How is she?

When ever I bump into our friends or Amanda's salon clients, I get this question.... Sometimes with an added 'Good days and bad days?' or something along those lines before I've even had a chance to answer. It's funny really, people expect certain things of someone who has been diagnosed with cancer. For starters we all have an image of someone with cancer. We expect them to have no hair,
we expect them to be very tired, and too look a little weak and washed out due to feeling constantly ill. The thing is (unless the disease is well progressed of course) this is not usually the case, it is in fact the 'treatment', the chemotherapy, that causes these symptoms. It's rifling through the blood stream killing all fast replicating cells, from cancer cells to digestive linings, bone marrow, hair follicles and skin cells it's doing some serious damage. No body is going to look or feel good on chemotherapy, that's a fact.

Just to reiterate, Amanda chose not to take the conventional course of treatment, chemo, radiotherapy and various hormone treatments, for a couple of reasons. The first was mainly due to the fact that she believes there must be a healthier way to fight and stop cancer reforming in her body, than smashing her immune system to smithereens. The second reason was the 'benefits' of washing her innards with chemotherapy drugs came in at a measly ten in one hundred, in the oncologists medical statistics (this is for Amanda’s oestrogen and her 2 positive type cancer). The actual figure would be closer to three or four women in one hundred actually benefit in the short term with chemotherapy. Women that have taken a course of chemo tell you how tough it was (by God I bet it's tough, can you imagine??), but that it worked for them. But did it? We know women that had no chemo treatment, and many, many years down the line have remained clear of tumours. Maybe when these women had their lumps, breasts or nodes removed, all the cancer cells were removed during the surgery stage? This could well the be case for many patients that go down the chemotherapy route, there is no way of telling. Then as I mentioned before, there are those women that refused to have the conventional precautionary chemotherapy hit, having cracked on as normal then had a recurrence 7 or more years down the line, this again could be the case with many chemo patients, who knows? Of course if these ladies had gone along with the oncologist's recommendations, and the chemotherapy treatment had been applied, these cases would unjustly, have been hailed as a chemotherapy success, claims that the chemo had extended the patients life through killing any metastasised cancer cells that were present (ones that had spread and were taking hold) along with holding off the development of secondary cancers through the use of Tamoxcifen and Herceptin. When in actual fact this was not the case.

Many of the women that do experience breast cancer do not have the will to radically change their lifestyle. If someone told me you could die from eating certain foods that I had over the years become routinely accustomed to eating, and therefore immensely enjoyed consuming, I'd still certainly make a concerted effort to stop.... I'd restyle my diet to take on only what is good. Only what has been proved to contain the enzymes, vitamins and minerals that our bodies require to build a stonkingly strong immune system. Nearly all the success cases that we have read about, are women that have radically changed their lifestyles. All the books we've read, and the ones we are still reading all point to the same main two points regarding cancer. Nutrition and Mind. Nutrition is easy for me, but 'Mind' would be a trickier one, learning how to meditate properly would take time. Studies carried out on meditators is very, very interesting. As mentioned in an earlier post, when you are stressed, anxious or depressed, the mind sends messages to the endocrine system, in turn they release hormones in constant flows, that are not generally required by the body, and have to be dealt with, until this emotion subsides. Unless our body is under attack, and we are actually going to benefit from the release of this influx of hormones, for instance to help us fight or run away, they are useless to us, doing more harm than good. A peaceful mind has been shown to assist many folks in their dealing and healing of cancer.

The nutrition side, is all about maintaining a super powered immune system. Simple as that really. The more 'live enzymes' that we can take into our bodies the better. These are what activate, and in many cases recycle essential vitamins and minerals within our bodies. This is where all the fresh vegetable juices come in. Every day Amanda keeps a hourly stream of fresh enzymes, vitamins and minerals flowing through her body, providing essential building blocks for the perfect immune system. This is what the Gerson Therapy, and other alternative cancer therapies are all about. When you read this, you then wonder how destroying a cancer patients immune system through the use of chemotherapy can have any long term positive effects? It certainly opens up Pandora's box for many who suffer other infections and illness as a result of the immune system trampling chemotherapy.

With the Gerson, there are many supplements to be taken too, the actions of these supplements can be as simple as increasing digestive efficiency for instance. Pancreatic Enzymes are naturally released by an organ called the Pancreas, one of the major digestive organs in the body. The pancreas squirts a cocktail of digestive enzymes (an enzyme is a biological catalyst, it speeds up a process, or is simply required for a process to take place.) into the duodenum (the beginning of the small intestine, just where it comes out of the stomach), and these enzymes get to work breaking down fats, starches and proteins. If you are a little short on these enzymes you may not be digesting your food fully, therefore the vital minerals and nutrients will not be absorbed through the small or large intestinal wall. Obviously everyone wants to benefit from all the goodness in their food stuffs, therefore it is essential that these enzymes are present in the necessary amounts, hence the supplementation of these enzymes throughout the course of the therapy. Ensuring that all the vitamins and minerals that the physiological body requires to carry out all it's day to day functions are present, will mean that there are no shortfalls in any vital areas. The bodies blood needs to be a certain pH (every so slightly alkaline), our mitochondria (the bodies power station cells) require certain conditions, vitamins and minerals to perform at peak condition. Electrical differentiation within our all of our cells provides the conditions that allow important processes to occur, without this difference we wouldn't even be able to wiggle our toes when we wanted to. The body is incredible, and so extremely complex, all the processes are completely bewildering, especially when you break these processes down further and further into separate constituents. Mind boggling stuff, and even at an age where medicine is so powerful, so much of it still remains unexplained.

Other supplements such as Iodine solution, potassium compound and various vitamins and minerals known to assist in fighting cancer through providing the necessary elements for our digestive system, renal (kidneys) and hepatic (liver) systems and immune systems to work easily and efficiently are taken on a daily basis.

On Friday Amanda wanted to get another walk in. We did the Hornton circular walk (4.8 miles) in just under one hour and ten minutes, it was a bloody good pace! Amanda was out of breath, but to be quite honest, she hasn't walked that fast for eight weeks, in addition to this she said, 'let's run the back two fields!' also added to the shortness of breath.... I fought against running, I was more than happy with the very fast walking pace! We chatted the whole way round, it was lovely.

Amanda mentioned having read the blog, she felt I didn't want to have to be juicing and preparing food all the time... well that's not entirely wrong, nor is it true. Neither of us want to be doing what we're currently doing, but at the same time, if this changes our lives for the better, and brings Amanda back to full health, so she can go on to lead a full normal life, with the incorporated nutritional changes, well that would be just magic! I'd do anything for her, and I don't mind doing it, in fact I love doing it, as it's for her. If it benefits Amanda, it benefits me too. It's not really the juicing that bothers me, I find it quite therapeutic, it's the never stopping, the little bit of doing nothing for a while that I miss. I did watch a film last night, whilst Amanda read in bed, that was nice. We finished another book yesterday afternoon, on to the next one!

Amanda does not want to be defined by this experience, and nor does she want to have to talk about it all the time when she meets friends, family or colleagues. Amanda is not 'cancer', and her life is not all about cancer.

Yes, it's hard to skirt around it, as everyone wants to show concern about her diagnosis, but to be honest, she'd rather be talking about your problems than hers. The cancer is done with, she is now preparing and repairing her body and mind for the future.

Love to you all x