More on My Mom...

Morning,

It's early mornings here at 'Chez Schulman' (our affectionate name for my mom and dad's house, which is so much like a luxurious hotel for us: whirlpool hottub, big soft comfy bed, 5 million cable channels). I wake up early here, about 6:30a.m. every morning now. I suppose it's because i've been eating 100% raw again...and my body needs less sleep.

I feel happy this morning, no, cheery, i should say, maybe not 'happy.' Yesterday, i felt very depressed all day and couldn't shake it. I cried several times. Worried about mom. Worried i'm doing the right thing. Not too happy with how i am looking. I have a class reunion coming up in October.

So...mom and I are doin' the raw thing. I think i'm into my 2nd week. She's on her 3rd day, i think. Previously, i had been raw for 3 years and then for 6 months went completely nuts on pizza and eggrolls. Now, i'm back.

I'm staying with my mom for a while, Cliff is here, too, until she is more set on her path, or to take care of her after her surgery. I write THAT latter part with a heavy heart.

I am NOT for the surgery.

She is speaking with the surgeon on Monday, the one who will potentially remove a polyp from her stomach and 're-section' her bowel, which is obstructed presently from scar tissue from a previous surgery. I will accompany her and we will listen to what the dr. says. But, then i hope she goes home and decides against it.

It was also suggested she get a thyroidectomy for her 'possibly malignant' thyroid, a second surgery.

She seems to really want the first surgery, although i'm REALLY TRYING my hardest to talk her out of it.

The thyroid surgery, she seems pretty set she does NOT want.

My reasoning to not get the first surgery is this: if she is going to try to heal the possible thyroid cancer naturally, which she says she WANTS to, why does she NEED to have a non-obstructed bowel???? Smoothies pass easily through her system. It's almost like she'd be shooting herself in the foot, now tempted to eat things she shouldn't, with her new bowel that can handle it. God obstructs the bowel to TELL you something. "Hey, dodo, eat light so you can heal!"

She's already feeling somewhat better. She seems to be thriving. She was not tired yesterday. She seems very grateful for my assistance/direction. She is gladly taking all of the food i give her without complaint and enjoying each meal. Her attitude is good. So...why does she need ANY surgery???

I try to explain that the polyp will dissappear just like Susan's tumor on her back did, and just like Susan's ring of scar tissue around her ankle did. Susan also had migraines and allergies. Did she get her head cut off to stop the migraines? Or her foot and ankle cut off to remove the ring of scar tissue around her ankle?? When we have a cold, do we get our noses cut off because they are stuffed???

Susan changed to a living foods diet, and these 'symptoms' of her diseased system all dissappeared. I'm trying to impart to my mom it's a WHOLE BODY DYSFUNCTION, not just random problems popping up everywhere.

[By the way, Susan is my catering partner, a Registered Nurse, and a living foods educator. She is AMAZING. If you'd like to contact her, please do, and let her know i recommended her. SusanAman@comcast.net/ ]

Mom just got up. She is complaining of being congested this morning. She's probably clearing mucous from her system with the new diet. Yesterday, too, she complained of an earache. I said, "You know what that is??? All of that icecream you've been eating. It'll go away! It'll clear out!"

So, yesterday, i made us green smoothie twice. We've used up all of the organic spinach at home, so i think we'll do romaine today. It's highly beneficial to switch up your greens.

Our first smoothie was 1 banana, 1 mango, 1 date, and 3 handfuls of organic spinach with water. Our 'lunch' smoothie was kinda tropical with starfruit and 1/2 mango as the fruit base and everything else the same.

I was hungry last night and she welcomed a snack, too, so i made a strawberry banana smoothie. My raw tahini that i had mixed with water and not refrigerated mistakenly had gone bad, but it was good without it.

Earlier, i was very hungry and had hand cracked almonds and hazelnuts. And later a salad with a tiny bit of oil and lemon. And earlier a whole avo.

I'm alot hungrier than my little skinny mom. My calorie requirements are much greater. But, i felt guilty eating so much fat.

Oh, well... I did walk 1.5 hours yesterday. My mom walked 45 mins.

So, back to the cancer: It was commented that fruit sugar exacerbates cancer. I have heard that before. And yes, where i went, O.H.I., (Optimum Health Institute), cancer patients were also restricted from fruit. They were taught to sprout at home, grow wheatgrass, ferment cabbage, and lots of other highly time consuming practices.

99% of people who leave O.H.I. never continue the diet on their own because it is just too darned complicated. All of that juicing and sprouting and fermenting.

My boss, Arnold, his philosophy is the opposite. He believes in a fruit based diet, and he has guided hundreds through overcoming cancer on green smoothies and a fruit based diet, so all i can do is hope and pray and believe. It is certainly much less work than all of the sprouting and fermenting.

Susan, also - this is her approach. It's called natural hygiene.

Although i've not been following hygiene strictly with mom. For instance, i made her a salad for dinner, which susan said would be okay, with homemade avocado dressing on it, which included avo, lemon, water, garlic, a tiny bit of raw honey and a tiny bit of celtic salt.

She enjoyed it very much. I told my mom, "I hope i'm not killing you with this," and i wasn't kidding. This is a lot of responsibility and i was crying. Garlic and salt and raw honey are not part of hygiene, but it's what i know. I know how to make things taste good.

I was still naturally apprehensive about it, but, Susan DID say she can have avocado, and people at O.H.I. had avocado 2x/week. We also had sunflower/sesame pate there, so i think this is something I will make for mom, too.

That fruit will exacerbate her cancer, i don't believe.

Well, I hope i don't believe.

Yes, I hope for her sake, it's not true. Because this is what i'm doing for her and she's enjoying it.

I'll check with Arnold and Susan again.

But, I don't know how many testimonials we have, over 200, of people losing cancer on fruit. If you'd be interested in watching hundreds of testimonials on youtube from Arnold's Way Raw Vegetarian Cafe and Education Center where i work, just go to Arnold's Youtube Channel: www.youtube.com/arnoldsway.

So, what i'm doing for her is Arnold's "way". Although garlic and celtic salt and raw honey don't really factor into Arnold's Way, but i think they are minor deviations. I don't expect to be giving her a salad with avocado and celtic salt daily.

And, honestly, I'm hoping and praying that because we are unsure if this is really cancer at all, yes, i believe they are active cancer cells on the fritz in the thyroid, that it IS sick, but i'm getting the sense it's not as life threatening as the drs are making it out to be. TWO drs said, "possibly malignant nodes on her thyroid." Yet, she has her blood tested frequently and there were no signs of cancer recently in her white cells or whatever the determiner is, so i'm hoping that the thyroid issue is not really TRULY cancer rampant in her body, and this living foods diet which is fruit heavy will cure her, fruit or no fruit. I think it will work. I'm hoping and praying.

We just so happened to turn on a wonderful movie yesterday called, "Secret Garden." It was a musical and there was a movie remake. We watched the original. What a wonderfully appropriate story for what mom is going through.

"As the garden revives and flourishes, so does Colin. He resolves to walk and run like a normal boy by the next time his father returns home; to accomplish these aims, he carries out a program of simple physical exercises and positive thinking. He makes great progress, but they conceal it from the rest of the household with the pretense that he is still an invalid." WIKIPEDIA

If you'd like to read the whole story of the movie, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Garden.

Colin is 'supposedly' an invalid who can't walk or be out in the sun, and has tumors on his back (not tumors, they are his vertebrae!!!). At the end of the movie, he is happy, outside daily and walking outside of his wheelchair. If you listen to the drs, they'll convince you that EVERYTHING is wrong with you. My mother even said, "i'd probably have lived to 100 never knowing there was anything wrong with my thyroid."

Well, since the summer, she's been chronically hoarse. I think i forgot to mention that.

And, as a singer, i am VERY in tune with people's voices. This fact concerned me GREATLY, the hoarseness. I supposed it was reflux or dehydration. I was constantly on her to drink more and not eat things to cause reflux: overly fatty foods and proteins and coffee and mint.

oh, god. after the salad, she was a little hoarse. maybe too much fat? maybe the garlic? this is not going to be easy. i'm not a dr., just a daughter.

As it turns out, the thyroid shares the same nerves as the voicebox. So, this could be the cause of her hoarseness, mixed with reflux.

Yet, every Tom, Dick, and Harry you speak to has had their thyroid removed. I think it's the "in" cash cow surgery. Plus, afterwards, the patient is destined to need synthetic hormones daily for the rest of their life. Isn't that convenient? Who is pushing the surgery so much? Probably Astro-Zeneca or whoever makes those pills that everyone will NEED after they get their naturally-hormone producing body part removed.

Mom is drinking lemon water right now. Susan says it's a good practice for the morning and helps to stimulate the bowels. Mom's nervous because she hasn't eliminated in days since she's been doing this. I keep calming her that she WILL, she will. I hope she will. I think her body may just be adjusting. I hope so. Plus, she's not really eating that much, so there's not much to come out. Maybe i'll make her some flax crackers. We had plenty of those at O.H.I.

We have a party tonight, Cliff and I, but will return afterwards. I'll have to leave her some food for dinner.

Pray for us. Pray for me! Pray for her! Pray for it all!

Love can conquer all.

xoxo michelle joy