Good health

Emily has been home from Hippocrates for nearly two weeks and has jumped back into real life with surprising ease.  She is back to work full time, exercising and eating a mostly raw and vegan diet.  She and my dad have been working hard setting up a wheatgrass grow operation in their kitchen and they are juicing together and making vegetable smoothies.  She is cheerful and full of hope for the future.  

When she first arrived at Hippocrates, they did a blood test and then repeated it the day before she went home.  There was a huge change in her blood composition in the three weeks that she spent working on her health.  Her red blood cells were all clumped together initially, which is a common side effect of chemo.  When she left, both her red and white blood cells were separated and plump and moving around easily.  She lowered the amount of yeast and sugar in her bloodstream dramatically, which is good news because cancer feeds on sugar.  Her cholesterol was way down and she lost 10 lbs!!  What a difference.  :)  

As far as she is concerned, cancer is behind her.  Her next surgery is scheduled for October 30th and she is only supposed to be down for a couple of days.  I won't be blogging until her next surgery because there is not much more to say!  Congratulations, Em - we are glad that you are cancer free and healthy as a horse!!

Nature Bites!

Recently, Emily made it clear that she does not care for Florida. The heat, the humidity, the wildlife and the smell just aren't for her. Unfortunately, Florida doesn't care much for her, either! The mosquitoes have taken quite an interest in her freshly detoxed Oregon blood and she is covered in bites. Her bites soon had big red rings around them and it was determined to be some sort of allergic reaction. Since only natural treatments are approved at the Institute, they told her to treat the bites with olive oil and garlic. For days, she wandered around smelling like an Italian restaurant, with grease stains all over her clothes. Late last week she thought she had a new mosquito bite on her elbow, but then it swelled up to the size of a golf ball. This turned out to be a spider bite and they almost had to send her to the hospital for a shot! Luckily the swelling went down after she treated it with Tea Tree oil. The aeriel assault of her body continued when she was stung by a bee and, adding insult to injury, she was pooped on by a passing bird! Just when she thought all of the toxins were out of her body, nature strikes back.


Not to be outdone, the Atlantic Ocean also took its best shot. On a little weekend outing to the beach, she had this experience. "I was having a great time, swimming around in waste deep water, riding out the little waves. Then an enormous, surprise wave hit me from behind, knocked me off my feet and sent me face first into the sand and held me down. I couldn't get my feet under me and couldn't swim up. While I was struggling, the stupid current ripped off my hat, sunglasses, and bathing suit bottoms! I had to make a choice which to save and chose my bathing suit, so my hat and sunglasses are lost and gone forever. I finally righted myself, choking and sputtering, and promptly dragged myself out of the ocean, never to return."


Emily's epic battle with nature will continue throughout this week but she will be heading home on Saturday morning. Let's hope she can stave off any more attacks from Florida for the next couple of days!

Time Management

I've had quite a few inquiries about what else Em is doing at the Hippocrates Institute, besides learning about a raw food diet. She says she is busy from 7 am until 7 pm with treatments, seminars and lectures. She sent me a list of the different treatments she has tried or plans to try before she leaves so I thought I'd post it for those who are interested. Some of them sound a little out there, but if they work and she is cancer free for a lifetime, it is totally worth the time!

H-Wave Therapy - Induces dynamic muscle contractions to increase blood flow and lymph drainage

Viofor - Electromagnetic stimulation to speed up the bodies natural healing processes

Theragem - Uses a blend of wave frequency, color, light and crystalline energy to rebalance the body (they use actual gemstones... my last one was with rubies and emeralds!)

Ondamed - Biofeedback device that finds modulated electromagnetic frequencies to encourage a return to homeostasis

Infrared Therapy while on Oxygen - Slowly heats the body above 98.6 degrees to stimulate immune system & improve metabolic function. Done while breathing pure oxygen (Oxygen depleted cells are a big factor in cancer, so a lot of my therapies are done while breathing pure oxygen to re-oxygenate my body)

Aqua Chi Detox w/ Lymph Drainage while on Oxygen - I don't have a brochure on this one, but basically I lay on a bed that jiggles me around to stimulate my lymph system, then I soak my feet in a tub that has some sort of machine in it that creates a pulse that helps pulls toxins out of my feet. The water changes colors depending on what areas of the body are being drained. My tub water went crazy, changing colors every couple minutes. The girl next to me who has very advanced cancer and is very sick, had hardly any color changes at all. Apparently my body is very happy to release it's yucky stuff!

Massage, Reiki, Colonics, Breathing exercises, Oriental Health exercises & Chi Gong (which is similar to Tai Chi) are a couple other things I have done/plan to do.

I'm also doing vitamin and mineral therapies... I don't think an explanation is required there!

I've asked Em to send a list of some of the different lectures she has been to as well. I think the whole program is fascinating!

In Her Own Words

We got an email from Emily this morning. Here is what she has to say about her stay at the Hippocrates Institute so far.

Things are going well. We had a ton of rain yesterday but today is blue sky and sunny. It is probably the calm before the storm, though. Next week is supposed to get nasty. They expect Ike to hit here on Tuesday... but who knows what will happen between now and then. Things can always change. The institute is well equipped for hurricanes so they have told us not to worry. They have generators and everything so we keep going, business as usual, regardless of the weather.

Physically & emotionally I am doing great, aside from the mosquito bites (I had 53 upon last count) and the lovely detox rash I am sporting. I had the doctor look at my rash to make sure it wasn't West Nile Virus. He laughed and told me I watch too much TV. Detox rashes are common because your skin is your body's largest organ and you release a lot of toxins through your pores. Everybody else has had bad detox symptoms like headaches, muscle aches, extreme fatigue... but I have been fine except for the rash, which they assure me will go away by next week.

The food is growing on me. They are 98% raw here, which at first was hard to get used to. They said after a week or so your palette changes and you start to really enjoy the food. The first couple days I was like "yeah right... give me some cooked stuff!", but last night they served cooked asparagus and I couldn't eat it. It looked floppy and weird and tasted gross and I actually missed the raw asparagus we usually have. We had 100% raw, vegan pizza last night, too and it was delicious! I got the recipe so I will make it for us when I get home. The one thing that is NOT growing on me so far is the juice. We have green juice 3 times a day, and wheatgrass juice twice a day. The wheatgrass juice is good, and I fully intend to continue that at home. The green juice on the other hand.... yuck. I literally have to choke it down. I'm not sure what veggies they put in it, but I can't stand it. We'll see if that changes over the next two weeks, but somehow I doubt it.

My little group of friends and I took our first trip off campus yesterday and went to the beach. We managed to hit it just right in between rain storms, so it was perfect because it wasn't so bloody hot and the storms have stirred up some good waves. After the beach we stopped at KMart to pick up a few things, and holy cow... temptation galore! Everywhere we looked there were chips and candy and cookies.... the real world is a scary place!! We were all starving because it was right before dinner but we managed to make it out without any indiscretions. It really made us realize how much of a challenge it is going to be to maintain this lifestyle once we are away from the cocoon of the institute.

We are glad to hear that you are safe and sound, Em. Keep us updated when you can!

Healthy Living

This weekend Emily embarked on potentially the most critical part of her cancer recovery. She enrolled in a program at the Hippocrates Institute in Florida that focuses on detoxifying the body and making choices that promote healthy living. It is a 3 week program that teaches nutrition with an enzyme rich and organically grown diet that is primarily vegan. They also learn the benefits of juicing and using the powers of wheatgrass. There is massage available and exercise classes, among many other homeopathic treatments. More information on the center can be found at http://www.hippocratesinst.org/ for those of you who are looking for more details.

Emily chose this center after reading the book "Crazy Sexy Cancer" by Kris Carr. She had an inoperable form of cancer and tried any and all forms of treatment. The one thing that completely stopped the rapid spread of her cancer was her trip to Hippocrates. Technically Emily is cancer free, but she wants to create an environment in her body where cancer cannot grow again. Hopefully this route will prove successful for her!

We talked to her on Sunday and she was all settled in at the Institute. Unfortunately, Hurricane Hannah is bearing down on them so she says it is incredibly windy and so humid that it feels like a jungle. Hurricane Gustav isn't helping matters either. :) Despite the weather, we hope this will be a life affirming and invigorating experience for her and we can't wait to hear (and hopefully benefit from) all of the things she will learn in the next 3 weeks. Enjoy yourself, Em! We miss you already.

The Road to Recovery

After weeks of medical drama, things are finally starting to wind down for Emily. The leaking of the chemo into her tissue has caused complications with the healing process from the port removal surgery. As it turns out, there was some serious tissue necrosis around her port and after the surgery, her incision reopened. Now she has a perfectly round hole in the middle of her incision that is completely void of any tissue - it was dissolved by the chemo. It looks like she was stabbed with a pen! You can actually see all the way down to her muscle. Apparently the wound will heal, though much more slowly and much uglier than planned. Her plastic surgeon will have to do additional surgery on the affected area to remove all of the scar tissue that will fill the hole in the coming months, then he will sew it all up to create a less vivid scar.

One good thing to come out of all of this chaos is that Emily is now done with chemo. Wahoo!!!! That is the best news she could have received! Now she just has to get through a couple more surgeries and then we can finally put this all behind us. Keep your fingers crossed!

Relay for Life Pictures

The Relay for Life was a huge success! Dad managed to stay the entire 24 hours, arriving at 10 am on Saturday and leaving after 10 am on Sunday. His relay shift was from midnight until 5 am and he estimates that he walked at least 13 miles during that time. He also raised $851 for the American Cancer Society. Way to go, Dad! Special thanks goes out to Cemex for sponsoring the team - this was an emotional and inspirational day for our family.