One chance picture… Infinite emotions… Not so many words.
There is nothing more pure and uncomplicated than the etherial love that surrounds a child. When I look at this picture, the first thing I see is how peacefully they are sleeping. Their angelic faces appear to not have a worry in the world. They have the warmth and safety of each other. Implicit in their faces is the love they share. Their foreheads touch as if they are sharing their dreams. Their noses are so close, they breathe in each other’s life sustaining air. I can hear them breathing out of sync as they so often do. Long deep breaths as their taut belly’s rise and fall. These are my grandchildren, Dylan and Aria. So why am I writing about this picture on my breast cancer blog?
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Believing Yourself Well
In her best selling book, Mind over Medicine, Lissa Rankin, M.D. uses research from the most prestigious cancer centers in the world to show that much of what you feel is related to much of what you think. Many of the studies she references deal with the placebo effect. It is astounding how many patients who get a placebo fair as well as the patients who get the experimental treatment. These studies cover many different diseases and many different parts of the body.
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Alternatives You Might Not Have Considered
My father is a brilliant doctor with an encyclopedic memory of thousands of illnesses and syndromes. Despite this, he would never in a million years consider alternative treatments or the affects of the mind-body connection for healing. I forgive him this because he is eighty-nine years old. I’m not sure whether or not he will admit it, but I think that even he believes we are starting a 5,000 year old “new” medical revolution.
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Nine Lives and Changing the World
I usually write my blog on Wednesday. Today, I am going to the beach because it’s my birthday. At 8:02pm, I will turn sixty two. I never thought I would live this long. I have been on life support three times. No one knows why. I have been septic twice requiring a month long hospital stay each time. In 2005, I went on disability. That year, I was in the hospital for 181 days. I have had viral meningitis, and in August of this year, I had a blood clot in my pelvis that went to my lungs. My dear friend, Bonita, said a cat with nine lives would be jealous of me.
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Why Me?
A diagnosis of breast cancer is life changing. At thirty two or eighty two. Forever. Everything you once believed to be true shifts. Mortality smacks you in the face leaving you dizzy with thoughts you can’t begin to process. Along with your diagnosis, you are faced with big questions that need big answers. At the top of the list is, “Why me?”
When my dear friend, Evelyn Pearl Meyerson, was diagnosed with breast cancer, the first thing she said to me was simple, and yet, incredibly profound. She said, “I guess it’s my turn.” Evelyn approached dying in much the same way as she approached living. She was the epitome of grace and dignity. It was no surprise to anyone who knew her that she would spend her last weeks in the company of her friends and family because she loved them and they loved her in a remarkable way that was uniquely her own.
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