Here is my committment to you, my readers.
I will be honest.
I will not withold my true experiences.
I will describe my spiritual, emotional, and physical journey through this long term fast.
I will begin to prepare for my long term fast by eating all raw, no salt or additives, vegetarian food (like salads and raw fruit and veggies) for a week.
My actual fast will commence on May 11, 2005.
I'm sure you've already read the blog introduction, so all you really need to know is that I am a 47 year old woman who has been fighting cancer for the past six months.
My cancer was discovered by a routine mammogram during a routine physical examination.
Since then, I have had a simple mastectomy, a complete hysterectomy including removal of the ovaries, and now I am facing a simple mastectomy on the other side and a re-excision of cancerous lymph nodes on the first mastectomy side. This last surgery will be performed on May 12.
I have refused chemotherapy and radiation therapy, and after the first day or two of post operative pain medication, have refused that, as well.
After my first mastectomy, I followed the Gerson Therapy for six weeks, ending the diet the week before my second surgery, the hysterectomy.
This Gerson eating plan was very difficult. I was restless all the time- not physically hungry, but always roaming through the kitchen, bored and tired of the food I was allowed to eat. However, this eating successfully reduced my blood pressure by ten points -both upper AND lower numbers. My weight loss was about ten pounds in the six weeks, which is pretty good considering that I was pretty inactive physically, recovering from the surgery during that time.
After the second surgery, I again refused most of the pain medication and began eating an all raw veggies and fruits, a little chicken -all organic- for healing and rebuilding tissue. I allowed salt and oil (no-no's with the Gerson) and my blood pressure skyrocketed immediately. Lesson learned! I love salt, but salt will have to go for my health!
But I enjoyed eating all organic, all raw, and I honestly think I could do it for the rest of my life.
Now I am facing my second mastectomy -my third surgery in six months-. I must have my infected lymph nodes totally removed, especially since I am refusing all chemo and radiation.
I will begin my fast the day before my surgery. I will eat saltine crackers while I am in the hospital overnight so that I will not get nauseous from the anesthesia and also the morphine and the percoset they routinely administer. If all goes well, I will spend less than 24 hours in the hospital, according to my surgeon.
I am going to do my best to strictly regulate (as I did in the last two surgeries) the pain medication.
Since it is crucial to monitor the effects of the pain meds on my body, if I do take pain medication, I will allow myself a raw fruit -apple or pear or banana, for example- to make sure I do not harm my body.
Pain medications on a fasting body is extremely dangerous. If I can endure without the pain meds, I will not eat anything, allowing only fruit and veggi juices for the duration of the fast. If I take the pain med, I will allow only raw, organic fruit while the pain med is in my body. I anticipate only needing to do this at night for the first week.
Ultimately, I intend to juice/water fast until I have lost a total of 80 pounds. I am fasting down PAST my ideal weight so that my body will have a chance to autolyse the cancer completely. I will not fast to starvation, of course, but intend to fast down enough so that my body autolyses everything it deems unnecessary, hopefully including the cancer.
When the fast has been completed, (sometime in late July, early August) I will progress gradually to an all-raw organic eating program which may include some protein food. Since I am forbidden soy (my cancer is estrogen receptive), I will probably use a spare amount of organic, free range chicken for the protein. But that's a long way off, of course, and by then my research may have led me to a different plan.
These details are only the physical introduction to my blog. I plan to introduce the spiritual aspects of my journey in these preparatory days, as well as the emotional and psychological. The spiritual aspect is the most important facet of this journey.
Peek in within this next week for subsequent installments delineating these other aspects of the introduction of my long term water/juice fast.
I welcome your responses, but only as part of this blog, please!
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