100 Perks of Having Cancer: Plus 100 Health Tips for Surviving It (97 page)

plimentary paraffin wax treatment on my hands. I couldn’t take my eyes

off my beautiful and youthful image in the mirror. Stephen confessed that

the salon uses special lighting and mirrors to shave ten years off your reflec-

tion. (“If I have to look at myself in a mirror all day, I wanna look good!”

said Stephen.) I was feeling pretty pampered by that time, but next came

the piece de resistance: the shampoo room.

Folks, I kid you not, the shampoo room exceeded any spa experience

that I have ever had. The room was dimly lit with soft music, candles, and

aromatherapy. But the best part of all was the leather, heated, massage chair,

which gently massaged my back, buttocks, and legs as I had my hair washed.

To say, “had my hair washed” is a gross understatement. Actually, a beautiful

man gently and expertly massaged my head and neck for a good twenty

minutes. I thought I had died and gone to heaven, I could not stop myself

from smiling.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to me that completely wiped the smile off

my face:
Wine? Complimentary hand treatment? Massage?
I was way out of my

league. I could not afford this place! I felt myself panic as I mentally calcu-

lated how much wiggle room I had left on my VISA.

Sure enough, when I went to check out it was confirmed: This type of

treatment comes at a price. Let’s just say, the hundreds I had saved by not

having my hair done in over a year? Gone in one fell swoop. What did I

do? Well, I smiled, added a generous tip, and walked out of there feeling

like a million bucks. Because I am worth it!

Chemo can wreak havoc on your hair and skin. When your

treatments end, book yourself a day at the spa. You are worth it!

HEALTH TIP #96

You Are Also Worth Safe Spa Products

Y
our skin is a sponge. I don’t mean a smelly old kitchen sponge. I mean a

beautiful soft sea sponge that will deeply absorb anything applied to it.

412

100 Perks of Having Cancer

Most women don’t really pay attention to what they apply to their skin,

especially if the commercial for the said skin product shows a woman with

a flawless face twirling in a flowery field of daisies and promises that you

will be twirling in daisies with a flawless face too, if you just use their prod-

uct. (Never mind that the product contains three different chemical preser-

vatives and four different cancer-causing agents.)

Manufacturers are very tricky when it comes to cosmetics and skin care.

They know marketing, and they spend millions of dollars on knowing just

the right things to show you or say in the ad that will get

you to hand over your money. But what exactly are you

Make sure you know

paying for? Sometimes it’s hard to know. The ingredients

what you’re putting

for many cosmetics may not be listed on the packaging, or

on your body, because

it may be listed so small you can’t read them. When you

it ultimately ends up

can read them, the ingredients look like they belong on a

in your body.

chemistry teacher’s shopping list. You are smarter than that.

It is possible to choose healthy, wholesome products and

look equally as flawless (and still twirl in those daisies). You just have to

know what to look for.

It is a common misconception that there are government rules and reg-

ulations in place to test cosmetics for safety. The fact is, the United States

currently has no such regulations in place (for the past several years, leg-

islation has been proposed, but the proposals have yet to make it out of

committee). As a result, more than 500 products available in the United

States contain ingredients that were banned by other countries. So it is up

to you to know what is contained in that lotion that you slather on your

face twice a day. Here are some quick general tips to help you choose the

right one:

●
Look at the list of ingredients. Is the list short? Or does it require a foldout

label and a translator? Do you recognize the first four ingredients on the

list? Ingredients are listed in the order of highest percentage, so the first

four should be recognizable. If you don’t know what they are, take the

time to look them up on several sites and cross-check for accuracy to see

if they pose a health risk (www.safecosmetics.org).

Perk #96: Realizing I Am Worth It

413

●
Watch out for tricky labeling. You may see a label that lists the “active

ingredients.” Those are the only ingredients that the company wants to

reveal to you. Sometimes you have to go to their website or actually call

a 1-800 number to get the entire full list of ingredients. And when they

play this game, the other ingredients usually are hidden for a reason.

●
Since the United States doesn’t certify cosmetics to be organic, choose a

company that has organic certification in another country.

●
Watch out for words like
natural
and
made with organic ingredients
, which

has absolutely no meaning in cosmetic labeling. A label that states, “made

with organic ingredients” can still contain other, not-organic, cancer -

causing ingredients.

●
Avoid mineral oil as this might as well be named “motor oil.” It literally

is derived from the same fossil fuels, and since you don’t

drink motor oil, neither should your skin. Mineral oil

(“baby-type” oil) does nothing to improve the

health of your skin. It covers and sometimes

smothers your skin, but inside, your body

literally rejects it. Many plant-based oils, like

coconut oil, are structurally similar to sebum,

the oil substance your skin naturally produces

for moisture, and are a much healthier and

logical choice.

●
We are suckers for pretty labels. A green

bottle made of bamboo does not mean what’s in that

bottle is natural. If you’re concerned about it coming

from nature, just get the 411 on the ingredients.

Clean up your facial beauty products. Then clean your face.

Perk #97

The Opportunity to

Help Other People

S
ometimes in conversation, I will casually mention something about my

psychic, and it generally results in a few raised eyebrows. To me, my

annual psychic reading is as normal as my annual dental checkup. I don’t

think it is weird at all. In fact, I have been going to psychics on a regular

basis for fifteen years, not just to get a sneak peek into my future (although

that has been very helpful at times), but more important, to help guide me

on my life path.

For the past four years, I have been going to Kelliena (www.kelliena

.com). The last time I spoke to her in person was in Halifax in July 2011,

three months after I had been diagnosed with breast cancer. At that point,

my treatments had not yet started, and I was unsure of my prognosis for

survival.

When Kelliena started the session by asking if I had any questions, I

frantically said, “Do you see any sickness or death around me?!”

She gazed over my shoulder and then looked back to me and said, “No,

they are rejoicing!” (By “they” she meant my angels and spirit guides, of course.)

Rejoicing!
I thought.
What kind of back-stabbing angels and guides are you

anyway to rejoice at my misfortune?

The thought had barely entered my mind when Kelliena once again

gazed over my shoulder and continued, “They are telling me that you are

going to help so many people through your journey with cancer.”

Well, that meant diddlysquat to me at that time. I was just trying to sur-

vive one day at a time and could not understand how
my
cancer was going

to help
other
people. I dismissed her prediction and forgot all about it. Fast

forward to five months later. My blog was taking off, and I was getting hun-

dreds of comments and e-mails from my readers. One lady, a nurse, com-

mented: “You are going to help so many people through this blog.” BINGO!

Kelliena’s prediction came back to me, and, finally, it made perfect sense.

I 414 J

Perk #97: The Opportunity to Help Other People

415

After more than twenty years of working in the helping profession, being

unable to work due to my cancer treatments was a real challenge for me. In

total, I was away from my workplace for seventeen months. During that

time, however, it gave me a great deal of personal satisfaction to know that

I was still helping people through my blog, even if just by bringing a smile

to someone’s face. And I pray that as you read this book, you will find some-

thing in my words to make your journey a little easier.

Just because you have cancer does not

mean you can’t be of service to others.

HEALTH TIP #97

Just Because You Are Not a Scientist

Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Understand the Research

T
he news media loves big headlines such as “New Study Shows Vitamin

D Ineffective.” This was actually a headline not long ago. Can you imag-

ine the surprise and the level of interest that was generated among the tens

of thousands of people taking vitamin D supplements? But that’s exactly