– The Snarling Wolf

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excerpted from Kaiulani Facciani’s book, Whatever Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Strong.

 

You don’t “beat” stage IV breast cancer.

The most you can do is grab the snarling wolf

by the throat and hold it at arm’s length,

trying not to be intimidated by the fangs

and the spittle and the intensity of its desire

to rip you to pieces.

 

If you’re lucky, you temporarily tame it

or it may tire itself out for awhile

but you are always on your guard,

knowing it will eventually awaken and attack again.

 

Right now, he is snoring softly at my feet.

Be vewy, vewy qui-yet.

 

 

…

– Tattoo of the Heart

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excerpted from Kaiulani Facciani’s book, Whatever Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Strong.

 

November, 2013 – I had just been diagnosed with 9 leptomeningeal mets/tumors in my brain and given weeks to live. My son surprised me with this tattoo he had designed himself (my name with a breast cancer ribbon for the “a”). I said, “Oh, that’s so sweet, you’ll always have this to remember me by!” He said, “No, we’ll have it to help us celebrate in 20 years after you’ve kicked its ass!”. I’m now NEAD. : )

newtattooThen he posted on Facebook…

New Tattoo, by Jace

A little more than a year ago, I came back from backpacking the Amazon jungle and confronting my fears only to be faced with a new one. When I returned, I discovered my mother had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and given a couple of months to live. Tumors up and down her spine crushed her vertebrae and hip, limiting her ability to walk. Doctors said she would never walk again, but anyone who knows my mother knows she’s as stubborn as she is loving and wasn’t gonna go without a fight. A year later, I am sitting here in Oahu, watching her surf the same waves she did as a kid. I am sooo thankful to spend another Christmas with my beautiful mother! I love you mom, and Mele Kalikimaka! My heart goes out to all the families who have lost someone.

I know, right? I should try to stick around for this guy, doncha think?

 

 

– The path you choose

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excerpted from Kaiulani Facciani’s book, Whatever Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Strong.

 

The diagnosis of cancer left me reeling and disoriented. I stopped at the store and spaced out… staring… in front of the dairy section. “So what does this mean? How long do I have? Do I buy a pint… or a gallon?”

Time slows down; mouths open; people talk; nothing makes sense; the non-existent wind howls in your ears; time speeds up; you don’t know where you are or how you got there. So much is unknown and there are so many ramifications. So much information. So many emotions to process. And your loved ones need to process. And everyone is watching you process. All you want to do is curl up in the fetal position and hope it just… goes… away.

Ultimately, you must choose a path. Cycle through the stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. Inform yourself. Commit to yourself. Choose a path that honors you.

My own path began in 2007. I’ve survived against all odds and prognoses. As of this writing, I am healthy and vibrant, in spite of having a terminal diagnosis and been given just weeks to live… twice. They say that it is incurable and that it will kill me, sooner than later. But that maybe they can buy me some time. Screw that! Who are they to give me weeks? I’m gonna take them. And I’m taking as many as I want, dammit!

The truth is… they don’t know, nobody knows. There are many people who beat the odds they were given simply because they refused to accept the odds and took action. I am a single mom and I have chosen to do everything I can to defeat it, or buy as much time as I can. I’m buying the gallon… not the pint.

I have chosen to fight. I have chosen to be the author of my destiny. I employ naturopathic protocols and toxic modern medicine. Radiation shrunk tumors and chemotherapy stopped the advance of new growth. I cleanse my body of toxins and provide nutrients and anti-cancer remedies from around the world to change the bioterrain that allowed cancer to thrive. I choose to view cancer as a gift and explore my emotional landscape for opportunities to grow and cleanse my mind and soul. The healthier my emotions, the better equipped to fight and win my body will be and the less likely cancer will dominate. And I will show my son what it means to not give up. That is the path that I have chosen. Because I know that if I don’t choose that path, there is no chance of winning. And I will win.
And if I die? I will be a better person for this path!

While shopping in a consignment store near the oncology clinic, a bald woman in a turban was trying on some white pants that she liked. “You know the rule about white pants after Labor Day, don’t you?” her friend commented. “Yeah, well, I’m into breaking rules right now,” she replied.

A second friend entered the store and joined them. “There is nothing but snow and mud back home!” she exclaimed. “Why on EARTH would you be trying on white pants?”, her Southern lilt demanded. “Because…” our shero avowed firmly and testily. “…I will wear them next SPRING!” Buying those pants was a symbol of hope… a way of thumbing her nose at the prognosis. I completely understood. She was buying the gallon.

She stood at the cash register, white pants firmly in hand. She fidgeted nervously, still upset at her friends who obviously doubted that she would survive the winter to wear those pants in the spring.

“I floss my teeth,” I offered.

“Excuse me?” she said, puzzled.

“And I use wrinkle cream. These are MY affirmations that I will be around long enough to be happy I did these things.” She hugged me gratefully. And, I returned it. A nice, long hug.

– Energy Vortices

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excerpted from Kaiulani Facciani’s book, Whatever Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Strong.

 

Positive energy attracts and begets positive energy and
negative energy attracts and begets negative energy. – me

We all know this to be true on some level. Quantum physicists talk about co-existing alternate realities. They cite the observer effect, which basically states that the presence of an observer affects which probability will become reality. Perhaps you can influence which potential becomes reality by thinking it…. greasing the wheels, so to speak… increasing the probability that potential will come to pass. In The Hidden Messages in Water, Dr. Emoto shows how positive and negative emotions directed at water can create different crystallization patterns in that water upon freezing…. Beautiful, lace-like patterns for thoughts of love and distorted, mutated shapes for hateful thoughts. True or not, we are more than 70% water. Let’s suppose words, thoughts, and emotions have vibrational frequencies that play a role in creating our realities. Even if you don’t believe this, I do… and that creates my reality.

I have learned to trust the universe to return the energy that I give. This concept plays such a huge role in my daily existence right now but I still forget. Coming off of 3 bad days, I am having a good day. No… I am having a GREAT day. Because I started out NOT feeling like shit, which was a big improvement. So, I allowed myself, unconsciously, bit by bit, to relax and breathe and eat. Each positive step grew exponentially, so that I felt better and put good energy out and got it back in spades, until the negative energy vortex I had been stuck in reversed itself and spiraled up.

I went out into the world to a new doctor on my team, blew him away with positive energy, and he hugged me and thanked me. Buoyed by that exchange, I had a rockin’ yoga class and was able to do twice as much as before. My teacher came over and commented on my energy which filled me with the strength I need to prepare myself for the chemo I am hooked up to as I write. Then, it’s off to acupuncture which always makes me feel great. I feel re-connected to my will to live and commitment to fight and belief that I will cure this cancer into not coming back, in spite of what the doctors say.

And I reflect on why I have been losing that feeling of late. And I imagine these energy vortices that feed on themselves and either spiral downwards or upwards. And it only takes one action to reverse it. But it’s so hard to reverse a negative spiral when you feel like crap and can’t leave the toilet, the bed, or the apartment. And it’s f&%#ing raining every single day!

It’s like this Sisyphean task to push this huge boulder uphill. But as soon as you get it started, it becomes easier and easier as the positive energy that comes back to you feeds into it until that boulder is sailing uphill by itself. I just have to remind myself to make that first effort and send out as much positive energy as I can, especially when I don’t feel like it.

I reflect about the smiles I’ve received today in return for mine and how they not only energized me but how they might have instigated a reverse towards the positive in the person I gave the smile to. So, perhaps the most valuable naturopathic protocol I can do is to make myself leave the apartment at least once a day and go and smile at someone. I can become the creepy neighborhood smiling lady! No, seriously, I’m surrounded by ethnic minorities that don’t speak English well (nor each others’ languages) and people undergoing chemo. And it rains EVERY day, did I mention that? These are my daily playmates and none of them smile much. But when I hit them with my smile gun, and their face crinkles in response, my hard-won trophy counts for more.

Look around you and find something beautiful and suck it into your being. Let it energize you to do one small but positive thing you couldn’t have thought you could do before that beauty filled you. That one positive thing will grow within you and the next day you will do a bigger positive thing and so on.

I have always been described as being a naive idealist… as though it’s a criticism? God, I love being a naive idealist… it feeds me! I don’t want to become a jaded realist! Jaded realists die, naive idealists live!

Don’t let others pull you into their storm,
pull them into your peace.  – Kimberly Jones