One thing I set out to do as I went through all of this was to make sure my healthcare team knew what I was doing beyond the treatment I was receiving from them. It's important that they are aware that when I am not with them I am still doing things and using oils that may effect how my treatment went. Obviously I have shared on here some of what I have been doing but there is more and I wanted them to know. While I will be sharing some of my "chemo hacks" later in this blog I wanted to touch on how I communicated all I am doing with my team.
First off I do have to take one minute to brag up the women in that picture. Obviously that's me sitting on the table but those other two beautiful ladies are my primary contact when I go in. Nurse Nikki (I am just guessing on how she spells that) is the one in purple. She was in on the surgery that literally helped change the prognosis of my cancer. Nurse Nikki was with my GYN Oncologist when he got 99%, all visible cancer removed from my abdomen. She is also the one that was there the day I first went in, she was that smiling nurse that was who I focused on when I realized my oncologist was a little strange for me. She keeps me laughing, she encourages, she is THAT nurse you want when you need someone to help lift you up when you don't feel strong enough. THEN there is Nurse Kathy, the short hair woman standing to my right. Nurse Kathy is my rock, she takes so much razzing from me and she completely matches my stubborness with hers. If I have a question she has an answer or will find me one. She questions me, especially about my oils, and makes me research and account for EVERYTHING I do, oh how I love that!! Without those two women my story wouldn't be as incredible as it is. I actually look forward to treatment days when I can go in and razz these two and my favorite chemo Kathy (different nurse in the infusion center). I have been able to stay strong, stay encouraged and go through every treatment better because of those women shown. I am SOOO blessed to have them a part of my whole story. My team extends beyond these two and includes my favorite "Chemo Kathy" who is my infusion nurse that willingly takes me and my silliness every treatment she is there (she only missed one so far), Judy who has put up with my crazy hair issues that I am having and Deb that comes in to check on my every treatment cycle. All of these women have endured my essential oil "craziness" and have listened and been very supportive. I thank God for this team and pray for each and every one of them because what they mean to my life and how this cancer story has gone is immeasurable. I can not say in words the true thankfulness I have for them.
So back to communicating with the team... This was really important for me being that I wanted to be open about what I was doing. Honestly I hoped to be able to make all of my treatment time easier with the oils. I wanted to be an example of how responsible use of homeopathic options through diet and oils could actually compliment what they were doing. This comes back to being a woman with a prayer and a plan. I knew God had given me an awesome medical team and the last thing I wanted to do was to make them frustrated with me. So a plan was needed to be respectful yet educate them as to why my plan wouldn't interfere with what they were doing. I also promised if anything showed in labs to be interfering I would stop doing them.
My plan was simple, remember that the team I was dealing with REALLY truly care for their patients and wanted the best outcome possible. They know that their protocols work if followed the way they have it set up. Oils and homeopathic "remedies" can and have interfered with that process. So education was definitely key. That meant that not only did I need to ensure the oils I picked didn't interfere with their plan, but that I educated and showed them WHY they wouldn't. For that I needed those CA-125 cancer markers back so that I could show that they a) weren't interfering and b) were potentially supporting in a way they hadn't seen before. Obviously seeing there were still changes in my numbers showed that if nothing else prayer and oils were not at all a problem before the chemo. I showed them studies such as the one done by the University of Leicester (Article written by the university about the study). I did explain that most of the research out there is very early and hasn't been tested on human subjects.
My nurse kept bringing up that certain oils that shouldn't be used but couldn't tell me which ones those oils were. So I went out to answer that for her. What I found was a very good point brought up by renown oils expert Robert Tisserand in an answer to a question he was asked. This post on his web page was about a specific question but in the comments Robert Tisserand brought up a great point regarding using oils that have antioxidant properties. Again there is very little research on whether antioxidants would cause issues with protecting good and cancer cells during chemo (more concern is with radiation being part of the treatment counts on free radicals and oils could inhibit that action). I am not having radiation and being my numbers have continued to go down, so as long as we have positive changes (know that those numbers can go back up naturally) as long as it's not a big jump there isn't a reason to change anything.
Nurse Kathy, Nurse Practitioner Nikki and I then sat down (as captured by my hubby in the above picture) and discussed what I was using and I made them a whole calendar (Nurse Kathy loves calendars) of what and when I was using my oils, baths and vitamins. For them it gave a visual reference as to when I was doing what so they could bring it then to my doctor. I included the ingredients of any of the blends so they could see what oils were in those. For all of us it was a great way to openly talk about any concerns and the benefits I was seeing. One thing I found was that prune juice was COMPLETELY not me, and I didn't want to use their recommendations. I chatted with a nutritionist that reminded me of the fact that probiotics (enteric coated and containing prebiotics) could help regulate things being chemo causes constipation and I needed to ensure that didn't happen. Also due to the chemo higher doses were needed and didn't cause issues when doing chemo vs. some of the candida issues you can get normally. I was trying prune juice to mitigate that but UGH I am not a prune juice fan... SO I have been using a pre/probiotic and that has supported my gut health during this process.
For me, making this a whole team approach has been SO helpful and FUN! I know that sounds odd but I look forward to seeing the team and sharing how things went and working to come up with new ways to help and keep me from needing MORE meds or procedures. I have gained not only a medical team but friends that I enjoying dealing with and can talk things over with. I have learned A LOT about dealing with cancer and it's treatment and they have been SO willing to teach me. As you can see I am very blessed and can honestly say this is an important aspect for me. If I can't work with, learn from and ask questions from my team then I need to find a new team...
These practices are what work for me and my family, if you chose to take and use them I encourage you take my research and do some of your own prior to using the tips I give. While I do a lot of research when putting these posts out it generally fits into what I would do with and for my family. If you have specific issues, allergies or conditions these practices may not work or may be detrimental to what you are intending to do for yourself. Again, I encourage wisdom and discussions with your healthcare provider to determine safe use of all posts that I provide that can be used for health reasons
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