer you look spectacular!! Thank you for sharing such a beautiful photo!!
I’m with April, it is great to see everyone loving life and moving forward!! Let’s pray 2020 is full of blessings and great health for everyone!!
Happy New Year!!!
Jay and Natalie.
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Jay, my husband took my youngest skiing at snowbowl Friday. They had a blast. So much fresh powder! Has it slowed down?
Anyone doing anything tonight? I'm gathering with some friends for a potluck, starts at 5pm and we should all be home by 9. It's local, I don't like being out and about on New Years Eve. The other drivers scare me.
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hi All,
Lovely pictures! Ladies, you all look fabulous!
We just came back from two and a half hours snowshoeing. The plans are to stay home tonight.
Both of us need some time to reflect on the year behind and to bid it a very good but very definite
farewell and welcome wholeheartedly the new year and the new decade. Wishing you all a very happy and healthy New Year (here come the days of 2020, may they be blessed! Yes, I am a LOTR fan)
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So jealous of all the hiking and snowshoeing activity! Jay, congrats and many blessings to you and Nat on 38 years! Your pics were fabulous. Pat, I love the wig. It’s very becoming. My hair finally covers all of my head, so I’ve stopped wearing them. I just found them too hot and itchy.
I had a glorious weekend in Phoenix as my Tigers beat Ohio State. Of course, I went with my Ohio State friend, so I had to behave and be a gracious winner!
I’m also much better now from my respiratory crud, so I’m happy. April- I plan on a quiet evening in tonight. I have much reflection to do ahead of 2020. I’ve been convinced to write a memoir, so I’ll collect my thoughts for that. Here’s a pic from this weekend:
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Palmetto, great photo!! You look fantastic. Go Clemson! You should have come up north to see all the snow. Your hair looks great. Natalie would go without a hat except it's bloody freezing
April, awesome on the snowbowl. We live about 10 min from the turn off!! They should have stopped in for some hot cocoa. Our daughter and her family have season passes so they go just for a few runs a couple times per week. If you go during school hours during the week the crowds are minimal!! The snow has stopped and nothing in the forecast. Super cold so no melt off!!! Warming up for the weekend. Stop by next time you are in town. We are going to my brother's home this evening for a gathering. I will pick up our 87 yr old mother to hang out with us!! She still walks 2 to 3 miles everyday. We all live within a mile of each other!
Blessings to all.
Jay
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Palmetto, I'm glad you enjoyed Phoenix and your team won (nice bonus). It was a cold weekend here for us. Excited to hear more about your writing journey. I've never been so happy to say good bye to a year as I am for this one!
Jay, I didn't join them or I for sure would have tracked you guys down.
I'm unloading some donated frozen meals at the potluck tonight, someone gave us a smoked chicken and pulled pork. So they are in the crockpots and I can empty out the freezer a bit.
Leaving for Kona on Thursday! WOO HOO
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Hi all, Just doing an early dinner tonight for us.
Palmetto- loved the pics from your football game. Thanks for the compliment. You look very nice as well.
Mightlybird01- I don't wear my wig too often. My hair is about the same length as the rest of you gals.
April0315- have fun in Kona, I envy you. 😙
Hope everyone has a safe New Year's Eve.
Pat. 💞
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I am so lucky to have a friend who is a wonderful cook and hostess, who always invites me to her glam NYE party... about 10 blocks away from my house. Easy and festive! Happy New Year to everyone!
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Hello May friends,
This forum has been fairly quiet. Hoping it's because everyone is doing well. I have come down with another chest cold(second one in 6 weeks) and laryngitis. Oh well, this too shall pass.
April- How was Kona? Hope you had a wonderful time there.
Hello to Jrom, happyAnyway, Lacombattant, Mightlybird01, Palmetto, and Santabarbarian.
Hope everyone is doing well. 👍 Pat
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Hello Pat. All is good on our end. We are happy and busy. Nat’s cording is gone and no more PT is necessary. She is going to a yoga and bar class that is mainly attended by BC survivors and she is enjoying it. Surprising for her but exciting. Her hair is growing fast and pretty white/grey. We meet with her ovarian surgeon on Monday. So sorry to hear about your dang colds. Praying they subside soon.
Yes April we are anxious to hear about your trip to Kona. Very jealous. We need a few photos!!
Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying life.
J
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Hi Pat! I hear the colds going around are rotten. Hope you get clear soon!
Love to all on this thread!
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hi Santabarbarian,
I really can't complain, because I surprisingly stayed very healthy during all phases of my treatment. My family had some very ugly colds last year and I managed to avoid them. I am feeling better this evening.
Jrom-So happy to hear of Nat's progress and that cording is gone. What a relief that must be. Glad she enjoys her yoga and bar classes. I try to get in 1 to 2 hours of exercise daily. I will pray that surgeon appointment goes well for Nat on Monday.
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Pat I so glad you are feeling better!! Praying you will wake up feeling 100% tomorrow!! I prayed for you on my awesome front porch tonight at 22 degrees. It is a great place to pray.
Santabarbarian it is always great to hear from you. I need to post on that TNBC thread the 3 supplements our onc Naturalpath said was studied to help fight against recurrence for TNBC survivors. It is dose dense green tea and turmeric and 5 ou Dailey of organic soy. I can send you the amounts of the first two tomorrow if you wish.
Blessings to you both and everyone in this special group.
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Hello group, nice to hear from you. All is good here too. Booked my flight to Germany for February (first cross Atlantic travel since diagnosis), and yesterday finally had some dental work done. I lost one tooth just before chemo. It is now being replaced with a bridge. I must say, I was never as happy going to the dentist as yesterday. First, after chemo, nothing can scare me, but second, since this tooth was my dominant eating tooth (which is likely why it broke down first), I really really missed it. So in 2 weeks I'll have it back!
Other than that I started making my own sourdough from scratch. That was a fun experience. And it is actually working. My kitchen is a little fermentation hub now, kefir and sourdough bread..
Other than that I am thinking more and more what I would really like to achieve in 2020. The one thing that keeps coming to the forefront is being able to ride again. I have 4 horses, yet none I can ride. The 3 Mini's are just pets, but my Quarter Horse mare who is with me for 12 years has now so many issues (bad shoulder, a genetic muscle disease that causes occasional bad muscle cramps, and going blind on her right eye, making her spooky), that I somehow feel I will never be able to ride her again safely (for her and my safety). She has been a pet for the past years. My dream is to find that super deluxe trail horse that I can take for long hikes in the National Park, which is right adjacent to our property. I want a mustang, born and raised in the wild, retrained to be that perfect trail horse. Hubby thinks I have enough horses and I have to say I agree. My QH mare I could never give away (too many issues that I would trust someone else to take care of her), she will stay with me as a pet to the end (and that could easily be another 15 years as she is in good health otherwise), but my Minis maybe I could find good homes for. I am torn. I love my Mini's too, and they love it here. So shall I add a 5th horse?? That is the question. At 50, it will be probably my last chance to have 10 (maybe 20 if I am lucky) good years of riding. I don't know. I also want to travel more, which is even harder with one more horse.
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Mightlybird. My vote is buy that awesome trail pony!!! You deserve it!!! If you find a home for the tinies you’ll have the money and space. Go for it. Please send us a pic of your new steed when you get it!!😜🤠
Also pics of you and Lacombattante next month, please.
Jay
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Mightly: DO IT!
jrominger, Yes, I am on EGCG (active ingredient in Green Tea) and on Curcumin (active ingredient in Tumeric). I regularly eat ground flax seed but not major soy eater.... occasional tofu, soy hot dogs, etc. I'd love to know the doses recommended and could easily up my soy.
Berberine and Metformin.... both have many good anticancer properties (metabolic pathway blockers), Nordic fish oil /Omega 3 and high D3... important too. Quercetin and Ubiquinol also on my list. Resveratrol is considered valuable. Rose Hips Ditto Modified Citrus Pectin (very effective against prostate cancer and in my case my TNBC was 90% AR+). It starts to turn into a lot of pills so sometimes I rotate or take a supplement break.
It makes intuitive sense to me that nature's arsenal of phytonutrients has a lot to offer. (Honestly I think the biggest benefit of plant-based eating is not the absence of meat, but the presence of plants!!)
**Some of these may not be good for HR+ so best to check w an expert...
PS apparently Reishi mushroom is also specifically good against TNBC. Cn get powder or capsule -- "Om" organic reishi
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santabarbarian. The cancer treatment centers of America onc Naturalpath said for TNBC, 550 mg of of green tea extract, 1000 mg of curcumin phytosome and 4 ou (1/2 cup) of organic soy per day! This was only for after treatments. He had Natalie on other things during treatment and then had us stop afterwards. All very interesting. They sure seem to be on top of the research. When I asked about other things throughout this ordeal, he or the MO would confirm or refute what the real science was saying about other meds, chemos or supplements. With Natalie’s great results we are following them pretty dang close!! He did say that’s 5 cups minimum of green tea if u wanna drink it. And the organic soy can be milk, tofu, edamame etc. They are big on the exercise and plant based , Mediterranean diet. Etc etc. whew. Blessings to all!!
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Thanks jrominger for sharing those details. Very interesting!
I myself don't do supplements but certainly would never say never. I do drink 3 cups of green tea per day and occasionally take Magnesium (maybe once a months for a few days). My approach is to include as many fruit and vegetables in my diet as possible. On most days, I get up to 15 different fruits and veggies. Twice a week I make a big box of fruit salad, that we mix in our oatmeal for breakfast. This includes at least 5 fruits (right now papaya, mango, pomegranat (those are a pain to peel!!), orange, banana and blueberries). Then the breakfast has in addition walnuts (or almonds or any other nut I rotate through) and 1-2 brazil nuts (for selenium). For lunch I make a salad with at least 5 ingredients (usually arugola or another type of lettuce, cucumber, radish, tomato and olives). I have my home baked bread and one egg from my own organically fed free range chickens with it. That brings up the count to 10 fruits and veggies. For dinner, I have started making soups which contain on most days another 5 veggies. Yesterday we had: ginger, garlic, spring onion, celery, zucchini, potato, mushrooms. I spend a lot of time cutting fruits and veggies :-)! I firmly believe that there is no nutrient missing in my diet, and I would rather bring things out of balance by over and over supplementing one nutrient at an excess of what would normally be found in food. This is just my feeling, and I know I would not be able to stick with supplements. Unless, there would be a diagnosed deficiency, like a demonstrated Vit D deficiency. Then, I think supplements are in order for that particular aspect. I have my Vit D levels checked and they are fine. The only major changes I have done to my diet since pre cancer is cutting out 99% of all sugar (I used to have a sweet tooth), no more alcohol (or very very little) and strictly not eat anything for 12h on most days (i.e. I make sure we have dinner at 7pm, and I wont have anything to eat before 7am the next day).
On a side note, I just had my first successful experiment with making soy yogurt. I was totally amazed it worked at first try. That is something I will include in the future in my diet. Hubby is pretty much vegan and has soy and pea milk, but so far I would not have wanted to give up my fermented milk for breakfast (I usually have cow milk kefir with my oatmeal). But now, where the home made soy yogurt has appeared on the horizon, I will just add some soy yogurt for yet another variation in my diet.
I hope everybody with a cold is getting better! The bugs still have not reached us here in the Midwest. But I read it is going to be a bad flu season predicted.
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Mightlybird01,
I am so very impressed with your diet. You are doing it right by trying to get the proper nutrition through healthy foods. I personally take supplements. I feel better on them. I also try to maintain a balanced diet. I also read that Matcha green tea is the best green tea for those benefits. Got 3 boxes for Christmas😜.
Unfortunately, my cold has turned into a bad cough. Has kept me up for 3 nights. I am going to see my doctor this afternoon. I am usually very healthy and rarely get sick. Oh well. Hoping everyone is staying strong. Pat😍
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mightlybird. Thank you for your info. I love it. All great info. I would love to learn a little more on how to make soy yogurt. It sounds right up our alley. Thanks
Pat. Prayers for ycold. Dang it, let’s get rid of that crud!!!
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Pat, Thank you. Good for you to know what works for you :-)! I must say I have come up with my routines during chemo, when all I would do is stay home, cook and take care of the animals. The only thing I really enjoyed eating during chemo was my fruit salads, so I stuck with those. With respect to the soups, hubby and I really came to like them too during chemo. At my oncologists office they had a cooking channel on (something with farmhouse cooking) and the lady one day made this "anything goes soup". She just put whatever she had left in the fridge in it, and pureed it up. That gave me the idea. I also add a lot of herbs and spices to the soups. About half my soups are "curried", i.e. have tumeric. We also do quite a bit of Indian cooking, as it is easy way to make vegan food and most of those recipes contain tumeric.
In case anyone is interested, there is this website called Chronometer, where you can check your diet and see if anything is missing.
https://cronometer.com/?tid=DME01Brand&gclid=CjwKC...
I started using it to make home made balanced meals for my dog but have since moved to a dog-specific software for that. But it is a nice way to see how the basic diet holds up.
Jrominger, I will write a detailed instruction for you. Question is: do you have a yogurt maker, or some way to keep soy milk at around 110F? Some people have crock pots. I have a yogurt maker, but no crock pot..
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here is the soy yogurt recipe for you jrominger. Let me know if you have a question. I just tried it and it is delicious!! Better than my kefir! Sorry, the picture is a bit small, I cannot send it as an attachment. This is the link for the probiotic:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XPRDYM7/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=AH0RZC4SSARCV&th=1
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You are awesome Mightlybird!!! THANK YOU. Yes we have a crock pot and a instapot that makes yogurt. Anxious to give this a try!!
J
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Finally home! The trip was truly amazing. We were gifted a 2 bedroom condo for a week and it was the largest most luxurious condo I have ever seen. We got out every day, hiking, snorkeling, boat-rides, a little beach time (they had severe winds over 30 MPH for our last few days so the we hit the beach in the morning, then by 11am we would start getting pelted with sand!).
Most importantly it felt like a vacation with my family. I did not feel like a cancer patient, I felt like just a regular person on vacation and it was wonderful. We drop off the girls at college today, Drs appointments Mon and Wed, and back to work on Thursday.
Looks like everyone is chugging along here. I'll post pics after I look thru them
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April. I’m so happy to hear about your vacation. SO well deserved. Getting away from everything especially cancer is just what the doctor ordered!! I need to live vicariously through your photos so please post a few!!
We head back to CTCA tomorrow for a pre ovary surgery meeting. Not excited to be back in the center!!! But it’s the last leg of this. Natalie caught a cold!! We were blessed that nothing happened during chemo!! She has been doing a lot of yoga and bar classes probably caught it there. Poor thing. Better today so gradually we’ll get over this as well.
Blessings to everyone!!
Jay.
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