Archives for May 2020

A Short Hospital Stay

May 29, 2020 by Helena Trent 4 Comments

I just spent the last couple of nights in the hospital, getting discharged today. I do feel a lot better than when I went in. When I told my oncologist about my headaches and vomiting, he had me checked into the ER hours later. Given my history, he was worried something serious might be going on. The ER did a CT scan of my head, couldn’t find anything really wrong so they admitted me into the hospital for further testing. It was more of an observation hospital stay than a treatment stay. Anyway, they performed a brain MRI and a full CT scan of my whole body. The brain MRI turned out to be clear. My headaches are vomiting must be from the leftover side effects of the brain radiation. An oncology nurse friend told me it’s like a brain injury, it takes a long time to heal completely. Meanwhile, I have to take some medicine to control the symptoms. The CT scan did not turn out well which I expected. Progression of the lung and liver tumors are both shown. Tarceva, the gene inhibitor drug I had high hopes for is not working. It’s not helping me at all, so there is no point in taking it any longer.

My oncologist wants me to try immunotherapy even though it has not been proven for my type of cancer. Immunotherapy is the newest way to treat cancer. A Nobel Prize was won for that a couple of years ago. Unlike chemo, it doesn’t try to use drugs to kill the cancer. Instead, it boosts the immune system so that the immune system kills the cancer. Patients that respond to the treatment responds very well and have long last effect. He has not treated anyone with gene mutation with this method because only 5% of cancer patients have gene mutation. I decided to give it a try. I have nothing to lose at this point. If nothing else, I donate this body to science while I am still alive. Maybe I get better from it. Maybe someone else will learn something from my experience. Either way, the side effects sounded manageable. I will likely start the treatment next week. It’s one treatment every 3 weeks. I agreed to try it for 3 months and see what happens.

Cancer Won This Round

May 22, 2020 by Helena Trent 2 Comments

Once again, cancer has forced me out of fasting early. Sigh. My body simply doesn’t have enough reserve to fight a long battle. I did fine the first week or so. Then it started making me throw up… even under fasting! I had nothing but bile to throw up of course. Then I had the brilliant idea of doing a one-day true water fasting without the support of bone broth. That did it. I threw up big time, all the water I drank. Then I was so weak I couldn’t even stand up. My heart rate jumped to the 80’s. (Normally only 60 for me.) My heart was racing like a rabbit trying to jump out of my chest. My blood oxygen dropped to the 80’s (healthy range is 95+). I was so light headed I thought I could pass out anytime.

As soon as I got back on bone broth, everything got a little better, but I couldn’t recover from that 1 day water fasting. I know it’s my brain tumors because I have a massive constant headache despite the water fasting. It’s giving command for the body to threw up.

Not all is lost despite my defeat, I decided to come out of it because my body was in serious trouble. I realized I am not going to get rid of cancer in one round anyway. I did learn what I needed to learn from this lesson. I took my time early in the fasting when I had energy to research a lot about fasting and cancer. It turns out, the most important and dangerous part is not the fasting itself, but the “refeeding” process coming out of fasting. That’s the mistake I made last time. When I got into fasting, my body entered into ketosis, and it’s important that I keep it in ketosis. Instead, I didn’t know any better, eating things like rice porridge, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, etc. because those were food I thought was easy to digest. The cancer cells fed on carbs like crazy and put my body in worse shape then before. No wonder it only took a few days for me to be back in square one!

Needless to say I know better this time! It’s a miracle my body survived that mistake. Now I have a new diet I am sticking to and stop feeding cancer cells even when I eat. I will also put in a regular water fasting routing after I regained my strength so I don’t weaken my body through the process.

As far as the vomiting goes, I also figured out ginger blocks the vomit receptor in the brain. As long as I eat/drink enough ginger in my meals, I don’t throw up. The headache is something else I still need to figure out.

Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes!

21-Day Water Fasting… Again

May 11, 2020 by Helena Trent 4 Comments

I felt like back to square one again… sigh. As I got off my fasting and got back to regular eating, at first it was energetic, especially the first few days even with the occasional minor indigestion initially. As the days went by, I could feel my insides getting more and more congested. I was trying to have one last weekend of nice meals especially because it’s Mother’s Day weekend, then go back into a few days of water fasting to clear the system. Well, like deja vu, my body decided no more meals and proceeded to vomiting out of the blue AGAIN as we were cooking dinner on Saturday night! So… water fasting it is. I was totally pissed this time!!! 😡 I know it’s my brain tumors that have been messing with me. They are supposed to be all gone after the 2 week whole brain radiation, but I know they are not because I got headaches at different regions of my brain. This happened last time too, a few days of that and then I threw up. It turns out nausea and vomiting are typical symptoms of brain tumors. It did stop after the last water fasting and I think it had to do with the cancer activities slowing way down with water fasting. With eating on a regular basis again, cancer cells always outgrow healthy cells.

I am back on water fasting and this time I am going for the 21-day cell cycle like I had planned last time. I thought I had a reset, but it was very brief. This time, one of us will die, if it’s me, so be it, but I won’t let cancer send me on a yo-yo back and forth every other week. The good thing is I am stronger going into it this time and I know what to expect at least the first 7 days. I am not as apprehensive about the process. I believe my body still has a fighting chance and it can come back. Like my bursitis on my hip, it was painful for weeks, but once I got to physical therapy, it only took 2 sessions for me to work out the problem and it took a totally of 4 days for it to recovery completely. It just needs the right support. I really believe my cancer is the same way, but I haven’t quite figure out the right combinations yet. As long as I am alive and breathing, I still have a chance.

Over the weekend as I cooked our planned meals for the family without eating it, I thought it was such irony that they are enjoying my Mother’s Day dinner. It’s unthinkable for Chinese to choose not to eat. I remember there was a time in my life I would get hangry because a meal was late… lol! I think it’s in my genes. There must be hundreds and thousands of hungry ghosts in my ancestral line. Not a surprise considering Chinese history was full of famines mostly due to corrupt governments (somethings just don’t change I suppose 😜) My parents were the last generation to experience famine during the cultural revolution. I was born during the cultural revolution, naturally I am reluctant to do this.

I decided to dedicate this 21-Day water fasting to the entire ancestral line of hungry ghosts, may my fasting end the entirely family line of suffering related to food and may this body be made anew to serve the generations to come! It’s also fitting this cancer is a gene mutation, let it all end here.