Chinese Medicine

Wow, for the last, say 4 days, I do not feel tired! Last night I went to sleep at around 10, and woke up naturally at about 6:30. Must be because of changing my diet? Also probably getting off the depletion/caffeine merry go round. In any case, it is fantastic. It's also good because I need energy to clean up some things my life a bit before I start chemotherapy.

Misha Cohen

Yesterday I felt so energetic (relatively speaking) that I walked downtown (about a mile and a half). Had a strange experience on Market street (around 9th St.) At one point I looked around, and everyone seemed really friendly and happy. Sure, it was a nice, sunny day, about 60 degrees. But it was the first time I can ever recollect feeling this way, that I was surrounded by random people who were very kind. I should have blinked my eyes to see if they were still there when I opened them again...

I went down there to visit Winnie (acupuncturist I started seeing before I knew my diagnosis) who lent me some books about cancer, and then have my initial consultation with Misha Cohen. She is well known for working with tough cases such as myself (cancer/chemotherapy, Hep C, AIDS) for many years. I was there for 2 or 3 hours. It was wonderful. It feels deeply nourishing/healing to me in a way that going to Kaiser does not. I also have a lot of respect for Chinese medicine and in the past it has been helpful, especially on things that Western doctors can't help with. I have been interested in some forms of Asian massage (Shiatsu and Thai) that are based on Chinese medicine...

photo by Nancy

We talked for about an hour - the two of us and an apprentice or intern or whatever*, and Nancy. She was very kind, and she knows a lot about chemotherapy and radiation, even about my specific chemo drug. Then I had a treatment, which was intense. It's hard to explain. I felt a lot of intense energy moving around in my body; somehow it is also extremely meditative. She asked me about some kind of blockage in my chest that she felt in my pulse. I said yes, I have worked with kind of blocked heart energy quite a lot. She put a needle in a point near my lower shin bone, which was rather painful, but I felt it very strongly in my left hip (where there is cancer)...

Her advice was: to meditate (which i haven't been doing, mostly because of extremely low energy and painful sit bones.) Re nutrition (I've decided I'm going primarily follow Misha's advice) She suggested I get Life Over Cancer [links to a blog] re nutrition which I ordered last night.

She suggested fish (according to recommendations on seafoodwatch.org), whey protein, organic eggs. I think she said chicken causes...some kind of congestion. (She's going to give me a written treatment plan which includes all the recommendations, which will be very helpful.) Also on the alkaline/endless sprouts front, she said Chinese medicine recommends at least lightly cooking all foods, though sanitation might have been a big influence (it's true - seems like very few cultures [outside california!] eat raw vegetables.) But I often cook the sprouts too. I don't feel like I can eat tons of raw food but I certainly like having some, carrots and turnips etc.

Some vitamin recommendations: B complex, calcium at night, 4k Vit D, superdophilus. Suggests miso, sauerkraut, kim chi, almonds and walnuts, ginger; suggests focusing on developing soups, can also heat up veg juices and make soup out of them. Congy is good too.

I'm seeing her again Tuesday, January 10 at 2:30 - will add this to my list of appointment page below.

The other woman is an acupuncturist called Elisa.