Читать книгу The Cancer Directory - Dr. Daniel Rosy - Страница 17

The healing journey from here, diagnosis, to there, recovery and a healthy, fresh new lifestyle, is, in the words of Penny Brohn, co-founder of the Bristol Cancer Help Centre, ‘a process and not an event!’

How dearly we all wish that there were a quick way to get rid of the uncomfortable feelings and symptoms of illness, get through our treatments, and back into a secure ‘normal’ life. But, unfortunately, the treatment and healing process does take time, and there are challenges associated with each step of the treatment and healing process. It is therefore important that you get the big picture, understand what you will have to go through, pace yourself appropriately and map out which aspects of the integrated approach will be right for which stage of the healing journey.

The main tendency is for everyone affected by cancer to get into a terrible panicky rush. The medical profession often sets the hurried pace, making it appear imperative that you receive treatment within hours or days of diagnosis. This is very unhelpful as it leaves you with no time to recover from the initial shock, to prepare for treatment and, most important of all, to take the necessary time to consider the treatment options on offer (while getting your head around the short-and possible long-term side-effects).

As for integrated approaches, people with cancer often confuse the more short-term use of supportive complementary help and symptom control with the longer-term health creation measures necessary for a sustainable improvement in health and, hopefully, prognosis. The worst pitfall would be to rush into making major life changes while in the middle of treatment!

Sometimes, having got the message that illness can follow long periods of stress or unhappiness, people become very motivated to change, but run into problems when they try to make big changes when they are weak and vulnerable. If illness has made you realize that you need to change your job, confront difficulties in your relationships or move house, do wait until you are well and physically strong enough, through your treatment and convalescence, before making such big life changes.

To help you identify the process of recovery, it is wise to see it in four distinct phases:

Phase 1 Getting through diagnosis and treatment positively

Phase 2 Dealing creatively with the problems of illness

Phase 3 Health revival: the state shift to get the body and mind strong again

Phase 4 Life revival: getting into a healthy, happy and fulfilling lifestyle.