First 2 weeks of Break: November 13 to 27

It has wonderful to not be going to the hospital every weekday for radiation or taking the chemo every day. The following is a summary of my condition during radiation and my current condition.

• Mild to moderate level of fatigue and some reduction in higher-level cognition skills and focus. I was able to resume part-time work during the first week of treatment and worked approximately 10 hours per week each week during treatment. I am gradually increasing the amount of work time since the end of the treatment period.
• Almost no nausea throughout the course of the treatment, with no anti-nausea medication (Zofran) needed. It appeared to be highly beneficial to take the Temodar two hours after eating rather than one hour before. With the absence of nausea, I was able to significantly follow the dietary plan that was prepared for me by the Block Integrative Cancer Center in Chicago in September.
• Some hair loss, which has provided me the opportunity to sport a beret, which I am enjoying!
• Little if any scalp burning and minimal itching. I have been applying straight aloe juice to my head a couple of times a day. I have been washing my hair daily with a chemical-free organic shampoo (both Aubrey Organics products).
• No seizure or spasming activity is occurring.
• Numbness on the right side of body (primarily foot and leg) increased somewhat in severity as radiation progressed. These were the initial symptoms I experienced prior to the tumor diagnosis. The numbness had remained at a very low level through the post surgery recovery. Dr. Einstein attributed the numbness to some brain inflammation and prescribed 2 mg daily of Dexamethasone. The numbness has continued to increase, and is manifesting up my right side as well so Dr Einstein increased the Dexamethasone to 4 mg for the next week. This is to be re-evaluated when I meet with Dr. Nock on Dec 6.

We decided to graph my blood test results during and prior to treatment. We started doing this after we saw that the red blood cell and hematocrit levels from the first week after treatment began were below the “normal range”. When we went back and graphed all the blood tests we had we noted that these had been low since the surgery. We voiced our concern that nothing had been said to us about this so that appropriate steps could be taken to enter treatment in the best possible condition.

• White and red blood cell counts remained at or above the levels measured prior to the initiation of treatment. We attribute this to a combination of prayer, visualization, exercise, and nutritional support that included iron and Vitamin C rich foods.
• The white blood cell and neutrophil counts dropped drastically in the blood test at the conclusion of treatment. This is attributed to the chemotherapy. I am being cautious around people with colds and flu, have strengthened my visualization around rebuilding these key elements of my blood, and increased my intake of antioxidants. The next blood test will be Dec 6.
• The blood platelet count dropped dramatically during treatment weeks 4, 5, and 6. When Dr. Nock’s office advised us on 11/6 that the count was at an initial concern level (<100),>

On the 13th, I had second hypnotherapy session, with Dan Clark, to reinforce the plan for this rest period, that I described in the previous post. Once again, this was recorded and I listen to it each day as I am going to sleep. He wove into it the bird in flight image, that I also described in the previous post. I also described for Dan the Bahá’í Holy places in and near Haifa, Israel and he used those extensively in the session. I would be more than happy to send an MP3 file of the session to anyone who would like to hear it. Send me a message at craig@marriagetransformation.com. I have created a photo montage of the bird in flight over the Holy Places that I use as a meditation focus, Dan is also an energy healer, so I also requested that he do what he could about the numbness. When I got home, I soaked in the bathtub with Dead Sea Salts. When I woke the next morning, the numbness was the lowest it had been since prior to the start of radiation treatment. I began carefully not using the cane and, even though the numbness has gone back up again, I still feel confident in walking without the cane. Along with going to my sister’s for Thanksgiving (more on that below) I had a healing session with Jeanie Anderson a colleague of hers. My sister is also a healing practitioner specializing in ortho-bionomy. It was a wonderful session with Jeanie that, among other things, helped us refine the supplement plan for this phase of the treatment. Other activities during this period were:

• On the 14th, my daughter, Michelle and granddaughter, Karida, made a quick trip to Cleveland from Dayton. They were driving a friend to Cleveland for a medical treatment. We had nice lunch with them.
• On the 15th, we attended the Spirituality Group at the Gathering Place. I continue to find it nourishing to be able to share the spiritual perspectives I’ve gained on this journey and hear from others.
• On the 18th, we participated in an Interfaith Thanksgiving service at the local Methodist Church. We had helped setup the service working with the Presbyterian minister. Since last years service had basically consisted of Christian and Bahá’í, she asked if we could assist by recruiting representatives of other faith traditions. Susanne took on the challenge and added Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Sufi, and Native American. She and Bob Horn offered readings from the Bahá’í scriptures and I played my Native American flute as a lead in to the Native American presentation. Before doing so I indicated that I was playing the flute “In recognition of the fact that most Native Americans see little to be thankful for in the coming of the Europeans to North American”. Between that statement and the preceding offering, it actually seemed to have a profound impact on the content and spirit of his presentation. His presentation was followed by a prayer, from the Presbyterian minister, oriented towards reconciliation, etc.
• On the 20th, we attended a Devotional Meeting at a friend’s house that was focused on Thankfulness. It was a wonderful lead in to the Thanksgiving season.
• The entire Thanksgiving Day was marvelous. All of my 3 children (with spouses/boyfriend) and 2 grandchildren, my sister’s 3 children and 1 grandchild, and our mother had a wonderful meal and time together at my sister’s in Butler, PA.
• On Friday, we brought our 3-1/2 year old granddaughter, Karida, home with us for her first stay with us alone. It was so much fun to have her with us! We had a great time reading books together and she and Nanna explored a pomegranate. A childhood friend of my daughter’s, Mercy (Alucho) Jenkins, has a child, Aria, who is the same age as Karida. We got Aria and Karida together and took them to lake farmpark where they got to milk a cow.
• On Sunday we drove to Columbus to return Karida to her parents, who live in Dayton. We had the special bounty of spending the night, in Columbus, with friends of mine since college, Andy and Shelly Rezin. Shelly and I declared ourselves as Baha’is at nearly the same time, during fall term of our freshman year. My apologies for the length of this post…..there was so much good stuff going on that I didn’t find time to break the period up into smaller chunks.