Saturday, April 4, 2015

Science-y goodness

This week has been really good. Another full work week. Except for Monday. I was nice to myself and went home after lunch and took a 3 hour nap. Good move. Because that evening and Tuesday, I noticably had more energy. I decided I would do that again the next Monday after treatment and then I realized I HaVE AN ORChEsTra CONcErT ThAT NighT. Ug. So, I'm going to take the morning off instead of the afternoon. There's no way I will be able to put in a full work day AND do a concert that night. So instead, I'll teach two classes, take a nap, put on a concert (I have help, and only one of the groups is mine) and survive the day. :)

After last Sunday-Sad-Day, I decided I needed a break from cancer. I put aside my books and banned myself from cancer-related internet searches.  It was very needed and welcome. Not until this morning did I do any research:  I looked up my next type of cancer treatment, Taxol. I'm anxious to get that one started (but not for another 3 weeks, still have one more round of A/C to go).  I was reading about cell division cycles, cell death, inhibiting DNA and RNA, cancer medicines that come from PLANTS -many of them, and it was all very interesting.  And then I compared it to A/C which I had never actually researched and read up on. The different types are targeting the cells at different times in their cycles. Division. Resting. And basically, if they are not dividing, then they die. That's when tumors melt away. This is exciting. And normal cells are different. They reproduce and replenish themselves despite the chemo that targets them.  So, the cancer cells, if you interrupt their division, they go to the cell death phase. And the more aggressive the cancer cells are, the easier it is to acheive that. Mine are grade 2, moderately aggressive, which is good for treatment purposes.  All very science-y and interesting. Again, very grateful to all those medical professionals where science is their thing.  (not mine! Its all very interesting, but I have never ever had a science-y brain!)

In fact, there is a story that broke recently that Superman told me about and then I've seen on the social media where they (Duke University) have been experimenting with using polio to treat brain cancer.  POLIO!  Basically, they inject the cancer tumor with polio and the body's immune system takes care of the rest on its own.  Its a type of immunotherapy.  It has been producing GrOuNdbREakING results. They are still getting the dosage right, among other things, but it has CURED (well put into remission. The cure-word is very lightly thrown around in cancer world) something like 15 people of brain cancer so far.  A 22 year old girl was told that there was NOTHING they could do for her.  Incurable brain cancer with three months left to live. So she signed up for "put-polio-in-my-brain" and IT WORKED.

Again.  Thank you science-y people. You are awesome.  I'll continue to teach music and unlock the brains of future-science-y-greatness in the meantime. :)   That will be my contribution to "curing" cancer.

Now I'm doing my usual saturday morning lay-and-read in bed. We have some good friends coming in from out of town and I'm looking forward to some fun times today.  I plan to mostly rest and chill out tomorrow.  Sunday-Happy-Day this time. :)  Then chemo #4 this week.  The LAST one for Phase 1, then onto Phase 2:  A different type of plant cocktail to interrupt cell division and induce cancer cell meltage. YES!

Gratitude. Acceptance. Healing.

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