(Disclaimer: Many of you know that I just visited my oncology team last week- Just so you know, all tests came back normal. I continue to have no evidence of returning disease. I am feeling happy, humble and very grateful for being in this place in this moment.) I have thought of western treatments like…
Tag: wholistic breast cancer treatment
What you need to know about Existential Suffering
Pain and Suffering are different things. This is something I have pondered in superficial ways at times. After reading quite an amazing post, Pain vs Suffering: Why they’re not the same for Patients, on the blog Heart Sisters, my mind is whirling. Carolyn Thomas’s well researched article explains so much. Though she is a longtime cardiology patient, her insights…
Navigating the Medicine Show
“Step right up! Step right up! Hear about the amazing healing powers of Dr. SmartyPants’ patented formula!” If pharmaceutical drugs were distributed out of the back of a charlatan wagon at a medicine show would they have fewer takers? Wait a moment, what about commercials for prescription drugs? You know the ones, with the huge list of possible…
Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
When my MRI appointment came onto the scene in September my anxiety reached near epic proportions. It is stunning to me that I could be more, much more, anxious waiting for a routine check up than I was at nearly any time during my year of treatments in 2014. I am coming to recognize that anxiety is in part simply a communication between…
Attack of the Gallbladder Sludge Monster!
Polyps and Sludge and Cysts! OH MY! When one thinks of the stereotype of elders exchanging complaints around the dinner table, things like “the rheumatism” “gout ” and “gallbladder troubles” likely come to mind. In the hubris manner of the young and the healthy I imagined that I would never fall prey to such topics of conversation. Ye…
The Inner Puppet Show.
Yesterday was so very beautiful. After work we celebrated a family birthday at Shively Park with a picnic supper. The trees there are big and old and have the feel that they are holding the world together. Two beech trees on either side of the park have covered the ground with their burst open little spiky…
Becoming a Frog on my way to Zen Princess.
All through this journey I have been focused on the idea of metamorphosis. At first all I knew was that I wanted to change, and focused on changing into a new self that was no longer “compatible with cancer.” I started out looking for clues on what I needed to do differently and then worked on…
Going Platinum – Visions of Carboplatin
Platinum, the rare, the noble, the impervious to corruption. Also a toxic heavy metal when administered as the drug Carboplatin. What does it mean to go Platinum? I will answer that today, continuing the summing up of my take on the chemo drugs I took. Why would I want to do that? After all it has been over two…
The Teeny Tiny world within.
You are what you eat. Food is Culture. The way to a person’s heart is through the stomach. Let food be thy medicine. Food is Love. You eat first with the eyes… and on and on. Everyone eats, and we have countless adages about food that attest to this. The question is how can we eat to…
Cancer is a Dinosaur
For those who have been reading since the beginning my slight obsession with the idea that cancer is a verb and not a noun, hence my use of the word cancering, is very familiar. For those of you who have only recently happened upon my blog – my word choice might seem a bit peculiar. Sort…
Going Public . . . and now the rest of the Story
To what purpose is this blog? The universe deemed that my little intro draft be published when I merely wished to save it yesterday. So the question still stands, is this blog meaningful to anyone besides myself? Are there standards as to how many people need to be reading or liking or commenting in order for…
“Mama More Berries!”
If you haven’t noticed before I am fairly obsessed with berries, enough so that my firstborn son uttered his first sentence about them. All the wild berries are frankly one of the best parts of living in the Northwest. They are like jewels, filled with vitamins and a microcosm of yum. I love them all, even the…
Riding the Pooka 