UCSD Center for Integrative Medicine, Integrative Oncology 2013 Program by Arilda Surridge

One week ago today I had the opportunity to attend the UCSD Center for Integrative Medicine, Integrative Oncology 2013 Program.  I attended with Eric Galvez, and Monika Carlson  I am grateful for all the information that was provided at this event.  It has encouraged and motivated me to again have a balanced diet, body, and mind.

This event made me more aware about how unbalanced my life has been the past few months.  My diet has been terrible; I have been eating a lot of meat and lacking a plant based diet.  Physically, I am completely out of shape.  I have gained weight, and lost so much muscle tone.  I have not exercised as I did before.  Lastly, my mind has been full of negativity in turn causing much stress.  I am ready to once again go back to my balanced lifestyle for optimal wellbeing.

I began thinking to myself what happened that led me to be so unbalanced these past few months.  I have figured out that after my surgeries I had negative thoughts, I did not feel good about myself, and began to worry a lot about my future.  Also the treatment that I am currently on for breast cancer is causing me many side effects and I don’t like it.  This also has me feeling down.  I hate going once a month to my oncologist to get the dreaded shot on my stomach, and I hate having to take a pill on a daily basis. 

What the conference made me realize is that during my treatment I can also integrate other approaches that will increase my quality of life and help me be a more balanced person.  For the past week I have begun to increase my intake of plant based food and decrease meats.  I have begun to exercise again, and I also am trying to applying stress management skills and activities and having more positive thoughts to have a healthy mind and body.  I plan to integrate something new that I learned at the conference, and this is acupuncture.  Acupuncture appears that it may help decrease some of my treatment symptoms. 

I am looking forward to applying what I learned about diet, body, mind, and acupuncture to increase my wellbeing and decrease my risk of a recurring cancer or a new cancer in the future.