Chemo #3

So there I was, half way through chemo, looking stunning, with my swollen steroid face, bald head and lack of eyebrows !!! With each chemo session I became a little lower in myself and was more and more WRECKED !! The beetroot juices helped me but I knew there was more I had to do .... I started following people on Twitter who were into juicing so I could learn more about it. My mum went out and bought me a really good juicer as an engagement present (yep Michael proposed along with the help of my lovely Benzo, of course I said yes). So with a wedding in my future I had even more incentive to fight and win. I was not leaving this world, it was too soon! I learnt that the greener and darker the veggie which makes up your juice, the better it is for you, so I started juicing broccoli and kale and courgette and anything else green I could find !! At first, I could not bare the taste so just knocked it back!!! We (my mum and I) went to lots of different health food shops. I was having wheat grass shots (daily), drinking matcha tea and green juice...... I was slowly noticing I had more energy and my mood was improving ... I wanted to go out, I wanted to see people .... The thoughts of giving up and giving in were getting fewer and far between. I read a book around this time called :-The Choice by Bernadette Bohan, I read it within two days and then went straight out and bought her other book called :- The programme. She could do it so could I!! Don't get me wrong it was no walk in the park I had some seriously dark days and lots of times that I just wanted to go, it would be easier..... The hardest part was watching all those I love around me, so scared and so upset for me, and there was nothing I could do to help them. I HAD to get well. I then started having a juice every morning before I ate or drank anything else, it really set me up for the day and gave me energy and helped to ward off any cravings for things I shouldn't be eating ! One of my fave juices at this time was one that gave me lots of energy : Pineapple, kale, courgette, celery, lime and ginger. Seven years on, a juice first thing in the morning is how I start every day. These juices and a healthy reach food diet is what got me through treatment ..... Don't get me wrong the only reason I am still here is chemotherapy, Prof John Crown and the amazing nurses at St Vincent's hospital. Those nurses, in the middle of the night when I was feeling scared, alone and so very homesick (all I wanted was to look into my babies’ cot and see him sleeping), those nurses were my saviour, they talked me through some of my most darkest times.... One nurse whom I'll never forget sat with me for hours in the middle of the night whilst I just sobbed. Nurses are angels in disguise. The treatment is so hard going on your body, but more so on your mental health, that along with all they were doing to treat my cancer, I needed to do what I could to keep myself as healthy as possible. And Juicing worked for me. The first pic is me in hospital with my Dad, feeling like crap, the second pic is me with my Dad feeling amazing on the most amazing Day.... I still wasn't where I wanted to be health or fitness wise (I still hadn't found my love of running yet!)  but I was slowly getting there .... X