Dr. Daniel - The Cancer Directory

Go forward in the knowledge that you are a very powerful person in your anti-cancer team. There is a great deal of help available to strengthen, support and guide you in your treatment and self-help programme. It is possible to stabilize and live with cancer (rather than dying from it), and even to go into remission from cancer altogether.

A cancer diagnosis can start a profound and exciting journey of healing and self-development, giving you the push and permission to change what has been making you ill or unhappy for years. This book will help you to understand and discover every type of help that is available to empower you in both your fight against cancer and your personal healing journey.

Integrated cancer medicine is the most powerful medicine available to those with cancer because it draws together every possible form of help that is available for you to fight cancer and heal yourself. Since the 1960s, there has been a revolution in medical thinking and science, and it is now clear that our health and chances of recovery from illness depend both on what the medical profession can do for us and what we can do for ourselves. Many of the factors that affect our health and well-being are within our own control, and involve us becoming stronger physically, mentally and spiritually to deal with and overcome illness. This means that, when serious illness strikes, we must seek to understand how the illness has developed, what our needs in going through the illness and its treatment are and, most crucially of all, how to use the help available at all levels of mind, body and spirit to get ourselves well again.

In practical terms for each person with cancer, this means opening up a treasure chest of possibilities to find the right type of help to crack the healing code. As mutually respectful partners on this detective mission, those with cancer, their doctors, therapists and supporters can draw from orthodox, complementary and alternative medicine the psychological, spiritual and self-help approaches necessary, as well as look longer term into the role of nutrition, lifestyle reorientation and environmental factors, all of which may play key roles in overcoming the disease and becoming a part of the winning statistics.

Historically, those who become ill have really only had the medical model to rely upon. In such a model, a person with cancer is completely dependent on the knowledge and skill of doctors and nurses, and the current level of scientific understanding of the disease. This puts the ill person in an entirely passive role – which is all very well if the doctors have the ability to fix the problem. But if the power of medicine is limited, as in most cases of cancer, this leaves the patient with nowhere to go, feeling as if he or she has gone over the edge of a precipice. Another weakness of the medical model is that it leaves you powerless, with nothing to contribute to your own recovery process and chances of survival.

In stark contrast, the integrated medicine model puts the person with cancer at the very centre of the recovery process, as the therapeutic team:

• seeks to understand your needs, values and insights in relation to the illness

• supports and empowers you to get the very best treatment options that best suit your values and needs

• helps prepare you psychologically and physically for your treatment

• helps you explore the meaning of the illness, the self-help path and how you can transform the crisis of illness into the opportunity for health creation.

In the integrated medicine model, illness is not seen as a random occurrence, but as a logical result of factors that have created a chink in your armour. Our job is to try to understand how the illness has developed, and use this message from the body to work creatively to get your health and life onto a stronger, happier footing than before.

Within the integrated approach, you will find loving care and recognition of the trauma and stress that diagnosis, illness and treatment may be causing you. You will find hope that a creative way can be found to overcome your illness. You will find empowerment and the vital help you need to become mighty in your own defence. You will find respect for your personal needs, values and insights, and you will find the opportunity to transform the total misery and threat of illness and its treatment into an opportunity for a profound re-engagement in living the life you love.

To make the integrated medicine revolution work for you, you will need to find your way to exactly the right resources nationally and locally. This means that you will have a map or overview of what is available, and what forms of help might be useful and when. So, in the pages that follow, you will find help to:

• understand the different types of help available

• understand when to use what type of help

• understand your reactions to illness

• understand the best state of mind to promote recovery

• set up your own support network

• get the information you need to make the very best treatment decisions, whether orthodox or alternative

• make informed treatment decisions that are right for you

• be well prepared for your treatment psychologically, physically and practically

• get the best treatment outcomes with support from complementary medicine

• convalesce properly after treatment

• get yourself on the road to recovery with positive health creation.

There are seven kinds of help available in integrated cancer medicine:

1. Orthodox cancer medicine

2. Alternative cancer medicine

3. Complementary supportive care

4. Psychological approaches

5. Spiritual help

6. Self-help approaches

7. Healthy lifestyle reorientation

This is the medicine provided by mainstream cancer doctors and nurses, and is written about in detail in Chapter 4. Within orthodox medicine, you will find help to obtain:

• an accurate diagnosis of your condition

• if desired, a prognosis for your condition (knowing the average outcome statistically for those with your condition)

• the conventional cancer treatments of surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and possibly adjuvant treatments such as hormone therapies

• where available, the opportunity to be entered into a research trial in which the most up-to-date treatment is being tested

• where available, treatment with newly emerging technologies such as laser, cryotherapy and highly specialized radiotherapeutic techniques

• if appropriate, palliative care (treatment to control cancer symptoms) and residential respite care in a hospice

• where available, supportive care within orthodox settings from counsellors, psychologists, specialist nurses, chaplains, social workers and health visitors. Some enlightened units also offer complementary supportive care such as aromatherapy, massage, relaxation, visualization and group-therapy sessions.

Alternative cancer medicines are those that may be used as an alternative to orthodox cancer treatment. These are written about in detail in Chapter 5 (The alternative frontier: getting the best alternative treatment), and fall into the areas of: