Cancer diagnoses aren’t easy to deal with.
It can be soul crushing to discover you have cancer. The important thing to remember is that you aren’t alone. There are plenty of ways to manage your cancer diagnosis and live a full and happy life.
Take Care of Your Body
It’s important to take good care of your body during your cancer treatment.
One of the hardest things for some patients is to take care of the body that betrayed them.
Try to spend a few hours a day performing self-care rituals. Get a massage, take a hot bath or visit a reflexologist.
Visit a Therapist
It’s also important to try to work through your feelings surrounding your cancer.
Visiting a therapist can help you work through feelings of anger, sadness, betrayal and isolation.
There are plenty of therapists who specialize in cancer patients and who have worked through other patients just like you.
Encourage Spirituality
Some people who develop cancer are already spiritual. Many cancer patients are not spiritual and find a tremendous amount of grief in the idea that they might die.
The patients who are able to find solace in spirituality are more likely to enjoy the time they have (no matter how long that is) and come out on the other side with a new sense of fulfillment.
Even reading the NIV Application Commentary for an hour each day can help you find some peace in this process.
Talk to Your Family and Friends
Many cancer patients automatically find the idea of giving the bad news to friends and family members more terrifying than the cancer itself. Yet it’s important to share your diagnosis with those who love you most.
You’ll need their support in the weeks and months ahead.
You’ll also want to tell them so they don’t feel blindsided when they do find out.
Try to tell one family member before telling the others. Ask that one family member to help you tell the second family member. Ask the two family members to help you tell the third.
Continue this process until you have told everyone you need to tell.
It’s perfectly normal to post the news on social media once you’ve told your close friends and family. It can become difficult to have the conversation over and over again. Your friends and family will understand if you can’t tell them all in person about your diagnosis.
Talk to Other Cancer Patients
You need as big of a support group as possible to deal with this diagnosis. Talking to other cancer patients and survivors can help you understand how to deal with cancer. The cancer patients will understand how you feel more than your friends and family members. They can offer you advice on how to deal with such a diagnosis. They’ll even be able to give you a few additional tools to add to your toolbelt to help you deal in the best way possible.
Eat Healthy and Exercise
You need to take care of your health as much as possible from here on out.
Your doctor will probably talk to you about how to eat and exercise during your treatment and after your treatment is complete.
It’s important to get plenty of sleep each night.
If your doctor gives you the go ahead, try walking for a gentle form of exercise. Eat the foods you love, but try to incorporate as many healthy foods into your diet as well. Taking good care of your body can help the healing process.
Enjoy the Activities You Love
It’s important to be healthy and take care of your body. It’s also important to remember that life is short, so you should enjoy the activities you love.
If you love going out to eat, try to incorporate that type of activity into your treatment program.
If you love swimming, swim as much as your doctor deems healthy for you.
Focusing on the activities you love will help you keep up your strength.
