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cancer book cancer management Suzanne Whang Suzanne Whang on Twitter

What Suzanne Whang Wants You to Know

It’s heartening to know when someone who has struggled with cancer treatment makes it through and comes out on the other side. I wrote about Suzanne Whang’s struggle with cancer in previous posts. Most people know her from her stint as a host of HGTV’s “House Hunters”, but she’s also an actress and comedian. She brings something unique to the cancer table, not just because she’s a comedian with a wild streak, but because she actually has a BA in psychology from Yale and a Masters in Cognitive Psychology from Brown.

Imagine my surprise when I found a message from her this morning in my inbox, responding to an old query. One of my readers wondered how she was doing and wanted me to find out. And today, I did.

Ms. Whang reports she’s cancer-free. Wow, that’s fantastic. No matter how many times I hear that kind of news, I never get tired of it. One more person who made it through the dark night to the new morning. One more person to continue to share her unique talents with the world. How lovely.

Better still, she says she’s writing a book about her experiences. You just know it’s going to a positive impact for cancer patients and their families. I’m looking forward to getting her take on all the ups and downs of cancer treatment.

She would like you to know that she has too many Facebook friends, but if you’d like to follow her, you can on her Twitter page — @suzannewhang. You can also email her at gookwaffle@gmail.com

(I’m guessing from her email address that she’s still thumbing her nose at political correctness and social etiquette. Not a girl to invite to the cotillion. No, she’s too much fun for that. She’d be out back, doing her impressions of the debutantes. Fine by me. I’d be right there in the audience, laughing my &%$#*!>{ @^^ off….)

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Amanda McGovern cancer cancer management cancer recovery cancer treatment recreation Seas IT Todd McGovern

Todd McGovern’s Legacy — Seas IT

Todd McGovern died at home on January 29, 2013. I read the obituary in the New York Times and found the story very inspirational. I want to share it with you because I think it will encourage you and your loved one to be as involved in life as he was as he battled cancer. He outlasted his diagnosis by several years. He fought the good fight, as so many cancer patients do. But what he left behind, what goes on in his absence, is his legacy.

Todd was just thirty, married for all of two months, when he received his terminal cancer diagnosis. Imagine that blow. Here you are, starting out your new life with your new wife. The world is your oyster. You have just about all of your adult life ahead of you. You imagine growing old with the woman you love. You’re planning your future together. And then this has to happen.

Todd didn’t take it lying down. He fought back. He made decisions about what he, not the cancer, was going to do for him. I have little doubt that it was not an easy struggle. Anyone who’s been around a cancer treatment center knows what a tough foe cancer can be.

But this young man, still so full of promise, was determined to impact the trajectory of his life. He was not willing to surrender himself to the despair of the disease. Todd wanted to live life to the fullest.

Sometimes ordinary people become extraordinary through circumstances not of their own making. They reach deep inside and they pull out that rabbit from life’s hat. Todd was such a young man.

But Todd had a partner, a supporter like no other. Amanda was surely a big part of that whole enterprise. She started Seas IT, a cancer recreation program to help them stay focused and positive throughout Todd’s cancer treatment and management. She understood the beauty of the great outdoors, with all of its restorative energy. She understood that being involved and passionate about your life was a key to living, not just existing.

I get that. When I was pushed to the edge as a caregiver, especially during my mother’s declining days, hiking was my one real pleasure. Every time I discovered a new trail, I was reconnecting to life. Every time I took a break from my mother’s cancer, I was renewing my spirit in the sights, the sounds, and the pleasures of nature. I would come home and face my caregiver duties with a determination to start fresh. I left the house weighed down by my responsibilities and I returned refreshed. That’s what recreation is all about, whether it’s running a marathon, enjoying a play, or visiting a museum.

I recall lugging my mother’s medical equipment through more than one art exhibit, pushing her wheelchair. Nothing made her feel more human again that visiting an art museum. We made our way through the centuries in three very different bastions of art history. And every time we returned home, my mother was satisfied that her disease had not gotten the better of her. It had not kept her from the things she loved most.

Recreation is that respite time we save for ourselves, for our wounded spirits and our challenged bodies. It’s that time we throw ourselves into what makes us most happy because it helps us to be true to our souls. For some, it’s running. For others, it’s fishing, knitting, or maybe even finally getting around to taking those piano lessons you always wanted to have, but never got around to doing. Recreation is all about you, not your disease. It’s about working on your putt instead of fretting how long your bone cancer will take to kill you. It’s about throwing that clay onto your potter’s wheel and creating a masterpiece.

It’s about doing, not just dreaming. It’s about getting off that recliner and getting back out into the world, where you belong. It’s about shutting off that little voice in your head that says you should just raise the white flag and be done with it. It’s about shaking off the terror of having cancer and living your best life inspite of it. Todd had cancer, but Todd also had life and a woman who loved him. That’s a very powerful force that creates positive energy, that extends life even against the odds.

So often cancer patients find their lives limited by the rigors of treatment. They spend their lives going back and forth to the hospital, getting scanned, getting chemo and/or radiation. That’s really when a lot of people begin to give up. If all you see is your bed and your doctor, the message you receive is that life as you knew it is over.

Todd and Amanda McGovern saw past that limitation. They knew they needed more. They knew other cancer patients needed more. Seas IT is all about staying as active as is possible during cancer management. It’s about using recreation to keep spirits up, to keep hearts open, to keep hope alive.

Todd lived long enough to see his twin sons born last June. He lived long enough to pass along his passion for recreation to those cancer patients who walk in his footsteps, who come up behind him. He lived long enough to share with us a very important secret for cancer patients. The more normal your life is with cancer, the better you will survive it.

Why is this important? Any cancer patient can tell you that in each new day that dawns, the promise of a cure hides within the heart. That promise wasn’t there unendingly for Todd. His life ended too soon when his time ran out. But because he and Amanda shared their secret about the pleasures and the power of recreation, they may have saved countless other lives, not by Todd’s dying, but by his way of living. In surviving so long with his terminal cancer, Todd showed us that the individual has some personal power to overcome even the toughest of foes. Couple that with new cancer research and new medicines, and that is how a cure is discovered. One small step at a time will lead us to the end of this insidious disease.

Even as his small sons begin to find their way in this world, their father’s legacy will live on. As they grow, as they thrive, let them be inspired by a man who wasn’t willing or able to surrender to his cancer. He rose above it and was made better by it. He became an inspiration and a teacher, whose lessons live on now in Seas IT.

If you would like to know more about the organization Amanda and Todd McGovern created, follow this link:

Seas IT
 
 
Categories
cancer cancer humor cancer management cancer survivor laughter Suzanne Whang

Suzanne Whang — Still Feisty and Funny

Some time ago, when I wrote about her disappearance from House Hunters, a reader asked me what Suzanne Whang’s status was. This long-time cancer survivor with a few impressive psychology credentials to her name was still struggling to beat back the big beast. These days? Suzanne Whang is busy tweeting and posting. That’s good news for fans.

If you’re looking to find her and follow her on Twitter, her user name is @suzannewhang. Fair warning — this lady is NOT for burning. She’s not demure or dainty. She could easily beat back the toughest sailor on the waterfront with her salty language (Hey — cancer survivors HAVE to be tough!)

If you want to find her and follow her on Facebook, she’s Suzanne Whang:
Suzanne Whang on Facebook

Why do cancer survivors and those just starting out need to hear from her?  Because it takes real courage to fight a disease like this, and attitude is everything. Suzanne is NOT one to hold back on that front. That’s okay. Maybe, if nothing else, hearing it from her will spike your interest in not surrendering to this monster under the bed. You won’t be as afraid to confront the elephant in the room. And if you like to live vicariously, she’ll be happy to say all those incredibly rude, outrageous things you’ve been thinking. She might even get you to laugh. And laughter is always the best medicine for whatever ails you. There are real physical benefits from a belly laugh — you breathe better, your blood flows better, your mental health improves. But it’s what a good belly laugh does for the human spirit that counts the most. Rise above cancer, even just for a moment, and you are no longer in its grip. Set that disease aside and you get to live your life again because you choose to laugh, instead of cry. Take back the “remote control” on your life and fill it with mirth. You may not control the events you experience, but you sure control the replay action. Never forget that.

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Take a break and read a free ebook, just for fun. Get a copy for free (Amazon and Barnes & Noble charge a 99-cent fee, but you can get it at Smashwords in all popular formats — sign up with a free account):

 
 
Amazon — Henry Hartman’s Holiday Crisis
Apple — Henry Hartman’s Holiday Crisis
Barnes and Noble — Henry Hartman’s Holiday Crisis
Kobo — Henry Hartman’s Holiday Crisis
Smashwords — Henry Hartman’s Holiday Crisis
Sony — Henry Hartman’s Holiday Crisis

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AutoLITT Barnes-Jewish brain tumor cancer cancer management Cleveland Clinic laser interstitial thermal therapy Monteris Smilow Cancer Center University Hospitals Case Medical Center

Can Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy Treat Inoperable Brain Cancer?

If you know anyone who has ever had brain cancer or cared for a brain cancer patient, you know this is a very tough situation. Depending on the type of tumor, the prognosis is often very pessimistic.

Lasers have been used to treat cancers since the seventies, but brain surgery is always risky. The idea of using heat to “cook” a tumor is not something people find easy to embrace. Is this changing with the AutoLITT system developed by Monteris, a Canadian company?

This technology is being used to treat gioblastomas and other difficult-to-treat brain cancers, especially helpful for high-risk patients. It’s minimally invasive and pain-free. Many patients are up and walking less than 24 hours after treatment.

This new treatment for brain tumors was approved for use in 2009. There are reportedly almost a dozen hospitals in the country that currently offer the technology. Among them are the Smilow Cancer Center (Yale-New Haven), the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals Case Medical Center, and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

Monteris just secured $9 million in new financing, offering hope to many cancer families that their loved ones may have access to the AutoLITT treatment. As more and more doctors are trained to use the system, patients will have more and better options, even when their brain tumors are untreatable by more conventional means.

If you or a loved one have a brain tumor that has not been successfully treated, AutoLITT may make a difference in cancer management. Some patients may gain only six months, while others gain years. It’s not always easy to predict the success rate. Sometimes hanging in there means you live to fight another day. When the tide turns, it’s important to be there and take advantage of the opportunities. The good times are what help you to ride out the bad. That’s what cancer management is all about — part hope, part patient advocacy, part persistence. Quality of life is always important, and the AutoLITT system seems to work with that concept.

If you feel that you or your loved one can benefit from treatment, don’t hesitate to find out more. Tackle the issue head on and get the facts. It may or may not fit the needs of your family situation, but if it does, it’s worth considering when all else has failed.

If you want more information about Monteris and its AutoLITT system, check out their website:
http://www.monteris.com/

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If you would like more help as a cancer caregiver, visit The Practical Caregiver Guides

If you would like a free copy of my ebooks in popular formats, visit my Smashwords pages:
The Practical Caregiver’s Guide to Cancer Care: How to Help Someone You Love
The Practical Caregiver’s Guide to Caregiver Support: How to Help Yourself

These are also available at Amazon, Baker and Taylor, Barnes and Noble, Diesel, Kobo, and Sony.

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cancer cancer management cancer treatment caregiver caregiver education Caris Life Sciences early diagnosis mycancer.com oncologist oncology radiology

CARIS’S CANCER TECHNOLOGIES PERSONALIZE TREATMENT

One of the most impressive women I ever met when my mother was undergoing cancer treatment was a lady who had survived two decades with the disease. How did she do it? She paid attention to her body. She got to the point where she could tell when the cancer was spreading or returning. She went in search of cancer treatment. She was not content to just accept it as her fate in life. Her husband was a supportive partner as she endured, managed, and directed her own cancer care. Why does this matter? I learned a lot from her that day as we talked in the chemotherapy room. She knew life is precious, that we are here to live life and to love. One moment in time can change a life for the better or for the worse. When we hesitate, when we accept the status quo without question, we are victims of our fate. When we accept the opportunity to learn what we can about cancer, when we begin to embrace the opportunities provided by emerging technologies, we help our loved ones to manage the disease better. Don’t close your eyes and look away because your loved one has cancer. Be proactive. Become aware of what’s available and what it can do for you and your loved one.

I’m a big believer in using technology to attack cancer and knock it out of the loop. Caris Life Sciences has a new program for cancer patients that enables better, smarter treatment:

http://www.mycancer.com/biopsy

Caris even has a checklist of questions to ask the oncologist, so that you and your love one better understand the type of cancer and the options for treatments. The idea is to individualize the cancer in order to provide the best treatment for the specific situation.

Anyone who has ever had cancer or cared for someone with cancer knows that it can be tough to withstand the rigors of treatment. Sometimes that’s harder than the cancer itself. With a more personalized treatment plan, unnecessary guesswork goes out the window. Cancer treatment is no longer “one-size-fits-all”. When oncologists and hematologists can see markers in blood that indicate cancer long before it shows up on a scan, that’s a head start on cutting cancer off at the pass. The sooner you know, the sooner you or your loved one can be treated. That means less treatment because it’s more effective at catching the cancer earlier.

One of the hardest things for cancer patients is to hope when things look bad. If your loved one has late stage cancer, you might be tempted to give up and give in. Would it help you to know that a new study showed that even late-stage cancer patients increased their survival rate by almost 30% using molecular profiling? That means that 3 out of 10 late-stage cancer patients thrived by using this technology. Three more people now live who would have died without the technology.

Any good cancer caregiver knows that working with a loved one’s radiology, oncology, and surgical team is imperative in keeping him or her healthier. It’s always important to be able to discuss the cancer and the options, because the better you and your loved one understand cancer, the better you and your loved one can manage the disease. And the better the cancer is managed, the better life will be for the whole family.

For more help with cancer caregiving, visit The Practical Caregiver Guides:
www.practicalcaregiverguides.com

For a free copy of “The Practical Caregiver’s Guide to Cancer Care: How to Help Someone You Love” in popular ebook formats, visit my Smashwords page:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/110999

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cancer cancer management cancer treatment caregiver caregiver education GE Healthcare Is My Cancer Different

LAUNCHING “IS MY CANCER DIFFERENT” — CAN IT HELP YOU?

I’m a big believer in managing cancer by proactive effort. The more caregivers and cancer patients ask for information, the more they learn about it, the better the result. I’ve talked to a lot of people over the years and I am always surprised when I find out how many missed opportunities there are. Whether I am talking to a cancer widow who had no inkling that her husband’s cancer situation was so dire, or a new caregiver who doesn’t realize how important nutrition is for cancer survival, it strikes me that cancer education is critical to cancer management.

Sometimes the biggest obstacle for cancer patients and their families is that they are afraid to learn the truth. They hold back and hold it in, terrified to ask. Don’t be afraid to dip your big toe into the water. Don’t be afraid to get wet. Get yourself into the ocean of information about cancer. Learn to swim. The more you know about cancer, the better the outcome. Every cancer is different, just as every patient is different. It’s not a one-size-fits-all situation, so being able to target the kind of cancer, the stage it’s at, and the overall health of the individual patient means a better chance to manage the cancer. Generic cancer treatment often means the side effects overwhelm the patient, creating more problems than are solved. An individualized treatment plan takes into account the actual needs of the patient and works to insure that his or her health is better preserved. When an oncologist really seeks to understand a patient’s specific cancer situation, the outcome will be improved.

GE Healthcare just launched a new health initiative designed to help cancer patients ask, “Is my cancer different?” Why is this question so critical? Not every cancer responds to normal cancer protocols of treatment. Not every cancer patient does well with every cancer drug. Molecular level diagnostics can make a difference in outcome. This allows the oncologist to individualize the cancer treatment. The goal is to utilize molecular level diagnostics to better fit individual needs.

As a cancer caregiver, one of the most important jobs you have is to understand that the right treatment can make all the difference in the world. You want your loved one to have a fighting chance. The smarter the fight, the better the outcome. Sometimes surviving that extra day in better shape allows a cancer patient a window of opportunity to move forward towards a cure. With cancer, there are never any guarantees, but you can and you should always advocate for the best treatment available for your loved one’s cancer.

What does “Is My Cancer Different?” offer? This is a cancer education website. You can see patient-friendly informational videos. You can learn about new developments in cancer treatments. You can begin to understand that the better managed cancer is, the longer your loved one can not only live with cancer, but thrive. More birthdays, more joy, more laughter, more adventures, more life.

If you would like more information on “Is My Cancer Different?”, check out their link:
http://www.IsMyCancerDifferent.com/