Hi guys! By now most of you will know my present situation.
We had the results of the scan, and whilst they were not brilliant, they were not completely despairing either. Tumour growth on my liver has continued, albeit it at a much slower pace the last 3 months than the time between my surgery in late October and the PET scan mid- December.
My oncologist said the slower growth was not the result of the last 3 months of chemo - that chemo didn't work. However, it was around Christmas time last year that we began to change, well, everything in our lives. Diet most specifically. And you know what it was, but to repeat: no meat, dairy or sugar. Plant based diet with lots of fresh veg juice daily. The latter becoming more realistic thanks to my lovely friends in Recovery, who gave of their own beleaguered funds to enable me to buy a very capable juicer. Thank you again, guys. Your love continues to overwhelm me! More on that later.
My oncologist and her very capable team told us very early on that there was categorically nothing else we could do for self-treatment. "You're ours for 3 months," said the Reg and lead nurse, somewhat too enthusiastically, I thought.
Scary. However, it was like waving a red flag in front of a bull, because that spurred us on to doing our own research. Big time. Lifestyle change, mindset change. Discussions with a registered Chinese Medical doctor, leading to a prescription which I believe helped mitigate the side effects of the chemo. We did our own makeover! Who needs telly?! Took the..er...bull by the balls, as it were. Very soon, despite the (reduced?) chemo side effects, I began to feel much better in myself. Despite having cancer and a possible fatal prognosis, I felt healthier than I had in years. I began to crave whole foods, and processed foods, particularly sugar based foods, began to taste 'dead'. Lifeless and very unappealing. Vegetables made me feel alive. However, Man does not live on wheatgrass alone, and we had and still have the occasional curry. Mental health food, we call it. It's hard work being healthy! Gentle exercise, too, rather than punishing myself in the gym. The therapist I have been seeing regularly at Maggies has made me feel much better about myself, going over old childhood issues, initiating a healing within that continues to grow and enhances not only my own sense of self, but that of the world around me. He is a music therapist and taps into my musical self very easily. Together we are writing a couple of songs and will go into his recording studio later this month to multitrack record them.
Choose life!
Not the second line chemo treatment I was offered. This drug offered only a 20% chance of having any impact, (it was not a cure), devastating diarrhoea, to the point of hospital admission. This latter was likely because of inflammatory bowel problems I had been diagnosed with. And, to top it all off, 2.7 months of extra life. It was a no brainier. I thought, if I have only a short time left, I don't fancy spending it in a post chemo state.
Choose life!
Which brings me back to my lovely colleagues in Recovery. They are Angels! Well, almost literally. A group of them have banded together to run the Race for Life in Cheltenham in July, in aid of Cancer Research U.K. And they are calling themselves "Steve's Angels"! So my lovely wife Sara, who now has an England Athletics qualification for teaching new runners, is setting up a program and we will all train together. (I offered to don a skirt for the actual race, but didn't think I would fool anyone. Women only.)
If this Amazing Journey has taught me nothing else, it is that I am blessed to be surrounded by people that not only love and care for me, but nurture me as well. I have a new sense of self-worth and a new appreciation of the world around me, and the lovely people that inhabit it. This is Life.
Choose life, indeed.
Please donate to this very worthwhile charity:
https://www.justgiving.com/teams/steves-angels0
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