Build a Blueprint
Do You Have a Plan?
Navigating the world as someone with cancer can be difficult and overwhelming. Some people flounder through the process experiencing fear and confusion. They run from one protocol or treatment to another based on the advice of people they do not know on the Internet. And often they do not really give something time to really determine if it could work.
One way to ease some of this discomfort and confusion is by having a well-formulated plan. How can this help? Simply, a well-formulated plan helps us in naming our priorities in a balanced way, which in turn offers us grounding clarity and focus that serves to drive our progress forward. Your plan serves as a golden opportunity to honestly see where you are starting and knowing where you are going, with all the necessary supportive strategies to deal with any possible detours.
LEO = Life is an Experiment of One
Are you ready to build a blueprint to live life with cancer fiercely? How is your experiment going? Do you have a well-formulated plan for that? Maybe you aren’t sure if you have a plan. Let’s look at the elements of a well-constructed plan so that your experiment has a chance of success.
Key Parts of a Well-Formulated Plan
What is the priority?
Assessment of the current situation.
Goals and objectives that are defined and measurable.
Rigorous review of progress.
Modifications as necessary.
Each Element
I will give a brief explanation of each element and then show an example from my personal plan.
What is the priority? This is the BIG picture. What is the ultimate thing you want to accomplish? I like to think of this element as the underlying unity that holds the whole plan together; the glue and universal truth/purpose.
Assessment of the current situation. This is an examination of where you are starting. It is sometimes called the baseline. In order to make progress toward your priority, you first need to understand your starting point. This takes some honesty with yourself to see what is real as opposed to what you wish to be true.
Goals and Objectives. Your goals break down your priority into actionable steps with your objectives serving as even smaller steps where you measure your progress. This will be more clear with my example.
Rigorous review. This is where you examine your goals and objectives to see how well you are doing with them and determine whether they are still appropriate for your priority. When you establish clear objectives that are measurable, the review process can be done with clarity; you can see what is working and what isn’t working. You are approaching your plan in a rational manner, as opposed to just throwing the kitchen sink at the problem. When you approach a complex issue like cancer with a hodgepodge approach, you don’t really know what is working or what is working against you. Having data points that can be measured and tracked eliminate this confusion.
Modifications. Once you determine what’s working and what’s not working, you can make the necessary modifications to put you on track toward your goal.
Example: Deb’s Plan
What is the priority? After I received my diagnosis, this question was posed to me by my therapist. As someone who spent a big chunk of my life as a caregiver for dying loved ones (all of whom had end-of-life experiences of pain and suffering), this was an easy one for me to answer: my priority is to live as long as possible with the best quality of life.
Assessment of the current situation. Where was I starting? In general I didn’t feel too bad but was noticing more fatigue and a slight malaise. To fill out the profile: I had metastatic breast cancer, with several lymph nodes involved as well as metastases spread throughout all regions of my spine and pelvis. I was told by the initial medical team with whom I worked, that I could expect to live about two (2) years from my diagnosis, maybe a little longer if I was lucky.
I was not having the typical pain associated with cancer in the bones and any fatigue I was feeling I had (pre-diagnosis) chalked up to the aging process. I had been eating a clean, lower carbohydrate diet for several years and had a moderately active lifestyle. This equated to working out 4-5 times a week (weight/resistance training 2-3 times a week, some balance work and occasional cycling), with an otherwise sedentary life.
My spiritual life was a well-ingrained part of my life, with a strong focus on meditation, Universal consciousness, and Huna/indigenous traditions. What support did I have to call and depend upon? A loving wife, who happens to be passionate about nutrition (as am I) and is a fabulous cook. In addition, I have a close circle of friends who imbue me with loving/positive energy, I have a spiritual family (my Ohana, with whom I have done a great deal of spiritual learning and deep work) who are always willing to offer me healing energy, I have a therapist I have worked with on & off for 17 years, and I have a strong desire to learn and expand my base of knowledge.
Goals and Objectives. Based on my assessment and my priority to live as long as possible with the best quality of life, what did I need to do to achieve those ends? My research had lead me to a metabolic approach to cancer and I knew I needed to do things to (as Dr. Thomas Seyfried says) press-pulse the cancer cells. This meant I had to do things to create a chronic stress (the press) for the cancer cells (such as a therapeutic ketogenic diet) and once the cells were weakened throw in pulse activity (such as HITT workouts, infrared sauna, etc.). So, this all meant closely monitoring my nutrition to get the macros to a level of creating that chronic stress and then tracking how well I was doing with the hard data of my blood glucose/ketone readings. In addition, this meant making a commitment to my fitness practice with all of the variety to not only strengthen my body but to keep the cancer cells confused.
At the time I was working with a Naturopathic Physician who specialized in the metabolic treatment of cancer and she had me on a wide range of natural supplements. Specifically, this included 30 different supplements, taken multiple times throughout the day along with self-administered injections and two (2) hour saunas at least five (5) days a week.
So, if I had to write out a sampling of my goals and objectives it would look something like this:
Goal 1: To improve my overall physical strength.
Objective 1: I will complete 3 resistance workouts 3 times a week.
Objective 1A: I will complete a HITT workout every 7-10 days.
Objective 1B: I will complete 1 Pilates Reformer workout per week.
Goal 2: To detoxify my body.
Objective 2: I will have 2 lymphatic massages per week.
Objective 2A: I will use the infrared sauna 2 hours a day, 5 days per week.
Objective 2B: I will administer my natural chemotherapy injections every 2-3 days. *To determine effectiveness I will measure my temperature twice a day, 7 days a week.
Rigorous review. Because I had a great deal of information I was tracking on a daily basis and then monthly blood work I had the ability to review my progress almost in real time. As the months went by on this plan the trends that began to develop were that I was feeling worse than I had when I started (much more fatigue with the addition of nauseousness). In addition, I suffered a sprain of my hip that stressed an area of my pelvis where the cancer was particularly active. Upon treatment from my Chiropractor I learned that a contributing factor to this sprain was the length and frequency of time I was spending in the sauna; too much time sitting in one position in extreme heat.
A very important data point came from my routine bloodwork that indicated a steady trend of increasing inflammation and cancer activity. This became so worrisome to the Naturopath, that she wanted me to get assistance from conventional medical sources.
My conclusion after the review of my plan was that some aspects of the plan were not working. Part of that review included a more subjective assessment that the Naturopath was not listening to me and was asking me to do things that I found uncomfortable.
What was working?
The dialing in of my nutrition was working to a degree but needed modification.
The sauna was working but the time and frequency needed to be modified. The fitness portion of the plan was slow to develop because I was so fatigued.
Modifications. How did I modify my plan after this review?
I changed the course of my treatment plan to incorporate standard of care treatment with the ketogenic nutrition and lifestyle as a strong adjunct to that treatment.
I modified the parameters of my nutrition to make it less stressful and palatable.
I severed ties with the Naturopath.
I have been following this modified plan for a year now and have seen tremendous progress toward my priority of a good quality life. I am a year and a half into the expiration date the original oncology team gave me. And I am stronger and happier than I was when I first began this process.
I am not suggesting that everyone follow exactly my plan. The information I offer is as an example for you to build your own blueprint to live fiercely with cancer. The point is to have a plan that you can look at objectively so you can understand what is working for you and what isn’t working.
If you would like guidance on building your blueprint, contact me at: dr.debwellmes@gmail.com
If you want to connect with others who are following their own blueprint for living fiercely with breast cancer request to join our tribe in a private Facebook Group: Keto4BreastCancer.
