March was a very eventful month for me. There were many ups and many downs. One of the events was that I turned 60 this month. This is mind-blowing for a number of reasons.
When I was younger, my maternal grandmother was 60 when I was 10 or so and she seemed so old. She is the only person in my family to live to a decent age of 87 and thank goodness she did because she was instrumental in raising me and made sure I was OK. Every day I am grateful that she was in my life. Everyone else in my family died at 70 or younger. But as a child – she seemed “old” at 60. Was it kind of like that phenomenon where teenagers from the 50’s and 60’s looked like middle aged adults in their high school yearbooks? Maybe everyone back then looked “old”? Why is that?
Ironically, at 60 I am in some of the best shape of my life. At almost age 52 I was diagnosed with a potentially terminal illness – Mantle Cell Lymphoma Stage 4. It was everywhere inside of me. At the time I was told I needed to start immediate chemotherapy and when that was finished, I would receive a stem cell transplant, and that would be my hope of staying alive. When I went into remission on May 28th 2015, only 2 and a half months into my treatment, I surprised everyone. Since receiving chemo, my cancer has NOT returned. How do I know this? Because my oncologist said so, this past Monday, when I went for my annual checkup. As we were talking about my immune deficiency, he mentioned the words “your lymphoma is gone”. Eight years later I still can’t believe this to be so, after having such an advanced form of a deadly disease. However, I will happily go with what he said, oncologists don’t use words lightly, and hope that at my next visit in a year it continues to be gone. Forever. Still doing my part to keep myself as healthy as I can so that cancer does not want to proliferate in my body again.
I purchased a special scale about 6 months ago. One that measures body composition. My family doctor has a scale that captures some of the same information. There are various metrics such as Weight, BMI, Skeletal Muscle %, Visceral Fat %, Bone Mass % and other interesting measurements. It then calculates your body age based these metrics. My body age the last time I measured myself which was last week was 46. Sometimes my age comes out even lower. Again I think that at age 60, with having a very serious disease 8 years ago, and chemotherapy that appears to have permanently damaged my immune system, how am I biologically at least 14 years younger??? It seems impossible.
Then there’s my bloodwork. My CBC numbers are normal which is miraculous if you saw the numbers when I was diagnosed with MCL. My metabolic panel is normal in most places, a slight bit above or below the range for a couple of numbers. My hemoglobin a1c was 4.3. Could it even go any lower? One thing I will probably never be is diabetic. My homocysteine continues to run at the top of the range or over, but it appears there could be a genetic component to this. I have to keep an eye on the inflammation that could be going on in my body, and make sure to minimize anything that could exacerbate it, such as animal products, most processed foods, and most vegetable oils. For inflammation I take daily Vitamin C (1,000-2,000iu), Vitamin D3 (10,000iu), Turmeric (100-500mg) and Flax oil (5000mg. ALA). I also eat a whole food, plant-based diet with lots of fresh, raw and some cooked plant foods. Many of the cooked dishes I eat contain turmeric and ginger, and I drink ginger tea every evening as well. Ginger, along with turmeric (curcumin), is also a powerful anti-inflammatory spice. If I have a genetic predisposition to something – in this case running high homocysteine – I have to work harder at mitigating the effects it could have.
So here I sit at 60, feeling better than I did at 30. Coincidently on the same day that I had the visit to my oncologist was the 30th anniversary of my late husband’s death. He went blind one day out of the blue, and it was discovered that he had a massive brain tumor that severed his optic nerve. He never regained his sight, so, he had to face this terrible diagnosis and treatment while also losing his sight. It was a horrible tragedy that he battled for 2 ½ years, until he died on March 27th, 1993, a week after my 30th birthday.
As you could imagine I was in terrible shape then. I had to help my now-blind husband with all of his needs, including doctor’s appointments, food, medicine, and taking him to a blind rehabilitation center all while holding down a full-time job that was 45 minutes away. I had to work to keep our health insurance… there were no remote jobs in the early 90’s. Sometimes I had to leave him all day by himself. Some days his mother or friends would visit him and keep him company. And some days he stayed over at the rehabilitation center for the blind. These were the darkest of times.
One of my late husband’s treatments consisted of radiation to the brain every day for 6 months. There is a theory that I was exposed to radiation from his daily treatments and didn’t take any precautions, no one knew to say anything and this initiated my lymphoma. I slept next to him every night after each treatment. I was 30 pounds overweight, on antidepressants, ate the worst possible diet over the 2 ½ years he was sick, and was under unimaginable stress. My sleep was interrupted every night because he would need help. I was 27 years old when this started. Perhaps someone who was in better physical shape could have fended off the exposure to the radiation? But because I was so unhealthy – my body gave in. My body did not have the proper nutrition or other conditions needed to prevent damage to my cellular DNA, being able to repair it, or destroy those damaged cells.
Last year I had some testing done which showed that I have several damaged genes that are implicated in blood cancers and 3, of them show damage that is typical with radiation exposure. My theory of being exposed to my late husband’s radiation treatments is looking more and more like a reality. In another ironic twist, the day I went into remission, May 28th, was our wedding anniversary. I know he is watching over me.
It is truly a miracle that I sit here at 60 at all, not to mention in some of the best health of my life. If I could only fix my immune deficiency, I’d be perfect. It’s an age that seemed so far away when I was younger, and at 52 seemed like I’d never get there. I am remarried to a wonderful man who has been with me every step of the way through my many challenges. I am grateful.
Wishing You good health and a great life-
Sheryl
