Cancer Survivor, writing about Health and Fitness as you age

This is the second "Cancer by the Numbers" post, the first was about blood counts . We have been trying to eat organic fruits and vegetables as much as we can, to reduce the pesticide levels we injest. I will publish another post about cancer and food, but for now I thought I'd share the cost of organic vs not organic based on a quick poll of my local grocery (HEB).  We had cut out meat prior to my diagnosis of cancer (ever since reading The China Study ) so perhaps the decline in spending in meat is offset by the more pricey organic items! The graph below shows the increase, as a percentage of the non-organic price, that I pay for common items that I buy. While the actual dollar amounts may not be significant individually, I can tell you that I really feel it on my grocery bill when I buy blueberries! If you feel you want to buy organic, but want to spend the dollars on those items where it makes a difference, take a look at the  Environmental Working

But first a quick update. I have now completed 22 cycles of radiation (week 29) and I am thankfully on a break for Christmas. I have some issues I need to work through but nothing horrible. In the meantime, my hair is growing back, unfortunately it is also growing in places that I would prefer it NOT grow. (And I'd thank you for not mentioning my newly acquired fuzzy sideburns - yaay chemo!) I am also trying to improve my diet, not that I had very bad habits before, but I am increasing the amount of vegetables in my diet and have to deal with the attendant side effects that come with consuming copious quantities of highly gassy foods. But enough of that, on to joy. I was recently watching a movie, The Bucket List , and I thought I'd share the two questions that the characters (facing death) reflect on in the movie: Do you have joy in your life? Or, alternatively, look for the joy in your life. Did you bring joy to others? So over this holiday season those might be som

There was a young lady with cancer, a diagnosis to give you an ulcer. It was an unplanned marathon, of chemo, surgery and radiation all in hopes it's the answer. Chemo is over and surgery is done, she's on the next step of radiation. She burns, swells and is going red "Inflammation" is what the doc said. Sore and pained, she's so ready for fun! Regardless of pain, she goes sun or rain. Treatment is every day to help the cancer go away. It's enough to drive one insane. 33 days the trip must be made, "Make it work" she prayed. 13 complete, 20 to go, the end is far you know. A hard path to walk unafraid. In the room with big machines She lays, imagining peaceful scenes. She takes the radiation, without hesitation to see her kids reach their teens.

When my mother died from breast cancer , I spent a long time going over the same questions in my mind. How could this have happened? I could have helped, why didn't I? Why didn't I ask for details about her health, about tests she'd had or should have had?  Why didn't I probe more? Why didn't I take better care of her? In the end, I concluded that I didn't ask those questions because I was the child of my mom, she was the parent and I expected my parents to take care of themselves. I didn't think I had to take care of them. So, at what point does a child assume the responsibility for taking care of their parent? What is that trigger or signal that says, "It's time to be in charge of mom or dad". Unfortunately it seems to me that  there is no real "time" (bar an event in which the parent is incapacitated), but is more of a sliding scale. The slider starts out with the child not being responsible and then moves over to greater and

I know there is probably a lot of research about the implications of the age gap between siblings but I wanted to share a few of my observations. Lucas is 6 years older than Liam. We didn't actually choose that big of a gap, it just worked out that way. In the beginning, Liam was so much smaller than Lucas that everything went well. Lucas played with his very baby brother as a big kid would play with a little kid. There was a gap in language, physical skill and size that made the difference between the boys clear. Now that Liam has more verbal skills, can have a conversation, is bigger and can "fight" with his big brother it is a different story. Now we are seeing the downsides of the big gap. The plus of the big gap: Lucas was independent enough not to require much attention when Liam was a baby. Allowing us to focus on the new baby. Lucas was old enough to help with Liam (bring clothes, diapers, etc.) and was able to understand when we had to leave reading with hi

Have you ever compared a book that your child has read with a book from your own childhood that you read when you were your child's age? Well I have and I can tell you I can better understand the attraction my son's books have for him and the reason for his disdain when I mention the books I read as a child. As you can see from my bookshelf, I have been reading quite a bit of books my older son is reading. He is 10 and we are reading books for the 9-12 age range.This means I've been through Harry Potter and working my way through Rick Riordon's Lightning Thief series, but I am still behind. Lucas enjoys fantasy and the books are usually fast-paced, with traces of humour, and although they deal with good vs evil issues, generally the plots are simple and don't make me stay awake at night. I don't need adult thriller fiction to keep me interested, in fact, better not since some adult books are quite gory. When I was growing up I read a ton of Enid Blyton, a