East Meets West

If you know me well, you know that I have a little hippie living inside me. I’ve always loved natural products and have been fascinated with the healing powers of food. I’ve tried my hand at homemade shampoo (which is amazing, btw), homemade deodorant (not as amazing), homemade toothpaste (down right gross), etc. I use coconut oil for just about anything and am convinced it will cure what ails you. It’s an incredible moisturizer for your face and body & totally tasty to use while cooking. I’m not big into taking a bunch of pills at the first sign of a headache & really try to stay as natural as possible when it comes to meds. My first batch of essential oils arrives tomorrow … but I digress :) 

When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I knew I was diving head first into the world of Western medicine. Don’t get me wrong, Western medicine is amazing. Chemo is an evil bitch and the side effects are no party. There was no way I was going to try a natural cure for breast cancer. I have a bag full of prescriptions to take if I need help sleeping or am feeling sick to my stomach, but I knew my treatment plan would always have a natural side to it as well. One of the great things about Dr. Jeske is that she was super supportive of my inner hippie from the start. She has a nutritionist on staff, as well as a massage therapist who does reiki. Do I think reiki works? Meh, I don’t know. But it sure is calming after a round of chemo.

During my first chemo session I met with Sharon, the nutritionist at Dr. Jeske’s office. We sat and talked for a while about my diet and what supplements I was already taking. She liked everything I was taking & added a few more to the list. I’m the supplement queen now. You want some Curcumin? I’ve got it. Turkey tail mushrooms? No problem! Oh, how about some milk thistle? I’m your gal! All in all, I take 8 different supplements every day, my favorite of them being the turkey tail mushroom. I had never heard of turkey tail before and was first told about it by my friend Jennie, who recently went through the same exact treatment I’m going through now. Side note: Jennie just got a full clean bill of health from her doctors last week … HOORAY! Anyway, these mushrooms are amazing! I won’t go into too much detail but I will direct you to this TED talk about them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXHDoROh2hA. He talks about turkey tail toward the end and your mind will be blown. It’s worth the 11 minutes, trust me.

Shortly after round two of chemo, I also started looking into acupuncture as another way to help with the fatigue and other side effects. I’ve had two appointments so far and I honestly can’t tell if it’s helping yet or not. It’s certainly not hurting. It’s 100% covered by my insurance, though, so I plan to keep going as much as I can. I’ll definitely report back as I have more sessions.

Last week I met with a naturopath. The same Jennie I mentioned earlier worked with a naturopath all throughout her treatment and really thought he helped her a lot. He lives in Portland so we chatted on the phone for about 90 minutes last Tuesday. I came away with a lot of information, including some documents about therapeutic fasting around chemotherapy treatments. There have been studies done that show fasting for four days around your chemo (2 days before, the day of and the day after) can greatly reduce the severity of side effects of the chemotherapy. It also starves the cancer of the glucose it thrives on so while the cancer is searching for that glucose & is in a compromised state, you hit it with the chemo and kick it while it’s down. I’m on day one of my fast and so far, it’s not too bad! I’m drinking a lot of the Magic Mineral Broth from the cookbook the Cancer Fighting Kitchen, along with a lot of water & herbal tea. The broth is really tasty and healthy and has lot of vitamins and minerals in it. The author of the cookbook refers to it as a “healing tonic.” It’s a lot of liquid throughout the day and I don’t feel that hungry. Four days of this does seem hard but if it helps the chemo be more effective and cuts back on the severity of my side effects, I’m all for it! And hey, maybe my pants won’t be as tight after the four days :) Silver linings, people!

Round 3 on Wednesday! Half way there!

Xo,

Ali