This is the big question of the day, "What does a vegan eat for lunch...or breakfast...or dinner?" As of Friday January 20, I am on a vegan diet. In addition to not eating meat or any animal byproducts, I am also not eating sugar/sugar substitutes, or white flour. Yep, this pretty much eliminates everything you like to eat on a daily basis. My diet will consist of all fruits and vegi's, legumes (beans), and rice. I can eat whole wheat products too. If this diet will help heal my body, I will give it my all. It may be difficult to pass up that bowl of ice cream, or grilled chicken, but if it means I will get better and live longer, there is no question. Life is my main motivation here.
Lance and I went to Costco and got a bunch of Kelly-friendly foods last week, so when I got home I went through my cupboards and stripped them of all foods I no longer eat. I am amazed at everything that has sugar in it! Our fridge has a plethora of condiments/salad dressings/etc. and the only item that did not have sugar or dairy in it was MUSTARD! You better believe I immediately made a veggie sandwich on wheat bread with, probably an overload of mustard. I do not have any allergies to food therefore I have never had problems with worrying about what to eat. I feel for people with specific dietary needs/allergies. In more or less words, it stinks! But on the other hand, why don't we already eat like this?
We live in a society that loads our bodies of toxins because it is quick and convenient and tastes good. Frozen dinners, chips, deep fried chicken strips, chocolate, doughnuts, ice cream, soda pop, McDonalds, and Wendy's value menu to name a few. Have you ever eaten these things? I sure have. Why does it taste good to us? Because we've trained our taste to prefer it. OK, some of you are probably thinking, "What gives you the right to say this, you are generalizing and is not true about me!" You're right, this is a generalization and I'm not saying that everyone needs to cut out everything from the list above, or even that everyone eats these things, but I hope you'll at least think about what you take into your body. I'm only saying this because I've had a wake-up call. If changing my eating habits could potentially help cure me of cancer, think of how it could prevent someone from getting cancer. Food for thought. Ok I'll get off my soap box, I just needed to let that out.
I am almost 2 weeks into chemo and am feeling surprisingly well. After my second treatment I felt ok until Saturday. My stomach was upset and I felt as if a semi just plowed me over. Don't worry though, I took a zofran and slept for a while. By Sunday I was feeling better, just really tired. I have probably mentioned this before, but the main side effect is fatigue. I don't like to sleep too much during the day because then I have a difficult time falling asleep at night, so when I am feeling exhausted I watch a movie and just veg. I will say, it is a nice excuse to just relax without feeling guilty...well sometimes I still feel guilty I'm not doing something productive, but if I overwork myself then I'll be more tired later.
My hair has not fallen out yet. I have heard from cancer survivors and also the nurses that 2 weeks is the average time that it begins to come out. The other day I talked to a lady who kept her hair for about one month. It is very specific to the individual and type of chemo. They also say that not all of your hair falls out. Most people shave their heads because their hair gets so thin and it is easier to be bald than to clean up hair everywhere you go. Then there are the rare cases that you do not lose your hair. I guess I'll just have to wait and find out. I'll keep you updated.
A couple questions I have received are, "How much has the tumor shrunk on your spine from radiation?" and, "How effective was radiation?" I had 14 treatments (3 weeks) of radiation. I began to feel improvement about the second week, meaning the pain lessened from about an 8.5 to 6 on a scale from 1-10. However my back will continue to improve up to 6 weeks after radiation treatments are finished. Since I was scheduled to start chemo a week after radiation, we wouldn't have had 100% accurate results if we tested the effectiveness of radiation because the full effect had not yet taken place. Does that make sense? I can physically notice huge improvement in my back since I began radiation. My pain level is probably a 1 or 0.5 now, however it is not pain as much as a weak uncomfortable feeling. So, sorry to Sue and all of you who like statistics and percentages. My back improving and feeling MUCH better.
If you have questions, feel free to ask. Also, if any of you are vegan, or know of any good vegan recipes, please please please let me know. Thanks!
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
How is chemo?
If you are anything like me, when you think of someone going through chemotherapy, you picture a sickly person who lies in bed all day and only gets out of bed to throw up. This is how the media depicts chemo, however it is a very false statement. Sure this may have been the case 10 years ago but today there are many medications that help with nausea and other side effects. Since I have started treatments I have not thrown up! Yay! I have definitely felt sick, but "cancer treatment" sick is different from "flu" sick. When you have the flu you think, "If only I could throw up I would feel so much better." For me, the sickness I am experiencing would not be any better if I threw up, nor does it induce such feelings. I don't exactly know how else to explain it, so that's what you get.
With that said, it has only been 4 days since my first treatment so my symptoms could become worse than they are at present. The first few days were rough because I came down with a raging fever. The doctor's weren't too worried because I was keeping down liquids (even though water tasted so so gross to me and didn't settle too well on my stomach) and not enough time had passed for them to be concerned I had an infection. A high fever is a sign of infection, so if I have a fever over 100.5 I need to call in. They told me to just keep taking tylenol and if my symptoms became worse to go into the ER. Luckily the fever broke after about a day and a half and now I'm fine. I have heard of this happening to other cancer patients after their first chemo treatment. Think about it, they inject you with a drug that not only kills the bad cancer cells, but also all other fast growing cells. Your body see's it as poison and tries to fight it off, I guess I could see this as a good thing that my body is fighting. I was lucky to have Tim with me Friday night when the fever got up to 102.7. I woke up at 3 am feeling as though I was standing in a furnace. He stayed with me and held my hand until I fell asleep around 6. He takes good care of me.
Saturday morning I was feeling much better and came back up to Logan. I was able to go to all three hours of church on sunday proceeded by a 2 hour nap...lots of drugs makes you tired! And today has been great so far! I don't think this will be as bad as I was expecting it to be, granted it could get worse, but as for now I am doing well.
With that said, it has only been 4 days since my first treatment so my symptoms could become worse than they are at present. The first few days were rough because I came down with a raging fever. The doctor's weren't too worried because I was keeping down liquids (even though water tasted so so gross to me and didn't settle too well on my stomach) and not enough time had passed for them to be concerned I had an infection. A high fever is a sign of infection, so if I have a fever over 100.5 I need to call in. They told me to just keep taking tylenol and if my symptoms became worse to go into the ER. Luckily the fever broke after about a day and a half and now I'm fine. I have heard of this happening to other cancer patients after their first chemo treatment. Think about it, they inject you with a drug that not only kills the bad cancer cells, but also all other fast growing cells. Your body see's it as poison and tries to fight it off, I guess I could see this as a good thing that my body is fighting. I was lucky to have Tim with me Friday night when the fever got up to 102.7. I woke up at 3 am feeling as though I was standing in a furnace. He stayed with me and held my hand until I fell asleep around 6. He takes good care of me.
Saturday morning I was feeling much better and came back up to Logan. I was able to go to all three hours of church on sunday proceeded by a 2 hour nap...lots of drugs makes you tired! And today has been great so far! I don't think this will be as bad as I was expecting it to be, granted it could get worse, but as for now I am doing well.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Port and Chemo!!
Like I said in the last post I am done with radiation! I got a port on monday, which according to some probably isn't a terrible procedure. Ok ok it wasn't so bad, I just don't like not being in control of my body and having a big bandage on my collar bone for 3 days. I will say though it was quite nice lying on the operating bed feeling so tired and just zonking out without any effort. I was so relaxed for the rest of the day, I haven't felt that relaxed in weeks, thank you drugs!!
I always wanted to try this but have never had the opportunity until now. When I was in recovery and since I was all hooked up to a heart monitor I wanted to test a curiosity I have had for some time. I wanted to see if my heart rate would increase during a kiss. I asked ever so politely if Tim would kiss me and as he did, sure enough my heart rate went from the 60's to the 80's. Ok so there were other factors too, they had given me caffeine to help wake me up because I was a little slow in waking. However, I would like to accredit it to the kiss.
I did not go directly to my first chemo treatment after surgery in Logan, in fact I am doing treatments down at the Huntsman center in Salt Lake. I was originally going to stay in Logan for all treatments and had everything set up for Logan. I met with my doctor in Logan and told him I was going to stay and that we could get going with treatments. During that visit he suggested again to get a second opinion at the Huntsman center. I did so later that week and felt very strongly that Salt Lake is where I need to be. There are a lot of things I have considered in making this decision, and I feel really good about it.
I had my first treatment yesterday (1/12/12). I guess the understanding about doctors is always expect it to go longer than they told you. I was in at 8 am and didn't get home until 12:30. Because it was the first visit they did lab work, so they very conveniently accessed my newly implanted port and drew some blood. Every time something goes through the port, they have to do a saline flush. I can taste the saline in my mouth and at first it didn't bother me, but by the end started to make me a little gaggy. Yesterday they gave me two drugs separately. The first was zomeda which is specifically designed to help my bones (update on the back brace below). The actual infusion took about 30 min during which I watched an episode of psych, thanks to Tim who stole it from his sis ;)...let me rephrase that, thanks Steph. Then the gross saline flush and onto the actual chemo, abraxane. This infusion took about 30-45 min, but I wasn't paying too close attention because I was trying to distract myself. It doesn't hurt when the drug is going through the port, but I can feel that something is going in which isn't terribly comfortable. It was nice to have my mom and Sue, my sister in law, there to talk to and take notes for me. It is also nice staying with my sister in Salt Lake until I go back up to Logan. Depending on how I feel, my plan is to go to treatments (on Thursday mornings) and then head back up to Logan on Friday or Saturday so I can be up for church on Sunday. Im just going to play it by ear though.
One cycle of chemo for me goes as follows:
Once a week for 3 weeks, then one week off.
They will do 2 cycles of this before re-evaluating to see how effective it is. Keep in mind that there are dozens and dozens of chemo treatments depending on the individual diagnoses. This is what the doctors have decided specifically for me.
The side effects of abraxane are very manageable. The most common are fatigue, alopecia (hair loss), nausea, and a foggy mind. Whenever I think if chemo, I imagine someone throwing up all the time, lying in bed all day and not able to do much. To contrary belief, I am told by my doctors/nurses that if this happens to me then something is wrong and I need to call because they now have medication that can fix these things. Also that it is good to get out for 15-20 min a day and exercise. I will be limited in my exercising abilities because I do have a back brace and pretty much all I can do now is walk. I have built up in my mind that chemo is going to be awful and that I will be completely incapacitated for the next 4-6 months, however, I do not expect it will be as bad as I think. You know me though, preparing for the worst possible scenario.
I met with an orthopedic doctor about my back. The big question is, "How long will I be in this stupid thing?!" The answer is that I will get an x-ray in one month so he can see how much it has improved. Generally someone in this kind of brace wears it for about 3 months. I have been in mine for just over a month, but my back has been feeling significantly better. I'm hoping to get out of it as soon as possible, however I'll wear it as long as I need if that means protecting my back and a possible spinal chord injury. I'll keep you updated when I find out more.
So, I chopped my hair off and dyed it bleach blonde! Check out my facebook page for the pic. It is more of a coping mechanism than anything because it will be a lot easier to say goodbye to this hair than my real hair, plus it is fun to look like a punk rocker :)
I am feeling ok now, but we'll see as the day/week progresses. I hear that it gets worse after the first day, and by the end of the cycle, however, I am becoming a little more optimistic. I appreciate your prayers, thank you for all the generosity and kindness you have shown me and my family. I know God is watching over you too.
I always wanted to try this but have never had the opportunity until now. When I was in recovery and since I was all hooked up to a heart monitor I wanted to test a curiosity I have had for some time. I wanted to see if my heart rate would increase during a kiss. I asked ever so politely if Tim would kiss me and as he did, sure enough my heart rate went from the 60's to the 80's. Ok so there were other factors too, they had given me caffeine to help wake me up because I was a little slow in waking. However, I would like to accredit it to the kiss.
I did not go directly to my first chemo treatment after surgery in Logan, in fact I am doing treatments down at the Huntsman center in Salt Lake. I was originally going to stay in Logan for all treatments and had everything set up for Logan. I met with my doctor in Logan and told him I was going to stay and that we could get going with treatments. During that visit he suggested again to get a second opinion at the Huntsman center. I did so later that week and felt very strongly that Salt Lake is where I need to be. There are a lot of things I have considered in making this decision, and I feel really good about it.
I had my first treatment yesterday (1/12/12). I guess the understanding about doctors is always expect it to go longer than they told you. I was in at 8 am and didn't get home until 12:30. Because it was the first visit they did lab work, so they very conveniently accessed my newly implanted port and drew some blood. Every time something goes through the port, they have to do a saline flush. I can taste the saline in my mouth and at first it didn't bother me, but by the end started to make me a little gaggy. Yesterday they gave me two drugs separately. The first was zomeda which is specifically designed to help my bones (update on the back brace below). The actual infusion took about 30 min during which I watched an episode of psych, thanks to Tim who stole it from his sis ;)...let me rephrase that, thanks Steph. Then the gross saline flush and onto the actual chemo, abraxane. This infusion took about 30-45 min, but I wasn't paying too close attention because I was trying to distract myself. It doesn't hurt when the drug is going through the port, but I can feel that something is going in which isn't terribly comfortable. It was nice to have my mom and Sue, my sister in law, there to talk to and take notes for me. It is also nice staying with my sister in Salt Lake until I go back up to Logan. Depending on how I feel, my plan is to go to treatments (on Thursday mornings) and then head back up to Logan on Friday or Saturday so I can be up for church on Sunday. Im just going to play it by ear though.
One cycle of chemo for me goes as follows:
Once a week for 3 weeks, then one week off.
They will do 2 cycles of this before re-evaluating to see how effective it is. Keep in mind that there are dozens and dozens of chemo treatments depending on the individual diagnoses. This is what the doctors have decided specifically for me.
The side effects of abraxane are very manageable. The most common are fatigue, alopecia (hair loss), nausea, and a foggy mind. Whenever I think if chemo, I imagine someone throwing up all the time, lying in bed all day and not able to do much. To contrary belief, I am told by my doctors/nurses that if this happens to me then something is wrong and I need to call because they now have medication that can fix these things. Also that it is good to get out for 15-20 min a day and exercise. I will be limited in my exercising abilities because I do have a back brace and pretty much all I can do now is walk. I have built up in my mind that chemo is going to be awful and that I will be completely incapacitated for the next 4-6 months, however, I do not expect it will be as bad as I think. You know me though, preparing for the worst possible scenario.
I met with an orthopedic doctor about my back. The big question is, "How long will I be in this stupid thing?!" The answer is that I will get an x-ray in one month so he can see how much it has improved. Generally someone in this kind of brace wears it for about 3 months. I have been in mine for just over a month, but my back has been feeling significantly better. I'm hoping to get out of it as soon as possible, however I'll wear it as long as I need if that means protecting my back and a possible spinal chord injury. I'll keep you updated when I find out more.
So, I chopped my hair off and dyed it bleach blonde! Check out my facebook page for the pic. It is more of a coping mechanism than anything because it will be a lot easier to say goodbye to this hair than my real hair, plus it is fun to look like a punk rocker :)
I am feeling ok now, but we'll see as the day/week progresses. I hear that it gets worse after the first day, and by the end of the cycle, however, I am becoming a little more optimistic. I appreciate your prayers, thank you for all the generosity and kindness you have shown me and my family. I know God is watching over you too.
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