A woman who has been on chemo for cancer is now facing surgery, then more chemo. She was given a stack of CDs but wonders when to use what, and if it’s a mistake to listen to everything at once. Here is her question.
Question:
I have been on chemotherapy for breast cancer for the last 7 weeks. A few days ago I found the chemo imagery that was given to me when I started. (I wasn't exactly keeping up with everything.) Surgery is in 5 days. I was wondering, is it wasteful to incorporate several CDs at once into the process (e.g. the Cancer, the Surgery, and the Chemotherapy CD) or should I just stick with the Chemo tape? I'm going back on the Chemo immediately after.
I listened to your guided imagery program for Caregiver Stress for months as I walked an arduous path with my dearest love of 40 years, as she contended with the stresses and strains of chemotherapy for ovarian cancer. It was not easy. She is now thankfully in remission.
Voice, music and words provided exactly what I needed, and therefore what we needed. The intense fear, doubt, suffering, emotional exhaustion etc etc of the care partner is unacknowledged, ignored, swept under the rug.
This prayer was written by Eitan Baum for the healing of his mother, Naomi Chava bat Chaya Hendel in Menachem Av of the year 5771 or 2011 by the Gregorian Calendar. It is very much in the style and wording of Jewish prayer.
Wayfarers Prayer upon Embarking on the Journey of Healing
May it be Your will, merciful and healing Father, to lead me on this journey in peace, to accompany me in peace, to stand by my side and to give me life, health, happiness and peace.
Give me the strength to bear this cancer with dignity, and the power to endure it and be healed. Protect me from pain, sadness and despair, and from all the discomforts that are drawing near. Send skill, wisdom and understanding to my doctors and nurses, Your faithful messengers, to sow goodness and light in my body. Help the chemicals accurately do their work, rooting out disease and bringing compassion to the healthy parts of my body making room for the good to strengthen and take root.
Hey, so take a look at a serious contender for Most Adorable Kid in America and read his story, which we found on a website called Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Fighting Cancer One Cup at a Time…Awesome that he can flash that radiant smile and exude such radically cute charisma, after being through what he’s been through – but there you have it. Definitely makes you want to complain less…check this story out:
When Corey was 1-year-old, he was diagnosed with stage 1 Wilms' tumor, a pediatric kidney cancer. A 2 pound tumor was removed, along with his right kidney and some lymph nodes.
Unfortunately, just 3 months after finishing chemotherapy treatments, Corey's cancer relapsed to his lungs and lower spine area. He was paralyzed for a few weeks until the new chemotherapy and radiation treatments started working. After finishing an intensive 24 week protocol that kept Corey in the hospital most of the time, Corey enjoyed 10 months of being cancer-free and relearned how to walk.
Hi. This is a question for Belleruth. At the suggestion of a friend, I've been listening to the Immune System guided imagery available to Kaiser Permanente members. I love your voice and music, but I've been changing the imagery so that it's not warlike/violent.
For example, I imagine the fighter cells putting a golden light vortex around infected cells, bad bacteria, viruses, etc. and then sending the light into the earth.
I told my friend how I've changed the imagery and she wondered if that imagery would work since the immune system actually is warlike and violent.
Thanks for sending me the catalogs I requested for my Grief and Loss Workshop, conducted at my church. We had six women attend, all of whom are actively grieving because of serious losses of loved ones. These included deaths by accident, murder and due to Alzheimer ’s disease. None of these women were aware of guided imagery or your audios.
I played the Affirmations portion of my well-used Relieve Depression tape and they were so deeply touched. One widow commented specifically on the reference to “being held in the hands of God” and the group agreed that image is especially comforting.
A terrific story by Philadelphia Inquirer writer, Sally Friedman, describes how a scrappy, 10 year old soccer player named Jarrod Skole converted his experiences with bladder cancer treatment and guided imagery into a terrific book to guide other kids. He wrote it with his father, Gary, and it’s called, Imagine What’s Possible, published by the American Cancer Society.
After reading this jaw-dropper of an upbeat report from the pluckiest, newly diagnosed, 75-year-old cancer patient in America, everyone in the office has set a new goal: we all want to be Dr. Ann McGee-Cooper when we grow up. Read on and take heart! (She gives all the credit to guided imagery. We hand all the credit right back to her.)
And wait til you see her list of post-surgical activities (which we do not recommend for the average mortal). She also has some very helpful ideas about how and where and when to use imagery. Check it out
A critical review in the International Journal of Neuroscience by Ephraim C. Trakhtenberg from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, looked at the research on the effect that guided imagery has on immune system functioning and proposed direction for future research.
Trakhtenberg found that the studies suggest that guided imagery can reduce stress and up-regulate the immune system; that cell-specific imagery affects corresponding white blood cells (WBC’s)- neutrophils, or lymphocytes; that decreases in WBC count occur in the initial stages of GI and relaxation, due to fluctuations in WBC production or margination; and that changes in WBC count or adherence occur earlier in medical patients. The investigator suggests that future articles define the ideal WBC count; investigate the effects of long-term practice of GI; and clarify the influence of cell-specific imagery on WBCs.
Researchers from the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain in Davis, California, investigated the effects of a 3-month intensive meditation retreat on telomerase activity and 2 measures of perceived stress - . (Telomerase activity reverses cell aging and is a predictor of long-term cellular viability. Aging is accelerated by chronic stress)
The two measures of perceived stress were Perceived Control (associated with decreased stress) and Subjective Distress. In addition, the authors investigated whether two qualities developed by meditative practice - increased Mindfulness and Purpose in Life - accounted for retreat-related changes in the two stress-related variables and in telomerase activity.
Hey, so take a look at a serious contender for Most Adorable Kid in America and read his story, which we found on a website called 
Dear Cheryl,
After reading this jaw-dropper of an upbeat report from the pluckiest, newly diagnosed, 75-year-old cancer patient in America, everyone in the office has set a new goal: we all want to be 
