Hollye Jacobs's Blog, page 21

The Silver Lining Book Tour Continues!

The Silver Lining Book Tour Continues

As I mentioned yesterday, my absence from the blog may be explained by the fact that I am doing my very best to live by example and walk the “balance” walk that I talk about so very often.  The Silver Lining has been taking pretty much every moment of every waking day (think: NEWBORN here). As a result, I have had to prioritize, while still trying to be a good wife, mother and friend. Funny thing that balance.

The Silver Lining book tour continues and I am excited about all of the opportunities I will have to share this book! First, April brought us the super happy news that The Silver Lining made it on the New York Times bestsellers list! I had to pinch myself when I saw that! Also, just as exciting, the April edition of O Magazine is out; and guess what…Oprah placed our book on her Top Ten list, which is a huge  Silver Lining!

You can find the interview I did for the NPR Morning Edition, titled “Chemo Can Make Food Taste Like Metal. Here’s Help“.

In mid-April, it’s going to be a busy month as I will be back on the road again, visiting my Midwestern home: Chicago! I am very excited to head back to the windy city and visit with so many friends and supporters.

On April 15, I’ll be doing a book sighing the Cancer Wellness Center in Hinsdale and I’m being interviewed by The Extraordinary Leader which I hope you can join in for.

My tour around the Chicago area continues through April 16-17 as I visit the Union League Club of Chicago, the Cancer Wellness Center of Northbrook, and the Walking Company.

I am so thrilled to be able to share about The Silver Lining and hopefully get it into the hands of those who need it. In the meantime, here are some more photos from things that have happened already this month:

Oscar de la Renta held a booksigning at their Melrose boutique, what a great night! They also contributed a percentage of their sales from the Melrose boutique to buy book of The Silver Lining and will donate them to people who cannot afford the book. WOW!

Cover of A Women’s Health – So cool!

More Silver Linings to come! Hope to see you all soon!

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Children Learn What They Live With

Children Learn What They Live With

Hiiiiii!  Wowsy, have I ever been MIA. I hope that you will forgive me.  My absence is explained by the fact that I am doing my very best to live by example and walk the “balance” walk that I talk about so very often.  The Silver Lining has been taking pretty much every moment of every waking day (think: NEWBORN here). As a result, I have had to neglect the blog.  I always carry my journal with me and have tons of things about which I am planning to write and will be doing so soon.

In the meantime, I wanted to share this spectacular bit of wisdom that I found framed in a random restroom in the most random of buildings in Santa Barbara.  It was a faded piece of paper placed in a simple black frame. No author. No nothing.  Just this.  I spiffed it up a bit with some color (because you know how much I love color!), but the message is exactly as I found it.

Talk about a great and wonderful Silver Lining that is inspiring me to be a better Mommy. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do!

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Chemo Mouth During Cancer Treatment

Chemo Mouth During Cancer Treatment

Yesterday, I had the incredible opportunity to be on the Health News: NPR morning segment. It was great fun to discuss one of my favorite topics: EATING.  This was especially poignant because the topic was: Cancer patients and lost appetite. Boy oh boy did the interview take me right back to the period when I was nauseous and/or barfing every moment of every day…and often complicated with diarrhea and constipation (sometimes on the same day)…and joined by mouth sores. So many of you will remember how I rolled (around on the floor) during chemo.  Chemotherapy can cause extreme nausea. And because of this, cancer patients often lose their appetite. But there’s something else that makes eating during this treatment unpleasant.

NPR reporter Patti Neighmond addressed yet another aspect of the relationship between chemo and food: the change in food tastes.

Below is the article and you can listen to it here.

Cancer patients often lose their appetite because chemotherapy can cause nausea. But it does something else to make food unappetizing – it changes the way things taste.

Hollye Jacobs was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010, at the age of 39. As a nurse she expected the extreme nausea that often accompanies powerful chemo therapy drugs. But as a patient, she wasn’t expecting the taste changes.

“Nothing tasted good, nothing was appealing, I didn’t have any desire whatsoever to eat,” Jacobs, of Santa Barbara, Calif., says. Food tasted like cardboard, textures were mealy and there was a near chronic taste of metal. “The metal mouth was horrible, even just saying it again, I can taste it,” she says.

This “metal mouth” is caused by the chemo. When medications are injected into the bloodstream, they also get into the saliva, and most medications have a very bitter taste, according to researcher Beverly Cowart, who studies taste and smell at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia.

Then there’s another unpleasant side effect of chemo drugs. Foods just don’t taste the same. They’re often too sweet, too salty, too bitter or without taste at all.

Jacobs says she used to love pasta with marinara sauce, but during treatment, “one day I ate it, it literally was absolutely repulsive,” she says. “It tasted like cardboard and the tomato sauce almost had a stinging sensation in my mouth.”

One reason the taste of food changes has to do with the nature of chemo therapy itself, Cowart says. The purpose is to attack cancer cells which grow rapidly. “Unfortunately, taste cells are the same, ” says Cowart. “They turn over very fast.” This means the chemo drugs end up targeting the taste cells along with the cancer cells.

There are some things patients can do to retain their interest in food, according to Rebecca Katz. She is a chef who works with cancer patients, helping them learn how to eat and even enjoy food during treatment. Her books, The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen, and One Bite At A Time, offer lots of suggestions.

First off, try tricking your taste buds, Katz says. Use new flavors and spices, so there’s no expectation of how foods should taste. “Give your taste buds a passport for worldwide travel,” to countries like Thailand, Latin America, Spain and Morocco. Introduce new spices like cumin, cinnamon, coriander, and “all of a sudden your taste buds are tickled instead of drab,” she says.

Then there are some very practical changes patients can make. If water or food tastes like metal add a little acid, says Katz, the type found in lemons, limes and oranges. If you feel like you are eating cardboard, add salt. Sea salt is best because it’s not processed like typical table salt. If foods taste bitter or harsh, she says, a teeny drop of Grade B organic maple syrup will make it taste better.

As for fats, Katz says, “eat them!” She suggests the healthiest ones, like olive oil, coconut oil, nuts and seeds. Fat is a natural flavor carrier. “Fat is like a magic carpet traversing back and forth across your palate, delivering tastes,” she says, “so all of a sudden you have that involuntary spasm of vocal delight, turning yuck into yum.”

Katz calls this her “culinary pharmacy,” with the acronym FASS standing for fat, acid, salt and sweet. And for cancer patients FASS can spell the difference between finding meals palatable and losing interest in eating, at a time when patients need all the strength and nourishment they can get.

But Jacobs, who recently published a self-help book “The Silver Lining: A Supportive and Insightful Guide to Breast Cancer,” adds a note of caution. Like many other patients she discovered that the food she ate during chemo was nearly impossible to consume once treatment was over. The memories and associations were just too strong. As a result, many patients choose not to eat their favorite foods during chemo therapy, so that when it is over, they can still enjoy the food they always loved.

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Finding Humor During Illness

Finding Humor During Illness

As many of you may recall, I was the FBC (f-bomb breast cancer) patient for whom everything that could go wrong seemingly did. My oh my. From my colitis (i.e., spewing from both ends) to extraordinary pain because someone forgot to turn on the pain medicine after surgery to being stranded on Isolation Island, I was a bit of a cancer mess (understatement of the decade!).

One of my great Silver Linings during this period was the ability to find humor in the absurd. I know that it may sound whacky – to laugh when throwing up on the side of the freeway, for example or to absolutely completely and totally relate to the bathroom scene in Bridesmaids – but the HOTY and I laughed – a LOT. Sometimes it was that nervous, screechy, ridiculously high pitched laughing, but it was indeed laughter. There were situations in which things were just so ridiculous that they were funny!

According to the American Cancer Society, Humor therapy is the use of humor for the relief of physical or emotional pain and stress. It is used as a complementary method to promote health and cope with illness. Although available scientific evidence does not support claims that laughter can cure cancer or any other disease, it can reduce stress and enhance a person’s quality of life. Humor has physical effects because it can stimulate the circulatory system, immune system, and other systems in the body. These are some pretty wonderful and worthwhile Silver Linings of laughter!

Over a year ago, a dear family friend of ours, 30 year-old Danny Zollars, was diagnosed with rectal AND liver cancer. Uh huh. Sit with that for a second. Or don’t. It was as stunning to learn about Danny’s diagnosis as it was for people to hear about mine.

Shortly after Danny’s diagnosis, he started a blog called “Rectal Talk.”  In it he chronicles his experiences and includes a great deal of humor….and potty talk. When it comes to incorporating humor during cancer treatment Danny says, “I think it’s the only way to attack this horrible condition. Cancer can really knock you down to your core and I believe a positive a attitude and a bright outlook truly help one heal.”

Part of Danny’s treatment included having an ileostomy bag. In case you are unfamiliar (and I hope that you are!), an ileostomy is performed when the large intestine is no longer capable of performing its normal functions. In an ileostomy, an opening called a stoma is constructed to connect the small intestine to the skin allowing fecal material to be expelled from the body without the large intestine’s help. As Danny describes it, “Having feces poor out of your stomach while you are chatting with friends is a great feeling. Sitting at restaurants and feeling it come out while eating is another great way to feel good about yourself! I will miss emptying it in every public bathroom in West LA. If you are in West LA and need to know where the best restrooms are, hit me up and i will guide you to a great experience.” 

I’ve been reading Danny’s blog daily for the past year. I don’t think that I laughed as hard as when I read his post last week when he said, “I have been through a lot of tough situations in the last year but going to Costco in Van Nuys on a Sunday afternoon was one of the toughest. The only thing that got me through it was that it was sample Sunday.”

Reading Danny’s blog gives me great perspective and helps remind me to not only appreciate the health that I have today, but to find humor daily. The Silver Lining is that it appears as though Danny is nearing the end of his ordeal (at least we are ALL hoping!) and that he is engaged to an incredible woman AND he is moving into their new home. These are the things that Danny chooses to focus on, which is one of the many reasons that I admire and respect him.

Here is the scene from Bridesmaids. I watched it twice before uploading it and had tears pouring down my face the entire time.

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The Silver Lining is on the New York Times Bestseller List 2014!

The Silver Lining is on the New York Times Bestseller List 2014!

Today, I am thrilled, honored and humbled to let you know that The Silver Lining is on the New York Times Bestseller list. Ha! When the HOTY (Husband Of The Year) showed it to me, we were at a restaurant and he had the sweetest, most precious tears running down his face…yet another of the many reasons that he is still the HOTY!

I, on the other hand, started laughing…that weird, freakish, screechy, I can’t-believe-you-said-that kind of laugh.  Oh and I was bouncing WAY UP and WAY DOWN in my chair (the fact that I didn’t break it is still a miracle!). I literally could not believe my ears!!

Oh and the greatest thing happened today.  My oncologist emailed me to tell me that yesterday he had a woman start chemo for breast cancer and recommended The Silver Lining (talk about the ultimate compliment, by the way!).  She came in today and told him that she received not one but FIVE copies of the book, including one from a friend in London.  This made my heart, mind and soul so very happy.

After all, our ultimate goal is that The Silver Lining help everyone whose life is impacted by cancer. While the NYT status is great, the real greatness goes to the fact that it is being disseminated to people who need it. That my friends is the ultimate Silver Lining!

THANK YOU to each and every one of you who made this possible. I can’t tell you how grateful I am!

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Musical Monday: Happy Pharrell Williams

Happy Pharrell Williams

Is there a better way to start this week than with Happy by Pharrell Williams?  I mean, really.  I just loooooooove this song!  Talk about a gigantic Silver Lining!

Speaking of happy, I am soooooooo happy to be HOME.  Being on the road with The Silver Lining has been a joy, but I’m tired and coming home was the greatest antidote to stress and fatigue.  Lots more to report, but in the meantime, I hope that you have a very HAPPY week!

Pharrell Williams – Happy Lyrics

Artist: Pharrell Williams

Album: G I R L

It might seem crazy what I’m about to say
Sunshine she’s here, you can take a break
I’m a hot air balloon that could go to space
With the air, like I don’t care baby by the way

Because I’m happy
Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof
Because I’m happy
Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth
Because I’m happy
Clap along if you know what happiness is to you
Because I’m happy
Clap along if you feel like that’s what you wanna doHere come bad news talking this and that, yeah,

Well, give me all you got, and don’t hold back, yeah,
Well, I should probably warn you I’ll be just fine, yeah,
No offense to you, don’t waste your time
Here’s why

Hey, come on

Bring me down
Can’t nothing bring me down
My level’s too high
Bring me down
Can’t nothing bring me down
I said (let me tell you now)
Bring me down
Can’t nothing bring me down
My level’s too high
Bring me down
Can’t nothing bring me down
I said

Hey, come on

Bring me down… can’t nothing…
Bring me down… my level’s too high…
Bring me down… can’t nothing…
Bring me down, I said (let me tell you now)

[Hook 2x]

Come on

Read more at http://www.songlyrics.com/pharrell-williams/happy-lyrics/#yKARTKotfMZHHGoU.99

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The Silver Lining on Good Morning America!

The Silver Lining on Good Morning America

So THIS happened today: an interview on Good Morning America. I am still pinching myself.

Here’s how it came about: A few weeks ago I had the great and wonderful opportunity to meet the dear Robin Roberts. And, YES, she is as wonderful as you would imagine her to be.  As she mentions in the clip, one of the first things that she said to me when we met was, “I wish I had this book when I had breast cancer.”  Talk about the ultimate compliment!  Then she asked if I would consider sharing The Silver Lining on Good Morning America. What an absolutely joy it was to enthusiastically say YES (!!!) to her!

I am so grateful to Robin and the entire Good Morning America Team for sharing The Silver Lining.

 

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Refocus

Refocus

My dear friend, Kathy Freston (the New York Times bestselling author of The Lean) recently wrote on her daily blog by the same name The Daily Lean (my favorite morning read, by the way!) about refocusing. Ahhhhh, do I ever need this daily reminder.  Not sure about you, but if so, this is a must-read. Hope that you enjoy it as much as I did!

Refocus by Kathy Freston

If there’s something in your life that isn’t working, step back for a minute; you can turn this around. Your mind isn’t fixed – nor is the situation; everything is an open and active process that you are constantly influencing. Here’s how you can change course:

Move your attention away from the negative/anxiety and refocus on what’s working. Nod to those things and give yourself some credit for everything you’ve figured out thus far (it hasn’t always been easy, and you’ve navigated things so well.) Now think of what’s possible. Not pie in the sky, but best-case-scenario possible. Think of the direction you’d like to go in. Everything you say and do stems from what’s going on in your mind; your actions and attitudes are seeded in your thinking.

So…what’s your desire? How would it look and feel if it unfolded? What’s the vision you have for your life? Now do something (over and above what you would normally do) today that would have you lean in that direction.

Apply your focus to building the new rather than obsessing about the problem. Feel the shift?

 

 

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Wacoal Event at Dillards ColdSpring

Hi Everyone! If you’re in Franklin Tennessee, please come say hi at the Wacoal event at the Dillards Cool Spring location. Details are on the flyers below. Hope to see you! xx

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Silver Lining Quote: Everything Has Beauty

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