My last hurrah....

It's back to work for me the first week of May. To squeeze in one more trip before my 'freedom' ends, I am off to Scotland on Monday to see my dear sister-in-law who is about to have her first baby! (due May 2) I'm hoping for an early delivery...... I'll read up on things to feed her to put her into labour early....!

Just as my plane takes off on Monday afternoon, Cam will be finishing his first day of work at his new job as a Warehouse Supervisor at Pharmasmart. It's located in Cloverdale - for the first time in a very long time Cam won't have to cross a bridge to get to work. It has a pension plan, plus RSP matching and decent vacation time.

I am getting skinny!!! OK, well, maybe skinny is pushing it a little but certainly on the road to it. Last night I went out with Suzanne and she said she needed to take our traditional photo of the two of us - so she did and when I saw it I realized I had no double chin. It has been a long time since that happened.

On another topic, I had been totally confused about some foods as I had decided I wanted to eat healthy choices and soy products and ground flaxseed are in the 'superfoods' categories. But they also have phytoestrogens and the paperwork handed out at the cancer clinic lists all the foods with phyoestrogens (plant estrogens) but then goes on to say that there isn't much research on the effect of these foods on certain breast cancer patients and so to consult with your medical professionals.

So I tried to talk to my oncologist but he wasn't much help. He said eat soy in moderation but I hadn't asked him about flaxseed. So then I phoned the cancer agency again and asked the flaxseed question and the pharmacy reported back that hormone positive patients shouldn't eat ground flaxseed due to the estrogen but that flaxseed oil is ok. This frustrated me because I really WANT to eat flaxseed and I read a study online that said that the weak estrogens in the soy & flax will help my Tamoxifen (cancer pill) to work better. So in my frustration & desperation, I emailed the organization who did the Run for the Cure. Since they raise money for research and I want to put in a suggestions for them to do research on the foods, I emailed them.

They actually emailed the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and a registered dietician answered my question! And the answer is that new research HAS been done and the info I received before was out-of-date. A new booklet was published last August called A Nutrition Guide for Women with Breast Cancer and says that up to two servings per day of soy products is safe as is 1 - 2 TBSP of ground flaxseed. YAY! I guess things are really getting back to 'normal' for me.... it's a weird feeling but, as Red said in Shawshank, you either get busy living or get busy dyin'...... I intend to get busy living!!!!