Acupuncture and Cancer

Apologies for the lack of posts the last few days/week, but we have been very busy with deciding on treatments, dealing with moth infestation (will report on my next post), and the usual Eliana mischievous ways. This post, however, deals with Acupuncture. I have been getting acupuncture on a weekly (and bi weekly basis when possible). Acupuncture has helped me tremendously, both physically and spiritually. Many of you, I am sure, are skeptical about the benefits of acupuncture, but I am attest to the wonders of the science. I used acupuncture to help me get pregnant when doctors were telling me I could not. I am now using acupuncture together with my therapies in order to boost my immune system and/ increase the  benefit of my western therapy. 
I have read that acupuncture retains the immune system and brain toward a natural and successful antagonistic approach to dangerous cell growth. My acupuncturist tells me that acupuncture will help my body's immune system to relearn its original "seek and destroy" mission against any disease.  My acupuncturist sees the needle she uses as an enemy. As the needle pricks, my body musters its defenses against the invader.  My acupuncture says she can feel the qi energy and body tissue resist penetration of the needle.  Applied at key points, she believes the immune system can be retrained and reactivated, and this defensive action may be channeled to the site of the cancer.


If you google acupuncture and cancer you will see that modern medicine sees acupuncture as a method to help with the symptoms of Chemo or other therapies.  Personal testimonies, however, tell their story of how acupuncture resulted in cancer remission.  Many patients have told me that the acupuncture treatments saved their lives when modern medicine had given them months even weeks to live.  This sounds too familiar to me- when fertility doctors gave me 0 chance to have a child and now we have Eliana. I will also take my chances with acupuncturee. At the very least, acupuncture has tremendously helped with the side effects of my treatments. Acupuncture thus far has helped me endure and recover from the treatments. 
I believe in the enormous potential for using acupuncture for cancer patients: first, to enhance the immune system to assist my body fighting the disease, and second, for assistance during western treatment. In addition to acupuncture, I am also taking herbs to assist in the body immune fighting. 


Thus far, I have more energy, feel more relaxed, and my depression subsided a bit- all great news. I will continue to receive acupuncture for months, maybe even years. I am a big fan. 

Busy Days

Hello all. I havent posted in a few days, but I promise I will post tonight. I have been very busy with Eliana, getting tests done, and dealing with my impending trip to Miami. I will post updates and a new blog very soon.

Hope all is well.

Ps.
Eliana had her first meltdown at Costco. It was so much fun! NOT!

xox

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!

Infertility

As you all know, I had a very hard time getting pregnant- countless trips to fertility clinic, being told that I was unable to have kids, series of drugs, procedures, etc. I found the following article on Huffington post to be very interesting. After "coming out" and sharing my struggle to get pregnant, the countless hormones, the pregnancy, and ultimately the cancer, many people have come forth and shared similar experiences. Why is it such a taboo? why do we not discuss this openly?

Read and enjoy.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dina-roth-port/infertility-the-disease-w_b_819978.html

Test Week

This week I will be getting tests done!. Wish me luck. I will post all about it soon..


In honor of soon to be Valentine's day a few love quotes:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Martin Luther King, Jr


Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.
Mother Teresa

Hatred can be overcome only by love.
Mahatma Gandhi

Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.
Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama)

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.
Charles Dickens

PS
I dig buddhism.

Quote of the Day

"She discovered with great delight that one does not love one's children just because they are one's children but because of the friendship formed while raising them"

Love in the Time of Cholera

"..romantic love seems to prove a preparation for parental love. Perhaps the best preparation out there. Where else, after all, but in strong relationships between passionate, caring adults can one learn the sacrifice and courage, empathy and idealism needed to adore and champion a child? Where our culture sees a contradiction, I see continuity. To ardently love an equal partner equips us to ardently love a child. And the other way around also: To dearly love a child prepares us- sometimes for the second (or seventeenth!) time- to better love a partner."

The Crazy Pregger Brain

I had a pregnancy dream last night. Yes, a pregnancy dream. I had memories of my erratic, irrational, and just plain crazy behaviour while I was pregnant with Eliana. 


Since even before I was pregnant, I was pumped with a tsunami of hormones. Add regular pregnancy hormones, a 60 pound weight gain- and what you get is a completely insane Sonia.  I was also equally crazy and irrational after the birth of Eliana and for about 3 months thereafter. I suffered from a slight post pardum depression. I am much better now- dealing with a different sort of depression-but it's of a different kind (read my other posts about depression and illness). 


Behavior changes while pregnant is actually caused by a number of different factors. First and foremost, these changes seems to be linked to a change in the levels of chemicals in the brain.  These changes govern your moods and decision making receptions in the brain. When they become disrupted, this leads changes in behavior, depression, irrational behavior, etc. 


During pregnancy, the rapid change in the body's hormones (this is especially true for women who take hormones to become pregnant), may trigger a change in the levels of these chemicals, resulting in erratic behavior, depression, memory loss, etc. The above behavior can also be triggered by various emotional, psychological, or personal factors, including stressful life events, financial troubles, or death in the family.  I didnt have a death in the family, but I had all sorts of stressful life events, among other things.


So, dear friends: If you were in my path during my pregnancy: I apologize for my crazy and erratic behavior. And for those friends who are currently pregnant my piece of advice: cut yourself a little slack, try to relax as much as possible and do not make any big decisions. 


Here is a story that I remember:

One night during a work trip, I was at a hotel  watching a movie, an  eating dinner. I had three biscuits on my plate. Just as I was eating the last bite, I thought in my head, "Ahhh, bummer! I'm all done."

And then... without ANY warning, I just burst into tears. It was so sudden that I actually had NO idea why I was crying.

I then realized that I was crying because I finished my biscuits!  And though I was hysterical by that point, I burst out laughing... uncontrollably, mind you... at the thought of crying over finishing BISCUITS when I had room service on speed dial!   So  there I was ... empty plate, crying and laughing, not having any idea what is going on in my head. Yes, not my proudest moment. 

Hope that made you laugh. Have a wonderful day. 

World Cancer Day!

World Cancer Day



Friday was World Cancer Day. Already I have received more than a dozen chain emails memorializing World Cancer Day and urging me to forward the burning candle to everyone I know to honor those affected by the disease.


But what is going to make a difference this year and in the future is not email messages or Facebook status updates. It is action. Action on a grand scale. So this year I urge you to become involved. Become an advocate, make your voice heard by those who make decisions about research and healthcare dollars. Tell someone in power that we need more options for metastatic cancer, not fewer. Donate to an organization that supports patients or supports research and education.

Cancer is becoming a global epidemic. One of every two men and one of every three women will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lifetime. If cancer has not touched you, it has touched the life of someone you know.

If you need more reasons please read Susan G. Komen for the Cure founder Ambassador Nancy Brinker's excellent blog Cancer Control Can't Wait:

"World Cancer Day will, we hope, set the stage for more meaningful work on cancer control on a global scale. As Goodwill Ambassador for Cancer Control for the World Health Organization, and as a breast cancer survivor and 30-year advocate to end breast cancer, I know too well the pain and devastation of this disease. I’ve seen it in my own family, in my sister who died of breast cancer 30 years ago. And I’ve seen it all too painfully in the faces of members of our global family — women dying in undeveloped countries of cancers that might have been easily treated in the West.
Cancer is the leading cause of death around the world, killing more people every year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. The World Health Organization estimates that, without appropriate intervention, 84 million people will die from cancer between 2005 and 2015. While the emotional impact of losing a loved one to cancer is immeasurable, the economic impact of premature death caused by cancer is measurable, and it is devastating. A recent study found that 25 nations are losing more than 2 percent of their GDP to deaths and disability caused by cancer. These figures are only for the deaths that can be attributed directly to cancer. Many deaths each year go unreported, because many countries lack cancer registries."

I am an example of cancer at a young age. While I have devoted my time and efforts to Green initiatives and global poverty, I will also devote my time and energy to be a voice to Cancer. I am a young mother and a woman. The healthcare insurance companies are not on our side. We must continue to advocate access to healthcare to every person on the planet.

ps.
Every single person should watch the documentary: A Small Act- beautiful, sad, and inspiring. Not about cancer, but about a small act with global impact.

The Simple Things

More than ever these days, I want to shrink the world to the couple of rooms in my house where I’m most comfortable. I’ve been declining requests to meet for lunch or dinner, and the social whirl is less compelling than it ever was. To me, a perfect evening often means stretching out in the bedroom or living room, watching netflix movies and playing with Eliana. I am sure most new moms feel like nesting, but I have the additional urge to stay indoors and not engage in human contact (other than my family).

Over the past year, as I went through hormone therapy to get pregnant, then became pregnant and dealt with putting on 60 pounds of weight, then birth and dealing with a newborn and finally, cancer. This year I have been coming to grips with my new vulnerability.

I have to admit that the impulse is more dangerous now, as I struggle with treatment depression. It is a thin line between the womb of healing and cutting yourself off from the world.

Even so, I want to nest. I’m doing ok physically — only headaches and fatigue are left — but my spirit is still convalescing. I crave homely days built around writing, reading and time spent with family and friends (and occasional window shopping.. unable to do actual shopping for the obvious reasons).

I’m still reinterpreting myself in the face of cancer, and that takes time and quiet. It can’t be rushed, and I can’t do it successfully if I’m caught up in our culture’s unrelenting ruckus.

I don’t want to be among the herd of people shrilling and shrieking at a bar or a club- that is so passe and absolutely ridiculous to me now. An hour of hushed conversation at Starbucks is more than enough, is the true DNA of our finite lives.

Through all of this I’ve been simplifying my life, both consciously and subconsciously, as if trying to flense myself to something elemental.

I long to travel though. It makes me sad that I wont be able to for quite a while, but I long to go to a far away place, take in the sights and sounds of a foreign land, taste foreign foods, and play my favorite game: "where did X food originate from and how did it get to this place? In the meantime, I will curb my craving by watching movies.

In the meantime, I’ve been gorging on books about travel and far away places.

I feel as if I’m questing after my travel junkie self, trying to conjure the dreamy girl who spent hour upon hour at a museum taking in all the sights and sounds of a far away place, or the girl who loves to explore markets in places like Dubai, or New Delhi.

I miss the girl I was — who couldn’t imagine having cancer or doing the zombie shuffle through the shadow land of depression.

As I took the cure in my bedroom recently, inhaling The Dharma Bums, by Jack Kerouac, in beween naps and caring for Eliana, I realized that I’m trying to recreate that care-free girl, trying to make my world manageable enough right now to wrap it about myself like a 100 percent alpaca shawl.