A Day’s Worth of Cancer-Fighting Foods

Hi there! Are you enjoying Vegan Mofo so far? Have you discovered any new food blogs through it? I can’t believe we’re coming up on the end of October already.

This is now day 10 since my surgery last week and I have my final pathology report news at the end of this post (it’s good!). I haven’t been able to get back to the gym yet, but yesterday morning Alan and I went to the beach to get some fresh air and do some light walking:

Prior to that, I had some leftover green smoothie for breakfast with dehydrated buckwheat groats on top:

My appetite is pretty good overall, but it has definitely diminished since I am not getting my usual amount of exercise.

For lunch, I made some kale salad with a dressing of almond butter, lime juice, dates, soy milk, garlic and onion very similar to this recipe:

I served mine with black rice, steamed asparagus, chopped onion, black beans and edamame:

I was still hungry so for dessert I had two baby apples with some peanut butter:

For dinner, I wasn’t super hungry so I made a big salad with my new favorite salad dressing, my Wild Blueberry Zinger Dressing. I’ve started mixing in raspberries into this dressing along with the blueberries which gives it that pretty pink color. The salad consisted of lettuce, sliced red onions, pistachio nuts, salad dressing, red bell pepper, chopped raw broccoli and a little avocado:

To be honest with you, I couldn’t quite finish the salad. Also, I wanted to mention that I’ve had lots of readers ask me about how many nuts are in an ounce. Just as a guide, I measured one ounce of pistachio nuts so you can see what the amount looks like:

Here is the same amount in my hand:

I counted the nuts and there were 44 total. I split that amount between both Alan and me. I’m guess-timating that I probably consume about 2-3 ounces of nuts/seeds a day plus some avocado.

So you might remember that Monday was a big day for me because I had appointments with both my surgeon and my endocrinologist. The surgeon removed my stitches so now I am wearing a silicone patch with paper tape to reduce the scarring. I’m not covering the wounds where the drains were anymore (those are the two dots below the incision). Here’s what I am rocking:

I will hold off on showing you the actual incision for awhile longer since it still looks a bit Frankenstein-ish (my Halloween costume?).

But, what I really wanted to share with you is that my doctors got a second opinion on the pathology of what was removed during surgery and they all agree now that there was NO lymph node involvement with the cancer as was suspected during the surgery. That combined with the fact that the tumor on my thyroid was really small means that I am at a very low risk for recurrence and I do not need the treatment with radioactive iodine now. Yay!!!!!!!!

Obviously, being cancer-free was the whole point of having the surgery so I am grateful and relieved with these results. The only follow-up I need for now is blood level monitoring, ultrasounds and physical exams. My next important appointment is in early December.

My endocrinologist also gave me my prescription for my thyroid replacement medication on Monday. I got bummed when he confirmed that I might have side effects like hair loss, tiredness, and weight gain, but he assured me they should be temporary and I am trying to keep it all in perspective with the bigger picture. I absolutely do think that my lifestyle and excellent diet has helped me recover quickly so far and will continue to aid me during this process. Both of my doctors and several other people in their offices have said that I am doing really well. I even handed out my blog card to my doctor’s assistant because she said she likes to cook healthy meals. I also gave Dr. Fuhrman’s card to my surgeon and I am slowly working on my endocrinologist to go vegan (he is already vegetarian).

Thank you again for your incredibly supportive messages and e-mails. I continue to lean on you during the hard times of this process and I am so grateful to have you.

I am submitting this post to What I Ate Wednesdays and I’ll see you back here on Friday!

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