Cancer: 100 Ways to Fight
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Fighting Spirit
When we are ill, when our hope, motivation and enthusiasm have been shattered, it is that unique personal spirit within that we must draw upon to sustain our fight. Sometimes we can absorb it from our spirituality or others around us who have that energizing capability to recognize the need and inject it where and when it is needed. But, more often, and with greater effect, it is our own ability to draw upon the inherent, smoldering character and heart that we have constructed in the past. It is much more difficult if that has not been designed, tested, and put in practice for the inevitable future.
––John Roberts
Cancer: 100 Ways to Fight
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A Positive Guide for
Patients, Survivors, Caregivers, and Loved Ones
Website, Cancer Journal, Book in Progress,
and OnLine/Print Publications
by John Roberts
www.CanFighter.com
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The Fighting Spirit
- Cancer kills, but half of all those now diagnosed with cancer will be cured.
- Many others with cancer will live long and die of something else.
- Science creates new treatments and cures every day. Optimism is justified.
- Some of your outcome depends on your fighting spirit and positive attitude.
- Some of your outcome depends on your fitness and overall health.
- Some of your outcome depends on how well you organize and lead your team.
- Your goals are quality of life and quantity of life. Fight for both.
- Don’t let the fear of dying ruin the rest of your life.
- Fight, and enjoy life, in evey way you can.
On-Site Review
Book Contents
Red Links in this column are individual,
single-spaced
website pages.
Section Introductions
and first Chapter of each.
2. THE SOLUTION
3. Fighting Spirit
4. Famous Fighters
5. Relationships
6. Fighter's Creed
8. STATISTICS
9. Prevention
10. Detection
11. Diagnosis
12. Prognosis
13. Treatment
14. Homework
16. CAREGIVERS
17. Staff
18. Loved Ones
19. Groups
20. Self
21. Science and Trials
22. Understanding
23. Time
25. LIVING
26. Fighting
27. Combat
28. Goals
29. Principles
30. Winning
31. Light A Candle
33. SELF-CONFIDENCE
34. Positive Attitude
35. Optimism
36. Heart
37. Courage
38. Calm
39. Laughter
40. Patience
41. Determination
42. Persistence
43. Discipline
44. Happiness
45. Strength
46. Action
48. EMOTIONS
49. Pessimism
50. Stress
51. Depressione
52. Regrets
53. Worry
54. Suffering
55. Good News
56. Bad News
57. Risk
58. Fear
59. Denial
60. Anger
Fighting Cancer
To fight for something, as opposed to the usual compromises and appeasements of getting along in life, requires a certain state of mind. It may be a pugnacious nature from birth, or a necessity for survival, or, more likely,
a gradual building of courage, skill, and belief in a cause, selfish or otherwise. For the majority of people who have led comfortable lives, to fight means, to one degree or another, rebuilding yourself, or helping a loved one do it. The moment you hear about that cancer, you must get a grip on that concept and get started with determination and enthusiasm. It becomes much easier because, in contrast to some of life’s challenges, you are instantly a member of a team that will work together to get the job done.
Fighting Spirit
Spirit is the core of a person, visible in personality, but something much deeper in character and soul. It is as though the other meaning of the word, a supernatural being, inhabits some people and gives them that special fire.
––John Roberts
I may not always be happy, but I am always cheerful.
––"Bubbles"
Beverly Sills
Metropolitan Opera Star
Died of Lung Cancer
2007, Age 78
There is new evidence that optimism may in some ways be self-fulfilling. In a recently published study, researchers in the Netherlands found that optimistic people tend to live longer than pessimists. Perhaps, it has been speculated, optimism confers a survival advantage by helping people cope with adversity.
––Jim Holt, “You Are What You Expect,”
The New York Times Magazine,
January 21, 2007
There is only one solution if old age is not to be an absurd parody of our former life, and that is to go on pursuing ends that give our existence a meaning––devotion to individuals, to groups or to causes, social, political, intellectual or creative work….One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others by means of love, friendship, compassion.
––Simone de Beauvoir, The Coming of Age, 1970
Your Goals
Goals and plans are useless ideas without a concerned and determined leader. You must lead yourself: only you can construct your future happiness; only you can know where you want to go and how you will get there; only you can dig into yourself and muster the strengths to defeat your enemies and challenge the future.
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Cancer: 100 Ways to Fight - My Philosophy
Fighting cancer requires the assembly of many strong qualities, and their application at an extreme level not previously attempted.
We do not know how much our cancer is beyond our control, how much it responds to treatment, and how much it can be affected by fighting it in 100 ways. But, we do know for certain that positive mental attitudes and physical strengths directly affect the outcome. Whether and when we die of cancer depends in part on ourselves. It is therefore imperative to assume that how and how hard we fight will improve the quantity and quality of our lives and could tip the balance and make all the difference between victory and defeat.
––John Roberts
Positive Attitude
Attitude is powerful. It rescues you, it defines you, it drives you. Make it genuine, and use it like a lethal weapon. A positive attitude means you are an expert in self-motivation, remaining cheerful in the face of difficulties, and maintaining your focus on progress and benefits. The negatives are always there, growling; you just have to keep them in their cage so they don’t devour you.
Self
I manage myself. Now, I must gradually give that up.
A medical test is not always just a measurement. It can also be a subjective evaluation of something much deeper––the accompanying will of the patient to improve future results.
––John Roberts
I hated sympathy. Friends and acquaintances would approach with furrowed brows and sad eyes and I would shoot them a back-off glance. When things became difficult I realized it was like a trust game and that I should have closed my eyes and fallen backward into their arms, so they could carry me. I carried myself.
––Deborah Lewis, “The Day Before Tomorrow,”
Washington Post, July 23, 2007In my practice, I have found that patients and families were capable of making wise decisions once they had the tools available to make those decisions. Knowledgeable, well-informed patients are extremely valuable allies of the health care professionals involved in cancer care, because such patients are able to participate actively and more comfortably in the entire process of cancer care––from the decision-making stage through the period of treatment to long-term follow-up.…Achieving success in cancer care is best done with the patient as an integral part of a partnership.
––C. Norman Coleman, M.D., Understanding Cancer: A Patient’s Guide to Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Treatment, 2nd Ed., 2006
The best-educated human being is the one who understands most about the life in which he is placed.
––Helen Keller
There are three marks of the superior man: being virtuous, he is free from anxiety; being wise, he is free from perplexity; being brave, he is free from fear.
––Confucius
Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person we become.
––Jim Rohn
With full respect for all the different kinds of support we receive during our illness, we are largely passive recipients of all that they do. It is our own self that we can control and direct at the disease, just as the doctor does with his tools. It is our mighty heart that maintains the organism that all the other efforts are trying to save.
With cancer, we suddenly become selfish, focused on self, absorbed with treatment and every change in results, symptoms, and forecast. But, this can also become a full-time fixation, pulling us away from the enjoyment of our daily life and our love for others. It is difficult to raise our mundane pleasures above pain and despair, but there are ways to minimize the latter while we concentrate on happiness. We can learn that the fight for survival does not preclude enjoying our life. We can learn to move the ceaseless efforts into the background, where they continue to function smoothly without our constant direction.
Managing self means bringing to the surface our choice from the large collection of thoughts and activities that are part of both our fight and our happiness. They compete for our attention, sometimes compellingly so, but we learn how to prioritize them, sometimes reading a book or playing with grandchildren while the bones ache and the worries attempt to erupt. It is within us, if we have the mental strength and understanding, even when we are seriously ill, to create the happiness of all our remaining days.
We tend to run our own lives, and we can get weary of hearing the stream of diverse and uninformed advice. We need to learn to separate from that the good advice that can be valuable.
What we are is partly what we have been, whom we have loved, and we must not lose touch with our past and the world around us as the days narrow down. The consciousness of self in the brain is connected to all the other parts through those billions of neurons that form the patterns of our memory and existence. As we begin to see our departure from life, the focus of the brain is on the self, but in the context of our connections to the world in which we have lived. The time comes when the self wants to be alone to contemplate and rest, but we must try not to prematurely allow our connections to others whither away.
Lord save us all from old age and broken health and a hope tree that has lost the faculty of putting out blossoms.
––Mark Twain
The doomsayers have always had their uses, since they trigger the coping mechanism that often prevents the events they forecast.
––Walter Wriston,
Risk and Other Four-Letter Words, 1986
Self-Respect
Considering and improving your self-respect may be low on your list of priorities when you are seriously ill and painful. But, it is an essential part of the process of moving into a positive state and acceptance of the end, however far away that may be. It is never too late to make a useful improvement. There must come a time, sooner rather than later, when you stop regretting the past and seek and build the positive thoughts and attitudes that enable a steady and final peace and understanding with yourself.
62. REALITY
63. Quality of Life
64.Surviving
65. Cures
66. Acceptance
67. Forgiveness
68. Compassion
69. Love
71. WILL TO LIVE
72. Plan
73. Teamwork
74. Balance
76. MIND-BODY
77. Health
78. Self-Care
80. SOLITUDE
81. Memory
82. Meditation
83. Wisdom
84. Spirituality
85. Afterlife
86. Peace
87. Future
89. THE GREAT
ADVENTURE90. Homestretch
91. Letting Go
92. Grief
93. Last Words
94. Final Moments
95. Chronology
97. PHILOSOPHY
98. Fitness
99. Brain
100. Death
PART XIII:
EPILOGUE
FINAL THOUGHTS
1. John Roberts
2. James D. Roberts
Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strength. When you go through hardship and decide
not to surrender, that is strength.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
After I was diagnosed and had my surgery in 1997, I was not given much hope of surviving 5 years by the oncologists at the Cancer Clinic. Thankfully, my husband and I had done tons of research, so I KNEW that I wanted to have chemo and radiation treatments and had already started a regime of herbs and vitamins. With a lot of love, support and prayers, I am still here with no recurrence SO I KNOW that miracles ARE possible.
--Iris
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Author
John Roberts
john@canfighter.com
The more you live, the less you die. There is a lot more to living than the absence of dying. There is a lot more to dying than waiting and suffering. The cancer fighter seeks not just the absence of death, but quantity and quality of life that are mixed together as one. Why make a massive, enervating fight if there is no reward, not only at the end but in the fight itself? Thus, it is a prolonged and organized effort that has built-in compensation, a state of mind and pride that thrives on the challenge and the anticipation of each additional, noble moment of inspired life.
Don’t let the fear of dying ruin the rest of your life. Fighting to live is not incompatible with preparing to die. Acceptance of the danger, even the inevitability, of dying is realistic, but does not preclude fighting to prolong life and enjoying as much as possible of what remains.
It is easy to find the joy in life when we are healthy, much less so when we are ill. The greater value of short time remaining will not be realized if we do not seek and manage the activities and feelings that give us secure happiness. We may treasure the growing anticipation of eternal tranquility.
Emotions
Few people know how much emotion adversely affects their behavior, their health, and their future. Emotional control is essential to success and happiness in life, never more than when we face chronic illness and the threat of death. The essence of this is that we must learn to set aside or control the “bad” emotions, and strengthen the value of good ones. Most people have trouble in enabling that distinction. Prolonged emotions that hurt can cause unhealthy physical changes, and those that feel good accomplish the reverse. Once we control our emotions, we may concentrate on controlling our activity, thoughts, and happiness every day, and thereby improve our health and strength to fight disease.
Letting Go
Letting go is a normal part of the process of dying that may be managed by the patient. The person may realize, or the doctor may inform, that there is nothing more that can be done to cure; the new objective is to make the remaining time comfortable and to assist in the various mental processes that try to enable a passing in peace and understanding. This may take months, or just hours. In any case, it involves a change of attitude and focus. It does not mean taking down the barriers and wishing for death that will take advantage of no further resistance. It means shifting to attitudes that have been prepared in advance so that the final mental state is what one wishes. It therefore bypasses the resignation of defeat to a new stage of preparation and acceptance
Dorothy Hamill
Gold Medal, 1976 Olympic Figure Skating
I was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2007, and even after my breast cancer surgeries, I was always out there, not skating well but doing it because it’s always been something I’ve loved. And I think learning to work hard and learning to win and lose really early in life gives you backbone and resilience. It absolutely made me stronger. I look at cancer as just another challenge that comes along. It’s not the end of the world. You can either fight it, or you can throw in the towel.
––Dorothy Hamill, “Memory Games,”
The Washington Post Magazine,
July 27, 2998
Every day you fight to live may add another day that you do.
––John Roberts
This page was last updated: July 11, 2009
My Attitude
My attitude is so strong
it will be the last part of me to die.
There is risk in almost everything we do. Some can be measured or predicted, while some is random and surprising. It is also usually possible to reduce risk by taking precautions, or to increase it in search of adventure or greater reward. Understanding and controlling risk can add to the quality of our lives. Aggressive and self-confident attitudes in the face of risk are strong cancer-fighting weapons.
––John Roberts
There is the thrill of living “to the fullest,” taking chances, enjoying challenge and the rush of adrenalin. Seeing life as an adventure is like that. It is living life by taking risks, even risking life, and thrilling in that sense of skill and uncertainty. It is certainly not an image for everyone. But for those who see life this way, there may be no other way to live. Everything else is boring and tedious. And unlike life as art or as literature, life as adventure never plans a proper ending.
When it’s over, it’s just––over.
––Robert C. Solomon, The Big Questions, 1990
The will to do, the soul to dare.
––Sir Walter Scott
Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you.
––Arnold Palmer
In the end, what we regret most are the chances we never took.
––Kelsey Grammer (Frazier, Last TV Show, 2004, 11 years)
You think we do this kind of work because we’re scared to die?
––Gunfighter in: Robert B. Parker, Appaloosa, 2006
The Wild Man experience produces an attitude, and this attitude is a threat to all that is evil. The person who is wild has the attitude that he is not an easy prey. He ceases to be lugubrious and begins to become a lion. He becomes a hazard to cultural constructs that would keep him, those he loves and all mankind dumb and down.
––Doug Giles, Author: The Bulldog Attitude
I have usually dealt with life and now fight cancer with the same aggressive and confident attitude that impelled me to become a fighter pilot, volunteer for a couple of combat tours, and engage in a variety of aggressive sports and other activities most of my long life. Clinging to the icy wall of a mountain and loving the view or hurtling alone down the bobsled run at St. Moritz, depending only on yourself, taking all of the responsiblity, requires a certain attitude if you are going to enjoy it. I have made mistakes in trying to adjust my many risks with the potential reward, but I have had wonderful opportunities to overcome the fearful insecurities of my childhood, enjoy an adventurous and rewarding life, and build the strengths to overcome problems and fight cancer. Now, I need my fighting spirit again: it is still there, in a moderated style, operating quietly but effectively as I pretend to be a nice old guy with not a care or illness in the world. As always, it is not just something to draw upon occasionally, but the necessary and guiding heart just beneath the surface that infuses my overall attitude toward life. It influences everything I do, but I certainly have to temper it in various situations. As we said as flight instructors: it is better to have a student with too much spirit, which we can control, than one with not enough, which we cannot create.
I must repeat what I said in the beginning: I am not asking you to fight the way I do; your illness may prevent you and you don’t have the self-control and killer instinct built into you by the necessities of training and survival that I did; but I hope you can learn something from my forward frame of mind; I am asking you to try to maintain an aggressive and confident attitude, to build your own version of the fighting spirit, because that is what will spread throughout your body and help you succeed in your fight. What you think is what you are. This is not just one of your strengths; it guides all your strengths.
A positive attitude requires more than the mere hope of success; when the threat is severe, it requires boldness, audacity, and concentration on strengthening the fight when the going gets tough. To dare is not the foolish and frivolous game of children. It is a plan with a vision, driven by an understanding of the risk vs. reward ratio, the confidence in the capabilities that make it possible, and the necessity of achieving the goal. Sometimes, we have to fight fiercely without knowledge of the full reward for victory, and that inspires a special spirit, and the excitement of taking a flight into an unknown sky.
Winning
Winning is habit-forming:
start early, do not practice failing.
The real winner knows that winning is a personal philosophy and a way of life that requires a quantum jump into a comprehensive, deeply imbedded attitude and belief system. That system sees personal goals with a different vision that most others do not understand or feel the need to achieve. The real winner has developed a different kind of brain for overcoming difficulty and finding happiness with a mind that automatically pursues exceptional achievement with intense coordination and effort.
––John Roberts
Those who know how to win are much more numerous than those who know how to make proper use of their victories.
––Polybius
If we win here we will win everywhere. The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it.
––Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls, 1940
A man can be destroyed, but not defeated.
––Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, 1952
Defeat is a far cry from failure.
––Sign at Suffolk Downs Racetrack
Winners get scars too.
––Johnny Cash
When you win, nothing hurts.
––Joe Namath
Winners evaluate themselves on what they are, not on what other people think they should be. They do not allow themselves to be guided by other people’s standards or beliefs. Winners do not allow others to act as their judge and jury.…So, imagine yourself to be a winner. Program your subconscious mind with positive concepts and attitudes of love, success, and self-respect. As you think, so shall you become.
––James K. Van Fleet, Hidden Power, 1987
Winning is the essential goal of fighting. Defeating cancer requires that state of mind. Almost everyone wins at something now and then. The real winner wins consistently in pursuit of challenging goals. The real winner has developed a set of qualities––determination, optimism, goal-setting, self-confidence and maximum use of personal resources––that match capabilities with reachable but difficult objectives. The winner has learned the habit-forming value of winning in enjoyable activity, and how to sustain performance and focus beyond most others. The real winner thrives on winning as much as most people thrive on avoiding challenge and fearing failure. Each victory adds not only self-satisfaction, it adds to the likelihood and habit of future victories.
The real winner goes beyond achieving mere scores and relative victories, which may have much to do with the nature of the loser. The building of a winning system of attitudes and behavior and the resulting changes that permeate the winner are far more important than the victories won. The purpose of winning is strengthening capability for future battles as much as winning the current one. The purpose of winning is to become something different so that all future life is different.
Winning generates and improves other qualities. The psychic or tangible rewards reinforce the motivation, determination, optimism, and other attitudes that support the winning mentality. You are not a winner yet by virtue of your first victory, although that sets you on your course. To be a winner deep inside, not just on paper or in statistics, there has to have been a deep change in character and belief, a fixed state of mind that partially achieves victory even before the battle begins.
With cancer you win every day you’re alive. Small achievements enable large victories––for want of a nail, the playing fields of Eton, and all that. Each small victory creates a positive sense of achievement and a stronger belief in the ability to do it again, and again, and again. Step by step, your attitude changes, your self-confidence and motivation improve. Setbacks are taken in stride, you come back, the race continues, more little victories are accumulated, the tide of battle turns, you can win, you can win. How can you if you don’t think like that all day, every day?
"Your book full of wise and courageous counsel is a labor of service and love to all who share the uncertainties and anxieties of this illness. A legion of 'angels' is the expression I use to refer to the hundreds of family and friends around the world that have embraced my family and me in prayers, positive thoughts and suggestions. It makes a huge difference. You are one of my Legionnaires."
--Fernando
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Sample Chapters
The fitness of your mind and the fitness of your body are synergistic and give mutual support. The weakness of one endangers the health of the other.
New Book, New Life
July 11, 2009
Summary
I have been fighting incurable cancer for three years, during which I
wrote this book. It is a kind of
textbook, not about me or my specific cancer, but a comprehensive introduction and a wide range of ideas and thoughts for fighting cancer of all kinds by an informed cancer patient and professional writer.
I am a published author with a background as a combat fighter pilot, magazine editor, newspaper columnist, MBA instructor, corporate CEO, and participant in extreme sports. So, I have learned how to fight - with knowledge, motivation, optimism, and spirit.
Any individual, regardless of background, illness, or time remaining, may positively influence the outcome with an effort at building strong attitudes and an otherwise healthy body. I have no symptoms yet, and lead an active, happy life with regular exercise, fitness, health management, and optimistic attitudes. Anyone in the world of cancer can improve their outlook by reading this book.
See Book Selections Below
12 Section Introductions
12 Chapters
Cancer: 100 Ways to Fight:
A Positive Guide for Patients, Survivors, Caregivers, and Loved Ones
by John Roberts (265 pages, 6”X9” Trade Paperback)
will be published around October 1. It will be available on Amazon at a large discount, and can also be ordered from bookstores then. Some of the chapters may be viewed now at the website, www.CanFighter.com. Publication notice will be sent to all contacts. Please send e-mail addresses to add to the notification list: John@CanFighter.com.
I have just entered chemotherapy, which should extend my lifespan considerably. You may or may not be interested in the details of my current situation and pending treatment, but they illustrate what science is doing in seeking the cure to currently incurable cancers. Earlier this year, the best information I had from doctors and my research was that my prostate cancer metastasized to the bones was incurable and the small percentage of patients with this condition had an average survival time of three years. This is difficult to project because of overlapping treatments and large individual variation. But, 50% die in three years and another 25% die in two more years. There is a huge difference between those who have simple prostate cancer and those in whom it has spread to the bones.
My three year point is this fall. Almost half of my statistical comrades are already dead. Given my age of 74 and some other post-operation warning signs, notwithstanding my natural optimism and fighting attitude, I had to assume for planning purposes that I would survive the average and be gone before Christmas. The two standard treatments that suppress the cancer have lost their effectiveness on schedule and there is nothing left but temporary chemotherapy. This also loses its effectiveness in time, and the bones, vital organs, or immune system are overcome by the multiplying cancer cells, leading to death.
Unhappy with accepting complacent doctors and this negative prognosis, I sought out new doctors, new treatments, and clarification of the statistics based on my particular condition and cancer characteristics. I found an expert on prostate cancer and experimental treatments (trials) who serves both my VA Hospital and neighboring, highly-regarded University of Maryland Cancer Center. He has been a med school professor for decades and manages about ten different trials of treatment combinations. Much of the current search for more longevity and a possible cure is concentrated on applying successful and possible treatments simultaneously. This can be more potent than sequential treatments. (This approach led to the powerful “cocktails” that are now successful in suppressing aids.) The longer I can live, the greater the chance of a breakthrough discovery that will overcome the dreaded statistics.
I recently spent half a day with three different doctors and a PhD in biochemistry. I then underwent several days of scans and tests to thoroughly examine my body and gain approval for entry into an advanced trial. (They want otherwise healthy people so that the results can be based as much as possible on the treatment and the cancer, not, say, a bad heart.) The doctors concluded that, except for the cancer, I was the healthiest, most mentally and physically fit patient in their clinic. I could pass for someone 10-15 years younger. Those 55 years of running, racquetball, flying combat, climbing mountains, and keeping the brain alive and challenged may yet pay off in longevity.
Based on all this new judgment and analysis, and my healthy cancer-fighting body and attitude, my new team-leading doctor says, with current treatments, I am more likely to live two years, not six months. Chemotherapy longevity is very unpredictable, ranging from months to years, but I have major advantages to push me to longer toleration and cancer resistance. And, the trial I may soon enter adds the latest hot new treatment that works successfully alone and has been FDA approved for several other cancers. But, it has not yet been combined with chemotherapy for metastasized prostate cancer. It is called anti-angiogenesis, meaning it stops new cancer cells from building a blood supply for nourishment. So, this is a double-whammy, killing old cancer cells and preventing new ones from taking root.
I just learned that, unfortunately, the National Institute of Health computer did not randomize me into the 50% group receiving the new treatment. So, indebted to science, I go on with chemotherapy alone, adding to the necessary group with which the new treatment may be compared. I felt no side-effects at all in my first few days, which is good news, tolerating it well. We watch PSA to see how fast and how long, it drops. If something new and promising comes up, I can always quit the trial and move on. We are already planning alternatives as my new course develops.
It may not work. Something in me may not respond to or tolerate the chemotherapy treatment, brutal to both body and cancer cells. Under my instructions, my new team supplies only the most advanced science and honest projections, while I provide the hope and optimism. Multiplying my expected longevity by four is a great gift, and I find that I have a little more good cheer than when I thought I was short of time. Stable, positive, focused attitude and persistently fighting in 99 other ways, under all circumstances, is the only way to earn and enjoy more life. I thank you for your concern and encouragement.
