Time to Reassess

I’m in a waiting period. I’m waiting to have my After Cancer test and physical. I’m not particularly concerned about the results. We weren’t trying to shrink an existing tumor and I just completed 6 rounds of therapy. So this time around I’m not worried about signs of cancer returning.

Today I want to write about what I think my role and responsibilities are to rid my body of any lingering cancer cells and to fight off recurrence. I’m not claiming to have a magic elixir. Although I am looking for one. I am just trying to use what I’ve have read about life style that has the potential to make me healthy.

For me there are two chronic diseases that I believe are interrelated. I believe one disease contributed to the second and I have to treat them now as a package. The first disease is Crohn’s. It’s an autoimmune disease. One of the two main categories of Inflammable Bowel Disease (IBD). I was diagnosed in 8/2022. It’s considered elderly onset, because I was 62 years old. It was considered a silent disease, because it didn’t have symptoms before I experienced a small bowel obstruction. As I learned more about IBD I realized that I did have symptoms. The symptoms were not gastrointestinal in nature. They were Joint stiffness and fatigue. I was able to go back and identify major flares. The first one I’m aware of was in 2006. I remember what was happening in my life at the time. The first time I noted it I was trying to hold a pen to sign a credit card receipt and I couldn’t grab it. I remember thinking “Please, no I don’t have time for arthritis.” I was thinking rheumatoid arthritis. So, for 13 years I was dealing with feeling bad from time to time. It’s a disease that comes and goes on its own.

I didn’t know anything about long term inflammation. I didn’t know how destructive it is to your body. I treated it with Ibuprofen. I considered it part of aging.

Once I was diagnosed with Crohn’s I started taking a biologic that taps down the immune system, so the disease stops attacking you. With autoimmune diseases the immune system will attack healthy cells and cause damage to the organ the disease targets. The biologic worked like a charm for me. I felt great. I had energy. My joint pain was GONE!

Cancer is a side effect of both IBD and the biologic. It's a dilemma. If Crohn's goes untreated it increases my risk for cancer while the biologic interferes with your immune system and potentially keeps it from being able to fight off cancer effectively. It’s believed in Medicine that there is no known cause and there is no cure for Crohn’s Disease. I will give them no cure, but I’m not buying no cause. If I could identify what factors contributed to me developing Crohn’s I might be able to live in a way that Crohn’s will stay in remission without a medication. That is why I’m working with a Holistic Doctor and a dietitian. I am not doing this alone and unsupervised.

It turns out the things I’m doing to deal with Crohn’s are almost identical to what I’m reading that I should do to fight cancer.
The number one thing is diet. It’s a Whole Food Plant Based Anti-inflammatory diet. It looks like the DASH (dietary approach to stopping hypertension) Diet. It looks similar to the Wahl Protocol (primarily studied in MS). It’s also similar to a Metabolic Syndrome diet. All these diets focus on nutrition, and they are all plant based. DASH, Anti-inflammatory and metabolic syndrome diet may include some animal protein. Diet can be our greatest weapon in fighting cancer.

In one of the first conversations I had with my oncologist he mentioned how effective exercise is at reducing cancer recurrence. So I went looking for the proof. Sure enough I found it. Studies of people with breast cancers and colon cancers show that as little as 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week can reduce cancer recurrance by 50% or more. That can be broken up any way you can get it in. I just need to keep my body moving. Exercise is beneficial to reducing Crohn’s flare also. It reduces inflammation in the gut, improves bone health, builds muscle strength, improves mental health, helps in weight management. It’s a win/win for me.

Another recommendation for both diseases is to reduce stress. Living in a stressed out state causes inflammation. But you can’t reduce all stress and I have cancer that stressful in its self. So I’m saying I have to learn new stress reducing coping skills. I find this to be hard. More difficult than changing how I eat. It’s a process. Just trust the process.

Social networks are also important. I’ve worked since I was 15. My social networks have primarily been work related. I had an a-ha moment when my daughter,Zoe, was learning to drive. I realized the only new people I was meeting were parents of her friends and soon my job as Chauffeur would come to an end. So I’ve been branching out trying to build my own social network. It’s hard to do because it takes work. Today I’m in a Meetup group called the Real Ladies of St Louis County. I started meeting that group just 3 months before I learned I had cancer. My therapist has encouraged me to continue meeting with these women. I look forward to our lunches together. I also reached out to just a few very close friends. There are only 4 who live near me and 2 that live in other states. Really that’s all I need to feel connected. To many connections in addition to work clients is overwhelming and exhausting for me. What I think is I just have to continually put myself in situations where I can meet new people. I have to fight the urge to sit at home.

Finally there has to be reason and purpose to live. I have this in abundance. I want to eventually retire. I want to know what it’s like for all my time to be mine. I want to see Zoe when she has gray hair. I want to see Nora and Lincoln as adults. I want to be old and crazy with my sister. I want another dog who will need me for the next 15 years. I have no shortage for reasons to live.

I know I can do these things. I know that these are very basic life skills and they all have shown to improve health in every area. Not only do I want to live I want to be healthy. All these actions can lead to both old age and improved health.

I’m a believer.

Denise