Plant the Seed of Knowledge

A good friend told me recently that when you share your knowledge with someone, even if they are resistant, you have planted a seed that one day, even if they don't see your perspective, they can recall that information and build upon it.

Here is my seed to you.

When someone you love is dying from a terminal illness, all of your emotions - good or bad - become excessively charged. Reactions to the diagnosis, behaviors and perspectives become exacerbated by the reality that your loved one will leave this earth soon.  While everyone – hospital staff, family members and friends - can provide their perspective with the best of intentions, it is ultimately up to the person who is dying to digest those facts to make one of the most important decisions in their life:

How do I want to leave this world?

There are three schools of thought in this matter, all of which are unpredictable, painful and not an easy decision to make.     

1. Go home, fulfill your dying wishes to the best of your ability, uncertain of your longevity, be surrounded by your loved ones and greet death as you are.
2. Fight the cancer with chemotherapy, to extend your life or try to save it, praying for a miracle that you will be cured, be surrounded by your loved ones and either survive or greet death as you are with the chemotherapy.
3. Seek out alternatives to fight cancer, try everything and anything possible, to push back the cancer or possibly obliterate it, to either survive or possibly greet death as you are with the alternative therapies.

The thing about life is that ever turn is a slippery slope.  We have free choice, for the most part, some of us more than others depending on our socio-economics, our access to information, etc. For me, I know which one I would choose but to each his/her own.  

Mom and Dad's Wedding Day

With life and death, faith often plays an intricate roll in this decision, even if it's stored deep beneath the surface of the situation. If we have a deep faith, perhaps a belief in resurrection, re-incarceration, whatever… we put our faith in the fact that death will land you into something new: back home with your creator, in some new form or as a scientific piece of energy someplace in the world. There will be this ending that will be painful for those who are left behind but there will be this glorious beginning of something new and beautiful.

The scientific facts are that my mom was diagnosed with Stage 4 Colon Cancer, which is inoperable. They believed it started with one tumor in the descending colon, which metastasized to the liver where she has multiple growths and is now showing up as a lesion on her hip. 

My siblings and I 

In retrospect, my mom is the type of person who has done opposite of what she has told us to do.  My sister recalls the “good ole days” when my mother used to have my sister sit at the table until she finished all of her veggies, despite the fact that my mother didn’t eat very many veggies herself.  While I had a love for all my veggies, my sister crafted a way to dispose of her greens under the table to our family dog. 

I can sit here and cast blame.  Why didn’t my mother have a healthier lifestyle? Could her other medications have caused these tumors? Why didn’t my mother get a colonoscopy?  How could her doctor not detect this early on? I can cast all the blame and give a million reasons why my mother is going to die but the reality is that none of it will change that fact.

Right now, I want to dedicate my spare time to focusing on my mom, assist in the decision that was made to do the chemotherapy and show up for our relationship in these final days. For you, all I can do is share my knowledge of how to prevent this awful disease so that hopefully someone you love will bypass the ugliness of cancer. 

Basic Facts to Counter Colon Cancer:

• The most important thing to maintain the health of your colon is the diet.
• The purpose of the colon is to process the waste and hold it until we can get to the bathroom and dispose of it.
• The colon holds our waste an average of 36 hours, leaving the cells on the colon walls vulnerable to cancer by way of direct contact to the carcinogens passing through.
• Studies suggest red meat and animal fats are prime causes of the genetic mutation of cells within the colon, along with processed foods that contain numerous unnecessary byproducts. 
• Eating fresh fruits and fresh vegetables protect us against colon cancer by diluting carcinogens and creating a bulkier waste, pushing the food out of the body quickly. 
• Living an inactive lifestyle leaves you prone to colon cancer.  Exercise assists in the processing of our food and subsequent waste through the digestive track. 

Yoga and The Colon:

Revolving Crescent Lunge aka Parivrtta Anjaneyasana

While exercise and keeping your weight down in general are good preventative measures to avoid cancer, yoga provides specific benefits to the health of your organs, specifically the colon. One of the benefits of yoga as noted in Yoga Journal include how poses with twists assist in cleansing your internal organs by enhancing digestion in what B.K.S. Iyengar describes as a “squeeze and soak” action. With the compression of the organs during these twisting yoga poses, the body naturally rinses out toxic blood, allowing fresh blood with healing elements in. This subsequently has a natural cleansing affect on the colon and other organs in the region.

Colon Cancer Screening: (as noted in the American Cancer Society Colorectal Facts and Figures 2011-2013 ) 

• 96% of colorectal cancers are from “adenocarcinomas" which a great majority of these cancers arise from what is know as “polyps”. 
• Early detection of “polyps” can be made through a “Flexible Sigmoidoscop” or a “Colonscopy”, both which can detect “polyps” and in the later, allow for the removal of the growths during the screening process. 
• Everyone should start screening by their 50^th Birthday, unless you have a family history whereby you should start screenings before 50 using the “Colonscopy” method to screen. 

Be the Teacher: 

• Plant the seed of knowledge so that all may evoke that wisdom in moments of need. 
• Share a 5 minute video with your loved ones entitled "Your Colon and You". 
• Pass along these prevention facts about colon cancer. 
• And finally, never take for granted the opportunity to be present with those you love.

Life is short, so get messy!