Deciding on Breast Reconstruction? Love Your Body Either Way.

Are you thinking of getting breast reconstruction?

If you’re in the early phase of thinking about it then this post is for you, because I’m going to raise some important issues that will guide your decision making, so that hopefully you can gain more clarity in your thought process to ensure that you make the decision that’s right for you. 

Ok let’s get into it.

If you’re pretty set on a single or double mastectomy where do you even start in terms of thinking about the possibility of breast reconstruction.

 Start with making the first decision.

So the first thing that you want to think about is whether you want to have any form of breast reconstruction at all or remain flat. When I was going through my breast cancer, I honestly didn’t think that going flat was an option.

My breast surgeon was so worried about my body image because I was so young when I was diagnosed (I was 29 years old at the time) that I just got caught up in what they thought and never really thought  about the benefits of going flat.

So I just want to put it out there that going flat is an option for you and that no one says that you must undergo breast reconstruction to feel whole again.

Cultivate Self-Acceptance Within You

What’s becoming more and more apparent to me is that body confidence comes from the inside and nothing to do with how perfect you look on the outside.

And what is perfect anyway?

You see if you feel confident on the inside that in of itself is such an attractive quality, because people around you can see and feel that you’re confident about yourself then they’re naturally drawn to you.

Just think about it, you can have the perfect quote unquote body, but if you’re not accepting of yourself on the inside you may still don’t feel good or attractive enough on the outside– what really matters is the relationship you have with your body that will determine the level of self-confidence.

Don’t let others or society dictate whether you need reconstruction or not because we are more than our cleavage.

 I want you to check out this dove commercial of a breast cancer survivor who is strutting her stuff and feel confident and accepting of her mastectomy scars.

So even though you feel like you just want to move on with your life and get through this journey as fast as you can, I think this period is a perfect opportunity for us to work on our self acceptance and self love.

So if you’re thinking about breast reconstruction, make sure that you’re doing it for yourself and not to please someone else. Because honestly, we breast cancer survivors can and need to redefine beauty in our own terms.

 Have a vision

 The second thing that you want to think about is what are you goals for breast reconstruction.

I wanted to have the least invasive surgery as possible even though I might not achieve the most realistic reconstruction possible. And I was ok with that.

So start thinking about what your goals. Explore the different options available, because there are couple of different options depending on your situation when it comes to breast reconstruction. So for example, some women might not want anything artificial in their bodies so they are against having implants.

So ask yourself what’s really important for you in terms of your values and the outcome of the reconstruction.   

 Reconstruction is a long process – be patient

 The third tip that I have for you when you’re thinking about reconstruction is to be patient.

Look reconstruction involves many steps, sometimes multiple surgeries along the way it can be a long and painful process. So expect things to take time and make sure that when you consult with your plastic surgeon that they explain to you the steps involved in the type of reconstruction you want. If you’re having radiation after your mastectomy then you need to wait for at least a year for the radiated tissues to heal.

Because after radiation, the tissues are no longer as regenerative and therefore wound healing after the surgery can be compromised.

So not only do you have to wait for the healing after radiation, but if there are complications that arise, this can make the reconstruction process even longer. So make sure that you’re clear on what the timelines are for recovery.

And if complications do arise then expect things to take time to heal and make progress. So the key takeaway here is to be patient and not get frustrated when things take longer than they should.

So for example, right now as we’re dealing with this covid-19 thing, many hospitals have cancelled their elective surgeries and many patients who have planned on getting their reconstructive surgeries are now delayed and have to re-schedule their surgeries.

 Align your vision of breast reconstruction with a surgeon that gets YOU.

 The third thing that’s very important once you have that clarity is to find a surgeon that aligns with your vision and empathetic to your concerns.

Now you want to find a really good plastic surgeon that specialises in breast reconstruction because this isn’t an easy procedure and can come with complications.

Having said that the first plastic surgeon that I saw that partnered with my breast surgeon was too much of a perfectionist and he wasn’t listening to what I was envisioning for my reconstruction.

And usually at the consult, you’ll be able to gauge how comfortable you are when you walk out that door.

Do you feel happy that you’ve been heard and that they have a great plan for you, or perhaps you feel like they’ve missed the mark and totally don’t see or hear you at all. And there’s no reason why you can’t have multiple opinions.

My plastic surgeon that I eventually went with was actually my third opinion. So take your time in finding the right one.

 It’s Not Now or Never

 You probably know that cancer treatment is long and hard and maybe you’re wanting to do reconstruction but right now you’re too exhausted.

So, if your mind and body is just too tired right now and that’s ok. No one says that you have to do reconstruction right away. You can stay flat for right now and in fact, you can do reconstruction anytime you want in the future.

Maybe you’ll be in a better headspace in a few years time and your body has recovered from all the treatment that you’ve done.

Or maybe in a few years time you’ve changed your mind. Who knows right.

The most important thing is to not rush into things when you’re not ready.  

Finding the Courage to Prevent a Relapse

Have you ever asked yourself what it was you did to get cancer?

Well you’re not alone. Many cancer survivors want to get to the bottom of this question. 

And today I’m going help you answer this question in a way that doesn’t make you feel burdened with guilt about what you may have done in the past.

You can approach this question with sensitivity, understanding and most importantly curiosity so that you can finally find the answers to that burning question – What caused my cancer? 

 Because when you’re clear on the answer, it allows you to put the brakes on cancer development and to transform your health.

Stop Focusing on the Past

A word of caution.

Do not go down the rabbit hole and ask yourself the “WHAT IFS”

• What if I didn’t drink? 

• What if I didn’t eat that food?

• What if I didn’t put my phone in my pocket. Would I have gotten cancer in the first place?

Trust me, the “WHAT IFS” are going to drive you crazy.

If you focus on the past, you’re going to feel so much guilt and so much suffering.

So if you notice yourself wondering on the what ifs then stop right now. 

There’s no upside whatsoever in judging yourself for your past actions. We as humans are not perfect. We don’t know everything there is to know about health and honestly we are all living the best way we can.  

So instead of focusing on the things we can’t change - which is the past, I want you to focus on what you can change. Focus on the now and the future. 

A Magic Bullet?

I get it. We want answers and we want to get roots of the problem but the majority of cancer survivors approach the question of cause in the wrong way. 

They fall into the trap of “THE ONE THING” mentality. 

What do I mean by that?  Well they think there’s one thing that must have caused their cancer, and is searching and trying to rack their brain, and look for that one single thing. 

·      Was it my deodorant?

·     Was it because I colored my hair?

·     Was it something I ate?

·     Or drank?

·      Was it stress?

You see most cancers, especially cancer types like breast cancer are multifactorial.

Because the things that caused my cancer, is going to be different to the things that caused your cancer, even if we had the exact same pathology results.  

 Therefore, the one thing mentality is flawed thinking and most often creates more confusion for the cancer survivor especially if they see “evidence” that refutes that one thing. 

 For example, if a woman with breast cancer thinks it’s her genetics and gets tested for the presence of breast cancer genes, and the results came back negative, they’re first of all relieved to get a negative result but their hypothesis that it was genetic was disproved by the test. So their question of what caused their cancer remains unanswered and confusion sets in, and many people stop enquiring way too early because  they feel overwhelmed to figure it out.

Is Cancer Due to Bad Luck?

Have you noticed how cancer doctors rarely ask about your lifestyle?  The fact of the matter is, cancer is complicated and the factors that drive its growth is multifaceted and interconnected.

 So what do oncologists say to their patients? They tell their patients that it was bad luck. 

What the oncologist really means is that he doesn’t know what caused your cancer and he doesn’t have any straight answers for you. You have to also understand the practicalities of it all. A standard oncology consult already lasts for an hour, he has barely have enough time to explain to you the treatment plan and the side-effects associated with it, let alone have time to go through your whole life history.

 Instead, your doctor reassures you that there’s nothing you did that caused it and that cancer doesn’t discriminate. Which is pretty sweet in a way, but can also misleading and disempowering for the woman. Because if we don’t know what caused our cancer, then how are we suppose to stop it from coming back?

Can you imagine if you were diagnosed with heart disease, type II diabetes and the doc said it was bad luck? It sounds ludicrous, no doctor would say that to you. 

If cancer was bad luck, then the cancer researchers out there that’s researching the causes of cancer should stop what they’re doing because you simply can’t study bad luck. 

Understanding the Terrain

We want to think about the causes of our cancer as our own unique risk factors. Like a fingerprint, no one else in the whole world have the same risk factors as yours. Because our physiology, the way we live, our experiences we go through, the environment, our genetics all play a part in cancer development.

And instead of looking for individual factors that pinpoint cause, a more useful way of looking at cancer development is to understand The Terrain.

You see, everyone has microscopic cancer cells in their body (due to the fact that we are a multicellular organism). But not everyone develops a tumour. Think about microscopic cancer cells as the seed and the terrain as the soil. If the soil is unfavourable, then nothing will grow. So, if you’re serious about preventing a relapse, then not only will you have to get rid of the cancer (by undergoing treatment), you also have to fix the terrain as well.

Finding Greater Awareness of Your Life

“Awareness is all about restoring your freedom to choose what you want instead of what your past imposes on you.”

-Deepak Chopra

If we really want to start taking control of health and our recovery, we need to have the courage to take inventory of our own life. The first step in transforming our health is to have awareness. And believe me, you have to do some inner work to create awareness. It’s not that easy to put a mirror up to your life, in fact it can feel quite confronting and you can easily judge yourself too harshly. And that’s not going to serve you.

So I want you to go easy on yourself. Let your curiosity guide you. Start by imagining yourself as a scientist, just observing your daily life. Most of the time we are on gogogo mode. We live our lives on autopilot and rarely stop to think about the things that are out of balance. 

For example, when our body gives us signals that something is breaking down we often ignore it, because the problem isn’t big enough and it’s easier to sweep it aside, take a pill, suppress the symptoms than to address head on. 

And we all know that little niggles in our body when left unnoticed can sooner or later lead to full blown disease. 

Remember that disease starts with a feeling of dis-ease in your body.

Transformation is Just as Important as Information

Deep down, we know what the key healthy habits are. We need to eat fruits and vegetables, get regular exercise,  get enough sleep, don’t stress and avoid processed foods and toxins.

Intellectually we know that a lifestyle change is probably the smartest thing to do to prevent cancer from recurring again, but many of us struggle to change and feel emotionally conflicted.

 A big reason why lifestyle change is so hard, because there’s lack of awareness of what’s driving our behaviour. You see, there’s usually a big mental and emotional component that’s not addressed and therefore preventing us from making those changes in our lifestyle.

Dis-ease isn’t just felt in your body, it’s also felt in the mind. 

Think about our “bad” habits. Over eating, over drinking, siting around on the couch and not exercising are the ways in which a lot of people cope with life. 

It’s the way we comfort and soothe ourselves because life is hard and yet we have to be a big girl, carry on and keep going. 

Its no wonder we feel uncomfortable and conflicted when we think about changing our lifestyle because, it means we have to let go of the ways in which we cope with life itself.

So what do we do?

We talk ourselves out by remembering what our oncologist told us that it’s all down to bad luck, cancer doesn’t discriminate and it’s not within our control. 

And I think if you believe that then you’re just giving your power and responsibility away. You’ll feel hopeless about the future because you feel helpless against a cancer recurrence.

I feel that education is important.

We need to do our research about the types of food to eat, the vitamins to take, and all the different strategies to prevent cancer. But when you’re always looking at the external world about what to do, you’ll always be chasing for that next thing.

You’ll feel that you’re never doing enough prevention and you’ll end up living a life chasing for the “cure”.

So it’s equally important to look inwards for the answers. You need those “aha” moments, you need those personal breakthroughs and realisations. When you yourself start noticing the things in your life that are out of balance, that aren’t serving you. Those are going to be the most powerful drivers of your transformation. Not what people think you should do.

Instead of feeling like life is going to be restricted you’ll feel like you want to change and have the motivation to change. Because when you have those breakthroughs, you’re going to feel differently and therefore you’ll act differently.

The question is, do you have the courage to look at your life at a deeper level?

If you really believe that you have the power to prevent a recurrence, and that change is needed in your life, I have a resource to help you just that.

To get you started in noticing dis-ease in your life, I’ve created a free tool for you called the Dis-ease life inventory exercise. This exercise helps you observe 4 key areas of your life.

It’s free for you to download for a limited time only so go ahead, grab the free worksheet, fill it out, it won’t take you long and start creating that level of awareness. You’ll be surprised by how many things in your life that you’ve stopped taking notice of.

By creating that awareness, you’re then one step closer to what nourishes you, strengthens you and protects you.

Don’t wait for permission to make yourself a priority.

Once you’ve finished the exercise, make sure you leave a comment down below and tell me what aha moments you’ve made about your life.

Everything in life is all about perspective. You can view a cancer diagnosis as a death sentence, or you can view it as your wake up call to take greater notice of your life and be the healthiest version of yourself.

Don’t forget to leave me a comment down below after you’ve done the DIS-EASE Life Inventory Exercise and tell me your biggest A-HA moment.

From Pro-Cancer to Anti-Cancer: The Lifestyle Changes I Made After My Cancer Diagnosis

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Why do some people’s cancer advance in a few short months to Stage IV while others remain cancer-free for decades?

That was the big question that I kept asking myself when I was first diagnosed with cancer.

My hypothesis was that those long-term survivors must be doing something extra.

I had so much more living to do. I wasn’t finished yet with life so I created a mission for myself after I was diagnosed - to discover the critical factors that explained why two people with seemingly similar cancer diagnosis and treatment can ultimately lead to different outcomes.

I believe that approaching our adversity with a sense of curiosity can propel us and motivate us to take action.

So I did what a normal cancer patient does when they’ve been diagnosed with cancer…

…I strolled into the bookstore.

I wasn’t sure what I was looking for in those shelves…

… a self-help book perhaps?

After thumbing a few book spines, it wasn’t long before I spotted an interesting cover and title.

“ANTICANCER - A NEW WAY OF LIFE.”

It was the first time that I’ve ever heard of such a term.

Most of you who are battling cancer probably have many many questions swimming in your brains when you try to sleep at night.

“How can we minimise a recurrence?”

“How can we maximise the benefits of conventional treatment?”

“How can we prevent future cancers? For ourselves and our families.”

When I asked my oncologist about any special lifestyle changes I needed to make, I hit a brick wall. He gave me no clue whatsoever and instead told me to live the way I had been living previous to my diagnosis.

Since my own doctor didn’t give me any answers, I had to ask doctor google about “how to cure cancer”.

That’s one massive rabbit hole that I’m sure every cancer patient has gone down in. It’s deep, windy and very very dark.

“As humans we all want a quick fix.”

No matter how much I wanted to believe it in my heart, I knew there wasn’t a magic pill, fruit, herb, or device that can cure cancer.

I’m not saying that we never will find one as I know we’ve made significant and positive strides in the field of immunotherapy fighting cancers like melanoma, but as of today, there isn’t a universal cure for cancer …YET.

However, feeling helpless when we’re battling the biggest fight of our lives can be the detriment to us cancer survivors.

Cancer has taken our health and our peace of mind.

If we can gain some sense of control over our bodies, then more power to us.

In that bookstore, I quickly read a few lines of the introduction that blew my mind.

I shut the book, beelined for the till and quickly paid for it so I could devour the entire contents at home.

What did I read that filled me with so much optimism?

That’s what I wanted to share with you today.

In the opening line of his book Anticancer - A new way of life, Dr Servan-Schreibber wrote:

Cancer lies dormant in all of us. Like all living organisms, our bodies are making defective cells all the time…

…if we all have a potential cancer lying dormant in all of us, each of us also has a body designed to fight the process of tumour development.

It is up to each of us to use our body’s natural defences.

If you’re able to let this piece of insight sink in to the marrow of your bones, then you’re halfway to understanding and unlocking the changes you need to make to your own lifestyle.

How did I not know this piece of information? I’ve been studying medical science for many years but I felt like I had so much to learn about the human body and unlocking our health potential.

Let me simplify what Dr Servan-Schreibber was trying to say in his introduction, just so you can marinate in it some more:

Everyone has cancer cells but not everyone develops cancer.

Looking back on my journey, I now realise what a profound moment that was. Because of that singular moment in the bookstore, I was radically inspired to make changes to my lifestyle, that I believed increased my odds of beating early stage aggressive breast cancer…

…from plausible… to probable… to inevitable.

I knew that I didn’t have the healthiest lifestyle pre-cancer and I knew that I needed to make drastic changes.

“This is a wake up call.” I said to myself.

A study in the UK published in British Journal of Medicine in 2015 states that most cancers are preventable by 40%.

In Anticancer - A new way of life, Dr Servan-Schreibber discusses the importance of our “terrain” - the surrounding environment of the cancer cell/s that we need to maintain.

He states that individual cancer cells are actually NOT the problem.

It’s when they grow and spread that’s the problem.

If you’ve completed cancer treatment - no one can say with certainty that there are no more cancer cells left floating around in your body.

Those few stray cells can either become the seeds for metastasis or they can remain harmless micro-cancer allowing you to live a long cancer-free life.

So the whole premise of an anticancer lifestyle is to keep our bodies in a state that doesn’t promote the growth of cancer cells. Rather than having a goal of “curing cancer” we’re adopting a lifestyle that increases our innate natural defenses AGAINST cancer.

See the subtle difference?

It’s not a quick fix.

It’s a new way of life.

I believe that something that claims to “cure cancer” can provide false hope for patients.

But a lifestyle that promotes health is an incredibly empowering way for

cancer survivors to TAKE BACK CONTROL of our health.

Halting the 4 Steps to Metastasis

Before I dive in about the lifestyle changes I made, I want you to understand that the process for a single rogue cancer cell to become a life-threatening metastases involves four distinct steps.

1. Cancer cells are created when abnormal DNA changes occur in normal cells. This can be due to mutagens in the environment and/or the breakdown in the integrity of our own cell replication machinery.

2. Individual cancer cells escape detection by the immune system and their growth is triggered by inflammation and growth factors.

3. Clumps of cancer cells reaches a critical mass where further growth is restricted and in order to grow further, the tumour must create their own blood supply a term called angiogenesis.

4. When this happens, cancer cells within the tumour become even more aggressive and enters the blood stream or lymph nodes and eventually spreading to other organs where it becomes life-threatening.

The whole premise of an anticancer lifestyle therefore can be simplified into four main goals.

1. Decrease our exposure to toxins and mutagens

2. Create a powerful immune system.

3. Dampen inflammation.

4. Suppress the growth of new blood vessels (angiogenesis).

Anticancer Foods - Foods that Hurt & Foods that Heal

After diagnosis, I’ve changed to a mostly plant based diet, eating some fish and seafood occasionally. If you knew me before cancer, then you would know how hard this was. You see, I had been blessed with skinny genes that allowed me to eat anything I wanted without piling on the pounds.

However, you can see how unhealthy I was by the appearance of my skin. I had breakouts everywhere on my face and body, my cholesterol was through the roof just to name a few things.

I started my journey towards an anticancer lifestyle by juicing everyday. This is a pretty easy thing to do to flush out toxins, regulate your blood sugar and increase your nutrition.

I gave up red meat, dairy, sugar and alcohol because I knew they were fuelling inflammation.

To further dampen levels of inflammation, I chose low glycemic index carbs and switched from eating jasmine rice to basmati rice.

Increased my intake of Omega-3s by eating fish, flax seeds, avocados and supplementing with a good fish oil.

I also avoided packaged foods for the reasons that Dr Servan-Schreibber explains:

We have been won over not just by margarine but also to a large extent by processed foods, such as cookies, crackers, pastries, pizza, or potato chips, containing “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogynated” vegetable oils (trans fats). These are omega-6 oils (especially soy, sometimes palm or canola oil) altered to become solid at room temperature.

This change makes them less digestible and even more inflammatory than omega-6s in their natural state.

But these oils have a practical advantage: They do not grow stale.

That’s why they are used in almost all the processed foods destined to spend weeks or months on supermarket shelves…..They didn’t exist before World War II, yet their production and consumption have exploded since 1940.

Chapter 6: The Anticancer Environment

It’s tempting when doing the grocery shopping to be sucked in to the glistening packaging and convenience of processed foods. They may seem very inviting in their appearance, but if you imagine processed foods as frankenstein foods then you know how bad they really are for us.

The more I read about different anticancer foods, the more I realise the health benefits of eating “traditional foods”. As a south-east asian that have migrated to Australia when I was very young, I’ve moved towards a westernised way of eating. I’m now very mindful of that and try to think about the many healthy things that my relatives back home would be eating that I’ve forgotten about.

To boost my immune system, I eat asian mushrooms and fermented foods such as miso, kimchi and tempeh.

In Japan, the shiitake, maitake, kawaratake, and enokitake mushrooms are staple foods. They are now also found in hospitals where they are provided to patients during chemotherapy treatment. These mushrooms contain a molecule called letinans, and this along with other polysaccharides they contain in great quantities, stimulates the immune system directly.

Chapter 8 - The Anticancer Foods

I’m very lucky that in Australia I can source most things in my local supermarket or oriental supermarkets that are close to my house. If you’ve never ventured into these ethnic stores then I encourage you to do so - you’ll find many anticancer foods here.

If you live in a remote area, try ordering online otherwise stick to what you can reasonably source locally.

When I was in treatment, my mom told me that she knew a long term survivor of breast cancer. Her secret - she ate a broccoli everyday.

CRUCIFEROUS VEGETABLES are known for their anticancer properties eg. broccoli, cauliflower, Chinese broccoli, cabbage and kale.

I took that information and ran with it, so now my go-to vegetable is steamed broccoli, it’s a fast no-brainer anticancer food that I eat almost everyday.

I also drink green tea which contains active compounds such as EGGC - a powerful angiogenesis inhibitor. Dr Servan-schreibber recommends drinking 6 cups everyday.

In addition to the foods that I eat, I also take many anticancer supplements. Many of which I discuss in this article.

RELATED ARTICLE: MY TOP 10 EVIDENCE-BASED ANTICANCER SUPPLEMENTS

If you’ve read my bio, then you know that I drink a blueberry smoothie every morning. Not only are berries anticancer, but I read a couple of years ago in a scientific paper that showed blueberries were able to stop the metastasis of triple negative breast cancer in a mouse model.

People ask me for the recipe for my blueberry smoothie all the time, and I think the key to adopting an anticancer lifestyle is that it is SO SIMPLE that you’re able to constantly push your pro-cancer body from that red zone to the green zone.

It’s not something that you eat, drink or do once in a while.

It’s a DAILY way of life.

Anticancer Activity - Exercise is My Biggest Weapon Against A Cancer Recurrence

“Myth - Exercise is only for those who want to lose weight”

At school I was one of those girls that hated exercise with a passion. I had been underweight my whole life and never saw the point of getting all sweaty and hot, so I would find any excuse not to participate.

Sometimes, we have beliefs that unknowingly holds us back in life and in our health. Today I’ve replaced those old limiting beliefs about exercise and now understand that it’s my biggest weapon against a cancer recurrence.

If you’re eating healthy but don’t exercise, then you’re only addressing half of the anticancer equation.

I believe that exercise is a big part of being able to minimise a recurrence.

When I replaced my limiting beliefs with new empowering beliefs I immediately started to adopt a vigorous exercise regime during my cancer treatment.

I attributed how well I handled chemo to all the physical activity I did during treatment. Chemo-related fatigue affects many cancer patients and can last well after treatment has ended.

Very few patients receive advice about the benefits of exercise and how it can counteract the side-effects of cancer treatment.

Today, I go to the gym to do strength training, cardio and yoga.

Everyday, I try to get some activity in everyday even if it means just walking.

The best is exercising in nature. Because you get the beauty, tranquility and fresh air in one hit.

The reason that exercise is such a powerful anticancer habit is that it affects many metabolic pathways at once. There’s too many to list and here are just some of them.

• Builds muscle, decreases blood sugar fluctuations and secretion of insulin and insulin-like growth factor (key factors in cancer growth)

• Decreases fat tissue - a storage site for carcinogens that have built up in the body

• Sweating detoxifies the body

• Improves hormonal balance (reduces excess oestrogen and testosterone)

• Increases oxygen levels in tissues

• It cushions the negative mental and physical effect of stress.

• Decreases inflammation

• Promotes better sleep

Anticancer Mind : Stress Reduction & Resilience

There’s no doubt normal life is stressful enough.

On top of that being diagnosed with cancer, going through treatment and finding what our new normal looks like can make our stress levels go through the roof.

Our fight-or-flight response to stress triggers the secretion of factors that’s supposed to protect us from danger, however, feeling anxious, worrying and feelings of helplessness can add fuel to the fire.

“These hormone prepare the body for a potential wound, in part by stimulating the inflammation factors needed to repair tissues. At the same time, these hormones are also fertiliser for cancerous tumors, latent or already established.”

Chapter 4 - Cancer’s weakness

I believe that feeling empowered in your cancer journey can alleviate some of the stresses that you’ll experience. Therefore a adopting a growth mindset - knowing that deep in your heart that everything is figureoutable can be extremely beneficial in your cancer journey.

It’s also important to do a “stress audit” on your lives because many of us go about our day on autopilot.

If something isn’t working then it’s time to deal with it once and for all.

Ask yourself what’s been keeping you up at night before your cancer diagnosis.

Was it a stressful job?

A nasty divorce? A toxic relationship?

Financial troubles?

It’s time that we get super serious about fixing them or get rid of them altogether so that they’re not constantly chipping away at our anticancer reserves.

Good Quality Sleep is Anticancer.

I think sleep is such an under-rated health area, not just for cancer but also for many chronic diseases.

So why does good quality sleep protect us against cancer?

We know that during optimal sleep, we release a powerful anticancer hormone from our pineal gland called melatonin.

A study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), found that long-term night shift work among women increased the risk of cancer by 19%.

The study also looked at the effect of night shift work on female nurses.

Compared to their colleagues who didn’t do night shift work, female nurses who worked the night shift had a 58% increased risk of breast cancer, 35% increased risk of gastrointestinal cancer, and a 28% increased risk of lung cancer.

Exposure to artificial light after dusk and before sleep time can inhibit melatonin release during sleep. This explains why long-term night shift workers are at greater risk of developing cancer.

Remember to turn off all the lights in your room during sleep - even a night light can inhibit melatonin secretion.

Use of electronic devices in the home can also inhibit secretion of melatonin. I know I look at my smartphone, my computer and watch TV before bed.

I love my technology and we don’t have to live in the dark ages, and one way we can prevent melatonin inhibition is by installing blue light filters in our electronic devices. Currently, I’m researching about the ways we can set up our home lighting so it doesn’t affect our family’s ability to secrete melatonin during sleep.

Are you not getting deep, restful sleep?

Quality and quantity is crucial. This is important stuff that you can’t ignore any longer because you can unknowingly inhibit the secretion of this powerful anticancer hormone. It’s time you get serious about sleep.

Anticancer Environment - Decreasing Toxins - Minimize then Eliminate:

Once we’re diagnosed, we’re hyper-aware about everything that is toxic around us. We can’t live in a bubble but creating a toxic-free home can seem so overwhelming at first.

So my mantra in creating an anticancer environment is to MINIMIZE FIRST then ELIMINATE LATER.

Some things I did to decrease my toxin levels include:

• removal of my mercury fillings

• decreased my makeup and skincare products and minimizing its use

• always choosing fragrance-free when possible

• choosing natural alternatives eg. coconut oil vs body lotion

• BPA-free plastics

• Cook in stainless steel, PFOA-free non-stick pans

• Remove toxic cleaning products

• Opening the windows to the house to “air out” toxic vapours

Making healthy lifestyle changes that bolster our anticancer defences is an important way we can take back control of our health.

Beating cancer is a marathon not a sprint. It’s all about what we do day in and day out.

Consistency is about asking yourself this question every… single… day.

“How is my terrain? Have I been PROcancer or ANTIcancer today?”

Got questions or comments? Join the conversation with me on instagram.

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How to Get Over the Shock & Overwhelm of a Cancer Diagnosis

If you’re reading this then chances are you’ve recently been diagnosed with the Big C. I don’t envy the position you’re in, because just like you, I’ve been where you are.

It was damn tough.

The good news is that the beginning is the hardest part.

It can only get better on from here and out. But, and this is a big BUT, that’s only if you choose to.

The keyword here being CHOOSE. You can either CHOOSE to go through this journey sad, and depressed. Or you can CHOOSE a better alternative.

That is, to view this cancer thing as a challenge. To take an active role in everything and make the most out of a bad situation.

Listen, no one expects you to be happy and smiling all the time, but you can give yourself permission to be happy and smiling some of the time. But I’ll go into more detail in another post.

First let’s try and address the shock and overwhelm that you’re feeling right now.

You’re probably trying to process what just happened. One day you were living your life and the next you’re looking at death in the face. Cancer was the first time that I came face to face with my mortality and I was only 29 years old back then. I foolishly thought that I was young and invincible.

It was a real scary time. But I want to get real with you here.

It’s important for you to regain your emotional bearings as quickly as possible.

Because when it comes to the Big C, the medical community tends to move fast and decisions will be made, with or without your insight and input. It’s easy to get swept up in the momentum of diagnosis and treatment. Add to that the complex nature of cancer and the interdisciplinary team of pathologist, oncologist, surgeons, radio-oncologists and nurses. Often times, critical details are overlooked, and mistakes are made.

So if you’re emotionally overwhelmed , it’s important to get to that space where you can breathe and more importantly to THINK. When it comes to something as important as fighting cancer, having the brainpower to think clearly can mean the difference between life and death.

So you may be asking,

How do I do this? How do I process the fear, sadness and anxiety?

I remembered my diagnosis like it was yesterday and when I got the shocking news, I literally couldn’t stop crying for days. My eyes were a puffy mess and if someone tried to talk to me I would literally start bawling. I was so sad that my life had taken a turn for the worst.

But after a couple of days something incredible happened.

I realised that no matter how hard or how long I cried nothing was going to change the fact that I have cancer.

Yup!

I have cancer.

And if you’re reading this…

You too have cancer.

Diagnosed with the Big C is a tectonic shift in anyone’s life. Nothing will be the same again.

The sooner you accept this reality, the sooner you’ll have the white space to breathe,

….and think,

….and make the best decisions,

….and oversee everything.

The Paradox of Acceptance.

Life can really suck - and getting a diagnosis of cancer is just one of those moments. Emotions aren’t our enemy. Fear, worry and sadness are all normal responses to cancer. But rather than letting our emotions rules us, we can give new meaning to the emotions we feel and use it to fuel our fighting spirit.

However, if…

… you can’t even wrap the idea that you have cancer,

…you can’t fathom that you’ve been diagnosed,

then you’re likely in resistance mode.

The longer you RESIST your current circumstance - the more you end up inflicting emotional pain on yourself over and over again.

Resistance is kind of like you shaking a soda can - the pressure builds up as the gases inside expands. Resistance is the pressure inside that creates panic and anxiety.

So how do we relieve that internal conflict? Acceptance is really an important life tool we need to adopt.

The pain that you create now is always some form of nonacceptance,

some form of unconscious resistance to what is.” - Eckhart Tolle

But here’s the thing. As humans, we are conditioned to avoid negative things that cause us pain and suffering. So accepting our present circumstance goes against our human nature - which is why this stuff isn’t easy. No one wants to accept that they have cancer, face gruelling treatment and possible death.

Therefore it’s important to understand the Paradox of Acceptance - that is the more you lean into the discomfort and embrace the negative circumstance, the less pain you will feel.

Acceptance to things that we can’t change can obliterate any and all emotional suffering.

Conversely, the bigger the wall you put up between yourself and your reality, the greater internal conflict you will feel.

Emotional suffering and turmoil are not mental states to make rational medical decisions.

This isn’t the frame of mind you want to be in and expect to win the fight.

What Acceptance Isn’t.

By no means does accepting your circumstance means that you’re being passive - that you’ve put your hands up and resign your life to fate and to luck.

It’s quite the opposite.

Acceptance about something that you cannot change AKA your cancer diagnosis, allows you to make a radical shift in thinking- from a “WHY ME” type of questioning to a “WHAT’S NEXT” type of mentality.

I had certainly asked those why me questions and it goes something like this.

“Why did I get cancer?

“Out of the billions of people in the world, why did I get cancer?”

“I’m only 29, why did I get cancer so young?”

This type of thinking and narrative that we ask the universe is adopting victim mentality. Victims are weak and passive. When it comes to cancer, I refuse to be a victim of bad luck or circumstance. So I stopped the why me questioning. Simple as that.

I fully accepted that I was a young woman diagnosed with breast cancer. I then reframed my line of thinking to:

Cancer is simply a set of physical and mental challenges that I have to get through.

If you commit to moving on from a victim mentality - then you’re in the right headspace to take on the challenges of beating cancer and you’ve built a strong foundation of inner strength that will set you up for the road ahead.

How to Take Charge and Build Unshakable Inner Strength After a Cancer Diagnosis

It’s natural when you’re first diagnosed to be on a huge emotional rollercoaster.

Waves of sadness, fear and uncertainty can overwhelm you.

For me, I couldn’t stop crying when my doctor told me. I had to break the news to my poor fiancé and told him we had to cancel the wedding. The first two weeks of my diagnosis probably ranked as Number 1 most awful moments of my life.

But when you’re diagnosed with early stage breast cancer, you’re often not in any pain or suffering, so flitting moments of denial can kick in.

Am I really sick? I sometimes forget. A painless lump is the only reminder that something sinister is growing inside me.

Being shocked at how my life has turned so unexpectedly was an understatement - during those first few days I had to pinch myself and shake my body back to reality.

The introduction of every article I read on google or pubmed would make my blood run cold - apparently I had an aggressive form of breast cancer.

For most cancers, the diagnosis process can take a while. An initial biopsy is then followed by numerous scans to detect any spread of rogue cells to other parts of the body.

I left my lab bench and work desk in a mess because I had left in the middle of the day to get my lump checked out by the doc. I didn’t go back to work till weeks after my diagnosis was complete.

My life had suddenly revolved around big scary scanning machines, hospitals and doctors visits and waiting rooms. I felt like a spectator, waiting for someone to tell me if the cancer has spread.

Suffice to say that waiting around drove me bonkers! I twiddled my thumbs in the waiting room, pretending to read and re-read that same article in Vogue. I felt envious of the smiling models as I mindlessly flicked through the pages.

Don’t they realise how bad this situation is?

If you’re anything like me, I was beside myself with worry, fear and anxiety.

However, it’s important to stop yourself from getting crazy anxious, try to control those panic attacks and distract yourself from worrying to death.

How?

I’m going to tell you how.

I want you to start fighting cancer FIRST with your mind and SECONDLY with your body.

I want you to start your cancer journey STRONG, and in the BEST MENTAL SPACE you possibly can.

Turning around a serious illness like cancer is no easy feat - you need the mental strength and resilience in order to get through it.

Cancer isn’t like a bad cold that you get over in two weeks. There’s going to be long periods of making hard decisions, gruelling treatment and recovery ahead, not to mention the emotional, financial and relationship struggles.

We’re talking about 6 months to a year for early stage cancers - even longer if you have advanced stage cancer.

Your life is going to be turned upside down, inside out and back to front.

Being resilient protects you from getting too overwhelmed by stress.

And one of the components of resilience is the belief that you have control over your life.

So being mentally tough is going to be a huge help for you and your wellbeing.

Think about it, your mind is your BIGGEST ally and cheerleader.

It’s your mind thats going to process the emotions.

It’s your mind that’s going to make the hard decisions.

It’s your mind that’s going to push you harder and not let yourself give up.

It’s your analytical mind that’s going to solve problems when there seems to be zero solutions.

If you’re able to have the right mindset to tackle this huge health problem, then you’re in for a smoother ride my friend.

You’ll be able to deal with what’s ahead of you with:

CLARITY and CERTAINTY.

Because if you feel more in control of your mind, then it can guide you into making decisions that’s right for you.

So you might be asking:

"Will thinking POSITIVE enough to get me through this? ”

Wishful thinking you’ll beat cancer isn’t enough.

You see, you may have limiting beliefs that are holding you back from fully recovering.

Do you believe that cancer is death sentence?

Answer this honestly.

What if you have a family history of cancer?

For example, if your mother and grandmother have lost their battle with breast cancer, how do you think you will approach your own cancer diagnosis?

You can only get so far with positive thinking.

You’ll have to change your beliefs and mindset completely.

It needs a huge overhaul because having those limiting beliefs can be a huge obstacle. Your mind won’t be focused on solutions and recovery and instead, you’ll look for evidence that supports the fact that cancer IS a death sentence.

Do you see how important your mindset is to your battle with cancer?

It’s not enough to think positive, you’ll need what experts call a GROWTH MINDSET - as opposed to a fixed mindset.

Having a growth mindset means you’re able to adapt, to try hard things and to keep learning.

Fortunately, our thoughts are malleable - our thoughts can change.

To encourage a change in mindset, there are two things you can do:

…. Firstly, observe your thoughts.

In order to change a fixed mindset, you first have to acknowledge it.

… Secondly, challenge your beliefs.

Ask yourself, is this really true? Or is this a limiting belief you have about X. This exercise is going to feel a little weird at first because what you believe is reality might not necessarily be reality for everyone.

We all have a lens through which we see the world - and our beliefs shape the way we understand the things that are going on around us.

To get you started, I wanted to share with you the 7 Crucial Mindset Shifts that I believe is the key foundational piece for building unshakable inner strength.

It’s the difference between those cancer patients who survive and those who thrive. You can download the free PDF guide HERE.

Remember, the way to limit fear is to take massive ACTION.

I Have the Breast Cancer Gene. Finding the Positives in the BRCA-1 Mutation.

In a small cramped office, my fiance and I were seated to hear the results of my genetic testing. I had invited my parents along but I wasn’t nervous at all, because I knew in my heart I wouldn’t test positive.

How could I possibly have the breast cancer genes when I had no family history of breast cancer?

But maybe I should have braced myself for the worst. That way I wouldn’t have been so shocked, and hurt by the results.

It felt like someone had punched me in the guts.

When the genetics councillor told me that I had tested positive for the BRCA-1 mutation, I couldn’t stop crying.

Even though I was only 29 when I was diagnosed - so uncharacteristically young for someone with breast cancer- not one of my doctors brought up the subject of genetic testing.

I had to ask for it. No, no I had to fight for it. 

I pushed my medical team for my right have my genetics tested right around the time I was having treatment.

In the middle of chemo, I brought up the  subject of gene testing to my oncologist but he dismissed me. “Tackle the cancer at hand,” he said.

“We can explore the genetics later on.”

His answer seemed logical but yet my intuition told me I needed to dig deeper.

At that point I didn’t know how finding out about the genetics side of things would affect my treatment - but I knew in my gut that knowing the results was important.

My mantra throughout my breast cancer journey is that:

Knowledge is power.

Like a child that wanted something so bad and had been told NO, from one parent, I brought up the issue again with another specialist - my breast surgeon.

Unfortunately, I also hit a brick wall trying raise the issue of gene testing with her.

My breast surgeon echoed the same sentiment as my oncologist.

Deal with the genetics side of things later on. 

At that point, I decided to leave it alone. I had two specialists telling me to leave it for now.

So I decided to move on and tackle the next issue in my treatment plan. I went to seek the advice of my GP to chat about my upcoming surgery.

Lumpectomy or mastectomy?

My gut told me to go for the mastectomy. But did I dare to go against the advice of my breast surgeon? Could I have my own opinion regarding this?

My general practitioner, an older lady was empathetic to my concerns about a lumpectomy. 

“Let’s get you a second opinion!” She dialed the number of a breast surgeon she had initially wanted me to see when I was first diagnosed but couldn’t because she was away on holiday. I later found out she was the breast surgeon of Australian celebrity Kylie Minogue when she had breast cancer.

Getting a second opinion with her would be a coup. If she was good enough for Kylie, she was good enough for me.

As I walked in to Miss Jennifer Senior’s office, she assumed I was there to ask for a second opinion on a mastectomy. She looked at my breast ultrasound - the tumour has shrunk to 1 centimetres. She felt my breasts and reassured me the “shadow” seen on ultrasound was just scar tissue.

I had a great response to chemo, and she thought a lumpectomy was indeed the best option for me.

I said “No no, I’m here to see if you think I should have a mastectomy instead.”

In that moment I asked another question, which flew out of my mouth and which I didn't realise was such a turning point in my quest to be heard by my specialists.

“If I tested positive for the gene, would you still recommend a lumpectomy.”

My advice for those who have concerns about their treatment,

Don’t underestimate the power of a good question. And most importantly don’t let anyone brush off your concerns. Follow that gut feeling in your stomach that senses something isn’t right. Always follow your intuition because it will always guide you to the right direction.

When a question is put forward in a certain way, it will reveal answers that you really need. And I needed the information of my gene testing to make an informed decision regarding my upcoming surgery.

At last someone was taking my concerns seriously because she told me if I tested positive, then she would recommend a mastectomy instead of a lumpectomy.

Sometimes a second opinion can be a way to educate ourselves, because most of the time we just don’t know what we don’t know.

Gene Testing and Young Women with Breast Cancer.

Results of genetic testing would normally take months to process. But because my surgical decision would be based on the results of the genetic testing, I got my results within two weeks.

Even though I was already leaning towards getting a mastectomy, I guess I needed further validation that I was doing the right thing from the genetic testing.

The testing involved a simple blood test and receiving the results was a formal consult with the genetics councillor and an oncologist that walked me through future cancer risks, screening and prophylactic surgeries.

I’m so lucky that in Australia, genetic testing is available. 7 years ago, I didn’t pay any out of pocket for my testing, although things may have changed now.

I believe that all young women that have been diagnosed with breast cancer should have genetic testing done. The earlier the better, because the results could have implications on treatment.

Testing positive was a tough pill to swallow in the beginning, and I’m not going to lie, it’s very confronting when someone is telling you about your future cancer risks. It takes me back to that movie Gattacca with Ethan Hawke where everyone has a place in society, based on their genetic makeup.

Fortunately our society is not quite there yet, but it’s a slippery slope. Insurance companies are already fighting to deny life insurance based on our genetics.

My advice is to not be scared of information. Use it to your advantage.

The more knowledge you have, the more informed your decision-making will be.

It’s also important to tell your immediate and extended family about your results. You don’t need to do this straight away, because you have enough on your plate dealing with breast cancer.

Don’t pressure pressure your relatives to get tested. Ultimately it’s their life and it’s up to them to decide to get tested. The only thing you can do at this point is inform them.

Unfortunately not all countries have genetic testing available.

Indonesia where most of my relatives live for example, don’t have access to such services. Some countries charge thousands of dollars out of pocket to get it done which some people can’t afford. 

An alternative option for testing the two breast cancer genes, BRCA-1 & BRCA-2 mutations is through a the Color Kit Gene Testing Kit that you can order on Amazon for ~US$250. However, it’s important to note that other less common breast cancer genes (other than BRCA-1/2) exist, which this kit doesn’t screen for.

So you may be asking,

What’s the advantage of knowing our genetics?

Wouldn’t it just cause undue worry and anxiety knowing about our genetics? We can’t change our genetics anyway.

Well, I do worry about passing on this gene to my future kids (I didn’t have any kids when I found out). However, I believe the benefits of knowing our genetic status far outweighs the negative.

Everything is all about perspective.

It’s what you do with the information that’s important.

Here are some of the positive things I’ve learnt from having the BRCA-1 mutation.

The Positives About Having a BRCA-1 Mutation.

Did you know that studies have shown that breast cancer survivors with BRCA-1 mutation have a more favourable prognosis?

Yes it’s true!

In a 2019 study, it was also shown that breast cancer patients with the BRCA-1 mutation had a higher number of immune cells called tumour infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs). A 10% higher levels of TILs correlated to a 10% decrease in disease progression.

Most BRCA-1 carriers that do develop breast cancer are usually in the form of triple negative breast cancer. Since there’s limited treatment for triple negative breast cancer, one advantage for those diagnosed with TNBC AND BRCA-1 carriers is that there are more treatment options.

Specific Treatment for BRCA-1/2 carriers with Breast Cancers

In one study it was found that carboplatin (a platinum based chemotherapy) was superior to docetaxel in treating triple negative breast cancer patients who also had BRCA1/2 mutations.

As a result many oncologists opt to add carboplatin to the standard chemo regimen if their breast cancer patients are positive for the BRCA mutation.

There is also another therapeutic agent called poly-ADP ribose inhibitors or PARP-inhibitors that are specifically for patients who have the BRCA mutation. A number of PARP-inhibitors have been developed and their efficacy were evaluated in a number of trials involving late stage breast cancers - BRAVO, EMBRACA & OlympiAD trials.

As you know, having to deal with breast cancer is already a harrowing experience.

You feel like you have enough on your plate already.

But I found it very empowering that

• as a patient, I strongly advocated for myself and I was finally heard by my doctors

• as a patient, I could make an informed decision about my surgical procedure.

It’s often difficult to know if we are making an informed decision, because we rely on our doctors to tell us everything. Most of the time they will, but doctor’s aren’t fallible so there could be times where we just don’t know what we don’t know.

And the only way to remedy that is to educate ourselves and to dig deeper when our intuition tells us to.

The Four Stages of L.I.F.E. After Cancer Treatment with Coach Kylie Tolman

When you’re diagnosed with cancer it’s like you’re a sinking ship. 
Everyone comes out to help you. 

The surgeon,
The oncologist,
The hospital,
Your friends,
Your family.

They come to your rescue, fix the holes and tow your boat to safety. 
The only problem is that they don’t tow you to the shore.
They only towed you to the harbour entrance and then say ‘off you go, you will be fine from here’…….
Though you are not. 
You’re still adrift and everyone has gone and left you alone to find your way back.

You feel broken, exhausted, misunderstood.

Life as you knew it is no longer the same.

Your emotions are all over the place and things that used to be simple tasks, are now triggers that your brain subconsciously has stored in its memory bank that takes you completely by surprise when you least expect it.

L.I.F.E after cancer treatment is something that’s not talked about enough.

We all get to this stage in our journey and wonder what the heck is happening to us. Why aren’t we going back to life as we knew it before hand? We expect that once treatment is finished we go back to who we were before and life carries on as if it has just been on pause for a year or two while we deal with this nuisance cancer. Though it just doesn’t. We are changed forever and nothing we can do as much as we might want to, will ever change the fact that we have been on one heck of a roller coaster, our emotions, our belief systems and our fears are all different from what they were before from the experiences we have been through. 

Friends and family don’t understand either.

They’re celebrating that we’ve finished treatment but we don’t feel that excitement. We feel terror and dread of the what next. What if it comes back, what if this and what if that. We’re now living in the world of what ifs and the reason is because we’ve had our world crashing down on us in a split second before, we’re afraid of it happening again as it is all soo raw and fresh in our memories.

You know what? All of these feelings and experiences mentioned above are all normal. You’re not alone for having these feelings and thoughts. In fact, I’d be surprised if you didn’t relate to at least one or two of these. They’re all part of our ‘new normal’.

Often the next part of our journey is not talked about.

But in order to move on from cancer it’s important that we’re aware and acknowledge that we go through 4 phases of L.I.F.E after treatment.

Stage 1 - Lost

Lost: This is the phase you are in as soon as treatment is finished. You’re left lost out at sea and don’t know which way to turn next. The enormity of what you’ve just been through hits you like a brick as this has been the first time you have had a chance to actually stop living on autopilot of appointments, treatments and being told what is happening next. It all catches up with you and you suddenly feel overwhelmed.

Stage 2 - Insecure

Insecure: All the raw emotions are coming up for you. You’re angry, petrified of recurrence, tired, vulnerable and no longer feeling like you as you feel like an insecure mess.

You’re wondering why you’re not going back to who you used to be.

You feel unheard and ungrateful for life.

Why have you been through all of this and not come out the other end being grateful and appreciating the small things in life like they show in the movies. What is wrong with me?

Stage 3 - Finding

Finding: You’re now ready and wanting to find who you now are. What you love. What sets your heart and soul on fire. You’re starting to understand that you’ll never be that same person you were before diagnosis and you’re ready to find and rediscover who you now are.

Finding new tools and techniques in your tool box to get you moving towards the shoreline once more.

Stage 4 - Energized

Energized: Life is starting to excite you and make you feel in control and energized once more. You’re now creating your vision of what your new YOU looks like and you feel elated and passionate about it. The days that you struggled to get out of bed every morning and look at yourself in the mirror have gone. You’ve been replaced by this new person who now has a spring in her step and doing what she loves again. This is where the fun starts!

Embracing life after cancer. 

For some women these stages may take a few years to work through and others quicker. There is no right or wrong and everyone is completely different.

So don’t panic and think you’re not getting to where you want to be.

These 4 phases are a process that takes time and work and sometimes you do need to ask for help and that is ok too.

It’s important that you understand this and be gentle on yourself.

If you feel like you’re stuck and can’t get past the Insecure stage and no matter what you try it still just feels like you aren’t getting anywhere.

That’s where I can come in as the lighthouse standing on the shore to shine the light on your path and guide you back to where you belong. 

I’m here to guide and navigate you with tools to increase your confidence and start living life again as the absolutely incredible person you truly are and supporting life after cancer whilst working through these phases and feeling in control.

How do I know?
I’ve walked that path. 

I have walked in your shoes, with the soles wearing thin and unsure of which way to turn. 

I was left adrift for years and wished I had found someone to show me the light and guide me back to shore. 

I know you’re worthy and I know you can do it too.

I’m a Life After Cancer Coach who has also been through my own Breast Cancer journey being diagnosed at the age of 30 (11 years ago now). Im also a wife, mum of two boys and live in Christchurch, NZ. You can find out more about me at www.kylietolman.com

6 Types of Thoughtful Gifts That a Breast Cancer Patient Will Appreciate

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure for more info.

When someone we know and and care about is diagnosed with breast cancer, we want to show our support. However, for someone who’s never been through cancer, it’s hard to know what a woman with breast cancer needs.

If you want to send gifts that are more thoughtful than a bunch of flowers then read on because I will be giving you 6 gift ideas that can make a cancer patient’s journey easier.

1) Planning to Thrive

Once a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer, she has so many important things to remember and write down, such as specialist appointments, scans, tests and treatment appointments are just a few things that she needs to track of so having a dedicated journal to manage the practicalities of dealing with cancer can be extremely useful.

Canplan is the best organizer for cancer patients and is the perfect gift for someone who is newly diagnosed. This journal allows the cancer patient to have a holistic approach to fighting cancer. Some of the features worth mentioning are the appointment tracker which has space to write down things like questions to ask the doctor, notes to take during the appointment etc. Patients can also track any side-effects they experience so they can confidently remember to relay the details to their doctors.

It also has positivity exercise to help the mental side of things, tips for healthy living and much more. You can check it out HERE.

2) Moving to Thrive

Exercise has been shown to be the best way for cancer patients to minimise the side-effects of cancer treatment and to avoid a recurrence. However, a depressed immune system during chemotherapy means they might not want to go to their local gym to do a workout.

Encourage them to keep active in the outdoors or do some indoor exercise like yoga in the comfort of their own home. You can buy an awesome yoga mat like this one that includes a personalised message.

Gone are the days of having to buy exercise videos only to be bored of them shortly after. Instead, opt to stream endless variety of high quality exercise videos from YouTube - totally FREE. There’s many channels offering yoga, pilates, barre, cardio boxing, zumba, dance, hip hop etc.

The key here is to use a push device like the Apple TV to turn a humble living room into a private exercise studio. You can check it out HERE.

Using a push device like the Apple TV allows you to watch or listen to any media that is playing on your IOS device or mac computer onto your big screen TV. My favourite way of working out at home is to browse the endless selection of YouTube workout videos (totally freeee!) on my phone and push them onto my cinema screen essentially turning my living room into an exercise studio. It’s perfect when you’re housebound and still want to exercise. Most exercise routines don’t need a lot of space and as long as I can fit a yoga mat, then I find I have enough room.

3) Head Covering

If chemotherapy is in the treatment plan then the cancer patient will most likely experience hair loss. Good quality, natural looking wigs can be expensive so if you know that she’s planning to get a wig, consider chipping in the expense in the form of a gift certificate to a wig salon.

Wigs can get hot, itchy and uncomfortable, so she won’t be able to wear it 24/7. It’s also important to have a variety of comfortable head coverings especially during winter when it’s very cold to go out bald or sleep with an uncovered head.

A head cover made out of soft stretchy fabric would be ideal like this one.

In summer, satin or silk is the best fabric for a bandana because it’s cool, soft and light to wear on the head. Check out this large selection of satin/silk scarves in many different colours and patterns HERE.

4) Books to Make the Journey Easier

One of the best cancer gifts I received were books about what to expect after a breast cancer diagnosis. Some great books that make navigating a breast cancer diagnosis and treatment easier include:

• The Silver Lining: A Supportive and Insightful Guide to Breast Cancer

• The Breast Cancer Survival Manual - A Step-by-Step Guide for Women Newly Diagnosed with Breast Cancer

• Just Get Me Through This! A Practical Guide to Coping with Breast Cancer

If the patient has indicated that she’s wanting to a more healthier lifestyle, then these books can be perfect gifts for her.

• Anticancer - A New Way of Life

• Anticancer Living - Transform Your Life With the Mix of Six

• Crazy Sexy Juice: 100+ Simple Juice, Smoothie & Elixir Recipes to Super-charge Your Health

Memoirs about surviving cancer can also be a good read. They are usually personal, entertaining and inspirational. It can give a different perspective to a difficult journey from someone that has gone through it all.

Some great books include:

• Dear Friend - Letters of encouragement, humour and love for women with breast cancer

• Chicken Soup for the Breast Cancer Survivor’s Soul

5) Give the Gift of Nutrition

If your loved one seems motivated to live a healthier lifestyle after her breast cancer diagnosis then you can support her health and wellness journey by contributing to the tools she needs.

You can get her started on juicing by getting this book by Kris Carr, a long-term stage 4 cancer survivor.

And if you want to totally spoil her you can purchase a good quality cold-press juicer which retains more vitamins than conventional centrifugal juicers.

If you’re more worried about what she eats when she’s too sick to cook for herself or her family then help her out by dropping off some nutritious meals on her doorstep. If cooking isn’t your thing then you can look out for a meal service that delivers good quality nutritious food.

For a gift that she can use long-term then a good quality steamer can be a really good gift option that she can use even after her treatment is over. Steaming foods retain a lot more vitamins, minerals and nutrients in food than any other methods of cooking such as baking, frying, boiling and stewing.

6) Give the Gift of Laughter

A cancer patient has lots of free time to recuperate from cancer treatment, especially when she has taken time off work. A Netflix subscription can be a great gift idea, because there’s lots of funny movies and stand-up comedy shows to choose from that will make her laugh.

Going through cancer can be an extremely stressful time for the breast cancer survivor and their families. By giving them a good dose of laughter, you can help ease the tension and forget their troubles - even if it’s for a short period of time.

Other ideas include a cute cat sock like this one that will make her chuckle.

… Or a totally inappropriate adult colouring book like this one.

It’s never too late to give a gift to a cancer survivor. If you haven’t been in touch for a while since her diagnosis, then explain to her honestly and truthfully. Sometimes we don’t know what to say to someone that’s just been diagnosed with cancer, but at least after reading this post you’ll know exactly what to get her and show how much you care.

The Art of Thriving with Cancer- Part I: How to Feel Confident in the Face of Uncertainty

Too much certainty in life makes us feel bored.

Too little certainty, and we spiral into anxiety and panic.

For those of us given the cancer card, uncertainty becomes a constant companion. We don’t know if we’ll be here tomorrow, in a month, or in a year — and that thought alone can make us double over in fear.

Of course, no one really knows how long they have. Any of us could be hit by a runaway bus tomorrow. But we don’t think about that every day. With cancer, we do.

The Exhaustion of Living in “Maybe”

After diagnosis, every day becomes filled with questions:

• What if the treatment doesn’t work?

• What if tomorrow is the day it comes back?

• What if I never get the all clear?

The waiting feels endless. One, two, five, ten years of holding your breath until you can exhale. Living in this state isn’t really living — it’s existing, enduring, barely moving forward.

No wonder panic attacks, breathless anxiety, and sleepless nights become so common.

Why Fear Shows Up After a Cancer Diagnosis

Here’s the truth: we will never live a life without fear. Once diagnosed, that fear is always there — sometimes as a roaring flame, sometimes just a faint pilot light.

Fear’s job is to protect us. The problem is, it often oversteps. Instead of keeping us alert, it paralyzes us. We go into defensive mode. Some of us even curl up in the fetal position emotionally, vowing never to be blindsided again.

But here’s the shift: you don’t need to be disappointed in yourself for being scared. Fear is human. The key is learning how to live alongside it, without letting it dominate your every step.

The Hardest Part: Starting from Zero

The start of the cancer journey is always the hardest.

Your confidence is blasted to ashes. You don’t trust your body, your health, or your future. You feel like you’re standing at ground zero, unsure if you’ll even make it.

But like anything hard in life, the only way forward is small steps. Quivering, shaky steps at first. But step by step, confidence grows.

Nobody wakes up with a full tank of confidence. It’s built — layer by layer, win by win.

👉 Pro Tip: Start celebrating your small victories, no matter how tiny. Each one becomes a building block for confidence, and slowly the fear loosens its grip.

The Two Battles You’re Really Fighting

Every cancer journey has two parallel battles:

1. The Body Battle – fighting the disease with treatment.

2. The Mind Battle – fighting despair, fear, and hopelessness.

Both matter. Both deserve your attention. And thriving means taking your mental battle seriously, not treating it as “secondary” to the physical one.

The Four Pillars of Confidence

Over the past fifteen years since my diagnosis, I’ve discovered four core areas that shape whether you feel stuck in fear…or confident enough to thrive. Conquering these four factors will help you move forward with poise, grace and dignity - despite what the outcome will be.

1. Your Beliefs – Your unique experiences, memories, and emotions create the lens through which you see the world. They shape your self-talk.

2. Your Mindset – What you choose to focus on daily is the biggest game-changer in how you tackle challenges.

3. Advocating for Yourself – Speaking up with your healthcare team ensures your concerns are heard and your choices respected.

4. Your Healing Journey – How you recover, rebuild, and redefine your “new normal” determines how you move forward.

These are the four pillars of confidence. Strengthen them, and you stop just surviving — you start thriving.

I’ll dive into each of these pillars in my next post, but here’s the most important reminder: confidence doesn’t appear all at once. It’s built slowly, win by win.

Trifina Sofian is a life coach specialising in cancer recovery and mindset management. She helps cancer survivors be in the best state of mind to beat cancer and maximise their healing potential. Trifina can help you reprogram your mind to conquer cancer and help you build a more positive state of mind and body. Check out her new book Win the Fight Against Cancer - How to Master the Mental Battle HERE.

Harness the Power of Facebook Groups to Help You Beat Cancer

I wish I’d known about Facebook groups.

Getting diagnosed with breast cancer in my late 20s was extremely lonely.

I had to miss out on big family events like my sister’s wedding overseas because I was in the middle of my chemo treatment and too scared to catch a flight because of risk of infection.

So while my family was celebrating, I was busy stressing out about pumping up my veins so the nurses can easily insert the cannula on chemo day.

While my friends were busily going about their day at work, I was stressing out whether feeling breathless was a sign that I had a blood clot in my lungs

It totally sucked.

It felt like everyone in the whole world was living a carefree existence and I was the only 20 something woman that ever existed having to deal with breast cancer.

It felt like the whole world continued on living, while I got left behind.

I wished I had known there were other young women battling through breast cancer. Knowing other people were walking the same uncertain path - struggling the same struggles, feeling the same fears would have helped - ALOT.

There’s something to say about strength in numbers.

Last year Mark Zuckerberg announced that he was going to “Bring the world closer together”. His goal is to “bring one billion people to join meaningful communities” via facebook groups.

Having a community can make us feel less afraid, that there’s something bigger than just us and that there’s something to look forward to.

But 8 years ago when I was first diagnosed, I don’t even think Breast Cancer Facebook groups even existed, so I think you’re lucky that today, the technology has allowed us to come together in solidarity.

Everyone’s on Facebook

The biggest advantage between Facebook groups versus the traditional online cancer forums is the convenience and the number of users in the platform. Today, there are 2 billion people on Facebook.

You can access Facebook via the app so much easier on your phone.

Think about how often you would update your FB status and check your newsfeed?

Therefore, it’s extremely convenient for people to join and actively contribute to the conversations that are happening in Facebook groups.

Online forums on the other hand are usually hosted on a website that you need to register and login every time you want to connect to these communities - making them cumbersome, so you don’t go on it as often.

When I was diagnosed, I joined a small online breast cancer forum but because I was young and diagnosed with a less common form of breast cancer, I felt like I didn’t fit in to that particular online space.

Getting Started with Facebook Groups

So what do you need to do if you want to join a cancer Facebook group?

Firstly, you need to search for a group that is most important to you.

To figure this out, you need to ask yourself some questions. Some examples:

• Is location of the people in that group important to you?

• Do you have specific questions regarding your own specific breast cancer?

• Are you struggling with a particular type treatment?

• Are you apprehensive about deciding on a surgical procedure?

To give you some ideas of the types of breast cancer facebook groups out there, check out the table later on this post.

If you’re on desktop- You can search for groups on the left hand column in the “Explore” section. 

If you’re on the facebook app - You can search for groups by clicking the more section in the bottom right hand corner of your screen and click on “groups”

All you have to do to get started is find a group you want to join. Because these groups are private, usually the moderator will set some questions that you need to answer to make sure that you really belong to that particular group before getting accepted.

Some cancer facebook groups can range from a few people to tens of thousands.

So what do people post about in these groups?

People can post about their feelings and thoughts in these groups. It’s a great way to vent and let out the emotional stuff that comes with being diagnosed with cancer. 

In the bigger groups, with thousands of member from all over the world, you’ll get a response to your burning question within a few minutes after you hit post.

Wanna know if your weird symptom is normal after your first treatment?

Someone’s there to tell you they’ve experienced it too.

Going outta your mind waiting on the results of your most recent scan?

A reassuring message will pop up telling you “It’s all going to come back clear.”

Celebrating a small milestone in your treatment plan?

Someone’s there to give you a virtual hug and high five.

Finding People in the “same boat”

No one really wants to be part of the C-club.

But finding a group of people that can empathise with you after a life altering diagnosis can make you feel less alone - that you’re not the only person going through this crappy journey.

We all want to be heard and we all want to be understood.

However, your situation and your pathology is unique to you, and no one is going to be in exactly the same “boat” as you.

The great thing is you’re not limited by how many Facebook groups you can join.

Whatever challenge you’re facing, there’s bound to be a group for it.

To show you how much choice there are, I’ve listed a few breast cancer facebook groups as examples to the breadth of communities.

Check out all these different Facebook groups.

Hearing a Different Perspective

When we’re diagnosed we’re bombarded by information that we find confusing and medical jargon that we don’t understand.

Your private community can get you up to speed with the lingo, and clarify anything you’ve found confusing during your consult and even suggest further questions you need to ask.

I think this is fantastic as the more we’re able to understand our disease and treatment, the more informed and empowered we are of our journey.

Difficult decisions also need to be made along the way. Having an online community that you can use as a sounding board for your thought process can be helpful.

Hearing different perspectives from people who have gone through it all before, can suddenly bring clarity to your own decision making process.

But I think the most powerful thing Facebook groups can provide us access to cutting edge new information regarding testing or treatment. This includes such things like clinical trials that’s being conducted around the world. You’ll get clues to how people are responding to these cutting edge treatment.

This is even more critical if you've been diganosed with Stage IV metastatic cancer and you need to be thinking out of the box and look into more experimental methods of treatment.

It’s hard to keep pace with medical research and by the time results hit the news, it might be old news already.

Remember, it’s important to understand that we need to be getting the BEST medical care - not just medical care that your doctor is familiar with.

Some Things to Be Aware Of

Before you post anything to these groups, it’s important to realise that each group has a set of culture and values. This is usually set by the admin or the collective users themselves.

Read and try to understand the rules. There’s also bound to be some unwritten “rules”. Pay attention to what the admin and moderators of that group posts. This should give you some clues of the do’s and don’ts, otherwise you might run the risk of getting kicked out.

For example, one of the groups that I’m a member of don’t support the exclusive use of natural cancer cures to treat cancer.

So asking questions about natural remedies is a “no-no”.

Another big downside to joining Facebook groups is you get to see reality of cancer.

You’ll read stories of recurrences and members gaining their wings.

As you can see, there’s so many benefits in joining private facebook groups, however, giving back to these communities is essential for the whole group to thrive.

But ultimately you must do what’s right for you. If it all gets too much you can turn notifications off in these groups and come back again or exit the group permanently.

I personally joined these breast cancer facebook groups to let others starting this journey know there are long term survivors so they can feel inspired to keep moving forward.

If you found this post useful, please comment down below and let me know how facebook groups have benefitted you in your cancer journey.

9 Simple But Effective Ways to Maximise Chemotherapy While Minimising Side-Effects

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Out of the three cancer treatment, going through 6 cycles of chemo was the most gruelling and physically challenging part of surviving cancer.

A mastectomy and radiotherapy felt like a walk in the park.

When I found out I had cancer, my breast surgeon recommended I do chemotherapy first - aka neo-adjuvant chemotherapy - chemotherapy before surgery.

I was in such a shock in the beginning that I didn’t question whether this was the right thing to do. Luckily for me it was, because here I am15 years later, alive and well.

I had survived triple negative breast cancer.

Having a receptor negative breast tumour meant that chemotherapy was especially important, as it was the only systemic treatment available for me at the time.

My main concern was that any microscopic cells that had potentially broken off from the main tumour and floated around in my blood could “seed” the spread of cancer to my vital organs.

Having a lump in my breast wasn’t the thing that was going to kill me, it was the spread into the major organs that will be the tipping point. So I had to embrace my chemo treatment like my life depended on it.

There was no back-up immunotherapy or hormone receptor blockers for me after I finished treatment.

I needed the chemo to work.

So I decided I had to give it all I’ve got. I did what most people didn’t think or were not willing to do.

And boy did it pay dividends!

I had a complete response to chemo.

Today I’m going to share some tips with you about how to get the most out of your treatment. The question is are you going to just sit with this information? Or are you going to take action?

One important thing to note before I share with you my tips is that if you’re having neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (having chemo before surgery), then the best possible outcome from finishing your chemotherapy is what physicians call a complete pathological response. This means that the chemotherapy you received was effective at killing 100% of the tumour in your breast and/or lymph nodes.

The only way you’ll be able to know if you had a complete pathological response is if you had chemotherapy before you have breast surgery.

Having chemotherapy after the tumour has been removed from your body makes it impossible to know whether the chemotherapy was effective at killing any stray cancer cells. You will have to rely heavily on your faith that the chemo had done it’s job at wiping out all the cancer cells in your body.

What also surprised me (many years later) was when I heard about women who had the same cancer I had, but didn’t respond to the same chemo regimen that I received.

Their tumours didn’t shrink at all and in fact some of their tumours grew in the months that they were in active chemo treatment.

So be wary that if you’re having neo-adjuvant chemotherapy you need to be confident that your treatment is working. If your tumour isn’t shrinking, then a change in treatment strategy is needed ASAP.

In today’s post, I’m going to share with you the things I did during chemotherapy that allowed me to achieve a complete pathological response and how I also breezed through chemo with minimal side-effects.

I also digged deeper into some of the studies looking at how to increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy which you may wish to implement during your treatment.

Chemotherapy directly kills cancer cells in your body, but the downside is that it’s non-targeted meaning it can’t differentiate between cancer cells and normal cells. So you might be killing some cancer cells but it’s also likely harming your normal healthy cells - which is why you may experience some side-effects during chemo.

When you’re feeling unwell and icky from chemo, the natural tendency is to lay around and do nothing.

So how do you mitigate some of the serious side-effects of chemotherapy?

The answer is to also nourish and protect your normal healthy cells.

If you experience serious side-effects during chemotherapy then your oncologist may warrant stopping treatment early - decreasing your chances of achieving a complete pathological response.

So when you’re having chemo, your goal is to be able to finish ALL the sessions of chemotherapy that have been planned by your oncologist, and the best way to do this is maximise its effectiveness while minimising side-effects.

One of the main side-effects of chemo I was concerned about was nausea. Generally, I’m a queasy kind of girl and can go green very easily, so naturally I was super worried about vomiting.

However, my oncologist assured me that in this day and age, the anti-nausea drugs are so good, that no cancer patient should be vomiting whilst on chemo, otherwise they need to go back to their doctor and demand to change their anti-nausea medication.

This was so reassuring and I was very pleased to not vomit once during the six cycles of chemo I had.

I found it really disappointing that my oncologist didn’t give me ANY “lifestyle” tips about what to eat or what to do during the months that I was having treatment. I soon realised that most oncologist are not really trained or have any real interest in nutrition or holistic healing.

I think as cancer patients, we need to be more proactive about our recovery. Just because our oncologist hasn’t mentioned anything about what to eat or other lifestyle things, it doesn’t mean that we can’t focus on adopting “extra” healthy initiatives, as long as we’re open with our oncologist about what we’re doing whilst on chemo.

It was only recently that the Australian Society of Oncologist released a statement advising the benefits of exercise during chemotherapy to combat side-effects, even though the evidence has been building up for many years.

For most of us, we’re battling cancer right now so we don’t have the luxury of waiting for the medical community to slowly adopt new and beneficial things.

Because I bounced back relatively well after each round of chemo, getting involved in my own recovery also had huge benefits of increasing my confidence and empowering my mind.

It made me feel less helpless in this roller coaster of a cancer journey.

I had something to do and something to focus on every single day.

So in today’s post, I want to share with you my top 9 tips for chemotherapy.

The tips I’ve mentioned here are simple and doable with a bit of preparation. Full disclaimer, to double-check with your oncologist before adopting any of the things I’ve mentioned here.

Tip #1: Weaken your cancer cells and protect your healthy cells through fasting

At the time of my chemo treatment 15 years ago, I hadn’t heard about the benefits of fasting, however, today it’s gaining popularity.

So how does fasting work to benefit us during chemo?

The benefits of fasting has been shown in animal studies and is two-fold.

Fasting increases the effectiveness of chemotherapy and also reduces its toxicity.

It’s thought that during fasting, healthy cells don’t spend energy on growing but instead they spend their energy in a “protective” state. Cancer cells don’t do this during fasting - a term called differential stress resistance.

How long should you fast for?

That’s a good question and we’re not really clear on the duration. There are only a few human studies to date (1, 2) but they have all been very positive.

In a 2018 study of 34 women with either breast or ovarian cancer, the duration for fasting was 36 hours before chemotherapy and 24 hours after. It was found that the women tolerated the fasting quite well and seemed to improve their quality of life such as fatigue and gastrointestinal symptoms compared to when they didn’t fast during chemo. During the fast they were allowed only water, herbal tea and a small amount of vegetable juice or vegetable broth. You can find more details of the study here.

If you are thinking of doing fasting during chemotherapy, just make sure you inform your oncologist and point them to these studies I’ve mentioned.

Tip #2: Up your level of nutrition through juicing

Alot of women will gain weight during chemotherapy, probably a contrast to what most people believe. This could be because of stress and emotional eating or it could be due to the steroids they’re given by their oncologist to dampen down any allergic type side-effects.

In any case, it’s important that you stick to healthy meals when you’re not fasting. A cooked plant based diet is easier to digest and kinder to your gastrointestinal system - which will be severely compromised during chemotherapy. Because the lining of your gut replicates quite quickly, the chemo - which affects rapidly dividing cells -will wreak havoc on your digestive system.

I believe, the quickest and most effective way of getting nutrition into your body is through juicing. I started juicing as soon as I was diagnosed so I had a few weeks of absorbing liquid nutrients before I started chemo.

I juiced a lot of fruits and vegetables. It was mainly carrots and spinach in the beginning and later on I cut down the carrots due to the high sugar content and added more cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower.

When you’re having chemotherapy, stock up your fridge with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. Invest in a good quality cold-press masticating juicer because they retain more vitamins and nutrients than conventional juicers which shreds and oxidises the nutrients.

Juicing should really be one of the thing that you focus on during chemotherapy. It hydrates you, deliver loads of nutrients and detoxifies your body.

Favourite juicer: Omega J8006HDS

Tip #3: Increase your circulation

The aim of chemotherapy is to kill any floating cancer cells in your circulation. These cells can act dormant for many months or years and as I’ve said before, it can “seed” the spread of cancer to other organs. Therefore it’s vital to kill all rogue cells that may be present in every nook and cranny of your body.

To do this, I think it’s important to open up your blood vessels and maintain good circulation just before you start your chemotherapy infusion, during the infusion and afterwards when you get home.

During the day of infusion, I would do a short workout at home or I would walk to the hospital where I was having my treatment. It was only 15 minutes away so it was great preparation before going into my infusion session.

If you don’t live near the hospital, you can also try to arrive early on the day of your infusion and go for a brisk walk around the grounds of the hospital. Breathing in lots fresh air and getting your blood pumping is a great prep before you go in to the hospital both physically and mentally.

A quick check that you have good circulation is to see that your hands and feet are warm and pink.

I also placed a warm heat pack on my chest where the tumour was located. The infusion would typically last a good few hours, and I always made sure I covered myself with warm blankets for the entire duration, never getting cold even with the air conditioning blowing around me. This ensured the chemo would freely flow to all parts of my body that cancer could be lurking in.

**Bonus Tip: As the chemo is flowing into your veins try to relax, breathe deeply, close your eyes and do some meditation and visualisation. I like to visualise the chemo drugs dissolving all the cancer cells and disappearing to nothing.

Most of the oncology wards now provide cold-caps for their patients to preserve their hair. Although losing my hair was one of the most traumatic things I had to endure, I don’t think it’s worth doing because my intuition says that it could affect the effectiveness of chemotherapy.

The reason I say this is because of the way it works.

Cold-cap decreases the blood circulation on your head and thus reducing the effectiveness of the chemotherapy at killing the hair follicles. If your hair-follicles could be spared then that means any cancer cells in the vicinity could be spared as well. It only takes one single cell to form a new tumour and that’s why I caution the use of cold-caps just because I think it can potentially compromise your circulation during treatment. In my opinion, it’s not worth it. Hair grows back. Focus on what’s important - killing cancer cells.

Tip #4: Expel the toxins out

After the chemotherapy has been pumped into your body, it’s important that you’re able to effectively pump it out, so your body can recover and be ready for the next session.

So don’t forget to hydrate! Drink lots of fluids like your life depends on it so you can pee out all that extra chemo out of your system ASAP.

Maintaining really good blood flow and circulation is equally important after your session is over. Now that you’re recovering at home, your liver will be in overdrive trying to detoxify the chemo that’s circulating in your blood.

You might be feeling pretty crook for the first few days after your chemo session and that’s perfectly normal.

For the first few days, sometimes getting out of bed would be a huge challenge.

I would peel myself from my comfy bed and just walk around intermittently in circles in my tiny apartment. I would go back to bed and repeat throughout the day.

Sometimes I would feel too out of it to walk around the block, so my husband would hold my hand and we would walk together. Getting some fresh air actually felt really good.

The key here is to move your body as much as you physically can to maintain good blood flow to your liver.

When I was feeling much better I would exercise vigorously. This is another critical component to why I believed I responded so well to the chemo while minimising side-effects.

Sweating is a fantastic way to detoxify your body.

When you feel like you’ve recovered well enough after chemo, you have a short window of opportunity to up the intensity of your exercise regime before another round of chemo will hit you again. So it’s critically important that you make the most of this time to do a full body workout.

Tip #5: Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!

It’s extremely important to hydrate before, during and after your infusion. I would also supplement with some fibre on the day of treatment and several days after to avoid severe constipation which most women will suffer due to the chemo drugs and the anti-nausea drugs. My favourite fibre supplement is this one.

Before I left for the hospital I would usually prepare a big jug of water or liquids next to my bedside table so when I got home I could just crash in bed, and it was there ready and waiting for me to hydrate.

In chinese medicine, it’s believed that chemotherapy is “heaty”. It’s the reason why you experience “heaty” symptoms such as mouth ulcers, constipation and flushing. In order to counteract the “heatiness” we must eat or drink some “cooling” foods or liquids. So other than water next to my bedside table, I also cooked a big pot of pearl barley and drank the cooled water that it had been boiling in.

I also drank a pot of chrysanthemum tea if I haven’t opened my bowels the next day.

Because I was so well hydrated and supplemented my liquids with some fibre, I didn’t have any issues with constipation and never needed to take any laxatives.

Tip #6: Bolster your immune system

Even though you’ll be given an injection to increase your white blood cells, your immune system will still take a big hit during chemo.

It’s important to avoid a serious infection whilst on treatment because this can delay your next cycle. Avoid being around sick people and because we all can’t live in a germ-free bubble, it’s important to strengthen your immune system.

Eat foods that support a strong immune system.

Once you’ve finished chemo, your immune system will be at its weakest and yet, that’s when you need it to be the strongest as it’s the main factor in keeping you cancer-free in the long-term.

Asian mushrooms like maitake and shiitake are great immune boosters. Saute them in some garlic, another immune boosting food.

In Japan, these mushrooms are served in hospitals where patients are undergoing chemotherapy. They contain a molecule called letinan. You can find these in your local oriental grocery store but if there’s none near where you live, then the next best things is to take a mushroom and immune boosting supplement like this one. Some asian mushrooms like reishi can’t be eaten fresh and you must take them in a capsule.

RELATED ARTICLE: My Top 10 Evidence-Based Anticancer Supplements

Tip #7: Revive and protect your healthy cells

Eating really well during treatment is important to provide your healthy cells with loads of antioxidants that keep it protected. Munch on lots of anticancer fruits like berries and cooked vegetables especially the cruciferous ones like broccoli and cabbage.

Keep up the fresh juices, they will nourish and hydrate you at the same time.

Lastly, invest in some supplements to further protect your healthy cells from radical damage caused by chemo. However, it’s also important to not have too much antioxidants when chemo is still circulating in your bloodstream - which is usually 24-48 hours after your infusion. You don’t want to cancel out the effects of the chemotherapy by having too much antioxidants - it really is a delicate balance.

I talk more about my supplements regime here in this article.

Tip #8: Rally support

I had my infusion every three weeks for a total of 6 infusions. What’s really important to emphasise was how regimented I was during those couple of months on chemo.

I can’t take full credit for this as my husband was the one that prepared everything for me and was constantly reminding what I needed to do.

If you have a support person to take care of you during chemo, then it’s a good idea to show them this article, so they can better prepare and assist you during chemo so all you need to focus on is recovering.

I would highly recommend that you also join a support group - online or real life. One of the big benefits of support groups - especially if you join one that has hundreds or even thousands of members, is that someone will answer your questions pretty much straight away.

They can provide you with helpful and practical advice when you’re struggling with the side-effects of the chemotherapy.

Tip #9: Boost your mood

It’s vital to keep your spirits up during the many months it would take for you to complete chemotherapy. Try and see your friends and family during your treatment so you won’t feel so isolated.

Watch some funny movies on Netflix to take your mind off the mental and physical stress you’re experiencing.

Keep a journal and write your feelings down. The health of your mind is just as important as your physical body during treatment.

Remember that laughter will release feel good endorphins. It really is the best medicine when you’re feeling crap.

Lastly, don’t forget to celebrate the end of your chemotherapy. Compared to surgery and radiation, chemotherapy is by far the hardest treatment to physically and mentally endure.

Trifina Sofian is a life coach specialising in cancer recovery and mindset management. She helps cancer survivors be in the best state of mind to beat cancer and maximise their healing potential. Trifina can help you reprogram your mind to conquer cancer and help you build a more positive outlook and life. Check out her new book Win the Fight Against Cancer - How to Master the Mental Battle HERE.

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What Causes Breast Cancer? The Risk & Real Factors You Need to Know

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"It was just bad luck, so don’t blame yourself,” my oncologist explained.

I knew in my gut it wasn't "normal" for someone in their 20s to develop breast cancer.  Not that getting cancer at any age is acceptable.

I thought hearing my oncologist's explanation of why I developed breast cancer would put everything in perspective. But blaming this on bad luck seems so -- unscientific.

I had a burning question ever since I was diagnosed:

Is breast cancer really random? 

Having a background in science, I knew there’s more to getting breast cancer than bad luck.

The Incidence of Breast Cancer is Rising

October is breast cancer awareness month and the “pink” campaigns will soon surround us promoting early detection, breast screening and seeking donations to fund a cure.

What’s really hard to believe is that we have yet to see an improvement in the incidence of breast cancer.

Have you ever noticed the lack of prevention campaigns for breast cancer?

It’s crazy to think that after billions of dollars spent on breast cancer research, there’s never been any major breast health campaign. There’s lots of awareness in checking your breasts and being wary of early signs and symptoms.

But isn’t stopping it altogether better than catching it early?

So what do the experts tell us about the cause of breast cancer?

If you haven't already checked out any of the respected breast cancer organisation websites, they all state risk factors that increases the chances of a woman developing breast cancer (see table below).

These risk factors are divided into UN-MODIFIABLE (those that you can't change) and MODIFIABLE (those that you can change). There’s also evidence that a few protective factors decreases the chances of a woman developing breast cancer. Check out some of the most common risk factors below.

Those risk factors seems pretty straightforward.

But in simply visualising the risk factors as neat bullet points, we’ve lost appreciation of the intricacy of what causes breast cancer.

There is a more complex picture.

We can begin to understand this in the model of breast cancer causation created by Robert Hiatt from the UCSF.

In this model, the development of breast cancer is an interplay of risk factors that fall under four major categories:

1. Biological

2. Behavioural

3. Social

4. Physical

The research gathered has been from postmenopausal women and are currently working on a similar model for premenopausal women.

I recommend you click through to their website to play around with their interactive model to educate yourself on how one risk factor are connected with other risk factors.

Interactive Model of Breast Cancer Causation - http://cabreastcancer.org. The full research article was published in journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention can be found here.

If you click on just one risk factor, for example BMI (see screenshot below) - it displays any relationships with other risk factors:

• physical activity

• race/ethnicity

• income

• age at menarche

• endogenous hormones

• immune function

• insulin resistance

• low penetrance genes

However, as you can see there are different lines connecting them, and they differentiate between the strength of association and the research data quality.

Unlike cervical cancer that’s caused by human papilloma virus (HPV), and most incidence of lung cancers are caused by tobacco smoking, the cause of breast cancer isn’t as straightforward.

It’s far more complex.

And here comes the confusing part…

Having one or more risk factors doesn't mean a woman will guarantee to get breast cancer.

And...

Many women who DO develop breast cancer have no obvious risk factors.

How do we make sense of this?

Firstly, I think it’s important to realise that the cause of breast cancer EXTENDS BEYOND these published risk factors.

If you’re at all concerned about preventing breast cancer or if you’ve already been diagnosed you need to understand these risk factors in the context of your own circumstance.

The Real Factors that Causes Breast Cancer

What isn’t explained in great detail is the fact that there is a common underlying reason why these risk factors have been associated with breast cancer.

The majority of these risk factors directly and indirectly relate to oestrogen dominance.

Let’s look at some of these risk factors again:

• younger age at onset of menstruation and older age at onset of menopause exposes the woman to a longer duration of circulating oestrogen.

• Consuming alcohol impairs the liver to metabolise oestrogen.

• Having a high BMI means having a greater amount of fat cells that are able to produce more oestrogen in the body.

• Being on the contraceptive pill means adding exogenous oestrogen into the body.

• Being on HRT means adding exogenous oestrogen into the body.

• Having children earlier on in life and having more than one children is a protective factor, because pregnancy interrupts the levels of oestrogen in the body.

Normal breast cancer cells contain oestrogen receptors and when oestrogen binds to these receptors, it tells the cells to grow. If a breast cell has been damaged by radiation or toxic exposure, having excess oestrogen around will allow the “bad cells” to flourish and grow.

But usually the immune system of young women are able to take out these bad cells. However, when a woman’s immune system becomes weak for long periods of time, these single cancer cells can grow into a tumour.

What’s the association of oestrogen and triple negative breast cancer?

The concern with oestrogen dominance still applies.

Even though oestrogen doesn’t fuel the growth of triple negative breast cancer, you have to remember that before it turned into cancer cell, it was once a normal breast cell with oestrogen receptors.

We also need to educate ourselves about the impacts of toxins, radiation and pollutants on breast health. A woman’s mammary glands are surrounded by fatty tissue. We all know that toxic chemicals accumulate in the blubber of whales and dolphins.

The high levels of toxins that build up in the fatty tissue of the breast which are in close proximity to breast cells initiate the DNA errors that lead to cancer.

What does the complex interplay of risk factors look like in real life?

Let’s take my development of breast cancer as our case study.

Women like myself who have inherited a faulty BRCA-1 or BRCA-2 gene have an impaired DNA repair mechanism in their breast cells.

So how do you explain young women that develop breast cancer who’ve tested negative for any BRCA mutations?

The number of breast cancer associated genes are expanding. Perhaps these women who’ve tested negative do have mutations in several subtle genes. And the likely explanation is that we haven’t identified all the genes responsible for maintaining normal breast cells. There’s no doubt that BRCA-1 and BRCA-2 are the single most important genes identified to date.

However, it’s important to go back to the fundamentals.

There’s more to breast cancer development than one faulty DNA repair enzyme,

What’s often overlooked are the factors that’s driving the DNA errors that transform the breast cell into cancer cells in the first place.

So although I inherited a faulty BRCA-1 gene that’s been associated with a high lifetime risk of breast cancer (~80%), when I was diagnosed, I had no family history of breast cancer.

How can this be when I have a huge family?

Remember that BRCA-1 is a DNA repair enzyme and having a faulty BRCA-1 gene isn’t the proximal cause of breast cancer.

There had to be something in the first place that resulted in DNA damage in one of my original breast cells that finally grew into a tumour in my left breast.

You see, my family migrated to Australia from Indonesia when I was six years old.

So if you compared how I lived and how my relatives lived, there are vast differences in the physical, behavioural and social risk factors for breast cancer.

So could there be factors protecting my female relatives living abroad from breast cancer?

Maybe.

Or has my breast cancer risk factor profile increased dramatically because I grew up and lived here in Australia for many years- and have adopted a more “high-risk” lifestyle?

Most likely.

From migration studies, we can see that the risk of breast cancer in Japanese women living in Hawaii is far higher than that of a Japanese woman in Japan.

Their genetics are the same but because they’ve migrated, their environment has changed.

Prevention isn’t a Dirty Word.

So after much reading and research, one thing is for sure.

There is NO UNIVERSAL CAUSE of breast cancer.

Can you imagine being a scientist and trying to study ONE woman’s genetic, lifestyle and environmental risk of breast cancer. The interplay of risk factors and protective factors could possibly be additive, multiplicative or subtractive.

There would be a dizzying amount of variables to measure and control for.

In other words, each woman’s breast cancer causation profile is going to be a set of genetics, lifestyle and environment factors that is unique to her.

So let’s throw out the notion that any researcher would or could ever study our lives in great detail.

Can we figure out our own risk profile?

I believe we can and we should.

I think the first step is to have a little COURAGE to WANT to understand.

It’s easier to bury our heads in the sand because it’s too scary to really figure this all out.

It’s easier to live a lifestyle and environment that we are use to and comfortable with.

BUT if we’re open to change…

…I believe that those who have had a diagnosis of breast cancer can take reasonable steps to modify their lifestyle and environment so as to prevent a recurrence.

And those that have a strong family history of breast cancer can become more aware and educated as to the cause of breast cancer and feel empowered to prevent breast cancer from ever developing.

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