Mistletoe
It's not just for Christmas, in July
In a lab study comparing mistletoe extract with the chemotherapy drug vincristine against human B-cell lymphoma growth, both agents suppressed the proliferation of lymphoma cells to a similar degree and eventually led to the death of the lymphoma cells.
From- Lymphoma Overview - Life Extension
Today’s newsletter is brought to you by lymphoma, the thing that stole my mother’s mother from us. We were close, very close. We lived in the same neighborhood which made spending a lot of time at my grandparents’ house an easy thing to do. My mother thinks that she died on my birthday on purpose, probably because this sounds like something she would do, or possibly as a part of her plan to not be forgotten by me, or anyone else. She reminded me to never forget her shortly before she passed on, as if I ever could forget her. I don’t know which was worse, her death, or her death on my birthday in the early morning hours as the delightful summer sun was beginning to fill my bedroom, or her death being just 33 days short of her being able to meet my third born son. She liked to tell me the story about the day I was born on my birthday, every year, and that it was her first born, Aunt L, who brought the good news- that they were grandparents, again. I tell myself my birthday story, just as grandma told it, every morning as I wake up on my birthday as the summer sun fills my bedroom. I do it in memory of her. I have not forgotten.
Now, grandma’s first born has lymphoma too. This would be my aunt L, my mother’s oldest sister of which there are four sisters. In our last newsletter we reported that my aunt has ovarian cancer, but apparently, it’s actually stage 4 Diffuse B Cell Lymphoma, spread to lungs and stomach. I’m not sure if the ovaries are involved as well at this point, because communication between four sisters who are in their 70’s could actually be a bit like playing “The Telephone Game” by those who have not been playing “Brain Games” in order to avoid dementia. I’m not saying they have dementia or that they should try playing more “Brain Games”. I’m just saying………….
For example, my second-born aunt, number 2, somehow got it in her head that my dad still has cancer in his lungs and reported this false information to my first-born aunt, number 1. However, this is not true, because dad’s oncologist has made it pretty clear that dad is cancer free, and we have 2 tumor free scans to prove it. This is why Dr. Oncologist has called dad a “walking miracle”.
For some reason, the song “Sisters” from the movie, “White Christmas” is also popping in my head as I’m thinking about all of this. Maybe that’s because Hallmark wants us to watch their Christmas movies in July, and there is Mistletoe lymphoma hope. The dynamics of sisterly relationships is often complex, but somehow, most sisters are able to rise above their differences and achieve a harmonious song and dance like routine at times. My mom and her sisters have never been known to break out into song and dance routines of musical proportions, but their laughter aka cackles during get togethers always has been pretty epic. I’ve been told that me and mom and my sister have the same epic cackles when we are together. I think our laughter is more than a cackle because it comes from somewhere deep inside and can fill a room with its essence as we lose ourselves in our shared moments of utter happiness. This also makes me think of my aunt who now has lymphoma, the one who first reported the news of my birth to my mother’s parents while grandpa was working in his Iris patch. When I think of aunt L, I can still hear her distinct laughter in my mind. We also lived in the same neighborhood as her and her family when I was very young which was a different neighborhood than where we lived later on, which was near my grandparents’ home on the other side of town. There are many things I remember about aunt L, but my top three memories would be her laugh, picnics, and amusement park rides. Her chocolate pie at Thanksgiving would be fourth and sparklers on the 4th of July would be fifth. My dad has always said that family is what ends up being the most important thing in life, and I think he is right. However, family as I once knew it as I was growing up, is becoming more and more elusive every day, and I don’t believe that what has replaced it is any more perfect or any less dysfunctional than any American family ever was. I have heard the government thinks that life is lonelier these days and that loneliness might contribute to disease. However, I’ve also heard that it’s not loneliness if it’s solitude, so maybe it depends on who you ask, but maybe don’t ask the government about loneliness because they might be using what they say about loneliness as propaganda for political reasons.
If you’re still not sure about who my grandma is and who my mom is and who my aunt is and who my aunt’s sister is; don’t worry, you can still be happy. Getting all of the relational connections mixed up happens until you know who you know, especially if you up and move off to live 1700 miles away from your people in order to live in your husband’s small town where everyone is somehow related to everyone else, in which case, 10 years may still not be enough to be able to tie all of the relational relationships together. The main point is- that this newsletter edition is about lymphoma and all of the memories have taken up a lot of space here, so the link I posted up there at the beginning of this story probably has more information in it than you ever wanted to know about lymphoma such as what causes it, and what you can do about it. To make a long article short, in addition to whatever Dr. Oncologist has planned; Mistletoe Extract, Selenium, Green Tea Extract (EGCG), Curcumin, Melatonin, Devil’s Claw, Various Herbs, and Vitamin D supplementation may help give some additional hope to the projected treatment outcome. That referenced article also gives additional suggestions on how to possibly avoid treatment complications that may cause heart damage. In case you missed it the first time, the link to the Lymphoma article is here-
Lymphoma Overview - Life Extension
P.S. This is not my Aunt L’s first cancer rodeo. Several years ago, she had a form of leukemia that was not the worst kind of leukemia you could ever have. Dr. Oncologist helped put her in remission, but now it has come back as stage 4 lymphoma and here we are hoping that she will beat it again because she is loved and has an active life that is still worth living.
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Leaving Death in the Dust is about the journey to health, whole health; body, mind, spirit- soul. My dad has encouraged me to share the things I shared with him that helped him heal from stage 4 bladder tubule cancer that spread to his kidneys and lungs. He was diagnosed with cancer in November of 2022 and was declared cancer free by his oncologist in March of 2023.
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