Segue
/ˈseˌɡwā/
verb
1. (in music and film) move without interruption from one piece of music or scene to another: "allow one song to segue into the next"
noun
1. an uninterrupted transition from one piece of music or film scene to another. A transition from one role, state, or condition to another:
"that's actually a perfect segue into my next question"
Our Gate 1 tour guide in Morocco, Amine said that now that we have broken bread together, we’re family. And naturally when I ate with other members of our tour (there were 37 of us from Canada and the United States), my new “family” were curious about the way I ate.
Yes, I was that outlier who had the special plant-based plate of food–no beef, chicken, or fish for me. However, I was not the only plant-based person in the group, another woman Divya Joshi, a sweet, warm lady, a pediatrician from Atlanta, Georgia was also vegan. And we had a large group of vegetarians, too, most of whom were classmates from medical school in Gurajat, India. Inevitably the omnivores were curious about my diet and it was a convenient entree to talk about my new lifestyle.
“Well, I used to be an omnivore, but I got a cancer diagnosis 3 years ago and I became a vegan the next day.”
A look of horror would transform the person’s face and often she’d say, “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s OK,” I’d say. “Really, I have a happy cancer story.”
And then I had the perfect segue to tell them about how powerful food was in my healing journey. I told them how I had wanted to heal as naturally as possible, that I became a low-protein plant-based eater because I was avoiding the amino acid, methionine, which feeds cancer. I told them how I declined surgery and radiation even after two different doctors said that was what I should do. However, I did ask for and was given the hormone blocker, Letrozole, which probably helped shrink my estrogen-driven tumor. I also took nutraceuticals from the Nutritional Oncology Research Institute that had sound scientific studies to show how they reversed cancer. Finally, I took a supplement called methioninase from AntiCancer, Inc.
Within 8 months, my PET scan showed no evidence of disease and my tumor eventually disappeared from my ultrasound check-ups after 2 more years.
Because I ate with so many different people on the 10-day tour of Morocco and then at the TechWomen.org Summit in Casablanca (the reason I made the trip) I repeated my happy cancer story many times. I’m sure my travel companion, Rae Parnmukh, was tired of hearing it (although she graciously never complained) but even I got tired of telling it. Yet I try to share it as much as I can because I hope it helps someone some time somewhere. While I may get tired of repeating the story, I’m never tired of helping someone else. And I remember that I saw the documentary Forks Over Knives in 2012 but didn't commit to being plant-based until 2021.
While I may get tired of repeating the story, I’m never tired of helping someone else.
This year, I have personally lost several relatives and friends (my husband’s cousin of ovarian cancer, a close family friend most likely from complications due to stroke, and a former co-worker’s partner from a heart event). All of them might have been helped if they had known what was to come. Maybe they knew about the power of food but maybe they didn’t. So I will just keep sharing my story ad nauseam. But at least the nausea won’t be from chemotherapy!
Tip: Read Dr. Michael Greger’s book How Not to Die or look at his YouTube channel nutritionfacts.org.
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