My cancer treatment

I need to inform all of you who watched my TVJ Smile Jamaica interview and left with the impression that I did nothing for my first cancer as that's not so.......Neville kept asking about my reaction at being given 2 weeks to live - at no time did we touch on my surgeries during the interview and when I said I had nothing after that cancer I meant chemo or radiation , however, I HAD SURGERY TO REMOVE THE MASS IN MY COLON IN 1978 FOR A CANCER THEY THOUGHT WAS ABOUT 6 MONTHS OLD AND WHEN THEY WENT IN IT HAD BEEN SITTING THERE FOR ABOUT 2 YEARS ....in fact in total I've had 25 surgeries but that's another story for my book!
Sorry if I mislead any of you into believing I did NOTHING for my first cancer and as I said on the show I had radiation for the bone cancer.

Everything happens for a reason

So yesterday was one of those days that you know for sure that everything happens for a reason.....I have been making jokes around the place that I cannot find my breasts not knowing that the implants were truly lost .... my husband had called me in a panic saying 'Pat I've tracked the shipment as far as it can go - check with Dr. Arscott to see if he has gotten them if not you have to go to the general sorting office and clear them as they must have been shipped in your name...." well since that's what I didn't want to hear I did nothing but when I visited the goodly doctor last week I too started to panic as surgery is set for this coming Saturday the 29th and he told me no the implants had not yet arrived. I couldn't believe this as my stepson who is a plastic surgeon in Philly had confirmed that he had shipped them so I expected it to go as smoothly as when he had sent the expanders - he sent them to the Doctor and that was it.

Well no such luck this time so I decided that I would visit our general post office the next time I was in Kingston which was yesterday when I was booked to appear on the early morning TV show "Smile Jamaica" to do an interview about living with cancer. Well after the interview off I went to the general sorting office to what I thought would be certain hell but as usual I put a smile on my face and entered...well first thing was the man at the counter says ..."Is that the smile I saw on TV this morning?"....I said " same one , I'm here looking for my breasts"
and he said "and vibesy too".... by that time at least 3 women who had seen the TV show gathered around and happily set out to help but my breasts couldn't be located - they went upstairs, they went in the vault, they told me to take a seat - which I did (please bear in mind this is a huge place which has not reached the year 2000 yet ....I tried to count computers and reached the sum of 2 with one looking like a broken down TV ) finally my happy helpers broke the good news - the paper work was found, however, I needed an invoice, I needed a Tax Compliant Certificate(TCC) and most of all I needed a friendly face from customs as no TCC meant tons of duty plus the shipment turned out to be in the Doctor's name not mine .....they nonetheless persevered informing the customs officer "this lady is the vibesy lady from 'Smile Jamaica' this morning".....the goodly customs lady, however, broke the sad news - she couldn't let the breasts out without me going and getting permission from the Doctor to whom it was addressed. Well since I am in the year 2011, I whipped out my Blackberry and called the Doctor's office, made the arrangements with them telling them what the letter should say and that an ID must be attached and off I went to pick it up with the post office workers promising that as soon as I returned with the required documents they would release said package. Knowing Jamaica as I do , I knew that if I didn't make it back by lunch time a whole new crew would be in place knowing nothing about my situation so I had to move fast.

Thankfully letter as requested was waiting for me at the Doctor's office and so I quickly returned to the General Post Office where true to their words they pulled out of the mountain of packages, a box half my size that looked like it had enough implants in it for every woman at the post office not just me ....then they went through their routine of signing what seemed like endless ledgers (also half my size) and volumes of papers that could easily deplete all the remaining trees left in Jamaica .....So off I went walking out of the general post office the box with my new breasts in one hand, saying thanks and waving goodbye with the other I realized that I was crying........now what is that about?

YES TO COFFEE

Oprah talks about her aha moments - well I had one this morning. A friend who exports coffee sent me a bag of Blue Mountain coffee..I looked at it and put it up to give my husband as he dies for coffee.......last time I went to the supermarket I bought a tin of evaporated milk which I always drink my coffee with but I hadn't touched either as I'm trying to stick to my strict diet....woke up this morning and had an aha moment..I HAVE NO BREASTS and the reason why I couldn't drink coffee is because I had Fibro Adenoma which means my breasts were cystic and coffee made it worse..... I literally ran to the kitchen perked my coffee and enjoyed my first cup of coffee in years... IT WAS SO GOOD . If we would only take the time to count our blessings we would realize that every cloud has a silver lining............

PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE

Reading DR MERCOLA's Tips for Cancer Prevention it occured to me that WHEN YOUR MOTHER USED TO SAY PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE SHE WAS SURELY TALKING ABOUT CANCER ! Check out Dr.Mercola's take on the matter:

Rather than put your health in the hands of cancer researchers willing to do just about anything to discover the next cancer drug breakthrough, take control of your health by following the cancer-preventive lifestyle changes:
Avoid Fructose and Sugar
It's quite clear that if you want to avoid cancer, or are currently undergoing cancer treatment, you absolutely MUST avoid all forms of sugar -- especially fructose -- and this is largely due to its relation to insulin resistance. According to Lewis Cantley, director of the Cancer Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School, as much as 80 percent of all cancers are "driven by either mutations or environmental factors that work to enhance or mimic the effect of insulin on the incipient tumor cells," Gary Taubes reports.
Some cancer centers, such as the Cancer Centers of America, have fully embraced this knowledge and place their patients on strict low-sugar, low-grain diets. But conventional medicine in general has been woefully lax when it comes to highlighting the health dangers of this additive.
As a standard recommendation, I strongly advise keeping your TOTAL fructose consumption below 25 grams per day including fruits. But for most people it would also be wise to limit your fructose from fruit to 15 grams or less, as you're virtually guaranteed to consume "hidden" sources of fructose if you drink beverages other than water and eat processed food.

Optimize Your Vitamin D Level
There's overwhelming evidence pointing to the fact that vitamin D deficiency plays a crucial role in cancer development. Researchers within this field have estimated that about 30 percent of cancer deaths -- which amounts to 2 million worldwide and 200,000 in the United States -- could be prevented each year simply by optimizing the vitamin D levels in the general population.
On a personal level, you can decrease your risk of cancer by MORE THAN HALF simply by optimizing your vitamin D levels with sun exposure. And if you are being treated for cancer it is likely that higher blood levels—probably around 80-90 ng/ml—would be beneficial.
If the notion that sun exposure actually prevents cancer is still new to you, I highly recommend you watch my one-hour vitamin D lecture to clear up any confusion. It's important to understand that the risk of skin cancer from the sun comes only from excessive exposure.

Exercise
If you are like most people, when you think of reducing your risk of cancer, exercise doesn't immediately come to mind. However, there is some fairly compelling evidence that exercise can slash your risk of cancer. One of the primary ways exercise lowers your risk for cancer is by reducing elevated insulin levels, which creates a low sugar environment that discourages the growth and spread of cancer cells.
For example, physically active adults experience about half the incidence of colon cancer as their sedentary counterparts, and women who exercise regularly may reduce their breast cancer risk by 20 to 30 percent compared to those who are inactive.It's important to include a large variety of techniques in your exercise routine, such as strength training, aerobics, core-building activities, and stretching. Most important of all, however, is to make sure you include high-intensity, burst-type exercise, such as those described in my Peak Fitness program.
These exercises activate your super-fast twitch muscle fibers, which can increase your body's natural production of human growth hormone. For detailed instructions, please see this previous article.

Get appropriate amounts of high quality animal-based omega-3 fats.

Eat according to your nutritional type. The potent anti-cancer effects of this principle are very much underappreciated. When we treat cancer patients in our clinic this is one of the most powerful anti-cancer strategies we have.

Engage in activities that help you reduce your stress levels, such as exercise, meditation, journaling, music, gardening, etc. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is caused by emotions. It is likely that this factor may be more important than all the other physical ones listed here, so make sure this is addressed.

Only 25 percent of people eat enough vegetables, so by all means eat as many vegetables as you are comfortable with. Ideally, they should be fresh and organic. Cruciferous vegetables in particular have been identified as having potent anti-cancer properties. Remember that carb nutritional types may need up to 300 percent more vegetables than protein nutritional types.
Maintain an ideal body weight.

Get appropriate amounts of high-quality sleep.

Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air fresheners and air pollution.

Reduce your use of cell phones and other wireless technologies, and implement as many safety strategies as possible if/when you cannot avoid their use.

Boil, poach or steam your foods, rather than frying or charbroiling them.

Better yet eat as many of your foods raw as you can.

STEVE JOBS

My son,Saj, is an Apple genius, which means my household is all things Apple new and old Ipods of all sizes, Ipad, Imac, Mac Pro, Mac Book, Iphones - you name it we have been through it in fact as we speak I'm sure Saj is finding a way to sell his Iphone4 to get his Iphone 4s. He has respected and loved this man in a far different way from me ....I too respect this man's creativity and for giving us a whole new world to communicate and play in, but another reason I have loved and respected him is something far greater...HIS ABILITY TO SURVIVE...he had the # 1 killer in the cancer family and he gave it a ding dong knock out fight ..... no matter how sick he was how thin he looked he was always presenting his newest piece of engineering that we were eager to run off and buy.
In August this year when I heard he had turned over the reigns of APPLE to Tim Cook my stomach went into knots as I knew that would never happen if he was still able to fight and tonight when I saw his face and 1955-2011 on the screen of my Imac the tears flooded freely.........cancer devouring as always no matter how strong we are how much money we have and how long we survive it always wins out in the end...........
my fight has lasted longer but I haven't had pancreatic cancer now have I ? Steve you were simply AMAZING!

thoughts on my latest dance with cancer

As I now prepare myself for the surgery to put the implants in and take out the expanders, I find all kinds of things running through my mind...why am I listening to everyone and putting myself through such pain and expense ? Do I know how long I'm going to last ? As I focus on my breast will the colon come back ? Why is it there are so many things for breast cancer? There is a breast cancer month, there is a run, a walk every country is so consumed with breast cancer how come there is no colon cancer anything?????? The American Cancer Society estimates that more than 230,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. Nearly 40,000 of those women die. Need to check the stats on colon cancer
They even have drugs with minimal side effects for breast cancer...my one round of colon cancer chemo nearly killed me......now I'm being offered a treatment called Arimidex and everybody who has taken it says I must do it as it works and no one has told me they have had any side effects for 2 years or 5 years..really?
I just watched a friend eat curry crab and resisted the urge..does this mean I will eat lettuce leaves for the rest of my life..and not just any lettuce leaf as iceberg has no nutrients so romaine lettuce ,broccoli spinach..good green stuff is that my meal and drink of choice from now on?
As these thoughts run through my mind I realize I'm really tired......33 years is a long time.....extremely tired of Mr Cancer, all forms of him..maybe I've been too welcoming over the years why he thinks he can come visiting anytime...... he thinks we are friends!
I need to get serious and say no you are not welcome here anymore.....