Cancer is only part of my journey

Personally, I am taking the former. It frees me from being mired in negativity and allows me to focus on the business of healing.

Why keeping positive is so important to battling the Beast. Last Friday I was scheduled to give blood as I have since April prior to my chemo and now immunotherapy sessions. Last Friday, New York was also recovering from a huge snowstorm the night before. But like an intrepid Arctic explorer, I layered my clothing and set forth. Once arriving at the infusion center, one of my nurse Countess Draculas (my loving nickname for them) looked confused and asked 'why are you here?' It turned out despite being in the middle of this round's sessions, I only need bloodletting once not twice. They were so apologetic over the situation. Once upon a time, I would have adopted a put upon attitude at the inconvenience. But I had had some juice, graham crackers and spoken with funny (haha) strangers. Since my 2nd war w/ the Beast started, I have come to understand the extreme power of not sweating the small stuff. Also never allowing the big stuff to throw me off c...

I realize some might think the following foolish and scoff, but doing breathing deep during troubling times does work at calming you and allows for the emergence of different solutions to situations...even if it means just waiting. Case in point. On last Monday, I received a letter from my insurance company saying they were NOT okaying my upcoming 2nd chemo session of Keytruda. Scheduled to start sometime in late August or September, denial of this "kick ass" drug was disheartening. Calling my doctor's office, I offered my grant, proposal and white paper writing skills to better the chances on getting this approved. Ego was out the window - saving my life ruled. Luckily, a very wise friend  came up with this sage advice 'you need your energy for healing so let the doctor's office do the heavy lifting' So true! All I could do was breathe deep and trust the Universe it would work out. On Friday the doctor's office informed me, the insuran...