My thoughts on "What to say to a Newly Diagnosed Cancer Patient"

Kris Carr's blog: Love it!

As a survivor, I gravitate towards finding strength in what I do have control over. And I look for people who have that ingrained sense of positivity in how they live life.  I don't think anyone does this better than Kris Carr. So I like reading her work, following her great advice on health, and most of all I like her spunk and spitfire attitude on surviving cancer.

I follow her blog Crazy, Sexy, Life, and once in a while I'm  privileged to write for it.  Today's post: What to say to a Newly Diagnosed Cancer Patient was written by yours truly. If anything I hope I was able to convey how important the messages are that we send to the recently diagnosed. Be aware and be available....it is the greatest gift.

Point A to Point B

Recently, I had one of those experiences where someone says something to me and I literally think about it for days. I mull, ponder, consider, and write about it.  Yep, that is what I do.  Not over the very basic statement like, "please pass the guacamole"  but often something very insightful that reminds me to also always be mindful of what I say  to other people.

Point A

This time the statement caused a very positive reflection and actually made me quite teary.  Thinking about it  reminded me of many of the reasons I feel grateful.  It was spoken from the lips of my  friend Lucinda who is an incredible  photographer.  She was on Madeline Island taking some pictures for Madeline Island Yoga Retreats.  Halfway between the shoot she stated, "this is so much better than the last one I did with you."  Simple comment, but I knew what she meant and remembering it momentarily took my breath away.  Our last photo shoot was actually quite sensitive as I had just started to lose hair from chemo treatments and all of my yoga teaching was on a health-hold.  Looking back at those pictures I remember vividly how the emotional pain cut deeper than any of the surgeries or treatments ever could.



Point B

 To sum it up, it reminded me of how many of the survivors I know pull an incredible strength from somewhere deep within themselves. I look back at that first photo shoot (point A) to the pictures I just received from Lucinda today (point B) and am very grateful. And, honestly......I feel better than ever before.  Life is a little bit sweeter knowing what I can do and that when obstacles present themselves in my path, there is a potential for even more strength.

So thanks for that my thoughtful friend.  And a shout out to all of my sexy survivor buddies too.

Living Strong through LIVESTRONG

"Funny what a difference a year makes". That was my husband's comment the other day to a friend who asked him about my health. I think we both found irony in the understatement.

A year ago I was in the throes of chemo for breast cancer. And today I attended a LIVESTRONG foundation conference which in collaboration with the YMCA of America is looking to bring cancer support programs to communities. Eau Claire, WI is on board.


I was excited and felt quite prepared to both discuss what it feels like to be a cancer patient and to develop a program that would assist cancer patients both physically and mentally reach their health care goals, a passion of mine. In addition, I appreciated the need to transition a person going through treatment back into everyday life. One of the crazy phenomenon of being a patient is that you spend a very good deal of your time (often several days a week) in a medical setting receiving all kinds of care. And then one day they say, "OK, you are done". No complaints at the time, however; there is that lost feeling of "now what. " The treatments stop but the confusion lingers. In addition, you are left with your own realization that the fear will never go away as well as a lovely stack of medical bills on your desk to boot.

And yet, prepared as I was, it only took a few minutes of viewing Lance Armstrong's video The Manifesto for the hollow feeling in my heart to come back. I thought I had worked through these emotions crying buckets of tears with my family and friends. And yet it honestly felt almost as raw as that first week of diagnosis.

My only guess is that living through that year and respectively coming full circle it occur ed to me that I may have found the one answer that I had been chasing since day one, "why me?" I believe we receive messages from God, once we find the capacity to listen. I'm hoping I'm right and that now its my turn through LIVESTRONG, through yoga, and through everyday life, to bring compassion to cancer survivors. Then this will make some sense to me.

Live Strong, Live Strong Eau Claire.