Modified ND for (at least) the last 19 lbs to my weight loss goal

The aftermath of the OGTT (or the carbs ahead of that) has been interesting.

I do at least have an answer about whether it is weight loss (as theorized by Dr. Taylor - unsupported by his data) or the diet. After 6 weeks of fasting BG in the below 5.0 range, it has been hovering right about 5.6 since the OGTT (with the rest of the day higher as well). My weight has not changed, so it is not a weight-related change for the past 6 weeks.

I haven't sorted out 16:8 fasting v. higher calories (Aside from the 3 days immediately after ending the 6-week blood sugar diet experiment) I'm eating about the same quantity of carbs - but about 400 more calories, primarily from fat.) If I have surgery on Tuesday, as planned, I won't have time to sort it out before then. If surgery is delayed until a week from Tuesday, I may return to the 16:8 fasting to give my liver a chance to clear out the glycogen stores.

As to that pesky little cancer thing -
I have now had two additional biopsies. One negative. As to the second one, the doctors know the results - but I don't yet because of limited access to phones on Friday. I should know first thing tomorrow.

The options are:
No new cancer - lumpectomy Tuesday followed by radiation.
New cancer -

The pathology reports were negative, so the lumpectomy is on for tomorrow (Tuesday) at 9:30 AM.

I'm b-a-a-a-a-a-c-k!

No surprises (at least none that they can tell without a pathology report, which will come a week from Thursday.)

I'm looking forward to a few days of being lazy and pampered!

A brief update after a long absence (busy recovering and tending to my "chicks" as they get ready for their big exam).

Tumor was 1.3 cm (a little over half of the predicted size). Kind of a miracle I found it, at that size. Once they looked at the entire tumor, it went from being slightly mischievous to being extremely well behaved (solidly grade 1). No change in the receptors. The doctor's plan is to start radiation in early July - I'm still debating radiation.

On the diabetes/weight loss front - I'm down another 5 lbs (not intentionally - the extra fat I need to maintain if I don't up my carbs just isn't that appetizing to me). I'll be more diligent once I'm closer to radiation.

My plan has been to do another 8 weeks on the blood sugar diet once I'm healed, but I may not weigh enough to make that a good option by then. Bummer, since there has either been a slight regression - or my body is just stressed out from surgery. My blood glucose as pretty consistently been pre-BSD-diet levels (or slightly higher) since surgery - with no significant change in diet other than adding more fats.

Today is better, so perhaps I'm approaching the healing stage where it will stop being mad.

Back again, on the other side of cancer treatment. Not really comfortable with the word survivor, since my sense is that cancer doesn't necessarily vanish and survivor says to me that I lived through an event, rather than am continuing to cope with an ongoing current condition.

Whatever. I'm here, done with the active phase of cancer treatment, and am heading into prevention of recurrences.

I got through radiation with virtually no adverse effects. Mild radiation burn (darker, mottled skin), no ulcers or moist tissue injury. I earned any fatigue I experienced, save one day - and since it was only one day, it's pretty safe to say it wasn't radiation fatigue. Lots of attentive care to minimizing skin (and underlying tissue) damage - and to my emotional health.

Each day, in connection with radiation, I added a bit to a drawing that I started on the first day. Enjoy:



The drawing weaves my purple radiation marking (4 + signs in the radiation field (in the baseline of the first row of boxes of scrollwork), bounded by two vertical-ish frames, anchored by two more reference + signs in the bridgeliek structure. It also incorporates the paper crane given to me by my radiation oncologist the day we met. Last Wednesday I completed radiation, and the drawing, by filling in the radiation field (the scrollwork center-left).

I've started the 800-calorie/intermittent fasting again (as of today). [I had to stop during cancer treatment - doctor's orders.] Now that there are no more restrictions on activity or diet, I'm going to make one last try at putting diabetes into remission.

My body got mad at the surgery, and my morning BG levels are higher than they were at the end of 6 weeks (when I had to stop) - 5.5 a lot of mornings. Recently they're dropping back down to around 4.7 most mornings. I've still been able to eat more carbs than when I started the 800 calorie/IF protocal, so I haven't lost much. I'm hoping 4 weeks (which will take me to my 60th birthday) might be the trick to push me completely into remission, rather than just controlling my blood glucose by limiting my carb intake. I will be so happy to leave the curse of 59 behind - the year in which I acquired all of the family illnesses (diabetes, Hashimoto's hypothyroidism, and breast cancer). It would be nice if I actually left diabetes behind, as well. But I'll likely go another 4 weeks beyond my birthday if I'm not quite there, but am heading in the right direction.

I'll start a fresh post with some stats (since I've been tending to cancer care, rather than diabetes care, I don't have as detailed stats as the first time around.)

Brunneria said:

The drawing is important. I hope you treasure it.

You have a very detailed mind, don't you? But then you knew that already.

Click to expand...

It's posted on my wall at work across from my desk, so I see it every day - and it is important. The think that troubles me most is that the radiation creates a very small risk of a very aggressive cancer - in exchange for dramatically increasing my risk of a recurrence of an almost infinitely manageable cancer. I had a very limited window for radiation between an end-of-July and middle-of-August obligations. As a result I didn't have the time to fully research and get comfortable with the trade-off. I don't cope well with following doctor's orders unless I have been able to confirm that I agree it is the right choice. So I just had to move forward.

The picture was my way of taking something inherently negative that I had very ambivalent feelings about, and makign it something positive. I hadn't originally envisioned including the radiation markings or the crane, but it just felt right to include them. Part of the practice of Zentangle is that there are no mistakes - so when my lines got a little wiggly, or the pen smudged - they just became part of the drawing. I had been toying with the idea of drawing on non-radiation days - and on the first Saturday had been eager to keep making my picture, rather than using it as a tool to pace the treatment and focus one day at a time. The anniversary of Hiroshima (part of the crane story) fell on the first Saturday during treatment and, ironically, it was that coincidence that convinced me I shouldn't draw on non-radation days. So I added the crane on the anniversary of Nagasaki (the following Tuesday). The one bit of the drawing I'm not thrilled about corresponded with the first day of earned fatigue - that I was afraid was the beginning of radiation fatigue. All in all, it was very helpful.

Me? Detailed mind? Never . . . Actually, like most things, I'm pretty evenly balanced between seeing the forest and trees. (I'm pretty evenly split between right v left-brained, between the language arts v the sciences, between auditory v visual learning, etc.)