Hi-ya friends...the Malley household is hustling and bustling like the good ole' days lately. Mike is in full swing with the baseball season (pun intended...hehe), I have officially started a new business venture (which I'll fill you in on soon), and I have been super busy juggling all sorts of other things like meetings about returning to work and getting tons done around the house before my next surgery...which is in 8 days! yikes! It finally feels like we are back to a little bit of what life was like before I was diagnosed - full schedules involving both work and play, cooking & eating dinner together every night (and at the kitchen table - no longer eating while laying on the couch or in bed), and just enjoying feeling well enough to tackle all sorts of things. I realized that my 30th birthday came and went without me ever wrapping up my ambitious "30 before 30" list. I will admit - I didn't accomplish everything. But I will say, it was a valiant effort and I will definitely continue to cross off the rest of my list as the year progresses. Here is how I fared.... I have some pretty big things coming up in the next week. This coming Sunday, April 29 is the Mid-Michigan Race for the Cure in Lansing. I am proud to be the "New Balance Honorary Survivor" of this years race and I will be speaking at the opening ceremonies on the steps of the Capital building. I am using this opportunity to not only share my story, but stress the critical importance of further research in the field of breast cancer. I think that Komen and other organizations have done a great job of spreading awareness - but it's time for more! We all know what a pink ribbon means. Now it's time to really step up our game and put our money where our mouth is and find a cure! I am nervous to be speaking in front of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people but I feel like it is my responsibility to advocate for myself and the other men and women that are battling for their lives right along side me. Publicly speaking about myself and what I have been through is always an emotional thing for me so I am grateful that some of my close friends and family members will be there to support me. That truly means so much to me. The opening ceremonies begin at 1pm at the Capital in Lansing. If you would like more information, want to join our team, or donate to this cause, please click here. The next big thing on the agenda after the Race for the Cure is that I will be having surgery next Friday, May 4. This is the next step in my reconstruction process. The surgery itself should only take a couple hours and I will come home that same day. I will share more details on that next week but needless to say, undergoing surgery is always an anxious time. I will once again be asking for all of you prayer warriors out there to start storming the heavens again. In the meantime, here are some snapshots from my iphone to show you what I have been up to lately....weekly trips to the farmers market, lots of Kettering baseball games, new tasty recipes, juicing my veggies, roughly 30 or so pills every morning and then again at night, zoo trips with friends, doctors appointments, and babysitting our sweet Goddaughter...life is good! Hope you all have a great weekend and that I see some of you on Sunday at the Mid-Michigan Race for the Cure in Lansing! xoxo, Meg
10 Comments
***Addendum added at end of post*** One of the hardest parts of living with this disease is that it leaves you feeling like you don't have any control. I feel like I had no control in how I got breast cancer. I had no control in losing my hair. I had no control in whether or not the chemo would work. But, I do have control in how I decide to live my life. How I decide to take care of my body and how I decide to handle the cards that have been dealt to me. One of those decisions has been to do anything and everything in my power to stay as healthy as I can and help my body remain as strong and well-equipped as possible to fight off this disease. After the initial shock of being diagnosed subsided, I decided that I needed to become an expert about what I was dealing with. It was one way to gain some of the control back. And I figured, if I went to college for 7 1/2 years to learn to be an "expert" in physical therapy, I better become an expert on the disease that is threatening my life. So I have read a ton of books and research articles, I have talked and emailed with many fellow survivors, I have attended conferences and listened to all sorts of experts. One recurring theme that I kept coming across was the role that nutrition, diet and lifestyle choices play in any disease. The frustrating thing was that I always led a pretty healthy life prior to being diagnosed. I had a physical job, worked out regularly, and ate well. I actually became a vegetarian a year before I was diagnosed after reading The China Study and deciding that I wanted to be even more proactive about my health. So, although I agree with much of the research out there, I don't believe that everyone who gets cancer has a poor diet or a lifestyle that led to the onset of the disease - just as there are many people out there living very unhealthy lives that will never develop cancer. I have made the choice to not be discouraged or angry that I developed cancer despite trying to lead a health conscious life. Instead, I have decided to focus on continuing with those efforts - and actually improve upon them in order to further improve my health. After much reading and educating myself on many of these topics, I decided that I wanted to consult Dr. Block at the Block Center for Integrative Medicine in Chicago. Although I love my team at Karmanos, the one piece that I felt like I was missing was the integrative approach -- how could I best combine traditional medicine (chemo, surgery, radiation, prescription meds), with complimentary medicine such as diet, exercise, supplements, and the mind-body-spirit connection. I feel that there are tremendous benefits with both approaches and there is no reason why I can't integrate all of this together to maximize my health and cancer-fighting potential! So, after reading Dr. Block's wonderful book, "Life Over Cancer" and talking with a few other women that have been to his center, Mike and I decided that it would definitely be worth our while to go. Prior to my visit, the Block Center staff sent me a 20 page questionnaire asking for the most detailed and specific information I have ever seen! Not only did they want a very extensive medical history, but they also asked numerous questions on every topic imaginable - my current diet and exercise regimen, childhood and adolescent trauma, how I cope with stress, what my sleep habits are, what is my relationship like with my parents and spouse, do I floss, what type of water do I drink - city, well, spring, distilled?!...let me tell you, the questionnaire was intense and took me many days to complete! But right off the bat, I loved how thorough they were. A couple of weeks ago, Mike and I made the road trip to Chicago for my appointment at the Block Center. We were there for nearly 7 hours! It was a super long and exhausting day but it was well worth it. We met with a psychologist to talk about the mind-body connection, what are stressors in my life, and how to manage stress properly since it has been shown to have negative physiological consequences on the body. After speaking with her for about an hour, we met with Dr. Block himself for about 1 1/2 hours! We discussed many different topics ranging from his thoughts on my treatment up to this point, his recommendations for a specific exercise regimen, the importance of sleep cycles and circadian rhythms, and treatment options that may be available in the future if needed. He was a wealth of information but even more than that, he was a beacon of hope and optimism. Dr. Block stated that he has treated, "many, many" women with much worse disease than me, who have lived "not just years, but decades." This was exactly what I needed to hear. I need to know it is possible! If one woman has done it, I definitely know I can do it too! (photo credit: Block Center for Integrative Cancer Care) After our great meeting with Dr. Block, I had LOTS of blood drawn so that the Block Center could run their comprehensive blood work analysis. I had 18 vials of blood taken - yes, 18! That's a ton of blood! In the process, three of my veins collapsed and the poor woman taking my blood had to try every trick in the book to eek out those last few vials worth. They check for everything imaginable in your blood work - your tumor markers, antioxidant levels, vitamin levels, a glycemic panel, hypercoagulation panel, inflammation and immune system panels. The final part of our day involved an hour or two meeting with my dietician, Eric. Since I have always been very interested in nutrition and have read many books regarding cancer and nutrition, I came prepared with 4 pages of notes for our meeting. Poor guy - I peppered him with all sorts of questions and concerns. He is very knowledgable and did an excellent job answering my questions and explaining the purpose and indication for every vitamin and supplement that I inquired about. We also spent a great deal of time going over the Block Center's specific and fairly strict dietary plan. Eric and Dr. Block had devised a plan for me detailing what my daily caloric intake should be, and how many servings of each food group I should be consuming each day - whole grains, vegetables, fruits, protein (plant based), fats (preferably only good fats such as olive oil, flax and avocado), and dairy alternatives (soy or almond milk, vegan cheese). The Block Center provided me with a binder full of information including what accounts for one serving size for each of these food groups. Using this guide, I am able to track what I eat each day, measure my food, and calculate how many servings and calories I am consuming each day. It is definitely hard work and time consuming right now but I know if I start out very regimented, it will become second nature over time. The Block Center advocates a plant based diet, including eliminating dairy. They recommend a high intake of various whole grains and vegetables, a limited amount of fruit (due to the high sugar content), and very low amounts of fat. There is a great deal of research backing up all of their recommendations, which is one reason that I was really drawn to Dr. Block and wanted to visit his center. If you would like a detailed explanation of why the Block Center recommends this type of diet, please read "Life Over Cancer" by Dr. Keith Block. Today I had a one hour phone consultation with Eric, my dietician, to review of my blood work results. Overall, it was very good news. My tumor markers are very low, my glycemic levels are great, as are my coagulation and inflammatory panels. For the most part my antioxidant levels and immunity were really good but there were a few areas where I was low. Eric told me this was to be expected considering the treatment that I have endured this past year. Part of the very detailed report that Eric provided me includes what my levels are, what the desired level is, why this specific vitamin/cell type is important and how to improve my levels through specific food sources or supplements. I will be adding a few additional supplements to my daily regimen in order to improve those levels that are on the low side. I will have blood drawn at a local lab in 4 weeks to assess a few of these levels and then have a full panel of testing completed in 4 months. This will give us concrete data on how my dietary plan is affecting these important aspects of my blood work analysis.
Mike and I both agreed that we were very pleased with our visit to the Block Center. We walked away with a great deal of information and knowledge. It has actually been fun to come home and try all sorts of new recipes, vary my exercise program and implement other suggestions we received at Block. Although we consider ourselves very educated in the realm of exercise, nutrition and positive lifestyle choices - it always helps to learn more. We feel like the more we learn, the more tools we are adding to our arsenal. We are doing everything in our power to fight this disease and I believe an integrative approach is the right path for me. I also wanted to give a big thank you to all of our wonderful friends that live in Chicago. I am so grateful that it worked out so we were able to see all of you. We had such a blast (as always) and can't wait to come back this summer! xoxo, Meghan ***Addendum....I forgot to add this link to my original post. It is a quick video highlighting the Block Center and Dr. Block's work. Check it out if you have a few minutes - it's very interesting stuff! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1OOpGeafes&feature=share Sorry for a bit of a hiatus...life sure has been busy around here lately. The past two weeks have been jam packed with plans. Mike threw me a wonderful 3oth birthday party on the 24th and we had the best time! It is always so much fun when we are able to get so many of our family members and friends together at one time. Thank you so much to my loving husband for planning everything, and thank you to all of you that were able to come out and celebrate with us! The fun continued when we traveled to Chicago last weekend. Our main reason for the visit was actually a medical appointment at the Block Center for Integrative Cancer Care. We spent almost 7 hours at the Block Center and I will definitely fill you all in on that very soon. After spending all day Friday at our appointment, we spent that night and the rest of the weekend with our many friends that live in the city. As always, we had a great time in Chicago and can't wait to visit again soon! This past Thursday was Opening Day for the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park! For those of you that aren't from the D, you may not know what a huge deal this is. Basically, the entire city turns into one huge party. You may remember from this post, that I went to Opening Day for the first time last year when my big bro asked me to go with him. I remember that it was just a few days after I got my port placed in my chest, and Jeff was being so protective in the bar before the game - making sure that no one would bump into me since I was so sore. It's crazy to think of all that has happened since then. Mike and I were so excited that we not only got tickets to the game (thanks Uncle Ed!), but that we were going with Mike's cousins, Brian and Diana - who we adore. Mike and I are really close with Brian and Diana and we always have the best time together. It worked out perfect that Diana was visiting from NYC, and Mike had the day off for spring break. We met up before the game with Jeff and some other friends at Coaches Corner before heading to the game to cheer the Tigers on for their first win of the season. It was such a fun day! I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter Sunday with your families. I will never forget my Easter last year. I spent the day in bed, suffering from a great deal of fatigue and extremely low blood pressure after my very first round of chemo. The night before, all of my wonderful Beauts came over with dinner, made me laugh, and physically tucked me into my bed that night. I am so grateful for how far I have come since then. I am grateful that I will spend Easter with my family - not in my bed - and that I have enough energy to enjoy every moment of the day. Happy Easter! xoxo, Meghan ps. - I have been asked to be the Team New Balance Honorary Survivor at this years Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Lansing, Michigan. The Mid-Michigan Komen affiliate is doing wonderful things for the greater Lansing community and I am happy to be a part of their event. My hope in taking part in this is that by sharing my story to hundreds (maybe thousands!) of people when I take the stage at the opening ceremonies, I will help bring about increased awareness about the risks for younger women, and especially educate others on metastatic breast cancer. If you would like to join us on April 29th at the State Capital, please click here to become a member of our team or to make a donation to this cause. To learn more about the great work of the Mid-Michigan Komen affiliate, and to see yours truly in their video, click on this link. |
AuthorMy blog to keep you all Archives
December 2021
Categories
All
|