Veggiflections- Food for thought. Part 4

Food for thought. Part 4

WARNING: The pictures in this blog might be disturbing for people with photo sensitive epilepsy.

The Test..

We always thought it won't-happen-to-us and that we would never be faced with the reality of how quickly this dis-ease has invaded our family. So much research was done, documentaries watched and a million hours spent reading up on this dis-ease, surely this was not all done in vain, we refused to believe it. The phone calls to my Dad weren't always pleasant, now he was having second thoughts and all the feedback from him were all negative. We couldn't understand why all of a sudden he had considered changing his mind. His weight had dropped drastically after the diet change, and was now losing his appetite all together.

The more we tried to explain to him that his body was detoxing all the years of bad eating habits, and that it was only natural for the weight loss. My sister, her husband and myself have also gone onto the plant based diet and have also seen a drastic weight loss, so it was not only him that was losing weight, we all were. But through all the preaching it felt like we were very close to losing this fight, it didn't feel good at all. This was probably the hardest test of all.

The Doctors appointment..

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate and hate leads to suffering.

My Dad's stomach started to harden, he was cramping and his bowel movements weren't as active as they were the week before, so he decided to call the Doctor to see what was going on. My Mom joined him at the appointment, a few tests were done and the result was that my Dad had retained "fluid" in his stomach, the scan also showed that the cancer was everywhere?! What did they mean everywhere? I asked my Dad if he got a copy of the scan and he said no, I then asked if he could get it, he said as soon as he did he would forward it to me. Now I'm no reader of radiology reports, nor am I capable of seeing what is what on the scan, but I really thought it would be a good idea to take that scan results to another Doctor for a second opinion. My Dad didn't like that idea, said he didn't have time for it. Was this the fear that had started creeping in, or was it the anger boiling in his blood because of the dis-eased situation?

Of course the food thing came up again, it always came up, it was like this Doctor just believed in his way of treatment and constantly try to instil fear into my Dad's thoughts. We couldn't understand why this Doctor kept persisting, we were highly annoyed and kind of figured that it was this Doctors persisting ways that might have caused my Dad's consideration to change his mind. We needed to exercise extreme caution with this very sensitive situation, and get my Dad back to the positive brainwave train. There would be no more fear, we were done with it!

The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers fear. Nothing in life should be feared.

My best friend Google..

This word "fluid" mentioned so vauely had me thinking, what was it, what caused it and how were we going to get rid of it quickly and naturally. The Doctor had already explained to my Dad that he would be admitted for a few days, a hole would be cut into his abdomen and a pipe would be used to drain the fluid out of his stomach. Apparently this was a normal thing that happens to patients with colon dis-ease.

It was time to hook up with my closest friend who knew all the answers. The first question I asked Google was, "fluid in the stomach?" my friend answered me with the technical name called ASCITES. Okay so I now knew what it was called and that it was common for patients with colon, liver and pancreas dis-eases. The second question I asked was, "does radiology cause ASCITES?" and immediately a case study popped up on my screen.

It was from case journal.biomedcentral.com where they did a complete case study on a 64year old gentleman with unresectable right-sided retroperitoneal liposarcoma who underwent radiotherapy and subsequently developed chylous ASCITES. WT$%^&!!! (I was shocked, but not surprised at all)

I couldn't believe what I was reading, if this was true, which it was, why was my Dad not informed about this specific deadly side effect prior to the 12 radiology treatments that were booked by his Doctor so quickly after the diagnoses, this was pure evil! They had again proved that the sicker they keep their patients the more they will return for more treatments and the cycle will just keep repeating itself.

The third question I asked my friend was, "natural cure for ASCITES?" a horrid gremlin looking green vegetable popped up on my screen. I remembered eating this vegetable, and also remembered not liking it at all. It was called bitter gourd, better known as kerala and typically eaten in the Indian culture. It had a distinct taste, the bitter in bitter gourd had nothing on how bitter this vegetable really was. Anyway I kept reading, besides the look of it, the health benefits were out of this world, it said that when juiced in its raw form , skin and all and taken twice a day will almost immediately start working on ASCITES fluid, and also would increase the appetite. So many health benefits, but I simply just extracted what I needed to know at the time. I called my Mom immediately and insisted that they go find this vegetable, explained the benefits and of course warned them about the taste. The vegetable was out of season, but after searching and asking friends on social media where we could get it, they eventually did. There were only a few days left before my Dad was meant to go to the hospital for the surgical drainage of the fluid, so I was very eager to see if the bitter gourd had worked. I called the morning after the first juice, and my Dad said he felt so much better.

That was all I needed to hear that day, that was a good day...

The Man bag..

Our family whatsapp pinged, I opened the chat to a message from my Dad, which read, "I've just checked in."

The procedure for the following morning would be to numb the area, then insert the shunt (a drainage pipe inserted into the abdomen) and watch the fluid fill the bag. We called in to see how everything was going, he answered and sounded okay and in the same breath mentioned that they just drained 3 litres of fluid in the first session. I prayed hard that day, asking that the cancer and all the dis-ease my Dad had to endure went with all the fluid that was being drained into that bag.

Now after all the research on ASCITES and the shunting process, I remembered reading that those who are treating the patient would normally insist on keeping the shunt embedded, and as soon as the patient agrees, chemotherapy drugs would be pumped back into the stomach of the patient.

We made sure that my Dad knew that we were aware that this sometimes happen, and that he needed to remain focussed throughout this procedure which would keep him in hospital for three days. We kept praying for the days to go by faster and that my Dad would get back home, the quicker he was out of that hospital the better. I don't like hospitals, hospitals to me are like breeding grounds for the ill, disease and negativity. He needed to be in familiar surroundings and stay focussed on getting better.

Dad was back home and back on the cannabis oil, apricot kernels and bitter gourd juice, the fluid still drained from the shunt, he was very tired and slept most days. The shunt was draining all the liquids from his stomach, electrolytes included. It's been two weeks, and the shunt still there, just draining away fluid.

The Prayer..

August 15th, 2017

Today's Old Testament Verse

God says, In distress you called, and I rescued you. - Psalm 81:7

Todays's New Testament Verse

A leper came to Jesus begging him, and kneeling he said to him, if you choose, you can make me clean. Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, I do choose. Be made clean! Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.

-Mark 1:40-42

Today's Prayer

Jesus, I am so glad you choose to rescue me in order to bring healing. Forgive me when I continue to choose habits that are prone to bring dis-ease. Rescue me from my unhealthy choices, so that I might enjoy the life you give me to share with others.

Amen

We could not have asked for a better prayer today, this is again a true testament of how we are being sent messages by the almighty above, and yes God we are listening.

The waiting game..

(to be continued)

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Love and Light always

René

xo