I am not sure when I will return at this point but I am ever so grateful to have had this summer with my dad. To know him all over again, to restore our relationship on so many levels and to share the love of Jesus with him is the ultimate gift! You remember that "tribute" I wrote? Well, I will be reading that to my dad tomorrow with my husband and kids sharing in that experience via Skype. I am so looking forward to this!
Here is Dads note for this week.....This week‘s medical treatments were identical to last week’s. I finished 5 more radiation treatments (bringing the total to 18 of the planned 28) and another chemotherapy treatment (for a total of 4).
On Thursday, I met with my oncologist and she told me that the chemotherapy treatments will continue as long as the radiation treatments. That means that I will have 2 more chemotherapy treatments – bringing the total to 6.
Even after all of my treatments, I feel good and I still haven’t suffered any significant side-effects from the chemotherapy. The only side-effect I feel is the one I mentioned last week. My throat is sore from the radiation. I am taking some medication about 30 minutes before eating to soothe the pain. I mentioned last week that it’s a side-effect they told me would come and it has. I learned this week that the soreness will last a couple of weeks beyond the end of the radiation - so I’ll deal with it for another month and a half.
When I first learned of the tumor I began to do some research. During part of my research I read a story about a woman who was diagnosed with cancer and given six months to live. She went through the recommended treatments (chemotherapy and radiation) and did some of her own stuff. One thing she did was whenever she showered she visualized the water dissolving her tumor and washing it down the drain. She did this everyday and eleven years later she is alive and still visualizing the cancer being washed away.
I liked the idea so I created two signs that I taped to the walls of our shower. The signs read: “Dissolve IT!” The signs serve as reminders for me to stand under the hot water and have it pound directly on the location of my tumor. I visualize the tumor being dissolved by the water and running out my body into the drain. So far, I don’t know if this has had any effect, but I can visualize the water dissolving each of the growths from the main tumor into my lymph glands and I can visualize the main tumor shrinking and dissolving to where it is much smaller. I haven’t been able to completely dissolve the tumor yet, but I get closer each day.
And there are some things I am going to do beginning next week.
EMDR is a relatively new psychotherapy technique (invented in 1987) which has been very successful in helping people who suffer from trauma, anxiety, panic, post traumatic stress and other emotional problems. EMDR is considered a breakthrough therapy because of its simplicity and the fact that it can bring quick and lasting relief for most types of therapeutic problems.
I used EMDR several years ago to deal with some issues and I found it to be the most effective therapeutic technique I ever experienced.
Luckily, Barbie is trained and certified in EMDR and I asked her to work with me to use EMDR to explore this disease and to explore additional things I can do about it. We will begin the process next week.
There are several things I want to explore with EMDR. First, I’ve been told by several people that lung cancer is a manifestation of repressed grief. I don’t know if this is true or not, but I am going to explore the possibility to see if there is anything to it. If so, I want to know what I need to face and I will use EMDR to deal with it.
In addition to the grief issue, I want to know if there is anything that is holding me back from really wanting to beat this disease. I don’t think there is but I want to use EMDR to see if I am hiding something. If there is something in me that questions whether or not I can survive I need to know what it is and use EMDR to eliminate the obstacle.
Another thing I want to know is if this tumor is a part of me or if it is its own entity. This may seem like a strange question – but I feel like I may want to adjust my approach for dealing with this tumor depending on the answer to this question.
These are but a few things I want to explore. Next week, Barbie and I will begin working with EMDR and see where things go
Doug Woods
I thank each of you for your continued prayers my blessed and wonderful bloggy friends! Love to you all!!
