Our spirits, our sprouts

Amidst the turmoil and grief brought on by the death of L*s brother and its aftermath, we’re still living our life and making plans.



We’re getting ready for our foray into live food. Broccoli sprouts have many anti-cancer properties, and the only way to get them really vibrant and fresh is to grow them.  Our two “Easy Sprout” systems arrived earlier this week.  So Ktrion started a batch of lentil sprouts (because we have lentils in the house and because lentils are supposed to be easy to sprout).  They’re coming along very nicely. Today is day 4 for the lentils (1 day soaking, 3 days rinsing and draining).  Friday  we got our hands on some organic broccoli seeds and they soaked overnight and are now in their draining (and yes, sprouting!) stage.  

We had a consultation with the oncologist earlier this week to discuss Adjuvant (post-surgery, systemic) treatments. Monday we were supposed to watch this video about population studies (if 100 women have early stage breast cancer, 74 of them will be completely cured by the surgery...) Let’s just say we didn’t feel particularly well-prepared for decision making at the end of it.  Tuesday was the appointment with the breast cancer specialist Dra. MM.  Ktrion got grouchy right away when the male fellow came in first and started asking questions (and asked L* if she was a student, for pete’s sake! made me so mad!), and then Dra. MM came in and the information was coming fast and furious!  We audiotaped the session and Ktrion took notes. We’re still waiting for some test results. We now know the tumor was ER+ and PR+ but don’t yet know its HER2nu status. Depending on that, they’ll do an Oncotype DX assay and that may give us more information to make decisions about treatment.  

L* is ready to do whatever it takes to survive this cancer thing, so we’re planning an aggressive treatment regimen. the folks at MUMC are very into the patient making her decisions as opposed to telling her “this is what you do next” or “this is our treatment regimen.”  

Even so, It’s pretty frustrating for L* when they talk about the risks of recurrence and then say “so you’ve got a pretty low risk.”  Yeah, when it’s not YOU they’re talking about it seems like a pretty low risk, but when it IS you, it looks pretty huge.  L* and Ktrion were discussing one of the tests they’ll perform on L*s heart and Ktrion said “that doesn’t sound so bad.”  And it doesn’t, if it’s not you that it will be happening to.

L* is frustrated by the way she’s expected to be GRATEFUL (as the patient).  It’s her body that things will be done to. She’s in this lucha, but that doesn’t mean she has to say “oh, yes, it sounds like it will be so much fun when you do that to my body!” 

L* still has her surgery bandages on, though it looks like they’ll be coming off later this week.  You’re supposed to leave them on till they come off (they’re these clear plastic things) because the longer they stay on, the better and cleaner your healing). 

L* is continuing to expand her exercise, doing pilates with a roller, taking a t’ai chi class, working with small dumbbells, stretching and reaching and growing.  

This last week we really appreciated the TLC of Las Yolis and MLG/VC who housed us in MP and SL last weekend, and just loved and cared for us in the midst of real trauma.