It IS all in your head

While wasting time online and stressing about my health yesterday (oops I mean expanding my intellectual horizons), I came across this article. Now it is long but definitely worth the read.

First of all there are lots of us who have had the privilege of getting cancer. (You note I call it a privilege because anything else just wouldn't be worthy.) And the ones of us who do the best in the long run are the ones for whom outreach and hope keep us going.

I can tell you when I changed from hopeless to hopeful. Shortly after finishing chemo, my husband and I went to a museum where the gift store was selling off their supply of holiday items. One of the things on sale for 90% off was the word "Hope" in big red letters, a foot tall, to hang on the wall. I splurged the whole $3 and brought it home and hung it on the wall of my office where it is to this day.

It is also about the same time, I learned that I can help others. I went from being a whining shriveled up blob of stress and concern to happy to help others. I started volunteering and learning how to help others. All of this helped me learn to better deal with my thyroid cancer as well.

Part of learning hope is learning to cope and taking charge of what we can. So we take our eternal optimism off to every doctor appointment and through every ache and pain and test and procedure. And life goes on.