PROSTATE CANCER TREATMENT CONTINUES

PROSTATE CANCER RADIATION TREATMENTS CONTINUE – July 23/2016
It’s hard to believe that we are now finished 24 treatments with only 4 more next week. Life has been busy getting up at 5 each morning, eating a good healthy breakfast and then traveling over an hour each way to Winnipeg in rush hour traffic to Cancer Care. We are so thankful for each & every driver who drove us. Here are a few ways we tried to stay on a healthy diet, yet not work against the radiation treatments.

Breakfast
Oatmeal has been our breakfast cereal for many years, so we know the best is to continue to eat that each morning. I cook 1/2 cup old fashioned organic oatmeal with 1 1/2 cups clear bone broth and a pinch of Himalayan salt. I froze quite a few 750 ml containers of bone broth made from beef bones. (no seasoning in) The oatmeal as well as the bone broth are packed with nutrition.

Flax
Instead of the usual crushed flax, I have now been grinding it into powder so these seeds will not affect the radiation treatment. Flax is full of lignans that help fight cancer and if possible we wanted to continue to include this seed in our meal plan. Melvin sprinkles 2 heaping tablespoons flax flour, 1 teaspoon palm sugar and milk on top of his oatmeal. (We both do)

Bread
As well, we have a slice of bread toasted at breakfast with unsweetened apple sauce on top. Instead of the white bread suggested on the list, I grind up whole wheat or spelt flour really fine and bake this into bread. There are no whole seeds inside so here as well it has not interfered with radiation.

Because we have always eaten whole grain bread, it is best for us to continue or there could be other problems by sticking to white bread; unless of course the fibre would cause gas or diarrhea. Just in case this would have happened, I baked & froze 6 loaves of bread that consisted of unbleached flour, avocado oil, eggs, honey, salt & yeast so it would be as healthy a white bread as possible. We still haven’t had to switch to this bread yet so hopefully all will continue to go this way & he can continue to enjoy the much healthier whole grain bread.

Friday & Saturday of each week
After the Friday treatment and during Saturday we have been taking a break from the diet that was suggested so Melvin enjoys two days of a few cups of coffee, regular tea, some strawberries, blueberries, bananas, tomatoes, cucumbers and a few other foods that are restricted from his daily menu. It makes the rest of the week a bit more tolerable. This seems to be working fine as he is used to having several bowel movements daily & these foods are out of the body by the next treatment on Monday.

Reflexology
Every second day I give Melvin a reflexology treatment on the nerve endings on the ankles, wrist and bottom of his feet and hands. It seems to alleviate many of the symptoms and he has been able to avoid serious problems so far. He does have to drink water every few hours until as late as possible at night. Going for walks & using the stationary bike has also been and huge benefit.

Supplements
He continues to take supplements that have been suggested by specialists for his other heath problems plus some whole food supplements and cranberry softgels to avoid bladder infections.

This coming Thursday, when the last treatment is over we plan on taking time to rest, relax and catch up on sleep. We will definitely get back to a very healthy diet so food can again be our medicine if at all possible for as long as possible. We will update as to how we made out. Winnie