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My Diet After Having ER-Positive Breast Cancer

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After receiving a diagnosis of ER-positive breast cancer, I took a cancer-free diet seriously.

Image of an array of fresh and healthy food.

Cancer Diet

No meat, no wheat

And nothing sweet

Dairy's scary

So be wary

Eat Beans and greens

Just don't fry 'em

But Gmo's —

Don't even try 'em!

Supplements are

Really nifty

Just look out 'cause

Some are shifty

Omega 3's —

Good forever

Omega 6's —

Eat them never!

Alcohol is

Quite verboten

Except for red —

A bit's allotted

Coffee maybe

Aspirin daily

Lemon water —

Yes ya oughta

Doctors meds

And exercise

Anti-ox's

No surprise

Try this diet

And you'll see

Life is good

No misery!

Or maybe not

Shoot, I don't know...

Ya gotta try

Something though...

If this all fails

Then seems to me

That Oregon's

The place to be

I was diagnosed with stage 1 ER-positive cancer in my left breast in 2010. Upon investigation, it turned out that I had a matching tumor in my right breast. I underwent a bilateral mastectomy with chemo. One always wonders how much one’s own choices create and/or affect the outcome of the disease. Like others, I engaged in a rigorous reevaluation of my lifestyle choices. This poem reflects the recommendations for a cancer-free diet, which I, for one, did not adopt until after getting diagnosed. The last two stanzas expressed my fear of recurrence and my dark desire to have the option of medically assisted suicide (at the time this poem was written, Oregon was the only place that was a legal option) should that occur.

This post was written and submitted by Kate Matthews. The article reflects the views of Matthews and not of CURE®. This is also not supposed to be intended as medical advice.

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