Pages 48 - 51

‘Cancer – 50 Essential Things to Do’ is a book by Greg Anderson which I used as a guide to journal what I needed to work through in the immediate aftermath of being diagnosed with Stage 4 Inflammatory Breast Cancer in February, 2006. I finished the book before I started any treatment but it helped make me less afraid of what was going to be coming at me.

Quotes from the book will be in italics.

Discover Your Emotional Style (46):

My dominant style of expressing emotion is suppression. I restrain myself from venting real feelings. Denial is also my style where I push feelings out of my consciousness.

Review, release, and renew.

I choose to be hopeful.

Make Forgiveness A Habit (47):

Forgive and accept.

Nothing from the past is important enough to allow it to pollute our present.

Exude gratitude (48):

I am grateful just for being a part of this huge and wonderful world.

Today I am thankful that Wahid is on holidays and can be home with me. I am thankful for his company.

Practice Unconditional Loving (49):

Loving heals.

You don’t fight fears, you replace it with loving.

*Loving is the first and last word in healing, the great balm that quiets distress, the only real ‘magic bullet’ against cancer, and the strongest vaccine to combat malignancy. Our greatest enemy is not disease but despair. Unconditional loving is the healer.

Share This Hope (50):

Angelique bought me this book and it was/is so helpful.

Survey On Cancer And Recovery (Appendix):

I have Inflammatory Breast Cancer. I was diagnosed on February 8, 2006. It has metastasized in the bone marrow and bones. It is a Stage 4 cancer. My recommended treatment is chemo once a week for three cycles and then one week of rest. Dr. Grenier is a board-certified oncologist. I get Herceptin once a week and Pamidronite once a month.

The most difficult part of the diagnosis was emotional. Thinking and being caught up in fear. All of the ‘what-ifs?’

The cancer diagnosis affected all of my family in more or less the same way. ‘What-if’ fear. My family has all been helpful. Their positive ness and pursuit of knowledge has made me more hopeful. Actually I am very positive. Seeing how my Dad has lived his life with all of his setbacks has been very encouraging.

My faith has only been strengthened by the cancer diagnosis. My faith will help me destroy the cancer in my body.

Besides medical doctors I am in the process of surrounding myself with a team of individuals who practice alternative therapies.

I do use alternative treatments. Any that come my way that sound interesting I will use.

I haven’t yet attended a cancer support group but I have placed my name forward to attend some. I also would like to get a mentor.

I don’t believe that cancer has affected the fundamental values by which I live my life. It has only intensified how precious life is to me. However, it has changed my ideas of nutrition and exercise.

My advice to anyone with a diagnosis of cancer is to look at things realistically and positively and to know that they are an individual and that no test and no person can tell them how long they will live. Look at the fear, than move on to the good because fear and ‘what-ifs’ paralyze you. Be positive. Live a great life. We have here and now. Life is amazing.

This book was incredibly helpful to me.