#15: Make the most of your medical appointments

A wise patient brings a list of questions to almost every medical appointment.

#14 Overcoming Fatigue and Nausea

Exercise has been found to treat fatigue and ensure a more restful sleep.
Studies have also shown ginseng to be helpful for cancer patients suffering from fatigue.

I was taking ginseng for a while. I think I may start supplementing it again.
I haven't had too many issues with nausea. Thankfully.

Thoughts from Siegel's book

"Love of other people always is a sustaining factor. In a sense, however, living for others is a "gimmick", a stopgap measure like surgery or chemotherapy, which can buy time until people learn to live authentically for themselves."

I know I am learning and growing so much right now. I am pursuing wellness; not just of my body, but my mind and spirit as well. I am being stretched beyond all my comforts and past everything I feel capable of. And I will get there.

That quote resonates with me. Because even some of my prayers have been not to die to spare others the grief, or so that I can keep loving them and caring for them... I know I need to learn to live for me. And I will.

I talked about this quote elsewhere, but it captures the sentiment I am feeling now so well:


"When the imitation of Christ does not mean to live a life like Christ, but to live your life as authentically as Christ lived his, then there are many ways and forms in which a man can be a Christian." H. J. M. Nouwen

HOPE

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without words,
And never stops at all.

Emily Dickinson

Dr. Kenneth Pelletier

He conducted a study on patients who recovered despite great odds and found 5 characteristics common to all of them:
-profound intrapsychic change through meditation, prayer, or other spiritual practice
-profound interpersonal changes, as a result: relationships more solid
-alteration in diet: optimum nutrition
-a deeps sense of the spiritual as well as material aspects of life
-feeling that their recovery was not a gift not spontaneous remission, but rather a long, hard struggle they had won for themselves

That is me!!

#13 Believe in your treatment program

Excited belief is one of the great intangibles in successful cancer treatment.

"Own" your treatment program. See it as a friend. Believe it is there to help you. Excited belief should be the goal.

(Some day the scientific and medical communities will fully document the biological reality of this kid of optimism).

#12 Give only informed consent

Make sure you get all the details for treatments, surgeries, etc.

Make sure you know what you are getting into, that you are comfortable with it, and that you believe it is in your best interest.

#10 Reflect on Treatment Decision, #11 Decide!

Think about your options. And empower yourself to decide the course of treatment that is right for you.

Do this over and over and over again.

More from Siegel's Love, Medicine & Miracles

"Drugs and surgery buy time, and may cure, while the patients work to change their lives."

"I try to get patients to understand that the body heals, not the therapy. All healing is scientific. At a recetn conference, someone told me he knew someone on a macrobiotic diet, someone else on a diet exactly the opposite, an a third person on chemotherapy and radiation. All three got well, and this person couldn't understand how the body could accomplish this or how the treatments made any sense. But the body can utilize and form of energy for healing--as long as the patient believes in it."

"Let's say I recommended eating three peanut butter sandwiches a day to cure cancer. Some people would get well and claim it was the peanut butter that did it. Then even more people would have hope, eat peanut butter, and get better too. But we know it's not the peanut butter. It's their hope and the changes they produce in their lives while they're on the new therapy."