What is really inside the heart of cancer survivor?

Most of the thoughts that run through your head when first getting diagnosed with advanced cancer, given a specified time of survival, is why me? I have to be honest I did for a while and in many ways, I felt well maybe I deserved to be. I'm not perfect in any way but I hope to improve myself as a person. Many have a sense of hopelessness when faced with this grim reality.

In reality, no one really deserves to go through such pain and suffering and it is pain and suffering to have to go through numerous surgeries, chemotherapies, radiation; all the medical methods offered here in the United States. We don't have the best methods, & we certainly don't have the funding to beat cancer. Don't get me wrong, there are so many great advances going on that I can't even begin to tell. I work for an amazing company with amazing scientists who are dedicated to finding cures and or treatments for many diseases. Me coming to work each day puts a face into what they are doing.

In order to survive cancer; you have to have hope in your heart that you can beat it. If you feel you will die from the cancer, you will. I saw this just working in a vet's office. Animals have this sense about them that if they don't feel well, or they know something is seriously wrong with them, most will crawl and hide somewhere just to die. Some people have this about them as well. They get the diagnosis and they just give up hope.

To be quite honest, I don't have it in me yet to just give up. In fact I know I don't. I have gotten close to the other side on numerous occasions and it just isn't time yet. What made me much stronger, was my loving husband by my side. He picked me up so many times when I felt I was loosing hope. He helped me realize so many things and most of all a purpose.

I feel strongly that I have a purpose in helping others to beat this disease. I am doing something right to have survived this long with odds against me. Not all cancer is the same, some can be more aggressive, some slow growing while being hard to get rid of, and some just appear out of no where as it had been dormant for sometime. Either way you look at it, its all different, much like our DNA. We all have a way of fighting it within our bodies.

We don't get cancer, because we did something bad. I have heard Cancer being called, the nice person's disease. Most nice people end up getting cancer. It could be that they care about others more than they care for themselves. We just haven't quite figured that out.

I have just learned to live with my cancer and I might just make it miserable in the ways that I take care of myself, utilizing nutrition, diet, exercise, yoga, and even meditation. I like to think that I do make it miserable. Positive thoughts can get you far in life and that's one thing that cancer has taught me. Utilize your mind as it is powerful and can help you win this tough battle. Scientists are just beginning to understand the power of the mind. If you are going to fight this battle, I hope you will check out my Cancer Support Page as I plan to update it often.

Needless Pain sufferered with relief provided....

I do have to warn you that this post may offend some, but it is honest, real, and heart felt. It might even seem politically charged, but these are my true feelings.

Being a cancer patient, I do know what kinds of pain is felt. Does anyone really know for sure what that pain really feels like and that they can make an unknown decision that a cancer patient deserves to be jailed or put in prison for trying to relieve themselves of pain?

OK, what exactly does the pain really feel like?
Well here is the real honest pain that I suffer and not to worry, I live in California where I hope and pray that I can continue to relieve myself of this pain in the most natural way possible; a way that for thousands of years my ancestors were able to relieve themselves too. There are several ways and in combining those ways, pain relief is possible.

You see, I have had 4 major abdominal surgeries and each time, my intestines were placed on an operating table 4 different times. The 1st surgery was the painful cancer debauking surgery in which several organs were removed and cancer was scraped off. 1 surgery was paritonitus and the other 2 were painful bowel blockages of my intestines.

Do the intestines ever get back to normal after going through something like that?
No they don't, but I am blessed with an herb that has no side effects such as constipation, stomach cramping, and pain that returns with a vengeance. OK, you can count laughing, a case of the munchies, incredible thirst for water, and relaxation as side effects that are not at all harmful. In fact, that thirst for water is what gets the system running again.

How exactly does it feel when that pain is occurring?
Well, at times, I have a pin like pressure in my intestines and sometimes it feels as if there are beetles eating me up inside. Have you ever walked into a forest and heard crunching sounds? Those sounds are beetles eating up the insides of the trees. It kind of feels like crunching inside and those are the less serious of the pains.
Now if my bowels get kinked or twisted, then the pains that I feel become more serious, more like spasms inside my intestines that feel like a crushing pain. Those types of pains will come and go and sometimes I am on the floor crying because the pain is so great. My husband and I have sometimes felt like filming me in this pain in order to prove this point and to show how effectively and quick we are to relieve this pain naturally.

Those types of pain almost feel as if my intestines are going to burst through my skin. At times I have even felt like that scene in aliens when the alien was bursting out of Sigourney Weaver's stomach. The scary truth of it all is that feeling happens every once in a while and it is rare when that does happen.

I'm a tough cookie and I won't ever give up and not to worry, I am able relieve myself of this pain nearly instantaneous whenever necessary. Thanks to the California voters who d for Proposition 215 back in November 1996. It doesn't happen all the time, just sometimes. I feel that I don't deserve to suffer in pain like this which is why I utilize the natural medicine when necessary. I am a good person and god provided me with this miracle drug for a reason. My oncologist also supports my decision. It helps keep me out of the emergency room (most of the time) and I am able to enjoy a good quality of life.

What I am talking about is medicinal Cannabis for pain. I know the government is against using it and has even filled the Supreme Court with justices who have no idea about the pain and suffering of cancer, AIDS, and other patients who suffer needlessly. This drug was legal for thousands of years and only because of a newspaper company was propaganda utilized to make it illegal. It isn't a gateway drug at all. I don't feel like a criminal at all attempting to help others with cancer. I am just being honest about my experience with the drug or plant.

Ok, what about alternatives for pain? Well, I could use Vicodin, which on numerous occasions caused a temporary relief for the pain, 45 minutes to take effect, 30 minutes of pain relief, then the pain returned with a serious vengeance. We also have morphine which is what I am giving when hospitalized with a bowel blockage for which Vicodin eventually will cause me. In Canada they have a spray that is supposed to work well and I will utilize it when it becomes available here in the US. I tried the pill Marinol which didn't work at all for me. It did cause a tummy ache, but that's about it.

What's really disturbing is a country that can't work together and it seems that this administration has done just that. We all need to work together to find a cure and to help those affected by pain. I voted in the primaries in California for Obama, not because he is a black man, but because I felt his heart was in the right place. He has true compassion and understands what is like to suffer. Hillary is OK too even though she isn't as in touch with the rest of us. McCain is more than willing to jail patients and is mostly interested in continuing war instead of peace. Please do look up each of the candidates view on Medicinal Marijuana and vote with your heart.

Here is McCain Views on Medical Marijuana and he does state that he will continue to uphold the current laws against Marijuana and that it continue to arrest patients. To me, that is out of touch with reality and placing politics ahead of lives.



Here is Clinton's view:



Finally Obama even more convincing and of course hope for those suffering. He seems more of realist in approaching this subject and he is right. There are far more important threats to tackle than arresting people for smoking marijuana.



To find out more on this subject, I am also working on my other Blog "Sex and Cancer" in touching more detailed on this subject in answering much unanswered questions about Medicinal marijuana. It's very controversial and the government is so against its use and for no particular explained reason other than it is a gateway drug.? This other blog is by invitation only and it is currently under construction. I plan to get other writers involved with various levels of expertise. Please email me if interested at sexandcancer@shoppingkharma.com.
Because life does go on after and/or with cancer.

Thank you Mother Earth!

There are so many things that we do each and every day that involves our Mother Earth. It might be that we are out skateboarding, snowboarding, riding a bike, riding a horse or even out in a car. We are enjoying life everyday and should treasure it! The fresh air that we get to breath and hopefully continue to. Granted many places don't have fresh air to breath, but if we all work together, we can make it happen.

We need to appreciate what nature does for us and to not take more than we need from it. We all know that we will be learning and becoming more sustainable in the future. We can be positive about this learning experience and embrace change. Change is good and we all know that we need it.

Right now is very important; what we do right now affects our future. We are having a baby boom right now and it means more than anything for this future to have a good future.

One day soon, we won't need to kill others for oil which really isn't worth killing others for. There are other ways to get around or to fuel our planet. I know that if I lived in the country, I would go back to the way that my ancestors traveled and utilize a horse. Unforturnately I live in a concrete jungle in San Jose, CA where instead I drive a Prius, ride a bike, and roller blade for transportation.

One great way that we can all learn about what we can do to help the future generations is to get a monthly membership from Earth Cinema.

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Please read the Spring Good Kharma Newsletter for more on Earth Cinema. You can also feel free to check out some of my other pages that I worked so hard to create such as the Organic Gardening Page, the Conservation Page, and also the Road Rage Page which also features some great ideas on conserving gasoline and just mellowing out on the road.

What are the causes of cancer?

I recently had someone review my website from Linkreferral. Linkreferral is an excellent site to go for good quality traffic and it is a wonderful community of webmasters, new business owners, novice business owners and much more! All walks of life. I did get a review today that I have to be honest, confused me some. Don't get me wrong, I did get all 5's but I don't understand something about this review and here it is word for word.

"I am not sure about the drug perscribed fr cancer. But cancer is such a dreaded disease best left to surgeons and that too first stage, radio thery nd chemotherapy. Main cause of cancer is misuse of human body! ."

For one Cancer is not caused by a misuse of the human body. How on earth could I misuse my body? Not sure if I understand that correctly. Cancer is actually caused by a weakness of the immune system. To begin with, we all have some cancer cells in our bodies and cancer cells are often mutant cells that didn't form correctly. They can eventually grow and divide on organs if the body isn't strong enough to fight off those mutant cells. Cancer cells travel through the bloodstream or the lymph system to other parts of the body where they grow and replace normal tissue. This spreading process is called metastasis.

Now this was taken from the National Cancer Institute.org website (I have to credit them for this wonderful explanation)

"Cancer is a term used for diseases in which abnormal cells divide without control and are able to invade other tissues. Cancer cells can spread to other parts of the body through the blood and lymph systems.

Cancer is not just one disease but many diseases. There are more than 100 different types of cancer. Most cancers are named for the organ or type of cell in which they start - for example, cancer that begins in the colon is called colon cancer; cancer that begins in basal cells of the skin is called basal cell carcinoma.

Cancer types can be grouped into broader categories. The main categories of cancer include:

• Carcinoma - cancer that begins in the skin or in tissues that line or cover internal organs.
• Sarcoma - cancer that begins in bone, cartilage, fat, muscle, blood vessels, or other connective or supportive tissue.
• Leukemia - cancer that starts in blood-forming tissue such as the bone marrow and causes large numbers of abnormal blood cells to be produced and enter the blood.
• Lymphoma and myeloma - cancers that begin in the cells of the immune system.
• Central nervous system cancers - cancers that begin in the tissues of the brain and spinal cord.

All cancers begin in cells, the body's basic unit of life. To understand cancer, it's helpful to know what happens when normal cells become cancer cells. The body is made up of many types of cells. These cells grow and divide in a controlled way to produce more cells as they are needed to keep the body healthy. When cells become old or damaged, they die and are replaced with new cells.However, sometimes this orderly process goes wrong. The genetic material (DNA) of a cell can become damaged or changed, producing mutations that affect normal cell growth and division. When this happens, cells do not die when they should and new cells form when the body does not need them. The extra cells may form a mass of tissue called a tumor."

I do know that if we strengthen the immune system, it can give the body more artillery to fight the darn stuff! I know in my heart that I did nothing wrong to deserve this disease. I do take care of my body and have always. OK maybe I indulged some on a piece of carrot cake, cheese cake, donutsHow did I misuse my body? I eat right, I know cancer is in my family. I never liked red meat (since I was a kid). When I was child, I do remember when planes would fly over head with DDT which may have contributed but I never did anything to deserve this disease and neither has the billions of others who have been affected by this disease.

Now that we understand Cancer a little more and its not often a death sentence each and every time, because you can still live with the cancer. I know I have, and I don't think my life is bad at all. I thoroughly enjoy it! Hell, a little cancer never stopped me from living every day! In fact, the last 10 years, cancer deaths have declined. It used to be that if you were given a cancer diagnosis, it was more or less a death sentence. Some types of cancer it still is and that's mainly because we need to fight this war and not fight for oil anymore. Here is some more hope for all of us!



Now I must work on more content for my new blog "Sex and Cancer". If interested in have access to this blog, please email me at sexandcancer@shoppingkharma.com. Once again there are lots of adult subjects covered and you must be 21 years of age.

Learning to enjoy the moment....

So many times we are in a hurry to get to where ever we are going to while not enjoying the true gift of right now. When you are in a hurry to live your life, you end up missing our on what I feel are true gifts; things we may never see again! Those moments could be enjoying a good conversation with a loved one or a friend, a great song on the radio, or even a good program where you are learning something new or something you have never experienced in your life.

Do you feel that right now will be remembered in 10 years from now?

See this bug pictured above. I had never seen anything like it before and I thought I would share it with the rest of you. It could have easily been overlooked in this huge world, but I found it. It's just one tiny little example of what a difference right now can make.

Let's say you are worrying about something like your finances, your job, a small portion of your job, what ever it might be. Will that small thing in your life make a difference in 10-15 years from right now. I guess it could, but for the most part your decisions are what do make a difference. What's really important is asking yourself the question, "what can I do right now, that will make a difference.?".

When we are worried, stressed, or just watching propaganda on TV of something that maybe the media feels that we should worried about, it's doesn't make us any healthier. What makes us healthier is doing something that makes you feel good consciously. (following your conscious) Something that you know is the right thing to do. Something in your heart and your soul that feels just right.

If you happen to be stressed, meditation is a great way to take care of the whole worrying process. Worry can cause unneeded stress which can in turn lead to illnesses. This video below should be a good start. Please take care of yourself or someone you love!





I hope I was able to help you become less stressed today!

Electing the Right Person to lead us into the right direction....

I started in some yesterday on how important it is to elect a president who can lead our country in the right direction. We really need to go in a different direction more so than ever before. Now these are just my hopes and dreams for a president of "The United States of America". We have to have a president who can unite us with the rest of the world. As I said before, Unite us, not ignite us into disaster as this current administration has done. This administration is so secretive and covering up blunders more than is acceptable. It seems nothing is really being done to stop their criminal actions.

If we elect the right person to lead our country, we can finally educate our children and us too because without education and knowing about how our system is supposed to work can lead to more people in prison. With out an education children and adults become criminals, which it seems lately schools are closing and more and more prison all over the world are popping up.

We can finally afford to pay our teachers, instead of decreasing the pay even more because we have to build more high security prisons. We have more prisoners than anywhere in the world. Why is that?

I also feel that Laziness is not acceptable,; you have to experience life, put forth and have a purpose for life. A purpose is not sitting around watching TV and having life go on around you, while you take, take, take, without any kind of giving whether it be a job to earn money for your family or for a purpose. I understand that sometimes we suffer through hard times, but those hard times are put there to make you stronger, to make you fight, to live, and to survive.

There are so many video games that replace living life such as ones where you can fish virtually without needing to go outside and experience what it's like to experience nature and to catch a real 8 lb bass, playing tennis, or even golf. Not that these are really bad inventions, but there is a need to go outside and experience life as it was meant to be experienced. Go outside and see a real sunset or a sunrise!

So What are Family Values?

To me family values is about being a family that is close enough to talk about anything with each other; open communication and understanding, while trying hard enough to please other and most importantly is respect for one another. If you don't have respect, you have lost. Its not strictly about just a man a woman together; its about working together, loving, caring, and respect. No hatred or discrimination is ever acceptable.

My husband and I are best friends and we meant it deeply when we said our vows on our wedding day. In sickness and in health we walk strong together and have for the past five and half years of marriage. It hasn't exactly been easy living with cancer those years either, but our bond is unbreakable. We are there for each other to love, to accept, to cry with, to laugh with, and most importantly, we help each other out when in need.

This photo should say it all. A very close friend of mine took this photo and it has to be one of the most beautiful photos I have ever seen and most importantly it is of someone I love and care very deeply about; my husband and best friend. You can just see the love and concern in his eyes as well as the suffering that he has endured. If this isn't a testimony of true love, I have no idea what is. I love him as if he were a family member and actually he is now. We are family and most importantly we are friends too. Love, Family, and Friendship.

As far as family bonds, it does seem that these days with the advancement of technology, texting, video games and all the things that take the personalization of a simple hello away sort of adds more distraction and less communication with families. It's still the same each generation with teens knowing more how to operate all the advances in technology, but less and less how to drive; ok granted they can still figure out how to operate the stereo, gps, and so on, but driving is completely different. It always comes with experience and making mature decisions; much like life.

A good friend of mine told me about this young boy that was dating her grand daughter and how his family life differed. His father was always very friendly downtown with all the ladies. It seemed he knew just about everyone and the son just thought his father was a very popular guy until one day when he was around 13 or so, they just driving down the road together when they saw a young boy walking on the sidewalk. The father points out to the boy that this is his brother. The son thought the father was kidding but the seriousness in his face proved otherwise. He then learned later that he had about 13 other brothers in sisters all over town. Where were the morals in his father that he could look up to? He cheated on his mother and lived more than just a double life. Respect out the window completely. The other brothers and sisters may or may not have gotten the fatherly support that they too deserved.

Having children is a gift and should never ever be taken for granted. Not everyone is able to have children and if you have them, consider yourself lucky. They each are individuals and they may get on your last nerve, but they are life and our future. Its so important to cherish right now with them if you have it; they don't stay young forever and its important that they too have future. We shouldn't be wasting our future away as we do with energy, oil, this endless war, and so much more. I only hope that our next president values all of us, that he doesn't just lower taxes for the extremely wealthy while forcing the middle class into poverty, draft our children into more wars for more oil, and most importantly has a plan for our future for generations to come.

Another possible cure for cancer....

I just found this article which I thought was quite interesting. It's about a cheap, "safe" drug that kills most cancers. I want some of that! Well anyway here is what is really interesting taken from this article:

"The drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), has already been used for years to treat rare metabolic disorders and so is known to be relatively safe.

It also has no patent, meaning it could be manufactured for a fraction of the cost of newly developed drugs.

Evangelos Michelakis of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and his colleagues tested DCA on human cells cultured outside the body and found that it killed lung, breast and brain cancer cells, but not healthy cells. Tumours in rats deliberately infected with human cancer also shrank drastically when they were fed DCA-laced water for several weeks.

DCA attacks a unique feature of cancer cells: the fact that they make their energy throughout the main body of the cell, rather than in distinct organelles called mitochondria. This process, called glycolysis, is inefficient and uses up vast amounts of sugar.

Until now it had been assumed that cancer cells used glycolysis because their mitochondria were irreparably damaged. However, Michelakis’s experiments prove this is not the case, because DCA reawakened the mitochondria in cancer cells. The cells then withered and died (Cancer Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.ccr.2006.10.020).

Michelakis suggests that the switch to glycolysis as an energy source occurs when cells in the middle of an abnormal but benign lump don’t get enough oxygen for their mitochondria to work properly (see diagram). In order to survive, they switch off their mitochondria and start producing energy through glycolysis.

Crucially, though, mitochondria do another job in cells: they activate apoptosis, the process by which abnormal cells self-destruct. When cells switch mitochondria off, they become “immortal”, outliving other cells in the tumour and so becoming dominant. Once reawakened by DCA, mitochondria reactivate apoptosis and order the abnormal cells to die.

“The results are intriguing because they point to a critical role that mitochondria play:

they impart a unique trait to cancer cells that can be exploited for cancer therapy,” says Dario Altieri, director of the University of Massachusetts Cancer Center in Worcester.

The phenomenon might also explain how secondary cancers form. Glycolysis generates lactic acid, which can break down the collagen matrix holding cells together. This means abnormal cells can be released and float to other parts of the body, where they seed new tumours.

DCA can cause pain, numbness and gait disturbances in some patients, but this may be a price worth paying if it turns out to be effective against all cancers. The next step is to run clinical trials of DCA in people with cancer. These may have to be funded by charities, universities and governments: pharmaceutical companies are unlikely to pay because they can’t make money on unpatented medicines. The pay-off is that if DCA does work, it will be easy to manufacture and dirt cheap.

Paul Clarke, a cancer cell biologist at the University of Dundee in the UK, says the findings challenge the current assumption that mutations, not metabolism, spark off cancers. “The question is: which comes first?” he says.

Cancer - Learn more about one of the world’s biggest killers in our comprehensive special report."

I did write in order to find out more and will post as soon as I do. This is actually very good news and hopefully not too good to be true as suggested. What a break it will be if it does prove true. There are too many people in this world that don't deserve to die this sick and I feel I am one of them and I know of countless children as well who don't. In fact I would die for one of them if I had to. I hate seeing children sick. It breaks my heart.