"probably" disease free

This will be my last post! Our most recent trip to Mayo was last week. I had a scan and blood work on Thurs and Dr. visit on Friday. After chatting with the Doc for a 1/2 hour we got out of him that I am "probably" disease free at this point (just like most men- very noncommittal)!!! He won't call me "cured" for awhile yet, but we're running with disease free for now. The bone has grown back where most of the tumors were (the spine seems to be going a bit slower), and we also talked about getting the plate out of my leg. Doc pulled up the picture of it on the computer, did a small chuckle and said that it is a pretty substantial piece of hardware and he doesn't think an orthopedic doc would want to take it out, but I was welcome to try. I might wait until he calls me "cured" before we go down that route.

Thanks to all of you who came on this journey with me. I have many new friends and old ones that helped me in too many ways to count. I learned that I'm horrible in expressing my love for family and friends, but I do love all of you and want you to know that I could NOT have done this without all the kind words, prayers and good energy. Much less the babysitting, meals, treats, house cleaning, etc...etc...

All my love,
Liz

As good as it gets

There was another scan last week. Things are looking good! Or rather they are looking the same as the Oct scan. I thought we were supposed to be looking for improvement (I know, kinda crazy), but Doc said that it might be "as good as it gets". The bone has grown back on the smaller tumors and the larger ones on the spine show calcification. The bone may not grow back on the spine, but since there is calcification that shows progress and the cancer isn't still chomping away on me bones. Arghhh. Doc said it was good news. So I asked for the next scan to be in 6 months and got a big NO CAN DO. So we compromised and are going out 4 months with the caveat of letting him know if I start to feel like crap. We also asked about getting a PET scan next time and he much prefers the CT. The PET would show cancer activity, but you also get other junk in there (like the time they saw the spots on my lungs and it was just a cold - or when my whole tongue lit up and I thought I had mouth cancer....) so apparently my Doc doesn't like having to deal with people freaking out in his office for no reason. When Doc asked about the leg, I started whining about getting the plate out when the cancer was gone; he agreed to let me know when he is comfortable with that, but it's going to be awhile. Fine.

So what to do with the blog.....By not writing all the time I'm saving you from this:

Cereal for breakfast today, couple of celery sticks and a big green smoothie for lunch. Great day!

Or this:

Brrrr was it cold out. Even the dog didn't want to go outside today.


Or this:

Can you believe the price of organic foods??? What's a girl to eat?

SO. I'm tempted to pull up stake and mosey out of this medium. Haven't decided for sure yet. But I'll let you know if there is never going to be another posting - just so the two of you still reading don't waste your time :)

Ciao

I haven't written anything lately, because on the cancer front there really is no new news. There is news about the girls weekend last month, when Carolyn, Lisa, Terrie and I met Mindy down in St. Pete's. WHAT A BLAST. Before we left, I was really missing my girls, and thought I didn't really need a trip. I couldn't have been more wrong. That trip left me happy, content, feeling special again and was just a darn good time. It is a bit of a letdown to have to put a suit on when there are radiation burns all over my body, along with surgery scars. But as long as I don't care, it doesn't seem like anyone else does either :) However there is something about being able to stare or walk next to the ocean and laugh with girlfriends that is good for the soul.

The next scan is in the beginning of January. No chemo, no medicines, just trying to focus on diet to move this along a bit faster. There was a couple weeks of "what can I possibly be thinking, even if I don't die now, it'll happen within 10 years". That's what has happened to the people that I've known, so why should I expect to be any different? That's a hard one to get through. You tell yourself that there's no guarantee you won't step off the curb and be hit by a bus tomorrow, or I'm lucky to have this time. Both are true, but you still would rather not have the odds stacked up the way they are. I don't know how to explain it, but like I said that was a couple weeks ago. After the trip, I haven't worried at all about it. Thank you God for girlfriends.

Salut

Scan was fine

There's good news :). Joe and I went down to Mayo on Monday for tests, scans and a Dr. visit. Turns out the blood work was fine, the scan showed the smaller tumors are getting even smaller, and the two larger ones are better from the April scan, but the same as the July scan. The fun part was taking steroids since I'm allergic to the contrast dye in CT scans. The idea being they suppress the immune system so that your body doesn't react to the dye. However they also suppressed everything else and I'm left with a nasty cold. No flu, but I'll still be hiding out in the house for awhile. The steroids didn't completely work either, I did have a reaction to the dye in the form of hives on my face and head. Nothing major enough for the nurses to come running, but they stared at me for 1/2 hour after the test. Probably thinking about how cool hives make a person look.....

Now I can stop freaking out about the cancer causing the fatigue and work on the usual suspects. Even though I said I was better at the diet, it could still be improved dramatically. And it's time to start walking again - right after I can breathe. My sister brought up the allergy explanation and that one works pretty well. I felt fabulous last Thurs right after a frost. For now we're going with that!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the calls, emails, cards and comments. I feel truly blessed.

Full disclosure

We're back on the rollercoaster :). I've been tired for about a month and keep waiting to feel better. For awhile it made sense that it was diet (it was summertime after all), but I've been doing better on the diet and still feel crappy. My teeth hurt sometimes, my sinuses hurt sometimes and my intestines aren't happy with me sometimes. There have also been a couple sore in my mouth, which I haven't seen since the last of the chemo. Last week I went to see Dr. Timmerman and he checked my thyroid and blood counts. Since we haven't heard anything, I'm guessing I'll get the card in the mail saying everything looked fine. Isn't odd when you go in HOPING for a sinus infection or a thyroid problem?? I also asked about anything I could think of, lactose intolerance, celiac, a flu bug that won't develop or go away, dehydration, ANYTHING but the big C. So this morning I finally bit the bullet and called Mayo and asked for the next scan to be moved up. We haven't rec'd a schedule yet, but it was supposed to be around the end of Oct.

I guess you look for any explanation other than the obvious.... it's like knowing there's an elephant in the room but still trying to figure out where that big pile of crap came from. So I haven't written anything, but since you're asking, it looks like I'll need your prayers, thoughts and good energy for a little bit longer. Please. In the time before the scan, I'll still be trying to figure out if there are other animals in the room that could also have left a pile of poo. You never know, maybe there's a rhino hiding behing the elephant!

Where's summer?

School starts in 1 1/2 weeks. Can't believe it. We have tried to pack as much as possible into this summer and I'm now tired. So are the kids, so it's been very successful! Last week we were on a houseboat in Voyageurs Nat'l Park. Very, very beautiful and more fun than any of us expected. Mom bid on a houseboat at a raffle and had the high (and only) bid. We were a little worried about the weather (Mary said that if it rained, we wouldn't need to see each other again until Thanksgiving), but the weather was fabulous and we swam Sat and Sun. Most of us jumped off the slide in the back which was the favorite part for my kids. I'll post some pictures next time.... There was also a tickle fight which was the favorite part for a couple of the other kids. Lots of laughs, lots of food, lots of sun. Hard not to have a good time!

I have yet to golf this summer, Joe wants to go up to the Wilderness for a round, and there is a hike on the way up to the cabin we still haven't done. There is also the tube ride down a river that I promised a nephew and that will have to wind up the summer. The State Fair is here and this is the first year that I'm not looking forward to the cheese curds. There is probably not a ton of health food out there, but we'll survive :)

It's been a year since the first surgery, and I'm still kickin'. The moral of the story is not to let ANYONE label you based on statistics.

Summers are grand!

Grand Canyon Nat'l Park

The trip out West was incredible, we managed to squeeze in everything I wanted to see! The Grand Canyon was, of course, awesome. The hike we chose was mostly in the shade, and I kept Kate on the inside of the trail while we went down (and up). We did not make it to the bottom and some day we're going to do that, but not this time.

The next day we went up to Page AZ, and took a smooth water raft trip down the Colorado toward the Grand Canyon. The raft went through Glen Canyon and was very pretty. Joe claims I got into a fight with the guides, but they wanted us to sit on the tubes of the raft and I was worried about the kids (ok Kate) falling into the 46 degree water. If it was a fight, I lost since we all ended up on the tubes. No one fell off and we all managed to survive getting into the water at one of the stops.

Glen Canyon

After the raft ride, we went to Monument Valley. Beautiful, but you can sure tell it's not a National Park. The NP's are run SOO well, with maps, hikes, roads, bathrooms etc.... so from there we went up to Moab to sleep so we could hike in Arches Nat'l Park the next day.

Arches Nat'l Park

From there we did another marathon drive over to the West Utah and stayed in Cedar City. From there we headed for Bryce Canyon and the next day was Zion Nat'l Park. Both were gorgeous, but I think I like Bryce a bit better since the formations (hoodoos) were more unusual.

The kids didn't fight (much) and we ended up in Las Vegas for the last two nights and stayed by the pool. We were at Mandalay Bay (my friend Keith works for MGM and got us a deal), but since we checked in late, we were upgraded to the Four Seasons. Since the Four Seasons didn't have queen beds, I wanted to go back to Mandalay, but they were booked up. Joe claims I'm the only one in the history of Vegas that wanted to get out of the Four Seasons. It worked out for the best, because we could use the Mandalay's pool but they couldn't use ours. So we would go over to the wave pool and lazy river at Mandalay, then come back for quiet time at our pool. The quiet pool also had all the perks, they brought around frozen melon balls, cleaned sunglasses, had ice cold pitchers of lemon water at the tables which they kept filling with ice, evian face spritzers (yes, they sprayed our faces with Evian water), cold face towels. It was sweet. And we were on the 36th floor so we had an incredible view. Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Good news!

The scans showed that things are getting better! The radiologist said "incremental improvement in all areas". The spot on my hip looked really good, just a little bit of cancer left, and the spots on my spine were a little better than have been. There were no new spots and I couldn't see the spots on my lungs this time (they must have been from a cold last time). ALL excellent news. We chatted about a trial with the doc again. He is still going to be looking for a clinical trial, but would now only consider ones without much for side effects and that wouldn't require us going down to Rochester all the time. I'm still not sold on the clinical trial, especially when things are moving the right way, but told him he could let us know if he found anything. Then we talked about the Grand Canyon and rafting down the Colorado. It was the best visit to Mayo in almost a year.

We did book the trip to Utah, we fly into and out of Vegas and I'm hoping to see the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Arches, Bryce (and possibly Zion), and take a raft trip from Page for 1/2 day. Yes, it is a little aggressive but, except for the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and the raft trip, everything is negotiable. It's also likely we'll be in some sort of heat shock since it has NOT been too warm here this summer. When I was calling and booking a couple hotels, I asked one of the agents if their outdoor pool was heated and was promptly told "honey, it's 106 out here, you don't need a heated pool". Live and learn.....

summertime

Yes, I've been remiss in my blogging duties, but summer is here and we've been busy! There was Historic Fort Snelling, the Wiesman museum, a couple weeks at the cabin, Kate's birthday party and still trying to get things organized/cleaned around the house. The first month with the girls home from school was harder, I was always tired, but now I can keep up (mostly)! I feel great, and don't have any symptoms of "the illness" which means I've been able to run around. That also means that I've done a few clutzy things, like fall off the 4-wheeler and have it run over my leg, and hurt my shoulder while vacuuming (if that doesn't prove I'm old I don't know what does), drop some chicken breasts in the oven - yes this is after the quiche. At least there was nothing that caused permanent damage!

We are in town for this week and next. Jenna wants her birthday party early and up at the cabin, so we're there for the weekend. Next week is another scan and tests (Wed at 10am, say a little prayer). Then I hope to either be back at the cabin or in Utah looking at National Parks. Still haven't decided. I'd like to believe that there will be plenty of time to see these things, but I've also learned that it's best not to procrastinate the things you really want to do.... I'll post the results of the scan, but probably won't be on again until next week. Have a good one!

SuperHero!

We had an awesome weekend. Joe's sister and brother-in-law came down from ND for the weekend and stayed at a hotel with a pool. The girls were in heaven!! They swam Sat and Sun and still didn't want to get out on Sun night to eat. Jeanne and Gary even went to school to have lunch with Kate (Jenna had a picnic and parents weren't allowed) on Monday. Kate came in for lunch, zoomed right past me and gave Gary a hug. Now I know what Joe feels like :) There was even some excitement! Saturday at the pool, Joe fished a little 1 or 2year old out of the deep end and saved her from drowning. She had wandered out of her hotel room and stepped right into the pool. Joe saw it happen, ran over and grabbed her, and pulled her out. The pool was so busy, no one had even noticed the little girl. Then it turns out, he's done this BEFORE! Back in the late 80's he fished a little kid about the same age out of a lake. There were other people there, but they thought the girl was bobbing along. Joe had been parking a boat trailer, realized she was drowning, ran past the other people, jumped in the lake and pulled her out. It's fairly ironic that he's saved more kids than some lifeguards, and he can't swim. One kid would be a hero, but two earns him Superhero status!!

Summer is supposed to be starting, but it barely got to 60 degrees yesterday. Today it will be all the way up to a whopping 64 degrees. Today is also the last day of school. We're all excited about having the summer to play (although I'm a tad nostalgic about my loss of freedom). We're going to start by having sleep overs tonight. That way we can begin the summer by being tired and cranky tomorrow! Hopefully they'll have enough fun tonight that tomorrow will be a nice peaceful day. If all else fails we can go to a matinee.

No Chemo

Hurray!! No chemo for the summer!! I'll get another scan in July and agreed to go in if I start feeling crappy or develop other symptoms, but since that's not going to happen NO CHEMO for the summer! My tumors aren't getting worse, they aren't getting better, they must be trying to figure out how to get out gracefully. The Dr. and I disagreed on whether the last round of chemo did any good. He claims that since I didn't have any progression, it must have been the chemo. I claim that since there hasn't been any progression since the Sept scan, it must not have been the chemo. There is no way of knowing for sure. Except, I'm right.

The company that tests the tumors against chemos needs fresh or frozen tissue. Mine is packed away in something like formaldehyde and wouldn't work. The doc didn't think he could get a surgeon to remove the one on my hip just for testing, so I have to check and see if they would be able to run their tests with whatever they could get from a needle biopsy. I thought the argument that the illness is gone only from the spots where the tumors were removed surgically, should warrant the removal of at least one more, but he didn't buy it. He still wants me on a clinical trial instead of another round of chemo, we'll talk more as the summer winds down.

For now it's explore Minnesota time. I'd like to take the girls camping (once), but since neither Joe or I are campers, we'll have to see if that actually gets done. I'm sure there will be adventures, both in the backyard and upstate. Here's hoping that everyone has a fabulous, safe, summer!

It's June!!

Jenna now has braces! Looks like a lot of metal on a little kid. She almost, yes almost, couldn't eat her chocolate cake last night. I'm sure it hurts, but she seems to manage for chocolate! Dr. visit today. We need to ask about delaying chemo for the summer, trying the company that tests chemos against your tumor, and get a better idea of the results of the last scan. There was a spot on my right hip which I assumed was the old spot, but the old spot is on the left hip. Joe said something after the appt, but I poo pooed him. Now I have to 'fess up and tell him he was right. HATE THAT!

Things are still going so well. I still can't believe my diagnosis compared to how I feel. I have never been so peaceful, calm and grateful for everything in my life. How do you compare that to the crap eating my bones? Since the trip out West is probably off for the summer, I would like to take the family to some of the state parks in MN. It would be fun to see a couple waterfalls, the headwaters of the Mississippi, the North Shore with the kids, and a couple museums for me. All scheduled around playdates, cabin trips and ortho appointments.

FYI, last week I made a yummy quiche with spinach. It was homemade (it was the first time I didn't pour it out of a box), and I dumped upside down in the oven 1/2 way through the baking time. Joe ended up cleaning it the next day since he is more anal, I mean detailed than I am. Bummer. We went out to eat instead and the rest of the weekend the kids would say that Dad should cook instead of me so that nothing got dropped. Since that was the first time destroying the meal and the oven, I refuse to listen. We're going to try and have quiche again tomorrow!

It's raining ducks

I spend most of my time convinced, or convincing myself that I'm not sick. By the way, we're no longer saying I have cancer, now it's just an "illness". It works most of the time, but there are those moments when you just get blindsided by the "illness" slapping you in the face. Pretty much whenever I try to plan something more than a week out, will I have chemo? Or when you hear about someone who's not doing well. Farrah Fawcett is all over the tv and internet. Or when you worry about the waffles you just ate, even if they did have real maple syrup on them. A whole foods diet is much harder than you think. Maybe it would be easier if I had a guarantee that it would work. Funny how life doesn't hand you any guarantees. Ha, ha.

It's been nice enough to go for bike rides, plant flowers, and avoid housework. Hopefully the sun will burn off the last of the colds that the girls and I have been carrying around for a couple weeks. It's soccer season and it would be nice if the weather would warm up a tad for us parents sitting on the fields....Kate asked me this morning if she was going to score a goal. WHAT did I do with that crystal ball?? She just figured out that Joe and I were boyfriend and girlfriend before we got married. For some reason that was just hilarious. Then she wanted to know if all the boys were sad when I married daddy. Bless her heart. Yes, Kate, they were devastated, crying for weeks, some of them are still in therapy....wait, that's Joe.

Next Dr. visit is the beginning of June, right after Jenna gets her braces (it is NOT fun watching your 8 year old get 4 teeth yanked out of her mouth). No scans, but conversation on next steps for treatment. I still want to have the chemos tested against my tumors before they go in the bod, hopefully delaying treatment until the end of summer.

For those of you that have seen the movie "Earth", they show two baby ducks falling out of a tree from 5 different camera angles, so Kate said it was raining ducks. It's not nearly as cute in the retelling, but it still makes me laugh!

Too much thinking

Here's what I'm thinking......the scan last week didn't show any real movement in the tumors since last September. Since chemo works on rapidly dividing cells, the only thing it would be working on would be my hair since the cancer is taking a little break. Therefore I should be able to postpone chemo for the summer !! :) YES I will discuss this with the Dr and probably find out why my theory is flawed, but I'm really enjoying getting out. The weather is great and I feel great. Although it was too hot for the dog on the walk today. We went about 1 1/2 blocks when she stopped and looked at me. She communicated telepathically that it was too hot for a 13 year old, black dog. So, we turned around and went home and I had to finish the walk on my own.

There was also a news story on Kare 11 about Precision Therapeutics. They test chemos against your tumor in the lab to see if they work BEFORE you shoot up. It doesn't always work since the body has a million variants the lab doesn't. Yet, doesn't it sound like a good idea? The last chemo didn't do anything, it would be nice to know which ones might....

Updates

Happy hour last week was great. It was SOO nice to see people that I talk to all the time as well as those friends that you only see at events like a happy hour! I had so much fun, but the time went too fast. We'll have to have another after the next round of chemo!!

More tests and pokings last Thurs and Friday. The scan shows that there is still cancer in the same spots, but probably not anything new. I say probably because I had a cold and there were a couple lymph nodes that lit up in my chest. The Dr. said they could have been cancer or the cold, we'll have to keep an eye on it. Other than that there were no new spots and the two spots that were new last time didn't pop up. It did make me a bit mad, since I called before the scan to check on rescheduling due to my cold. The response I got was that the machine could tell the difference between a cold and cancer. HA, not on me. Now we have to wait another 3-4 months to find out, when I would have been perfectly fine waiting a couple more weeks for the scan. The results could have been better, could have been LOTS worse. I still have time to figure out how to get rid of this disease. The report from NY is still not in, the Dr out there had a death in the family and was out for a couple weeks. Even though I was scheduled to start a clinical trial on Monday, we agreed to postpone for a week so that we could discuss the chemo regimen that the NY Dr suggested.

I'm getting used to this feeling good thing, not excited about starting chemo again. I keep trying to keep in mind that it's a short term bad for a long term good, but I'm more of an immediate gratification type of person :)

DC

Ok, I didn't get this done last week...I ended up with some nasty cold that is taking it's time leaving. BUT better late than never. Happy Hour tonight, I'm very excited! I'll be there from 5:30 to 7pm. Pretty sure I won't last much longer than that :)

DC was incredible. We all had so much fun. There were no schedules, we bought trolley tix so we could just hop on and off whenever we felt the need. The weather was ok, Sunday was beautiful, the rest of the days were overcast, but manageable. By the time we were tired from sightseeing everyday the girls would want to go swimming, and since neither Joe or I could do marathon walking, everyone was tired at the same time. The day at the Easter Egg Roll was interesting, Kate did NOT want to be there and kept insisting we leave. Jenna was a good sport and would at least let us take her picture (as you can see, Kate is not good at cooperating for pictures, ever).

Ellie, Liz and Andrew met us for dinner one night and the girls wanted to adopt Ellie. They had so much fun playing with her, Kate actually let me take her picture..... We saw the monuments, the zoo, the White House south lawn (even the new swingset and garden), and didn't once worry about cancer, diet, chemo, etc! It was beautiful :)

Happy Hour

I'll talk about the D.C trip tomorrow (it was SOOO much fun), but wanted to get more details out on the happy hour next week. Time has been rushing past the last couple weeks, but it's time to take a break, see some friends and celebrate! Since I'm off chemo -at least for 4 weeks - and Joe's out of the hospital and can walk without a limp, it's time to celebrate :) Next Wednesday the 22 let's meet at the Santorini's in Eden Prairie for Happy Hour. I would like to see YOU. People keep asking what they can do, and I understand the need to want to help, so, well, show up. That will help lift my spirits in ways that gifts and things can't! Let's have some laughs, catch up and have FUN before what little hair there is falls out again.

busted

Jenna was asking questions the other day while I was trying to finish something on the computer and only 1/2 paying attention to her. Unfortunately she asked if I was going to hide Easter eggs this year (since we'll be in DC) and I responded with "of course, we hide them every year". Whoops. IMMEDIATELY both Jenna and Kate start on me about the Easter Bunny and isn't he real? doesn't he hide the eggs? Now it's a very slippery slope from the Easter Bunny to Santa Claus and I really didn't want it to go there. So I shot back some lame explanation about how we don't know when the Easter Bunny shows up, so we've just always hid the eggs. Not sure if they bought it, but then I distracted them with ice cream.

I feel much better after dropping the protein, raw garlic diet, and am really looking forward to DC!

Happy Easter to those who celebrate, have a GREAT weekend to everyone.

Close call

Kate is "star of the week" at school. We had to create a posterboard with pictures that are important to Kate and she gets up in front of the class to talk about them. She asked Grandma to come and Joe and I were there as well. It is just amazing that a girl who can be heard 2 blocks from home when she's playing, has a hard time speaking loud enough for the 2nd row in class to hear her. It was a lot of fun to see how different she acts when all the attention is on her vs. when she is trying to get all the attention :)

Good news about D.C.. Joe had requested a Capital Tour from Erik Paulsen's website. They called yesterday after we were home from NY and said they could get us into the White House Easter Egg roll!! I can't wait! Just us and 35,000 of the Obama's closest friends. We're still waiting to get the email on the dress code....that could be rather interesting. Hopefully the scanner to get into the grounds won't be any more powerful than the one at the airport. I would hate to be tackled in front of the girls at the White House just because the plate in my leg set off some kind of sensor!

The close call came this morning from Ebony. Mom had said on Monday Ebony had a hard time getting around in the morning. Today when Joe let her out he had to carry her back in because her back legs weren't working. We all thought this was it, and by the time we got to the vet I was bawling. The vet came in and looked her over and said that she has old dog vestibular disease. It should go away in a week or two!!! She said it was the best news you can get for a dog Ebony's age (she'll be thirteen May 2). Can you believe that?? She doesn't even have to take medication, it should get better on it's own. Good news for us! I'm not ready yet to take walks by myself. I tried to prepare the girls this morning in case she wasn't going to be able to come back from the vet with us. They seemed concerned until Kate piped up with "can we get a Pug?". Maybe they won't be as affected as Joe and I when the time finally does come.

New York, New York

We are back from NY! We saw a Dr. at Sloan-Kettering that sees all their unknown primary cancers. He was great. He started by apologizing that he had kept us waiting for, oh, about 45 minutes, but he was reading through all the tests, notes, reports etc. He then sat and talked with us for about an hour and did a short physical exam. He said that there is hope and lots of therapies to try (of course they are all chemo, but I really liked his attitude). He also said that I need a colonoscopy and an endoscopy - yuck - but it makes sense. They would be the last tests to perform that may "uncover" the primary tumor. He had another patient with unknown primary with metastases to the bone and they responded very well to a couple different chemos than I have tried, well enough that they no longer have tumors! Ya gotta like that :). The pathologists at the clinic were not done with the slides from the biopsies, since it took Mayo over a week to look at them, I wasn't surprised. We'll see if the Mayo doc is receptive to trying the chemos the NY doc had success with.....I have a feeling he would rather have me in a clinical trial, but we'll have the discussion!

The other big news is the new/old nutritionist. Karen Hurd in Fall Creek, WI has had many, many successes as a nutritionist, but I'm not going to be one of them. We had a phone consult on Friday and she put me on 6 servings of animals proteins, 6 servings of beans, 4 tsp of freshly minced raw garlic and if possible 5 servings of veggies a day. Also 2000 mg of vit c 4 times a day and 300,000 IU's of beta carotene daily. Couldn't do it. The garlic was oozing out of my pores, my kids wouldn't even kiss me good night. EVERYTHING else I've read talks about veggie proteins or whole grains and reducing animal proteins. Some books talk about eliminating animal proteins, but it looks to me like you should just be careful of the amount, not eliminate. Other books talk about too much beta carotene and how your body isn't able to absorb other nutrients if you're getting too much. Vit C tablets counteract the chemo and the oncologist at SK said that I shouldn't be taking that much vit c. I realize that the oncologists are not nutritionists but on this one I'll agree. So, I've started rereading the nutrition books to see if I can glean any more info from them before trying the next nutritionist. Wish me luck!

PS, the plate in my leg didn't set off the alarms at airport security. Apparently there is enough fat on top of it to minimize the effect :)-