100 Perks of Having Cancer: Plus 100 Health Tips for Surviving It (3 page)

From here on, you are to let your heart make up your mind.

You need to know that you are not a statistic and that you can exceed

expectations by living the examples expressed in this book. You do not live

or die based upon numbers but upon your will to live and the life you are

willing to create. If the past was full of wounds, you can abandon it and re-

parent yourself and develop a sense of self-love and worth you never

received. There are many factors that are perks and improve your chances

of being a survivor—from laughter and relationships to pets. When you are

grateful for life and find happiness, your body gets the message and your

internal chemistry produces healing and growth and increased protection

from disease as our immune function is enhanced by those feelings.

Fear does not become an issue when you have faith in yourself, others,

and a higher authority. You also become a teacher for your children, family,

and friends by displaying survivor behavior. When you learn you become

a
respant,
a responsible participant in your life and not a submissive sufferer,

or good patient. Also by displaying your wounds, you become a healer for

others who know they can share with you and learn from you. Hiding your

wounds and denying your needs are not survivor behaviors. Just as the

authors reveal, only the wounded healer can truly serve because they have

lived the experience and are natives and not tourists.

The mind and body are a unit and must be seen as such. When one is

going through treatment for cancer, the body experiences what the mind

visualizes. So learn to empower yourself by visualizing the desired response

and results. Again like an actor or athlete, you can rehearse and practice and

get it right. This also includes your right to say no to what your inner wisdom

says is not right for you to do. It means keeping your power and choosing

treatments you visualize as gifts and not poisons or mutilations. You can

learn to give yourself health days and not sick days by doing what makes

you happy. When you act out of love, there are no burdens. The cancer should

not force you or motivate you to do anything. It is not in charge. You must

be the force and the motivator. You can let your mortality be a factor and

be sure you spend your life’s time doing what makes you happy, and not

what makes others happy and lose your life to their choices and desires. You

are to live because of your desires and choices and become a work in progress.

Foreword

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The authors can help guide and coach you as you become a work of art.

And remember to not give the cancer credit for what happens. You did

it, and you deserve the credit. When you learn how to handle your fear and

worries, you are creating a healing environment. Fear is appropriate when

you are in a threatening situation, but when every situation is seen as a

threat it becomes self-destructive. Fear lowers immune function and in -

creases stress-hormone levels and makes changes to help you in an acute

threatening situation, but when it becomes chronic and long lasting, it

reduces your ability to overcome illness. As I mentioned, the faith, hope,

love, and laughter are what enhance immune function and lower stress-

hormone levels. Again, see this book as you would a script for a play, and

incorporate the perks and tips into the role you are playing. Then you

rehearse and practice until you get it right. Let this guidebook become your

map and the people in your life become your coaches, and be critical of

your performance until you become the person you want to be.

Ask yourself to describe what the experience of cancer is like, and if the

words you come up with have a negative connotation, eliminate anything

else in your life that fits those words, like failure, pressure, confusion, and

that fear. My hope is that when you are done reading this book, you will

answer that the experience has been a wake-up call, a new beginning, and

then you will begin your true and authentic life.

Let me say in closing: Do not focus on waging a war against disease and

empowering your enemy, and don’t give cancer credit for the changes,

because you did it. You responded and did not fear issues of guilt, shame,

and blame when the future was uncertain. In the face of uncertainty, it takes

courage to move forward and take on the challenge of life and cancer. So

work on healing your life, and not defeating the enemy. With the healing

of your life, the body is also far more likely to be cured. As Mother Teresa

said, “I will not attend an antiwar rally, but if you ever have a peace rally

call me.” So heal your life and find your inner peace, and your body will

respond to the perks and tips it experiences.

—Bernie S. Siegel, MD, author of the classics
Love, Medicine and Miracles:

Lessons Learned About Self-Healing from a Surgeon’s Experience with

Exceptional Patients
and
Peace, Love and Healing: Bodymind

Communication & the Path to Self-Healing: An Exploration

C
ongratulations! You have just taken a major step in empowering your-

self with the tools you need to live a healthy and happy life after a cancer

diagnosis! It is not often you hear the words “healthy,” “happy,” and “can-

cer” used in the same sentence, but we are living proof that it is possible,

and we know that you can make it happen, too.

With this book, we will provide some of the answers to your questions,

and we’ll also help you to develop some new questions that will lead you

down your own personal road to wellness. We are delighted that you chose

us to be your guides along this road. Please read on for our individual intro-

ductions before you get started.

From Florence

When I was diagnosed with stage-3 breast cancer in April 2011, my first

thought was:
Stage 3. That must mean 3 out of 10. That’s not so bad. At least

I’m still in the early stages.
Then I discovered that stage 4 is as bad as it gets.

I had some serious cancer to deal with! Over the next year, I endured numer-

ous uncomfortable tests and procedures; three surgeries resulting in the loss

of my left breast and associated lymph nodes; four months of chemother-

apy; and twenty-five radiation treatments. In many ways, it was the WORST

year of my life. In that same year: I met my soul mate and fell in love; I

started a blog that would change my life; I fulfilled a lifelong dream of being

published; and I turned my passion for garden design into a new business

venture. In many ways, it was the BEST year of my life!

While I did not have a choice in getting cancer, I realized early on that I

did have a choice in how I was going to face the challenge. Rather than focus

on all that cancer has taken away from me, I made it my mission to focus

on the many positive changes that have come from facing my mortality. Not

only did I make changes in how I care for my body, but I also made healthy

changes on the levels of mind and spirit. Cancer forced me to take a journey

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100 Perks of Having Cancer

to my soul, to face my deepest fears, to let go of old resentments, and to

fully and unconditionally love myself. That is when the real healing began.

While I joke about my cancer experiences in this book, I assure you that

cancer is no laughing matter. My goal is not to make light of this horrible

disease, but rather to show that no matter how bad your life circumstances,

there are always reasons to smile. If I live another forty years, it would be

wonderful if I can reflect back on my year of cancer treatments and say that

I lived it with joy, grace, and a positive attitude. If I live only one more year,

then it is even more important that I be able to say I lived it that way.

Some credit my positive attitude with saving my life. I disagree. If a pos-

itive attitude alone could save you from cancer, I know a lot of people who

would be alive today. I believe that it is a SURVIVOR’S ATTITUDE that gives

you the best chances of overcoming this disease or any challenge that life

throws your way. Having a survivor’s attitude means using all of the

resources within and around you to face your challenge. A survivor’s attitude

combines a positive attitude with positive ACTION!

It is my prayer that this book will inspire you to take on your challenges

with a survivor’s attitude. Through my perks and Susan’s health tips, you

will be presented with hundreds of possible actions that you can choose

from to help you live your life like a survivor. By the end of this book, you

should be ready to design your very own survival plan, which addresses the

health of your body, mind, and spirit. You are not expected to adopt every

suggestion in this book. Just take what resonates with you and leave the

rest. May God bless you on your journey.

From Susan

I was lying there looking at the ultrasound screen thinking,
This chick doesn’t

know what the heck she is doing.
Being a registered nurse and a cardiac sono-

grapher, I was tempted to grab the wand from this incompetent sonogra-

pher’s hand and find something in my breast other than what was showing

on the screen: a blizzard.

The reason there was nothing on the screen was that my tumor was so

large it blocked out all the sound waves.

The thought that I had cancer never even entered my mind. I was a car-

diac nurse, and I wasn’t just “talking the talk,” I was “walking the walk,”

too. Skinless chicken, low-fat yogurt, baked potatoes, and an exercise pro-

gram had been my routine for the past twenty years. I taught others, those

“sick people,” how to get healthy. And besides, there was no history of breast

cancer anywhere in my family. (I later learned that close to 90 percent of

women diagnosed don’t have a family history of the disease either.)

So when the ultrasound led to a biopsy, which led to me leaving the

office with an oncologist’s name in my hand, I felt betrayed. I did everything

I was supposed to do. I ate a low-fat diet. I didn’t smoke. I breastfed my

two daughters. I exercised. I wasn’t overweight. How could such a “healthy”

person get breast cancer? I set out on a quest to find the answer to just that

question. I needed to come up with factors that may have put me at risk,

and I also needed to examine my current lifestyle to see if I was doing every-

thing I could do to fight my cancer and prevent its return. That quest proved

to be quite a struggle.

As a health professional I knew how to navigate my way through every-

thing: the pathology report, the chemo side effects, and my immunity-

boosting injections. But I couldn’t seem to weed through all the crap I was

running into when it came to finding out how to live a “healthy, cancer-

free life.” What I did find was that misinformation and hidden agendas did

a great job at tangling and twisting the truth. But with persistence, I started

to find the useable information I needed to piece together my battle plan.

And as I would uncover each nugget of wisdom, I wanted to hold it up and

show everyone what I had found. And so, my blog was born. It was just a

logical progression that Florence and I would team up to allow me to “show

my nuggets” to as many people as possible.

I have one request before you start reading this book. Don’t take the

word
surviving
in the title of this book literally. As I’m sure you know, no

one can give you 100 tips that will 100 percent eliminate your risk of cancer

100 percent of the time. The word
survival
used here means reaching your

highest level of health, no matter what else is trying to keep you from it.

Whether you’re newly diagnosed, living with metastatic disease, or strug-

gling with other conditions like diabetes or heart disease, anyone can benefit

from these health tips. Even those who think of themselves as “healthy” will

find lots of useful information.