Enjoy "As I Release" while you read.

 So You’ve Got cAnswer...

Holy Shift! When you’re not being bounced from oncologist to specialist, planning your day around your medications and meals and learning all you can, Grieve! Cry! Yell! Scream! Let it out! You heard me. Let cAnswer have it!  Push out the unfairness, the disbelief, the pain and the fear.

Now take a deep breath. Ready to heal? Well alright then! Repeat after me:

Cancer is not a death sentence.
Cancer does not define me.
I am still ME inside this body.
I can’t do everything I used to do and that’s OK.
My job now is to heal, in every definition of the word.
I am willing. Show me how.

Being willing opens us up wide to ideas and inspirations we may miss otherwise. “I am willing. Show me how” became my main mantra while I danced with disease. Each time I became still and quiet I would breathe deeply these two sentences:

“I am willing. Show me how.”

As I listened, I heard the still small voice whisper loving suggestions, or an email or Facebook post would come at the perfect time. Just as I asked for help, it showed up! The Universe conspires on our behalf. But wait! If THAT'S true, then why would I have cAnswer?!
 
Are you sitting down? What if I told you that ALL you are going through and WILL go through will change your life forever? What if I told you that ALL you are going through and WILL go through will bring people together, heal relationships, teach great lessons to those around you, and generate more love than you ever imagined. What if I told you that ALL you are going through and WILL go through will help heal the planet herself. Breathe! Could this be True?!  I am willing to see it differently. Show me how.

So Let's Get Started

Staying positive is essential but not always possible. Feel the feelings WHOLLY in order to release them. Then get back to your Peace and Positivity as soon as Possible.

Taking one day at a time becomes taking one moment at a time when working with pain and suffering. Deep sleep seems to be a good remedy. When in pain, sleep. Find the medications that work for you to ease pain AND help you sleep. Rest is reparative!

You have permission to say “no.” Practice allows others to do for themselves, and do what YOU usually do. You just cannot and heal and continue to be everybody's everything. Repeat after me:

“I’m sorry. I can’t do that right now. I’m healing from cAnswer.”

1. THE WORDS YOU USE ARE IMPORTANT

Words are the way we communicate, not just with the world around us, but with ourselves sometimes. As you pay attention to that little voice in your head, you'll know what I mean. And words carry a vibration - sometimes there are words that feel good and sometimes the words we use can be laden with fear. Like the word cancer. Or chemotherapy.

It's from this understanding that my own vocabulary evolved to assist myself in releasing the fear. I changed the word cancer to cAnswer and the word chemotherapy to Chemo-Dreamo. The people around me noted a huge change in their own emotional reactions as well to these new words and they stuck!

Use the words "I get to heal from cAnswer" to tell people your story if you must talk about it. I had to talk about it. Talking was part of my therapy! But I watched what I said and how I said it VERY carefully! What worked for me was to tell people, “I get to HEAL from ovarian cAnswer." 

"I get to heal from <specific type of> cAnswer"

And ask your friends and family, "Please, when you tell others, and I know you will, use the following words."

"<Your name> gets to heal from <specific type of> cAnswer.”

You will notice pretty quickly how that Holy Shift of word play makes all the difference in the way the experience feels - not only to you, but to everyone you talk to.
 
Did you notice how much lighter “I get to heal from cAnswer”  is than “I’ve got cancer”?

I called my treatments Chemo-Dreamo. A friend called hers, her Illumination Treatments. Yet another referred to them as Liquid Love Infusions. However we can SHIFT the perception of the experience, we SHIFT the experience!
 
2. ASK QUESTIONS

If you forget the answer, ask again. I suggest you record your doctor visits. I rarely listened to them, but having everything that was said automatically dated and in my phone, immediately retrievable, gave me tremendous peace of mind.
 
Ask the doctor/nurse/tech to slow down and look at you when he/she speaks. You don’t need to get angry when you do this. It’s just a reminder to our health professionals to stay grounded in their humanity. In other words, they ALL have to use computers for everything and it’s easy to forget to look up at the person they are working with. They’re not rude or insensitive to your needs. They just need reminding from time to time.

3.. ABOUT CHEMOTHERAPY

There is a lot of BS (Belief Systems) out there about chemotherapy. Much of the OLD hype was at one time true. The conventional mantra goes "If the cancer doesn’t kill you, the chemo will. You may not die but you’ll wish you had. It does come in a bag marked 'POISON' after all."

NOW HEAR THIS!! They’ve come a long way, baby! Treatments in general, particularly chemotherapy, have become more targeted and less toxic than in decades passed.
 
Deliberately forget everything you’ve ever heard about chemotherapy. If you intend to go through chemotherapy, release all that old BS now! Find ways to make peace with the process. It may be impossible to truly forget all you’ve heard and erase all you’ve read or learned, but here is where being willing comes in.  Repeat after me,

---

“I am willing to change my beliefs about chemo. I know it has helped many others heal and it can help me heal as well. I get to learn to love it and allow it. I don’t have to know what that means right now, but I trust that all I need to know will be mine when I need it."

In 2012, the cAnswer was so advanced that my only option was chemotherapy. What follows is an entry from my book, Holy Shift! Everything’s a Gift!

July 24, 2012

I want to dispel the myth of the "Horrors of Chemo." IU Medical Center does it differently in that they give me a lower dose every week. Every third week I get 2 chemo drugs instead of just one. While it is an all day event, I find myself looking forward to the imposed rest. I listen to my meditation and my and my sister's music during the actual treatment. the rest of the time is preparation - vitals, blood drawn and read, premeds THEN the chemo.

I have only been nauseated once in the hospital and once at home. The meds work, but I don't take them unless I need to and I don't need to! My fatigue feels less and less invasive as the days pass. My appetite is awesome! I eat every two hours to gain weight and get to eat anything I want! My hair is slowly shedding, eventually I may lose it all. Even that's ok now. I'll paint my head! I'll be creative! 

I've met the nicest people, the nurses who are so attentive, so authentically loving, and so professional. I want them all as my friends! I request the same Chaplain who saw me as an inpatient, from the beginning. Lorraine prays with me and anyone who is there, nurses included, who wants to pray and sing to me. I can finally sing again after 3 months!

So even chemotherapy can be magical! After yesterday's double dip, I have so much energy. It's difficult to sit down long enough to get on the computer. I've got things to do!!

4. GET MORE INFORMATION

The full Guide to Setting Up Your Own Chemo-Dreamo is provided with ALL Levels of the Program. This PDF file contains additional information including options that may be available to you if you know to ASK. It's in a printable format for easy reference. And remember, Level 1 is FREE! See Support Options for more information.

Happy Healing!!!