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Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Just Breathe...

Life gets hectic.

There can be so many demands on our time that we lose sight of the things we value most.

It's been happening to me more often lately... hard to reel in the time it seems...

And those demands?  Most are so good.  Family, Friends... A shoulder, a meal, a ride here, an evening out ,,,

But then some of those demands??  Some can squash the life right out of us...

Work loads, long hours, Snappy coworkers,

Clogged sinks, Colicky babies, Sick dogs.

Grocery shopping, Supper making, laundry sorting kinds of demands.

And those demands pale in comparison to the dictates of cancer... Cancer can make time disappear with an endless list.

Doctor appointments, medication pick-ups, chemo lab treatments, blood and x-ray work-ups, forcing the meals down, vomiting them up, ER visits, surgery schedules, bill paying, insurance arguing kinds of demands... and all the time we are waiting, and praying, and crying... watching the time slip away, helpless and angry and afraid.

This song.  It stopped me in my tracks today.  I needed to listen and be reminded.

Might you listen too, and be encouraged??   Just Breathe...



When our weary souls can take no more... He calls us to come and rest, in His presence the chaos stills...

and our hearts slow to the beat of Grace...

May you find Beauty in the stillness this night.  Praying His Love over the fear and pleading for Strength to rest in that Love no matter how the storm rolls on...

Always,
        Jane
 


Thursday, March 9, 2017

The Power of Oranges...



I can smell the citrus fragrance from here... Ummmm... Divine!

And now research studies are targeting the health benefits and cancer fighting properties of these delicious summer fruits... Tasty and Healthy?  Yes, please!

So, here's the thing.  The technical explanation gets, well, technical, so hang on... it's information that offers potential hope to the pancreatic cancer patient... and we feel that's worth wading thru heaps of scientific mumbo-jumbo to get down to the nitty-gritty of this alternative cancer fighter...

To start, according to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering research team, there are compounds in the citrus peel that have specific cancer-fighting potential.  The phytochemical in the citrus peel is called d-limonene and through laboratory studies d-limonene has shown anti-imflammatory, wound healing and anti-cancer effects.

The d-limonene was found to alter the signaling pathways within cancer cells in a way that stops cancer cells from multiplying and causes apoptosis (that's a fancy word for cell death... hmmmm, apoptosis might be my new favorite word!).

The laboratory studies so far have just been animal models, but there is promise as the d-limonene slowed the growth of pancreatic, stomach, colon, skin and liver cancers.  It's important, however, to emphasize that these results have only been shown in animal models, not in human clinical studies...yet.

In a new article from TTAC, we find that d-limonene has been used to assist pancreatic cancer researchers in another surprising way.  A study reported in 2015 in Molecular Pharmacology shared that scientists examining the effectiveness of gene therapy in overcoming pancreatic cancer were encountering trouble with the delivery system and turned to d-limonene for help.  The gene therapy, called MDA-7/IL-24, is a tumor suppressor and when introduced into cancer cells it fosters an anticancer immune reponse.  The trouble?  Getting it into the cancer cells.  D-limonene was found to be an effective and non-toxic delivery strategy. 

In Japan, the Osaka Medical Center for Cancer and Cardiovascular Diseases did a study on the effect of d-limonene on pancreatic growth using hamsters with induced pancreatic cancer tumors.  The hamsters were fed a diet containing d-limonene.  After 26 weeks, their results showed that prolonged treatment with d-limonene significantly reduced the number of pancreatic carcinomas.

So, if you're like me, you're wondering how can I apply this to my situation?  Like, how many oranges would I need to consume on a daily basis to get any benefit???  Right???  Well, here's an article from Life Extension that shares a little bit on dosage and just how high the doses need to be for potential medical effectivness...

"Limonene is well tolerated in cancer patients at doses that may have clinical activity (Chow 2002).  One partial response in a breast cancer patient at a dose of 8 grams taken twice daily was maintained for 11 months.  Three patients with colorectal cancer showed disease stabilization for longer than 6 months on d-limonene at 0.5 or 1 gram twice daily (Vigushin 1998).  The tentative dose recommendation for d-limonene is 7.3 to 14.4 grams per day (Boik 2001; Vigushin 1998).  Daily consumption of d-limonene from food sources is estimated to be 16.2 mg/person/day (027 mg/kg body weight/day)(Sun 2007)."

Did you get that?  Normal people might consume roughly 16.2 milligrams of d-limonene a day from eating oranges or other citrus fruits.  The potential dose recommendation for disease stabilization according to Life Extension is 7.3 to 14.4 grams a day...

That's a lot of oranges!

And this is definitely in the realm of alternative treatments.  But I'm sure you already figured that out... so, please, as always, please talk with your oncology team before beginning any new protocol. 

Could the power of citrus and d-limonene offer hope for the pancreatic cancer patient?  There are no clinical trials yet... only animal studies and lots of research... and whenever I begin to wonder if there is any hope in these natural "alternative" remedies I am reminded of a story from many years ago...

... involving dying sailors and scurvy... and a little known treatment at the time... a treatment that was so simple many called it crazy... but a treatment that worked... Vitamin C.  

The cure for scurvy was as simple as mending a vitamin deficiency... so, No, I don't believe all alternative treatments are crazy.  I do believe we need to be sensible and first, do no harm... But d-limonene is showing promise in studies... could this be Hope for Cancer Patients?

Praying for clinical trials soon.  And even more so, praying for healing and hope as we journey on, hard into this cancer fight.

In Grace, My Love, Always,
                                           Jane

Thursday, March 2, 2017

When the Familiar Slips Away...

I am utterly spent... my heart aches and I have struggled for words to wrap up these long days past.

2 weeks ago, Dad sold his house.  That's the black and white of it.

But, oh, it covers a multitude of deep and hard emotions...

That house... our home.  The place we all last remember mom, sitting in her recliner, smiling happy... cooking up a storm in her kitchen... entertaining friends joyful around her welcoming table... the boisterous Christmas celebrations all together...







That home is now empty... belongs to strangers... and the weeks leading up to the sale have been hard... filled with packing, so much packing and sorting... and talking... reminiscing... and just plain hard work, inside and out...













The sale makes sense.  It does, in the black and white of it all... After Dad moved into the assisted living at the end of the year, his house sat empty, utility bills piling up, taxes coming due.

The realtor was compassionate, but a bull-dog, and the home sold quickly... estate sale was a whirlwind, and all of a sudden, much too soon, the house was empty...




That was a hard thing... closing that front door and walking away from all the memories we have made over the years...



A piece of our heart remains...
for this has been a home filled with love and laughter


Being gentle with ourselves these days as we allow the sadness, weep over the goodbye, trace the legacy created here, and determine to carry the joy forward.

Trusting in the strength of family and God's sweet Grace
as we walk into our next chapter... with Hope

For There is Hope even in the midst of transition,

My Love, Always,
            Jane