Parent Support Group Speaker - Gabi Medrano
/On Sunday, May 17th we hosted an online PSG meeting for parents and caregivers of children with cancer. Our speaker was Gabi Medrano, whose daughter was diagnosed with B-cell ALL in 2014 at the age of 3. Her daughter is now an active, healthy 8-year-old who loves sports and ballet!
Gabi’s story begins when her 3-year-old daughter Giselle was sick and the pediatrician diagnosed an infection. Gabi’s maternal instinct kicked in and she asked for a referral to Stanford’s LPCH. In hindsight, she realizes she could have just taken her daughter to the emergency room, but at the time she called the LPCH Bass Center directly in an attempt to get an appointment. The Bass Center did bloodwork and sent Giselle home, again saying that her daughter was fighting an infection. When Giselle didn’t improve, her family returned, this time to the emergency room, where oncologists performed a bone marrow biopsy. 24 hrs later, Giselle was diagnosed with leukemia and began treatment. 3 days after starting treatment, she landed in the PICU where she stayed for 8 weeks. The doctors didn’t know what was wrong with her. They first thought it was sepsis, but couldn’t find the source of infection. Next they thought it was toxicity. Gabi’s 28-lb baby had blown up to 50 lbs. Gabi began learning everything she could about the relationship between the immune system and the digestive system. She learned that everyone’s immune system is unique, and, while she couldn’t change the fact that her daughter needed chemotherapy, she could make other changes. She focused on what they could do as a family, and landed on nutrition. Prior to her daughter’s illness, Gabi had never worried about what her family ate. She had a 3- year-old and a 4-year-old, so at the time, making the switch to kombucha wasn’t easy. But they did it, and making the switch to a healthier diet had a tremendous impact on Giselle’s ability to tolerate the chemotherapy and her overall health. Gabi shared a wealth of information with us. Here are some highlights:
~Stay hydrated. Water helps flush toxins from the body. Carry a water bottle with you.
~Eat the rainbow! The different shades of fruits and vegetables correspond to different vitamins. Gabi prepared 3-4 veggies for dinner, and allowed her children to say no to one.
~Embrace fermented foods. They’re good for the gut. Make kombucha if you’d like, but keep things simple. You don’t have to make everything from scratch. It is ok to buy things.
~Eliminate processed foods and replace with whole food ingredients whenever possible. Use an app to give you quick nutrition information for your ingredients and recipes. Eliminate soda or sugary beverages (including kids’ juice boxes!)
~Look into plant-based protein. It’s not necessary to be a vegetarian, but pay attention to the types and quality of protein in your family’s diet. If you use a protein powder, find an organic one from a reputable company.
~Check with your child’s oncologist, as there are certain foods that may not be safe to eat whole in treatment. (Grapefruit interferes with body’s ability to metabolize vincristine, and ginger is a blood thinner.) ~Reference Rebecca’s blog, https://www.rebeccakatz.com/welcome-to-my-connecting-the-dots- blog-1 Her book, The Cancer Fighting Kitchen, is intended for adults, but many of the same recipes can be adopted for pediatric oncology families.
~Buy organic when available, if it fits in your budget. Reference the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen, for the list of fruits and vegetables you absolutely should buy organic.
https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/dirty-dozen.php
~Pay attention to your child’s weight: When children are on treatment, they lose weight, and it’s important to increase intake of healthy fats like avocados and nut butters. Once children are off treatment, they can be susceptible to obesity, so cut out sugary foods.
~Exercise and stay active. Find the type of exercise that works for your family. Consider a trampoline! Jumping helps stimulate circulation in the lymph system, which in turn encourages the growth of white blood cells to help fight infection.
~Do the small things: meditation, prayer, yoga . . . whatever works for you. Make it a habit and develop it over time. For families with young kids, she recommends the book Good Night Yoga, but Mariam Gates.
Some fun ideas for a healthy lifestyle both during and after treatment: Gabi grew her own herbs and her family drinks decaffeinated, organic tea. She tries to take direction from her kids, who live in the present, rather than worrying about the future or thinking about the past. We thank Gabi for taking the time to share her story and her advice with us!
When Giselle finished treatment, Gabi started volunteering for Jacob’s Heart, a family-centered support organization for children with cancer. https://jacobsheart.org/. As a Latina, Gabi was concerned about the Hispanic population, and started sourcing healthy, nutritious groceries for low-income populations. Stanford approached her with the idea of creating a brochure on nutrition for pediatric cancer patients.