After studying thousands of cases of radical remissions, Dr. Kelly Turner discovered these nine common things that people did to heal themselves:
We all know - change is hard. All I can do is give it my best effort, and accept that sometimes I'm just a work in progress.
Looking at this road map for healing, here are some of the many small decisions I make every day to promote my healing and decrease my chance of metastasis:
CHANGE YOUR DIET: I dropped the "radically" part. I considered some of the extreme diets popularized on social media and realize those are a setup for failure, and could be potentially harmful. Everything in moderation works for me.
I am following many of the recommendations in the book Anticancer: A New Way of Life, by David Servan-Schreiber. This book was very helpful in naming the specific foods that would bolster my immune system and improve my overall health. Here is a summary of the changes I'm working on:
I'm consciously choosing organic foods more often, adding more fish meals, reducing animal protein and increasing plant protein, adding spices and herbs to my cooking, especially turmeric with black pepper, choosing omega-3 eggs. I'm reading food labels closely. If it has a long list of unrecognizable chemicals, it's not going in my body.
TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR HEALTH: To me, this means "vigilant surveillance". I met with a medical oncologist that I trust, Dr. Nadine McKhaeel. We set up a scanning protocol for the next 10 years for my liver and lungs, with blood work, every 6 months. Early detection of metastatic tumors could help my prognosis.
It also means keeping up with the myriad of important checkups and health maintenance actions we need at any age: dental exams and maintenance, eye exams, vaccinations. Small problems can turn into much bigger ones if you neglect basic health care. Make time and prioritize it.
Early this morning, I had the first abdominal ultrasound. The results are exactly what I hope to maintain: "no evidence of cancer in your liver".
Today would have been my friend Sheri's 70th birthday. She passed away on February 21 after a three-year ordeal with cancer. Her courage inspired me and I miss her.
I plan to explore more on the emotional/spiritual aspect of healing in another post.
2 comments:
Hello bday twin! I LOVED this post and copied the "rules" and printed them out. As a fellow anti-cancer warrior I believe that any changes we can make to give ourselves the best shot possible should be taken. That said....finding the joy in life sometimes means a doughnut :-). Personally I have taken on the challenge of reducing inflammation which meant losing weight. I am down 33 pounds and feel so much better. I also changed my cancer meds to ones that didn't make me feel like a crazy person. My daily mantra is no or little stress.....even while watching a 6 month old on weekdays! We can do this. We can be healthy and live very long lives. And we can look and feel awesome doing it!! I love you Susan - keep up the great fight! Andy
Dear Andrea "sister in spirit",
I LOVED this response! Literally, tears in my eyes. You are spot on with what it takes to live our best lives. My jaw dropped that you have lost that much weight. I'm going to call you to see exactly how you did that. You're amazing!
Love you back <3
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