Laurel's Cancer Journey

The garlic peeler works! Thanks, Will Taylor , and everyone who seconded that emotion. And thanks for all the suggestions, everyone.

On Saturday Michael and I drove 90 minutes to Napa to meet a couple of friends for lunch (we brought our juices and salads, of course). We sat at a picnic table with them for 2 hours, then drove the two hours back home. That afternoon and evening I began feeling very fatigued. I usually go to bed after 11pm but tonight wanted to get in bed at 9pm without even brushing my teeth. (Don't panic, I brushed.) The next morning, it was hard work getting ready for church. I felt weak and was a little out of breath. Weird. I sat in a chair to blow dry and curl my hair. What? We enjoy hobnobbing before church starts--so many wonderful people to interact with, but I interacted as little as possible before heading to my seat. I at least wanted to return Randy Hooper's book "How Not to Die," and tell him it turns out I was already doing the things in the book, dang it! During the service I started feeling faint. I told Michael. I tell him everything, he tells me everything. I almos

  Who can identify these two plants? Hahaha! (Garlic and Laurel which is another name for bay leaf.)

  I'm eating my giant dinner salad with a spoon from a glass, because I put it in the blender like a smoothie! I wanted it to go down faster. Can you imagine, spinach, broc, cauliflower, bell pepper, almonds, avo, sunflower seed, hemp seeds, red onion, red cabbage, sauerkraut, and black beans as a smoothie? Oh, and the salad dressing: olive oil, apple cider vinegar, turmeric, cayenne, garlic powder (yes, more garlic in my life!), oregano and nutritional yeast. It's not as bad as it sounds, and hubby gives it a thumbs up, but it wasn't my favorite. Reminding myself it tastes better than chemo!    

Someone gave me a garlic-peeler tube they weren't using anymore, and someone else brought a huge stinky bag of peeled garlic from Costco. So, I won't be needing any of your thoughtful garlicky offers for a while. Thank you! (Time to find something new to whine about.) I'm on my bed resting Mr. Achy-spine before a work meeting tonight. Also, makeup in the morning is no longer the default. I only put it on when I'm going somewhere. This is so the ol' bod won't have to fight against any extra molecules of toxins that might be lurking in there.

It took me a good 45-60 minutes to peel six heads of garlic for my lemon-garlic elixir. If this really is the last year of my life, do I want to be spending this much time peeling garlic? No. So, my question to you chef-y cook-y people is, what is the fastest way YOU peel garlic? Please do not look up how-to videos online. I've tried them all and none of them work like they do in the videos. I want to know what actually works for YOU.  I know what you're thinking. You want to tell me you can buy pre-chopped garlic. I know, I buy huge jars of that, but I don't think I can use those now. I would love to find jars of chopped garlic that are organic, have no additives and are unpasteurized. - - - - - People's answers started rolling in. A few mentioned a silicone tube, and someone actually gave me one she wasn't using. Thank you, Debbie Galeotti, we'll give it a try on our next batch. "Edible silicone," eh? I think the translator meant "food-grade sil

  There's nothing in my cranium besides a brain--WOOoooo! Finally, a medical interaction that wasn't a punch to the stomach. And I didn't even tell you about meeting with my oncologist whose bedside manner needs a little work. Michael calls her the Devil Doctor. Hubby thinks I did this just to get him a new pair of socks. He collects these in all colors. Sometimes I don't know about that guy. ;) I like the "MR HEAD," haha!

In case you're interested, here's what my body scan looks like. You'll notice a white splotch at about the shoulder (right breast) and another down low (liver). That's not actually cancer you're seeing, it's metabolic activity. What they do is inject radioactive glucose into your system. Cancer cells love to eat sugar, and the white splotches are showing metabolic activity, or, the glucose being consumed. They refer to them as "highly suspicious" areas. It's also in my T4 and T12 vertebrae, but I don't know where that is on the scan.   I'll be asking (demanding, if necessary) another scan in an undecided number of months (2-4?) to check for change. They don't measure this with a ruler, since it's not an object, it's activity. They measure something called SUV, Standard Uptake Value, noting how much glucose has been consumed in the measured amount of time. At least that's my understanding.   You'll also notice white at th

  We were happy to learn that we can have two giant salads a day besides the juicing--hooray! I jumped right into the juicing, knowing I'd learn the rest later (thanks to my friend, Michelle Booker Beutler for finding this info in the Beat Cancer Kitchen book). Everything in the salad and dressing fights cancer. Meanwhile, I lost 7 lbs in two weeks, since the dreaded phone call. Only five of the days were juicing, the rest was due to being afraid of what to put in my mouth. I read that every time you lift your fork, you are either feeding or fighting cancer. Eek. My clothes are fitting better, though!   Surely this is unrelated, but my hot flashes seem to have stopped--about 3 weeks before the 10-year anniversary of them starting (which was the week Breanne came home from her mission). I don't mind that at all.    

This morning while still in bed I decided to look up what it's like to have cancer in the spine (that, and the liver, is where it has spread to). This started my day off in a somber mood. Michael helped me to get past that somewhat--he's great at pep talks and talking me down from whatever it is. Then, later in the day I felt tears slowly coming on. I was sitting on the couch looking at the day's mail. Here they come. Somehow his Spidey sense was tingling and he knew to come sit with me with his arms around me. Yep, out they poured. We just sat together quietly for a while. I can tell I need a good sob to get it all out, but I didn't have time just then, I had an evening work meeting to get to. I try to identify the feelings that are causing the tears when they come, but often it's not clear. I suppose it's going to be a combination of reasons for the next little while, but I think today the bulk of the emotions were due to the outpouring of love a

Can I just say how delicious that 1" piece of sacrament bread was today? Scrumptious!   We bought 16-oz bottles to put our juice in. We drink four bottles a day. Oh, and the lemon garlic stuff. Our daughter and SIL came to our church meetings today. I whispered to her during the meeting, asking if she detected any garlic. She nodded her head vigorously. She thought it was the guy in front of us. I should have let him take the blame, but it wasn't him. It was her odoriferous mother.    

Hubby and I went to the "farm-acy" this morning to buy my juicing ingredients for 3 days for both of us. We came away with 30 lbs of carrots, 24 beets, 3 ginger roots and 6 bunches of celery. When we were clearing out the organic carrot shelf at the grocery store this morning a woman came by with her cart and was watching. I asked, "Did you want us to save you some? She said, "No, but you must really like carrots and beets." Haha! I told her I had been diagnosed with cancer and this was my medicine. She has a relative with cancer so I shared ChrisBeatCancer.com with her. She, herself, has diabetes so I shared ForksOverKnives.com with her.   I feel calm, happy, very optimistic, and my energy level is high. The energy could be due to a possible undercurrent of constant, adrenaline. But that has replaced the constant undercurrent of turmoil, thankfully.   If it is not my time, this will work. It has worked for many people. Everything is going to be okay. One way

  Yes, fiber is important, but it will take too long to chew through 10 pounds of vegetables a day to get the nutrients I need. This gets everything into my body right now! **KA-POW!** Drinking a gallon of this daily, for I don't know how long yet. It's carrots, beets, celery and ginger. Delish! If I get sick of it, that's too bad. This is my medicine! And my detoxification.   I put on an apron to keep my jamblies clean. That beet juice is SO red. And we're sporting our hearing protection for the noisy juicer. I don't want to be a cancer-free deaf person.   Here's what I believe: if this doesn't work, it's my time to go. I can't out-juice God's will, right? ;) Learn more about juicing: https://www.chrisbeatcancer.com/i-juiced-to-beat-cancer-and-turned-orange/

  Redwood City 1st Ward Dear brothers and sisters, I'm thankful for the opportunity to write to you today. I'm thankful for the Most High, our Heavenly Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. I'm thankful for their love and pray that you've felt their presence this week in ways that are familiar to you. Ward Fast Our wonderful and amazing Relief Society President, Sister Laurel Feddock, unfortunately received a diagnosis for breast cancer the past two weeks. Our hearts and prayers are with her and her family. Now, in love for her and as a testimony to Jesus Christ, we feel the need to "...comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in..." (Mosiah 18:9). We invite all who are able to fast as a ward family for Sister Laurel and her family this Saturday. We invite all to open your fast through prayer on Saturday and break your fast Sunday mor

  Me: "Did you know triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) accounts for 10–15% of all breast cancers, and of those, only 5-10% are white people?" Michael: "I don't want you to be THAT special." Risk factors for TNBC: Race: Black and Latinx people are more likely to receive a TNBC diagnosis than white people. (I'm Caucasian) Age: TNBC is more likely to present in people below the age of 40 years. (I'm 61) Genetic mutations: The BRCA1 gene mutation puts someone at higher risk of TNBC. (Checking on this)  

Lemon-garlic extract   I'm taking lemon garlic extract three times per day. Apparently lemon and garlic are both powerful against cancer on their own, but together? Much more powerful! **KARATE CHOP!** It may be that no one will want to be around me for a while, but I'm cool with that.   Learn more about it: https://www.chrisbeatcancer.com/the-anticancer-power-of-lemon-and-garlic-extracts/  

Daily agenda starting tomorrow (but I'll be dressed more modestly than either of these characters) . . .

  Today was my appointment with the surgeon.   Before going to my appointment, Michael gave a prayer, just the two of us in the bedroom. It was SO SO beautiful. He let the Lord know what our strong desires are, how grateful we are for each other and what our marriage has become, and said wonderful things about me. I was highly complimented when he compared me to Mom, saying I was naturally like her.   Michael and Breanne were with me as I saw the surgeon. We really liked him, a younger man, 40-ish, Dr. Wang. We started in an exam room where he felt for the mass and lymph node. Then we went to a room with a small table and four chairs and a big screen on the wall. On the screen he gave us a quick tour of the PET/CT scan findings, showing the white spots where the cancer is--in the liver and spine. The doctor explained he was trained in Western medicine, and in Western medicine they use three main treatments for cancer: surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Surgery and radiation are

UPDATE: More bad news, but let's start with an amusing story. Three weeks ago I learned what NOT to say to your chiropractor. "I don't think we got all the cracks last time, and it's bothering me enough that I decided to come back." He's an outstanding chiropractor, but I think he didn't love hearing that and he really worked me over. Man, he did some BIG crunching all down by back! He's never made me yelp so loudly! It was scary, and awesome. Wow, I was reeling! Afterward, he invited me down to the other end of the hall to his gym for them to work on a certain area. The young man working on my back with a percussion gun said to me, "I thought Dr. Athens was done for the day, then I heard him adjusting you." I think what he meant was, I heard you yell across the building a couple of times. Haha! I said, "Yeah, that's what happened after I told him he didn't get all the cracks last time. Life lesson learned." The

Here’s the best way to make the lemon garlic extract From ChrisBeatCancer.com https://www.chrisbeatcancer.com/the-anticancer-power-of-lemon-and-garlic-extracts/ According to Dr. Wahmid Talib , the author of the study, who has been drinking this concoction for many years, the best way to consume garlic lemon extract is in a 3:1 ratio, 300 grams of lemon and 100 grams of garlic blended in 16 ounces of water, then strained. If you don’t have a scale, this is roughly 3 bulbs of garlic and three lemons. The formula doesn’t have to be precise, tripling the amount of lemon and adding more water makes it easier to drink. Ingredients 3 heads of garlic 3 lemons  Directions Peel and chop the bulbs of garlic. Let the garlic sit for 10-20 minutes after chopping to activate the beneficial anti-cancer compounds. Put the garlic and the unpeeled lemons in a blender together with 16 oz of water. Blend the mixture until it is liquified. Avoid blending so long that it “cooks” it. Pour the l

  Sooo, this is happening. This week I received a serious diagnosis. I have breast cancer. Metastatic (meaning it has spread), Stage 4, triple-negative. This was a big fat surprise. There aren't a lot of treatment options for the triple-negative kind. I am up to date on my mammograms. So why did I go to the doctor in the first place? Two tender lumps (one was a lymph node) discovered in the shower which were then biopsied. How can something be so wrong, when I feel great? Tuesday I'll have a PET scan to see the extend of the spread. Hopefully with the way I've been eating, the spread has been slow and is small. Then I'll meet with the surgeon where he'll share his plan, and I'll share my ideas. I'm looking around for non-traditional ways of treating this, because the traditional Western medicine ways look horrible to me If you know of anyone who has found a way to kick or manage cancer by alternative means, I would like to talk to that person. Meanwhile, I&#

I'm lucky enough to have caring people put my name on the prayer rolls of the temple, even without my asking! (At some point, I stopped adding them to the list, but am grateful for all.) Michelle Beutler (my ministering sister) - Oakland, CA Temple Klaus Trierweiller - Bern, Switzerland Temple Jennifer Kurt (sister) - Los Angeles, CA Temple Sarah Pimentel (sister) - Portland, OR Temple Patty Kennington (sister) - Hamilton, New Zealand Temple Judy Hess - Idaho Falls, ID Temple Nalani Wallace Ferguson - St. George, UT Temple Pamela Arnell Anderson - Las Vegas, NV Temple Casey Redd Kennington - Boise, ID Temple Teresa Gill - St. George, UT Temple Jennifer Fung - Oakland, CA Temple Christine Davis Karren - The Hague, NL Temple Marilyn Hansen - Oakland, CA Temple   From Teresa Brower (over achiever!): Your name and your family’s are in the following temples. Saints all over the world are praying for you. We’re calling down the powers of Heaven   Anchorage Lima  Barcelona  Switzerland 

I woke up to this thoughtful email from my boss, Dick Jacobsen, this morning. He is a deeply spiritual and caring man (his wife is the same). He shared four scripture passages from the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants to help carry me. I didn't really notice until later that the subject line is "Our Journey." Ours. We're together in this. Subject: Our Journey Dear Laurel, I woke up this morning with you and your journey foremost in my mind. I know this is a difficult time for you and your family, but that you feel sustained by your faith, which sustains us also. I have felt impressed to share with you what I call my “Journey Scriptures.”   I hope they will be a source of comfort to you in the months and years ahead. They have been to me. First these words from the Lord, as Lehi’s family found themselves slowly making their way through the wilderness on their 8-year journey to the sea:   “I will be your light in the wilderness; and I will p

On December 10, 2023 in the shower, I felt a tender lump on the arm side of my breast. I emailed my doctor who told me to let her know if it hasn't resolved in four weeks.  Week 1: Tender lump became smaller and tenderness disappeared, but lump stayed. Week 2: Gone (maybe just too small to feel), no tenderness. Week 3: A second, larger, tender lump appeared under the arm pit, just an inch or two from the original lump. Week 4: Both lumps present, no tenderness Jan 17, 2024 - To GYN for breast lump evaluation , she thought I should get a diagnostic mammogram for a third opinion. Feb 1, 2024 - Diagnostic mammogram , then in other room for ultrasound. Found a mass and affected lymph node. They did the biopsies on both right then, while at the same time, dropping a tiny titanium marker in each one for the surgeon in case surgery was needed. Feb 12, 2024 - Call with dietician to tell me how to be eating for cancer (it's a whole foods plant-based diet like I've been doing the