Postby weisssoccermom » Fri Apr 21, 2017 10:43 am
Hello. I'm sorry about your diagnosis but PLEASE don't just consider treating your cancer solely by eating a vegan diet. We have many members on this board who were vegan, ate all the right foods, exercise like fiends and yet they still were diagnosed AND you'll even find people on this board who, AFTER being diagnosed with cancer still ate and exercised and their cancer returned. I'm just being honest that eating a specific diet....all by itself isn't going to 'cure' cancer. If that's all it took, all of us would be munching down on carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. and doing sit ups, biking, etc.
Your nutritionist had a very REAL reason for telling you to cut down on the fiber. In 'normal' situations, yes, eating fiber is 'good' for you....fiber including your veggies, whole grains, etc. However, when you have a tumor blocking your intestine, actually eating more fiber makes it difficult to pass stool and can become very uncomfortable. Right now, with a tumor in your intestine, the last thing you want to do is irritate that area and because fiber is more difficult to digest (and because broccoli can cause gas.....which can become very uncomfortable) you will want to cut down on it.
I hope that you do decide to have surgery....otherwise that tumor is just going to continue to grow and it will become even more difficult to pass stool until you are totally blocked and that would be extremely painful. The tumor isn't just going to 'melt' away without having it be removed. After surgery, even though you can live without some of your large intestine, your digestion will change...at least initially...during recovery....and you will need to change your eating habits to accommodate this change. This is why the nutritionist is telling you now to cut back on so much fiber. I know you don't want to trust her because her advice is going against what you think is right but cancer changes all the rules. As for chemo, please consider it. You won't know your stage until after surgery but if they suspect one or more lymph nodes may be affected (based on the CT), then you're looking at a stage III diagnoses and everything changes with that one (or more) lymph nodes. Lee is quite right in her post about lymph node involvement. Once the cancer has gotten into even ONE lymph node, it can and will eventually find it's way to other places, via the lymphatic system. One place might be the lungs...another might be the liver....or it could be both. It may never go to another organ but just find other lymph nodes in different parts of the body to travel to. Why allow the cancer to potentially grow and become harder to treat? Why not kill it off when it's smaller and more easily contained?
You have to look at this as ONE year out of your life. Sure, it may be a crappy year....starting with your diagnosis, tests, surgery and chemo .....but it is hopefully just one small blip in the rest of your life. You take it one day at a time and just do what you have to to get to the next day and the day after that. When I was diagnosed in June 2006, it took me 10 months to go through all the treatments...surgery, chemotherapy, chemoradiation......an unexpected hospitalization along the way for blood clots.....but here I am, 10 years after my last treatment (yesterday, 4/20/2007 was exactly 10 years ) which was surgery and I'm doing well. Was it 'fun'? Heck no. Were there scary parts? Sure there were but that's part of life.
I can only tell you that this will NOT just go away by eating 'correctly' or exercising everyday. I'm not saying that those things aren't important but you really need to look at the whole picture here and decide what you want to do for the rest of your life. You're young and have a whole LOT of living left to do. Please, although it may seem scary.....please don't be on the fence about the surgery and/or the chemo. Doctors wouldn't recommend those treatments if they weren't the right way to go.
Good luck in whatever you choose to do.
Dx 6/22/2006 IIA rectal cancer
6 wks rad/Xeloda -finished 9/06
1st attempt transanal excision 11/06
11/17/06 XELOX 1 cycle
5 months Xeloda only Dec '06 - April '07
10+ blood clots, 1 DVT 1/07
transanal excision 4/20/07 path-NO CANCER CELLS!
NED now and forever!
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