61. Ten year plan

On Mon 7th I went and visited Jon Gamble. He is a homeopath and naturopath. I would like some help getting my body to a more homeostatic place instead of one that is toxic from all the drugs that have been pumped into it over the last 9 months or so. Also to assist with symptoms I will have with my ongoing cancer treatments. I'm a big believer in complementary medicine used in conjunction with mainstream medicine. So I now am back to 3 weight training sessions and 1 boxing class a week, I get my regular massages, I classify my craft and creative outlets as meditation and so this will be another layer to help balance my life.

After having a chat with what's been going on in the last year he had a look through the form I filled out prior to coming. This had things like injuries I'd had and when (the list was long), medications and rounds of antibiotics (this list was also long from this year only), scans (very long from the last year), family history, what type of weather and food do I like/dislike, and a number of other things. Jon did some kinesiology and an oligo scan and yep, my toxicity levels are 100% unsatisfactory. My vitamin B9 and D were both 0% and some other minerals and heavy metals were way way up. He says a lot of it is because of the chemo. Some of the minerals were too high and so were leaching away the vitamins so I'm on a detox for that and supplements for B9 and D. Plus a couple of other detox homeopathic remedies too. Within a couple of days I started to feel like I had a bit more energy, a little less foggy, a little less tired in the afternoons and after a week I am feeling hungry a bit more than previously too. These detox things will also help improve my gut function as it's been through the wringer this year. (I am starting to feel hungry for dinner now)

On Fri 11th I met my new oncologist, Dr Julia, and her assistant, Dr Amanda, for the first time. They are both really nice and I felt like I will get good advice and treatment from them. I'm told that Dr Julia is now the permanent oncologist at Sutherland Hospital so I shouldn't have any changes again for a while. I saw Dr Amanda first and we talked a bit about what's happened since my diagnosis and how my treatments have been going so far. We then had a bit of a chat about my 10 year plan. Yep, that's not a typo. It may end up being 5 years, it may be 7 years but at this point it's best just to plan as if it's 10. I started the Zolodex injections 3 weeks ago and had some bad bone pain (right foot and left knee) a couple of times but apart from the foot one night where I needed to take panadol it was bearable. I got a prescription for Letrozole which is a daily tablet and also hormone therapy. It works together with Zolodex. Those will be ongoing until I'm deemed ok to be off them.

Dr Julia came in and we discussed more about the NATALEE trial which just finished a Phase III three year trial for people with stage 4 breast cancer and it had very good results. I'm classified as high risk of recurrence at stage 3A, mainly because I had a lot of lymph nodes (7) with cancer and one had the 15mm lesion in it as well. Dr Julia says I am a really good candidate for the next 3 year section of the trial as it will boost the effectiveness of the Zolodex and Letrozole. I'll see them again on Oct 6th and we will discuss in more depth then. It would be a daily tablet, three weeks on and one week off, plus an infusion every six months. It could add another 4% survivability to my 70%. Small amounts but they can add up to bigger numbers for years being cancer free. Both Dr Julia and Dr Amanda were impressed with my Na'vi bones from my scan results and wished me well for my radiotherapy.

An exciting addition to the choir I am in, The Da Vinci Singers, is we now have a musical ensemble offshoot called The Merry Minstrels. We will support the choir but also will just have some of our own musical gigs too. I am up for playing recorder (soprano, alto, tenor), my Irish wooden flute, my metal transverse flute, ukulele (which actually will be a medieval one that looks like a lute but has only four strings so you play it like a ukulele) as well as piano or keyboard if needed. Perhaps guitar but at this point we want to try and keep it close to medieval instruments as possible most of the time. On Wednesday last week us musicians met up for some photos of us all in costume (to help getting gigs) and then some of us did some sight reading of some music together which was very fun. I met up with Désirée, choir director, on Sunday and we ran through a bunch of songs to see what parts I could play so she can have an idea of where to put me as most other people play only one or possibly two instruments. Then we had some fun just playing some duets for a bit. I think I can add my music onto my complementary medicine plan as well.

I went back to boxing class last Wednesday. I was unsure how tired I would be or how I would go but it was fine. It felt good to move with all the punches and just the high punches pull a bit. That tells me I need to focus more on those stretches. I did a bit of running in the class to, not crazy fast but more than I have done for what seems a LONG time. The amazing free feeling of not having five and a half kilograms bouncing around on my chest was almost exhilarating. It was also a bit funny doing uppercut punches and I overbalanced slightly and got out of rhythm at the start as I'm so used to having my boobs counter bounce with my punch. Hard to explain if you can't see it but I need to retrain my brain a bit of move fully in sync again.

I had my car serviced on Sat, 12,000kms over due. It's hard to get the time, money and energy to do that with so many appointments and things to think about and do. I dropped it in and then walked back home. I thought I had given myself enough time to get home for Lewis's class but I was 10 mins late. I ended up doing some running with my fast walking, around 50-100m sections along the way. It was nice to run a bit more and I hope to get back to it soon. My right foot though is bugging me again. Right where the stone got dug out. It's not getting better and it feels like the lump is getting bigger. I'll talk to my GP on Monday when I get my 2nd Zolodex injection.

I've done 2 sessions of radiotherapy but that will be my next blog post as it's time to go get some dinner.