The results of Monday's ultrasound and MRI are not available yet but I intend to comment as soon as I have word.  Sometimes people ask me if I/we have altered our eating habits since my diagnosis.  I am working on a post about this.  Also, some people have taken my advice to heart and got checked out either by taking the FIT test or by having a colonoscopy.  Great!  Super!  Nothing could please me more!  If you haven't already, please get checked:  you are worth it!

103. Chemo Monthly CEA and other Labs

Yesterday I had labwork/bloodwork done for the month.  I am happy to announce that, although the CEA level is not yet within normal/healthy range, it has been on the decline since May.  It has come down from 11.3 to 7.7 yesterday.  "Normal" is lower than 5.  I'll remind you that my last chemo treatment was on May 3rd.  So it is heading in the right direction.   It isn't going as fast as I would like it to, but I am pleased nevertheless.  The other bloodwork seemed good also!  For info on CEA please read post nr. 97.

I'll be posting another post by the end of the weekend.  Stay Healthy and Safe and enjoy Summer!  SanTeh!

102. Chemo A-Sailing We Will Go

We grew up close to the North Sea, closer to a river ending up in the North Sea, closest to a canal ending up in the river that ends up in the North Sea.  But even though ships of all makes and sizes were all around us, we never actually set foot on one: we were landlubbers.  Even so, sea faring made a lasting impression.  For my sister that meant marrying a maritimer from Nova Scotia; for me that meant taking sailing lessons at age 44, quite some time ago.  

It was a week-long beginners sailing course at Last Mountain Lake, under the tutelage of Harry S., a local teacher and sailing afictionado.  The first and last 2 days are a blur to me, but the Wednesday sticks out like a wet herring.  Monday and Tuesday were spent learning "exhilarating" stuff such as: tying knots and ropes, blowing a whistle, etc.  Wednesday we finally got down to brass tacks and were teamed up, 2 beginners, myself and this other girl in an actual small sail boat!  Oh the excitement!   Now I know what you are thinking:  What were they thinking?, "they" being the instructors.  But we, the beginners did not foresee any problems at all because we were so gung-ho to finally get out onto the lake!  Setting out tacking was no problem, in fact it was heaven!  We felt like old pros.  Piece of cake!  We even congratulated ourselves on managing to turn the boat around.  "High 5!"  But then came a huge gust of wind up from behind and all of a sudden the tide turned so to speak and we were out of control, with sails, ropes, beams, arms and legs all over the place!  You guessed it: we ended up in the water, the boat overturned with the tip of the mast stuck into the silty bottom.  Try as we might the other girl and I could not upright the boat, so we had no choice but to blow our whistles with all our might.  Good thing we had been practicing that for 2 days!  Eventually, and luckily before hypothermia set in, a couple of instructor assistants came to the rescue.  The other girl managed to hoist herself into the boat with the grace of a sea otter.  I: not so much.  With nothing but water underneath my feet I did not have the strength to launch myself and had to be hauled in like a wet oversized cod.  I did stay for the remainder of the course, but the thrill was gone.

On my way home, I stopped to pick up some groceries.  Other shoppers gave me curious looks probably thinking I was a battered wife because I was bruised from neck to toe.

I have not taken any more sailing lessons since.  Mind you, I did buy a paddleboard a few years ago.  No sails to worry about for one.  And I have been trying to make a contraption to enable myself to climb back on should I fall into deep waters. Hmmm...😓 Best not to fall!!! 😎

I waited 2 days in Halifax once for a chance to go sailing on the Bluenose.  I would get up really early every morning so I would not miss out.  After 2 days' waiting for the fog to lift, I gave up.  Oh well!  This week labs for the month are due.  Back when the results are in. Fingers crossed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5CNZwbY9Uo   Abc wals = Dutch sea chanty; link may not work on computer; works on phone though!   

101. Chemo Finger Lickin' Fingers and Toes!

Mel B. came for a visit the other day.  And that reminded me of a story she told me at the beginning of my chemo treatment, which triggered an experiment I did later on.  So I had to try it again the other night just to verify if it would still work.  It did.  If you don't believe me, go ahead and  try it for yourself...

Mel's husband passed away with cancer several years ago.  It was a blessing for him because radiation treatments had ravaged his body to the point where he had severe radiation burns.  Medical staff at he time tried anything and everything to alleviate the man's pain at the radiation site but nothing worked until one day, a nurse gave some "magic patches" to put on the wound.  The side of those patches closest to the skin was infused with raw honey!  Mel remembers that these honey patches would give her husband relief from his pain.  You may recall that one of my worst side effects from chemo is neuropathy, nerve damage to my fingers and toes.  It has been 2 months since my last treatment, but the neuropathy has not disappeared.  I have been using Dr. Joe's LiveRelief to get some relief: not bad, but expensive.  Then I remembered Mel's story and I smeared some honey on both hands and especially my fingers: instant relief!  I attributed this to wishful thinking at first. So I managed to talk 2 other ex-chemo patients into using the honey also and lo and behold they also found relief!  So I think there must be something to it, what and how I don't know.  It has to be raw unadulterated honey, a honey substitute will not do!  Of course the drawbacks are obvious: you end up with sticky fingers and as a result can't touch anything (a dandy way of getting out of doing housework! 😉).  And some time after you wash off the honey the side effects will come back.  So the relief is only temporary, but it is relief nevertheless!   Now if Someone were to manage to extract the healing components out of honey without the stickiness, this someone could be the next multimillionaire!  How about You? 😉

 Back in a couple of days or right after the weekend.  SanTeh!