While I was in Vegas, my sister purchased a brand new Toyota Camry.  Her first car, gifted by the parentals back in highschool, was no longer acceptable.  By that I mean, a busted airconditioner and everything.  And mind you, she’d been driving her clunker for several months — yes, in more than 100 degree weather!  Her saving grace (if you can even call it that) was that she started work early in the morning and would leave the hospital late at night.  Even still, no one should have any business driving a car with no airconditioner in Vegas.  Oh, and did I tell you she has leather seats?!?!?!  So her brand new toy is definitely something she deserves.  I imagine she’s probably looked into some auto accessories to spiff up her car.  Bet you she’s enjoying that airconditioning.  Heh!

I hate that I just seem to pop up here and there.  I promise I think about this blog a lot more than my actions convey.  I thought I’d love my Creative Writing class that I recently signed up for — wrong.  And I should have known, right?  I can’t even keep up with a blog (where creative juices are welcome), much less force it out for assignments.  So no thanks.  Dropped it after the second meeting cuz God knows I don’t do poems.  Eek.

After my summer class (as in, literally right after my final exam), I sped off to Vegas with the little girl.  You know what that means — food, food, food.  Afterall, what else do you do in Vegas if you don’t gamble, right?  Hahahaha.  Would post pics of myself but I need me some weight loss supplements — I seriously do not like what I am seeing when pictures look back at me.  I’m so consumed with the idea that I was able to lose 46 pounds in some distant lifetime and now, in what will soon turn into a year, I can’t even shed 4 measly pounds! I wonder if a new pair of sneakers would jump start my engine?

Tomorrow night, I will be taking my final exam for my summer class.  I was originally enrolled for 2 classes this summer but ended up dropping one of them so as to get a feel for how things would go when I combined my duties and responsibilities at home with that of school.  Seems I am a lot better at multi-tasking than I thought.  Fall semester starts next week – I’ll be enrolled in 2 (possibly 3) classes and hope that things will go just as well as it did this semester.  I’ve had to schedule my classes based on the little girl which doesn’t give me much room to move, but I won’t complain too much.  Things are going way too well.

That said, I’ve really enjoyed being back in (night) school.  It’s been great ‘me-time,’ I just can’t express.  Going to class is such a sweet escape because I’m doing something where my brain actually has to work again – and I love it.  Back when I was still a kid in college (sounds so ancient, doesn’t it?), I hated taking evening classes because I was always too afraid that I would miss out on happenings with my friends.  That’s the kind of student I was back then – there for the social aspects of college and the good times that come with it.  Now, though, being back in school has taken on new meaning and I’m actually respectful of my work, my deadlines, the instructor – I never missed a class the whole summer save for that day that I walked out after the teacher lectured that night’s topic and all the important stuff, I was able to jot down.  My whole attitude towards school has changed so much even I am amazed at my own maturity.  But I guess this is how it had to happen – everyone’s journey will never be the same.  Sure it might have taken me years to buckle down but that’s alright.  I’ll have had the best time getting to where I need to be.  In fact, the idea of looking into Masters degrees online isn’t foreign to me.  But I don’t want it to be just from any online university.  I’m thinking more along the lines of Gonzaga University, one of the nation’s best universities by The Princeton Review and Forbes Magazine.  I’ve just come to find out they offer online programs – yes, a school that is ranked top 3 in the West!  (Friends and I had the privilege of attending a week long volleyball camp at GU back in high school.  We got to live in the dorms, play on their campus and pretend we were college students living the life — it was an honor itself to be on the campus!).  The possibilities are endless from here on out.

John Hopkins Update – Good article

AFTER YEARS OF TELLING PEOPLE CHEMOTHERAPY IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRY (‘TRY’, BEING THE KEY WORD) TO ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHNS HOPKINS IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY.  

Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins:  

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.  

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person’s lifetime.  

3 When the person’s immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.  

4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.  

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.  

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastrointestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.  

7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.  

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.  

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.  

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.  

11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.

CANCER CELLS FEED ON:

a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in color. Better alternative is Bragg’s aminos or sea salt.  

b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk cancer cells are being starved.  

c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.  

d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).  

e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines becomes putrefied and leads to more toxic buildup.  

13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body’s killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.  

14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the bodies own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body’s normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.  

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, un-forgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.  

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.  

1. No plastic containers in micro.  

2. No water bottles in freezer.  

3. No plastic wrap in microwave.

Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in its newsletters. This information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well. Dioxin chemicals cause cancer, especially breast cancer. Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies. Don’t freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic. Recently, Dr. Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Cast le Hospital, was on a TV program to explain this health hazard. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers. This especially applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Instead, he recommends using glass, such as Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else. Paper isn’t bad but you don’t know what is in the paper. It’s just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc. He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.

Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead.