Cancer Bloggers

I haven’t blogged in a while because I haven’t had too much cancer-related to talk about. But I thought I’d write a quick post about some of things that are happening seven months post-hysterectomy and five months post-whipple

I asked them to clarify whether they use extra virgin olive oil for high-heat cooking as well, and they said yes – extra virgin olive oil is the only oil they use. I definitely recommend saving extra virgin olive oil for uses like dressings, vinaigrettes, and finishing drizzles on top of salads. While regular olive oil has the same healthy monounsaturated fats as extra virgin olive oil, it is missing a lot of the positive antioxidants and polyphenols contained in extra virgin olive oil. Ultimately, I recommend cutting out as many refined oils as possible (except extra virgin olive oil).

We served these spring tomato tarts at April’s “Lunch with Elissa” and they were a hit – the filling is a blend of almond ricotta and fresh basil with chickpeas to add plant-based protein. Ricotta” cheese 1 cup organic chickpeas, rinsed and drained 5-6 fresh basil leaves 1 T. lemon juice 2 garlic cloves, crushed 1 tsp. Lightly flour a rolling pin with gluten-free flour, and gently roll your day out into the shape of your tart pan and lay into the bottom of the tart pan. Then remove pre-baked crust from oven, gently pat the filling into the tart and press the tomatoes gently into the filling and place back into the oven for additional 25 minutes.

I have two pieces out in the April issue of Bonnie’s crew! The first (page 30) is a creative non-fiction piece called The News, which I have been trying to place for possibly a couple of years now. It’s about trying to fit the anxiety of going for scans in with everyday life, and how easily that anxiety can be triggered

The Paleolithic Diet, or Caveman Diet, is a current trend in which people consume only foods presumed to have been eaten during the Paleolithic era. Whenever my clients tell me that they want to experiment with a vegetarian or vegan diet, I let them know that this form of eating is actually not considered a diet if done correctly. I have seen countless benefits of people switching to a more plant-based diet – a decrease in blood pressure, lower levels of cholesterol, reduced acne, lower levels of stress, weight loss, lower blood sugar levels, and an increase in sex drive, just to name a few. The keto diet can also be hard to follow, and people often end up eating significant amounts of red meat and other processed foods, which is extraordinarily unhealthy.

Ingredients: ¼ cup olive oil 1 medium white onion, diced 2 leeks, chopped 3 ribs celery, chopped 2-3 garlic cloves, crushed Sea salt 1 tsp. Herbamare seasoning 1 ½ pounds fresh sugar snap peas, trimmed with ends cut 1 16 oz. bag frozen sweet peas 2 cups organic vegetable stock 1 ½ cups cashew, raw and organic zest of 1 lemon Fresh cracked pepper to season To prepare fresh snap peas: Hold a paring knife in one hand and the sugar snap pea in the other, with the inside curve of the pod facing you. Add the fresh and frozen peas along with the Herbamare seasoning (if you don’t have Herbamare, use sea salt) and broth.

If given the opportunity to speak to a room of 1000 oncologists, surgeons and radiologists, what would your message be? I had this once in a lifetime opportunity a few weeks ago as I was invited to be the patient keynote speaker at The Miami Breast Cancer Conference. It was my first time speaking to doctors/professionals so I have to admit that I felt somewhat intimidated, yet at the same time exhilerated

* Avoid dairy (particularly cows milk products) – eating dairy creates a lot of mucus and congestion for me as well as digestion issues. Let’s jump into my typical day of eating. I find eating eating 8am-4pm or 9am-5pm works best for me, but I hate missing dinner time with Mac. Lately I have been researching food combining and also started drinking a mix of hot water, apple cider, cayenne pepper and lemon first thing in the morning before I eat followed by tons of plain water.

I felt this need to create after I noticed that while I was creating anything, my mind was at peace. I wasn’t thinking about how bad I felt from the chemo, I wasn’t thinking about all the “what if” stories that were continually running through my head, I wasn’t thinking about what a bad mom I was being to my 13 month old son, what a bad wife I was for all that I had to dump on my husband... From this need in my heart, I made my first “Hope Block. I want people to gain strength and Hope from my stories, and to know that same strength and Hope is there for them too.

After completing the third and final palliative radiation therapy (RT) session this week, I was finally able to return home from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) after being admitted on March 8, 2019. The severe pain that plagued me during this period is due to the progression of cancer in my spine, which is managed through a combination of steroids and oral/IV narcotics. Hospice arrangements were coordinated with MSKCC, so I was sent home connected to a patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pump allowing me to administer my own IV pain relief. Most studies have identified attention, memory, and information processing as the most common cognitive domains impacted by cancer and cancer-related treatments.