Several people have emailed me over the last week asking about June’s progress and what we’ve been doing with her in terms of treatment, so I thought I’d update my blog with our current news and also detail the nutritional protocol we are embarking on for the past seven and a bit weeks. For those of you new to the blog, my mother-in-law June was diagnosed with a very aggressive “terminal” cancer, mesothelioma, in January of this year and told by her oncologist to go home and put her affairs in order. I personally viewed this as a huge gift from the Universe as it meant we could start her natural healing protocol unhindered.
On the 19th January June embarked on a naturopathic diet, daily healing therapies and supplementation (of which I will blog about in a later post). The first three weeks were pretty intense for us as a family as she went through some major detox symptoms. The whole journey has been a huge spiritual growth path for all of us. There are several things June didn’t want to do (such as detoxification methods like colonics/enemas, liver flushes etc which I would have encouraged and which would have made her toxic load much lighter), but she bravely battled through all the mental/emotional turmoil which detoxification always brings. If anyone embarks on this type of healing regime and is willing to follow these other methods, they do make the detoxification lows that much easier. As your body starts breaking down all the old cells and toxic debris of the past, strong emotions and thoughts will come to the surface to be processed and let go of. I’ve personally found these quite overwhelming when I’ve done my own detoxification, but found huge relief in liver flushing, kidney cleanses, bentonite clay and psyllium shakes, colonics and enemas which allow the body to get rid of the toxins so much quicker and allows peace to reign once again on the emotional front. During this time, the therapies that we were practising were also detoxing June’s body and helping the emotions to pass through.
It’s also been an interesting challenge guiding someone through the whole process. As a therapist and healing practitioner I have learnt over the years that one can only advise different health regimes with one’s clients, as ultimately they have to go there own way. One of the Facebook applications is called Message from God, and several times the same message came up over the last few weeks: “Yes, of course, you want to control so everything happens in just the way you want it. But at the end of the day, we control nothing, – it’s all in God’s hands, – has always been, and will always be. So, do what you can, and then let go, and let God handle the rest”, and that really is the way we have gone. There were also some things June did want to do which were contraindicated in the normal scheme of things. Having her hair cut and coloured at the end of week five was not in our detoxification protocol, our concern being with the chemicals and fumes in the hair dye, but we came to the realisation that the mental boost this gave her may outweigh the damage from the chemicals, so we acquiesced. As far as toxicity is concerned however, I’d encourage people to avoid synthetic chemicals in all of their forms, especially in hair and body care products, as well as household cleaning products, the least toxic the environment, the better.
After the third week there was a huge shift. Not only did June’s outlook shift dramatically to an “I can do this and I’m going to survive this” attitude, but her physical health started to fall in with her improved mental/emotional outlook. The diet she is having is calorie restrictive, so our main concern was weight loss as the cachexia from the cancer had been severe. But we soon realised after the sixth week when her weight stabilised that her energy levels were increasing week on week, and she had stopped losing, so our concern diminished greatly.
So as we move into the eight week on this healing regime, June is coping relatively well. We’re still not taking things for granted though and know we have lots more milestones to pass. We still encounter many different emotional states on a daily basis. However, her weight has stabilised, her energy is on the increase, the pleural effusion in her lungs has gone and she is looking to the future. Two weeks ago she took a small walk, the first time she had left the house for anything except hospital visits since Autumn last year. Today as we’ve had such a beautiful day in our part of the UK, she went on a short trip to her local garden centre. If she had accepted her prognosis in January, she may well not even have been with us today. Once again, thank you to all of you who are sending distant Reiki, look at what it’s achieving!
The diet she is undertaking is a high raw vegan diet with some cooked soups. A daily menu looks something like this:-
Breakfast: Green Smoothie (mixture of green leaves, spinach, kale or similar, with two pieces of fruit plus an avocado, 2 tablespoons of bee pollen, 2 tablespoons of Dr Schulze’s Superfood, 2 tablespoons Udos Oil, apricot kernels.
There are many raw vegan websites which give delicious recipes for green smoothies. The green leaves balance out the glycaemic load of the meal and prevents sugar spikes. Ordinarily fruit should be limited when looking at cancer nutrition, as cancer loves sugar in all of its forms, but we felt the fruit sugar was necessary for energy as well as calories and also taste. Fats are also often restricted, but as she had dropped to six stone, we had to have a certain level of fat in her diet. We introduced bee pollen in the third week after I found several references online to a scientific research study where mice that had developed lung cancer in laboratory conditions were fed bee pollen versus mice that were fed normal feed. The mice that were fed the bee pollen lived twice as long as those that weren’t. The Dr Schulze Superfood has been a staple food in my diet for several years. It’s a wonderful combination of foods such as seaweeds, green grasses and algaes, and is amazing for sustaining one’s energy. Apricot kernels have a certain amount of B17 in them which is believed to target cancer cells.
Throughout the day: A mixture of vegetable juices, predominantly carrot, ginger and apple. The carrot is high in beta carotene which converts to vitamin A in the body, mopping up free radicals, and is good for many organs of the body. The malic acid in the apples helps to release the minerals in the carrots and the ginger is a warming circulatory booster as well as being an appetite stimulant. Again if you plan on embarking on such a regime, green juices are actually also very beneficial, but June prefers the carrot mixture so we are sticking with that for the present time. She is only drinking about one litre of this juice daily, sometimes less. It would be advantageous if she could drink so much more. The Gerson Diet which is similar in many ways advocates 8oz of fresh vegetable juice hourly throughout the day. June’s appetite has always been small, so she is only managing the one litre.
Lunch: Vegetable soups of different varieties, made from scratch. Occasionally we add a yeast free stock cube, but often they are made just with vegetables, herbs and water.
Evening Meal: Soups, green smoothie or raw salads.
Beverages: Water and Redbush tea. June was used to drinking normal caffeinated black tea with milk, so we initially added almond milk to the Redbush tea, but gradually she has adopted a preference for the tea on its own. She probably isn’t having as much water as would be liked (two litres) and this can potentially compromise kidney function, but she is getting liquids from the tea and juices. We are using bottled spring water as we do not have a distiller or good filtering system. Tap water is just NOT an option as it has far too many chemicals and contaminants in it. The smoothies are made with a Vita Mix blender which was the first thing which we purchased. It is a fairly expensive piece of equipment at £439, but worth its weight in gold for preparing foods/smoothies/soups. You can even juice with them, but fortunately I have a Green Star juicer which is a heavy duty juicer and makes really nutritious juice.
The only true discomfort June experienced was due to her weight loss. Her sitting bones were no longer covered with any body fat and she found it really uncomfortable to sit for periods of time. A trip to “Toys r us” and one child’s rubber swimming ring later (decorated with fairies of course), problem solved! Currently she has some mild throat congestion and these are the only two physical symptoms she is experiencing.
I will blog some more at a further date about the rest of this protocol. I do feel her improved health is due to ALL of the things we are doing. However, food and nutrition is hugely important when looking at health, we are what we eat after all. June’s diet is currently high raw vegan, the aim being to have her blood pH as alkaline as possible (cancer thrives in an acidic pH blood). From a Reiki and energy perspective, this is the highest vibrational diet she can have. On an energetic level the foods she is having are very nourishing for her mental/emotional state due to their low level of toxic load as well as being full of vitamins and minerals. And because of this, she is progressing well. You will notice the diet is devoid of animal proteins. On a physical level these would add toxicity, but from a Reiki energetic perspective, animal products also retain the energies (think emotions) from the animals concerned. That’s not so bad if people are eating organically reared free range animals, but think of all the fear and other negative emotions you would be ingesting by eating a factory farmed animal. Dairy products not only clog up the physical body (you just have to look at their consistency to realise that) but on an energetic level they are believed to clog the nadis and meridians and cause victim consciousness. Three years ago when I lived just on vegetable juices for three months, I found my consciousness was very elevated, my thoughts were pure and my emotions were very balanced. What we eat has a profound effect on our psyche. Dr Gabriel Cousens’ book “Spiritual Nutrition” is a must read for all of you who are interested in finding out more on how food affects the way we feel and think.
On the Reiki Drum front, I’ve just had two marvellous weekends teaching practitioner classes. Thanks to the Serenity Centre in Hampshire for hosting the first class and the second was held in East Herts. On a lighter note, two of my students from the most recent class commented on how their Reiki drumming has attracted both their cats and dog. Apparently their animals won’t leave their side when they start drumming, obviously drawn to the Reiki energies! I couldn’t resist posting a photo from one of last year’s classes which was run from my home in East Herts. My two Tonkinese cats love Reiki in all its forms and although very sensitive are happy to receive the drumming. They are also always very keen to get in on the Reiki action if students are amenable to it. As you can see from the photo, this is one very chilled out cat and the drum was large, and the drumming was loud!
Most of the practitioner classes will be held in East Herts for the remainder of 2011, except for the very exciting opportunity to incorporate the Reiki Drum practitioner training with a residential retreat and celebrate the Celtic New Year in October at the beautiful Phoenix Centre for which I’m currently taking bookings.
Next weekend we have our Reiki Drum Share being held in Sheering, Essex. To date the response to this day has been phenomenal and I know we are in for one very special event. Here’s a link to the Youtube video we took last year Reiki Drum Share 2010. I’m off to Dorset this weekend for a four day shamanic drumming retreat with the Sacred Trust, the UK representative organisation for the Foundation of Shamanic Studies. After teaching and all of my healing work with June and my clients, I’m looking forward to concentrating on my own soul healing for a few days. And just a reminder that there are still some spaces on the June Summer Solstice Sound & Light Retreat at the beautiful Dev Aura Retreat Centre in Lincolnshire. This is going to be a beautiful few days working on inner harmony, joy and peace by using sound and light healing techniques in a very special location. Please get in touch if you’d like to spend a special weekend with like minded souls.
Forthcoming Events:
Reiki Drum Share – 20 March
Reiki Drum Practitioner – April 2/3, May 21/22, 2/3 July, 3/4 September, 5/6 November
Reiki Drum Practitioner & Samhain Residential Retreat – 28-30 October
Sound & Light Residential Retreat – 24-26 June
Reiki One(Shoden) – 30 April/1 May, 16 /17 July, 1/2 October, 3/4 December
Reiki Two (Okuden) – 26/7 March, 23/24 July, 22/23 October
Reiki Master Teacher (Shinpiden) 6-8 May, 18-20 November
