Lessons from my grandfather...

Today I took my grandfather for a follow-up doctor visit for his strep pnemonia. He was on anti-biotics for 2 weeks. At 93-years old, he's in better shape than most seniors 10-20 years younger than him. Aside from slightly elevated cholesterol & high blood pressure & some bronchitis, he's actually doing really well. He's strict with his diet, avoiding cholesterol, eating mostly fish & chicken & choy sum (Chinese greens) -- without any teeth, he has to eat soft foods. His blood pressure is better than mine, he can walk without a cane (although he'll bring one when he's out in public), does his own laundry by hand, cooks 3 meals a day on his own, cleans up after himself -- we're very lucky he doesn't need much assistance. He never smoked & drinks only a shot-glass amount of red wine every once in a while. He's very cautious & after all these years of being alive without a major illness, we certainly can learn from his example. I hope I & my other family members have a bit of his longevity genes -- but you just never know what you'll get in life, right? To what extent did my past health behaviors or my evironmental exposures to carcinogens/toxics contribute to my cancer? What about all the stress that was built up over the years from my jobs, schooling, even a past relationship? I do believe stress did play a significant role in compromising my immune system to the extent that cancer was allowed to take root (since my cancer wasn't hormonally or genetically linked).

Yesterday I had my 3-month follow-up w/my oncologist. I told him I've been doing pretty well & my weight is actually down from about a year ago. He asked what I was still thinking of re: having a 2nd child and reconstruction. It's been about a year & a 1/2 since my diagnosis, so I told him I'll follow the 2-year guideline of waiting to make sure there's no recurrence, even though I had early stage cancer, I had some "unfavorable" features. I'm in no hurry with the reconstruction either -- maybe I'll wait til after having a 2nd child? But then my life may be so busy that I won't be able to have much "down time" to deal with the whole procedure & recovery. Maybe surgical procedures will have advanced even more? Keeping myself healthy is more important than feeling "balanced" at this point & I'm getting used to my scar & prosthesis. Kailee actually likes playing with my prosthesis & calls it a "boob". Last Saturday, I met a new member of our support group, who did go through the DIEP flap reconstruction I had been considering. I was able to ask her some questions and she was quite open & willing to share her experience. She did her surgery in S. Calif. & has to go back for some follow-up touch-ups. I'll just put this reconstruction issue on the back burner for now...