HEALING
The healing power of cancer
For many people, a cancer diagnosis might feel like a death sentence. For me, it was the best and most powerful piece of personal feedback I have ever received.
by Nathalie Brewer
S
ix weeks ago, I took myself to my local GP to request a colonoscopy. I had been having
many of the symptoms of bowel cancer for several months (bleeding, swelling, and irregular bowel movements). On top of that, I was also depressed, isolated, and exhausted from pretending that I was capable of doing everything myself. As a single parent in a small
community in Melbourne’s east, I ran a successful business but had been neglecting my ‘to do list’ for more than two years. The grinding routine of everyday life felt monotonous. No matter how hard I seemed to try, I couldn’t seem to get my life un-stuck. My self-doubt was crippling my ability to make simple decisions. I had lost all ambition. I felt empty and utterly alone.
NO PLAN B When the colonoscopy revealed that I had a 5cm tumour growing in my sigmoid colon, I was alarmed but not at all surprised. I had known from my studies in psychology that certain areas of the body are related to difficulties in the mind. For instance, the colon is a place associated with fear and self-doubt. It made sense to me that my long-term struggle with life was now manifesting on the inside my body, in the exact location where I was experiencing ‘blockage’.
16 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2017
One week later, the biopsy results came back as bowel cancer. The experience of receiving this news reminded me of missing a plane while travelling around the world during my 20s. You’re there with all your baggage, but your destination has just slipped beyond reach. I instantly went into a state of deep, uncomfortable, and disappointed calm. There was no point crying, kicking, or screaming. Nothing I could do was going to put me on that cancer-free plane. I had missed it and now I was standing at the airport with no plan B, gathering myself before the disorienting task of figuring out ‘what will I do next?’As it turned out, in some wonderful twist of fate, my surgeon needed to order more scans to determine the precise location of my tumour. She assured me that the cancer was slow growth, so taking the extra few weeks for further testing would not impact negatively on my prognosis. This gave me a gap of almost three and a half weeks to pause, to think and more importantly, to feel.
DISCOVERING THE MEANING OF MY CANCER I wanted to know for myself the root cause of my cancer. I intuitively knew that once the cancer was cut out of me, I might miss an opportunity to discover the full meaning of what my body
was trying to tell me. I also felt that if I could get to the bottom of why my body had created cancer, I would have a better chance of ensuring it would never return. I wasn’t going to waste a moment of this precious time I had been given. What happened over the next few
weeks was a series of life-changing events and insights that helped me understand myself on a cellular level. When I finally went into surgery the doctors were surprised to discover a tumour that was only 2cm in diameter. I had managed to shrink it by more than half its size in only 24 days. This is a big call, I know! So let me
explain how I think this occurred by sharing the five key lessons I learned – and decisions I made – in those few precious weeks:
TAKE YOUR TIME Research shows that having a sense of personal autonomy is a key characteristic of long-term cancer survivors (J.N Schilder et al. – Clinical Case Studies 3 - Oct 2004). As an educator, I think patient behaviour is not too dissimilar from student learning styles. Some of us are more kinaesthetic and need to have a more hands-on approach to our own health. I am definitely one of those people and perhaps you are too? If you are
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