Survivor Blog

I was touched by Farrah Fawcett’s strength while watching the documentary of her battle with cancer. So many of us have lived through the very same things and the only ones that understand our suffering are our close friends and family. The hardest part is the one we survivors fight when others look as us as if we have lost. In order to survive, we must have everyone believing! Cancer does not kill people, chemo does! Now, I am not advocating for people to stop taking chemo, but we need to advance research on alternative therapies that are not as damaging to our bodies. They are still doing the same radiation and administering the same chemo drugs: adriamycin, vincristine, etc, that they had back in the 60’s!!
So, what frustrates me about Farrah Fawcett’s documentary and the surrounding hype, is that the media seems to be counting down the days until her death. They are using terms like “terminal”. Hey! This is wrong!! We are all “terminal” folks. Everyone of us. Cancer or not. The fact that people are describing her fight as over is just plain wrong.
I am praying for Farrah. She is a survivor. Live Strong sister!

I just read this article on the natural healing effects of cinnamon. Having suffered thru chemotherapy and looking for herbs that will lessen the side effects, one of the things that helped me was cinnamon. Now I have it almost every day in my healthy breakfast routine.  (Plain organic yogurt, Ezekial cereal, plain oats, honey, banana and lots of cinnamon)- Trust me it’s yummy.  So if you are wondering what herbs are ok to take with chemo, try cinnamon and read this.

Once you officially become a “survivor”, you never really want to own up to feeling fabulous  because you feel you might jinx it.  In the interest of possibly helping others to regain their old self, I have to share this story of a guy from my Multiple Myeloma support group in Atlanta. His name is Vinnie M.   I  visited the Atlanta area MM group back in early 2006 when I was still battling with Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulenemia, which they say has characteristics of both MM and Non-hodgkins Lymphoma. I asked if anyone in the group was aware of any natural remedies that were working for them. In particular, with WM I think its the MM side of the disease that is the most dangerous. So Vinnie, who is a MM patient, says he has been following the clinical trial parameters of Circumin which is being studied by MD Anderson. I immediately start taking Circumin because I am committed to never ever going thru chemotherapy again, because I think it’s vile.  Long story short, both Vinnie and I are still, knock on wood, without further progression of our respective diseases 3 years later. Perhaps there is something to this. In keeping with the demands of medical science which insist you tell your doctor of every single herb, vitamin and medication that you are taking, I always disclose the Circumin and never had any doctor tell me to stop. There are no side effects or intereactions that I could find. One other thing; in India, the incidence of cancer is 1/10th of the USA incidence of cancer and their diet is very heavy with Circumin/Turmeric which is the main ingredient of curry. So there.