Hi everyone,

My silence over the past few years just means that I was taking care of myself and my health in the best way possible and that I was living my life to the fullest.

Yesterday was a major milestone for me. It was 5 years since my last liver surgery and though I had chemo after that to take care of any remaining cancer cells, it was that day that my medical team and I declared me NED or, for those who are unfamiliar with the medical terms, no evidence of disease. Yes, it's been 5 years! When I was diagnosed, reaching this milestone was the biggest dream for me and it's a day that all cancer warriors long to see. I can' begin to describe the feeling of happiness and gratitude that I am feeling. 

When I woke up yesterday morning, I came to this blog to reflect on where I was 5 years ago and it seems like it was sooo long ago. In fact, sometimes it feels like it was in another life. Not to say that cancer is forever behind me because it will always be a part of me and will have shaped who I have become as a person. And, yes, I still have some residual side effects that flare up every now and then. But, the thought of cancer no longer runs my daily life and I am no longer living in constant fear of it recurring. There are times when my mind will go there, but those times are far less than they used to be. For instance, my CEA (tumor marker) slowly crept up over the last 3 blood draws and though it's still in the "normal" range, I had a slight nervous feeling when I received the last results. The difference between the feeling then and now is that I no longer let it linger. Instead, I will have an internal dialogue that will go something like "Alma, many things can affect CEA number. Inflammation, any kind of digestive issues, you name it, can cause it to go up. You're doing your best to stay cancer free and just keep doing what you're doing. There's no use in worrying over what could be."

In fact, everything else points that I am definitely in the cancer free zone. My scans from a little over a year ago showed no evidence of disease. In the beginning of this cancer journey I would get frequent scans to watch the progress of my disease. And, might I add, those scans might have saved my life because we may not have caught the recurrence in the liver if it weren't for the PET scan. As time went on, I decided to space out the scans because of the radiation exposure. Last year I had an honest conversation with my oncologist about this and she said that yes, radiation is accumulative, and too much radiation from scans can cause secondary cancers, such as lung cancer. She said that if I were in my 60s and up, she wouldn't be as worried about me because I'd have a shorter lifespan ahead of me. But, being that I'm in my 30s and say my lifespan is supposed to be 80-90 years, the radiation from the scans is more likely to cause problems later on. This is where I had to do some critical thinking because it's not a perfect scenario in either way - on one had, scans help us find the cancer, but on the other it can be detrimental. My decision was to stop the scans altogether, keep my quarterly blood work and use some alternative ways of detecting cancer. Luckily, we have come a long way and there are now other, less invasive and BETTER ways to detect cancer early on. One of them is called OncoBlot test. It's a simple blood test that can detect over 25 cancers in early stages, way earlier than a colonoscopy, mammogram or scans would detect it. Basically, it would find cancer cells when it would be considered stage zero. They're pricey, $850 per test (not covered by insurance), but so worth the peace of mind. I did this test early this year and it was clean! That was the biggest proof I needed. I've been reading about some other cancer-detecting tests coming out as well.

As far as my personal life, there have been some big changes. As I was going through my own healing from cancer treatment (and still am in many ways) and reflecting upon what the cancer has brought to me and taught me, I realized that among many other things, one of its main purposes was to help me discover my life's purpose - that is to help others heal, to guide them to tap into their body's own healing power and wisdom through nutrition and wellness consulting and energy healing practice. I joined an amazing program at the Institute of Nutritional Endocrinology that goes deep into the bodily systems, how they function and helps find the root cause of the diseases. I believe wholeheartedly that treating the root cause and prevention is the key, not merely using the band aid approach that's so common among doctors. I've become a Certified Gluten Practitioner and a Certified Transpersonal Energy Healer and am currently in an Energy Healing Counselor Certification Program. I've decided to combine my nutrition training and energy healing techniques to treat a body as a whole, not a sum of its parts, and because I believe that true vitality comes from not only what we eat, but the thoughts that we feed our brain, our daily habits and how we process our emotions.

I waited a while before I was ready to do this as a career because I needed to heal myself and do some learning (which I'm always going to be doing till my last day). It wasn't an easy choice to quit my steady reliable job with its amazing benefits, but I learned that sometimes the right choices in life are also the scariest and that you just have to pull the plug. As I have done many times since the cancer, I pictured myself on my deathbed, and thought about those last few minutes of my life when I'd have a flashback on the life I've lived and wondered if I'd have any regrets. My regret at that moment would have been being too scared to do what I knew in my heart was my life's purpose. That was the final answer that I needed, so I went ahead and quit my job and have since been putting my energy into my new business, which I named "Vitality with Alma." Please feel free to check out my website at: https://www.vitalitywithalma.com/

Friends and everyone reading this blog - my heartfelt thanks to all of you for your support, encouragement, prayers, wishes, good thoughts, etc. I couldn't have done it without your support.

I will keep up this blog when I feel the need to, so you are not done with me just yet :)

Love,

Alma