Christmas Card

This year I did another photo Christmas card, trying to fit as many of our cross country pictures on it as I could, but was only able to select a few of the ones I wanted...

 

And of course, in my true brain tumor fashion (I only remember my head because it's screwed on), I left my name off the card, but did remember to include the dog's name!!

Big Doctor's Appointment

Last Monday, December 17th was my big doctor's appointment up at UCLA. I was planning on staying at the round hotel up there, but since I had just spent the weekend up in Las Vegas for my daughter's cheer competition, we got home too late to drive up there. My husband said "we are only going to spend a few hours in the hotel by the time we get up there, so lets do it another time where we can really enjoy it." So, another time it will be.

The cheer competition was great. Again, my daughter's team took first place. It seems they are always the grand champion at the competitions they go to. They work hard to get it and it definitely pays off!

At my appointment, the first thing in the morning I had an MRI (wish I could sleep in those), but it's hard with all the noise. Then I had to go to see Emma (my surgeon's NP) to get my blood work done and a check up from the vaccine I received last June. From there I went see my oncologist. I was his first appointment and got in right away, which is so nice, and he told us that from my Pet Scan in October there are some "hot spots" in my brain which are residual tumor. Dr. Lai said that my tumor is very slow growing and he will not be able to see any growth until he can compare my last MRI to one that I will get in a year from then. Dr. Lai said he wanted to ask my surgeon, Dr. Liau if another surgery is possible, to which I found out last night she doesn't think it's safe, or he wants to start chemo in the next year. I have started some natural treatments and would like to continue them (also I feel like we should give the vaccine a chance to work), so now Sean and I have some decisions to make.

Why Me?

I have often been asked if if I ever ask myself or God "why me?"

I really haven't but one day near UCLA, there was a drunk bum and Sean asked why not him, why someone who has 4 kids to raise? And I have always just thought that this is God's plan and that something positive would come out of it (and positive things already have).

So, yesterday there was a shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut, in which 20 children were killed by a gun man. Watching the news, and knowing i have kids that age brought me to tears. For someone to take the life on an innocent child, when there is not anything they could have done to protect themselves, he took something so precious and it was so hard to watch. I was thinking what if something like that happened in my kids' elementary school, I would be besides myself. The thought of having to tell one of my children that their friend to brother passed away is just too hard to think about. The gunman killed himself.

All of this got me thinking, why not this guy who has no care about human life and even took his own life. Why couldn't he have been the one to get brain cancer, since he's taking his own life anyways and I have so much I want to live for.

I just had to sit back and think, God has his own plan for my life and that of my kids. All I can do is to cover my children and my family in prayer daily. I also think I should look at it as why not me. I've been blessed by this in so many ways.

Bling, Brain Cancer fundraiser

In my quest to find an alternative/natural treatment for brain cancer, I have discovered that it is quite expensive and insurance doesn't cover one penny of it. Big Pharma really has a hold on our government (but I'll save that rant for another time). So with the help of a friend I decided to hold a fundraiser for my alternative treatments by hosting a Premier Designs Jewelry Party at my house. Many of my girlfriends came, and we had a blast. It was easy and fun.

It was such an easy way to raise money. I was able to hang out with friends and family, while someone else sold the jewelry! And the best part is that I will receive about $500 for alternative treatments, some of which I have already started. But now I will be doing more! I'm going to start with grinding up the inside of apricot seeds, which have vitamin B-17 (Big Pharma had the FDA make it illegal to see in the US, but many other countries use it for cancer treatment).

The party was a success and I even got a bit of free jewelry. I would love to someday become a consultant to make a little extra money for my treatments, but I will have to wait until Ben is in school.

I will soon be checking another thing off my bucket list

There is a hotel in West LA that I have always wanted to stay at. It's a round hotel and I have often wondered what it looked like on the inside, when I have driven by it. Because of my curiosity of it, I decided to add it to my bucket list, which my husband laughs at (but I laugh at his wanting to drive a Ferrari up the California Coast)!

 

 

On December 17th, I have my next BIG doctor's appointment. I will be getting my 3 month MRI, seeing my surgeon for  6 month check on the clinical trial vaccine I got in May and June, and seeing my Oncologist to see if anything is growning or changing in my brain. I always get very nervous before my appointments, and stress/worry a lot. But this appointment starts at 7am, so we either leave our house in San Diego at 4am or stay the night up there. My wonderful hubby said we could stay at the round hotel the night before. I'm finally feeling excited for my appointment, my stress has melted away this time! Although this hotel used to be a Holiday Inn, it has been remodeled into a nice boutique hotel, and in West LA near UCLA, that is going to cost lots of $$$$$$$$$! I'm not going to tell Sean about the remodel until he sees the price when he books it!!

 

I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and write a blog about our stay! Maybe I need to start picking out something on my bucket list that we can do for each appointment, since this made me feel so much better about going up there.

The unluckiest person alive!!

My husband often jokes with me that I am the unluckiest person alive, because of all that I have been through. So a few weeks ago when I and my doctor found several lumps in my breast, we decided I needed to have a mammogram and an ultrasound.

 

Sean calls me the unluckiest woman, but after having a successful surgery and learning that I had more than 14 months to live, he decided that we need to play the lottery that day, and we did, but lost!!

 

We may not have won the lottery that day, but in a way we did. Deciding to change our lives, being healthy, fighting this cancer, and living a long life (hopefully longer than the 3 to 8 years the doctors predict for me).

 

The results of my mammogram and ultrasound were good. The radiologist said the lumps were benign!! YEAH!! But I'm still left wondering if it's benign, then what is it really? A cyst? An infected milk duct (from my nursing years)? I was told that I have to ask my regular doctor what exactly it is. I'll be sure to post an update as soon as I talk to my doctor, but it seems strange to me that the radiologist couldn't tell me anything more than that it was benign. I'm not at all worried, anymore, but I want to find out exactly what it is. One really hurts (like a clogged milk duct), so I want to see what we can do about it.



Budwig Protocal Diet

In my quest to cure this brain cancer, I have read about several "natural cures." Whether or not they will work on me, I don't know. But since there is no cure yet for brain cancer, I figured I might as well try. The easiest for me to try right now is the Budwig Protocol Diet. In which, cottage cheese and flax oil are emulsified together with a hand mixer and eaten. So I decided that today was the day to start it. I found a website that seemed to have some good information on it and went with it. Although this site states that I can have fruit with it, others only had me taking the 2 together, so that's how I did it today.

Started off with the ingredients (all organic of course)

 

 

 

Measured them and added it to the mixing cup.

 

 

Emulsified them with the hand mixer

 

 

  It came out as a thick paste

 

I let (made) my 3 year old, Ben, test it out (he eats everything), but he didn't care for it!

 

Then I gagged it down. I ate it all!! But it was hard getting it all down. It's very thick and has a very slight taste (which I can't describe). I was shocked that I was able to get it all down. It was so thick, that it stuck to my teeth and made it even harder to eat! Now my hope and prayer is that this does something. The website says I can have some fruit with it, so I'm going to try that tomorrow!!