Wow. Home sick from work and feeling inspired.

I 've decided to approach my cancer and heart problems with a life style change. I was diagnosed and treated from DLBCL lymphoma in 2004 with CHOP-R chemo regimen. I have continued to do Rituxin treatments every 4 months since then. In 2010 I tried doing the treatments every 2 months, but there was no improvement in the tumor size. So I'm back to every 4 months.

Ever since my initial chemo my strength never came back. A few year ago I started biking and that seems to have helped. But I still didn't feel right. I saw Doctor Gupta's heart special and decided to get an EBT heart scan and switch to a plant based diet.


Well the EBT scan score was really bad. So my doctor referred me to a cardiologist. I'm doing all the preliminary tests now. The good news is my cholesterol is very low. I think because of the diet change. My total was 125, LDL was below 80. The HDL was lower than 40 so I'm trying Niaspan (time release niacin) to see if I can bump it up. I also upped my ground flax meal from 1 tbl to 2 tbl a day.


On my 5th week of the plant based diet. Doing well so far. I've lost about 15 lbs. Strength is good. Less depression than before the diet change. It is dark and gloomy out and I'm doing fine so far.

I'm looking forward to the holiday's this year. Usually can't stand them.

Sorry this is going to be somewhat rambly. Not used to writing down my thoughts.

I have a echo-cardiogram and pulmonary test next week. And then a carotid ultrasound in November. Hopefully before Thanksgiving I will get a better idea of how much blockage I have.

Then in December I have another Rituxin treatment. Not looking forward to that very much. While it has kept my cancer in check I have concerns about. It is very expensive. It also causes an inflammation response which while probably not the primary source of the plaque in my arteries, probably not helping the situation much.

Anyway that is enough for now.