I will flourish in my longevity
I feel well and am content. People I meet say I am looking well. Someone asked if I had put on weight in my face. I donot think I have, but what I have been trying to do is make my face soft. Sounds weird, but whenever I think of it or am aware of being a bit tense, I relax my jaw and relax my facial muscles. I read it in a book and it seems to work.
Today I talked to my naturopath about the blood tests she ordered and a previous dried urine test I had done which was sent to a lab in Sydney. All of these were 'good'. In this case 'good' means not obviously indicating the presence of cancer. In fact several of the tests the naturopath said were typical of a normal , ie cancer free, post-menopausal woman. These tests will give base-line data to compare with later tests. Of course, none of this means I will definitely not get a recurrence, nor does it mean I won't get another primary ( possible in lobular carcinoma) in my remaining breast.
Tomorrow I will start taking an a.i. ( until last November I thought this was artificial insemination, however in the breast cancer world it is an aromatase inhibitor) and continue to take complimentary stuff from my naturopath. There is plenty of evidence that melatonin and resveratrol are beneficial in my situation and the medical oncologist was not unhappy that I take them. For the past few years I have been taking supplementary magnesium, zinc, vitamin D and iodine. I will continue to take these.
We also talked about all the things I am doing right - my strict diet of limited, specific non-gluten grains, veggies 3 meals a day, no sugar except a few pieces of fruit daily and limited alcohol ; my different types of exercise; my strategies for sleeping well; challenging my brain. We talked more about what needs improvement - reducing the stored stress in my body ( as still shown in my blood tests) . I have not yet worked out what this means in practice. What can I take out of my day to make room for extra relaxing things? I have started by booking an apartment for 5 weeks in Barcelona in October/November.
On Thursday, Noel and I are going for a week to Shoalhaven Heads - a break we booked last October. Hopefully , while I am away, the good fairies will come into my study and put into order the huge pile of medical related papers I have accumulated and the pile of admin that I have not attended to properly for a few months. Buried somewhere are my Spanish books which I want to get a wriggle on with.
2 other good results to report . My bone density scan was good and showed an improvement since the last one 5 years ago. The CT scan the anesthetist ordered on my goitre showed a reduction in the volume of the goitre of about 1/4 in 1 lobe and 1/2 in the other.
I have been thinking about the word flourish, defined in one dictionary as 'to grow, thrive, prosper, develop'. At first I thought it was a bit flamboyant for me, but I can thrive without being flamboyant. Or maybe Manuel in Barcelona will teach me to be flamboyant!
So, I consider the temporary nuisance to be a wake-up call , which I will heed and I will try to thrive for a long time..
Today I talked to my naturopath about the blood tests she ordered and a previous dried urine test I had done which was sent to a lab in Sydney. All of these were 'good'. In this case 'good' means not obviously indicating the presence of cancer. In fact several of the tests the naturopath said were typical of a normal , ie cancer free, post-menopausal woman. These tests will give base-line data to compare with later tests. Of course, none of this means I will definitely not get a recurrence, nor does it mean I won't get another primary ( possible in lobular carcinoma) in my remaining breast.
Tomorrow I will start taking an a.i. ( until last November I thought this was artificial insemination, however in the breast cancer world it is an aromatase inhibitor) and continue to take complimentary stuff from my naturopath. There is plenty of evidence that melatonin and resveratrol are beneficial in my situation and the medical oncologist was not unhappy that I take them. For the past few years I have been taking supplementary magnesium, zinc, vitamin D and iodine. I will continue to take these.
We also talked about all the things I am doing right - my strict diet of limited, specific non-gluten grains, veggies 3 meals a day, no sugar except a few pieces of fruit daily and limited alcohol ; my different types of exercise; my strategies for sleeping well; challenging my brain. We talked more about what needs improvement - reducing the stored stress in my body ( as still shown in my blood tests) . I have not yet worked out what this means in practice. What can I take out of my day to make room for extra relaxing things? I have started by booking an apartment for 5 weeks in Barcelona in October/November.
On Thursday, Noel and I are going for a week to Shoalhaven Heads - a break we booked last October. Hopefully , while I am away, the good fairies will come into my study and put into order the huge pile of medical related papers I have accumulated and the pile of admin that I have not attended to properly for a few months. Buried somewhere are my Spanish books which I want to get a wriggle on with.
2 other good results to report . My bone density scan was good and showed an improvement since the last one 5 years ago. The CT scan the anesthetist ordered on my goitre showed a reduction in the volume of the goitre of about 1/4 in 1 lobe and 1/2 in the other.
I have been thinking about the word flourish, defined in one dictionary as 'to grow, thrive, prosper, develop'. At first I thought it was a bit flamboyant for me, but I can thrive without being flamboyant. Or maybe Manuel in Barcelona will teach me to be flamboyant!
So, I consider the temporary nuisance to be a wake-up call , which I will heed and I will try to thrive for a long time..
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