Disease Info

When the breast cancer diagnosis first came down, we both went into shock. The first thing we were sure of was that we weren’t sure of anything, and that we had no idea what was coming. How serious was it? Will she have to go through chemotherapy? Will she lose her breast? How long will all of this take? What’s next? Is she going to die? In retrospect, the “not knowing” was the most frightening thing of all, so my advice as a caregiver is to take charge and learn as much as you can about your situation; and do it immediately.

I’ll be the first one to say that that’s a pretty scary proposition, but the alternative (not knowing, that is) is much worse. Here’s the thing to remember: even if what you learn is scary, it’s less scary to know than not to know.

Do not delay; the longer you do, the more anxiety you will suffer.

When I first learned how to ride a horse we were out on the trail and we heard an approaching motorcycle. My horse became frightened and started shaking and dancing around; needless to say I wasn’t real happy about the situation since it was my first ride! Instinctively, I turned the horse away from the noise thinking that would calm him.

Wrong.

The instructor yelled to me, “Face the danger! Turn the horse to face the danger! NOW!” As soon as I did, he saw the motorcycle, realized what it was and that it was not a threat, and stood there calmly watching as it passed us.

This is a good life lesson for us all, but especially those of us who are facing a frightening diagnosis. Face the danger: learn as much as you can about your situation and it won’t seem so scary.

As you wade through all of the available information, beware of well-meaning friends and family: they will give you advice and tell you what is going to happen to you based on their experience or that of someone they know. Remember that every situation is different, and what they say won’t necessarily apply to you. There are a lot of variables such as disease specifics, age, health and personality of patient, financial/insurance restrictions, available services, etc., so someone else’s experience is not necessarily relevant. Be sure that you get your information from credible sources, and that it applies to you and your situation.

Dave Balch relieves stress and restores hope for cancer patients and their families. He was caregiver for his wife during four bouts of breast cancer and has now dedicated his life and career to helping others by founding The Patient/Partner Project. Resources include a book "Cancer for Two," speaking programs, and free web services. Subscribe to his no-cost monthly newsletter, "Caring and Coping" at http://www.CaringAndCoping.com

It was dinner time and lots of things were bothering me. My wife was in bed recovering from surgery for breast cancer, the surgeon said that he could not get the entire tumor which meant more surgery and who-knows-what-else, my business was in bad shape and so were our finances, I had a house full of animals each of which needed to be walked, fed, or picked-up after, and I was tired and hungry. “Overwhelm” is a good start, but it doesn’t even begin to describe my state of mind.

I did what I do every night before I start the evening chores: I turned on the TV to watch the news while I worked. As I fed the dogs and cats and made some soup for Chris, I felt my tension increasing and I started to feel panicky and a little, well, nuts. I stopped for a moment to try to figure out what was happening to me and heard the newscaster interviewing a missing woman’s family. The next story was about two people found dead in their car, followed by a story of a horrendous traffic accident, complete with video.

Then it hit me: the news was making me even more anxious than I already was! TV news is usually pretty gruesome: murders, rapes, gangs, accidents, fires, wars, corrupt politicians, injustice, robberies… and that’s just before the first commercial! This is something that I think we all pretty much know, but I wonder how many of us realize the effect it has on us just to hear all of this negativity. Watching the news is pretty much a habit, and like many habits we don’t always recognize those that hurt us.

But watching the news never bothered me before, not like this anyway; what’s going on here? Let’s think of stress as water in a saucepan, and we’re okay as long as the saucepan doesn’t overflow. More stress, more water. And, to further the analogy, let’s say that the news constitutes a cup of water. If we pour the cup of water into an empty saucepan there is no problem. But if the saucepan is already half-full that’s a different story.

My saucepan was pretty full due to all of the uncertainty and overwhelm in my life. When I added that cup of water from the news it was beginning to spill over the top, and I was feeling it. Under normal circumstances, the saucepan was fairly empty and the stress from the news didn’t make a noticeable difference; it was there, I just didn’t notice it in the grand scheme of things.

Back to my story. I noticed the remote control on the counter and it hit me: all I have to do is press one of those little buttons and, like magic, the news will be gone. What a concept! First I tried the “channel up” button, and saw two people being interviewed about the tornado that had just destroyed their home and everything they owned. Oops, not was I was looking for.

I pressed the button again, and there was a comedian doing his standup act in front of a lively audience. Much better! Now instead of ADDING to my stress with sad, scary, or frustrating stories, the TV was REDUCING my stress with the sound of laughter.

I felt much better and was enjoying the comedy as I worked. Then he started to bomb. The subject of his material changed to something that, frankly, I didn’t find very amusing. I felt myself tensing up, so… back to the magic buttons!

I started “surfing” the channels: infomercial, televangelist, golf, soap opera, soccer, sports interviews, amazing insects… good heavens! Everything was annoying and/or uninteresting to me, so I found myself staring idly at the remote in my hands. I realized that there were some other interesting buttons on the remote.

The red button turned the TV off completely. Gee, I had never thought of that! I like the company of the TV and usually had it on.

I could turn the volume down, which would lessen the impact of the programming. Actually, this was quite effective in reducing my stress because the lower volume was much less stimulating, and over-stimulation was part of the problem.

Here’s the point: you have control over a potential source of stress. If you are watching television, be aware of whether it is causing you stress and, if it is, change the channel or turn it off. Do you like to watch the news? I guess it is important to be aware of current events, but when you are dealing with a serious personal situation I think it’s more important to take care of yourself first. There isn’t much you can do about most of the problems you will hear about, so the best thing you can do is try to make your own little world the best it can be and let the rest of the world take care of itself for the time-being.

The magic buttons on your remote control give you the power – use it!

Dave supported his wife through four successful battles with breast cancer, going with her to over 250 medical appointments and caring for her during six surgeries, two rounds of chemotherapy, and three rounds of radiation treatments. He did everything from bathing her to making her meals to changing her surgical dressings, all while maintaining his home software business and taking care of a ranch, two horses, two cats, two dogs, and a really mean parrot.

Most importantly, he and his wife both kept their sense of humor through it all (well, most of it) as they laughed and ate their way through the entire ordeal. Together.Dave says that this experience, although difficult, was the most rewarding and fulfilling of his life. And, as a professional communicator, he is in the perfect position to help other caregivers.

Now Dave is on a personal, full-time mission to help other patients by helping their partners. That’s why he founded The Patient/Partner Project, which is focused on just that. The Patient/Partner Project consists of several components, including his book, “Cancer for Two: An Inspiring True Story and Guide for Cancer Patients and Their Partners” and a free website where patients and partners can post progress reports for family and friends.

Accomplishments:• Currently sponsored by a major pharmaceutical company who purchased 35,000 copies of Cancer for Two and sent him to deliver 41 programs in 19 states during 2007, with more to come in 2008. • Featured in the Wall Street Journal, “The Informed Patient” column by Laura Landro, November 28, 2007• Contributing author, Coping with Cancer Magazine, Nov/Dec 2007.

In his “previous life,” Dave spent over 30 years as an IT (Information Technology) professional in capacities as programmer, project manager, and database administrator. In 1982 he developed a software tool for database administrators and programmers, which he sold into the corporate market from his home business for over 20 years.

For more information about The Patient/Partner Project and Cancer for Two visit website or call toll-free 800-366-2347

I have done a lot of research in the past few years on eating organically produced food and, as a result, try, whenever possible to purchase organic products, especially when it comes to dairy products.

Yes they cost more but I feel better having my family eat foods not genetically modified. And, in addition, I also do feel physically better. I’ve been eating organically now for maybe a year and a half so far and my skin, especially, show it. It feels smoother and to me looks so much better.

What man has been doing with our food in order to make it last longer on shelves, faster to produce, faster to prepare is, in my opinion the root cause of so much disease in our society, particular the different types of cancers and the fact that cancer is showing up in much younger people than it used to in the past.

In my opinion, cancer is this century’s plague. It is ridiculous to continue to rely on our governments or leaders to provide the solutions via the conventional medical system for us to either prevent ourselves from ever getting this dreaded disease, the big “C”, the “C” word”, or even worse, try to get a cure once we have contracted this dreaded disease.

I truly believe, in my layman’s thoughts, that due to the fact that cancer appears to be becoming something that no family can escape, whether it be someone in the family contracting the disease or a close family friend, there has to be something everyone of us can do to protect ourselves from this scourge.

I firmly believe that our food supply is tainted with preservatives and chemicals that were never intended for human consumption and that this has been the case for so many years that we are now seeing the after-effects of this fast-paced society and it is not at all good.

Remember when mostly the elderly in our population got disease and we all considered it a normal occurrence, like a fact of life that we all will eventually, in our old age, contract some sort of illness and then pass on to our Maker as we progress through this journey of life?

Nowadays, it seems to me that so many of our younger friends and family members are contracting terminal diseases at much younger ages and meeting our Maker much sooner than they should. What’s worse is that I believe that most of this is preventable.

To your health,
Chris

www.getnaturalhealthsolutions.com
Just someone whose family has been impacted by too much disease so trying to find the solutions to live a healthier lifestyle.

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“Until man duplicates a blade of grass, Nature can laugh at his so-called scientific knowledge. Remedies from chemicals will never stand in favour compared with the products of Nature, the living cell of the plant, the final result of the rays of the sun, the mother of all life.”

I have become increasingly aware of the gradual decline in the health and wellbeing of the people. The increased development of chronic health conditions and ever increasing reliance on medication, result in drug dependency and consequential secondary complaints.

Having the ability to understand the dreams that you have can actually be very hard if there are certain conditions that are present at the time that you are trying to understand them. In this article you will learn about the times in which you will find that dreams are really hard to understand. The first way that dreams can be hard to understand is if you actually imagine that the dreams are meaningless. When you think about it, dreams are known to be the greatest buried treasure that is a part of our life. All of the actual dreams that we have are filmed live as well as in person who takes place inside of us. It is also known that dreams are able to reveal the objective facts that reflect our Subjective interior, one great thing about dreams is that they are not able to lie because they don’t actually know how to.

When you think about it there are many different reasons that we have dreams, the first reason that we have dreams is to help us, the second reason that we have dreams is to heal us, the third reason that we have dreams is to teach us and the fourth reason that we have dreams is to free us. It is also known that we have dreams to prepare us for certain situations that take place in life and they are also present to inspire us as well. Now that you know the different reasons that we have dreams, you should be able to use them as a guide to determine why you are having dreams.
One thing that you need to make sure that you always understand is that dreams unfold a little at a time meaning that just because you are not able to understand them at first doesn’t mean that you will not be able to understand them in the end. As you take the time to take a closer look at them you will be able to see the silver lining to the frame, which will shed some light on why you had that particular dream. It is known that you are able to unearth the major treasures of self-discovery if in turn you are actually willing to take the time to dig into your very own dreams. There so not many people that are able to benefit from what is known as one of the greatest gifts that human possess and that is the guiding connection that they have with the source and that is known to be a tragic blind spot in our individual culture.
At first you may think that dreams are nonsensical but that is only because of the fact that dreams actually contain many different layers of dense meaning. It is known in turn that if you believe that there is actually no meaning to the dreams that you have you may never even take the time to look to see what each individual dream means to you. Most people that have dreams get stuck at the cultural roadblock and they are never able to move from that one point. If you have realized why this can act as a barrier to understanding your dreams you may be able to overcome the number one obstacle.
Learning what each dream that you have means can help you grow in your very own personal development so take the time to think about your dreams, don’t just put them to the side and think that they are meaningless because they are not, in fact they hold a great spotlight on the life that you are living or the life that is in store for you. Taking time to understand your dreams can help you with personal development.

Author is a good article writer. He owns many articles

Pink DaysAgo, inspired by co-inventor Kathleen Whitehurst’s eighth anniversary as a breast cancer survivor, will be sold on the company’s Web site.

Saint Helena, CA, 2008 — When it comes to breast cancer, early detection is the key to survival. No-one knows that better than Kathleen Whitehurst, co-inventor of the award-winning DaysAgo™ Digital Day Counter — and an eight-year breast cancer survivor.

Whitehurst’s company, double u products inc., is introducing a new pink DaysAgo counter as part of her commitment to helping women of all ages get into the habit of doing regular self breast exams. Details about the pink DaysAgo can be found on the company’s Web site, http://www.howmanydaysago.com.

“I feel very blessed to be a survivor of breast cancer, the most common cancer in women,” said Whitehurst, who underwent a mastectomy and chemotherapy to fight her disease. “I want women to remember every month to do their self exams, which are designed to find early tumors. When breast cancer is found early, and confined to the breast, the chances for survival are the greatest.”

The award-winning DaysAgo counts days to help families manage and organize anything in their lives that needs tracking. Originally designed by Whitehurst and her business partner, Debbie Stephens Stauffer, to help busy families keep track of food freshness in their refrigerators, the DaysAgo has become a lifestyle product that is used for everyday tasks ranging from taking medications to changing water filters.

Winner of the 2007 Good Housekeeping “Good Buy Award,” the DaysAgo affixes to containers, cabinets or mirrors through either a magnet for metal surfaces or a suction for others, and has a digital screen that counts up the days after the touch of a button.

The idea for the pink DaysAgo was conceived by Kathleen’s daughter, Jamie Whitehurst, who was inspired by her experience of helping her mom through her illness and walking side-by-side with her in the 3-Day Walk after she recovered.

“When I was diagnosed, my son and daughter were 22 and 20. Jamie was getting ready to graduate from college, and we were also in the middle of planning her wedding,” Whitehurst said. “That really kept me going — we managed to have such great laughs together. She made sure that my bald head, and missing eyebrows and lashes didn’t stop me from feeling like a million bucks on her wedding day.”

Jamie now works with her mom as vice president of double u products, inc.

October is breast cancer awareness month, and the pink DaysAgo is available for retail purchase as well as distribution at fundraising events for this important cause. For information on purchasing the special edition at wholesale cost, please visit http://www.howmanydaysago.com, call 1.800.401.4906, or email orders@howmanydaysago.com.

About double u products inc.
The DaysAgo™ was invented by two friends, Kathleen Whitehurst and Debbie Stephens Stauffer, who were inspired by a desire to keep the food in their own refrigerators safe for their families. Their company, double u products, inc., is based in the city of Saint Helena in California’s Napa Valley. An online press kit of the DaysAgo is available at www.howmanydaysago.com/press.php

Kathleen Whitehurst Christine Dunn
Co-founder and principal, double u products, inc. Savoir Media Co.
Telephone: (559) 905-1672 Telephone: (617) 484-1660
Email: Kathleen@doubleuproducts.com Email: daysago@savoirmedia.com
Fax: (408) 608-0316 fax

http://www.howmanydaysago.com

When my husband was diagnosed with esophagus cancer, we never talked about him dying, except in the very beginning. I think we were afraid to voice the worst scenario we could think of, him not making it through this disease. He refused to consider taking the traditional route in medicine, which was chemotherapy and radiation treatment. He told me early in his illness he was certain that the chemotherapy would kill him right away. When such a diagnosis is delivered, you begin to carry around with you a heaviness inside. When someone you care about is terminally ill, it dominates your thoughts and every waking moment. Your mind races over the different treatments and the newest drug trials, in the slim hope that things aren’t as bleak as they seem.

When the doctors told him he had this cancer, which essentially prevented him from eating, he wanted them to operate and take out the largest tumor at the junction of the stomach and esophagus. His doctor said it would be a major operation, where the ribs would have to be cracked open, and not one that he had the ability to perform. After more extensive testing was done, the doctors decided not to operate because they felt there was a good chance the cancer had already spread to the lymph nodes in the esophagus region. I didn’t know it then, but I guess I should have — they didn’t want to operate because they felt it was a lost cause.

We didn’t feel we should give up — we just knew that each human life is a cause worth fighting for. We never gave up hope that he could beat this cancer, even though it wasn’t discovered until almost last stage. I never actually asked the doctor what stage his cancer was. I believe it was an emotionally insulating factor for myself. I was afraid to know. I did so much research on alternative therapies that might help him, but I was afraid to know where traditional medicine saw him in his stage of cancer. Perhaps I was just better off that way. If I had known, perhaps that may have taken some of the fight out of both of us. We passed many milestones on our quest to heal him. To me, it wasn’t extending his life, it was attempting to heal his life and his body.

When someone is terminally ill, you want to preserve every moment, and that in itself becomes exhausting, though you’re not really cognizant of the toll day to day life takes on you. You want to try every avenue available to get better. I wanted my husband to visit a clinic we learned about in Mexico, where they had a good success rate of treating his type of cancer. I questioned our alternative medicine doctor about the latest therapies for cancer patients. I refused to let hope die, especially when my husband’s smaller tumors disappeared, and even when he kept losing weight. My mother said to me once, that some women might have left, but it never occurred to me. How could I ever think of leaving someone who I love when they needed me?

We took note of every mile marker along the way. Each step forward felt like a triumphant race to the ultimate goal, his being totally cured of cancer. I read many stories about others who had beat this devastating disease. It wasn’t until three weeks before my husband passed away, the night I had a dream, that I knew he was going to die. I’m sure many others knew right along he was going to die, but being in the thick of living this illness, it wasn’t an option for me. When I had the dream he died, I awoke and knew he was going to die. It was that simple.

All hope turned to despair. And still, we did not talk of him dying. Perhaps we should have, I don’t know. Perhaps he didn’t talk about his dying to spare me and my children. Perhaps he was afraid that even though I’d always been strong, maybe he didn’t want to see me break into a million tiny fragments. And I might have. I might well have broken apart, lost the emotional glue that was keeping me together in those last weeks. When hope flees, emotion and fear can break you down.

Some days I thought there was nothing more terrible than watching someone you love waste away from 200 lbs to ninety or so pounds. The spirit and the brightness in his eyes was undiminished, until the last eighteen hours. When you look into a loved one’s eyes and all you see is a black glassy emptiness, you know it is the end. For someone who likes to take control, and make other’s comfortable, I knew there was noting I could do. It was the most helpless I ever recall feeling in my life. The end had been written, but we never talked about the end. I think it was just too hard. Elaine Williams copyright 2008

Elaine Williams is a writer across various genres, published in women’s fiction, but also enjoys writing children’s books, self-help and screenplays. She is a mother of three boys and when life saw her a widow at 47, she eventually picked herself up and wrote about her experience. The resulting book, A Journey Well Taken: Life After Loss will be available June 2008, http://www.ajourneywelltaken.com