New PCP
Tuesday I met with a person, Dr. Stacie Johns, who will be my new insurance primary care physician (PCP). She was referred to me by a friend as being integrative-friendly. I am impressed. She feels like she will be a good fit. Simply, Dr. Fields is no longer covered by my new insurance, and I can’t keep paying out of pocket for both her services as well as Dr. West’s, and Dr. West is a specialist in naturopathic oncology, whereas Dr. Fields is a family practice physician who does integrative. I am grateful for her work with me, and cha-ching! It is just a fact that money is tight. $$
I am excited because Dr. Johns is a certified medical cannabis physician. So, I will likely schedule another appointment with her after I get the final results of the CT scan and partake accordingly. She says not only CBD, but also THC, has been shown to be anti-cancer. A friend also recently posted on Facebook an article which led to this link of a researcher discussing her work on cannabis and cancer. And I got an email from Dr. Mercola with this link about how cannabis use aids in exercise. Which leads me to the next topic.
Exercise Plan
I met with Joanne Henritze, my oncological exercise physiologist, about creating a new plan of exercise with accountability built it. Basically the goal is 8,000 steps a day, six out of seven days, which is probably a 2 mile walk plus activities of daily living. We will step that goal up each month until I get to the goal of 10,000 steps a day. And a few of those days I should be working hard enough to get my heart rate up to 140 beats per minute. So not just a stroll.
I also discussed with her having done some weight training with the trainer at the rec center and how sore I was afterwards for days, and she actually warned against that, as it taxes the body so much, and in the recuperation period that follows, that actually gives the cancer a window to jump back in. So no heavy lifting. Maybe 75% of what I did that day would be okay.
And I’m going to report in weekly to her to have the accountability. It is amazing to me how fast a week can go by and I find that I have only done a day or two. I need to build it into my routine and make it a habit more. It is hard for me.
She said that the data is clear that cardio exercise is what prevents recurrence. So I have to be dedicated to this.
Another thing she advocated, and this is not exercise related, was to have a goal. In other words, what do I want out of my life? And then that I should be actively pursuing it daily and weekly. What jumped into my head is to go back to France, and to also pass the test of level B2 proficiency in French. So there is that.
CT Scan
So to really verify if there has been recurrence, I had the CT scan yesterday, after having finished the round of clean-up antibiotics to make sure any UTI is out of the way. The tech is awesome. I’ve had her before. I like her because she has a stuffed cat toy on her CAT Scan machine. 😉 Her office has moved into a big new beautiful setting, and she has a brand new machine, so hopefully the results will be wonderful and clear for the radiologist. The tech said my doctor would likely have the results midday today but may not release it to my patient portal if he would prefer to talk about it. So I came home and wrote him a message via said patient portal asking him to release it today because I’d just rather know. So we’ll see if he does. Fingers crossed. We think he may not even work on Fridays so it may be next week before I know.
Dr. Johns was willing to order another urine culture to double check the status of any UTIs, as well as another CA-125 to see if by chance it has gone back down. I will get those run today. I should have the CA-125 back imminently, but the culture should take 3 or 4 days.
TTAC
Which leads me to TTAC, The Truth About Cancer. We bought the Asia series and have been watching another episode most evenings since Grant got back. It is good and encouraging, that there are many possible treatments out there, many successes, and that sticking with American conventional medicine is not the whole story. That is why we have Dr. West and not just Dr. Guntupalli, but of course if you’ve been following along, you know all about our process in that. Dr. G and his team are excellent firefighters! And they are not investigators into why it happened in my system, and they are not re-designers and rebuilders to help me avoid recurrence. They are just standing there at the ready with the firehose (mostly of chemo) at the first sign of flames. And in many ways their hands are tied from doing anything else because of the history of allopathic medicine in this country.
In any case, if it is a recurrence, we are considering sending me somewhere for more intensive treatment, perhaps Canada. We will need to do some more research on where exactly, and how to fund it. But that could be a possibility.
Well, so that’s it for now. It is a beautiful day. I will attempt to practice what I preach to clients about being in the Now. The Now is pretty darn good, regardless of past or future.
Illustration is a clock available for purchase, which I should probably get!
Staying C-ful with the Big C 