100 Perks of Having Cancer: Plus 100 Health Tips for Surviving It (8 page)

Treat yourself to a massage, foot reflexology, or even a hot bath.

HEALTH TIP #4

How to Turn That Foot Massage into a Healthy Pedicure

C
ommon sense says you should be limiting your time at the nail salon

to avoid breathing in those toxic fumes and acrylic powders. However,

a part of you still wants those soft pampered feet and the total sense of relax-

ation that you can only get from a pedicure. What’s a girl to do?

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Perk #4: Unlimited Foot Massages

21

Get a guilt-free, five-star, healthy pedicure right at home using things

you probably already have around your house. This pedicure can be done

alone (nice), or with a partner (even nicer), and it costs pennies. (Leaving you

with enough money to buy those cute, strappy sandals to show off your feet.)

This pedicure is best done right before bedtime so your feet can get max-

imum softening time from the oils.

First, gather your necessities. Some of these are optional; so don’t worry

if you don’t have everything.

●
Foot basin or other container to soak your feet. You can use the bathtub

filled to your ankles as you sit on the side if you want. Adjust the additives

for the amount of water you are using. (This isn’t science, so you can

“eyeball” the amounts of baking soda and sea salt.)

●
1 cup of baking soda

●
1/4 teaspoon essential oil of peppermint (NOT artificial peppermint food

flavoring), found at most health food stores

●
1 avocado, cut in half; remove the flesh (to have for lunch) and save the

skins

●
1/2 cup coarse sea salt and 1/2 cup Epsom salt, which can be found at

any drugstore (or 1 cup coarse sea salt)

●
1 teaspoon honey (a natural exfoliator)

●
3 tablespoons olive or safflower oil; these household salad oils have great

beauty value for your skin

●
clean cotton socks

●
pumice stone: a natural volcanic rock that can be used to scrub callouses

smooth

●
nail clippers and file

●
towels

1. Place your phone in another room and turn off the TV. (This step is
not

optional.) Lay out towels in your work area.

2. Make a scrub in a small bowl by combining 1/2 cup of coarse sea salt, 1

teaspoon of honey, and 3 tablespoons of oil. Mix well and set aside.

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100 Perks of Having Cancer

3. Dissolve 1 cup of baking soda and 1/2 cup of Epsom salt or sea salt in

your basin or tub of hot/warm water. The water will sit for a while, so it

should be on the hotter side of warm
without feeling uncomfortable.

4. Add 1/4 of teaspoon peppermint essential oil to the water and stir. This

is op tional but gives your feet a clean tingly feeling and is a natural

deodorant.

5. Soak your feet in the treated water for 10 to 15 minutes. During this time,

you must relax (hence direction #1). This would be a great time to prac-

tice your deep breathing or mindful breathing (
see Health Tip
#
95 for more

info
). Visualize world peace . . . or whirled peas . . . or whatever makes

you calm and content. (For added relaxation, your partner can massage

your shoulders during this time, or you can use a heated shoulder wrap

or heating pad on your shoulders and neck.)

6. After soaking, scrub one foot at a time with the pumice stone, paying

close attention to rough spots. Run your fingers over the surface of

your feet to find callouses and scrub gently to smooth them. Don’t try

to remove all callouses in one treatment. Repeated treatments give

better results, gradually removing dead skin cells until the soft skin is

revealed.

7. Take the avocado skin and rub the inside of the skin (where the flesh

was) on heels and dry spots. Massage gently for several minutes. Use one

half on each foot.

8. Before rinsing the avocado off, take the honey/oil scrub you made earlier

and massage into bottoms and tops of feet as well, up your ankle, includ-

ing your calves. This will help increase circulation as it softens and reju-

venates your skin. You can use the pumice stone with the scrub for extra

effect on rough spots. This scrub feels great on your feet. You can use any

leftover scrub in the shower on rough knees and elbows, too. Rinse feet

well and pat dry with the towel.

9. Clip nails neatly if needed, leaving some nail to file. File nails to follow

the shape of the nail bed.

Perk #4: Unlimited Foot Massages

23

10. Place some olive or safflower oil on your hands and massage into feet

tops and bottoms. Be generous with the oil without being drippy. Pay

close attention to your cuticles, massaging oil into each toe. If needed,

push cuticles back gently using an orange stick (a special wooden stick

shaped for cuticles). Don’t try to remove or cut cuticles.

11. Place soft cotton socks on your feet and leave on overnight. If you don’t

want to leave the oil on, you can wash your feet at this point using a

mild soap. You will still retain the beneficial softening properties of the

oil. Make sure to wash and dry your feet well, so your feet aren’t slippery

when you walk. When you’re ready to apply polish, gently wipe your

nail beds with an acetone- and methanol-free polish remover and then

dry off. You can then apply polish.

Save money

There are no steadfast rules to this pedicure. You can add or sub-

and your health

tract steps or use natural, chemical-free products of your choice. It’s

by doing your

fun to do at home, it’s inexpensive, and you’ll get great results.

natural pedicure

at home.

A Word About Nail Polish

Nail polish is notorious for containing many hormone-disrupting chemi-

cals. The main ones are phthalates, formaldehyde, and toluene. All three of

these are known to be possible carcinogens and can lead to other illnesses,

like diabetes. Your nails and nail beds are pathways to your bloodstream,

so look for polishes that are free of these chemicals. There are plenty of com-

panies that are offering water-based and solvent-based “natural” formulas

that don’t contain these nasty synthetics.

I love Scotch nail polish. “Scotch Naturals” was created by a mom who

wanted a healthier polish for her daughter. She was determined to create a

polish product that worked well, allowed her daughter to be a girly-girl, but

didn’t put her at risk for illness. What dedication! Her nail polish formula-

tions are phthalate- and formaldehyde-free. The moms that bought Scotch

polishes for their daughters ended up using it as well. Responding to

requests from her new market group, Scotch now offers both kid and adult

colors. The kids line is called Hopscotch Kids. You can find them both

online at: www.ScotchNaturals.com.

Perk #5

Cancer Revealed to Me

a Whole New Side of My Autistic Son

W
hen I was first diagnosed with breast

cancer, my biggest concern was how

my two teenaged children, Kaitlyn and

Donovan, would take the news, and how

they would adapt to having a sick mom

around the house. I was not so concerned

about my six-year-old son, Ben, who has

autism. While he is bright, his verbal skills

are very limited. Generally, he talks only

enough to express his basic needs. Given

Ben’s weak language skills, I reasoned that

he would not really understand what was

Ben enjoys a cuddle with Mom.

happening to me, and, even if he did,

being “in a world of his own” he would

not be affected by my plight. I could not have been more wrong!

While he says very little, Ben has learned to use the computer to express

himself. Several times after my diagnosis, he surprised me by bringing me

typewritten notes with messages like: “Dear Mom, you are nice,” and “Dear

Mom, I love you.” Sometimes I would find his notes lying around the house,

with other messages, such as “Mom is sick,” or “Mom is hurt.”

On a rare occasion, Ben will catch me off guard by speaking a full, mean-

ingful sentence. Never was I more surprised than one night while putting

him to bed, when he said to me, “Good night. Guardian angels watch over

you and protect you.”

Some might say he was just echoing something he had heard me say a

hundred times before. True. But the miraculous part is that it is the one and

only time I heard him speak those words, and it happened to be on the day

that I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

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