Fun Times in the Basement

Is it every boys dream to have a drum set? It was mine. Growing up I don’t even remember bringing it up. I somehow felt it would not be welcome. It was never really a thing I seriously wanted, but on the other hand every time I walked by a set of drums I wanted to sit down and bang away. I have no real music talent although as a child I took piano and organ lessons and in high school we had a music class and I even joined the band where we took a trip to New York City to take in the music and acting scene. That was my music highlight. The thing that happens nearly every week for me though is church in Pemberton where we get to sing aloud and exercise the lungs. Just because I’m often late does not mean that I am trying to avoid singing its just that I can tell time that well. I really do enjoy singing and music. I love having music playing in the background and I am ok paying for a Sirius satellite subscription as well as a paid Spotify account. Something I have been know to say is that the world is going downhill because of the specialization of everything. Need to learn? Go to school. Are you sick? Go to the doctor. Car has a flat or needs an oil change? Take it to the mechanic. Hungry? Open a box or get take away. I think this is all bad news. We should learn to do new things, to repair things and yes even make our own music. People will laugh at things i’ve built and me I am sure they will laugh at my music, and that’s ok laughing and smiling are healthy.

So one Sunday in December at church I was thinking the music and singing were a bit too quiet and I noticed that there was a drum kit in the corner, alone and sad. For some reason I declared aloud that I was going to learn to play and take on the role of the beat maker. I asked around and I was able to borrow a drum kit to put in my very own house. But I didn’t rush into it, we are trying to clear out our junk (stuff we wanted once but now don’t) including a little climbing wall that was in the place I imagined the drums. I eventually cleared out the spot and after checking with Heather multiple times that she was ok with the plan I picked up the drums. As she is away this weekend I thought this might be a good time to make some noise.

Now as I come to the end of my dinner (chewing well you know) I will return to the throne and make a racket that will ensure the cats are happy to be outside. Ive heard if you drum hard enough you can have a real workout and get the sweat pores open.

Dear Clark, Glen and Dylan, my nearest neighbours, we are all happy that we are not living in attached housing.

Rock on!

Rich

Another Week of Success

In the fall bought pair of running shoes. It was an impulse buy when I was at MEC, I walked by the discount shoe bin and saw a pair of shoes similar to Naomis. So I figured they were ok and as they were only $50 I picked them up. I usually make fun of runners and running but I hear about it all the time because I am a regular listener to the “Rich Roll” podcast and I love hearing about things that guys and gals like Kílian Jornet and Courtney Dauwalter can do. I like the idea of being able to cover so much ground in a short amount of time. Exactly the opposite of mountaineering where the desired task is so very slow and the more difficult the route the longer it takes. Any late last fall I did a short run with Heather and we did 5 min jog, 5 min walk, repeat for 30min. It sounded so easy so the running part I did on my toes, it did feel easy but the next day I was crippled. Not just the next day, it actually lasted for two months or so. During our deep snow and deep cold event I was able to again walk for 30 min without pain. And ski touring was fine. A couple of weeks ago I decided to try running again. I googled how to start running and the plans all seemed too complicated. I would need a spreadsheet while on the road to know what to do next. Run-walk-jog slowly-sprint-and all for different times. So I came up with my own plan. The first day I ran away from the house for one minute, then turn around and run home. Repeat that the next time. Then move up to two minutes out then home. Repeat. Three minutes and so on. Now I’m up to six minutes one way and I just broke the 2km barrier, ha. I don’t run everyday, just when it is suitable. Heather often joins me, which is so nice to have a break mid day together. Another thing I like is that it really is hard but it only takes a short time. Shoes on, walk down the driveway to warm up, run, cooldown as we walk back up the driveway.

Dry and Cold

On Saturday I was able to work again for Whistler Heliskiing. The day wasn’t quite as perfect as the first, but I think we all had a great time. The day felt a lot like a normal day of work, I wasn’t nervous/excited and I was able to enjoy every bit of it. The photo below is actually from my first day. I didn’t even pull out my camera as it was flat light and I guess I didn’t feel creative.

Not every day is sunny, but when it is, is sure a pleasure.

I was asked to work again on Sunday but I declined because i’ve decided that I want to work only one day at a time. The ski days are quite long, I cannot eat as well as i’d like to, it can be mentally taxing and every day does involve some amount of stress. I was content to take the whole day off and go to church and relax, but, it also happened to be the 30th Spud Valley Loppet. Heather and I decided to enter into that. The turnout was great, the weather was ok and Heather and I stayed together and enjoyed the skiing and visiting as there were many old friends there too. We did the loop twice completing 10k. It was our first time on x-country gear this year and we felt happy. Although we did not make it to the podium I did win a draw and ended up with 10 pound bag of Shaw Creek Potatoes. How is that for a Pemberton prize?

Happy and feeling good.

For the 2nd time this year I was able to get out ice climbing. The first day was on the Duffey lake road at a climb called “Closet Secrets”

Rich on pitch 2 of Closet Secrets. Photo Jia Condon

Yesterday Jia again invited me out for a day on the ice. On Blackcomb we climbed most of the routes, both pure ice and mixed. I was feeling good and safe with those bolts protecting the tenuous moves, so much so that I even fell on one. A swing in the air was the only result. Boy my forearms were pumped by the end of the day. To complete the day I had some blood drawn for new tumour markers, then I had my 2nd round of acupuncture. This time on my back, I was a bit too comfortable and fell asleep for some unknown time.

The stretching pays off. Photo Jia Condon
Forearm pump and hip flexibility were in play here. Photo Jia Condon

Finishing up my visit to Whistler I picked up my CT Scan images. Ive had a look and finding anything interesting is not something that comes without the training. I did find this full torso image that I though was fun to see.

Back to the Struggle

After the upbeat tone of the last post I now need to widen the scope of the examination. 

I was not ready for the amount and speed of the snow we were blessed with. I have neighbours who have lived here for 30 years and this is the most snow on the ground they have seen. What a contrast to last year when we had very light amounts of accumulation and I only plowed our driveway three quick times. At the end of last season I was having some mechanical issues, it did work albeit with some effort, foaming of the fluid and a dropping ram which keeps the blade aloft. I did think about the needed repairs several times over the summer but it never reached the top of the do pile. I finally got around to ordering some parts at the end of November. So when the snow arrived mid December the plow did not lift or angle with the hydraulics so I was forced to do it manually. Do achieve this I attached a chain puller to raise and lower the blade, and to change the angle I needed to remove a hitch pin, push the blade to the desired angle replace the pin then lower the blade. Then I jumped back into the truck. Repeat each time I changed from forward to reverse. This was annoying, slow and led to a poor snow clearing result. Luckily I had chains on all the wheels and therefore I only got stuck twice, but being stuck with all the jewelry on meant I was really stuck, once it took over two hours to get free. So after three days of plowing and shovelling 6 hours a day (did I mention clearing the canvas covered garage and old chicken coop) I was getting angry at the snow and my lack of planning. For me to curse the snow is unusual to say the least and it was not healthy, Im trying to live stress free remember? I even began to dream. “How nice and easy it would be living in the tropics in an apartment, only owning a few pairs of shoes not 30, only a few sporting goods to buy and maintain, no seasonal storage, being able to grow and eat fresh veggies year round”. When I got my focus back I was pushing hard on the brakes to where you can feel the ABS vibrating…Slow motion crash into the Audi which was stopped at the lights. I had a big sigh, asked if my four passengers were ok and took a deep breath.

I forgot to mention the cancer. Well back in December I had another CT scan and the results were in, in part it reads. “The scans through the abdomen demonstrate the low-density lesion in the right lobe of liver superiorly has increased in size and now measures 2.6 cm compared to 1 cm previously. There are also two subtle lesions in the right lobe of liver inferiorly the largest measuring 2 cm. There is enlargement of an azygous lymph node and left axillary lymph node”. While not exactly encouraging I was able to ignore the findings or at least think of them as not really relevant as its more about how I feel overall than a scan which can be mis-read. At least that what I choose to believe. Then in January I had more blood work which showed one tumour marking holding steady but the other had nearly tripled. “Oh well, at least I still feel good”.

Oh no, forgot something else. Over Christmas we had a tougher one too. For the first time our nuclear family was split up as Anna was in Paraguay at her YWAM outreach. Then Naomi tested positive for Covid on the 26th, I saw the 2nd line on the 28, finally Heather succumbed to the virus on Jan 7. So that was a lot of isolating and extra sleeping. None of us had a bad case but it sure interrupted our holiday and ski plans.

I felt I needed to make a plan of new thoughts around the cancer. I am happy with my eating and juicing methods, but I wanted to do more (without chemo). My oncologist has still not contacted me to go over the results, I think he assumes I will call him when I want to get back on the drugs. So far I am planning on waiting another 6 or so months. I will have my blood done once a month in the meanwhile. Back to my plan, which has me trying to find out where the cause is. In my head these days I am thinking about the following as causes.

  1. Amalgam filings which I’ve had since I was a child. I am not moving on this at this time, just keeping it in mind.
  1. See “Evidence of Harm” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBWZtsjmJvU, and “Mercury Undercover”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAez0DId1NE
  2. A lack of something in my digestion like poor microbiota which is preventing me from absorbing the required nutrients in my food. Watch “The Second Brain”
  3. Still too many toxins, welding, painting, grinding etc, cat dander, something in our water. 
  4. The fact that I am cold most of the time and I have not had a fever since I was a child. Something wrong with my temperature regulation. This was a nice thing when mountaineering when sweating makes you wet ant therefore cold later, also is a waste of water. But now I notice that I very rarely sweat. I feel my lungs maxing out before I get hot. Or when I ski tour or hike it takes me a half hour at least just to get warmed up enough to shed a layer. Two years ago now I did do full body hyperthermia at a clinic, there I was placed in a chamber with heat lamps, catheter, rectal thermometer, IV fluids and my body temperature raised to44c, then the lights are turned down and my body was allowed to cool naturally over about three hours. That was quite difficult and I certainly did sweat during that time. I did that twice in two weeks. One effect of of hyperthermia is to kill cancer cells. It is believed that cancer cells die at 42c and normal cells die at 44c, it was also supposed to “kickstart” my thermoregulation. Hopefully it worked on the cancer but it not help my body to regulate. Chinese Medicine talks a lot about hot and cold. Its in our bodies, foods, attitudes spices,also I am interested in getting an infrared sauna. So many cultures include heat therapy into their lives. 
  5. Something in the Chinese medicine world which I am just now learning about. I like the idea of how all of our organs/systems are linked, also in Ayurveda old methods which aim to heal the whole body not just treat the symptoms as allopathic medicine does.
  6. Not trusting God enough. Not asking for the right thing. Am I holding onto something like forgiveness or bitterness?

With those things in mind the actions I have taken lately is to:

  • I saw another Naturopathic Dr. They recommend a couple of new supplements and to include a couple more. Also suggested that I could do some off label drugs, Low dose naltrexone, Metformin and Lovastatin. Or some very expensive new therapies such as, Greek TestRGCC or  Oncotrail and ImmuneFrame Testing these are both cutting edge things which aim to kill cancer cells by targeting them with specific “things” which I do not know much about. It sounded fancy and expensive when it was explained to me.
  • My new supplement list is:
  • Vit C 2400mg
  • Vit D3 5000IU
  • CoQ10 300mg
  • Curcumin 3000mg
  • Men 50+ multivitamin 1
  • Lugols Iodine 50mg
  • Graviola leaf powder 1tsp
  • Can Arrest 2 x 3/day
  • Corriolus 2000mg
  • Probiotic 1
  • B12 1000mcg
  • Niacin 200mg
  • Melatonin 20mg
  • Cannabis Oil 3ml 
  • Milk Thistle 1000mg
  • Reishi 3g
  • I have upped my IV-Vit c from once per month to twice per month, 50g per session.
  • Increased subcutaneous Misletoe from .3ml per week to 1ml per week
  • I have seen an acupuncture/Chinese Dr. And had acupuncture once so far but will go back, it was an excellent Dr. who is willing to share and seems to know what I’m looking for.
  • I am doing more deep breathing a la Wim Hof  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tybOi4hjZFQ
  • Limit Stress
  • QiGong daily https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwlvTcWR3Gs&t=7s
  • Stretching daily https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qULTwquOuT4&list=PLe-MYJWi-eJj8N5o2xY3BQCCstX7N-8Mi&index=1&t=1687s
  • and I am praying more 

As our life goes on I am still doing some shop work as ski guiding is very slow again this year due to covid, snow conditions and I am only a part time on call guide this year. I have yet to work a day.

The take away is that God has blessed me so much, I am thankful for his grace,  I am surrounded with family and friends who love me, I feel good, have the strength, mind power and desire to keep on learning, healing, playing and loving. Please join with me as we say goodbye to Covid, cancer and divisions among us, and hello to Life, Laughs and Love. 

With love, Rich

Back to Full Time Work

As fall came in full force I was encourage to work more. This was due to job deadlines, poor timing on my part and the threat of snow slowing everything down like it does. The thing is though I felt so good through it all. Chemo ended in July, hernia repair surgery in August, slow recovery due to a large hematoma after the surgery but still I was sleeping less, I had more energy and I was very motivated to earn some money. I began with a railing out Pemberton Meadows. It was a heavy one with 1 1/4 solid steel spindles that were hammered on edge, I did have a helper for some of this job but he left for a full time position in Whistler. Each of those spindles weighs 16 pounds so I built the railing in place.

Then I moved down to Whistler where I build a kitchen. Well I didn’t build it but I did cover the walls and make some nice floating shelves. The hard part does not really show in the photos. It was making the window returns.

Part 2 of that house was a fireplace backing, this is a big room. The sheets you see are over 8 feet wide and 50 inches high each.

Then I moved up to Lost Lake area Whistler for a Reno. Another fireplace backing.

Same house different piece.

The last one to do was a number plate box, this will be placed over a wooden structure with some backlights.

Thus concludes the metalworking part of my fall/winter up to around Christmas of 2022.

To be continued…

CT Scan Results

2021-06-25

Within the chest, there has been interval development of a small subplural nodule located laterally at the right lung base in the region of the costophrenic angle. This measures around 1.5cm in size. It was not present previously. This could represent a small metastatic nodule or even potentially a nodular focus of atelectasis . A small perifissural nodule in the superior segment of the right lower lobe is unchanged. Another tiny sub plural nodule located posteriorly in the right lower lobe is also unchanged. No other lung nodules are seen. No plural effusions. The mediastinal structures remain normal. A small left axillary node seen previously is even less conspicuous today.

No sinister skeletal lesions within the chest.

Within the abdomen pelvis, couple of tiny hypo densities within the right lobe of the liver, located superiorly and inferiorly, are unchanged. These both correspond to sites of previous metastases. No recurrence of abdominal lymphadenopathy seen back in August of 2020. Small calcified gallbladder stone again seen. No free fluid. No sinister skeletal lesions.

In summary, the only concerning finding is the new small nodule located laterally at the right lung base as described above, of uncertain significance however.

Two Years On

Two years ago I was diagnosed with colon cancer. It was a very difficult time for us. It was a ride from the peak of fun to the depth of sadness and dispair.  From a high of doing a five day traverse in Garibaldi park with Naomi, announcing the plans to climb the seven summits with her, through the death of Dave Treadway in a crevasse, to having the bomb dropped that I did indeed have cancer. The tumour was almost completely blocking my colon, I needed surgery quickly. The cancer had spread to my liver in three locations, many lymph nodes involved and two tumours in my messentry. The Dr said I had weeks or months to live. Yeah that was har to hear. For sure.

After crying on the floor with Heather for some time we called my friend Andy to drive us home from Lions Gate Hospital as we were too unstable to drive ourselves we prayed and told the kids the news. The saddest day of my life.

I had hope and did not a small amount of reading. One of the first things I was encouraged by was the cause of cancer. On the one hand was that cancer is a genetic disease. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/genetics On the other hand was that it was lifestyle disease. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2515569/

I’d encourage you to look up the report, if you’re short on time you are probably not reading this far. But to save a bit of time here is a snippet from the study.

Cancer is a Preventable Disease that Requires Major Lifestyle Changes

This year, more than 1 million Americans and more than 10 million people worldwide are expected to be diagnosed with cancer, a disease commonly believed to be preventable. Only 5–10% of all cancer cases can be attributed to genetic defects, whereas the remaining 90–95% have their roots in the environment and lifestyle. The lifestyle factors include cigarette smoking, diet (fried foods, red meat), alcohol, sun exposure, environmental pollutants, infections, stress, obesity, and physical inactivity. The evidence indicates that of all cancer-related deaths, almost 25–30% are due to tobacco, as many as 30–35% are linked to diet, about 15–20% are due to infections, and the remaining percentage are due to other factors like radiation, stress, physical activity, environmental pollutants etc. Therefore, cancer prevention requires smoking cessation, increased ingestion of fruits and vegetables, moderate use of alcohol, caloric restriction, exercise, avoidance of direct exposure to sunlight, minimal meat consumption, use of whole grains, use of vaccinations, and regular check-ups. In this review, we present evidence that inflammation is the link between the agents/factors that cause cancer and the agents that prevent it. In addition, we provide evidence that cancer is a preventable disease that requires major lifestyle changes.

As confusing as this seems it gave me the courage to keep looking for a solution to my problem.

To see what I decided to do go here.

https://richprohaska.com/?cat=74

In a nutshell I felt empowered to make healing my goal and not to give over my treatment to the doctor. We are not a victim or spectator. Life is an action. Do it well!

God only knows why I am doing so well, it may be by his healing hand alone or any or all the things I’ve done, but this I do not know, I will cherish each and every day I have.