I've Got Good Blood

Great news--I went in for my day-before-chemo blood test on the way home from work. Kaiser is so quick! By the time I got home, I had results waiting in my email's in box. Good news--both of the elevated liver enzymes are back in the normal range. So, I'm a little more relaxed tonight. I'm going to go and load a movie onto my iPhone, make dinner for the family, and prepare for an exciting day of chemo tomorrow.

Best wishes and big hugs to all of you,

Tim

Feeling Better and My First Raw Foods Demo Meetup

I woke up this morning and realized that my mouth sores are finally on the mend. They'll be gone in a day or two and the constant pain is gone today. Woohoo!

I had a great day yesterday. I started my day by going to pick up my organic veggies. This time it was apples, kale, avocados, pears, spinach, lettuce, Swiss chard, celery, tomatoes, radishes, and more. My dad was nice enough to go along and pick up the veggies with me. He was impressed by my haul of fruit and veggies. As always, he was very difficult to spend time with. Just kidding--it was really nice to spend some time with him. We have a lot of fun together.

After going home for a couple of hours, I was off to my first Raw Foods Demo meetup. Because this one had a presentation on organic gardening, I brought Uncle Frank along. That's a photo of him with this post. For me, the best part of the meetup was seeing and tasting the different raw foods that people had prepared. The event started with a demonstration of how to make a raw soup. Among other things, it called for almond milk, salad flakes, spices, and a few other ingredients. It was served over fresh avocado and was room temperature. It was fantastic. I'll post the recipe when I get it. Then there was the chocolate pudding pie. It was made with raw cacao, avocado, agave nectar, and some things that I can't remember. However, I did find a recipe that sounds very similar. It's at http://www.rawfoodsupport.com/read.php?4,93819. Then there was a super-yummy "Thai Coleslaw" that I loved. It hurt my mouth, but I ate it anyway. It can be found at http://www.rawfreedomcommunity.info/forum/showthread.php?t=1405.

There is another raw foods meetup next Saturday at 6:00 pm. It's in Rialto and details are at http://www.meetup.com/rawfood-happy-health/calendar/9483905/.

Happy Sunday,

Tim

Raw Food Setbacks

I had an awesome dinner at my parents' last night. Joanne went to the trouble of making fruit salad, regular salad, and other fresh raw veggies so that I'd have plenty of things to eat. It was great. I brought my raw salad dressings and a few other raw foods for everyone to try. It really was very nice.

Even with how nice it was, I could feel and see the mouth sores coming on. Today, my mouth is worse than yesterday, with tomorrow probably being worse yet. I'll probably be starting to get better Saturday. I've come to the conclusion that it's going to really be a challenge to change my diet to raw. It seems that I get the mouth sores every other week or so, and they last for several days. During that time, my main food is cream based soups. Anything else is just too acidic or too irritating on a sore mouth. On top of the mouth sores, I have a colonoscopy scheduled for March 7. I was looking at the prep information and there are dietary rules that start the week before the procedure. The rules call for no corn, no beans, no seeds, etc. Guess what?!?!? Raw foods often have things like seeds or raw corn in them. They also often have sprouted beans (like sprouted garbanzo bean hummus).

It's going to be a slow journey to going raw with lots of setbacks. But I know that it'll get there by taking one step at a time. On top of all of the challenges with going raw, I do have some good news about it. My organic produce co-op that I joined is going great. I had a yummy basket of fresh fruits and veggies last week and I'll get another one on Saturday. Also, several members of that group are in some raw foods group. Those groups meet up to share raw foods and raw recipes with each other. So that should help.

I also have some good news about the boy with cancer at Erica's school. The father emailed and said that they think that the chemo is going well. He is impressed with how strong his 10 year old son in regards to tolerating the chemo while keeping up a good attitude. Good stuff.

Best wishes and big hugs,

Tim

"May We Have Your Liver?"

Contrary to the ill-humored video below (which I love), I'm not going to be parting with my liver anytime soon. However, at my doctor appointment today, we did discuss my liver. 3 of my blood tests for liver function indicated increased liver enzymes. While this is something to watch, it is to be expected from chemo. Basically, my understanding is that chemo can cause a condition that is described by the liver getting fattier. Somehow, this condition is linked to the increased liver enzymes. It's nothing to get worried about at this point. Our plan is to recheck the levels on my next blood test in 2 weeks. We already took action today by cutting the dosage of one chemo-helper drug. If the tests come out high again next week, my doctor will schedule a new CT scan and will have a better look at my beautiful liver.

The video below may have some objectionable images and should be previewed by adults before showing to kids. I'm precisely immature enough to enjoy the humor in the video. Now that I've placed my disclaimer, here's it is:

What a Week!?!!?

I have to admit, this was an interesting week. It started off with lots of work. Unfortunately, I worked a little too much and had a co-worker that was having a tough day and shared the difficulty of the day with me. Basically, I got dumped on. Oh well--they didn't do it on purpose and they really are a nice person.
After that challenging start, I was off to California Adventure with the family for a 1/2 day visit. Between working a little too much and having challenging inter-personal issues at work, I was exhausted. I found myself walking around California Adventure feeling like someone with cancer (I was just really drained and tired). This was a first for me. We still had a nice family time, but it took a significant effort on my part to maintain enough energy to keep up with my family and enjoy the park.

As if that weren't enough of a challenge, I've felt mouth-sores coming on for the last few days. They finally started to really hurt yesterday. They're kind of funny--I first feel them coming on, then I can see them, and then they really start to hurt. It seems to be a fairly predictable cycle. When I was feeling them coming on, I took a flashlight and looked closely at my tongue. I had 6 small sores one the left side, one on the bottom of my tongue, and one big one on the right side of my tongue. Ouch!

Fortunately, my week has also had some high points. I ventured out to Culver City to try a raw vegan restaurant called "Leaf". Not only did I have a fantastic lunch, but I learned that raw food can really be very good. I had a sandwich and salad while I was there. I also bought several things to take home (salad dressing, dessert, powdered chocolate, croutons, crackers, etc.). I'll definitely be going back there. It was well worth the hour and a half drive.

Also, I joined the Inland Empire Organic Produce Buying Club. It's a co-op that takes money from the members and purchases organic produce (in bulk) from local farmers. The produce is then divided up among the people who contributed money. The whole thing looks great. I saw the produce baskets today and it looks like a great deal. I'll get my first basket of produce from them next Saturday. You can learn about the IEOPBC at http://www.meetup.com/organicproduce/

I posted some of my basic information on their website earlier today and already had some helpful messages. 1 person messaged me and told me that they also are eating raw foods and offered to help answer any questions that I may have. They told me about a cancer-fighting movie that another member has and offered to email that person to see if I can borrow it. Another person messaged me and told me that they also eat raw foods. This second person told me about a raw food demo group and a raw food potluck group. Both of those groups are from around here and are fairly close by (within a half-hour or so). Since this new way of eating is so different for me, I really need the help and support. I can't wait to see where this leads me.

One more highlight of the week. I got to see my cousin in a play. He is in Zoot Suit and the Pomona College. It was great to see him acting. :)

Night all,

Tim

Nearly 2 Weeks Already!?!?!

Has it been nearly 2 weeks since my last posting? Wow. Time flies when you're having fun. I'm still feeling very good and have had a minor (but significant) milestone recently. I was able to untie double knots on my shoes. This is because feeling is beginning to come back to my fingertips. I'd say that the feeling is 1/2 or 1/4 way better than it was. This morning I was able to work the buttons on the collar of my shirt. OK, I'll admit that it took me 5 minutes to unbutton the collar and another 5 minutes to re-button it, but that's a step in the right direction.

Relatedly, I tried to play Guitar Hero, but I don't yet have enough feeling in my fingers to work the guitar. After that failure, I decided that it was time to learn the drums in Rock Band. Erica is beginning to learn the guitar in Rock Band and I played drums. I'm still trying to get Robin to sing. I did pretty well for a guy with no rhythm. I played a few songs and was doing well, when I broke a drum stick. I felt like a real drummer--broken drum stick and all! I had to play some of the songs with 1 1/2 drum sticks instead of the standard set of 2.

Other than that, I've had no changes in my health. I am getting the urge to go hunting or fishing, but that is probably not health related. :)

I went to Idyllwild this weekend to celebrate my father in-law's 66th birthday. It was a great weekend with Robin's family. I'm really lucky--I get along very well with them. However, it was very difficult to eat my raw foods while away from home. I went to their local natural food store and got one very small grocery bag of raw items:
--A Strange Sweet Spread made of coconut and some assorted berries (all raw of course)
--Raw Crackers
--3 Raw Snack Bars (granola-ish)
--2 Green Smoothie Drinks (juice and algae)
--2 Kinds of Raw Cereal (one good and one yucky)
--4 Pack of Chocolate Almond Milk Drink Boxes (made from soaking almonds in water)
Wanna guess what fancy raw foods cost? How about $56? Eesh! I'm going to have to learn more about making my own raw foods and then pack them carefully for my next trip away from home.

I'm going to end this message with an inspirational video that I found on another website. Check this out:



Best wishes and big hugs to all,

Tim