Happy new month!!!! I am back again and trusting that you are doing well, blooming and looking forward to more sunshine. April was was national minority cancer awareness month. I had the privilege of attending a Cancer Care Disparities lecture at DFCI and it was sad to see that amongst people of color, we are still at the end of the stick (sort off) when it comes to health equity in cancer. Can you believe that breast cancer 5-year survival rate for women of color, particularly black women is 65% but for our Caucasian sisters, it is 85%?!!!! That right there is a huge problem!

The guest scientist further presented barriers to care and access. The top 9 she presented included “cultural beliefs”. My hope is that as a reader, you will but all cultural and religious bias aside and be open to what is currently available for treatment. Today it is chemotherapy. Yes…. chemo. I am not an oncologist but all information about the different treatments are available at the American Cancer Society webpage. Specific information about chemotherapy can be found here.

Please follow the link and be well informed. Chemotherapy of 2019 is way different from chemotherapy of 10, 20, 30 and 40 years ago. It can be well tolerated and managed with the right mindset, diet, rest, and open communication with your oncologist. What chemotherapy does it to destroy the cancer cells by unraveling its DNA. In the process, cancer’s growth is stalled.

Chemotherapy has received a bad rap because of its “toxicity”. Yes, it kills both the good and the bad cells. Here is the good news, the bad cells stay dead but your good cells, that chemo kills initially come back to life! The body is the most “bad-ass” work of creation, the ability to regenerate is mind-blowing. I experienced it first hand.

I don’t want to focus on managing the side effects yet. That will be another post and I promise to get that to you as soon as possible. I am not here to get into the politics of chemotherapy and the argument from some homeopathic oncologists. Even some of them subscribe to “low-dose” chemotherapy. I am all for healing and recovery. I welcome your comments. Have you received chemotherapy or do you know anyone who has? Let’s talk.

xoxox

O.E.M.A