Mindy...
"Even if I can't show you what's perfect, I can show what's not."
On an ever growing basis my in-box is riddled with questions. "How to get abs". "How to get strong". "How to get fit fast". "What to eat". Sadly, I get more and more questions, or rather outcries for justice, like below. "Help, they are killing my Father".
I tend stick my nose where it is uncomfortable. In fact, I am much less a party favor than party crasher. Rant often enough about how alcohol is worthless and should not be ingested by anyone. Rave loudly enough about sugar being the devil and that if you eat it, along with fruit, you'll have a few months less to live. And stick to your guns long enough, and you won't necessarily be at the top of everyone's guest list. Or maybe it's my personality...nah, we will go with the former.
Sadly, an avid reader of our site has been communicating with me about her Father and his recent diagnosis outlined, briefly, below. She is not looking for religious guidance, or a medical diagnosis. She's looking for an answer. An answer to why she - this incredibly fit women - sits beside an incredibly unfit Dietitian giving a death sentence to her equally unfit, not to mention ill, Father. So...while getting chemotherapy, he eats poison, and because her opinion differs...she is the outcast. I may have no answer.
"Many times I spoke with my Father, asking for him to give me just 4 weeks on a Paleo plan. This was prior to his recent diagnosis. If nothing changed, he could keep taking the statins, and eating all the damn grains he denies he eats, and continue trying to cure that "Bad Cholesterol" the way they say he should. My Father never took the Paleo bait before. But bait comes in many forms. Sometimes it's pretty. Sometimes it glows. Sometimes it scares the shit out of you.
F!%*ed up as it is, the ones we love most are the hardest to sell on the shift to truly good health. Coincidentally, they are the ones we try to help the most.
Three weeks ago my Father was diagnosed with aggressive, Stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. A PET scan revealed two fast-growing tumors in his back and throat and a different, slower-growing cancer in his hip bone. Instead of the organic section at Kroger, his next stop is three rounds of chemo (just to determine how many more he'll need), the same number of follow-up shots of a medication which only adds to the awesome nausea, vomiting and dry-mouth he suffers for 2-3 days while it works double-time to stimulate white blood cell regeneration, and an immense amount of stress about the prognosis. “How did this happen to me?” he asks.
I joined my dad for the doctor’s visit that followed his first chemo treatment hoping to chat with the resident dietician. I listened quietly as she read the list of “recommendations for managing the side effects of chemotherapy”. Call it selective listening, but this is what I heard:
- Focus on getting at least 2,300 calories/day. You’ll need more than usual right now.
- Protein will be critical for cell repair, so make this a part of your meal planning. Breakfast foods like eggs are good any time of day, and foods like pancakes and waffles will help increase your calorie count.
- Eat bland foods such as toast, crackers, cereal, ginger ale and applesauce.
- Try homemade or commercially-prepared nutritional bars, puddings, or calorie- and protein-rich liquid nutritional supplements.
As tactfully as I could I asked her, “But what about all the sugar in those meal replacement bars and shakes…and the Gatorade he’s been coached to suck down for electrolyte replenishment…and the sherbert he ate this morning for breakfast…” She turned to me, eyes closed, and said, “You can Google to find research that's linked sugar and carbohydrates to cancer, but it simply hasn’t been substantiated.” “And other diseases," I said. "So you’d approve of him eating sherbert 3x/day if that’s what he wants?” I asked. “That’d be better than nothing, yes.” And then my father speaks up, “Everything in moderation then, right?” “Exactly,” she said. “You can find info to any end you want on the internet.” (The shit in red is the only truth she spoke!) Just what he wanted to hear. And with that, she handed my father this "Tips List" for increasing his protein, and five pages of Carnation Instant Breakfast and fruit smoothie recipes.
Inside the walls of one of healthcare’s greatest medical facilities, I stood by as my father was coached to feed his own cancer by the very medical community we're trusting to cure it. Six people in the room...and I’m the alien.
I’m angry. I’m scared. But I’m not at all surprised. Nor am I confused about what I need to do. After all I’ve learned in my time with CF and blogs such as yours, I’m done being “tactful.” With the help of a friend I’ve already found a no-carb protein powder and a sugar-free electrolyte replenishment drink. I’ve sold my dad on lower-glycemic fruit choices, and no sweets. Meal planning, intermittent fasting tutorials, and the no-grain temper tantrums are next, and they will be loud and unrelenting.
Like you said in one of your earlier posts, this is "grooming"…
My heart goes out to this soul who wants her Father with her. A soul who feels as helpless as many of us do in the face of wanton acts of terror. Terror against those we love. What would you do if someone was holding a loaded gun to your Father? What if that weapon wasn't so obviousWhat if that weapon, proven dangerous time and time again, was being held by someone in a white coat who's supposed to be giving out cures? What if that weapon wasn't just a lack of the right recommendations, but murder by the wrong recommendation? A recommendation you know is wrong, in the face of the cure you have.
Sue me all you, like but sugar feeds cancer no matter what these happy-fun-time idiot dietitians are taught, and while I am usually impartial and love to let opinions develop...apparently while I'm waiting for some folks to "develop" people are getting murdered by bad info. Sugar, fruit, grains, toxins and the like should not be consumed by anyone, let alone the man above. "Everything in moderation" is the biggest crock of shit ever to be chanted by otherwise bright people. This sits nicely right up there with "Death to the Infidels" as both are acts of terror. One has an AK...one has a #^&%ing doughnut and a Chemo-IV.
Lastly..tact. %#$^ your tact. Which will weigh more heavily on this girl's soul? Tactfully dealing out the correct information in drips so as not to ruffle her sick Father's feathers? Or force feeding the cure to him, and the derelict dietician, no matter how hard it is to swallow? Besides, who the %!#^ could fear the injection when the syringe is full of cure?
Strength:
Rest
For Score:
"Open WOD 11.4"
60-Bar Facing Burpees
30-Overhead Squats 90/120
10-Muscle-ups
AMRAP 10 Minutes
Post reps and rounds to comments.
