Touched By Cancer

I'm blessed to have three mums; my biological mum, my step mum and my mother in law. Each awesome and beautiful women in their own right.

Recently my step mum, a colourful, creative, vivacious woman, spoke to me about a diagnosis she received after going to the doctor with pains in her kidney area. At first her doctor dismissed her concerns, so she went to the local hospital thinking she had kidney stones. Scans showed she had something worse. Bladder cancer, well: three small cancerous tumors, one on top of her bladder, one along the ureter and one of the bottom the the kidney. Most likely caused by (according to the doctor) heavy metals her kidney was unable to process and remove from her system. 

Heavy metals are the result of the toxic accumulation of certain metals the body is unable to rid itself of. Where might these heavy metals have come from? Lead in lipstick and petrol. Arsenic in pesticides. Aluminum in antiperspirant. Lead, manganese, iron, nickel, copper, cadmium and antimony in hair dyes. Mercury in fillings and seafood. Could be any number of ways, we're exposed to daily. 

In the beginning we were told the cancer was non aggressive and prognosis of beating it was really good. The doctors removed the ureter and almost all of tumors except a small section too close to nerves near the bladder. An infection in the liver followed and my step mum was put on antibiotics for a number of days until the infection was gone. She reported feeling quite well and was discharged from hospital.

A week or two later she was booked in for 10 days of radiation treatment (she is too fragile to undergo chemo). From there things rapidly went downhill. My step mum has been unable to eat due to nausea and has lost a tremendous amount of weight. It was recommended she go into a hospice for while to be looked after, yet in there, they are not running any more tests to see why she's deteriorating (saying she's too fragile) and they're not feeding her intravenously even though she's barely eating. Kind of feels like they're giving up on her. Which feels so awful and final :(

Naturally this is devastating. Heartbreaking! I'm left wondering how does it go from a positive prognosis to pretty much 'nothing we can do'??? Such an awful thing to have to deal with and my heart goes out to all those who have also been touched by cancer (more like bowled over by it).

On a good and endearing note, I have and will always admire my step mum and have wonderful memories of her and I making soaps, discussing scents and creations together. She is such a creative women and makes candles, soaps, fabric art, ponchos - always working on something creative and colourful. She is the one who started me on my journey by talking to me about propylene glycol and we all owe it to her for the wondrous Skin Serum formula and the chocolate slice recipe she taught me some 24+ years ago.

I'm sending a prayer out to all those fighting the effects of chemicals and toxins in our everyday products and this is exactly why I do what I do - produce natural clean products - because I'd like to see a world where we don't have to fear things that poisons or harms us. JOLI will keep fighting the good fight xo

R.I.P. Liz [5/2/2016]. The world lost some of its colour and joy xo

my stepmum's beautiful art work sits pride of place in my workspace