Back to the chemo

This was a chemotherapy week for us, so we’ve been laying low.  Johnny’s been watching his Indians (very disappointed during the last two series) and resting.  After his initial infusion at the Zangmeister Center he’s attached to an infusion pump or as we call it the “take home party pack.”  The pump is programmed to infuse the chemo drug 5-FU slowly over the next 48 hours.  For all he’s gone through and continues to go through we are nothing but grateful, he’s doing really well.

As for me, once again my liver enzymes were elevated.  No change from the last time, but still elevated.  No known cause, so I’ll have more testing at the end of May.  My Oncologist does not believe that it is cancer related at this time, but she’s also the one doctor who told me I wouldn’t go bald from the chemo drugs…so I’m cautiously optimistic.  I’m also going to be doing a round of hyperbaric oxygen to support my immune system.

We’re enjoying this beautiful weather and getting the garden ready.  Happy Easter to all.

The chemo take home party pack

A new kind of brewing (to us)

Since we’ve given up drinking alcohol but still love to ferment we’ve turned our attention to Kombucha.  In reading about it I found that some ancient Chinese referred to it as “the tea of immortality,” so, who knows.  I hope it means health and vitality to the people who drink it.  But it could also be referring to the scoby (short for symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast) or mother needed to start the fermentation process.  Once you get a good scoby growing apparently they take on a life of their own.

But anyway, kombucha is a sweet fermented tea that reproduces itself.  Thought to have originated in China, others believe it has its origins in the tea meccas of Japan or India.  It’s been given credit for saving the life of Nobel Prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s life and more recently, the Russians who lived through the Chernobyl catastrophy in the late 80’s.  Many AIDS and cancer survivors drink it. So we’re giving it a try and really enjoying it..

After we looked around and couldn’t find someone to get a scoby from we started one from scratch.  Now that we have our scoby growing I found a kombucha exchange at www.kombu.de where scoby is available for just the shipping costs.  Oh well, rookie mistake.  We’re having fun with it and will provide progress reports.

Our chemo holiday ends next week so keep us in your prayers.   Happy Weekend!

Kombucha quietly brewing

Starting to feel like spring

We’re in waiting mode. No tests for a couple more weeks. Another chemo free week is coming up. Johnny is getting excited for his Indians to play ball!!!   And we just found out some good friends, Michelle and Joe purchased a home around the corner from us.  We’re waiting to hear when moving day is, but there’s gonna be a party. In fact Brian had the neighborhoods first bonfire of the season last Saturday.

 

While Johnny’s been watching some of the spring training games I’ve been digging into more cancer research.

The first researcher: Thomas Seyfried, at Boston College, is the author of Cancer as a Metabolic Disease.  He believes Otto Warburg (a German researcher, Nobel Prize winner, and Albert Einstein’s friend) got the whole story right and that cancer originates with the cell’s inability to produce sufficient energy with oxygen.  Seyfried is primarily focused on non-toxic therapies, particularly our ketogenic diet.

The second researcher Dominic D’Agostino of the University of South Florida College of Medicine.  His research combines the ketogenic diet with hyperbaric oxygen treatments.  He uses 2.5 Atomsphers for 60 minutes 3 times per week, including pressurization and depressurization, each session is 90 minutes.

The third is Lewis Cantley, the director of the Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medical College.  His work has shown that elevated insulin, driven by diet, is often the first step in the process of cancer.  Once the cells begin to take up more and more glucose it leads to mutations.  Bottom line-keep your blood sugar levels low.

Another is Matthew Vander Heiden, at MIT.  He’s looking at whether insulin or glucose is playing a more important role in cancer development.  And it is looking like it depends on the type of cancer but his finding show that both contribute.

Some of the others I’m watching closely are David Sabatini of MIT, Peter Attia and his blog The Eating Academy.  Peter Pedersen, a biochemist at Johns Hopkins, and Dr. Young Ko who has done the critical research on 3-bromopyruvate.

I know the research stuff can be overwhelming for some boring for others, but I like putting it out here.  It takes hours and hours of reading, so if I can help someone else with cancer –that is what this blog is all about.  Happy Grilling this weekend.