Please help

I know you are not dyslexic – but do you know anyone who is struggling to read, to learn, to thrive at school or at work? I have just been talking to some of my former students and I even interviewed a few of them for my podcast. Most of the time I was too choked up to talk as I listened to their journey after our program – and the amazing success that they claim started after the program.

One of them is living in Silicon Valley now. After finishing the program with me, at the age of 30, Andrew was head-hunted to the states and made such a significant contribution to his employers that he was voted, among 8000 engineers, the world’s best engineer. He not only claims that his confidence and the many light bulb moments during our program contributed to his success, but he says that this program should be in every school, as it would help any student, regardless if dyslexic or not.

And we only worked together for five days! Imagine, having that program introduced and followed up for a year, including literacy, numeracy, emotional and mental wellbeing and running it parallel to a student’s time at school (or while home schooled). And imagine having each student – if they wish to – finish the year by having published their own book.

It’s exciting, scary and I catch myself thinking that I’m out of my mind, even attempting such a big endeavor. Anyone wants to be my PA? Can’t even pay you right now, as I am offering the course for free for the first ten testers.

For testing I am looking for dyslexic individuals with a variety of ages, a mix of males and females, hopefully with literacy and numeracy challenges, or issues with ADD/ADHD. They don’t need to have a dyslexia diagnosis, but they should be creative, visual and/or tactile kinaesthetic learners. I can also assess them to make sure they are suitable and will get as much success as they are motivated to achieve.

To get a program (that will cost about $ 2,000 per year) for free, you just need to have two days of training ($ 600), so you know how to best support your child or student. Training is either in Mosman/Sydney or at the Entrance.

Please forward this video to anyone who may have found that homeschooling their child during covid19 was a challenge, who may have realised their child needs help and who has the time to support their child 30 – 60 minutes a day, five days a week.

The program is fun and not at all like school.

Thank you, guys! I appreciate you and I appreciate your help!

Barbara

PS Please check it out:

www.theoneyearschool.com

All well down under

Thank you for friends who have raised concerns regarding my health, due to the long absence from this blog. Quite honestly, I had simply forgotten…life got in the way.

I probably mentioned last time, that I cut my chemo short – by finishing after four month, instead of the six months recommended by my haematologist. The scan I had done just before my fourth and last one, was excellent and although I thought I should stop then, I did the last top-up chemo just to make the dr happy. Stupid, I know.

Much of my energy since then went into the app, called the Dyslexia Tutor, which is finished and ready for schools to trial it next year – for free, just to get feedback and an evidence-based educational tool. It has been interesting to approach schools and find the right fit.

The start-up company, who made my app, almost ended up buying our holiday place at the Entrance (the one rented out via Airbnb), but unfortunately didn’t get the finance at the last minute. A bit disappointing, as I was not unhappy about letting go of the holiday letting and the challenges with cleaners etc.

Joe is back working, small jobs, but not without stress. He hopes (and so do we) that he can take the two weeks off, when my lovely sisters and my brother in law are here.

I can’t wait! So looking forward to these few weeks.

 

Chemo no more

Latest development from the Haematology Department: Barbara Hoi has signed out of her last two months of chemotherapy. I don’t think they are used to patients not following orders. Even Josef has been upset about my refusal to go on.

To appease everyone, I had already agreed to a last round (4th and 5th of September)…now no more mopping up.

Last week I had lunch with some girlfriends and one of these lovely ladies asked me, how I would rate my health from 1 to 10, one being very poor and ten being excellent.

I said that I am an eleven – and immediately she ordered a coffee, to my surprise. Then she went on to explain that she had been quite upset when she saw me on the beach four months ago, looking so skinny with a big belly. So she had decided to quit coffee and every time she craved it, she’d pray for me instead.

Needless to say, I was touched and close to tears. I had no idea anyone would be doing that for me?

CT Scan results

On Tuesday I was booked in for a CT Scan – again they couldn’t find any veins, but they were ‘allowed’ to use the veins in my hand, which aren’t permissible with chemotherapy, due to endangering the body, in case the poisonous substance escapes beyond the blood stream.

So apart from a bruised hand, all went well and the results are rather good:
No more signs of cancer on the upper part of the body and the lungs, while the spleen only shows a small amount left and the lymph nodes deeper in my abdomen also have traces of cancer left.

I still haven’t had a phone call from my hematologist, so I have no idea what his opinion is regarding the scan, nor if I should have one more go at the chemo or if it’s too late, due to missing out on last month’s attempt. I find that rather poor. He is too busy to return phone calls, I was told.

What am I leaning towards? Doing nothing, at this stage, until I feel what’s the right way forward.

Girl Interrupted…

…from her Immuno – Chemo Therapy.

After three months (and with another three months to go) I was getting the feeling that I am actually really well, I cannot feel any lymph-nodes under the arms any more, my spleen has disappeared under the rib cage where it belongs, my belly has reduced remarkably and my energy levels are even better.

Still, I had bargained with my haematologist, that I am prepared to do this week’s sessions, August 7 and 8, (as always 7 hours on Wednesday and 3 hours on Thursday…and that once a month). Then he had agreed to have another look at the situation after a CT Scan.

Well, these good ideas were interrupted by the fact that none of the four nurses (and one doctor) could find a vein to get into my body. They punctured me eight times, ballooned a few of them and still, no success.

The only way my chemo and immuno could have gone ahead was with a port. They arranged for the operation to get that thing, where they could just attach the infusions like a cord to an electricity plug into a wall. Can you imagine? No more swimming, high infection rate and I’d be at their mercy to have it removed, possibly only in October when they want to finish the treatments.

So of course I had to refuse and leave the hospital without any treatment this week and this month. The head nurse looked very cross and complained that they now have to throw out a very expensive drug!

Now, I have to admit that it had been a very good idea to do the Chemo-Immuno Treatment so far, but deep down my body knew that the good deed has been done and every further treatment may not be so beneficial.

Only the test will tell for sure – and I will keep you posted about these results next week.

Want to know what the breath meditation does?

At the end of the interview, which is both inspiring and scientific, there is a breathing exercise that gives a taste of what is possible, with some practice and passion. I’ve only experienced the real effect once during my meditation retreat at the Sunshine Coast – out of this world – and the promise of a biological upgrade that is anti-aging, anti-viral, anti-fungal, anti-cancer, anti-microbial …  keeps me practicing.

Emotional Cancer Recovery

Bradley has done the chemo therapy, immuno therapy and everything his doctors threw at his ‘unsexy’ cancer, before and after it spread and metastasized, which was supposed to give him a max. of 12 months to live. He explains so well, how Dr. Joe Dispenza’s meditation worked on him and completely eliminated any cancer in his body.

What an inspiring story. Although I am still on the chemo-immuno trail – and admit that it has so far reduced the spleen and normalized any enlarged lymph nodes, I will keep up the daily meditations, especially during the 5-hour treatments (immuno and chemo) that I’ll be facing twice this coming week, on Wednesday and Thursday.

I don’t know if these meditations have helped me to have no side-effects to my treatments – or if there are other reasons, but it doesn’t really matter. My haematologist would strongly disagree with my theory – not that it matters.

Enjoying the sun, long walks, my morning swim in Toowoon and healthy food here at the Entrance, I secretly am building a bit of an immune system, which was evident, as my cold cleared up as quickly as my conjunctivitis, within a few days.

Three chemo-immuno treatments later

I think deep down I always suspected that I am having to face ALL my fears, chemotherapy being on top of that list.

The mix of bendamustine and obintuzumab was chosen by my haematologist, who seems to know his stuff, what drugs are concerned. However, don’t ask him anything else. Josef, who couldn’t help himself, asked about diet and if it was best to avoid sugar, to which the reply “We all know, sugar isn’t good for our teeth, but has no effect on cancer” didn’t lift my confidence in getting a holistic picture.

The second question to Dr. Tasman, regarding stress and cancer was also denied wholeheartedly. Cancer, we were told, had nothing at all to do with stress. It’s the reversal of two chromosomes that just happen in some people – inexplicably and without provocation. Well, we can all have our own opinions, there was no reason to give him my opposing view.

I very briefly investigated the drugs, but Dr. Google was giving  the worst case scenarios and I decided to not open that can of worms. From Dr. Joe Dispenza I had learned that we are creating our realities and if I had so successfully created cancer, I now had to do my very best to see these drugs as bullets of pure light and love, having no negative side effects at all, just reducing the bulk of my spleen and liver. It seems to work so far – I feel absolutely fine, especially with the chemotherapy IV. Maybe the 2-day fast beforehand helped, but not sure. The immunotherapy takes a minimum of three hours, with me five, as I don’t feel too well, when it’s sped up.

So all in all, even that fear is disappearing – as slowly and surely as my big belly.

Help from the Universe!?

Well, today is Saturday – four more sleeps until the chemotherapy. It has been shifted from Monday 13/5 to Wednesday 15/5 and a second round on Thursday. Day one will be a marathon of six hours (but they feed you with biscuits, jellybeans and sandwiches!) and Thursday only takes 90 minutes, I was told by my nice haematologist. Yes, he is nice but feeding me with the same information as most other doctors, oncologists and haematologists I had talked to: Sugar has no effect on cancer,

Stress or traumas have never caused cancer,

Cancer is just bad luck, eat and drink and work whatever you feel like… and whatever you do, don’t build up your immune system!

I had the crazy idea that it may be good to have a Vitamin C injection to build up my immune system a week after the chemo to prevent me from getting any infections, which is the only real danger to my existence, they said. Now I was very much discouraged from that: ‘We are putting free radicals into your body, why would you add antioxidants to counteract the effect? We don’t want you to have a good immune system!’ Wow, I am learning so much.

Apart from getting a cute survival bag with thermometer, hand creams and jelly beans, I was also given a 7 page list of possible side effects, like fatigue, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or constipation…and above all to never go beyond 38 degree fever as there is no immune system to fight any illness.

So I thought I put it to the Universe to see what I can contribute to minimize the side effects. Josef of all people gave me a hint today. A good friend of his suggested to check out the research on a two day water fast prior to the chemotherapy. I did that and it sounds so logical to me: when you fast, healthy cells put a protective layer around to prevent starvation, while cancer cells don’t do that at all. So the toxins from the chemo get gobbled up mainly by the cancer cells and have a harder time to crack the healthy ones that have shielded themselves.

Now what do you think of that?

I want to also thank the many beautiful friends who have written such kind messages, promising support, prayers and sending loving thoughts. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I love you!