January 2, 2013 - First Blog

Hello!  My name is Kelly Maigaard and I am starting a blog to chronicle my fight with Leiomyosarcoma.

They found the LMS (leiomyosarcoma) on the day Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett died.  I went in for a routine hysterectomy and came out with a battle on my hands.  That was June 25, 2009.  In June it will be 4 years and I have fought hard to beat it.  But I know now that LMS is a hard cancer to beat,  In fact, my oncologist said to me, "this cancer will eventually take you."  He doesn't give me much hope, does he?

Over the last 4 years I have kept people up to date on facebook and I have a caring bridge site which I go to whenever I have a CT scan or something interesting happen.  Sometimes it is months between log ins.

This blog is not a continuation of all my rantings over the 3 1/2 year battle with my cancer.  No, this blog is about how I am going to fight this thing in 2013.

Last year I started seeing a former teacher from Drake (I remember her, she didn't remember me.) who is now a health coach.  Her name is Sheree Clark.  I also went back to see my favorite doctor, Dr. Jean Lorentzen.  Between the two ladies, I embrace traditional cancer treatments while adding in alternatives.  I was a dutiful little patient for most of the first two years of my battle.  The doctors told me to NOT take supplements while I was on chemo.  I spent months in bed trying to battle this awful cancer.  After doing everything right, the cancer spread.  I had done two different chemotherapies and had three surgeries.  After all that when they saw the cancer was growing, they suggested I start a new oral chemo.  I snapped.  I ran from Mayo to Cancer Treatment Center of America, to Iowa City and back home to my original oncologist, Matt Hill.  They all said the same things.  More chemo.  I decided, ok, I'll do the chemo but I am also going to take supplements.  I brought all the anti-cancer supplements to Dr. Jean and she sorted them.  She told me which ones I COULD take and told me to hold off on the others.  I have been taking Vitamin C and Magnesium and Vitamin D and Ubiquitol and Milk Thistle.  Plus taking Temodar.  I had to fight to get the Temodar because my insurance didn't want to pay the $15,000 per round it cost.  I finally got it and have been taking it.

So I have been doing well with this regime.  I go in for my next CT scan on January 9.  We will see if it is still working.

Meanwhile, this blog is about what I am going to do to combat my cancer in 2013.  Oh yes, I have done well and done not too good.  But this year, I feel I owe it to myself to REALLY make an effort to effect change.  I only have one life and processed food is not the way to live a long one.  I won't roll over and die.  I've only got this one life!!