To bring blog up to date

Since February of 2011 - one year ago:

• I decided to walk away from my house.
• I graduated from CSUSM summa cum laude with a degree in Literature.
• Buster, my precious cat friend for whom this blog is named, lost his life to liver cancer.
• I learned to decorate cakes using the Wilton method.
• I adopted 2 year old Sophie, a Maine Coon.
• I adopted 8 week old Brian, another Maine Coon.
• I made a wedding cake for by brother's August wedding in Encinitas.
• I began tentatively following a paleo diet.
• I attended my niece's wedding in Walnut Grove in late August.
• My beloved mother passed away suddenly in September following a heart attack and emergency surgery.
• My good friend of 23 years, D, decided she no longer wanted to be my friend.
• My dear friend R - just 38 - lost her long and arduous battle with osteosarcoma, leaving behind a husband and a 7 year old daughter.
• My periodontist - after multiple surgeries and countless courses of antibiotics - has thrown in the towel on my dental implant and years-long chronic drug resistant infection. Next up: removal of the implant and prep for a bridge.

I think that's it.

I have one word for you: Plastics

Remember that line from The Graduate? Anyway, that character said a mouthful. Plastics have changed our lives and our world forever. And that's about how long most of them will take to degrade, not that we want them to. All of that aside, here are some simple things I'm doing to protect myself, fully recognizing that there's precious little one can do since the material is so ubiquitous. But I do believe it is the source of many of our modern day ills.

• I never heat plastic. I use glass and ceramic only in the microwave.
• I avoid plastic water bottles as much as possible. I buy a glass bottle of tea, drink it, and then reuse the bottle for water that I carry in my car and at work.
• To help remember which plastics are "safe" for food storage, I have memorized this clever little ditty from the book Slow Death by Rubber Duck: "4-5-1-2 / all the rest are bad for you."
• When I must use plastic cutlery, I use Bioserve Organics which are compostable and dishwasher safe.
• I try to reduce the amount of plastic packaging I support by choosing products with less packaging, carrying my own shopping bags, and purchasing pre-owned products whenever possible.
  

Toxins in Toiletries, or T-in-T

I'm working on reducing the amount of toxins in my environment. Made a list of all of the toiletries I use on a regular basis - and was quite surprised at how many products I use. At any rate, the process for assessing them went like this:

• Look up each product at the Environmental Working Group's "Skin Deep" website: www.cosmeticsdatabase.com. If you don't find your product, become a registered member (free) and you will be able to enter the data from your products and receive a preliminary report/score. I'm aiming for scores of no more than 3. You can also look at scored products in their database by category and sort on product name and score. Very helpful.
• If you decide to try a different, safer product, you can go to www.beautypedia.com (free through the end of February 2011) and learn about the product's efficacy there. That site also has a good ingredients encyclopedia. You can read reviews of products, but note that the reviewers are not concerned about parabens and the like, so a happy face rating does not mean that a product is safe, just that these expert reviewers find that it is effective at whatever it promises.
• If you want to know what other consumers think of the product, there are a number of good review sites, including www.amazon.com, www.drugstore.com, www.makeupalley.com, and others. At makeupalley you can filter reviewers by age group, which is nice; it's a very helpful site with lots of active members and probably worth registering at (free).

Another good website which rates not only the product on its toxicity but also the manufacturer on their footprint is www.goodguide.com, which rates all manner of products, including cleaning products.

In case you are interested, I'll try to figure out a way to easily post the "safe" products I'm using, so check back.

Born to blog

I've decided to start blogging again, so watch out. I will be blogging about:

• my house
• health topics
• miscellaneous things I feel strongly about
  

In case anyone's listening

I haven't posted in so long, I doubt anyone is bothering to monitor this site. But just in case, I want to say that I'm feeling healthy and fine, my treatments are over, and I am now on five years of drug therapy and monitoring. But more importantly, I have to say that I have never in my life been as proud of my country and my fellow countrypeople as I am today. And considering my advanced age and all that has happened in the past half century, that is saying a lot. Frankly, if Barack Obama does nothing for the next four years but work to alleviate the plight of the African American people in this nation, it will be alright by me. This one's for you, Grandma!

Prevention news - from Dr. Andrew Weil

Resveratrol May Prevent Breast Cancer

It’s still much too soon to say for sure, but new research suggests that resveratrol, the antioxidant found in red wine, the skin of grapes, blueberries, raspberries and cranberries, may have a role to play in breast cancer prevention. Laboratory studies indicate that resveratrol can slow the formation of abnormal cells that leads to most types of breast cancer. Breast cancer often begins when estrogen interacts with DNA molecules to set a process of cell transformation in motion, which eventually leads to the disease. Researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center measured the effect of different doses of resveratrol and found that even amounts as low as you would get in a glass of wine did the trick. In addition to its effect on abnormal cell formation, resveratrol increased production of an enzyme that inactivates dangerous estrogen metabolites, possibly further decreasing breast cancer risk. So far, all of this has happened only in the test-tube. No one knows if resveratrol will have similar effect in humans. The study was published in the July 2008 issue of Cancer Prevention Research.

Note from Marcia: If this were the case, I'd have thought I'd be immune.... I quit drinking about 6 years ago - maybe that was my mistake! ;)

Radiation - 1 of 30

To those of you who actually check this site for updates - my apologies. Just haven't felt like blogging. Had my last chemo infusion on June 26. Have been gradually getting my strength back with a couple of setbacks. Felt ill for a few days last week. Have some anemia. Also have steroid myopathy - an atrophy of my leg muscles from the steroids I was taking for chemo. My thigh muscles are very weak and it makes it difficult for me to stand, climb, even bend or straighten my legs. Doc says this should ease up in time.

Had my first radiation treatment today. Treatments will be daily (M-F) for 6 weeks. Takes about 10 minutes total. I lie on a metal table and receive two radiation doses, one from each side. I'm likely to experience some skin reaction (like a sunburn) starting in a couple of weeks and am using products to help alleviate or prevent the burning.

Also started taking Tamoxifen today. This is a drug which prohibits my body's production of estrogen, which feeds my particular type of cancer. I will take this daily for at least three years, at which time I will likely be switched to a drug called Femara, which I'll take for another two years at least.

The good news - and there is a lot of it - is that I'm feeling stronger all the time. I'm getting my sense of taste back. I have a little bit of hair on my head. I haven't noticed any negative reactions to the Tamoxifen. Not sure yet about the radiation, since that was just an hour ago.

Anyway, the poem posted below which I found today was particularly meaningful to me because I know I have lots of support from many realms. I want to say "thank you" to the many friends who are supporting me right now. It means so much to me to know you're there.