Keeping all the best stuff in life and leaving the rest!

Sunday, February 08, 2015

"With a Little Help From My Friends"

Be a drop in my Bucket list!

Help me help myself heal with my Music and cure cancer!! When you have your health you have everything. Let's find out just how powerful music can be.

Having been diagnosed with cancer at the age of 34 made me realize how important going after my dreams are and how short life can be and how precious life is.

Going through surgery in 2001 on my underarm, having my lymph nodes removed, one of the biggest things that scared me was wondering if I might not be able to play the guitar ever again.  So I pulled out that dusty guitar and started playing again after many years.

One of the treatments I had made it so that I couldn't sing for 6 weeks right in the middle of recording my Cd. It was devastating. I still sometimes deal with my chronic cough and it is a challenge to sing and even talk in those moments. But when I can sing, I sing as much as I can.

I believe part of what is keeping me going is my music. I am in the process of recording my first Cd called "Just Love" 15 very diverse songs. This is the one major thing on my bucket list!

But how did I get to here! I was first diagnosed with breast cancer 14 years ago in 2001. After chemotherapy, radiation and 3 surgeries I was diagnosed again with stage 4, liver metastasis in 2004.  I was told I could expect to live two years. However an experimental high dose radiation to the tumour in my liver seemed to work because there I was, 11 years later.

However in November of 2013, they again found metastatis, this time in the lungs, bones and liver. This is of course very serious. Chemo wasn't working any longer, and radiation is used only when needed to manage pain. So I am deciding to take another route. I am seeing a naturopathic doctor, a dietician, and working very closely with many healers. Some of the treatments, I get are free through Wellspring and Mount Sinai. And others cost money. I am doing everything I can to heal and some of these treatments that cost money have very promising studies to back them up. I am open to the possibility of putting the cancer back into remission again by using these various alternative and complimentary treatments including some 'cutting edge' oncological trials.

I would like to try the alternative treatments on a trial basis for the next year. And at the end of the year I will get more test results. Please help give me a fighting chance and help us to cover the estimated costs for the next year. We would so greatly appreciate it! And pay it forward!

My dream and the one main thing on my bucket list when it comes right down to it is this Cd I am working on! I am so grateful to the great folks who are helping me with this and the fine musicians who are playing on the Cd "Just Love" and my wonderful producer Chris Hess from Chess Sound Studios.

I feel very fortunate to have such amazing people working with me to help me do this. I was telling Chris, my husband, last night I feel like the luckiest, unluckiest person in the world.

I am asking you to please help me realize this dream. All the money I receive will pay for the Cd to be finished. After that all left over monies will go towards my ongoing treatments. Thank you so much for being a part of this!

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The past

at this moment pretty good

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Toronto, ON, Canada
Just trying to figure out this life and death thing. Lovin Livin Fully and when I first was diagnosed almost 15 years ago, I learned to say Yes to everything. Now I'm learning how to say No also. Not as easy for me. I'll talk about my journey and maybe I'll write something inspirational through my journey that gives you hope, and strength to follow your heart and to live fully in Love.