Refined sugars and your body!

When I started my weight loss journey almost 10 years ago sugar was one thing that really was eye opening. When I was doing the HCG diet I really had to pay attention to ingredients in things. Then when I started eating paleo again back to the sugar watching. 

Have you ever looked at the grams of sugar in that Starbucks drink? What about in the ketchup, crackers, lunch meat, or the processed foods you are eating? Start looking at ingredients on the things you are eating and see how many of them have sugar added to them. 

Here is a list of refined sugar. 

• white flour.
• evaporated cane juice.
• instant starches.
• corn syrup.
• high fructose corn syrup.
• brown sugar (made by adding molasses back into refined white sugar)
• fructose.
• processed artificial sweeteners

Here is what the Cancer Center had to stay in 2016:

"The body breaks down refined sugar rapidly, causing insulin and blood sugar levels to skyrocket. Because refined sugar is digested quickly, you don't feel full after you're done eating, no matter how many calories you consumed. The fiber in fruit slows down metabolism, as fruit in the gut expands to make you feel full".

Refined sugars may increase your risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. They're also linked to a higher likelihood of depression, dementia, liver disease, and certain types of cancer.

In the brain, excess sugar impairs both our cognitive skills and our self-control. For many people, having a little sugar stimulates a craving for more. Sugar has drug-like effects in the reward center of the brain. Scientists have proposed that sweet foods—along with salty and fatty foods—can produce addiction-like effects in the human brain, driving the loss of self-control, overeating, and subsequent weight gain.

The NIH did a study in mice modeling autoimmune issues gave them sugary water and saw the diseases worsen by activating inflammatory immune cells. The findings suggest that a low-sugar diet may help prevent or treat autoimmune diseases such as Crohn's disease and multiple sclerosis.

Sugar stimulates the production of free fatty acids in the liver. When the body digests these free fatty acids, the resulting compounds can trigger inflammatory processes. Different kinds of sugar may contribute more or less to inflammation.

If you have any type of autoimmune diseases sugar is not your friend whatsoever! I can really tell a difference when I eliminate sugar from my diet. My inflammation really seems to decrease and my I don't crave sugar either. When I am eating sugar on a daily basis my craving for sugar is insane! I also feel my entire body become inflamed in a short amount of time. 

It blows my mind how people do not pay attention to the amount of sugar they are putting in their bodies every single day. I keep seeing all these people making coffees on social media adding tablespoons upon tablespoons of sugar to their coffee. People do you know what this is doing to your body? You are poisoning your body on a daily basis adding all that sugar. 

If I am going to use sugar or give my kids sugar I like to use maple syrup or honey. They are a natural sugar that your body can process. I would like to challenge you to pay attention to the amount of refined sugars you are consuming on a daily basis. Try cutting them out and see how you feel. Also think about what your kids are eating and how much refined sugars they are eating. Mamas we need to consider what our kids tiny bodies are consuming and setting them up for a healthy adults. Our world is consumed with autoimmune diseases, cancers, heart disease, high cholesterol and so much more. Refined sugars are related to so many of these diseases!

I really feel I need to share more about living healthy, multiple sclerosis and easy ways to help people live a healthier lifestyle. I feel this is part of my calling as a person and mother. I can only control what my children eat, but I can help other mothers make better choices for their kids if they want the help. 

My tip to adding Liver to your Diet!

I started adding organ meat to our diet about 4 years ago. Growing up my mom use to make liver and onions. I loved it as a kid with some ketchup.

Liver is high in vitamin A, folic acid, iron and zinc. Liver is one of the most nutrient dense organ meat with a powerful source of vitamin A. Vitamin A is extremely beneficial for reducing diseases that cause inflammation like multiple sclerosis, arthritis and Alzheimer's along with great benefits for eye health. I am always looking for ways to reduce inflammation, since I struggle with it so bad from my multiple sclerosis. 

I have fried it with bacon grease and onions, but I struggle with the texture of it. I got an idea one day to buy some liver from a local organic natural market Victoria's Natural Market in Tomball, TX. I love going to Victoria's to get my chicken bones to make bone broth, liver, local honey and various other organic local items. 

I bought some liver and took it home to grind it up. I decided to add it to meatballs the first time. No one even knew it was in there and you couldn't taste it at all! I took the remaining ground up liver and put it in little baggies to freeze. When I make anything with ground meat I will add beef or chicken liver to it. I have found beef liver really gives ground turkey a lot of flavor! 

Ground up liver in my freezer

My family has no clue they are eating liver, but they are getting all the amazing benefits from the liver! I most likely wouldn't sit down to eat a plate of fried liver these days, so I can't expect my kids to eat it. I normally do not hide foods to get my family to eat them. I serve them the item and they decide if they want to eat it or not. To me adding the liver to ground meat is like adding in some extra vitamins. We all need to take vitamins, so let's add a little to what we are going to be eating.
Do you like liver? Have you ever ground it up to eat it? 

Medullary Thyroid Cancer & MD Anderson!!!

Last week I wrote a blog post about being back HERE. I talked a little about our move and why we moved. We didn't move because we wanted too. We moved because of my health. When I found out in January 2013 I had Medullary Thyroid Cancer I was with Kaiser an HMO insurance. I am going to say right now Kaiser is a great place for people who are healthy, who do not have weird illnesses. If you have something rare you need to leave Kaiser. I was told this MANY MANY MANY times by people who had Medullary Thyroid Cancer. I didn't get it until I left them. 

My experience with Kaiser was rough! I am not going to name Kaiser doctors in this post. These doctors could be amazing with other things and I don't feel it's fair to blast them. I went to 3 doctors for 4 years that I was either their first patient or they had seen a couple others with MTC. My surgeon and endocrinologist I was their only patient. My oncologist saw less than 5 people. The last year I was with Kaiser I finally stopped seeing my oncologist and only saw my surgeon. My surgeon was AMAZING!!!! If I asked her for a second opinion, consult with MD Anderson and to look into things for me she always did. She seriously was and is the most amazing person to me. I will probably always have a very special place in my heart for her because I feel she saved my life. She found the cancer, removed it and just gave me exceptional care! 

The Kaiser oncologist was great the first year or so I saw him. Then I don't know what happened to him but he became an ass. I watched the show the Resident and after seeing that show I think for him I didn't bring any money, so why keep me around. I also think it bothered him that I knew more about Medullary Thyroid Cancer than he did. I had to learn everything possible because I needed to make sure I was getting the best care. I would ask him questions and he would talk to me like I was stupid. I asked him if certain tests had been run on my tumors. He turned it around treating me like I had no idea what I was talking about, that the blood tests had been run etc. I remember getting very blunt with him. I said NO I asked did you run these tests on my TUMORS not my genetic testing. There is a difference here. This was in November 2016 or so when all this went down. At this point I was starting to realize I needed to leave Kaiser and head to MD Anderson. I also stopped seeing my oncologist and just went to see my surgeon for check ups right around this time. 

In September 2018 I went in for my routine CT Scan. My surgeon had requested the scan along with instructions to use contrast. When I arrived for my scan they weren't prepping me for an IV. I asked are you going to put an IV in for the contrast? The nurse said you don't need that for this test. I said someone needs to look in my file because you always need contrast. Did anyone look at my doctors notes? HELLOOOOO I am no nurse or doctor, but I knew more about MTC than I think anyone at Kaiser. I was sooooo frustrated. 

When my results came back from the Sept 2018 scan it showed my liver legions had grown. Kaiser wanted me to meet with a surgeon to have the spots removed. I told Art I am not going to let Kaiser do anything else when it comes to MTC because they can't even get the contrast right for the scan. I said what if they do surgery and completely mess things up. I only have 1 liver and I can't keep taking these changes. This is when we decided it was time to move. 

I have gone into the detail above because I want people to understand the lack of care I received by not going to a center of excellence for Medullary Thyroid Cancer. Doctors who are not at a center for excellence will tell you oh there aren't doctors that see this rare cancer very often. That is a lie! My doctor at MD Anderson sees over 200 patience with MTC. Currently she is treating 200 patients. She has seen way more than 200 patients over the years. 

I called MD Anderson prior to moving to set up an appointment. My mom had scheduled a trip down to help with the boys. When they booked my appointment it was 2 full days of tests plus I met with my doctor, her staff and a consultation with a surgeon. I had MRI, CT Scans, ultrasounds, and blood work. I would leave the hospital each day and I felt completely exhausted. Between the contrast making me sick and all the testing it was rough. 

It was sooooo nice to meet with people who understood MTC. I would describe my symptoms and they wouldn't blow me off. They would have me go into more detail or let me know that is very common for MTC. With Kaiser doctors would get this deer in the headlights look when I was start in about symptoms or problems I was having. I had more care in 2.5 days at MDA than I had in 6 years with Kaiser. I didn't have to ask about contrast, how they would be running the lab work, if the labs would be changing. Some of the imaging staff was familiar with MTC even! 

I received phone calls from my doctors team explaining the tests, the next steps, checking up on me to see how I was feeling. They don't see a lot of patients that are in their 30's with kids let alone a nursing mother. The nurse practitioner called me numerous times to check on me. Ask how long I pumped and dumped. She said she was taking notes for future patients in my situation, so she could help them based on my experience. It was amazing! They also requested an additional Dotatate scan. It is a newer scan that MDA makes the contrast right at their facilities. It's similar to a PET scan that actually works for MTC patients. PET scans do not work for MTC. 

While I didn't receive the news I wanted that I don't have cancer or things aren't growing....a part of me had hoped we made a mistake by moving because I didn't really have cancer. I had 6 years of blood work showing I did, but still I kind of wanted a miracle. Anyhow they found even more cancer than Kaiser had found. My doctor at MDA says the stuff Kaiser was blowing off is MTC. She said this is very common to see it spreading. At this point they are just going to watch it for 6 months. I will go back for more testing. If things grow we will need to discuss additional steps - biopsies, chemo, surgeries etc. 

In the past 6 years things have changes for the better with MTC.  There is additional genetic testing they do now. Kaiser had no knowledge of this. Thankfully everything came back as sporadic, so it is not genetic. If it was genetic my kids would have to be tested and whatever side of the family it was on would also need to be tested. There would be talk about removing thyroids of the family members that had any signs of a raised calcitonin or CEA. Thankfully this isn't an issue! I was hesitant to have kids if it had been genetic when we found out I had cancer. I just didn't want to spread it to them. I may have taken the chance, but it was something that weighed heavily on my mind while I waited a month for those results to come back. 

I can't recommend MD Anderson enough!!!  Is it expensive to go there? Sure it is! I met my deductible and yearly out of pocket within 1 day of testing. I will budget for this in the coming years. I will know I need to set up the max amount of flex spending money available plus some additional money to help cover my medical costs. We pay a TON of money for insurance each year plus co-pays, deductibles and out of pocket. 

So many people complain about Obama care. There have been some great things with Obama care. The lifetime maximums went away and pre-existing conditions. I would possibly be without insurance at this point in my life because of my pre-existing conditions and I would have for sure met the one million dollar lifetime max. I don't agree with everything they have done with it, but these 2 things alone have been great for people who have major medical issues. 

MD Anderson is an amazing place! If you have cancer my suggestion would be to go to MD Anderson. They know their stuff! I am sure there are other places that might know stuff too, but when it comes to your life go to the best! 

I'm Back!

I have realized blogging goes to the back burner when I have a baby. When I had G I took a break too. It takes a little while to find your groove and be able to do it all again. 

I took a break from social media over Good Friday and Easter. It was really helpful to me to just give my brain a break from all the scrolling. It helped me come up with some things I wanted to share and realize I do miss blogging. I just haven't been able to fit it in. When Cash was first born I felt all I did was sit and nurse all day long. It's true that is about all I did. I was constantly feeding him. 

Then we packed up all our belongings and moved from California to Texas during the Christmas season. When I think back to all that I am like how in the world did we do all that? Well it wasn't easy, there was plenty of stress, anxiety, tears and frustration. My only tip is do not move during Christmas with kids. Putting your house on the market while trying to keep it decluttered during Christmas was a major struggle.

That wasn't our timing for the move. We had been trying to move for 6 months. The entire move was God's timing. We had been trying to move to Sacramento prior to Cash being born. It just didn't happen. I remember being sooooo frustrated because nothing was working out. The middle of September I went in for more tests. I remember thinking is there a reason why the Sac move isn't happening before I went in for tests? I pushed that thought away because things would be the same. Normally my doctor emails me with the results within a day - things are the same we will do scans again in a year, but that email didn't come. I was just going to contact her to see what was going on. She called me a few days after the scans. When I saw her calling I knew it wasn't good. There were new spots and some were growing. I remember getting off the couch and going to my bedroom to talk to her. I had a baby 6 weeks old. How could this be happening?  We decided to have a baby because things have been so stable. 

I took a week after that news and just decided California wasn't an option for us anymore. If I wanted to be with the best doctors for my cancer we needed to move by MD Anderson. Once we made a decision things started happening. We put our house on the market - sold it in 6 days - had a bidding war over it. We flew to Texas to look for a house and Art to interview for 2 jobs. We looked at 34 hours in 2 days. As we got on an airplane headed back to CA we put an offer in on a house. Art had 2 job offers. It was going so fast! 

While all this was happening I remember thinking don't push doors open. If a door isn't opening let it be. I had spent so much time praying over all these changes. I had put it all in God's hands to handle. In the past when I have pushed to get things done things have become a mess. This time I was impatiently patient. It was really hard to be patient. 

I plan to write a blog post on my experience with MD Anderson and the care I have received since we moved. It's TRULY amazing!!!! 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thursday! Maybe today you needed to hear to just be impatiently patient. It's ok to be frustrated with the fact everything isn't working out! 

Miracle!

Last week I announced on social media that we are expecting a baby in July! We are so very excited! 

This baby is a true miracle and our rainbow baby. I haven't shared on my blog about wanting another child or our struggle. We had been told by numerous doctors G was a miracle and we probably never would be able to have another one. I went through a period of where I was grieving. It was a very difficult time for me. I feel I haven't been able to make very many choices when it comes to my health. They have all been made for me over the past 5 years. 

I am so very thankful for little G. He is seriously the brightest miracle in my life! 

I found out I was pregnant right before Thanksgiving. I honestly didn't have much hope this pregnancy would continue.  A lot was going on right then. I had my sister coming to visit. I was going with my mom to Mayo Clinic for some health issues. I just tried to continue with life and I would go to the doctor after to see what was going on with the pregnancy. I didn't tell anyone I was pregnant. I just didn't want people worrying or giving me their opinion on things. This one wasn't planned at all and was a surprise. Yes, Yes, I know where babies come from and how they can happen. lol  I am not going into the details of the 6+ months before, but there wasn't much hope. 

We waited awhile to tell family and even longer to tell our friends. 

G felt he had to tell everyone! He was with us at a doctor appointments when the doctor was talking about the baby and we could hear the heartbeat. G says momma open your mouf let me see that baby? He thinks the baby is the hangy thing in the back of your throat. lol

He then went to school and told everyone he was having a baby sister. He told the people at Sonic when we got our soda water he is having a baby sister. I had my friends little girl with me the day I picked up G from school, so his teachers thought that is who he was talking about. 

He has been so excited. He keeps asking hasn't the baby been in your belly long enough?

At night he will pat my belly. He said I need to pat the baby, so it won't cry and go to sleep. 

What will little Post be? Boy or Girl? We will find out later today!

5 Years!!!!

It is really hard to believe that it has been 5 years since surgery and this whole cancer thing started! I feel so good about hitting the 5 year mark! No, I am not in remission. No, I am not cancer free. My cancer numbers are higher than they were after surgery. My tumors legions haven't really grown much in 5 years. They are still there! They haven't gone away. 

I have tried I feel almost everything I can to make those legions go away, but nothing seems to make them want to leave. However! I am thankful they have stayed stable! When you have cancer stable is always a refreshing thing to hear. I am very faithful about getting my blood work done every 3 months. I have done this for 5 years now. It's just part of my new normal. One of my doctors suggested we could move to getting blood work every 6 months. Nope! I like to see the trends. It might not mean much now, but down the road this information could be very helpful. She is a fabulous doctor and listens to me. 

In 5 years I have learned so much! I have learned so much about thyroid cancers and thyroid issues. Recently my mom had to go to the doctors about thyroid issues. I was able to go in there understand what the doctors were talking about and ask a lot of questions for all of us to understand exactly what was going on. Five years ago all of that would have gone over my head. 

I have always felt that my cancer diagnosis helped bring me G. We struggled for so long to have a baby. It was about a year after surgery that I was able to get pregnant with him. It also wasn't at my healthiest time either. I took the chance of getting pregnant with him. Some of my doctors at the time didn't agree with it. I am thankful I didn't listen to them. If I had I might not have him. It seems that MTC affects women and infertility really bad. My numbers were very low a year after surgery. I am thankful I took that chance and that I get to celebrate with him every year. We will eat paleo cookies today in honor of 5 years of life after cancer. 

I take G to the majority of my doctor appointments. At times I wonder if this is good or not. I want him to realize this is normal for our family. One day he will hear that one of his friends parents has cancer and he might think well doesn't everyone have a parent with cancer? He also isn't afraid of going to the doctor. He is brave when he has to get blood drawn. He comes with me most of the time to get mine done every 3 months. He isn't a fan of shots! He doesn't see me get shots lol.  He sees me get ultrasounds, checked by the doctors, trying to be as healthy as I possibly can be and this is his normal. G had to get an ultrasound of his heart recently. He has born with 2 super small holes in his heart. Something that the doctors or us haven't been concerned about, but it's monitored every 3-5 years. He didn't flinch when he had to get checked or the ultrasound. I told the doctor he sees me go through a lot, so he thinks this is normal. 

You may not agree with how I parent my child when it comes to cancer. For us this works. For me it's important he is comfortable with all this. I don't want him to worry about things that none of us have control over. 

In 5 years I have seen some friends with MTC go quickly. It's always heartbreaking when you lose someone. There is something that hits you in your core. Then you have to remind yourself your MTC journey is different than theirs. MTC affects every single person differently. 

Five years out I am probably at my healthiest I have been in my adult life even with 2 major illnesses. I work really hard to eat healthy and do the best self care I possibly can do! My pray since G was born is that God would give me 30 years with him. I will happily take way more than 30 years. 

Today we celebrate life! 

Monday Thrive August 28

1) I have always loved back to school stuff in the stores. I love school supplies. It's been a long time since I have been in school or needed to buy school supplies. When I see school supplies on sale for $.25 for a box of crayons I think I need to buy like 10 of them. lol I do try to avoid that area of the store because honestly how many pens or boxes of crayons does one person need? 

G is now going to preschool, but we don't have to take any supplies. He will be going 2 days for 3 hours a day. All supplies are provided and snacks, so we just send him in play clothes. They do lots of art and play outside a lot. He comes home usually with paint and dirt all over himself. I learned very quickly do not send him in cute good clothes. They won't make it! One of his sweatshirts still has red paint on the sleeve. That will be his school jacket from now on. lol

2) During Nordstroms Anniversary Sale I bought the Barefoot Dreams circle cardigan. I wasn't sure about it, but I had heard so many great reviews about Barefoot Dreams items. I decided to order one. If I hated it I would just return it. OMG! This thing is the softest thing in the world! I wish I had ordered another color. I wear it all the time! I really want the mink one next! 

I also discovered for the first time probably in my entire life I actually need a black cardigan. The black and mink cardigans are going on my wish list! I will be ordering another one of these next year during the sale. 

3) I started listening to Jen Hatmaker podcasts when I was flying back from ND. I LOVE this podcast!!!!!! Her recently one with Brene' Brown is a must listen too! Sometimes I need something uplifting. This podcast is exactly that! I always feel so much better about what is going on in my life after listening to Jen. She makes you feel like you are doing your best and your best is good enough!

4) The hurricane/flooding in Texas is so very sad! Last year Art and I went to the Houston area to look at possibly moving there. Maybe one day we will, but right now we aren't. The area that is flooding is right where we looked at moving. I saw pictures of MD Anderson the medical facility I want to go to. It is terrible! The place that helps thousands of people is flooded. It's really heart breaking to see MD Anderson flooded! I know so many people that go there. They are one of the few places that understand Medullary Thyroid Cancer and actually help people fight this ugly cancer. Lots of thoughts and prayers for everyone dealing with this catastrophe. 

5) I am not sure if I shared these paleo chocolate chip cookies on the blog in the past. Sometimes you just need chocolate chip cookies even when you are eating as healthy as possible. These cookies are amazing! My dad even liked them which says a lot. He thinks I eat the craziest stuff. If you want something healthy, non-dairy and paleo these are your go to cookies! I actually haven't bought the ingredients for them because I can't avoid them. 

I hope everyone has a great week!

It's Cake Day!

It is hard to believe today is 4 years since my surgery! Two days I relive each year. The day I went in for surgery and the 3 days it took to birth a baby. lol Surgery day is a shorter day for me to relive because 11 hours of it I was asleep. My life changed that day. I say a lot for the better, but reality is it changed for the worse too. A new things happened for me that I didn't experience in the past - anxiety. The unknown with having a cancer. 

Each year I celebrate January 18 with cake. Last year I struggled with the day. I didn't really even acknowledge the day. Last year was really hard dealing with it all. This year I went out to Whole Foods to find a gluten free cake. I took G with me which was probably not a good idea. He was pointing and yelling about all the cakes he wanted me to buy. I finally found him a box of crackers, so I could pick out something. I found some chocolate cake bites. 

Now listen I didn't even eat cake or ice cream on my birthday last year. Unheard of! Well I am not going to let another year go by where I don't celebrate another year of my life WITH cake! lol

I decided 2017 was going to be a year where we don't live waiting for a health crisis. I am not going to a million doctor appointments. I am not going to stress about test results every few months. I am just going to let cancer become a blip on my radar a couple times a year. 

I am thankful I don't have to wake up at 4:30am tomorrow to head to the hospital. I am thankful I won't wake up at 9:30pm tomorrow in the worst pain of my life. Childbirth didn't even compare to that pain. Maybe because I knew with childbirth I could get drugs that would numb it all AND I would have a sweet baby in the end. I am thankful for right now my cancer is stable. I am thankful my little miracle boy came after all this cancer ruckus! 

This year I am going to eat all the cake bites I bought with my little George, laugh and soak in the minutes of another amazing year with cancer! 

Put your Health 1st in 2017!

My life was changed in May 2016 when I was encouraged to start eating Paleo by my doctor. I was having so many health issues. I honestly thought within a couple years I would need a cane or wheel chair. I felt horrible! I could barely go for a walk without needing to rest for a couple days. I was barely able to get the normal daily tasks done. Chasing a toddler was extremely exhausting. 

The thought of never eating bread or dairy again was very overwhelming. I am German and Italian....seriously no pasta or bread? Do you know how I was raised? I was raised on flour based foods. Then I remembered when I did the HCG diet. I lost 80 pounds not eating foods with flour. I felt really great when I was doing certain stages of that diet which didn't have gluten or dairy. If I was able to do it before, so I could do it again. 

I had my entire grocery list made out on a Thursday when I was encouraged to change my diet. I told my doctor ok well I guess I will go home and make a whole new grocery list. And I did! I totally changed what I fed myself and my family. I am not going to make different meals for George or Art. If it wasn't healthy for me to be eating all these things then my toddler maybe shouldn't be eating those things either. 

During this time I came across Dr. Wahls. Another life changing event. I started following the Wahls Protocol. As I would read her book I just couldn't imagine how my body would even start to heal with just foods. I was willing to take the chance. If it worked for her then it might help me. She was a lot worse off then I was, but I felt my health was headed to a bad place like Dr. Wahls experienced. 

Fast forward to the present. Eating the Paleo diet has not changed my cancer at all. I have actually had additional growth on some of the cancer spots. My MS has changed drastically. If you have read previous posts and new posts that will be coming out you will see my fitness level has greatly improved. Right now I can see my life not needing a cane or wheel chair. 

Over Christmas I ate some non-Paleo food items. Oh boy! Usually I am SUPER careful about what I eat. I decided to allow myself to eat somethings I liked in the past. Lesson learned it isn't worth it. My body was achy, stomach hurt, bloating, and just feeling like garbage. I can't do dairy period! 

If you have any health issues I HIGHLY recommend you try eating the Paleo diet! It really has been life changing for me. I will say the first 4-6 weeks were super hard. It got boring trying to figure out what I could eat and getting sick of the same things. I felt I wouldn't be able to ever eat out at a restaurant. Over the past few months I have been able to change recipes to make them Paleo friendly. When a recipe calls for milk I use coconut milk. When it calls for butter I use ghee. Flour - I use tapioca starch or almond flour. You slowly start to learn what substitutes for things. You also learn to look ahead at menus and pick items you can eat when you eat out. You can ask them to hold certain ingredients and let them know your food allergies. 

Some people are able to add cheese and rice back into their diets without experiencing any problems. I think it all depends on your health and body. I can't add those things back in. I tried and it didn't work for me. I don't think you can expect to see a huge difference in how you feel within a couple days. When I look back to how I felt in April of 2016 to how I feel in December 2016 it is night and day. 

Getting to a healthy place isn't a sprint. You have to take it like a marathon. Slow and steady. 

1. Start to get some sleep! Your body needs sleep badly! So many people don't sleep properly. You need 7-9 hours of sleep each night. If you aren't able to sleep at night try to get a little nap. A 20 minute nap for me really helped heal my body. I use to nap 4-6 days a week for about 20-30 minutes. Now I rarely nap. I still love my Sunday afternoon nap while listening to a football game. Something so calming about those naps. 

2. Change the foods you eat! If you are eating processed food and feel terrible...shocker it's probably because it is processed. How can you expect your body to process these foods? If it has a package of dry ingredients did that come from a field? That is going to sit in your body for who knows how long trying to figure out how to process it. I could go on and on about this. 

3. Exercise! Even if it's for 20 minutes a few times a week. Find something you like. Take your kids for a walk to feed the ducks that crappy bread you shouldn't be eating. lol YouTube has a lot of free workouts. I love Chris Freytag workouts. You can find a lot of them on YouTube. 

4. Start reading the labels of the products you use. Look up ingredients on products to figure out exactly what is in the product. If your lotion has some strange things listed on it google those words. You will probably find out you are putting harmful chemicals on your body. 

You can't jump into this all head first. I did things slowly. I did the food, sleep, exercise and then products. I still struggle with sleep. It is midnight and here I am writing a blog post. Tomorrow I will probably need a nap. MS is a killer for messing with your sleep. Sometimes sleep aids work and something they don't. 

Fitness

I have missed running! I have tried to run over the past four years, but I ended up needing 4-7 days rest after running. I ran a 5K in September 2012. I ran after that regularly until January 2013. Once I had cancer I struggled to get back into running. Then the whole MS crap happened and I just didn't have the energy. Even this past spring I tried to run. I spent days exhausted barely able to function. I thought my running days are over. It was hard on me mentally because I am young. I see lots of other people doing it why can't I? 

Over the past few months I have walked, lots of cardio, yoga and ran a little. It would feel so good to run even a little bit. When I was out for a walk I would run short distances. I would pick a goal and run to that place. Then walk some etc. Similar to Couch to 5K. Well imagine the day when I was able to run a couple miles! I was ECSTATIC!!!! It felt so amazing! I didn't need days to recover either. 

I told my dad that I went for a run. He said he didn't understand exercise. Why not just do some work for 20-30 minutes. Go for a walk and check some fence. Mow a lawn. Take the neighbors dog for a walk. Oh boy! Here is the rancher talking! I called him the other day to let him know I took some of his advice. Instead of going for a walk I cleaned up our back yard for two hours! He said I only needed to do about 20 minutes of continuous movement. It wasn't necessary to do hours. lol Oh dad! 

When I first started working out 3-4 days a week I felt it was kind of hopeless. Would I ever get my weight back down or feel good again. I have just listened to my body. If I have felt really exhausted or didn't sleep good I haven't pushed myself to work out. Other days I try to get at least 25 minutes of exercise in. George loves it when I run. He will say go fast momma go fast! 

It's been a long road to getting back to where I was prior to January 2013. Part of me never will be. I am below the weight I was then, I can exercise again like I did back then and I finally moving on with life outside of the black cloud that has hung over our heads. 

I Continue to Fight Strong!

Recently I wrote a blog post called I Fight Strong! Since I wrote that blog post I have had to start a fight again. This time with an insurance company. I have spent a lot of time this year fighting doctors and insurance. I got to the point I was seriously exhausted and beat down from fighting. I just wasn't sure if I had the fight left in me. I told Art I was at the point I wanted to just give up fighting everyone, but I couldn't. I couldn't give up because there is a little boy who needs his mom. If she doesn't fight for her health no one else can or will. 

I dug down deep to have the strength to fight another fight. It was a long week of gathering information, preparing documents and sent it off hoping for a good outcome. I spent a week praying asking God to help me through yet another fight. On the day I was supposed to hear what the insurance company would decide I read this:

I was able to stop my worrying for just a couple hours. Later that day I got a phone call that things had been approved. I hung up the phone and cried. Then I reminded myself just how strong I am. How I fight strong because cancer, doctors, MS or insurance companies aren't going to bring me down!

4 Different Types of Thyroid Cancer

Did you know there are 4 types of thyroid cancers? There isn't just one type that is easily cured with surgery or radioactive iodine. 

The 4 types are:

Papillary
Follicular 
Medullary
Anaplastic

Thyca.org is a great website! If you are interested in finding out more information on the different types go HERE. It has so much information for people with different type of thyroid cancer. This website has helped me find a great support group of people who have the same type of cancer I do. I am so grateful I was able to find these people. They understand what you are going through. Sometimes family or friends just don't understand. There are times it is hard for me to understand what in the world is going on. When I go to them it is reassuring to know I am not alone. 

I Fight Strong!

I fight every day to stay ahead of this cancer! It is something I have to stay on top and fight every single day of my life. There are very few days where I don't think of it. There are times when I don't think I would fight so hard if it wasn't for G. He has given me a whole new fight. I just want to see him grow up, graduate high school, go to college and hopefully get married one day. 

There are times I get irritated because there is sooooo much breast cancer awareness stuff out there. The other day I thought wait why am I getting upset over that. People have got to be made aware of the different types of thyroid cancers.  It just takes a few people to raise awareness for different type of things in this world. 

Thyroid Cancer Awareness Month!

September is Thyroid Cancer Awareness Month. Statistic - about 40% of people will receive a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime. 1% of those people will have thyroid cancer. 1% of people with a thyroid cancer diagnosis will have Medullary Thyroid Cancer.

Right now there is no cure. Chemo and radiation don't cure us. We don't ever go into remission. MTC is a battle that is fought every day. Thyroid cancer is not the good cancer people get. There is no good cancer ever!

Three Years!

I read a post this morning I put on FB 3 years ago.

"I'm off to start the next chapter of my life...cancer FREE!!!!

I'm looking forward to the BIGGEST class of ice cold water after recovery. This no water thing is for the birds!!!!

My Grandma Fischer would be proud. Woke up, did my hair and make up. Even when she went to work in the field on the farm she looked presentable because you never know who could stop by. lol

Happy Friday!!!!"

This started off my day feeling weird. It's been 3 years since I went in for surgery to get rid of cancer. Only to find out 2 weeks later I won't ever get rid of this cancer. I normally celebrate today. I couldn't really celebrate today.  I think it has been a weird feeling because my numbers aren't as low as I would like them to be. It has been a roller coaster year with ups and downs when it comes to my cancer numbers. Right now they are holding stead. I would rather have them holding steady then climbing. Still it's scary at times.

Three years ago I was sitting in a hospital bed thinking I wouldn't ever be able to move my shoulders again. The pain was horrific. Somehow I forgot the pain of child birth. I can't forget the pain after my cancer surgery.

As I sat on the couch tonight I looked at my house covered in toys. George was dragging his tent around the house as toys were being scattered.  Right now life is good. I was able to spend it with the important people in my life. I didn't celebrate my cancerversy, but I did soak in the sweet moments of just an ordinary life.

It's HERE!!!

The book was delivered today!!! EEEKKKKK!!!

I have been reading different stories from the book today. I read mine first. I've read it many times but it was crazy to me to see my words in a book. I wonder if my own words would have been in a book without cancer?  

Then I read my friend Bill's story. We lost Bill about a month ago. I still miss him every day. I miss seeing his midnight snack of grilled cheese. Or reading his encouraging words. He always knew what to say to people. Had great stories to share. 

Then I went to story 1. Perfect story to start the book. The first story sums up a day with MTC. 

The book is overwhelming. No way I could sit down and read this whole thing. Maybe because I know most of these people. Maybe because this is my reality. I understand what these people are going through each day. 

We Need Research!!!!

Today is an amazing and exciting day!  A few months back I wrote a story for a new book. I wasn't sure if I should write about my cancer struggle for the book, but this nagging feeling inside me said do it!  You will regret it if you don't take this chance. I'm so glad I took the time to do it. Today the book was released on Amazon. 

September is Thyroid Cancer Awareness month. Did you know MTC does not currently have a cure?  I have a disease with no cure. Every birthday is a huge milestone. I like getting older. It means I am winning this battle. 

My cancer is currently stable. I go for tests every 3 months. Each time the numbers change the doctors aren't sure why. They don't know where the cancer is growing, but the numbers tell them it is. CT scans and MRIs are done annually to monitor the "spots". 

This year we've lost many people in the MTC family. Every loss is hard and some are harder than others. There are some you become very close with and then the disease takes them. It's heartbreaking. Never gets easy. 

There is so little research that is being done. It sort of angers me how much money is wasted on stupid crap by our government when they could be spending money on cancer research. Let's research moving bears from one state to another to see what happens. Really?  That's what our money is spent on?  Instead there are 1000s of people with a disease with no cure. 

It's time my voice is heard. I'm good at being loud, pushing my weight around, so it's time to make it known for MTC!!! 

For This Child I Have Prayed!

When we first got married I felt it was important to wait a year before we started a family. We started trying to have a baby right a few months after our first anniversary. I've blogged about our struggles quite a few times. 

It has been a struggle for almost five years. We have an army of children waiting for us in heaven. I always picture getting to heaven & nine little kids jumping up & down excited to see me. Each of those babies I had hopes & dreams for. I prayed for everyone of them. I cried every time we lost one. The hurt I felt over every miscarriage was just so deep. 

There have been times I just couldn't understand why I had to go through so many miscarriages. It was so frustrating to me that women on drugs, abusive parents and teenagers were cranking out kids. Here am I begging God to just give me one baby. 

Then 2013 came along with a whole other set of struggles. There was a time I considered never having children because of cancer. I struggled with is it fair to put a child through this burden? A wonderful doctor at UCSF told me move on with your life, have children & enjoy life to its fullest because something else other than cancer will probably take me. This started a whole conversation between Art & I. We decided to go for it & try to have a baby. 

I have dreamed of the day I would get to make this blog post. I am currently 16 weeks pregnant with a healthy baby BOY. I  due September 17. 

Two reasons I believe I'm pregnant. 

1. God heard my prayers for 5 years. He put me through so many trials. I've really tried to learn through those trials. The miscarriage in October 2010 is what made Art & I start going to church. I'm not sure we ever would have gone to church if we hadn't been through that trial. 

I read this verse the first part of 2014 & I just started crying. Elisabeth was considered barren, but God gave her a child. I clung to the second verse when I found out I was pregnant. Nothing is impossible with God. It got me through tough days when doubt would set in. 

And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible. (Luke 1:36, 37 KJV)

Prayer it works!  My parents prayed for me over 33 years ago. Around 28 years ago I started praying for a brother or sister. Four years later we got Lacey. 

For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him: (1 Samuel 1:27 KJV)

2. I truly believe my thyroid cancer was causing the miscarriages. The doctors can't confirm or deny it. My gut tells me this played a HUGE part in my struggle. 

The blog has suffered majorly since I've been exhausted and sick. I am not complaining but happy to have these symptoms. 

I will write about telling our family, nursery ideas and weekly pregnancy posts. I have waited my entire life for this moment in time. I couldn't wait to get married as a little girl just so I could have a baby. I've wanted to be a mom since I can remember.

Today we found out we are having a little boy. It was a moment I won't ever forget. I always had little boy dolls and wanted boys. I screamed, clapped and then cried when they said it's a boy. It was worth everything over the past 5 years for this very moment! I would do it all over again if it brought me right here to where I am. God is good! This child is truly a miracle and I thank God for this baby every day.  

One out of 1,400 people!

Here are some random statistics I found on the world wide web recently. Each year there are around 1 billion cases of the common cold and 19-21 million cases of the stomach flu. An estimated 230,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in 2013 alone. One of out every 10,000 people will be diagnosed with Medullary Thyroid Cancer and 1,400 people per year are diagnosed with Transverse Myelitis. 

::::knockonwood:::: I rarely ever get a cold or the stomach flu. I run from a cold like it is the black plague. If people at work come to work sick I send them home. I really try to eat healthy, get plenty of rest, take my vitamins and keep myself exposed to enough germs to keep those nasty bugs away. I ride on Bart on a daily basis, so I am exposed to TONS of germs. 

I seem to be attracting the "rare" things. January I was diagnosed with Medullary Thyroid Cancer. I thought there was just one type of thyroid cancer and it was the cancer to get. If you follow my blog I have wrote a lot on MTC and there is NO type of cancer to get period. I haven't been feeling right for a little while. I have been feeling off. Very tired, sluggish, no energy and the list continues on. I haven't felt right since surgery. I chalk it up to my thyroid being gone and I am just a hot mess. It has been very frustrating me because I am 32 not 92. I shouldn't be so run down all the time. 

I had taken Monday, October 21 off work. I had done a lot of cooking in the afternoon, so I was on my feet for hours. When I went to bed Monday night my feet really hurt. I just figured it was from being on the tile floor for hours. Tuesday I woke up to my feet still hurting and a little tingly. As the day went on my feet were freezing, tingly, getting a little numb. By Wednesday my feet were completely numb, legs were tingly and I was loosing feeling around my waist. It was the strangest feeling. I had worn some slipper socks on Monday with little rubber grippers. I figured those gripper things pushed into my feet, cut some nerve off or my back had a pinched nerve. 

Thursday I called the chiropractor for an appointment, but I couldn't make it before they closed. By the time I got home Thursday night I told Art I couldn't feel my legs. I planned to work from home on Friday to see a doctor. Art was cooking in the kitchen and he smacked me with a spatula. He asked can you feel that? I couldn't feel it at all, but I had a big red welt on my leg. My legs almost felt like they had fallen asleep or they were frost bit. A little later that evening I started to wonder if my calcium was low which was causing the problems in my feet. I called Kaiser to set up an appointment for Friday. The person answering the phone put me right through to a nurse when she heard I was feeling numb, the nurse talked to the doctor and told me to come to the ER right away. I told them it was necessary that I just needed to see a doctor the next day. Oh boy was I wrong.

Off we went to the ER where I was admitted. The doctor was very concerned I had Transverse Myelitis. I had a lot of the symptoms and they would be doing an MRI the next day. They started me on steroids immediately and monitored me very closely. They were concerned it could spread to my lungs which would cause me to stop breathing. I barely got any sleep Thursday night. I had told Art to go home around midnight because someone should sleep, so one of us had a clear head the next day. I was so tired I remember barely waking up in the middle of the night to a nurse taking my blood pressure, asking me to open my mouth to take my temperature and rolling back over to sleep. The next morning the neurologist came in to meet with me just as I was waking up. He was pretty convinced that I had TM. He had ordered a MRI of my spine and brain. 

Steroids are NOT my friend. Those things got me sooooo hyped up I became a lunatic. I was so hyper, anxious, mean that I barely made it through the MRI. I actually pressed the button to see when they would be done because I thought I was going to hyperventilate. Luckily there was only 5 minutes left, so I sucked it up. The MRI showed I have TM. I have had 3 steroid treatments. The neurologist will be monitoring my progresses closely to make sure the feeling comes back into my body. Currently I am still numb. I still can't feel anything from the waist down. I am thinking I might stop trying to avoid the common cold. I know my family could handle it a whole lot better if I started to get colds instead of these random other issues. 

Thankfully my mom was able to come take care of me for the next few weeks. I am so grateful she is here. I don't think there will ever be a time when I will be too old for my mom not to take care of me when I am sick. No one can replace a mom! 

I have declared myself a rare gem! In 20 years I am going to look back on this time remembering how much stronger it has made me. I also want to remember all the funny stories. While I was in the ER I kept asking for coffee. They refused to give me coffee. I asked Art to smuggle some in to me and he refused. He insisted on following the rules. That just made me even madder! Roid Rage! Finally I convinced one nurse to give me one small cup of coffee. I told him he was my very favorite. I will not disclose his name because I don't want him to get in trouble. lol Later Friday afternoon a new nurse came on and asked where did you get coffee? I said listen I finally talked someone down after 12 hours of begging for coffee. He just cracked up laughing. He said I can see why they gave you coffee finally. 

I am off to continue recovering. I am happy to be home with a FULL pot of coffee. =)

Just Another Day As I Fight Cancers Butt!

I sit anxiously waiting for the time to pass to go to bed. I will wake up the next day for tests that are becoming all too familiar. I will arrive an hour early for my test, check in with the front desk, be asked to sit down as I await for my afternoon cocktail. I will be handed a liter of clear liquid that looks like water, but tastes like chalk. The first few drinks are fine. Then the taste gets worse as I continue to drink the rest of the chalk. 

I will be called to the back room. Told to change into a gown. Hopefully they will have the right size this round instead of one that would fit 3 of me. I will be called into a small room, asked a few questions, arm prepared for an IV. I will be walked to a small waiting room asked to have a seat for the tech to come get me. 

The tech will come get me and walk me back into a very cold room. In the center of the room is a long table with the biggest plastic donut. I will be told where to put my stuff and to sit on the long table. My IV will then be started with more clear liquid. I will be informed of the side affects from all the clear liquids, to drink plenty of water afterwards to clear the liquids out of my system.  

I will lay on the table for 10-15 minutes as I am exposed to more radiation then I ever imagined I would ever have to deal with in a lifetime let alone in one year. I will be asked to get up, change, and my doctor will contact me in the next few days.

I will wait on an average of 3 days to get the results from my doctor. Every time my phone goes off I will wonder if it is an email from my doctor with the results. Have they found any additional spots, has anything grown, will this be the scan where we are told they made mistakes and my body is clear? There is a list of questions that will run through my mind until the results are back. Even with the results back this does not seem like my actual reality. This must be a bad dream I will wake up from soon. 

I keep wondering when I will wake up from this dream. My reality should be a house filled with 5 kids running through the house with finger paints on their little fingers, screaming where is mom, we are hungry all while the dog is barking as someone paints him blue. 

Instead I will hear people tell me I shouldn't be so negative and I need to remain positive. It will take every ounce of strength not to punch those people in the throat. See the above is the reality I thought I would have. Instead I have a reality filled filled with chalky drinks cold sterile rooms full of radiation month after month.