No longer a cancer journal, #7: Eating Keto and Having Fun with it

The shoulder thing is most likely nothing, and will be observed (x-ray and oncologist) in 3 months. The thing in my lung is nothing to worry about, but they want it out, and I want it observed. I'm supposed to schedule an appointment with a thoracic surgeon to discuss this. My image is surgeon implies knife. (You reach for the tool you know best.) I would prefer to talk with someone else about it. I haven't got that one completely figured out yet.

I have a chronic health problem that might be better if I weigh less, so I'm continuing with the keto. (I have a sliding hiatal hernia. That means the hole in my diaphragm where my esophagus goes through is too big, and sometimes my stomach jams itself up there. When it does, I can be in severe pain or just a bit of discomfort. It usually last about 12 days, and happens about 3 times a year.) 

 

One of the problems with dieting is that people usually ping pong up and down, and that's really bad for your health and can make you gain weight in the long run. Our bodies need food, and are going to resist any restrictions. Also, we are hard-wired to love sugar.

For me, keto is perfect. I know that refined sugar is bad for us, and usually try to limit it, but have not been great at that. (Good, but not great.) Counting carbs means that any refined sugar is taking up carbs that could be lots of other yummy foods. My goal when I started this time was all organic food, no refined sugars, and staying under 50 grams of carbs a day, preferably under 40. If I had found out I had cancer, then I would have gone down to 25 grams a day (much harder). 

To make it work, I knew I needed help making yummy low-carb foods. Gomen (Ethiopian collard greens) is one of my favorite foods. K, my cooking coach, will be making that for me. (The smell while it's cooking is pretty strong, and my son hates it.) I've also started making chia pudding. Chia helps me get more fiber, and I use just 2 teaspoons of maple syrup to sweeten it, along with a cup of milk and 1/4 cup chia seeds. I found that my body was feeling like I was eating too much milk, so I switched to part milk, part coconut milk, and that is perfect! I might be eating more dessert than usual, but it's only 1t maple syrup a day (3g carbs). My 1/3 cup of pudding is 2 or 3 grams of carbs, and yes, it tastes sweet to me!

I'm also making cole slaw often, which I love. Those roasted veggies were so good, I need to make them again. Have you ever had roasted fennel bulb? It's yummy. 

I started writing this while eating a marvelous breakfast: two perfectly fried eggs, and a salmon, avocado, pesto quesadilla. Only the tortilla has any carbs (9g). I meant to take a photo, but I ate it before I could. 

I wanted to stop eating rice and bread. I've stopped eating rice, but I need toast for my eggs. (1/2 piece of toast is plenty, and it's 6.5 grams. Even 1/3 is plenty and that's 4 grams.) I need it for my tuna salad, chicken salad, and egg salad, too. Toast may be the most carby food I eat.

Coffee with cream is 0 carbs. Bone broth and meats are 0 carbs. A whole avocado is only 4 grams of carbs. (!)You want to eat plenty of veggies, for the fiber, and that take a little more work. I love nuts, and those are pretty low in carbs. I might go through 1/2 cup of pistachios in a day.  That's 10 carbs. The chia pudding is less.  

What I'm hoping to share is how much fun I'm having eating this way. I'm making sure I don't feel deprived, and I think I could do this for a very long time. 

I was hyperthyroid from 1999 to 2009, controlled with meds. Before it was controlled, I went from about 165 down to about 145. As soon as it got controlled I made my way back up to 165 and maybe higher. For the past decade or so I've been in the 190's. When I went over 200 pounds, I was not happy about that. But I figure exercise is probably the key, so I didn't diet. I recently weighed in at 220 pounds, even less pleasant. I've been doing this pain-free keto thing for a bit over a month now, and went to 213 then to 208. I don't have a scale at home, so I only find out at doctor visits. I'm eager to see what it will be next time. 

One of my many recent tests was a bone density exam. My spine is fine and my hips show mild ostopenia (precursor to osteoporosis). I'm supposed to exercise at least 30 minutes at least 3 times a week. Until the rain started, I've been walking our very old and slow dog around the block, and doing my physical therapy exercises (for my knee and heel) while waiting for him to catch up with me.

 

This post might make it sound like I'm spening all my time thinking about my health. I'm not. I wish it were less, but I guess getting old is not for the faint of heart. (I'm 69 now, and hope to get much older.) Mostly I'm working on writing some books. Althea's Math Mysteries are young adult novels with math exploration at the center. (The characters are mostly 12 to 16, so that's the young adult label. But maybe mostly adults will read these. I'm thinking math teachers will love them. A few do so far.) Three of them are close to done. If you're interested in reading the manuscript(s), and letting me know what you think, I'd love that. You can email me at altheasmathmysteries@gmail.com if you're interested in that.

And now that most of the tests and doctor's visits are done, I can get back to trying to be helpful in my community, for immigrants and for people struggling with less food. 

 

 

No longer a cancer journal?, #6: One good thing...

 

Well, trying to eat keto has meant that I've lost a bit of weight, which wasn't my intention, but might be a good thing. (I have a sliding hiatal hernia, and having less of a gut might mean I'll have fewer episodes of that bothering me.)

M has come to cook with me 3 times. The first time we made cole slaw. I'd made it before and couldn't get it right. Also an online friend who lives in Sweden had sent me a mandolin for this purpose, and I had decided that I was incapable of using it. (So sad!) M showed me how to use it. I had been holding it wrong, and using the pusher thingie the wrong way, and maybe had a few other issues. As soon as I saw her use it, I started to get excited.

I now love my mandolin, and look forward to telling my online friend. (Sadly, I don't think I have her email address. We mainly communicated on facebook. Yes, I'm still not able to get back there without the video selfie. I think I need to write her an actual letter.)

In case you're confused. One mandolin is a musical instrument. The other is a kitchen gadget. Here's mine.

M and I got the dressing right for the cole slaw and I can now whip some up as long as I have cabbages and carrots (and a bit of broccolini) around. 

 The second time we made pumpkin custard and whipped cream (no sugar, just heavy cream and vanilla). The pumpkin custard used very little sweetener (1/4 cup maple syrup) and still tasted sweet. The whipped cream was ok, but kinda weird. Next time I'll use a tiny bit of maple syrup to sweeten it. 

I also made chia pudding that day before she came. I was using unsweetened cocoa, and it tasted dusty. She suggested mixing the cocoa in a bit of warm water before mixing it in with the rest. I also added less than a tablespoon of maple syrup (with 1 cup milk and 1/4 cup chia seeds). It was perfect the second time! However, I have started feeling like it's too much milk. So next time I'll try coconut milk.

 

Today we made roasted veggies. Yum! She did most of the work today. I need to make these again to make sure I've got it down.

I'm going to keep trying to eat more food I've made at home (so it can be organic), and also keep trying to eat relatively few carbs. No cancer means I can splurge once in a while. But I'm loving the way I'm eating.

Bread has lots of carbs, but I love a piece of toast with my fried eggs in the morning. (Eggs and avocados are my favorite foods.) So I cut the bread and eat about 1/3 of a piece of toast. 13 grams of carbs in one piece of toast is a lot. But 4 or 5 grams isn't. And that's really enough toast to go with my eggs. I'm happy. 

You could say I'm having fun playing with my food. 

 

 

This might be a cancer journal, #5: Looking Better

 Monday, Dec 15

What an insane roller coaster of a day. I thought my appointment was at noon, I was late on BART, and then Lyft was crazy late. They said 1 minute and it was about 15 minutes wait. And then of course the car stunk of perfume. I cried most of the way from BART to the UCSF medical center on 4th street.

Turns out my appointment was at 12:30. I get up there, and they say there were x-rays I was supposed to do at 11am. But no one had told me that. So, after the nurse checked my vitals, she sent me downstairs for x-rays. That took over an hour, mostly waiting. (I grabbed some food in the middle of all that.)

Back upstairs. Talk to the PA. Then wait and wait for the doc. She says no bone biopsy. It does not look like cancer. She said when the bone is growing it can leave some cartilage behind that ends up inside it. She says we'll look again in 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years. And she expects it will stay the same and be nothing.

There's still that thing in my lung that may need to come out. (But whether it's called cancer or not, it does not normally metastasize. So it's not a big deal. Although getting it out seems like a big deal to me.) Next stop, thoracic surgeon. (And if he says I need surgery, I will ask for a second opinion.) 

 

 

This Might Be a Cancer Journal, #4: And then again, maybe not!

Wed, Dec 10

Bone density test. (They call it a DEXA scan.) My spine is fine. My hips have "mild ostopenia". (That's what comes before osteoporosis.) My doc says to "do weight bearing exercise at least 3 times per week for at least 30 min at a time and take calcium 500 mg in tablet form daily plus 700 mg in dietary form daily and vitamin D 1000 International Units daily." Will do. 

My cooking coach came this evening. I made chia pudding in the morning, and started a batch of cole slaw before she came. It's not perfect, but it's much closer to what I want. (I have added no sugar, and it still tastes too sweet to me. It needs more spice, maybe.) We made pumpkin custard with 1/4 cup maple syrup in it. It's great! And we made whipped cream with no sugar in it. It's a little odd, but I like it. If I were making this for others, I'd sprinkle it with cinnamon and nutmeg. She's going to see how it goes to make gomen. (My son can't stand the smell, so I don't want to cook that myself.) And next time we're going to do roasted veggies.

 

Thurs, Dec 11

Appointment with radiation oncologist. It seems a little early for this, but I like the guy, and he said we could start the day after the bone biopsy if I want fast, or I could delay the start if I want to study it more before starting. 

 

Fri, Dec 12

I had an MRI today. Over half an hour in the loud machine. Less than 4 hours later, I have the results. Nothing is for sure yet (I need the bone biopsy to be sure), but ...

"Well-circumscribed T2 hyperintense lesion in the proximal left humeral shaft, most compatible with a benign lesion such as fibrous dysplasia. No evidence of aggressive features." 

It does not look like cancer! Fibrous dysplasia doesn't sound great, but it's not cancer. Note to self: He says "such as" so it may not be the fibrous dysplasia. What is it?!

I am so very happy that the likelihood of cancer just went way down. And I had no idea that the MRI might be able to say a thing like this. Woo hoo!

This might be a cancer journal, #3: Test Results

 Sunday: no news

 

Monday, December 1

First the doctor canceled the video visit because he didn't have the results yet. Then they called and rescheduled it for later in the day. I have a 'carcinoid tumor'. The doctor said "it's not cancer". Web pages say it's a slow-growing cancer that stays local. So it's much less worrisome than a normal cancer. But I'll still need it to come out. And that's a bigger surgery. I will have to have a lung function test before it, to make sure my lungs are up to the stress of the operation. I plan to start exercising way more, to build up my lungs. 

The thing in my arm bone has still not been tested. Many more tests and doctor visits coming up. 

The good thing is that there was no evidence of metastasis in the biopsy. To me, that sounds like the likelihood of the arm thing being a metastasized cancer is lower than what they had thought. It's weird because anything else is very rare. (Of course, I don't know enough to be sure my understanding here is correct.)

So I don't know the most important thing yet. It will still be a few weeks. 

 

Tuesday, December 2

Saw my naturopath. He had many good suggestions, including lots of fiber: flaxseed, chia, or psyllium. We discussed chia pudding. I'm trying to figure out how to make it taste good with no sugar (or a tiny bit of maple syrup). He suggested adding 100% cacao if I like chocolate.  

Saw my chiropracter, who got the kinks out. Ate some sushi with no rice. Tuna. Yum. 

Stopped by Xocolate to ask about 100% cacao. They have bars of it and gave me a sample to taste. Nah. They don't have it powdered but recommended some good brands to check out. Will do.

The office of the osteosurgical oncologist called. I now have an appointment scheduled in about two weeks. 

 

Wednesday,  December 3

The office of the radiation oncologist called. I now have an appointment scheduled with him too. 

I had a bit more carbs last week, due to Thanksgiving and wanting all to be easy after that biopsy. This week I'm back on track, though still not down to 25 grams in a day. Today I had:

Breakfast: two eggs, 1/4C rice and beans, avocado, coffee (!!!) with lots of cream (about 13g)

Lunch:  cole slaw, avocado, gravy on a half piece of toast (about 9g)

Dinner: Turkey bone broth with rosemary & oregano from my yard, gravy on an egg bite (from costco, probably the only thing I ate that's not organic) (about 3g)

Snack: pistachios (about 5g)

So I might be down to 30 grams of carbs. I am full and loved my food today. Mushroom gravy on an egg is lovely. I might get more gravy (at Three Stone Hearth). 

 

Recently found: Expert in Nonsmoker Lung Cancer Get It and Insurance Denies Treatment