Cancer Costumes...Halloween FUN

Halloween is for kids and cancer patients! There is joy that overflows from a child when asked, “What do you want to be for Halloween”. With it’s endless possibilities to express who they want to become, who they idolize. As a cancer patient the opportunity returns. 

It is a time to embrace the changes, the baldness, the scars. A time to laugh at the hand you have been dealt.

It is a day off from taking CANCER seriously. 

image.jpg

 

It is a time to take charge of YOUR identity, even if it is just for a day. 

image.jpg

 

Halloween 2014 -a week after my double mastectomy- there was no party but there was an appointment to remove my final drain bag. Circumstance made my costume…I was the Bride of Frankenstein, cut up and put back together. My amazing husband dressed as Dr. Frankenstein to support my crazy. 

It brought joy to what could have been an otherwise traumatizing situation. I had not seen my bare chest until that appointment and when I did my first thought was “What a FUCKING badass”. It set the tone for my journey to follow. 

 

Find out what I dressed up as this year (Spoiler: IT IS EPIC) on Instagram @AnielaMcG. 

 

Did you dress up during your treatment? Share what you were. Comment below.

 

It's CANCER...The Phone Call.

We are going to magically travel back in time and witness the exact moment I found out I had CANCER. Wanting to openly and honestly share the process of getting a preventative mastectomy, I filmed the phone call from my doctor -not knowing the outcome- and I am grateful I did. A life changing moment captured in all it’s overwhelmingly raw glory. It is one of those events you play over and over in your head, making it worse and worse until it eventually warps into a soul-crushing feeling of anxiety and fear. 

 

The moment I heard CANCER, the rest of the conversations felt as if I was talking to the teacher from Peanuts, Wha Wha Whaaaa. Two days later, I sat down and watched it, watched my former self crumble before my eyes. Then I stepped back and started editing it- becoming the observer- and everything changed. What I remembered and what I saw were not accurate and when I simply listened to what was said, it wasn’t as devastating as my mind made it out to be. 

Nine months later -cancer free- I want to share this video again but this time knowing how this chapter of my life ends. Knowing every character and plot twist and realizing that the waiting, the unknown, and my own MIND were the most painful parts. 

Here are the Cliffs Notes:

If you are so inspired, you can donate to help make the "I Don't Have Cancer" Documentary. http://www.gofundme.com/MyBreastChoice

Oil Pulling and Chemo

MOUTH SORES...they are like a portal to Chemo HELL, but what if they could be not just treated but prevented? Oil Pulling is the magical answer, plus its cheap and easy. 

First, I must confess my love for trying random holistic remedies which I never stick to with any regularity. Sour Sop Tea, let’s do it…one time. Drinking raw Aloe, hell yes…for a week. I never do it long enough to really see the benefits. I get distracted, am fickle, and inconsistent. But since starting chemo I have found one remedy that I have stuck to... OIL PULLING. 

I have oil pulled off and on over the last few years but I never could “Prove” that it did anything more than whiten my teeth a little. An ancient ayurvedic technique of taking oil and swishing it in your mouth for 20 minutes everyday to remove toxins from the body. Sounds like fun right? My husband refuses to even try it. To him it is a disgusting form of torture on the same level as pulling weeds and he doesn’t see why anyone would voluntarily do it.

Oil Pulling isn’t a choice for me anymore, it is something I HAVE to do. I am on chemo and one of the side effects are MOUTH SORES, an open wound that forms in your mouth. My first one showed up a week after my first chemo treatment on Christmas morning, what a gift! My internet chemo buddies told me that I could get “Magic Mouthwash” prescribed by my doctor and it would help, but tasted like crap and makes your mouth numb. So out of laziness, because I didn’t want to go to the pharmacy, I decided to try oil pulling again. By the next day my mouth was healed. Every morning since I have been oil pulling and have not had a single mouth sore now two and a half months into my treatment. 

Here is what I use:

  • 1 teaspoon Organic coconut oil

  • 3-4 drops Organic clove oil

  • 1/2 cup warm salt water (for rinsing)

I prefer coconut oil but you can also use sesame or sunflower. Costco sells “pure, unrefined, cold pressed, 100% organic extra virgin coconut oil” - with that many adjectives you know its good- in a 54oz jug for about $17. Dr. Mehta, the integrative medicine doctor at UM Sylvester, suggested that I add several drops of clove oil to my oil pulling. Clove oil and coconut oil both have antiseptic properties and the clove oil has a huge list of added benefits. Dr. Mehta also explained to me why oil pulling works, come to find out its not magic. During chemo my cells are exploding and leaving all their toxic waste floating in my body. By drinking water I flush the water soluble parts out but the fat soluble bits are stuck. With oil pulling, I give a place for those fat soluble toxins to go and then I quickly spit them out. Whahla! The magic of our bodies. 

As soon as I get out of bed I put a teaspoon of coconut oil with a few drops of clove oil in my mouth and I start gently swishing. If you are finding that your mouth is cramping up, use less oil. Then do your morning ritual, use the bathroom, make the bed, shower, feed the cats, meditate, etc. 20 minutes is the optimum time to get the full benefits and it will go by before you know it. You want to do it for a full 20 minutes. Its long enough to break through the mucus membrane and short enough not to have the toxin seep back in. Spit the oil into the trash, you don’t want to clog your drains. Then rinse with salt water. DONE.