Best Life After Cancer

In honor of Miles' birthday, his and my gift to you is this meditation for cancer survivors, which should help with fear, anxiety and maybe even chronic discomfort.

This podcast, written and recorded in June, talks about my husband and my journey with his recurrent head and neck cancer, as we waited for testing and surgery, and how I dealt with the struggles of managing my worries while we waited for testing, biopsies, and our surgical date.  Waiting sucks, but there are things you can do to improve your experience.

After loosing my son, Miles in a car accident, my mom unexpectedly from complications of endocarditis, dealing with my oldest son's depression and flashbacks to the accident, and navigating the diagnosis of a vocal cord cancer in my husband, I was struggling to navigate working as well.  I talk today about how to know you need to take time off and what to do with that time.

Rita was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive form of melanoma, that rapidly spread to her nodes, then to her liver and elsewhere.  Today, her scans are clear.  Hear her story, with all of the challenges and triumphs that came along the way.  She is an inspiration!

I share some of the concrete steps I took to make it through the first five months after losing my 13 yo son, Miles.  These same techniques will help newly diagnosed cancer patients in surviving their first months as well.  I hope it helps you stay afloat, navigate the unpredictable currents, and eventually reach the shore.

This podcast talks about grief - that it is normal and necessary.  I talk about the stages of grief as I see them in my oncology patients, and as I experience them as a grieving parent.  

So often we ask food to be more than just the sustenance our bodies need.  But when we do this, there are ALWAYS negative consequences.  Understand why you are doing this and some insight on how to stop.

Whether it is a death in the family, a cancer diagnosis or another trauma, what well-meaning family and friends say can be challenging.  Today, I talk about both my experience with this, and share a letter from a follower of the podcast.  Keep sending my messages about what you all want to hear about!

Michelle went through mastectomies with implant reconstruction, and developed a significant capsular contraction, in part from radiation.  She went on to have a latissimus flap reconstruction to repair this, and is now feeling great and enjoying life.  This podcast was recorded the week before I lost Miles, and it is nice to hear me sounding happy, relaxed and care free.

I lost my son, Miles, a week ago. It was in a tragic car accident. He was 13. I may be absent from this space for a bit as I grieve, but know that I will be back and share the wisdom that I’ve gained along the way.  https://www.princetonfriendsschool.org/support-pfs/miles-brackin-memorial-fund https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-a-wetsuit-under-an-umbrella/id1527899838?i=1000533237126

This is a great, heartfelt, honest look at the treatment for cervical cancer, the long term effects and the stigma of the diagnosis, from a very lovely new mother.

The news is buzzing with all sorts of speculation on the Delta Variant, and social media is abuzz with both those pushing others to get the vaccine and those trumpeting vaccine horror stories.  Who to believe?  In this podcast, I summarize the two things I read and heard lately that I found most useful.  The first is a NYT podcast by Ezra Klein, interviewing NYU medical school epidemiologist Dr. C...

Meredith got triple negative breast cancer in her 30's, when her daughter was 19 months old.  She had a goal of seeing her daughter go to kindergarten.  Now, she is 15 years out, and watched her daughter strike out the top softball recruit in the US!  She tells us her 2 week rule, and why she thinks you need to balance quality of life in treatment decisions.

This episode goes through options for many of the side effects of perimenopause: hot flashes, vaginal dryness, sexual changes, and more. If post cancer, you have been thrust into menopause, help is here!

Shannon, a long time nurse, was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, was planning for a clinical trial, then also found to have thyroid cancer.  She took all of this in stride, had chemotherapy with a pathologic complete response, mastectomies and thyroid surgery.  She shares her tips for feeling good at the end of treatment, and some of the insights from a healthcare worker turned patien...

This is part of one of the classes in my Best Life After Cancer's Weight Loss program.  It helps you to really dig into why you want to lose weight or decrease alcohol, and leverage those reasons to help follow your plan.  This work is so important if you want to permanently change habits and create new, healthy ones!

Our brains have so much wisdom.  We can ask ourselves who we would be if we were at our goals, and then make decisions from that place.  I call this "living as your ideal self" but a client calls it "fake it til you make it".  Either way, it is a technique in your toolkit to help you follow your plans and achieve your goals.

This is Pauline's story - as always, uplifting and motivating, with a bit of a twist with a discussion of the cyber attack on the Irish Medical System!

There is so much good to know here - the havoc chronic fear wreaks on our bodies, why we tell patients to avoid blogs, and how some people use fear to their advantage!

Understanding how our brains and bodies experience fear can help us know how to manipulate and work with it.  Learn the neuroscience and chemistry of fear in this episode, along with how and why cancer patients in particular struggle with fear.

Not many people make a pact with themselves to walk 30 minutes every single day of their cancer treatment and run whenever they are able.  Janet proves what is possible during chemo, and what's more, that our mental wellbeing is often linked to our physical wellbeing.  You will love hearing how she stayed positive, even after the devastating finding of a significant lymph node recurrence!

If we don’t address these obstacles come out weight loss is almost guaranteed to fail. Today we talk about how parts of our brain can be used to help or hinder weight loss, what we’re asking food to do in our lives and how to identify the challenges that may face us. If you’re interested in the weight loss webinar, you can access it here: https://www.bestlifeaftercancer.com/WtGain

Weight loss is not just calories in less than calories out.  There is so much more.  Listen to this episode to understand the role of insulin and weight set point.

Recently, I have heard from more and more patients that they feel empty after treatment.  Why is this so?  Today, I try to unpack this and give some tips to help you recover your " joi de vivre".  

Elisa has some of the greatest tips so far on how to manage the overwhelm that comes when one is newly diagnosed with cancer.  I love how she set up a system to have all of the contact from friends and family organized and screened ahead - it is something I will recommend to patients in the future!  She is also an amazing success story in how coaching helps after cancer!  Enjoy!