Overcoming Our Problems with the Help of some P's

As many of you have noticed I haven’t written on the blog in a couple days. To be frank, the reason for this is I haven’t had anything to write about. You see the weather creates this little mini isolation “prison” for me in my apartment. How does it do that you may ask? Well first off, this time of year people don’t take care of themselves and there is a plethora of airborne illness floating around in the air as people cough and sneeze, most people don’t cover their mouths. So this provides quite a risk to my health with the immune suppression I am on. The second contributing factor has been the weather. It has been downright crappy. I don’t go out in the raining, cold, or snowy weather just because I again don’t want to take the chance of getting sick. Since I got my photography gloves Tuesday and was all stoked to get some pictures this week, it has literally rained and snowed all week.

You can see the pattern in what drives my behavior and activities right now, minimizing my chances for illness. Secondary illnesses are the leading cause of death in post transplant patients, so I stay extra cautious. No way I am going to have gone through hell and back in my chemotherapy and radiation to beat my cancer only to be taken out by someone else’s illness. So the prison is self imposed but doctor recommended.

As the weather gets nicer and I am able to go for walks it is easier to find inspirations but when you are in the same tiny box each and every day you run out of things to write about ;)

You are probably thinking how on earth does one not go crazy in this situation. Well first hobbies help but just like the past few days they can even get beaten down. The true secret is maintaining your positive attitude. I did a post awhile ago detailing my steps for keeping a positive attitude when going through a personal disaster, The 4 P’s of Positivity. In it I outlined four steps that help us maintain or achieve our positive outlook at the worst of times. If you remember they were:

• Peace
• Perspective
• Passion
• Purpose

Most people took this tool for how I presented it, to be used only in personal disasters, but this wonderful tool can be used in so many situations other than helping overcome our worst nightmares. In fact, I have been employing it in my present situation to keep my outlook positive.

So I thought I would go through a series of posts outlining how I have used each P to maintain my positive mindset. Who knows, maybe it might help you with a situation you are having where you need help getting to that positive mindset.

I am actually going to start with the first step, PEACE, today. Only because in a smaller scale situation like mine it is not very involved step. When we were looking at it in regards to life altering events this was a huge step in the process because so many emotions were involved. With smaller problems like myself imposed prison, the only thing you can really do to achieve Peace is acceptance of your situation.
I accepted when I got out of the hospital that I was going to be uber cautious in my recovery so as not to have any setbacks. Amy and I made the agreement in Day 1 of my journey well over a year ago that we would do everything right the first time no matter how it affected our lives. Knowing that I have to live the way I do while on my immunesuppressant has made it easy for me to accept my situation and make peace with it. I know the situation will get better as the root of what is causing my prison disappears, the immunosuppressants.

For anyone looking to find Peace in their situation so they can continue using the 4 P’s to help achieve their positive mindset, the first step is determining the root of what is causing your problem. You don’t have to try and change the root right away, just accept its existence in your life. Once you have accepted it, you will automatically begin making Peace with it. You don’t have to try and change the root right now, as we move through the steps they will help you with this change. Our goal at the beginning is just to identify the root of our unhappiness, accept its existence in our lives and make peace with it being there.

Many may be saying this sounds like it will be hard, this is only the first step of four. Why put in this much work to achieve a positive mindset for the smaller things. Well my answer is, you don’t have to do anything…..but you should :)

Sure it is going to be hard, and require self reflection and growth. But what in life that is worthwhile isn’t hard to achieve? The question I would ask back is why you wouldn’t do it. Living life positively creates happiness in our lives, and what could be better than that.

My next post I will discuss how I have achieved the second P, Perspective, in my situation.

Why doesn’t each of you play along and use these posts to help with a situation you are each having. I am sure each of you has something small or big that is making you unhappy. We have the weekend for you to make peace with your situation and start finding your perspective.

I would love to hear how you have achieved Peace in your present situations.


Did you enjoy my post today? Save yourself time and get the posts delivered directly to your email. Click Here to get the latest posts delivered directly to your Email

From Bad to Amazing News - A Weekly Update

It has been a little while since my last update so I thought today would be as good as any for another update.

GVHD Update

My GVHD has been well controlled over the past couple weeks.  Last Tuesday we tapered my prednisone down to 125mg from 150mg.  Over the past week my GVHD has still remained fairly under control even with this taper.  A couple times my skin has turned pink but it goes back to normal after a bit.  The first time it happened it gave Amy and I a little worry, and got me quite down because it felt a little like my GVHD would never get under control.  But my body responded and got back to normal.  Now I know that my body will go back and forth in its battle with the GVHD.  Despite the back and forth my doctor is still very happy with my skin’s progress.  So happy that at my appointment yesterday he lowered my dose of prednisone again to 115mg.  He is planning to continue to move very slowly on my taper so as to try and avoid large flare ups with my GVHD. 

Great News

The doctor is so happy with my blood count and organ enzyme results that he cancelled my Friday appointment.  He only wants me coming in once a week so that there isn’t any overthinking done and other doctors don’t start playing with my doses.  This made me very happy and this doctor quickly has moved to the top of my list as favourite doctor J  And the best part is, unlike last time I don’t have any other appointments this week.

Not So Great News

The pathology results came back from my last bone marrow aspiration.  The pathology test tells the doctors how well the blood lines have developed in my bone marrow.  This is an indication of how well the new cells have engrafted.  It turns out though that the sample taken in my last bone marrow aspiration was too diluted for pathologist to get proper results.  So I will have to have another bone marrow aspiration done sometime in the next couple weeks.  The doctor today told me today he is not worried about this test or the results at all, because my blood counts wouldn’t be as strong as they are if there was a problem.  I am not worried about the results of this test either, especially after speaking with the doctor today, but for piece of mind I agreed to do the aspiration again.  I have requested someone specific to do this test so it is done in the proper place and this truly is my last aspiration.

Amazing News

The last bone marrow aspiration wasn’t a complete waste though. The molecular results have come back and there was no trace of the Philadelphia Chromosome found.  They had prepared Amy and I to expect that some of the philadelphia chromosome would be present in this test as it is very common for it to be present this early on, so this was amazing news.  The doctor also explained to me today that this means that I have achieved molecular remission, which is the highest and best form of remission I can achieve.  It doesn’t change the protocol going forward at all and I will still go back on Gleevec to prevent a relapse, but it was such amazing news to hear my transplant achieved full remission.   It makes all of the chemotherapy and terrible radiation worth it.

Personal Update

I finally finished my photography manual last week.  At the end of completing that monster I just needed time to just “veg” out.  So for the past week I barely opened my computer and spent most of my time vegging out on the couch playing Call of Duty Black Ops on my PS3.  It has been wonderful to just veg out.  Yesterday I got an ereader from one of my aunts.  I am extremely excited about this little toy, so much so I have already loaded 80 books on it!  Now to choose which one to read firstJ I also got myself a pair of lowepro photography gloves, to keep my hands warm while using my camera.  Now that the temperature has warmed up a bit from bitter winter, I intend to go out for some afternoon walks with my new gloves and camera and get back into photography. 

Did you enjoy my post today? Save yourself time and get the posts delivered directly to your email. Click Here to get the latest posts delivered directly to your Email

Shedding Some Light into Life with Acute Leukemia

There is a little secret they don’t tell you about Acute Leukemia, it is unlike all other forms of Cancer.  I would never downplay or wish to have any other form of Cancer, but Acute Leukemia can be one nasty partner.  This post is not intended to be a rant so hopefully it doesn’t sound like that ;).  It is just my attempt to shed some light into life living with Acute Leukemia. 

One of the most difficult things about Acute Leukemia is it is not a very common form of Cancer.   Because of this, it is very hard to find stories of others going through it.  To give you an idea of how hard it is, I have yet to find one story from someone in the same age group that has the same form of Leukemia as me.  That’s right, not one.  Why is this important you may ask?  It is really helpful when you are beginning different parts of your treatment to get a little light shed onto what to expect.  Since it is so hard to find leukemia stories that are close to your own, when you are trying to learn about what the different stages of your Cancer journey will be like it is from other forms of Cancer.  Although these are still extremely helpful (Lance’s book was instrumental in my recovery), they are also misleading for an Acute Leukemia patient. 

Acute Leukemia is a very aggressive form of Cancer, which takes extremely intensive treatments to achieve remission.  Unfortunately, once you achieve remission it is not over there.  In most other forms of Cancer, remission is the end of the journey and your life as a survivor begins.  Acute Leukemia is different though, achieving remission isn’t enough.  If you were to just stop at achieving remission, the disease would relapse within a few years.  To truly begin living as a survivor an acute leukemia patient needs to undergo the extremely intense bone marrow transplant. 

After you complete the transplant and are released from the hospital you would expect that your journey in survivorship would begin.  This was one of the biggest surprises for me.  When you get out of the transplant and your treatment is done, there isn’t the feeling of survivorship that you would expect to have.  Sure you are thankful for having survived up until this point but I don’t think you have the full feeling of survivorship because you aren’t done your battle yet. 

After you defeat your leukemia with the intensive chemotherapy cycles and the bone marrow transplant, you have to start fighting another battle.  Your new immune system begins attacking your body.  The routine required to fight this battle is much more structured and than anything during leukemia treatments.  I take way more pills now than ever during my treatments and the timing is very strict.  The schedule is so structured your life is literally run by your pills post transplant. 

When your immune system is attacking you it can actually be fatal if not defended against.  Your only defense is to suppress the immune cells that are attacking you.  The downside to this is that it also makes you very susceptible to illnesses, so you almost have to continue to live in isolation even though you are out of the hospital. 

For me I don’t think I will totally feel like I am entering the survivorship part of my journey until I am off the immune suppressants and can start living life a little more.  As for right now I will continue to fight the fight.  There isn’t too much you can do to fight this fight except try to stay positive and take your pills.  It can be a tough life living in “isolation” that can wear you down mentally.  But it is extremely important because others illnesses can be very dangerous to me.  So I will continue to take my pills, keep away from “sickos”, and wait for the immune system to accept its new home so I can start having some more fun.

I hope this shed some light into life with Acute Leukemia. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Did you enjoy my post today? Save yourself time and get the posts delivered directly to your email. Click Here to get the latest posts delivered directly to your Email

A Little Wisdom to Start Your Week

Although this comes from a children's book the message is so powerful that I just had to share it with everyone.

Did you enjoy my post today? Save yourself time and get the posts delivered directly to your email. Click Here to get the latest posts delivered directly to your Email