Mind Set Go

There are some books that I have read that I think others may find extremely informative, moving and perhaps even life-changing.  Here are two of them and some ideas contained within:

Kelly A. Turner, Ph.D. wrote Radical Remission: Surviving cancer against all odds.  She noted in the book that she had asked every physician she had ever met if he or she had ever encountered (through their practices and beyond) anyone who experienced a radical remission.  (She defined radical remission in cancer patients as one of three cases: individuals who denied western medical interventions altogether yet had cancer completely disappear with alternative practices; individuals who tried western interventions yet left traditional care when they were given no hope—only then to completely heal with alternative practices; individuals who were given less than a 25% chance of recovery who had the cancer disappear through alternative practices.) 

Every physician Turner had ever met admitted to having encountered patients who had had complete remissions, yet not one of those doctors had ever asked those patients what they believed they (the patients) may have done to help cause these outcomes.  Accordingly, the physicians had never published any information about this.  For her dissertation, Turner interviewed 20 individuals who experienced complete remissions, and, hence, later wrote the book. 

She found these similarities amongst people with radical remissions:

“Radically changing your diet

Taking control of your health

Following your intuition

Using herbs and supplements

Releasing suppressed emotions

Increasing positive emotions

Embracing social support

Deepening your spiritual connection

Having strong reasons for living”

(My doctor at Walter Reed advised against me taking any supplements during chemo.  It’s a good idea to ask your physician what they recommend if you are in treatment.) 

Anyway, I think those nine things should be called What to do to avoid cancer altogether.  In my case, it’s too late for that.  But think of what I can do now and what I can do to hopefully keep the cancer from returning.  Everyone, and especially those who still have cancer, may want to consider what they can do now. 

In my own opinion, reiterating  concepts in Dr. Turner’s list: we can try to eat organic foods that don’t have poisons on and in them; we can try to drink filtered water; we can take charge of our health, never fearful to ask questions or even get a second opinion; we can follow our gut instincts; we can find things that are known to be good cancer fighters and actually take them; we can choose to be happy and let things go that really aren’t reality; we can connect with other people; we can find deep meaning in something outside ourselves; and, we can think about not only the really great reasons we want to live, but our purpose.

(Hey!?  Where’s exercise on that list?  I seem to remember that she mentioned that exercise would have been then next similarity amongst those with radical remissions.)

There’s another fantastic book that is really amazing: You Can Conquer Cancer: A new way of living by Ian Gawler, a veterinarian from Australia.  Dr. Gawler was diagnosed with osteosarcoma (bone cancer) in the early/mid 1970s when he was also a triathlete.  His leg was immediately amputated, and he was informed that no one had ever lived more than 6 months (at that time) with this type of cancer. At some point it was predicted that he had only 2 weeks to live.  After the cancer returned that same year, he found some interventions (some radical) that worked for him.   He is still alive!  He embraced meditation and brought meditation centers to Australia long before meditation was accepted and recognized.  It is such a compelling story and read.  But there’s more information in the book about something you may not have heard of:

In the book, Gawler describes an Aboriginal practice called “pointing of the bone.”  When someone commits a crime, people of the Aboriginal culture sit in a circle whereby a bone, a human femur, is pointed outward, circling around the group– eventually stopping and pointing at the person who committed the crime.  Within a period of a couple of weeks, that person (the one who had the bone stop on them) actually dies, and it happens without any assistance!!!  When researchers tried to intercede, they were unable to stop the death from occurring.  Gawler likens this to what can happen if and when someone receives a (Western medical) diagnosis (and a timeframe left to live) and then gives up.  Dr. Gawler embraces hope, nutrition, meditation, positive thinking, etc. as essential to well-being.  He is what some might describe as one in “radical remission,” the topic of the last book I mentioned.

I will close with this:

Perhaps your treatments are very real and very present in your life right now.  You may find my writing “removed” in a sense, not in touch with the reality of what you may be experiencing here and now.  I wrote this almost two years ago, and it may resonate with you:

If you want to look at it one way, we’re all terminal. 

I had that discussion the other day with two kids, aged 7 and 9.  They brought it up.  We were driving in the car, casually talking about the fact that everyone is going to die.  And looking at it that way, even the healthiest person is terminal. 

When diagnosed with cancer, as I was last year, I faced death in ways very different than the usual acceptance that we are all going to die.  All going to die… yeah, sometime later.  Not now.  Oh, God.  Not now.  Somehow my cancer responded to horrendous infusions of chemo accompanied by immunotherapy.   And now, I will have the 18^th of 18 infusions this Thursday, and I am asking myself, “What then?”  It leaves me wondering how I will face ownership of my health once again without the medical-world’s tutelage, and even wondering if—when I was out of the hands of oncologists prior to the diagnosis, if I screwed it up and somehow caused this cancer.  It really isn’t useful to wonder about how or why I got the cancer, unless, perhaps, it can cause a shift in unhealthy patterns, I suppose.  And I really shouldn’t worry about what I might do at some distant, future date to fend off cancer.  Fending off cancer doesn’t start in the future.  It starts now. 

Recently I read something like this: people make positive changes by shifting their verbiage from I shouldn’t to I can’t.  Rather than saying, “I shouldn’t eat candy,” it’s more effective to say, I won’t or can’t eat candy.  If we think of this in terms of time, I shouldn’t represents some unknown (and quite possibly a not-acted-upon) future action.  I won’t or can’t is NOW.  The time and timing is now. 

I have been arming myself with information.  Information is key.  Right?  Surely it’s more than okay to glean what’s out there?  To hunt down and gather all the information and options available?  That is what I have been doing recently, as this last infusion is about to take place.  I want to know, need to know: what’s available, what my options are, what others have done…  But beyond arming myself with information, I have to act.  Not need to or want to.  Not even have to.   I am doing what I can every day, given the options I have.  If I know exercise is good, for God’s sake, then exercise.  Now.  Not tomorrow.  How about hydration?  Good nutrition?  Meditation?  Yes.  Yes.  And, yes.  And if I need to rest, to not exercise, to lick my wounds, do it.  That is what I have been doing!

Feeling good is very much about feeling good.  Not tomorrow.  But today.  I have that power within me.  It doesn’t necessarily take doing something tomorrow and finding out more information—both of which are very beneficial, too.  Feeling good is about harnessing what I know and have today.  For God’s sake, saddling up and enjoying this ride for all it’s worth. 

(Two years ago I added next:) I wrote this just a few minutes ago: “That leaves me wondering how I will face ownership of my health once again…”  Considering what I just considered, I have ownership of my health right now.  The good, the bad, the ugly.  And when I smile, right now, I realize that what I have is always enough.  We’re not all terminal.  We’re all living.  And that is a great thing, right now, right here.  That is the perspective that is present.  Death always looms?  No.  Only if we let it.  It’s all a matter of perspective. 

You may be wondering, “How do I know what is healthy for me?”  For the answer to that, turn to another book, one by Dr. David Servan-Schreiber: Anti-Cancer: A new way of life.  (I usually refer to this book as the one that could have been entitled, “Read This BEFORE You Get Cancer: Then there’s a good chance you won’t get it at all!)

Peace,

Nancy