For a time I became thankful for almost everything. I went and purchased an award for my medical care team at the Austin Texas VA clinic. I wanted to say thank you for getting me this far into recovery, but in a memorable way. I aslo purchased an award for my wife Debra.
Chemotherapy Treatment
My blood work shows I first started Chemotherapy in June of 2021 and I started tracking the effect of Chemo in July of 2021.
A recent discovery as I carb-shift from Low Carb <less than 100g> back to Keto <30g to 50g>. Shifting out of Ketosis to gain weight while treating my cancer with nutritious food when possible. Many days have been very difficult to eat and swallow due to lack of appetite plus the indirect peer pressure of family, friends and the ever vigilant food industry to push or put sugar into everything - Just eat what everyone else eats - I had lumped it up to the side effects of Chemo and Radiation treatment...
For me the Chemotherapy side effects were intense fatigue, loss of motivation, anger at almost everything, bowel movements that seemed to take away any energy, stamina, or just the simple joy of life - often 2 to 4 hours to recover just from going to the bathroom - Uggh!
Then I remembered when I first started Keto. About 3 or 4 weeks into a Ketogenic diet I became “fat adapted” for the first time. My brain function felt optimal about 3 times per week. I didn’t remember feeling that good in a long time. Even when I was younger I do not remember this intensity at the simple pleasure of life.
A recent discovery as I carb-shift from Low Carb <less than 100g> back to Keto <30g to 50g>. Shifting out of Ketosis to gain weight while treating my cancer with nutritious food when possible. Many days have been very difficult to eat and swallow due to lack of appetite plus the indirect peer pressure of family, friends and the ever vigilant food industry to push or put sugar into everything - Just eat what everyone else eats - I had lumped it up to the side effects of Chemo and Radiation treatment...
For me the Chemotherapy side effects were intense fatigue, loss of motivation, anger at almost everything, bowel movements that seemed to take away any energy, stamina, or just the simple joy of life - often 2 to 4 hours to recover just from going to the bathroom - Uggh!
Then I remembered when I first started Keto. About 3 or 4 weeks into a Ketogenic diet I became “fat adapted” for the first time. My brain function felt optimal about 3 times per week. I didn’t remember feeling that good in a long time. Even when I was younger I do not remember this intensity at the simple pleasure of life.
II was able to “ring the bell” as a cancer survivor. Life was looking good - but then as cancer does without surgically removing the tumor - then cancer came back.
As of the fall of 2023 - I stopped all chemotherapy as it was so detrimental to my health and marriage. *Chemotherapy in my mind is literally poison. I was referred to Palliative care, my new palliative care team suggested I explore immunotherapy as it was discovered that I was HER2 positive. Often HER2 candidates are for breast cancer but why not give it a try - what did I have to lose? I was already at the doorstep to the otherside.
* Source Google Search: Chemotherapy is a drug treatment that uses powerful chemicals to kill fast-growing cells in your body.
Chemotherapy is most often used to treat cancer, since cancer cells grow and multiply much more quickly than most cells in the body. Many different chemotherapy drugs are available.