Day 357 in a Year of my Life

Back in the eighties, I spent a lot of time fund raising for cancer research, as well as donating plenty of my tightly budgeted income in the hopes that 'one day soon' they would find a cure for the dreaded cancer.

Then in 1988, I had a bad result from a pap smear and was sent to a hospital out of my local area to have pre-cancerous cells burnt from my cervix.

I remember, as clearly as if it happened yesterday, sitting in that chair with my legs in stirrups wondering if this was the beginning of the end for me.

Three years later, after another pap smear, my Dr phoned me at 10pm one night to tell me that the results looked very grim, that it could be stage four cancer and that he had made an appointment for me the very next day, with a Specialist, once again, out of town.

The following fifteen hours were some of the most stressful that I've experienced.

I was a single mother with no form of transport, so I had to find someone to drive me 2 hours to the Specialist, and someone who could be available for my kids when they got home from school. (I lived 2000 kms from my family)

After frantically making all of those arrangements, I attended the appointment, went through a barrage of invasive tests, only to discover that there was absolutely nothing wrong. All tests came back completely clear.

That was the beginning of my distrust of the medical profession.

Since that time I have lost friends and family due to misdiagnosis, maltreatment and mismanagement by the medical industry and I watch and study and analyse every experience with a Dr or Specialist that my living friends and family have with treatment.

It's only in the last ten years (if that), that I have experienced the trauma of losing friends and family to cancer.

Of the thirteen people I know, who have been diagnosed in the last ten years, seven of them have passed on.

Of the remaining six, three of them are still receiving treatment and only one of those six has hit the five year remission mark.

All of those, still alive, have suffered horrendously with their treatments and three of them teetered on the brink of death.

So I can understand the people who have survived their cancer treatment, feeling very angry with me when I talk about how dangerous and ineffective chemotherapy and radium treatment is and how it causes long term effects that reduces the quality of life of those who endure it.

For a number of years now, I have questioned where the millions of dollars worth of funds raised for cancer research is actually going.

But that story is for another day, in another post.

This is what I found today ...

... and if you want to read more, follow this link

This kind of reinforces the statistics that I provided in yesterday's post.

The incidences of cancer are not declining.

The survival rates of cancer are not improving.

We are losing more and more loved ones because the medical and pharmaceutical industries do not care about healing us.

They will never provide our cure.

We must find it ourselves.

End soapbox rant.

I found this interesting creature on our stove top this afternoon.

I've decided to use it for the 'macro' challenge in flickr, instead of using the photo of 'Lolly'.

Last, but not least, today is Adoring Husband's birthday. We had cake!

Today I'm grateful that Adoring Husband enjoyed the gluten-free, sugar-free birthday cake that I made for him.

If you would like to enjoy it too, here is the recipe ...

Flourless Chocolate Cake

4 large eggs

1 Cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 cup of pure maple syrup

1/4 cup + 1Tbsp organic coconut oil

2tsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp himalayan salt


1/3 cup pecans or walnuts

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180C

Line your loaf tin with baking paper.

Chuck all of the ingredients (except the nuts) in your food processor and mix it til it's all smooth and creamy.

Pour into the loaf tin, sprinkle the top with chopped nuts and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes.

Serve with whipped cream and kiwi fruit or berries.

Nite all.