Fasting pre and post chemo

[NoSugar]

Yeah, that focus on drinking cracked me up. I doubt there are a whole lot of data one way or the other - even the physicians and health gurus seem very interested in somehow making allowances for alcohol is all situations. (Maybe they are afraid everyone will tune them out if they can't drink...)

One of his main points is that there is no clear consistent message about what patients should be eating among the various cancer organizations and that that is a big problem. He seems to be a proponent of using a ketogenic diet but he doesn't address triple neg BC, where recommendations seem to be different.

I hope you have a relaxing and rewarding weekend. xx- NS

[scottish lass]

Day 17 - yeah, soon be 2/3rds done - getting closer and closer. Keep smiling, you are doing so incredibly well!

[myhappyplace]

Hope you're all enjoying the weekend.

Have to report - in case my brain doesn't retain it, lol! - did a real yoga class this morning, outside and early. It was bliss. Home practice has been sustaining but I've really felt alone of late. So it was great to get amongst it with my peeps. I'd also slipped into some little bad habits and it was lovely to have someone correct them. I had a few - oh yeah! moments. Totally cool and has made a huge mental difference. :happy2:

[tawnyfrog]

... and another reason why this thread is so good...

I ran into a woman during the week whom I hadn't seen for about 18 months. Last time I saw her she was wearing longish beaded braids which I thought were really cute because she's in her 70's, obviously an old hippie. This time she had the same 'haircut' as Happs. We chatted and she mentioned she'd not been all that well and I could immediately ask "Have you just gone through chemo?" I was no longer too scared/nervous to mention the elephant in the room and we ended up laughing like drains because, like Happs, she had breast cancer, chemo and radiation and is now, ecstatically, all clear. She said she wished she'd known about Henna Crowns ...

[myhappyplace]

That's awesome Tawny. The value of a simple interaction...I bet it's made her day if not her week...

[scottish lass]

Hi MHP - was thinking of you this weekend, so glad to "see" you. Well done for getting the motivation to get back to something that makes you so happy - that is huge! Have a good, strong week - the sessions are soon over :hug:

[myhappyplace]

Yes, treatment nearly finished SL!

I've been thinking about something lately. I may as well type it here.

I have to sort my BRCA testing for early next year. Finding out whether I have a stuffed gene that I could have passed to my children VS no stuffed gene and I did this to myself. Through drinking. I'm not normally one for looking back, I just plough on and get over it. For some reason this one is really playing on my mind.....

That being said, I'm not sitting in a corner rocking back and forth about it. It is what it is. But I hope you understand what I mean.

[NoSugar]

Even if you don't have the gene, it does not mean that alcohol caused this, Friend.

Those are observational studies in which women are asked what and how much they drank 20 years ago, 10 years ago, etc. Aside from the fact that no one remembers, most people lie.

Now, even when you put that aside, all you get from these studies are correlations - developing BC is associated with alcohol intake. Well, aging is associated with face wrinkles. One may not cause the other. Something else may cause both of them or it may be coincidence. And sometimes it is the opposite of what it looks like. What looks like the cause is really the effect.

The study that is needed can't be done: randomly assign women without the gene to 2 groups. Keep everything else identical and have half drink too much alcohol regularly for 20 years and half abstain. See how many in each group get BC. And even if that were possible, say that 20 of 1000 controls got BC and 40 of 1000 drinkers. That would be reported as a doubling of BC, which technically it is, but 960 drinkers didn't get BC.

The notion that moderate alcohol intake is good for you is based on similar unreliable studies but I ran with that one for years.

For the sake of your family, I hope you don't have the gene. And please don't be blaming yourself when there is no way to know what went on. (Or maybe choose to believe all the studies that associate yoga with positive medical outcomes and feel good!). xx, NS

[scottish lass]

MHP - I am sorry you are feeling this way. I think that a lot of us here look back and think that they have done so much through drinking. I know that all sorts make me think "was it the drink". My oldest is really struggling at school, she is failing her second year at high school. We have had re diagnosed for the second time with ADHD - and the questionnaire made me question if my drinking was to blame, then some educational disability - and same thoughts, now tutoring at vast expense and still struggling - again, if I had been around more with homework earlier could I have taught her better when I understood her homework - well, it goes on and on....I think it is "normal" for us to think this way. I do hope you did not hurt yourself in such a way, I hope we all did not hurt ourselves - but if we did, it is done and at least we have had the courage and conviction to do something about it now....
As NS wisely says "For the sake of your family, I hope you don't have the gene. And please don't be blaming yourself when there is no way to know what went on." And I believe there are more than those two reasons to have been dealt the hand that you were...
You are such an incredible person, that has given me so much - be who you are with all that that brings, but feel good about yourself as you are truly special....
lots of love sl xx

[Ginger999]

NS and SL covered everything I was thinking and more. We all have regrets but what's important here is that we chose to change and improve ourselves. I feel so lucky to know all of you. You know what?? Without AL I wouldn't know any of the great people that I've met here. I'm counting my blessings!

[myhappyplace]

Thank you ladies. I love what each of you have posted and place a great deal of value on our friendship. I spoke to NS and let her know that I think these niggling thoughts are just that. I find once I "put something out there" it enables me to work through it and your feedback always assists with that. All the way through this "trip" I've had you along with me, encouraging me and making the way that much easier. I feel so lucky to have you all in my life, as Ginger has said - this is one of the positives and we have to look to those.

Just about to zip out to get zapped - number 20 - will be thinking of all of you. And a few others who don't post here but have been so supportive too. Thank you all so much.

And SL xx talk to you later xx

[scottish lass]

I love this thread and our threesome (occasionally more) - once this phrase is over, i hope this thread continues!!

[NoSugar]

I agree, SL :hug:!

[Ginger999]

Ditto that!!

[scottish lass]

Oops - was not counting myself - we are a quartet!! You threesome are special to me!!! MHP, NS and Ginger!!