Mediterranian Diet

LaCh said:

marynb
Hi Marynb,
Thanks for your comments. I think that my take is a bit different. Men and women who test positive for HPV seem predisposed to this tumor, that's true, but to assume that I might have had it because I have this tumor is putting effect before cause and is conjecture at best. There's no reason to think that ever had it since I test negative now and tested negative many years ago. Of course, anything is possible, but there's no evidence to support it. I'd need a reason to think that I ever had it and for me, that's the key. A REASON to think that I ever had it. There's none. As for living a healthy lifestyle, my feelings (always evolving) are that if I want to eat something, I'm going to eat it. Life is short and even if the cycle of reincarnation is real, as I believe it to be, each single lifetime is finite and brief. Better to enjoy it in every way possible while one can. (A plant-based diet is actually the diet that I prefer for taste, it's what I enjoy so it was never difficult for me to follow it and did so naturally, simply because I gravitated to those foods and away from others). I can't think of the cancers I never got because there's no way to know about what never was, only what is. The rest is conjecture and I can only deal with what I know. My personal take on why I have the tumor is inflammation from stress, and stress from chronic, unrelenting insomnia over the last 10 years. Do I know that for sure? No. But that's what I think.
As far as considering myself blessed, I've had a difficult life at times (most people have) but a very good life over all, and count myself extremely lucky, extremely fortunate in many, many ways and there are many times when I scratch my head and wonder at how lucky I've been when so many have not. Having this tumor doesn't change my opinion. I am and have been crazy lucky in my life. My take on life in nroader terms is that life is good. I cherish my life, but might not so much if it were severly compromised. I'm not there yet and hopefully will never be, so I can't say for sure how I'd feel if I were but my outlook might not be so bright if I had a poor quality of life. My biggest fear at the moment is an acute, life-threatening reaction to the chemo while I'm alone in my house (and the second would be an acute, life-threatening reaction when I'm not). I have underlying asthma and mild heart issues, both of which can be factors with Mitomycin and 5FU and (more worrisome to me) a long history of unexpected and hyper reactive reesponses to drugs. I'll speak to the medical oncologist about my concerns since the port goes in on Friday and treatments are scheduled to begin Monday. NYC isn't all it's cracked up to be, not as a place to live nor in what it has to offer. As I've mentioned before, Western Medicine and I have never been happy bedfellows (and western medicine is the same in Ohio, in Wisconsin, in Illinois and NYC) and my current situation is just confirming the feelings that I already had, it's the lens through which my feelings are being magnified a thousand fold. I think that I have a curable cancer. I'm not so sure I can survive the treatments, not because of the treatments, per se, because people survive them, but because of the way in which my body responds. My apologies in advance to W. Shakespeare but at the end of the day, there are only two choices: To treat or not to treat, and that is, indeed, the only question to consider at this point. My hope is that a year from now, (or next Spring) I'll look back and say, "Man! That was a doozie! Glad that's over with. Beautiful day!" and head to Central Park with my dog.

LaCh said:

sephie
Hey Sephie,
Hearing that you have issues with all types of meds and yet have no lasting problems is very good, very helpful to know. Thanks for that. I'm not a real good "winter person" and in fact, I hate the winter and am setting my sights on the Spring, with my problem behind me (no pun intended), my butt and my spirits intact and Central Park in full flower with me and my dog walking all our old paths.

After getting a tad bent out of shape yesterday when I learned that the port couldn't go in today, Friday, as I was counting on and planning for, but would be put in on Monday, setting back the Tx start-date as well, I'm feeling a lot better about it and about things in general. My feeling is, Hey, what are you gonna do? You can't change it so forget about it, just go with it and that's that, and in the end, one day here or there isn't going to matter or even stand out in memory. So forget it." And so I have. Anyway, no port today frees me up to go see The Hobbit, something that, as a 50+ year Tolkien/ Lord of the Rings fan is something I've been looking forward to quite a lot. So "very good," says I, here goes another homebody (me) who is, like Bilbo Baggins, off on an Unexpected Journey, There and Back Again, maybe a movie, maybe a walk through Central Park to GET to the movie, maybe cancer, maybe whatever Unexpected Journey comes my way.