Breast MRI and Nutritionist Appointment

I am liking MD Anderson and ORMC better than Florida Hospital from a facility perspective.
The MRI was at 7:30 AM. I was promptly escorted by Frank - the MRI guy to the room which had a bigger - donut than the CT scan did. ( I recall going into one 10 years ago it was basically like going into a closed drawer they definitely have evolved)

This one had a large opening, it was shorter, the end was open and was setup like a massage table where there was a comfortable place for the head.

Gave me some earphones I chose to listen to Classic rock since I did not want to contaminate memories of my favorite tunes listening to my mp3.

The mri lady (they had to have a gal I guess) asked me to put a little sticky on the site where the tumor was. But the problem was there was a lot of scar tissue from the biopsy I had a hard time and had to guesstimate the location.

An IV was placed (I did not know about this) I had to lie facing down, placing my 2 A- boobs (which probably are shocked last time that they got this much attention was when I was nursing my 2 daughters) into 2 rectangular/square openings and they slid me in, giving me a squishy thing I named ' Mr. Panic Ball' which I was supposed to squeeze in case I freak out and need a break.

The MRI machine was breathing.. making sounds like some kind of equipment from the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Then when it started scanning I did some creative visualization.. since it was really a good place to meditate and the sounds were so loud that I did not actually hear the music from the earphones.

I imagined the sounds were sounds of weapons blasting the cancer cells. 1 X 1 minute, 1 X 7 minute, 1 X 1.5 minute and 1 X 5.5 minute and I was done. Phew there goes a a lot of yucky stuff.. dead from all the blasting !

Oh great .. now I have imprints of 2 rectangles on my chest and a triangle on my face.. and I used to complain about goggle marks !

Headed to my nutritionist appointment, she exceeded my expectations. Although she tried initially to start with the food pyramid and balanced diet.. I immediately made her fast forward and here are the things I got out from her:

- Cancer cells feed off from insulin ( not sugar as I thought ) so my binges were actually pretty good feasts for these mean monsters.. stupid me !!! With every binge I had a wild swing of insulin secretion naturally creating an 'all you can eat buffet ' for them. Ha... from now on dream on c-cells no more binges.

- I need to focus on getting protein until surgery to ensure speedy recovery.

- 1000 mg of Vitamin D3 is needed daily.

- Hold off the flaxseed oil now until after the surgery.

- 1200-1400 Calcium is needed daily.

- Coenzyme Q10 is good to take.


She gave ma a couple of handouts to ease any potential GI problems with chemo if it is decided that I need it.

Got out of the hospital ( and my morale immediately started improving ) headed off to Chamberlains to get my Kombucha tea and decided to fight this thing holistically as well while I am getting ready for conventional treatment. While I was trying to figure out what to get I got into a conversation with a guy who said that he would have attacked cancer totally holistically solely without getting surgery chemo. Although I do believe that body has the power to heal itself if given the right resources/opportunity/attitude, I am not brave enough to go solely that way. I plan to use conventional reactive medicine and supplement my body proactively to keep it strong holistically, thats the action plan.

Got some Flor-Essence and Maitake Beta Glucan

Got a call from my oncologist they scheduled me for the 4-6 hour lasting iron-infusion..for next Tuesday. Joy !!! I was under the impression they were going to do it in 4 weeks. Guess I will take the chance to catch up with some reading.

I got a comment from M 'irony is iron-woman is lacking iron' which made me crack up. Add to that that I have the licence plate cover Ironhead.. well maybe that was a message that did not go through the iron head. ( that I needed iron )

Tomorrow is a big day with my Surgeon appointment in the morning, bone scan in the afternoon.

Have to get some workouts squeezed in somehow as I am starting to get antsy Tonight will do some weight training and some cardio tomorrow morning.