April 26, 2006 - Day 1 - Week 4 - Hurry Up and Wait

In the movie or television production business there is a description of the process and the tedium often experienced, it is called ‘hurry up and wait.’   The waiting part is when the crew is setting the lights, adjusting the microphones, re-thinking camera angels, analyzing sequences and in general preparing for the next scene.  Meanwhile the actors sit around the set waiting for the word action.   During this ‘down time’ most rehearse the next set of lines; others may write home, read books, crochet or learn a foreign language. Then the director wants action: for a brief few minutes they are on.  This is sort of like going through chemo therapy.

I was on for 3 intense days in April, and then off for 25. The plan is that I am going to have a total of 8 treatments, or 24 days on and 200 days off.  Hurry up and wait is taking on new meaning, and perhaps I will learn Italian, because I have tried knitting and I could not do it. Actually, work, reading, writing, and thinking, and in that order will occupy my time when I am not sleeping and eating.

This is my regimen, different than others, but designed to address my type of cancer.  Dr. Piro yells action again on May 3.  In the meantime, I am in the holding pattern.  Actually, I have tried to negotiate a different scenario; you know the old theory that one aspirin is good two must be better, but the wisdom of the medical team takes precedence and doubling up on the treatment is not recommended.

However, the extra days have enabled me to think about cancer from a much broader and inclusive perspective.

I will not know if this routine is effective until the end of May when the new pictures of my insides are analyzed.  I am hope filled, as the tumors in my neck are no longer visible; though the lower abdomen tumors are still quite pronounced and obvious. Chemo therapy, to this point has not been debilitating, though I am not ready to dance to Benny Goodman’s Sing Sing Sing just yet.  Others have shared how it knocked them out right away, and I am still standing.  Round one is almost over, yet I am forewarned that the cumulative effect of the drugs is something I have yet to experience.

In the meantime, the waiting period is also allowing me to research alternative diets to boost my immune system.  Minerals are key.  We have eaten de-natured food for years and our foods being minerally deficient have spawned a vitamin industry that is booming.  Put the minerals back in the soil and the vegetables will uptake the minerals through the feeder roots and voila, a healthier population.  Finding minerally rich food is a challenge and that is why many are recommending products like seaweed.

I am eating DULSE wild Atlantic Sea Vegetable on a daily basis.  By itself it is a bit of a challenge, but in hot water with a little organic soybean miso paste it is quite…well let’s say an acquired taste.  Tomorrow I am trying the smoked with applewood variety.

I have also discovered a product called The Perfect Food.  It is a green powder to be mixed with juice and it has more nutrients in it than most conventionally grown food combined.

There is a caveat in all of this.  No one likes a zealot; religious, sports, or food zealots, especially those on the conversion curve, so I will abstain from a promotional posture and just let the experience wash over me for awhile.  Discerning the truth is a process.

Thus, the waiting period has become a time of learning for me.  I will admit, however,  I am looking forward to my favorite nurse at the Angeles Clinic yelling action.

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