I have just returned from attending the five day follow-up residential program for people affected by cancer at The Gawler Foundation. Readers may recall that I attended the ten day program in July last year.
Unfortunately, on this occasion my experience of the program was somewhat compromised by a raging cold or flu illness (hereafter referred to as “flu”), that just seemed to hit a full head of steam as the program got underway. Consequently, I spent much of the time in the conference room dozing off or fussing with tissues and generally feeling extremely uncomfortable. For this reason also, I found my enjoyment of the food was was much diminished although it was still great to have good food provided without needing to worry about it.
I nevertheless felt that I gained benefit from attending, not only from the primary program material, but also from seeing again those who had also attended the July 2007 program and meeting new people who provided fresh inspiration and ideas.
There were two of us who had attended the July program who have been diagnosed NSCLC Stage IV and the prognosis for any Stage IV diagnosis is probably not very encouraging. In one of the program discussions, we talked about our experiences since last attending and it struck me that it was significant that we are both still alive and were able to return to the follow-up program.
One of the people I hadn’t met before is a psychiatrist who is intensely exploring what might be the emotional causes of her own cancer, the role of the mind in overcoming or living with the disease, as well as all the many various treatment options proffered by various practitioners of one school or another. Of course, her medical background gives her a particular faculty for exploring the literature. She fired ideas at me at a breathtaking rate about my own view of myself and other ideas to an extent that I found very stimulating and encouraging.
The material covered in the program itself was familiar, including for example, a chance to review dietary principals, meditation and other material presented in the first program. There was time spent exploring Gawler’s techniques of meditative contemplation as a problem solving technique and another meditative technique of exploring the sub-conscious mind that he refers to as “accessing the Inner Guide”. I found these exercises valuable and feel that if I may well benefit from further exploration of these techniques.
I had been taking some pain killers in the period leading up to the beginning of the program and had really been increasingly uncomfortable since my last report. I took a slow-release analgesic pill on the first night at the Foundation and was quite uncomfortable at that point, perhaps also to a greater or lesser extent as a result of the flu infection. I found however that I didn’t need any more pain killers for the remainder of my stay, as the discomfort seems to have somewhat melted away. At the moment there is some vestige of discomfort, but much less so than previously. The fluey symptoms are still with me but they too seem to have eased since yesterday.
All in all, again my spirits have been remarkably lifted by the experience and I feel a bit more confident to make decisions that may lay ahead.
My latest x-ray, obtained yesterday as part of my regular check-up with the oncologist, shows some slight growth of the tumor compared to the previous picture from late last August.
