“Piss Or Get Off The Pot,” Lee says. It’s a total “Yankee” saying but wherever it comes from, I’m integrating it into my deal right now. If you remember, I was supposed to undergo the “Double Balloon” procedure at Vanderbilt yesterday.
I postponed it from February, wanting to give my body a chance to heal and to see if the dietary changes would work. At the time of the rescheduling, May seemed awfully far away and I thought that 3 months was enough time to “try” this new lifestyle out. I guess I also thought, “Hmm I will eat this way, get better and go back to my old “fish sandwiches at Micky D’s.”
The folks in the GI lab started calling a week ago to get me ready but everytime I heard their voices, a cringe ran up my spine. Then the info packet came in the mail explaining exactly how I needed to do to prepare. I took one look at myself in the mirror and knew that I can’t afford to go on a liquid diet for two days and then shit for two more! Ha ha..
Plus, the thought of a giant probe with an expanded balloon pushing through my swollen intestines was a turn off. After all, I’ve been working hard to get the inflammation under control and something pushing through that hasn’t been chewed would only irritate and cause more swelling, flushing my three months of work down the toilet.
I didn’t reschedule.
Nope, I decided that we already know that I’m doing better ’cause the hematologist that I see every two weeks is psyched that my nutritional profile is better than the average healthy Joe, in fact my inflammation level is a 2! Anything under 20 is normal! And my C Reactive Protein is undetectable (which alerts us of inflammatory issues).

So, the plan is to keep moving forward with the lifestyle changes. You see, when we say “diet” it usually means “loss” in our minds but, if anything, I am gaining greatness. The road I’m on has to do with what I’m eating and how I’m living.

A few years ago I met a great woman via my husband, Joan Borysenko. She is a PhD Harvard Research Cellular Biologist, who has studied the effects of the “mind on illness,” primarily in the case of Cancer and AIDS. When I first sat with her at dinner, I only knew that she was one of the most fascinating women I’d dined with yet! However I didn’t know that the information she shared would apply to me one day!
Fortunately, she is still in our lives and now inspires me through her writing, “Minding The Body, Mending The Mind”. What I thought I was comprehending before in her presence is different now that I’m actually applying it… whew… that know-it-all thing comes back fo’ya.

Yesterday I went in for microdermabrasion, the removal of a layer of dry skin by an estitician. I was so afraid it was gonna hurt that I put it off forever! Ha ha… But it didn’t hurt at all! In fact, it felt great and my skin hasn’t looked better! The Russian that made it happen is from my imagination for sure, her gorgeous milky white skin, blue eyes and her elegant dress is reminiscent of the 1950′s. She had to be close to 60 years old without a single line on her face that wasn’t perfectly placed, a thick accent and a serious relationship with skin care is NO JOKE. She totally took command, allowing me to sink back into the chair, trusting her Russian ways and soaking up her theories on beauty.
As she peeled the layers away, pointing out the sun damage, pollution damage, and dietary damages from the past. I thought, how appropriate to be doing this now, removing all the past damage… At the end she informed me that I will need to return once a month for 6 to 8 months, that this is a process that built up over 30 years and won’t go away in 4 weeks.
Do you see the theme here? Hmmmm….

So here I am, pissing on the pot!