When I started having Faslodex injections in December, my CA27.29 (blood test for breast cancer) was 1379. It has now gone down over 200 points each month for three months in a row, for a current value of 686. That’s still a long way from the normal of 38, but it is going in the right direction by big increments. I’m grateful and optimistic.
The workshop I attended in January on the PATH method (Participatory Awareness for Transformational Healing), with Dwight McKee, MD, and Raul Goldberg, MD, was an intense experience. Dr. Goldberg has created this technique to assist people in releasing old traumas and negative emotions. He has been doing this work with cancer patients in South Africa (where he is from) and Europe for 20 years with powerful results.
This was an introductory workshop for health professionals since he is trying to get therapists in the US to become trained in using the PATH method. There were 14 of us in the group. He demonstrated the method with three of us individually while the rest of the group observed. The three of us who got to have that experience were the only three in the group who are living with cancer.
I am so grateful that I got to experience it. I expressed and released some negative emotions from two events in my life, one that happened when I was three, and another that happened when I was 44. I was surprised at how strong those emotions still were. In the PATH method, the patient gets to play different characters (all part of me), so after one character expresses the emotions, another character discovers the resources to deal with the feelings, provides comfort, and observes the experience from a different perspective. Great tools that are now part of my toolbox.
One of the nine strategies identified in Kelly Turner’s book, Radical Remission, is to release suppressed emotions being held in your body. Even though there is always more to do, I feel like this workshop gave me a good start in doing that.
Terri Tate and I are teaching a new workshop in May, called Trusting Your Inner Guidance. This is another example of teaching what I need to learn. I am loving doing the research and the practice to prepare for this workshop. Trusting your intuition is another one of the nine strategies in Radical Remission, so I am convinced of the value in developing and strengthening my capacity to tap into my intuition.
I am learning again the value of eliciting the Relaxation Response on a regular basis, not only because it facilitates access to my intuition, but also because that’s the only time that healing can really happen in my body. It is impossible for healing of the body to happen when I am in the stress response (where many of us live much of the time). This knowledge strengthens my resolve to meditate, be in nature, do guided imagery, and have regular massages. I don’t know how much these practices are affecting my cancer marker numbers, but I’m confident they are contributing to the numbers going down.
So happy to hear you are moving in the right direction. You may also be aware of the Emotion Code which is also an effective way to release suppressed emotions. Thanks for sharing about the PATH program and keep up the good work!!
Always happy to hear good news! It boosts my immune system by releasing happy chemicals in my brain. So,…. thank you! I am eager to hear more good news.
The workshop looks very inviting.
I have somehow fallen off of the mailing list, but woke up this morning thinking of you and Healing Journeys. I was surprised to read that you are on Faslodex, but so very happy to hear that it is working for you.
I was in remission from a breast cancer diagnosed in 2007 (for which I had surgery for a 4.3 cm tumor and 10 cancerous nodes; I ultimately accepted radiation because a cancerous node developed in my neck, but I refused all chemo; I also took Arimidex for 4.75 years) until early last year (2017) when I discovered a recurrence. It took me a few months to figure out what it was: small bumps developed below my armpit on the ‘affected’ side. They eventually spread across the top of what was left of my breast and around the far outside.
I moved from the SF Bay Area to Oaxaca, Mexico, in 2016. When the recurrence was discovered, I was guided to a private clinic that is a participant in a worldwide study of Faslodex with Taselisib. I fit all the criteria, so I began injections a year ago. Though I have an extensive blood test every month and CT scans every 8 weeks, the protocol does not call for the CA27.29 test, but I am going to request one myself.
However, the ‘tumorcitos’ on my skin quit developing immediately, and the remainder are quite reduced. One has even disappeared completely. I’m working on the others.
I am very interested in the PATH workshops. However, according to the link, there aren’t any currently being offered. I hope to hook up with one of your own workshops or a PATH on one of my frequent visits to the US.
I want to leave a couple comments:
(!) A good friend taught me NOT to say ‘my’ (or anyone else’s) cancer; it is not ‘mine.’Though I own that I have it, it does not belong to me.
(2) I highly recommend the book, ‘Dying to Be Me’ by Anita Moorjani for those who have never heard about or read it. Anita had a terminal lymphoma in 2006, went into a coma, her organs shut down, she actually witnessed ‘the other side’, discovered the source of her illness, returned to consciousness, and her cancer went into immediate remission. She has been speaking all over the world since. You can also see/listen to her on YouTube or her website.
She has since written another book, ‘What if This is Heaven,’ which I have yet to read.
Best wishes to you, Jan. You have been through so much, and you are an inspiration to the rest of us. I wish you many, many more years ‘on this side.’
Roxana, Thank you for your comments. I was in Oaxaca for a week in April and loved it. I would consider moving there if I could speak Spanish, but learning Spanish at my age feels too daunting.
I have heard others recommend not saying “my cancer,” but I disagree. I think if I want to have some control over my cancer, I need to own it. It is part of my body; it is mine, and I want to learn what it has to teach me. I think an intimate relationship with my cancer can be a good thing. It feels similar to having to “own” negative feelings, feel them, and express them, before one can let go of them. This also may be related to the saying, “What you resist persists.”
I have read “Dying to be me” and have heard Anita speak. I also recommend the book. I think her story is a good example of “owning” ones cancer and learning from it. Once she was able to learn what caused it (her fear) and let go of that, her cancer could leave. I think her ownership of the “cancering” process was major in her recovery.
Best wishes to you, Roxana. Glad you are enjoying Oaxaca.