Here are ideas for how to transform your life in positive ways. Thriver Soup appeared on Fix it with Faust (Faust Ruggiero) Radio Show via healthylifenet. Enjoy!
Tag Archives: uterine sarcoma
“Be Your Authentic Self”
Hey everyone, I was interviewed on Deborrah Cooper’s Debruary 2022. My topic was
“Be Your Authentic Self.”
Deborrah writes, “Are you comfortable enough to show the world your real, your true, your authentic self, or do you hide and pretend to be what others want you to be? Heidi Bright is our Debruary 2020 guest tonight, and shares a wonderful story of perseverance, determination and survival.
“Heidi found her way to authenticity after successfully battling a terminal cancer diagnosis in 2009. She realized that being her authentic self was the greatest gift she could give both to herself and others. Learning to manage her emotions in healthy ways was, as Heidi says “a game changer.” Listen to this interview to learn strategies to get in touch with who you are, and how to honor and respect your true self.”One of the comments was “Absolutely INCREDIBLE! Outstanding interview!”
Watch it here:
tinyurl.com/4znsw5br
Love You
Are you alone this holiday season?
Maybe covid is keeping you isolated. Or the cancer tore your marriage apart. Or you have been ill for a while and your friends have moved on.
There seems to be a big hole in your life where love once seemed to live.
It can feel so terribly lonely.
Yet that love still lives, inside of you. You are that love. Please do not abandon yourself.
Just think. You are the magnificent result of two tiny cells you can’t even see. Those cells joined together in an incomprehensible union that multiplied and multiplied and multiplied. Imagine the tremendous amount of life-force energy expended to create … you.
Amazing you.
Incredible you.
A you who is utterly unique.
Look at your hands. What beautiful things they have done for you all your life. Think of a few of them. They serve you nearly every moment of the day, without question, without asking anything in return.
Look at your legs. They have carried you all through your life, without question, without asking anything in return.
And your heart. It pumps life-giving blood into every cell of your body, dozens of times every single minute. Without question. Without asking anything in return.
Look outside at the plants. They grow, they create leaves, they bless the world with blossoms. Without question. Without asking anything in return. They are worthy of appreciation just by being what they are.
How much more worthy of love, gratitude, and care are you? By yourself? Without anyone else in the picture?
If no one else is around to offer it to you, offer it to yourself.
Maybe spritz on a nice fragrance and focus on the aroma.
Maybe make yourself a special meal or order out your favorite foods.
Maybe take a warm, comforting bath and add fresh blossoms so they float around you.
You are the center of your universe. Love you. Appreciate you. Care for you. The universe is cheering you on, and so am I.
NED… Now What?
So you are told you are free of evidence of disease.
YIPPEEEE!!!
And…
What do you do now?
How many people are told they have no evidence of disease, only for the cancer to come roaring back months, or even years, later?
Knowing this, do you go back to living the way you did when you were diagnosed? Or do you change your life on a permanent basis to increase your chances for long-term survival?
When I struggled for 2 terrible years to get into remission, I understood that any change I made most likely needed to be permanent. I knew that the way I had been living had contributed to the development of the cancer; the logical choice was to change my life so the cancer would no longer feel at home in my body.
I know my life patterns led to the collapse of my health. They had to be changed for me to get permanently out of trouble. One aspect was my diet. Before the cancer, it was pretty good–lots of certified organic produce–but after the end-stage diagnosis I ramped it up considerably.
One permanent change was creating a daily green smoothie. Soon after the diagnosis, my brother Walter gave me a Vitamix, a high-speed blender I wanted so I could make those sludgies.After 12 years of daily use, sometimes hard use, sometimes 3-times-a-day use, my Vitamix finally gave out.
I have lived longer than my Vitamix! That is truly miraculous.
I immediately bought another machine and plan to continue using it daily for the rest of my life. Unless I outlive this one, too. Which, of course, I fully intend to do.
It’s already getting hard workouts. After only a week the pitcher has a slight fogginess to it, because my smoothies are full of minerals and vitamins. The cloudiness bears witness to all the nutrients I’m getting. Weeds in my garden are fair game. Today’s sludgie was blanched dandelion greens, stems and flowers, concord grape seeds, red clover flowers, and eggshell membranes. Not at all delicious, but that is not my goal. I aim for maximum nutrition for maximum health.
That was my goal during the cancer treatment, and everything else I did was aimed at my goal of survival. I changed every other aspect of my life to improve my chances of living. Once I had made enough changes–to everyone’s amazement–I went into radical remission.
And have stayed healthy for ten full years, receiving no treatments at all and showing no evidence of any disease.
So I am keeping these changes because I like being healthy and alive! And I am delighted to have outlived my blender.
If you are looking for guidance on how to get out of cancerland, perhaps we can work together to free you so your body can do what it does naturally–heal itself. As a Champion in Cancer Care, I can offer insights and wisdom to ease your way.
Please Contact me today for a free consultation:
513
444-0190
The Sun Makes Me Sing
Brood X male cicadas are vigorously singing their little tymbals out, calling in mates so the cycle of life can continue.
To me, their drone is the beautiful music of summer, having formed one of my first firm memories of warm Kansas days.
Now they represent far more to me.
Cicadas spend more than a decade underground—in the case of Brood X, a seemingly endless seventeen years in darkness and silence. Then they crawl to the surface, break 
through their shells, warm up in the sunshine, and fly with golden-tinged gossamer wings.
They live only a few weeks in the sun. During this time they crawl and fly, sing and flick, dance and mate. When they are done with their shining moments, their legacy continues in their gifts of fertilized eggs, food for songbirds, and nitrogen for forest floors.
Just like we humans who choose to transform our lives. When we have late-stage cancer, we spend a long time—sometimes more than a decade—in the Underworld. For me it’s been 12 years since my end-stage cancer diagnosis. This darkness involved two years of medical treatment, and then continued through the collapse of my marriage, multiple moves, dealing with my son Brennan’s years of drug addiction, the death of my father, and then Brennan’s overdose death at age 19.
Years of suffocating in the terrors of human Hell.
And now—a dozen years and dozens of processes later—I am finally emerging into the light. Into dancing. Into joy.
Just like the cicadas, I am spreading my own golden gossamer wings and learning how to fly. Nourishing others who also want to sing again in the light of the sun. And leaving my own legacy for future generations.
Would you like to join me? I offer cancer survival coaching for those who want to thrive and fully embrace life again. Contact me at
heidi
(at)
thriversoup.com
I look forward to talking with you!
Source for title:
Frédéric Mistral from Provençe, France, coined the phrase, “Lou soulei mi fa canta,” Provençal for “the sun makes me sing.” https://www.thenotsoinnocentsabroad.com/blog/la-cigale-why-the-cicada-became-the-symbol-of-provence
Cancer Survival Coaching
Are you looking for a little more guidance regarding cancer survival for yourself or a loved one?
Or maybe some suggestions for how to better manage a chronic illness?
I’ll offer short Cancer Survival Coaching sessions Sunday at the Universal Energy Expo, Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington.
For a 50-minute session, including a discount on a copy of Thriver Soup, please feel free to contact me.
Virtual Panel on Gynecological Health Nov. 5
A medical panel of experts has come together for a virtual meeting on Thursday, November 5 at 3 pm CT.
Topics to be discussed:
- Options to treat uterine fibroids: when is surveillance acceptable
- Surgical treatment options available for women with uterine fibroids; traditional surgical hysterectomy and myomectomy (vaginally or abdominally), laparoscopic hysterectomy, and myomectomy, and laparotomy using a small incision in the abdomen
- Use of power morcellation- what you need to know
- Importance of imaging findings in guiding approach
- Importance of following up on tissue diagnosis: leiomyoma/fibroids vs presence of cancer
- Risk factors for uterine sarcoma / leiomyosarcoma
- Lessons to be learned from those experienced in treating uterine LMS
To participate, please contact Annie Achee of the National Leiomyosarcoma Foundation: annieachee@aol.com
For more info, please visit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ORaJRVl3x9YISH6tH7jwRrwxJNzW-G0rza6kG-bR79s/edit
9 Years Free!
This month I am celebrating nine years free of any evidence of cancer and free of any kind of cancer treatment! After being told to get my affairs in order.
So grateful for my life and to be alive and well!
Currently I am doing neurofeedback and BodyTalk, and advancing in tai chi, along with all my usual self-healing techniques. And drinking daily green sludges–er, smoothies. And as the nurse said yesterday, “still taking 150 supplements.”
How Can We Help Protect Ourselves from Covid-19?
How can we help protect ourselves from Covid-19 when our bodies are already vulnerable because of cancer?
Almost every disease in older adulthood is made worse by inflammation in our bodies, according to Chris Fagundes, an assistant professor of psychological sciences at Rice University. [1]
Inflammation appears to play a role in Covid-19. This virus turns deadly when the body overreacts to the invasion and creates a “cytokine storm.” According to Randy Cron, M.D., Ph.D., University of Alabama at Birmingham, “Cytokines are inflammatory immunologic proteins that are there to fight off infections and ward off cancers… But when they are out of control, they can make you very ill.” [2]
Therefore, perhaps a good defense against Covid-19, and cancer, is a good offense: reduce inflammation in the body.
In addition to my 26 tips for improving immunity to help prevent contracting the virus (which you can find on my blog, all from my book, Thriver Soup), I will next be offering dozens of tips for reducing inflammation in our bodies to help us all stay a little healthier.
Here is a primer on inflammation, which is one of hundreds of reflections I offer in Thriver Soup:
“When threatened by wounds, irritation, or infections, cells inflame to assist with the transition back to health. A molecule called nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kB), which normally resides in cell cytoplasm, moves into the cell’s nucleus (hence the name ‘nuclear factor’) and generates redness, heat, swelling, and pain. When the body heals, the NF-kB molecules return to the cell cytoplasm.
“NF-kB, however, also provokes the genes involved in creating chronic inflammation, which generally does not help the body heal. Instead, long-term heat and swelling becomes an open invitation to cancer. One-sixth of all cancers are directly linked to chronic inflammation. Most, if not all, cancers have unusually high levels of active NF-kB. This protein is considered their missing link. Researchers, for example, found that NF-kB regulates the inflammatory cascade necessary for breast cancer cells to proliferate and metastasize.
“Fortunately, inflammation can be smothered through diet and supplements. NF-kB can be suppressed by phytochemical-rich spices, vegetables, and fruit. Antioxidants can block the proteins so they don’t move into cell nuclei. Vitamins C, D, and E, curcumin (found in the spice turmeric), the herb ashwagandha, pomegranate extract, garlic extract, ginger root, green tea, omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil, and isoflavones found primarily in beans can be effective cellular firefighters. I found such a diet helped reduce my discomfort during treatment, decreasing my need for pain medications.
“When brought back under control, NF-kB provides the body with important healing mechanisms…. Keep the chronic flames doused with an anti-inflammatory diet to help preserve your internal landscape.
“Thriver Soup Ingredient:
“Ask your doctor to measure inflammation markers in your blood (C-reactive protein and albumin). ‘Patients with the lowest level of inflammation were twice as likely as the others to live through the next several years,’ according to long-term studies by oncologists at the Glasgow Hospital in Scotland.
“Talk to your oncologist about what anti-inflammatory foods and supplements work well with your treatment choices.”
Thriver Soup, Pg. 174
Other sources:
NLMSF’s “Tackling Leiomyosarcoma” at The James in Sept.
The NLMSF.org symposium “Tackling Leiomyosarcoma: A Team Approach” was brief and to the point, held in Columbus, Ohio, during September. Here Floor Backes, MD, at The James, talks about ULMS. Thank you, Annie Achee and Mitch Achee, and all who made this program possible!
Joel Mayerson, MD, spoke about a surgical perspective on LMS of the limbs. Here he identifies the differences between benign and malignant tumors.
And here is another informative slide:
