Episode 025: How To Stop Cancer From Running Your Life
Jul 25, 2018•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast Episode description
Full Transcript
Hey, my name is Joe Bakhmoutski, I am the creator of Simplify Cancer and it’s weird that with cancer, you end up in this foreign country where you don’t speak the language, you don’t have a map to get around, and it’s scary because you don’t know who you can trust or how things are going to play out, and you have to figure out how everything connects together...
And you can’t stop thinking about it because every twitch, every ache and pain, and you ask yourself: is this cancer? This constant worry, it’s a curse because you can’t think straight.
But it doesn’t have to be that way! You can tackle cancer by learning it’s every move, what you can expect, and what you can do about it. In no time at all, you can become an expert on your own cancer, and that puts you in the driving seat, puts you back in charge, and I’ll give you 2 reasons why:
First reason is external. You go to to another level of confidence when you dealing with cancer, it gives you a huge lift when you are working your specialists and waiting test results and talking to your family about because you’re in charge, you know what’s going on. When you start asking the right questions and all of a sudden, you and your specialist are having a conversation like equals. Oncologists, urologists, surgeons, they know that it’s not like you’re questioning their expertise. Honestly, they love patients who know what’s going on because they can be direct and they don’t have to dumb it down for you.
Second reason is internal and it’s even more powerful, it’s knowing that you are now in control, you know what the next step is and what your options are so you can make informed decisions about treatment and follow up and the life beyond cancer.
So how do you get on top of it and become what I call the next step expert? You don’t need much time, in fact you only need about 5 minutes a day because you are going to leverage the knowledge that others have accumulated, those folks who went down that road before, who had the same cancer, who went through the same treatment.
They have already survived cancer, or maybe they are just 1 step ahead of you, or even at the same place you are right now, they know what you are going through, they know how scary it all is, and they will tell you everything you need to know.
So let’s say you just got diagnosed and now you are about to go and see your oncologist for the very first time. How do you prepare? I suggest you go to a reputable site like Cancer Council here in Australia, or National Cancer Institute in the US or Macmillan Cancer Support in the UK and you read up on your cancer, just enough to have questions, and trust me, you will have questions, we all do, and then take those questions to the online forum for your cancer, and this forum it’s a community, it’s folks like you and me who get together online and they answer questions and share their experience because they’ve been through it, they know exactly what it’s like, and they want to help.
What can you expect from the procedure next week? How long does it take for your hair to grow back after this type of chemo? Will I be able to work during this treatment? Who is the best specialist to work with in your area? These are the things that nobody talks about that you need to know!
I can’t tell you how much it’s helped me and so many others, this is huge! True story from a testicular cancer forum. Plus, it’s completely anonymous so you don’t have to edit anything out, you can tell it like it is, so there is no awkward or uncomfortable questions.
Talking to folks who have been through it gives you confidence over what is happening and what you can expect from treatment, and all you need is 5 minutes a day and you can get all your questions answered by people who really get you and who know exactly where you’re coming from.
To save you time and hassle of searching for it, I will send you a list of the best online communities in a PDF,
