I Decided To Live With Cancer, Changing My Diet

When I was told five years ago that I had metastatic ovarian cancer, my whole world fell apart. He was thirty-two years old, a three-year-old boy and had just passed the examinations as a family doctor in the Andalusian Health Service.

Suddenly, my life was turned upside down, my plans for the future went into a stand-by state while the word death was incessantly hovering in my head. Everything was spinning around me, I couldn’t think clearly, I only thought of pain, suffering, death, agony … I looked at my little son and I couldn’t stop crying, the idea of ​​him being orphaned terrified me, he was the most important thing I had in my life. They were days of anguish and uncertainty, my pulse was racing, I could not breathe, I felt a continuous pressure in my chest … That could not be happening to me.

After crying long and hard for several days, after screaming, kicking and unloading the pain, fear, rage and anger that I felt, I resurfaced like a phoenix from my ashes and decided to leave the regrets behind and become an active part of myself. disease. I had become ill for one reason or another, but I was also the one who was going to heal using all the tools that were available to me.

“Your natural forces will heal you”

At that time I remembered the History of Medicine classes in which they told us about Hippocrates and his principle Vis medicatrix naturae. Hippocrates affirmed: “Your natural forces, those that are within you, will be the ones that will cure your diseases.” I decided to trust myself, my instincts and my healing power to heal, to stay here and watch my son grow up. I decided to live …

At first, as a doctor, I cannot help looking for scientific information related to my disease and I find that the statistics are not in my favor. In principle, chemotherapy is palliative, to extend my life as long as possible, and studies show that most of the patients with my diagnosis die before the age of five.

I decided to trust my instincts and my healing power to heal and watch my son grow. I decided to live …

I think that these statistics are not made for me, I am going to break the Gaussian bell and I am going to live. Now comes the big question … How am I going to break the statistics if I know that chemotherapy has limited efficacy in my case? I decide to trust the proposed medical treatment of chemotherapy and undergo an oophorectomy (removal of the affected ovary and tumor), but I decide to look for something else, something that allows me to be active during my illness and not sit in the chair to see what happens . I don’t want to be a passive patient who laments what is happening to her.

My Wish List During Chemotherapy

I decide to live from that moment, enjoying every minute, squeezing life to the fullest. I make a list of wishes and priorities, I put all the dreams that I want to make come true on paper and together with my partner and my son I set out to shape them. Traveling is one of those priorities, so I plan on wonderful trips during chemo breaks.

Another wish that I reflect on my list is to be a mother again; I dream of the image of a precious baby. Thinking of being a mother with such a bleak diagnosis can seem crazy and foolhardy. I know it wasn’t the number one priority, but it was one of my dreams. In addition, I wanted to give birth at home, to be able to make up for a disrespected first hospital birth. I wanted to be able to feel what giving birth is really like, to feel that I was the one who gave birth and the one who decided. Since I got over the initial diagnosis, I decided that I would be the one who would make the important decisions in my life, that I would not let others decide for me, and in the case of giving birth again, I would.

I remember again Hippocrates and his famous precept: “Let your medicine be your food, and food your medicine. ” I set out to search for scientific information that relates cancer, diet and lifestyles. To my surprise, I discover that there are hundreds of articles that tell us about the curative and preventive power of foods and lifestyles. So, after much reading, I decide to make a radical change in my diet to try to promote healing and alleviate the side effects of chemotherapy. I eliminate sugars, refined flours, manufactured products and loaded with additives, meats, dairy, and fill my plate with vegetables, fruits, seeds, nuts, spices, aromatic herbs and legumes. I try to consume the maximum of raw products.

I remember Hippocrates and his famous precept “that your medicine be your food, and food your medicine”

Along with the change in diet, I begin to focus on taking care of my mind and my body. I attend yoga and chikung classes, which give me great peace and tranquility, while my body feels more flexible. To put order in the whirlwind of emotions that assail me, I begin to attend the consultation of a psycho-oncologist who helps me accept the diagnosis, but also prepares me in case the final outcome is not the one I have projected in my mind. I prepare for death in a calm and serene way, but always with the hope of healing.

Meditation gives me perspective

I start meditating thanks to a Buddhist monk who introduced me to vipassana meditation. Vipassana means “seeing things as they are.” It is one of the oldest meditation techniques. It was taught in India more than 2,500 years ago as a universal remedy to solve any problem or conflict, as an art, the Art of Living. Thanks to meditation, I learn to give things their due importance, I begin not to exaggerate or overemphasize the details of the day to day, I learn to value all the good that life offers me and to give thanks for their wonderful gifts.

I decide to surround myself only with the people who make me laugh and bring me happiness. I leave aside those “toxic” people who make you suffer and are negative. My family was a fundamental support that was with me at all times when I decided to take a new direction in my life. My partner shaved the same day that I lost my hair and for several months we were bald, we were two bald heads. My son was my engine to live. My parents, my sister, my uncle, my grandmother, my friends … they were all there to give me encouragement in the hardest moments.

As I focused on healing, I realized that every day I received “gifts” that helped me make the dream of overcoming illness come true. Those gifts came in the form of people who gave me support or wisdom, books loaded with information, opportunities to make that list of dreams come true …

My partner shaved the same day that I lost my hair and we look bald: we were two brawny brawlers

Suddenly, life only brought me positive and beautiful news; the most important, knowing that after three cycles of chemotherapy there were no more remains of the disease in my body (although I did not need a PET CT to confirm it, because I felt so full, happy and radiant that my instinct told me that everything was fine) .

I leave the disease behind by changing my diet

After receiving the wonderful news of the disappearance of the disease, I decided to share with everyone who was looking for “something more”, and with healthy people who wanted to prevent the disease, all the knowledge acquired since the diagnosis – articles, recipes and information about anti – cancer lifestyle habits -, in order to bring light and hope with clear and rigorous information. I wanted to give the information that I would have liked to receive when they told me I had cancer and I did not find it in the hospital setting. Thus was born a blog and a dream: My Anticancer Recipes. They say that what is not given is lost and I did not want my experience to be lost if I could help other people in their healing process.

First came the blog and then three books in which I have been capturing everything I have learned during these five years, as well as all the news and updates from the scientific world that each day provide us with more information about the important role that food plays. emotions, environment and surroundings in the genesis and evolution of cancer.

In the end, cancer became a second chance, an opportunity to grow and appreciate life, to make my dreams come true, to help other people, to learn to live without fear, to be more grateful and to give without expecting anything in return. . It has taught me to love life, to empathize more with others, to be more intuitive and nonconformist, to maintain a positive attitude in the face of any situation or adversity and to acquire the ability to learn from mistakes, turning misfortunes into something profitable, it has taught to view life with equanimity and to give unconditional love.

After receiving the wonderful news of the disappearance of the disease, I decided to share the acquired knowledge with those who were looking for “something more.”

The Odile from before cancer was a very stressed woman, who worked a lot, didn’t take care of herself, didn’t look for a little time to be with herself, who ran too much, didn’t eat well … Today’s Odile tries to take things with more peace of mind, you enjoy your loved ones more. And whenever he can, he does his bit in the healing process of another person, a different role than the doctor who is in a consultation prescribing drugs, but does not have the opportunity to give the patient that active role.

Two years after finishing chemo treatment, and naturally and unexpectedly, I became pregnant. Nine months later, a beautiful baby with an eternal smile came into the world. Iker was born at home, in a childbirth without pain, without fear, without haste, a serene and calm delivery in which my son and I were the protagonists. In a month a third baby will come into the world, this time a girl. One more dream come true.

If you believe that something is impossible, that it is difficult or you are not prepared, discard that belief and focus on making your dreams come true, to create a dream you just have to trust and believe in it.

Never lose hope.