Thrive to 105

Years and years ago, Jim (my ex-husband and close friend) and I were people watching.  I commented, “Have you noticed that, even though all of us have the same things to work with (eyes, nose, ears, mouth), none of us look the same?”  It’s quite amazing, I think!  Now it’s a running joke between us whenever we’re in a crowd.

That “revelation” should also be carried over to our internal “looks”.  We all (or most of us) start with the same parts:  heart, lungs, liver, brain, intestines, cells, etc.; however, the lives we lead soon make all of us so different on the inside.  Yet the traditional medical community wants to treat those of us diagnosed with cancer as identical!  They recommend a “standard of care” treatment that generally follows a daunting route…surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy.  In the traditional medical community, the faster they can get you under the knife and start introducing radiation and chemicals into your body, the faster they can “cure” you (or so they want you to believe).  Worse, if your cancer is in an advanced stage, they make the horrifying mistake of actually giving you a death sentence, turning off your brain to optimistic possibilities, and squashing what little hope you may be trying to cling to in order to get through treatment and RECOVER!!!

As I mentioned a couple of  weeks ago, I am doing a lot of reading about cancer…which I will be sharing in upcoming posts…but two of the most important things I’ve learned in the past two months are:

• People should be made aware that they have OPTIONS!  If someone (a surgeon or oncologist) tells you you have to have surgery, radiation, and/or chemotherapy, you need to understand that those are not your only options!  I’m not here to tell anyone what to do or that they should ignore the recommendations of their doctors…if they feel that is best for them and feel confident that the recommended treatment will make them better.  What I am saying is that you should “Take a deep breath” (which is what my very good friend, Linda, told me immediately after my diagnosis).  Do at least a little bit of research and reading, if only to find out how to make yourself the strongest you can be in order to come through surgery with the best odds of surviving without a recurrence or how to tolerate the chemicals you may be given.  YOU HAVE OPTIONS…AND IT’S IMPORTANT THAT YOU KNOW THIS!!

• No two people are alike.  Now, as you can tell from my story at the beginning of this post, I had already “discovered” this some time ago; but I’d never really considered it regarding my internal problems until my diagnosis.  NO TWO PEOPLE ARE ALIKE INTERNALLY, AND THIS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED WHEN TREATING CANCER. Although there are some things that all people who are diagnosed with cancer should do (which I will talk about at a later time), there are many things that should be assessed individually.  “Cookie cutter” treatment (surgery, radiation, chemotherapy) is not a good “standard of care”.

In upcoming posts, I will share a lot of what I’m learning in my attempt to “thrive to 105“!  I am confident that this little “blip on the radar screen” is not going to set me back or prevent me from getting there.  In fact, it may actually have been something I needed in order to assure I reach my goal!

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