Amping Up

Team Tuber-Removal has been chosen and the Tuber-Removal Plan has been (mostly) established!

Have I mentioned that I'm the luckiest girl in the world?  What a week - I have such immense, overwhelming gratitude for the team of incredible doctors I've surrounded myself with as I spent the week planning chemo-radiation therapy.  I'm astounded by their willingness to bend over backwards by working late, calling on favors, and answering every question I can possibly fathom.  It might need a new word - INCREDITUDE.  ASTOUNDITUDE.  OVERWHELMEDITUDE.

Meetings with my radiation oncologist, Dr. S., and uber-oncologist, Dr. G this week determined that the most effective tuber-removal plan for me is a combination of chemotherapy and targeted, conformal radiation.  The radiation will obviously begin to kill the tumor, but as always, allowing the tumor more space could actually cause it to regrow or become more aggressive.  So we'll be giving the little tuber a one-two punch with an oral drug I can take at home once a day called Temodar through the duration of the radiation treatment to keep it knocked back as the radiation eliminates it.

Tomorrow I go in for my final pretreatment scans, x-rays, and further consult with Team Tuber Removal.

I begin 33 days of radiation at the Cancer Center of Santa Barbara on Tuesday, with radiation days five times a week for seven weeks.  I will be taking the Temodar every day for the entire seven weeks.

The complementary plan:
Recent travel, my stay in the hospital, and more travel have all gotten me quite steered off my intensive months of the highly raw, plant-based nutrition program I'd been following to keep my body maximally healthy for my healing journey.  I resigned myself to the dietary changes, going with the flow, despite knowing that I'd have to do a bit of detoxing to get back to where I was prior to three weeks ago.  Especially in the hospital - upon hearing of my vegetarian requests, I received primarily pasta, bread and pancakes.  Yummy, but not much greenery!

So time to shift gears and get back to providing my body with all the raw, clean, whole foods I can provide her.  Boyfriend and I stocked the refrigerator with produce and supplies from our fabulous Isla Vista Co-op the other day and have reinstated Operation: JUICE.  Let the healing power of nourishment by whole, locally grown, organic foods begin!

To give my body a frest start, I'll be going in for a colonic this week with Alice's Natural Health Care in Santa Barbara.  I've long believed in the healing effects of colon cleansing after many years of poor eating habits and digestive struggles, but only been introduced to colonics through Alice.  The results of my first colonic a few months ago were incredible, and I'm looking getting my system back on track and prepared to take in all the nutrition I'll be providing, as effectively as possible, in the the next months.  And Alice is one of the wonders of the world, a grandmotherly, healing type, who spends equal parts educating her patients on nutrition and holistic remedies as she does performing the actual colonic service.

As long as we're on this thread of WAY TOO MUCH INFORMATION, I'll just keep going.  In the midst of my strongest juicing efforts this summer, I was juicing two to three times per day and often telling friends how incredible I felt, in spite of the fact it seemed I didn't have to eat much solid food.  One of the common comments was, "Don't you have the runs or something?"  But my answer was a big, fat NO.  I'd explain that I regularly battle constipation (Anal? Who, me?) and that for the first time in my life, I was actually regular.  So there you have it.  I'm a thirty-two year-old expert on pooping and hemmoroids.  Ask me anything.  So colonics?  Another key to ultimate health.

I will need to be cautious with my exposure to illness as chemotherapy is so detrimental to the immune system, and the immune-suppressing effects of the Decadron I'm taking to keep swelling in my brain to a minimum has already been evidenced by a case of steroid-induced acne.  Vanity moment: First a brain tumor, now adolescent-style, bumpy, erupting acne?   So I'll be keeping a bottle of Immune Boost on myself at all times.  Cold and flu season is here, and this preventative remedy will assist me at keeping the threat of virus-borne illness at bay during my treatment.

My treatments at Dr. Zhu's Neuro-Accupuncture in San Jose went incredibly well, as my brain function, clarity, and energy steadily increased during my week of treatment there.  I'd been complaining of the side effects of the seizure medication, but hadn't realized just how foggy, scattered, and unfocused I had really become, until I felt such incredible shifts following accupuncture.  I can carry on a conversation without dropping words and losing track of what I'm talking about for the first time in months.  My handwriting has improved, after becoming worse and worse all summer.  Attempts to multi-task are no longer interuppted by confusion, frustration and overwhelm.  Exhilarating.  I will certainly be going back to San Jose as needed during or following radiation treatment here in Santa Barbara.

I'll affectionately refer to my complementary team of healers as Team Love The Tuber into Oblivion.  My healer, shaman, and Reiki master friends are on call and ready to assist as I embark on my healing journey.  I couldn't feel more supported and blessed to have them in my corner.

The single, most powerful tool I have in my healing toolbox is meditation.  I have increased my practice to several hours a day, and the effects are far more powerful that I could have imagined!  I can hold a groundedness and clarity throughout my day like I've never known, even before brain tumor.  It's just as Boyfriend pointed out just over a month ago: All the nutrition and healthy raw food in the world aren't going to help me if I can't control my mind.  And now that I've found the way to control my mind, without fail, I know that my spiritual practice is the KEY ingredient to healing myself from within.

Which I fully intend to do.