Lauri finished her second day of chemo today. We finally got out of MD Anderson at around 9:00pm. She is tired, and feeling kind of "icky"; she describes it as a light hangover. Not too bad...
We also met with the chairman of the new Complimentary and Integrative Medications department at MD Anderson today. We discussed the roles that nutrition, dietary supplements, excercise, and stress management can play in helping to fight cancer. The doctor took down all of our information regarding supplements that Lauri had hoped to take, and will conduct several weeks of research with his team to be sure the supplements come from reputable sources, don't conflict with the chemotherapy, and if there is any existing tests or documentation showing that they actually work.
The doctor also set Lauri up with relaxation massage and acupuncture appointments. The massage is to relieve stress. MD Anderson has actually run tests that showed that stress caused a 50% increase in metastases and 3 times the tumor growth in lab mice injected with ovarian cancer versus mice injected with the same cancer cells, but reduced stress. The acupuncture serves to make Lauri feel better. Schedule-wise, massage happens on Friday and Acupuncture happens on Monday...
I told Lauri that I would poke her with needles if it makes her feel better, but she didn't take me up on it... What's up with that?
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