For now, I am positive things will turn out good and my focus is still strong along with my faith, support network, nutrition and all the things I can combine to keep moving forward.  I am blessed!

Until next time…

I want to wish you all Happy Holidays and may your families be blessed with abundance and health.

Until next time!

Jorge

It’s been a long time due since I have updated my blog with news and any other important information about me.   Although it has been in my mind this whole time it has been impossible to get out of bed and sit in front of the computer to write.  My situation basically was great until the Melanoma invaded my brain causing seizures then headaches, resulting in head surgery to install a shunt to drain fluid.  Later the spine was also affected by the disease causing loss of balance, leg pain, lower back pain forcing me to do something I did not want to do.  Chemo and Immune therapy  have been given to me for the last 3 months having one more to go before I finish and see what results I get.  I also was diagnosed with Lepto Meningeal Carcinomatosis which is the invasion of the Meninges causing more complications and putting me in bed rest a long time.

For now I am feeling better but may have a long way to go to win this battle and I thought to share it with you.  I am in good spirits, I am doing PT to recover my strength on my legs and of course my faith is stronger than ever.

I send you all a big hug and thank you for your support!

Jorge

Appetite is better than ever and after restarting a consisten physical exercise every week , my weight has increased to 176 from 165, best yet it is muscle! Heart looked great in the EKG and physical exam got an A+ so I’m definitely happybwithnthe overall results. If everything continues the way it is, I plan on riding on the MS cycling event with the Bacardi team for 150 miles to support and raise money for MS.

In comparison to other patients in the trial I seem to be ahead of the curve so I maintain the same ritual and nutrition habits since the beginning of my fight. Winning!

Now. Life gets sweeter as I was blessed with twins who are to be born by the end of may or beginning of June. My wife and I are having a boy and a girl so it could not be better! God is great and continues to bless me in so many ways and for that I’m grateful everyday for the things that I am given, I have, and the opportunities that keep coming my way.

Recently I gave a speech at my local church about nutrition and the role it plays in health, prevention and the treatment of chronic diseases and was a success, giving the encouragement to continue in this path and pursue my destiny.

My book which title I have changed to “Back from the Brink” is progressing in a very good way and I cannot wait to have it ready and share it with anyone looking to learn about my experience, challenges, tribulations and how I overcame the most difficult episode of my life. I hope everyone likes it as much as I do.

The organic buying club continues to grow and more people are jumping into the organic nutrition train and are supporting my “Nutiriton Revolution 2012″ now gearing towards helping kids gain knowledge about food, favors and how to become free from all the junk and bad food out there. It’s going to be a lot of fun!

Well, that is all for now folks! I hope your days are just as great as mine and if they are not! Just think of me and what I have had to go through and continue to overcome. Become a warrior and not a victim of any circumstance, chances are the only thing getting in your way, is your mind and yourself.

Have a blessed day!

The road was not easy and it took dedication, discipline, persistence and focus and just like in my athletic competitions, my sight was set on the finish line knowing that if I took step by step to get there, eventually I would. And I did, I arrived to my first milestone after two months of treatment when my first scan results came in and they have continued the same until today. Now, there was a detour a couple of months ago when the sneaky cancer played a trick on me, but I have more tricks up my sleeve and I have been back on the road again.

I am feeling great, I love my life and I have learned to live it in a different way. So much as to say I write my own script and not let others write for me. I know my destiny and no matter what the world throws at me, I will still keep focus on the path I need to take to fulfill my mission in life.

Better yet! A new chapter of my life started two weeks ago when my wife announced that she was carrying twins and I will be a father of two by next May or June. Life is an adventure! There I was last June fearing for my life that could have been taken away and by next June, I would receive two new lives into mine. Not only that, but my mother’s birthday who passed four years ago is in May and the probability of the twins being born during the week of the 25th is very high and wouldn’t it be great if they are born in that week or even on that day? Life would come to a full circle when life will remind me of the time I lost someone very special to me, when I was diagnosed with a lethal disease and when new life is received. WOW! I am just simply speechless to the way life can evolve.

Today I am alive, well and continue on alert as I am a Cancer Warrior, a Cancer Survivor and a new Me.

Thank you God for allowing to beat this disease and thank you for giving me the tools to stay on top of things and for using me to help others in the fight. Thank you for giving me a new life!!!

I am thankful to God and all the people placed in my path to recovery: doctors, Alternative Medicine Professionals, family and friends who are there for me and who I have learned tremendously from.

Today I help others deal with this disease and teach them how to put it all together to make sure they get a better chance of defeating Cancer and coming out not only healthy but also stronger and enlightened.

I belive, like the Dalai Lama says, that happiness is a right. Though I must add that there is no delivery system we are entitled to in order to claim that right. Funny how one can have the possibility but not the essence at the same time. But, “how can we know happiness without knowing sadness?” asks Lao Tzu. Would not happiness always be around the corner if we were engaged more profoundly with our emotional energy and forget a little about our “happiness demands”? If we only were in flow and fine with things as they are, as opposed to things as we want them to be, would that bring more happiness?

Experiments with happiness seem to conclude that when we work towards things greater than ourselves, the feelings of happiness last longer. Whereas when we work hard at getting stuff that we are “lacking”, when we conclude that “when I change the relationship”, “when I win the lotery”, when “he or she, mom or dad, etc.. stop making me unhappy”, “when I ge that which supposedly I lack”; “when I loose weight” I will be happy. Right. Then we get our stuff and it’s amussing: for a few days or weeks we think we are happy. Soon we discover that the stuff we thought we lacked does not really fill the happiness void. By the way, as the biggining of this discussion suggests, we are bound to spend a huge chunk of our emotional energy in this life trying to fill the happiness void (and going to doctors of the head and experts of the heart.)

Unhappiness and happiness are not diseases or things that are lacking or conditions that need to be treated with medications. These are internal states of reality, states of existance. Of our own reality. Paradoxically, working towards improving the loving and ease of reality for others make us happier and more content and aware of the wave of reality passing like a movie, frame by frame, in front of our eyes.

During the horrific events of 9/11/2001, among the many heroic stories is one of a security guard who had for a couple of years insisted on an evacuation drill for the whole floor of the financial company he worked for. During the time that he had insisted that the evacuation drills be practiced many people in the firm would basically try to convince him that the drills were a waste of time. That nothing could happen, (given the building’s strength), that would not allow for people to evacuate and get out. But the security guard insisted and stayed the course and had the employees practice the drill once or twice per year. On the morning when the tower got hit, the security guard calmly took charge and put into action his evacuation plan. He helped evacuate 2500 employees and stayed behind making sure everyone on the floor follow the plan and got out. He, however, stayed behind because there is no way to escape if you want to make sure and take responibility for the people that needed to be evacuated. He was able to talk on the phone with his wife as the tower was about to collapse. He told his wife not to worry and that he was a goner but that he had never been happier: “I am very happy” and burst into song. Can you imagine this?

Happiness is directly related to meaning and purpose. The more of each of these, the more the flow of love awareness and happiness. Without these it is more difficult.

And then, there is Snowball, the kokotoo.http://youtu.be/GYMBIGTteWA. Imagine a bird consummed by happiness and expressed in the amazing way she can dance. A bird that can not look forward to much other than hanging on a perch, or in her cage or on top of a chair, for her whole life existance. Imagine this was you. That’s what you would have to look forward to. How is it possible, that you or I can be less happy than this bird? I suggest to you that when you are feeling sad and down you just watch this bird. We can either lament that we are so unhappy a bird is much happier than we can be; or we can get madly inspired with the fact that this bird has figured it out before we did.

In this issue we discuss some tips to help us adjust our happiness attitude. We also discuss happy foods as well as some of the happiness-related attributes of the soul.

Happiness is a practice. Like Tai Chi or Yoga, we need to practice happiness in the mist of all that is seemingly wrong. The question is not change here. Change is already happening and never ceases. We can not wait for change to be happy as this would be in vane. More approipriatelly, the question is How is my relationship to the change that is happening. In order to practice happiness, Am I aware and engaged in the change that is happening or am I too busy constructing the change that should happen for me to be happier?

DESPUÉS DE MUCHOS AÑOS DE DECIRLE A LA GENTE QUE LA QUIMIOTERAPIA ES LA ÚNICA MANERA DE TRATAR (tratar literalmente) Y ELIMINAR EL CANCER, EL HOSPITAL JOHN HOPKINS ESTA FINALMENTE EMPEZANDO A DECIR A LA GENTE QUE HAY ALTERNATIVAS:

1. Toda persona tiene células cancerigenas en el cuerpo. Estas células no se ven en los chequeos regulares hasta que se han multiplicado a unos pocos billones. Cuando los doctores le dicen a los pacientes de cáncer que no hay mas células cancerigenas después del tratamiento, solo significa que los chequeos no las detectan porque ellas no han llegado a un tamaño detectable.

2. Las células de cáncer ocurren 6 de 10 veces en la vida de las personas

3. Cuando el sistema inmunológico de una persona es fuerte, las células cancerigenas serán destruidas y se prevendrá la multiplicación y formación de tumores.

4. Cuando una persona tiene cáncer, esto indica que esa persona tiene muchas deficiencias de nutrición. Esto puede ocurrir por diferentes motivos como genéticas, de medio ambiente, alimenticios y por modo de vida.

5. Para resolver esas muchas deficiencias de nutrición, el cambiar de dieta e incluir suplementos es imprescindible para reforzar el sistema inmunológico.

6. La quimioterapia en realidad envenena las células de cáncer pero también destruye las células sanas de la medula espinal como así también del intestino y eso produce daño en los órganos como el hígado, riñones, corazón y pulmones.

7. La radiación cuando destruye las células cancerigenas también quema y daña a las células sanas, y los órganos así como también los tejidos.

8. El tratamiento inicial de quimioterapia y radiación muchas veces reduce el tamaño de los tumores. Pero prolongado uso de la quimioterapia y la radiación no tiene como resultado la destrucción total de los tumores.

9. Cuando el cuerpo tiene muchas toxinas debido a la quimioterapia y la radiación el sistema inmunológico esta comprometido o destruido, por eso las personas pueden sufrir varios tipos de infecciones y complicaciones.

10. Quimioterapia y la radiación puede causar la mutación de las células cancerigenas, que se resistan y se haga difícil su destrucción total. La cirugía puede también provocar la invasión de las células a otros órganos.

11. Una manera efectiva de combatir ‘el cáncer’ es no darle de comer a las células cancerigenas con aquellos alimentos que necesita para multiplicarse.

LAS CÉLULAS DE CANCER SE ALIMENTAN DE…:

a. AZÚCAR es un alimento del cáncer. No consumiendo azúcar se corta uno de los mas importantes elementos de las células cancerigenas. Existen sustitutos del azúcar como sacarina pero esos están hechos con Aspartamo y es muy nocivo.. Un mejor sustituto del azúcar es miel de manuka o melaza pero en pequeñas cantidades. La SAL tiene un químico que se le agrega para que se vea blanca. Una mejor alternativa para la sal es la sal de mar o sales vegetales.

b. LECHE causa al cuerpo la producción de mucus, especialmente en el conducto intestinal. Las células cancerigenas se alimentan de mucus, eliminando la leche y sustituyendo por leche de soya, las células de cáncer no tienen que comer por consiguiente se mueren

c. Las células de cáncer maduran en un medio ambiente ácido. Una dieta basada en CARNE ROJA es ácida, es mejor comer pescado, y un poco de pollo, en lugar de carne vacuna o cerdo. La carne además tiene antibióticos, hormonas y parásitos, que son muy nocivos, especialmente para las personas con cáncer. La proteína de la carne es muy difícil de digerir y requiere muchas enzimas. La carne que no se digiere queda en los intestinos y se putrifica y lleva a la creación de mas toxinas.

COMO CONTRIBUIR A LA SOLUCIÓN DEL PROBLEMA

a) Una dieta de 80 % de vegetales frescos y jugos, granos, semillas, nueces, almendras y solo un poco de frutas ponen al cuerpo en un ambiente alcalino. Solo un 20% se debe consumir en comidas cocidas, incluidos los porotos. Jugo de vegetales frescos proporcionan al cuerpo coenzimas que son fáciles de absorber y llegan a las células después de 15 minutos de haber sido consumidos para nutrir y ayudar a formar células sanas. Para obtener enzimas vivas que ayudan a construir células sanas se debe tratar de tomar jugos vegetales (casi todos incluido alfalfa) y comer muchos vegetales frescos 2 o 3 veces al día.

b) Evitar tomar CAFÉ, TE Y CHOCOLATE, pues tienen mucha cafeína. El TE VERDE es una mejor alternativa y tiene propiedades que combaten al cáncer. EL AGUA es mejor tomarla purificada, o filtrada para evitar las toxinas y metales pesados del agua de la canilla. Agua destilada es ácida, no tomarla.

c) Las paredes de las células de cáncer están cubiertas por una proteína muy dura. Evitando de comer carne, estas paredes liberan mas enzimas que atacan las proteínas de las células de cáncer y permite al sistema inmunológico destruir las células cancerigenas.

d) Algunos suplementos ayudan a reconstruir el sistema inmunológico ( Florescence, Essiac, anti-oxidantes, vitaminas, minerales, Efas (aceite de pescado) para ayudar a las células a luchar y destruir las células cancerigenas. Otros suplemento como la vitamina E son muy conocidas porque causan apoptosis, el método normal del cuerpo de eliminar las células innecesarias o defectuosas.

e) El Cáncer es también una enfermedad de la mente, el cuerpo y el espíritu. Una ACTITUD mas activa y positivaayudara a combatir al enfermo de cáncer a convertirse en un sobreviviente.
‘La rabia y la incomprensión, el no perdonar pone al cuerpo en una situación de estrés y en un medio ambiente ácido.’Aprender a tener un espíritu amable y amoroso con una actitud positiva es muy beneficioso para la salud. Aprender a relajarse y disfrutar de la vida.

f) Las células de cáncer no pueden vivir en un ambiente oxigenado. Ejercicio diario, y respiración profunda ayuda a recibir mas oxigeno hasta niveles celulares. Terapia de oxigeno es otro elemento que ayuda a destruir las células de cáncer.

1. No contenedores de plástico en el microondas

2. No botellas de agua en el freezer

3. No papel plástico en el microondas

g) Químicos como las dioxinas causan cáncer, especialmente de seno. Dioxina es muy destructiva especialmente para las células del cuerpo.

No ponga en el freezer sus botellas de agua de plástico ya que el plástico elimina dioxina y envenena el agua.

Recientemente, el doctor Edward Fujimoto, Wellnes Program Manager at Castle hospital, estuvo en un programa de televisión y explico el peligro de la dioxina.

El dijo que no tenemos que poner contenedores de plástico en el microondas. Especialmente las comidas que tienen grasas, El dijo que la combinación de grasa y calor fuerte con el plástico elimina dioxina dentro de la comida y por consiguiente luego a nuestro cuerpo. En su lugar se puede usar vidrio, como Pirex o cerámica para calentar la comida.

“It’s good day for melanoma,” says Tim Turnham, president of the Melanoma Research Foundation. “We’ve gotten two new drugs this year, after 13 years of nothing.” The other drug, Yervoy, was approved in March.

About 70,000 patients a year are diagnosed with melanoma, Most cases are caught early, but if disease spreads beyond the original tumor site, the average lifespan is measured in months without treatment.

Zelboraf was approved under the FDA’s “priority review” process, and approved more than two months before the deadline under that review. Asked if there was a sense of urgency to the move, FDA spokeswoman Erica Jefferson replied by email, “FDA always works to get promising treatments to patients who have few or no treatment options as quickly as possible.”

Zelboraf is part of a trend known as “personalized medicine,” in which therapies are tailored to specific aspects of a patient’s disease – in this case, the BRAF mutation, which is found in approximately half of all melanoma tumors. The FDA approved Zelboraf in combination with a test that looks for the BRAF mutation. If it’s found, the patient could be prescribed medication, which comes in pill form – 4 pills taken twice daily.

Turnham says the effects can be spectacular. “Sometimes, before they start taking it, the [MRI] scan looks like someone’s been at ‘em with a paintball gun – all these dark spots. Literally two weeks later, you look at the scans and the spots are all gone.” Overall, results are somewhat less dramatic. In one of the trials reviewed by the FDA, 52% of patients saw their tumors shrink. In the other, 77% of patients were still living, compared to 64% of those taking only an older type of chemotherapy.

Zelboraf is currently approved for the treatment of advanced disease, but Turnham says some doctors will be tempted to use it for patients at earlier stages of disease. “At Stage 3, there’s a 50% chance of recurrence. If you give them this drug, could you keep it from coming back?” The decision won’t be easy. “You also have side effects, and it’s very expensive.”

While doctors are allowed to prescribe drugs for more than the specifically indicated conditions, cost could be a hurdle to wider use. A 6-month course of Zelboraf costs $56,000. According to Turnham, patients are likely to take the drug indefinitely, as long as their tumors are kept at bay.

Cost is not a new issue for new cancer drugs. Yervoy, for example, carries a reported price tag of $120,000 for a year of treatment.

According to the FDA, the most common side effects of Zelboraf include joint pain, rash, hair loss, fatigue, nausea, and skin sensitivity when exposed to the sun. Patients should avoid sun exposure when taking the drug.

Lucky for me if I may say, the tumors are small enough that they can be zapped with the Gamma Knife, a new technology that allows doctors to pin point the location of the tumors with exact coordinates done by the Norvalis MRI Machine.  Once the coordinates are input into the Gamma Knife, it delivers laser like beam of radiation directly into the tumors sparing all the other good and surrounding tissue.  The prognosis is high and hundreds of these procedures are performed every month at Moffitt.

Although the procedures is tedious and somewhat uncomfortable, I’ll take it given the other possibility which would have involved opening the cranium, etc…etc.  Here is a video oh how it works for you to see and I will be video taping myself the day the procedure is done on me to share it with you.

I will be going to Tampa next Wednesday for the initial MRI and consult with the Radiologist and back after a week or so to perform the procedure.

I am confident everything will be OK and this little bump on the road is just a step further to finally wiping cancer out of my life!  God is with me and it is all I need to endure anything and everything coming my way.  I am the Cancer Warrior and I am skilled in many weapons of war.  You will not beat me Cancer!