Life Change Habits

Cancer changes life. I found this book while undergoing treatment for breast cancer.  After I had undergone a lumpectomy and radiation treatments, I wanted to learn more about cancer and more important, be a part of my own healing. Dr. David  Servan - Schreiber ,* a physician and scientist, wrote  Anti-Cancer: A New Way of Life  to share his experiences with cancer, and what he learned as a result of his ordeal. He was at the top of a successful career as a psychiatrist and research scientist when he discovered by chance that he had a malignant brain tumor. After receiving his unwelcome diagnosis and undergoing the treatment for disease, he found that his physicians could not answer many of his questions regarding what he might do to increase his own ability to fight the cancer. His thesis is simple: All of us have cancer cells in our bodies, but not all of us will develop cancer. What are the factors that contribute to the formation of this disease, and what i...

November 26, 2009 marked the first anniversary of my undergoing a surgical lumpectomy  for breast cancer. On Thanksgiving Day I added to all that I have to give thanks for, most especially my life and family, gratitude that I am a survivor. I received the bad news of a negative biopsy just after Barack  Obama's  election as President. My diagnosis seemed so unreal, standing in the hospital parking lot talking on my cell phone with my son. I did not know what to expect, and felt very apprehensive. I was living alone in a city far from family, stressed out by struggling with two small business in an economy that was in free fall. That month I lost the last of my students and income from the one business. All of the appointments with my doctor and the nurse at the cancer center were a blur, as they discussed the treatments, surgery followed by radiation and possibly chemotherapy. Overwhelmed, I turned to my faith and began praying a novena to St. Anthony for a mirac...