My Return to Work

I returned to work on Thursday, August 1.  Dr. Cervantes wasn't too excited about me returning so soon or at all for that matter, but he understood that it needed to be for my family.  He agreed that I could try it out, but only for 4 hours at a time.

Work itself isn't the hard part.  The hard part is making sure I get my 13 juices and 5 coffee breaks in during the day.  Not only that, I am still doing the castor oil twice a week.  I figured the best way to make it work is to wake up an hour earlier.  If you do that, I will do a 5am coffee break, an 8:30am coffee break, and an 11:45am coffee break before I have to make it to work at 1pm.

I also had to figure out my green drinks.  I have no problems with the carrot drink because they keep for about 4 hours and keep their nutritional value. The green drink only keeps for about 15 minutes, so there's no way I'm taking those to work.  So, I decided that I could start my meals and breakfast an hour earlier too.  Breakfast at 7am with my orange juice and then an 8am green.  This is quickly followed by my 8:30am carrot/apple juice and the 9am carrot apple juice.  I will then have a 10am carrot juice and an 11am green juice.

At this point I'm getting ready for work, so I have to prepare all my juices for work and still get my last green juice and lunch in.  I work it out so that I eat lunch between 11am and 11:30am.   I quickly get my last coffee break in, and then I make two carrot juices and two carrot/apple juices to take to work.  Lastly I will make another green juice and drink that down really quick.  It keeps me busy and on my toes, but it can be done especially if you prep all the veggies, etc. the night before.

Honestly work seems like a piece of cake after I run the marathon I do at home just to get ready for work. It is strange to be at work though.  Right before my surgery, I took a new job at an out patient imaging center. It is a godsend now.  I don't know if I could keep up at the hospital now.  The only drawback with the new job is I left about one week into it.  I was gone for about 3 months.  Combine that with learning new computers and machines and adding x-ray and DEXA into the mix, and I was a bit overwhelmed for sure. Thankfully x-ray is coming back pretty quickly, and DEXA is coming along.  My co-workers have been pretty patient with me, so that's a big bonus.

When 5pm comes around and it's quitting time, I hit the door running.  I know that when I get home, I have to hurry with my next coffee break, get dinner going, and make the rest of my juices.  Oh, and there is fitting in some family time before the boys head to bed.  It is doable.  Thank goodness for a wonderful husband. Without him, I'm pretty sure this whole thing would not work.

It really isn't too horrible.  I usually have dinner ready for myself the night before, and Nick is okay getting himself and the little ones fed.  It has happened a couple of time where I will have something in the slow cooker, but let's be realistic.  This doesn't happen much.  When I finish my coffee break, I hurry and make my 6pm apple/carrot juice.  Then I scarf my potato, yogurt, and soup.  Rather than wait for 7pm to come around for the last drink of the day, I just hurry and make my green juice as soon as dinner is finished.  This way I can hurry and clean up and spend the rest of the night with the kiddos before bed.

The boys go to bed anywhere between 7pm and 8pm depending on how they are acting.  Usually, it is closer to 8pm.  I am usually suckered into "sleeping" with the oldest to get him to go to bed (at least 3 times a week).  I don't mind this, but then there is usually less time for me to make my Hippocrates soup and prep the veggies for the next day.  By 9pm it is time for my last coffee break, and then I get to go to bed.

To me now it seems overwhelming at times, but I do know it is doable.  It just takes some getting used to and lots of practice, and then I'm set.  Looking forward to that day...

My July Labs and Phone Consult

7/30/13

It is time to update my new blood results.  Every month I have a CBC with auto differential, a comprehensive metabolic, a TSH, a T4 Free, and and a urinalysis done.  I found a prescription pad from good Dr. Cervantes a few days before the blood draw, and I found that he also wanted a full lipid panel and vitamin D tested as well, so that's what we did.  

On my CBC, everything was within normal limits.  Dr. Cervantes had nothing to worry about from this simple test.  

On the auto differential, he specifically pointed out the neutrophils and the lymphocytes and said they were great and indicated that I was having a great immune system response.  This month also my eosinophils were at a much better limit hopefully meaning that my allergies from meds or even seasonal allergies weren't bothering my system at all.  Yay!

My metabolic panel was showing great liver and kidney function.  My potassium was a touch high he said, but within normal limits, so he recommend that I decrease my potassium compound.  My sugars or glucose were also good.  My calcium and protein showed that they were also within normal limits.  This can sometimes be a worry for a person that has so many food restrictions, but this is something I don't have to worry about.

My lipids or blood cholesterol looked very good.  My HDL (my good cholesterol) was a bit low, but considering that my cholesterol in general was quite low (I'm eating no animal fat and just a bit of flax seed oil every day), I think I will overlook this one.

My TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) came back in the normal range this time around.  It rose from less than 0.02 to 2.27 this time.  Exactly right.  I was taken off of the thyroid grain last tie due to this, and luckily my metabolism is still doing well.  

Once again my T4 Free is within normal range.

My vitamin D test shows that I'm running a bit low here.  Not surprising seeing that I have been told to stay out of the sun, and if I go into the sun, I'm to wear long sleeves and a hat at all times.  To counter my slightly low vitamin D, Dr. Cervantes has recommended I take 5000 IU (international units) of vitamin D3 a day.  Easy fix!

Lastly we have my urinalysis here.  I forgot to have it ordered, so I did a quick one at my doctors office, but can be confusing if you don't know how to read it, so I will translate.

Leukocytes: negative, Nitrites: negative, Urobilinogen: 0.2, Protein: negative, pH: 7.5, Occult blood: positive, Specific Gravity: 1.005, Ketones: negative, Bilirubin: negative, Glucose: negative, Color: yellow, Clarity: Clear.  

All within normal limits except the blood part, but that can be accounted for since I was on my period at the time of the test.  

So, here's my new hourly schedule.  Not much different than the last one.  

Just to give a quick run down of the differences, I made a very short list.

1. Lower Potassium compound from 3 tsp./ drink to 1 tsp./drink.
2. Supplement with 5000 IU of vitamin D3 per day
3. Change enema formula to 8 oz. coffee in 24 oz. of distilled water 

Pretty much everything looks and sounds good in my book.  Looking forward to another good month in August!

More Than the Physical

It is my personal opinion that my diagnosis of breast cancer was not just a sign of my physical health in distress but also my mental, emotional, and spiritual health as well.  I have seen it in my line of work many times where stress or a traumatic event has caused a patient to manifest physical illness.  For me it was a wake up call to find me. It was time to take care of issues I had set aside or forgotten.

I did some research on this, and I found some credible sources that agree with me on the subject.  I will include some of them here in case you are of a curious mind as I sometimes can be...

http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Womens_Health_Watch/2008/July/Anxiety_and_physical_illness

http://faculty.weber.edu/molpin/healthclasses/1110/bookchapters/stresseffectschapter.htm

http://www.csun.edu/~vcpsy00h/students/illness.htm

http://www.naturalnews.com/039576_christiane_northrup_hidden_emotions_mental_health.html

I'm not saying that I have had a terrible life or that I am crazy, but I am saying that in the rush of growing up and wanting to be an adult, I forgot to really live my life.  I became a drone.  I had to go to school.  I had to find a job.  I needed to get married.  I needed to have kids.  Somewhere in there I lost myself.  Don't get me wrong.  I love being a wife and a mother more than anything, but I did forget to take care of myself.  I think we often do.

So once I got this wake up call, I decided to take care of myself in many different ways.  The first thing I did was take care of myself physically with the surgery and lifestyle change of the Gerson Therapy.  After that, it was time to take care of myself mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.  So far I have done a few different things.

First, I started Rapid Eye Technology or RET.  Now you want to know what RET is, huh?  To describe this, I will quote directly from the official RET website.

"RET is a natural, safe way to release stress and trauma. RET simulates REM sleep, your body’s own natural release system. This powerful quick release happens without reliving the trauma. Accessing the whole mind/body system while in an awake state allows you to be in control of your own journey. RET empowers individuals to live a happy, productive life by releasing negative belief systems, negative thought forms, and emotions—all of which contribute to emotional stress."

This information and more can be found at their website http://rapideyetechnology.com.

So far I have had just a few sessions, but I feel good afterwards.  There are many scripts as they put it that deal with different issues, so I feel as though I may as well go through all of the scripts to take care of as much as possible.  All I know is it can't hurt me in any way.

After my diagnosis, I wanted to explore meditation.  I saw a local family practice doctor and Osteopathic physician, and expressed to her my wish.  She is very in tune with this side of medicine and just recently she started a class for the public including many of her patients.  I just attended the first class, and already I feel a connection with everyone there.

We spent our time there discussing the topic and creating a community of openness.  We explored stillness and different breathing techniques.  Everyone brought their own experiences and expertise to the group, and that was good to explore different ways of doing things.  I'm pretty excited to learn more with the group.

Another thing I have done is course recommended to me by my mother.  It is called Alchemists Authentic Leadership Course.  It was amazing on so many levels.  It was a class with many different people from many different walks of life.  I not only was able to learn about myself, but I was able to learn through the other's experiences as well.  Here are their guiding values.

Used with permission from the Heartway Foundation

One of the things that I loved so much about the class was that we did body learning.  In my own words body learning was learning mentally, emotionally, and spiritually while using your body to teach you.  It was amazing to me how much my body knew about me already but that I just wasn't getting on all levels.  If you're interested in learning more about this just Google body learning, and you will get a million results.

We also did fun stuff like art therapy, etc.  An example of this is when the instructors told us to draw a tree.  From that drawing, they were able to tell us stuff about ourselves just by looking at the drawing.  It was so fun.

A couple of other drawings I did while in the class...

A drawing of my grandparents' cabin with all the cousins and even a baby and the boat in the corner.

I think I drew a picture of myself as a child because I'm ready to learn and I want to listen to my inner child more often and have fun.  

Music also played a big part in this class.  It is amazing the power that music can have on a person.  It can express so much in in such an emotional way.  We all chose a dance song for an exercise, and it was a big help to bring us closer.  Now every time I hear those songs, I will think of my friends.  

I have to say I learned so much from this class.  The instructors and the rest of the group were amazing.  It is crazy how close you can get to a couple of people that you don't know in just a couple of days if you let it all happen.  I guess with everything we did together it would be hard not to feel close to them.  

Some things that I will take away from this class are that I have so many talents and a lot of life experiences that I can use to help others.  I am more powerful than I ever would have imagined, and I have influenced people for the positive by sharing myself.  In the past I have been hesitant to open to others in fear of being hurt.  I'm working on this.  

I also learned (or more appropriately re-learned) that you can't judge a person by what you see on the outside.  Of course I got the part that we should treat everyone as human and a special child of God, but I never would have guessed that I shared certain life experiences with so many of my classmates until they shared them.  It touched my heart in so many ways.  It made me feel like I was not so alone as I thought many times in my life.  It was even very surprising how much I didn't know about people I had know for years and just didn't see.  I was so blind in so many ways.  It is amazing how we are all connected. 

Of course this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this class and what I learned personally.  I will never forget this class.  I will never forget the people, and I know that I have made some life long friends. 

So far, this is what I have done for myself on more than the physical level.  I will do more.  I have found that this will be a lifelong work to better myself and continually learn and grow and heal and help others.