November

My mother & brother, who visited for most of October, departed on 6-Nov. That’s when I started what I call “Phase 2” of my fight against cancer. With chemo behind me, I was free to try some alternative approaches. I believe that cancer may be caused by genes, but that research is many years away from providing a cure. I also believe that cancer is caused by the many unnatural chemicals we all put in our bodies (artificial sweeteners, preservatives, pesticides on food, hormones in food, etc.) combined with a weakened immune system due to poor nutrition. I believe that if the immune system is stronger than the cancer, the cancer can be defeated. I further believe that cancer growth is facilitated by an acidic environment and restrained by an alkaline environment. So I embarked on a diet of healthful, organic, pesticide- & hormone-free foods that are alkaline-forming in the body. Click here for one of many websites that explains, much better than I could, why this is helpful.

This has not been fun for me. I have had to give up foods I’ve enjoyed all my life, such as Diet Pepsi. Chocolate, dairy products, and meat are 3 other major things I dearly love but must cut back on. This new diet is also very expensive, as anyone who has bought organic food already knows. On the plus side, the organic food tastes no worse than “normal” food and may actually taste a little better. All this sacrifice is enough to drive me to drink, except that alcohol is also prohibited on this diet.

I’ve been feeling pretty well this past month. I went camping the weekend before Thanksgiving and had a good time, even taking a few walks with the dogs. My hair has been growing so well that I finally had to get a haircut. For Thanksgiving, we had most of Donna’s family here including her mother, her sister & family, and her brother and family. With Allison home from college, we were 13 in all. A good time was had by all.

On the downside, our car’s engine died a couple weeks ago which is going to force us to scrap the car. We may replace it, but there’s no hurry since we still have 2 usable vehicles. The van, which I normally use only for towing the trailer to campgrounds, is not much fun to drive, but I don’t go out too much so I can live with that.

I saved the worst news for last. I got a CT scan yesterday and met with my oncologist today. The cancer is growing again. This came as no surprise, since I’ve been feeling more pain in my pelvic area lately and having to use more pain killers. Still, having the doctor say it was very upsetting. I had hoped for maybe 6 months before this would happen, and I didn’t even get 5 weeks. So I’ll be starting another 6 rounds of chemo on Friday 2-Dec. This time each round will be a single treatment lasting about 5 hours. The drugs will be more powerful than last time so I’ll lose my hair after the first treatment.

I plan to keep up with my organic/alkaline diet as much as possible. In fact, to rally my spirits on the way home from the doctor, I stopped at Earth Fare and stocked up on lots of organic food. I guess after abusing my body for 49 years, I can’t expect to turn things around in 4 weeks.