In the meantime...

Hi Peeps!

So, still no surgery date. Sigh. New proposed surgery date is mostly likely going to fall at the end of August, early September.

Apparently, the best plastic surgeons are on vacation in July, and since my surgery requires a plastic surgeon on the team, I'll have to wait. The UCLA team doesn't seem to be concerned by the fact that I have a large monstrous and aggressive tumor capable of invading other nerve roots that would lead to further incapacitation. It also doesn't help that the administrative assistant to Dr. H resigned and a new one stepped in.

For the last couple weeks I thought it was Kaiser's authorization that was holding the whole thing up. But no. Dr. H didn't even send his request for authorization until 10 days after our consult. Then, it was authorized by Kaiser within 3 days. Then, there's no admin assistant to speak to at UCLA because one resigned and another had to be replaced. And then, that's when I found out that the plastic surgeon who Dr. H wants to work with is on vacation for another two weeks.

So, I've asked if there's another plastic surgeon that could fill in to hurry the surgery along, and she'll get back to me on that. In the meantime, I've decided to remain calm and try to focus on what I can do instead of trying to force an outcome that may or may not be favorable. I'm assuming that a surgery date asap would be better, but could getting a less experienced plastic surgeon with an earlier surgery date hurt me??? Would it be better in the end to wait and get the plastic surgeon specifically assigned to my case? I don't know...

In the meantime, while my surgical team is sipping Mai Tai's on some beach, I've been keeping busy trying to do everything in my power to halt, inhibit, slow down the tumor growth. First and foremost, I started going back to the naturopathic clinic to see an integrative oncologist who has convinced me to cut out all sugar and carbs, going on a clean ketogenic diet. No fruit, no chocolate, no bread, no brown rice. Sugar and glucose feed cancer cells. I am trying to get in as many greens and vegetables in as possible. Second, I'm taking Vitamin C IV's three times a week at the clinic. I've also added a few more supplements to the 20+ supplements that I'm already taking at the request of the naturopathic doctor (cur cumin, melatonin, fish oil, medicinal mushrooms, etc.) I'm doing reiki, massage, acupuncture, infra-red saunas, meditation, CBD, journaling. I'm trying to stay stress-free as much as possible.

One great thing is that I've been sleeping better, sleeping through the night most nights, and not waking up at 3am in pain reaching for my pain meds. I have had a couple bad days that have kept me in bed, but for the part, my pain has been subsiding. I notice that I have a bad day with pain when I get off schedule from my pain meds. I also have times when I am just feeling really good, so good that I convince myself to skip the pain meds, or to start taking less. That usually results in a flare-up. So, I've learned I've got to stick to a schedule. Also, I've learned that to avoid pain, I need to avoid sitting too much, esp. driving too much. That means staying active through the day, skipping restaurants that tend to take longer, and laying down to relax instead of sitting.

That's the latest...