Doctor Told Me That It is Cancer! Shock! Fear! Anger! Panic! Despair!
Here is the thing--cancer is one of those conditions that doesn’t care who you are, what you do or have to do, or why you can’t have it right now.
The first step is to stop, breath, and hear: “it is just a word, not a death sentence”--however true, so cliché.
No one can tell you everything will be ok or that it’s going to be easy, but you are not alone. People have worked through similar diagnoses as to what you are facing. Often someone’s next steps will be endless hours of confusing and sometimes conflicting internet research and attempting to filter well-meaning advice from friends and family such as: “Aunt Gertie did this and it cured her, so you should do that too!” Remember that it is your life journey; you are not powerless and need to advocate for yourself. One of my favorite quotes on this subject is from Dr.David Servan-Schreiber M.D.’s Anti-Cancer--A New Way of Life that so eloquently communicates this point:
“I’ve learned a great deal about how we experience fear of cancer…Simply put, we’re used to receiving a message of despair. Cancer is perceived as a kind of unlucky draw in the grand genetic lottery, an illness that does not respond well to most treatments and for which all hopes are pinned on the advent of a miraculous new cure--one that only the largest research labs could possibly develop.
In this context, I realize that any approach that is not focused on conventional treatment risks being accused of arousing “false hope.” But I know—having learned this when I faced my own cancer—that such thinking robs patients of their power to act; and I mean this in terms of real power, not some illusion. Promoting this mind-set of helplessness is psychologically demeaning, medically dangerous, and most important, it is not grounded in good science. In the past thirty years, science has made prodigious advances and has demonstrated that all of us have the ability to protect ourselves from cancer and to contribute by our own means to healing it. Refusing to explain that we have this ability contributes to a sense of false hopelessness, and it is because they reject that false hopelessness that so many people have found Anticancer appealing.
I’ve lost some friends since this book was first published. Some of them were people who applied its principles in their own lives. Unfortunately, the methods and principles outlined here do not guarantee success against cancer. Yet I was deeply moved when I heard from them, or from their families, that they never regretted having tried all the suggestions in the book. One family member wrote to me: “right up until the end, it’s given her the feeling that she still held her life in her own hands.” (pages 5-6)
Not “false hope”, but NOT “false hopelessness” either.
Naturopathic therapies can be useful to support people throughout surgery, radiation, and chemo to increase effectiveness, decrease side effects, give general support, and improve quality of life while undergoing conventional treatment.
Deciding what to do can be so overwhelming, but when you are ready choose your team, trust your team, make sure “you” are part of that team, and dance with the bear.
Other great resources to consider include:
· Radical Remission: Surviving Cancer Against All Odds by Kelly Turner, PhD
· Cancer: The Journey from Diagnosis to Empowerment by Paul Anderson, ND
· The Definitive Guide to Cancer: An Integrative Approach to Prevention, Treatment, and Healing by Lise Alschuler, ND
Rachel Oppitz, ND
