by resilience, adaptability, and survival traits.
Than to blog about an inspiring Facebook friend from Mountain Home, Arkansas.
I don’t know much about Jessica Thelen’s early years. However, knowing what I know about Jessica’s Pride serving her country in the United States Air Force is admirable.
I know it takes a lot of courage, determination and perseverance: From not knowing
the trials and tribulations are to leaving your childhood surroundings for the military.
But it does prepare you for any obstacle that confronts you in your future…
I have known Jessica Thelen since January 23, 2017, and when we first became friends on Facebook. We talked about her stressors in her life as I have witnessed her rapid progress up the ranks.
She has overcome many of those obstacles. Today Jessica always seems even keel and confident (never too upbeat and never let down. calm, cool and collected at all times.)
Traits that really stick out are her ability to research for herself and to know what she
feels is right for herself. Another strong trait of Jessica’s is honoring her words.
When she states this or that is what she will do… she sticks to never wavering
with the ability to adapt no matter the hardship.
If she says, she will juice. I know she will juice and take the time to clean up afterwards.
For me our time together on Facebook began when Jessica was stationed in San Angelo T.X. referred to our group by her Aunt Donna who knew Amy from our group. People meet for a reason, and I am sure fate had made our lives criss-cross so we could learn from one another.
Jessica at this time was just getting over eye radioactive plaque therapy and had
a follow-up CT scan and MRI on my brain today and was praying for a better tomorrow.
As we chatted the following evening, she informed me the tests came back clear.
As Jessica stated but every six months now for 15 years…she will have to be tested.
But hey, the 1st test was done.
Naturally back then Jessica told me about the bioelectrical testing she did.
She stated she licked a piece of paper, and it gets tested, and I receive tinctures.
While another lady did a similar thing with my hand on a mouse that measured it as well. Very similar results. As the test revealed, I cut out a lot of carbs and sugar. Making meals at home. Cut out red meat and only eat cheese sparingly now.
Only eat meat that cackles or swims (Chicken and fish.)
For about two months I was stuck eating chicken or fish. Just keep with that type stuff I suppose! I do have better energy but I have to make sure I’m eating cause I tend to under eat and lose energy. I Tried to eat my complex carbs if I was eating lunch so they would get burned off. It was a stringent diet without preservatives, and I really haven’t eaten much out of cans lately either.
If we go out to eat, I always try to follow that outline the best I can.
I do slip up but it’s not near as bad as it used to be. I just spoke with the lady
who did the bioelectrical testing, and she said the tinctures are working very well.
The blockages and toxins and heavy metals they tested for have all come down significantly after the chemo/radiation and plaque therapy caused it to go up. I’m getting new tinctures like arugula to help eliminate that. Also, she said to add potato leaves to my diet to help eradicate the toxic substances faster.
Fast forward to: 6/30/18, 9:10 PM
Hey! So you know from my post I developed triple negative breast cancer.
Docs ran a full genetic panel. Nothing is wrong there. I’m waiting on a nutritional fasting lab to come through. The Doctors were stumped. I bought some D3, Omega 3 and a multivitamin. I’m also doing a blend of greens like wheat grass.
As I increased that to twice a day. And I bought this yesterday. The doctors are planning to treat it with chemo, surgery and radiation. Said Outlook is good. But I feel like my body has to be missing something…two rare cancers a year apart?
Or God has some plans for me or something.
First question: I had for Jessica was what is your stress level at the moment?
I’ve honestly been trying to evaluate that. This time around I’ve been numb. I cried two times and was angry. But overall I feel it’s moderate. A couple months ago before I began analyzing my stress. I found it to be super high. My boss has unrealistic time expectations. So I sat down, told him and after that it was so much better. However, I was getting so wound up – I’m a people pleaser/high performer and very empathetic. After this diagnosis I’m really making an effort to let things roll and not get too wrapped up into it.
Second questions: what is your diet like?
Do you have a hectic life and probably USAF lifestyle?
Do you have great stressors in your life? I did. Work was nuts for a couple months. They were so stringent about being 10-20 min early as ‘on time’ had one car and Matthew and I were sharing. He was so lax about taking me to work. He didn’t understand the Sargent’s up tightness about being on time. So he’d make me late quite a few times.
I’m OCD about stuff like that. I hate getting in trouble and could’ve gotten kicked off the HG and paperwork written up. So, then he got the part time gym job, and it was a different stress. Making one vehicle work with our schedules and finally I talked with my Sargent and was like look here’s the deal. He took it very well and my stress went way down.
It was still a conscious effort not to get wound up but it’s so much better.
I told her that is the USAF game my brother served for over 20 years in the USAF?
That makes sense. Idk if they’ll even let me reenlist at this point. Let alone get the rest of my six years in. Two for two. Cancer during the first year and cancer during the second
but idk. I’m well liked. So, who knows. God does.So, I’ll just keep plugging away until he changes the game. He told me to enlist as clear as day when I was stuck and I’m so thankful I did. I’m not paying for any of these doc visits and treatments, and I couldn’t imagine going thru this w/o insurance. Lets get you in a healing mindset and let all the other stuff fall where it may!!
Any tips that I can implement are good.
Some are too costly or difficult to get behind, but I feel like I can get some of the emotional stuff resolved and learn how to deal with conflict better and keep doing things like wheat grass and vitamins. Eating healthy and honestly leveling out the stress. Like I feel guilty when I eat ice cream for example. I don’t eat it every day but I enjoy it and then feel guilty. I don’t drink soda at all. But occasionally I’ll get some odd Italian soda or something different in a restaurant to try and I feel guilty later.
Like I need to remedy the guilt.
And learn how to deal with conflict. I can’t handle it well. My dad was overpowering when I was younger and I just want to shut it out and put it off to the side. Let it resolve itself until I have more than one piece to go on etc. I’ve been analyzing the lack of ability to deal with conflict and I think I’ve identified it stems from my dad. I’m not quite sure yet how to flip that switch off. Idk I absolutely hate hurting other people’s feelings and it’s a real mix of hard emotions for me when conflict arises. I’m going to a mental health therapist next week. I’m going to ask for help on how to sort it out and handle it better.
MY Key to survival motto: Loving Life Overcomes Any Fear You Will Have !!!
You know I am starting to really see that
I think I was going through the motions before somewhat. Not all the time but not deep enough or to certain extents. Haha that’s awesome. I think coming from Arkansas going to Texas and now to Colorado I’d have to say CO may be my favorite. Then I got “sick” right before we were moving to Virginia and got stuck in Texas for a year.
Texas warm nights have my heart and Arkansas has my family. Colorado has so much to explore. But I love exploring in general so I’m up for checking out my husband Matthew and I spent a short weekend in New Mexico about an hour and a half south of Roswell and we climbed and hiked and went to Roswell and had some amazing appetizers and cider.
Presently I am on Carboplatin every three weeks and Taxol every week for 12 cycles and then switch to a rougher of 4 cycles of AC and something else. Will take it as now those 2 are proven to work on a double chemo day. All things considered, not too bad. They gave me a cocktail of anti-nausea and I’m eating well and sticking to it. Lots of water. 2/3 liters a day like they said. The worst has been anticipation of just being absolutely miserable.
Yes, it is! I have people I can ask questions and always lean on for more prayers.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=qigong+and+breast+cancer&FORM=HDRSC3
Sweet. I’m trying to outline a program for when I don’t feel great and another one for when I feel like I can do more when the chemo kicks me down. While some do chemo
and don’t have setbacks. Having it made means Manage Attitude Diet Exercise.
My energy level has been down lately with these treatments, but I feel like there’s a new difference of what being tired means in my life. So, I feel like when I come out on the other side of this I can push differently if that makes sense. I take it day by day.
Work is helping me out by letting me do that. And they set up a meal train so that’s been helping us too. I switched chemos in October I think and that one is another hard hitter. So I may take convalescent leave during that time. Then surgery later. I can’t wait to get active again. After my port surgery I went down hill. I go on walks and clean the house when I feel good. You realize rather quickly when you’re on chemo you just miserably deal with it
Coming off chemo sometimes you eat whatever sounds good. But I’m trying to get
back to the green side of things so to speak and start my wheatgrass supplements again.
Lemon water. Stuff like that. I ate a bag of damn ranch Doritos, the first bag in years,
Because I felt blah mentally, and it sounded great, but I paid the price.
Oh! I was given a brand new Breville juicer. I’m excited about that because I feel my liver is already stressed from the meds…
I think I’ll go through that eat to beat site tomorrow and pull some recipes 
I’ve been so confused about carbs. And meats. Like I eat fish, chicken and turkey. Rarely eat beef. Some people swear by vegetarian style though. Carbs are confusing all together for me. Then you got the blood type theory going on too. I’m A+ and idk. I try to eat more veggies than meat and just take the carbs as they come but maybe there’s a way to figure out what’s best for me.
Maybe the naturopath?
I think once I get past this last hurdle I can be plugging away again. I’m getting an oncologist massage, facial, foot treatment and acupuncture session. I’m excited to relax and have something other than tests done! Yes, now that my nausea is dissipating it’s time to get back to my clean diet. All things considered I don’t think I did too bad but there were a few times.
I craved burgers from Sonic which is weird as f$&@ But everything else seems gross as hell. It was a calorie consideration at those points. I wasn’t able to eat much. I can’t do much spicy food anyways. My mouth is still a bit sensitive and the drugs have made me sensitive to indigestion I had to stop drinking lemon and turmeric/ginger mixture because of the heartburn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJbRpHZr_d0
Working on my emotional health:
That’s been one of the harder ones to tackle. Acupuncturist really dug into me there and peeled up some layers I didn’t even know I had to tackle. You realize you’re not on your road to recovery until you get all that negativity out of your system. The other day I met with the wounded warrior recovery coordinator and she told me she had a different client who was vegan and developed breast cancer.
That made me think twice about what I was doing but was determined to stay the course.
May 9, 2019 Senior Airmen Jessica Thelen Ambassador Briefing (youtube.com)
That was then and this is Now.
Tech Sgt, Jessica Thelen · Updated January 12th, 2024,
We made it to AZ safe and sound, got sick as ever after Thanksgiving, and are almost settled in! We had a great holiday break and I got to breathe and relax for consecutive days in a row – wild I know.
I have lots of things to say about the last tour but it’s a book honestly and I decided to just post this. If you are thinking about AETC I’ll answer any questions you have and tell you stuff you should be aware of.
Bottom line, I survived & thrived. It was very rewarding, I did a lot of amazing things/inspired some peeps, and I was exhausted through most of it. But it was worth it. Don’t ask me if I want to go back for a long time please. LOL!
My new workplace and peeps are Auh-mazing thus far!
Y’all should be jelly, just saying. I’m blessed. Looking forward to this tour! Got my fingers in some things already and started my masters degree in the middle of February – Executive leadership. So, some business, but mostly team/org leadership stuff.
I got through my scans and had GREAT news – my eye was dry – I know that sounds weird, but after 5 months – NO EYE SHOT!
Go back next month to see if it’s needed so that’ll be about 7 months. Still might not need it. That’s insane because I’ve been at 3 months max on those intervals. I asked her about stem cell futures since I saw a blurb.
The UK is working on it for the eye in particular and she said maybe in 5-6 years I could be getting it treated and it might repair all the damage. My other scans were clear too.
It’s almost 8 years now, respectively. So, my risk has gone down according to the docs a lot. Sure, I’m not ‘normal’ but hey, out of some ‘windows’ – I’ll take it and run!
Matthew has been doing some amazing work setting up the home we are in. Our training room is probably the best we’ve ever had! We have the capability to zoom and the space itself is awesome. On that note, I finished my Personal trainer certification through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) late last year.
I also am certified in virtual coaching and am working on closing out a nutritional specialization right now. I will be offering coaching in general wellness soon. I haven’t settled on the details, but if you are starting out in fitness or need help creating a routine and holding your accountability is where I will start. I’m deciding on the max number of people I will take at one time right now with my schedule but probably only 5 max.