Vitamin D has been monopolizing health headlines for awhile now.  Though technically not a vitamin, but rather a  hormone, Vitamin D has now been linked to a multitude of diseases.  This includes the pathology of at least 17 varieties of cancer as well as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, muscle wasting, birth defects, periodontal disease, and more.  It hasn’t been until the past several years that this vitamin has gained the respect of doctors and researchers, as to how well our bodies can function with it and how poorly it functions without it.  Its metabolic product, calcitriol targets over 2000 genes in the human body.  That figure puts Vitamin D in a position of having some very profound health implications.

It’s no surprise that Vitamin D deficiency is so common in our nation.  It has been ingrained in our heads by the medical community that the sun is bad.  “Stay out of the sun because it can cause cancer!” While this is true, one only needs to use common sense:  bask, don’t bake.  Moderation is key.  If you are an average American, you live most of your life indoors;  inside the office, inside your car, inside your home while sitting on the computer, watching tv, playing video games.  We are becoming products of our society and it’s taking a tremendous toll on our health.

So what can you do?  To find out if you’re deficient, ask you doctor to order you a blood test called 25-hydroxyvitamin D.  Your doctor should be willing to order this for you based upon all of the research that is being done and published in the medical journals.  If you’re not able to get one from your doctor, then you can order an inexpensive Vitamin D test kit here that you can do at home.  If your blood level is less than 50 ng/ml, you are considered deficient.  The optimal level is between 50 and 65 ng/ml.  If you are going through some serious health issues, though, your levels should be between 65-90 ng/ml. 

If you find that you’re deficient, Vitamin D is easy enough to get.  Spending 20-30 minutes out in the mid-day sun produces approximately 20,000 IU of Vitamin D.  The government recommended daily amount (although probably too low) is only 400IU.  Vitamin D is also available through supplementation.  When supplementing, it’s important to take it in the form of Vitamin D3 (please note that this is not the form in milk, which is D2).  This is the natural occuring form of Vitamin D.  Your local health food store will have this supplement available, or you can order it here.

This is what one prominent researcher has to say about Vitamin D: 

“Because vitamin D is so cheap and so clearly reduces all-cause mortality, I can say this with great certainty: Vitamin D represents the single most cost-effective medical intervention in the United States. ”

So what are you waiting for?  Get off this website and go outside!

If you pay any attention to medical headlines, you’ll see the word ‘inflammation’ come up quite frequently. Inflammation has been linked to heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, cancer, Alzheimer’s, essentially all chronic diseases. It seems that so many in the medical establishment are now just waiting for the next drug that can make inflammation *poof* disappear.  Here is a quote that summarizes this perfectly from Time Magazine circa 2004. “As scientists delve deeper into the fundamental causes of those and other illnesses, they are starting to see links to an age-old immunological defense mechanism called inflammation — the same biological process that turns the tissue around a splinter red and causes swelling in an injured toe. If they are right—and the evidence is starting to look pretty good — it could radically change doctors’ concept of what makes us sick. It could also prove a bonanza to pharmaceutical companies looking for new ways to keep us well.”

Wow.  Let’s place the responsibility of ‘keeping us well’ into the hands of the pharmaceutical companies.  When is it ever going to be an individual’s responsibility to take care of their own body?  There is an arsenal of natural ways to reduce inflammation out there which won’t cost you much, unless you place high value on being able to do whatever you want to your body.

The most important and effective way for a person to reduce inflammation in their body is diet.  The implications for an anti-inflammatory diet are enourmous, but it does require a good deal of discipline.  You can google inflammatory and anti-inflammatory foods to get a thorough list of each.  Here is a short version of what you will probably find emphasized on these lists.  The following foods promote inflammation:  Sugar, virtually all processed/refined foods, red meat, full fat dairy, caffeine, alcohol.  Foods that fight inflammation:  fruit and vegetables (yes, this will always be a broken record), grass fed meat and dairy, wild fish, raw nuts and seeds.

There are several natural supplements which can be added to your diet that have very potent anti-inflammatory properties, as well.  Most of these are herbs that you can purchase online through places like Iherb.com, or through your local health food store.   Curcumin is one of the most recognized natural anti-inflammatory agents.  There has been a plethora of studies that have proven it to be a very strong fighter of inflammation.  Some other herbs that have these same properties are  Boswelia, Quercetin, Ginger Root, White Willow Bark.  Omega-3 fatty acids are also very strong inflammation blockers which are found abundantly in Fish and Flaxseed oil.

WARNING:  All of the above listed items can cause an increased risk of serious health events, which may include the following: increased energy, weight loss, euphoria, enlightenment, abatement of existing diseases, and a much higher level of wellness. These events can occur at any time during use and without warning symptoms.
Give it a week.  Try it and see if you experience some of these serious health events.  I guarantee that you will be amazed at how much caring for your own health is so much more effective than the ‘healthcare’ system that we have become so dependent upon.

This article I’m pasting below came into my inbox today from a newsletter that I receive from the National Brain Tumor Society. Temodar is the chemotherapy that I am currently taking. It’s quite disturbing for me to read things like this, but it makes me even more confident that pursuing multiple ways to kill this tumor is a good idea. Check it out.

THURSDAY, March 5 (HealthDay News) — Temozolomide (Temodar), a standard treatment for brain cancer, may boost the aggressiveness of surviving cancer cells, making tumor recurrence more likely, a new study suggests.The research team, from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, have identified cells in brain tumors called gliomas that have stem cell-like qualities and are able to survive chemotherapy with the help of a particular protein. These surviving cells become drug-resistant, and may be the reason treatment for brain cancer is usually unsuccessful.

This study identifies the mechanism by which this happens, he said. “When you treat mice with temozolomide they develop recurrent diseases even quicker, so temozolomide make the cells that survive act in a more aggressive manner,” Benveniste said.

Wow.  It’s been awhile, eh?  So busy with so many random things going on.  Here’s the rundown.

On the health front, I’m starting my second round of chemo on Sunday night, which will go for 5 days.  The first round was definitely a learning curve of what and what not to do.  Hopefully I can implement the things that I learned to make this a more pleasant experience.  An oxymoron for sure, chemo and pleasant, but it could definitely be worse than it is.

I am contuining to do my natural IV treatment in between the chemo rounds.  It feels so good to be constantly attacking this thing, rather than take chemo, but then take 23 days off of anything.  I’m feeling great, other than some focal seizures every now and then.  Thankfully, I am now 3 months past my last grand mal seizure, so only 3 more months until I can drive legally.  Woohoo! Next scan will be May 3rd.  With everything that I am now doing, we are believing for some response in the tumor.  God willing that it disappears.

Other than all of that boring health rot, things are busy here on the dairy.  We are building a new parlor, which is nearing completion.   It will be so lovely when my husband can come home and not be interrupted by 10 phone calls about the parlor, right when he walks in the door.  It looks amazing, and definitely dresses up the dairy.  We will then be able to milk the cows 3 times a day, rather than 2, so that will definitely help off-set the irritatingly low milk prices.  This is why you can go to the store and buy Yoplait yogurt for $.50, rather than $.80 right now.  As you would guess, we are conflicted about this issue.  Cheaper grocery bills are always a good thing.

Other than that, we’ve actually been able to get out and do some fun stuff.  Marvin and I went to the Dierks Bentley/Brad Paisley concert.  Can I just say that BP is a brilliant guitar player and song writer?  He is always  a great concert, and we happened to have snagged great seats, right at the end of the middle catwalk.  Loved that.  We also went to an exciting Blazer game with some friends this past Wednesday, also sin el niños.  It has been so nice to pull my husband away from the dairy without kids.

We’ve been inundated with family here for the past couple of weeks.  Marvin’s nephew came and stayed with us for a week, followed by his entire family coming, followed by my parents now being here.  It’s definitely a lot of family in a small window, but it’s been great.  My nephew took 3rd place in the state wrestling championships.  Yeah, he’s a stallion.  It’s so lovely having my parents here, which equates to cheap in-house babysitters.  And my parents are always a good time.  With them around, it  somewhat allows me to indulge my denial that I’m now the mature parent.  Errrr…. parent, and not the kid. 

So there’s the Hesse household in a blogshell.  Not too exciting, but we’re trying to work on at least throwing some fun excitement in our lives, rather than all of this silly medical drama all the time…

Your constant phone calls, emails, cards, comments on FB and MS are so appreciated.  We really are doing well, thanks to so many prayers and love from people around us.  So thank you from the very bottom of our hearts.

We finally heard back from Dr. Liau last night.  She said that the brain tumor board (that always seems weird to say) reviewed my scan yesterday, and although they agree there has been some growth of the tumor, it’s nothing major.  They agree with our decision to proceed with chemotherapy and get another scan in a couple of months.  If the scan is stable at that time, then they recommend just staying on Temodar.  If it is growing, then they recommend radiation.  This is GREAT news!!  All we were looking for was confirmation of our decision to do chemo.  They recommended doing radiation ASAP last May, rather than chemo.  So thank you to all of you who prayed about yesterday for us.  They were answered.  We are blessed.

I have to say that if you or anybody you know needs a neurosurgeon, I can’t recommend Dr. Linda Liau enough.  She is one of the most amazing people I have ever come across.  No doctor that I know of will let you email them directly, nor will they respond promptly or at all, if you do.  All of my doctors are amazed that she will converse with me in this manner.  She sent this email at midnight last night.  She is so full of compassion for her patients, and is one of the most knowledgeable in the field of brain tumors.  After my last surgery, she came and sat down with me on my bed in the hospital to let me know her thoughts on everything and to see if I had any questions or concerns.  I have a whole plethora of doctors in my life, but not one of them would ever display this much concern and compassion.  She so genuinely concerned and such a comfort for me as I walk this journey.  I’m so blessed, and feel like I couldn’t be in better hands. 

So at this point, I will continue on chemotherapy, along with adjunctive therapy to keep my immune system boosted and give us multiple angles of attack on this pesky thing.  I will get a follow-up scan somewhere around the first of May, and we’ll just go from there. 

That’s our story and we’re stickin’ to it!

Alone in my house, here I sit with my thoughts

It’s hard not to ponder the what if’s and what not’s

I struggle not to journey down the path of my fears

My thoughts on this path are usually trailed by tears

Will my kids have a mother, will my husband have a wife?

How long will God bless me on this earth with my life?

I know that I serve a great God that can heal

But is my faith really that big?  Will it someday be real?

I hope that my words aren’t too dark and depressing

Just keep reading on to see what I’m really addressing

When I lay down these burdens that I tend to convoy

It’s amazing how quickly my sorrow turns to joy

It’s only by God’s grace and his mercy I’m here

He wants me on my knees, he wants me to draw near

He’s working in my life in ways that I can’t imagine,

It’s all a grander scheme that  none  of us can fathom

So when life has you in a place where all you feel is despair

Please know that there is a God who is bigger out there

He is bigger than your burden, your hurts and your trial

He knows everything about you, even before you could smile

He wants to be with you, to hold your hand down this road

He wants to help you, lift the burdens you load

He’ll be your comfort, your joy and your peace

When you let him, it’s amazing, that sense of release

I don’t know what I’d do without God in my life

He has been my stronghold in the midst of this strife

But my faith is being tested, and will it stand firm

I truly hope so, but that is something I’ll learn

So whatever journey you find yourself on

I hope this can help you, the words in my song

Please remember that God wants to walk by your side

Cast your burdens on him, it can be quite a ride

Chemotherapy has officially begun.  So far it just feels like a fairly bad case of the flu.  I really can’t complain, considering it is chemotherapy, and it’s only for 5 days at a time.  I didn’t sleep very well Monday night, which was the first night I started, so I wasn’t feeling well much of the day yesterday.  Thankfully, my niece was able to take the kids for the day so that I could get some rest.  From the experiences that I have read online from other people, most of them say that the first 2 days are the worst, and then your body adapts….I guess.

After a week of processing the fact that this tumor is growing, I’m very at peace with our decision of how to move forward.  We are going to attack this thing from several different angles.  One of the things that becomes a challenge in treating cancer is that at some point, a lot of cancers will become chemo-resistant.  Even though cancer cells are a more fragile cell than normal cells, they are very smart.  They figure out ways to “hide” from therapies that are trying to attack them.  This is often why a patient will experience stability or shrinkage of their tumor, but then all of a sudden the cancer starts growing, again, even while on chemotherapy.  There is an inspirational story that you can read here, about a man that had the most aggressive brain tumor one can have (Glioblastoma), with a life expectancy of 6 months to 1 year.  This was in 1995, and the man is still alive today.  He ended up incorporating his own cocktail to treat his cancer.  He, much like I, was very involved in the decision making process of what his treatment regimen would entail.  The difference between what he did and what I’ll be doing, is that he incorporated a lot of different drugs that were being used to treat GBMs.  Since I don’t have a Glioblastoma, but a lower grade tumor, I wouldn’t qualify for most of those things, and I have chosen to try some “softer” therapies.  These  therapies have been shown to compliment Temodar, as well as offset the immuno-suppressant side-effects of the drug.  Boosting your immune system is very important for a cancer patient.  It’s ultimately your immune system that will win the battle against your cancer for you.  Because cancer treatments are extremely immuno-suppressive, I will do whatever I can to boost my immune system back up, through mostly natural therapies.

We received the finalized MRI results and the tumor has shown some mild growth.  Devestated?  No.  Disappointed?  Yes.  We haven’t been nearly as aggressive in the DMSO therapy since my last scan and in fact hardly did it in late November and December because of the holidays.  It probably wasn’t the best decision, but it’s hard to want to smell like DMSO when you know you’re going to be around a lot of people celebrating the season.  Who knows if that contributed to the tumor not remaining stable, but it is what it is, and we’re onto the next step!

 It is still presenting as a low grade tumor, which is some of the best news we could’ve received.  This tumor, as you’ve seen, is supposed to be a higher grade (3), rather than 2.  We have been so blessed that it has remained this way since beginning this treatment in June.

What’s the next step?  We have decided to start chemo on Monday.  The chemo is an oral pill and I will do it 5 days in a row, followed by 23 days off.  I will continue to do some natural therapies that will compliment the chemo, but also help off-set the side effects.  The most common side effects with this medication is headache, nausea, fatigue and constipation.  The latter, I’ve noticed, is the biggest complaint from people online.

We thoroughly remain confident that we can beat this tumor.  We believe that God will bring healing, but he apparently isn’t finished with this chapter in our lives, yet.

I’m waiting to hear from my neurosurgeon, Dr. Linda Liau.  UCLA hasn’t always concurred with my local radiologist on the reading of the scans, so I never consider the results truly official until I hear from her.  I’m hoping to hear from her sometime next week. 

We are doing well, otherwise.  We’ve had 2 very sick kids in the house, getting anything and everything that seems to be going around the school and the church nursery.  a.k.a. Ground Zero.  Just when we thought we were turning the corner with these colds, Tyler now has an ear infection.  Poor guys.  I’m happy to say that I haven’t gotten anything, yet, (aside from this tumor), so my immune system must be working well! 

Thank you so much for all of your love, prayers, emails, notes of support over the last few weeks.  I’ve said it before and Ill say it again.  It takes a village to get through a cancer diagnosis and all of the things that come with it.  I would never survive the agony without God’s grace and all of you investing in our lives in the ways that you have. 

I will post, again, when I hear more information.  I have not received the PET scan results, but based upon the MRI, I would think that the PET should correlate with the MRI results.  Until then…

I’ve been suffering from a case of blog neglect. It seems that there are so many other things that have been drawing my attention elsewhere. Here’s a quick recap of the latest:

a. My PET scan is still radiologically presenting my tumor as low grade (yay!!). UCLA says that my MRI is overall stable, but want another one done in mid to late January, rather than wait the usual 3 months. I’ve been having a minor visiual disturbance, so we want to keep an eye on that.

b. As many of you heard, my dad contracted a very serious staph infection in his bloodstream in November. It was serious enough that I felt like I needed to go down there for a few days, until he started coming out of it. It was a very scary time for our family, but God was gracious enough to pull him through it. He’s doing really well now, at home and doing IV anti-biotics for the next 4 weeks. They will still be doing a test to look at the back of his heart in January, to make sure the infection didn’t do any damage back there. The doctors say that he’s a very lucky man that he’s alive, and that he wasn’t paralyzed as a result of the absess that was creating all of the pain and pressure on his spine. THANK YOU for all of your prayers.

c. Seizures continue to plague me, for some reason. I’ve had one each month, now, for the past 5 months. I normally only have 1 to 2 each year. My neurosurgeon believes that my medication is just not working for my body, anymore, so I will see my neurologist on the 23rd, and hopefully she will do some adjusting. These are so frustrating for all of us. I had one a couple of nights ago, about 10 minutes before we were supposed to leave for Tyler’s Christmas play at school. Nice. Thankfully he’s old enough to understand what happened, and was okay with it. When he came home, he immediately came over to the couch where I was laying and said “mommy, I’m so sorry that you had to miss my concert. I know you wanted to be there. I’m okay with that” As long as he’s been old enough to be aware, I have dealth with these seizures, so it’s kind of a blessing that it’s not too traumatic on him. Definitely a bummer, though…..physically and emotionally.

That’s it in a quick summary. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

OK.  The preliminary results of the MRI is that the tumor is stable.  Yep…still there, but it’s not growing.  We were a bit disappointed, but it’s not growing!!!  And it’s still radiologically presenting as a low grade tumor, rather than a high grade, which is what it’s supposed to be.  So, I’m feeling blessed. 
I was bummed on Friday about this news, but my neighbor took me with him to the OSU/Cal game on Saturday, so it was quickly forgotten.  I’m having some major grin hang-time from that game.  The Beavs are SO fun this year.

I do have to say as a sidenote, though, that the BCS is the most screwed up system EVER.  I know this isn’t a newsflash for most of you, but honestly.  It’s ridiculous.  It’s either that, or Phil Knight has paid off so many people to get a team that hasn’t yet deserved to be in the polls, into the polls several times this season (and the past 5).  C’mon.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers, emails, phone calls, cards, etc…We are so blessed by all of you!  I’ll post more when we come up with a plan.  We’re still waiting on PET scan results and UCLA’s opinion on my MRI, so I’ll post those, as well.  Until then….