Detox Foods

Citrus-Spinach-Pesto Salmon and "side salad" of mixed baby greens, tomato, cranberries, and cauliflower dressed with mushroom vinaigrette.

Garlicky Greens and salmon baked with red onion and lemon. The left over salmon made for great salad topping the next day.

Balsamic Glazed salmon with a mess o' spicy greens.

A "green" smoothie. Where to begin with the ingredients: silken tofu, blue berries, handfuls of greens, yadda yadda yadda. It was OK.

The first of 11...

...Herceptin infusions, that is.

I guess it could be called "chemo lite" even though technically, it's not chemo. For the next 30 weeks, I'll go to the infusion center to get a herceptin only infusion. The side effects, compared to chemo, are minimal.

Herceptin alone is responsible for decreasing breast cancer recurrence for people with my type of tumor by 40-50%. However, this does come with costs: an increased risk of heart disease (cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure, both of which can lead to death) and an estimated financial cost of $100,000/yr.

As I said before, compared to chemo, the side effects (other than heart issues) are minor: fever, chills, muscle aches, nausea. These side effects are said to decrease with future infusions. I had six herceptin infusions with my first round of chemo (last fall, before my surgery). At that time, I also received carboplatin and taxotere. I experienced quite severe leg and joint pain, especially the last half of the treatments, which lasted until January (I finished treatments in November). That pain was attributed to the taxotere. However, now I wonder about that because tonight, for the first time since it went away, I experienced that same pain, on a much lower scale, in my knees while I was driving (before, it was severe enough to cause me to automatically take pain relief if I were driving anywhere out of town), I can "feel" my knees sitting in this recliner, and my ankles were aching at dinner. Granted, this is all at a much lower level, but it is otherwise the exact same pain, in the exact same places that I experienced before.

Now I wonder, will it get worse over time? Is this a fluke? Is it all in my head? Or, will the pain build over time, and if so, how intense can it get over 30 weeks of treatment? Was it compounded by the taxotere?

Will I actually become an old lady before I stop feeling like an old lady?

So, that's what I did today, and, hopefully, that's what I'll do every third Friday for the next 30 weeks. So far, I feel fine, other than those odd, minor aches. You can read about how herceptin works here.

Meanwhile, the detox diet has been going well. I just may have to get used to cooking separately for myself because after 1.5 weeks of no sugar, no saturated fats, no grains, no dairy and eating mostly various leafy greens, fish, chicken, and berries, I really don't find the thought of other foods very enticing. For some reason, tonight, I had an intense craving for Bob Evan's biscuits, but even that intensity was much less than just a few days ago when I could have killed for a mouthful of the fried rice I made my family for dinner.

Now, if I could figure out how to replicate the Garden Tomato Soup that is served at Naslada, I'd be one happy camper.

Detox

So, I've been doing a post-chemo detox. It's nothing special, really. In fact, it's probably how I should learn to eat for the rest of my life. No wheat products. No refined sugar of any sort (no honey or maple syrup). Lots of antioxidants. Lots of greens. Lean protein. Healthy fish. Detox tea. A handful of supplements that support liver and kidney function.

It has only been a few days. It's a challenge. I really wanted those South Side Six gyros my family ate for dinner Thursday. The chicken fried rice I'm making them for dinner sounds wonderful. Yet, I'll stick to a salad with left over salmon bits and some sauteed greens.

However, my body is so full of toxic crap that I must do this for at least two weeks. Chemo works because it is toxic. The most recent chemo regime I was doing came with rules such as "wash your sheets 48 hours after chemo because the toxins seep through your skin" and "massage therapists should wear gloves the first 48 hours after infusions."

It's the cure that kills. Yes, there is no denying that sometimes people die from the cure. It's a risk. Very few come through totally unscathed. To top it off, chemo kills cells, cancer cells as well as healthy cells. Dead cells, like all living organisms decompose. Just like one rotten potato can make the entire cupboard smell for days, decomposing cells, especially nasty ones like cancer cells (or so I imagine), release toxins.

Basically, I'm a walking toxic waste dump.

And that's what I'm trying to remedy right now.

Some people have asked if I have noticed any changes since starting to detox. So far, I've only noticed one change. A change I didn't expect (actually, I had no expectations): my distance vision is much more clear. This started late yesterday. I was driving the boys to a soccer game last night and everything was so clear. Sort of like when you go to get your eyes checked (for those of us who wear corrective lenses) and they do that first "is this better?" And you realize that, yes, you really do need new lenses? It was all so crisp.

Even today I can tell a difference in my eye sight. This one is an annoying one. Because my distance vision is improved, that's affecting my near vision. I feel the strain reading my laptop. Come to think of it, twice yesterday I had to dig out my reading glasses, and I really haven't been using them much lately.

I'm not really sure what to make of this. It's just an observation. Who knows what else I'll observe in the next week and a half or longer.

Quite Pleased With Myself

I ate 11 or more cups of dark, leafy greens today.....at least 4.5 cups of kale. At least 6.5 cups of spinach. Tossed some chard into my lunch smoothie **plus** that nasty, gross, disgusting green veggie powder that taints anything it touches.

Anyone think this might actually taste like berry? I'm not beyond cheating, nor helping my children cheat when it comes to getting 10-15 servies of stuff with roots and chlorophyll.