I have to agree, GREAT article. We've heard many of these sentiments
before. It often seems to me that the happiest people I know are my brain
tumor friends... not quite what one would expect.



The quote of Lance Armstrong "There are two Lance Armstrongs, precancer and
post..." really hits home for me. I feel I have lived my life as two
different people; the "me" before the tumor and the "me" after.



Thanks for letting us know about this, Bill.



For those of you who would like to read this article, I have copied it into
the email below or you may be able to access it via the link here:



http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/health/14brod.html



Thriving After Life's Bum Rap

By JANE E. BRODY
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/jane_e_brody/i
ndex.html?inline=nyt-per>

Published: August 14, 2007



Can getting
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics
/cancer/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier> cancer make you happy? For Betty
Rollin, survivor of two breast cancers, there's no question about it. In her
newest book, "Here's the Bright Side," Ms. Rollin recounts:

"I woke up one morning and realized I was happy. This struck me as weird.
Not that I didn't have all kinds of things to be happy about - love, work,
good health, enough money, the usual happy-making stuff. The weird part is,
I realized that the source of my happiness was, of all things, cancer - that
cancer had everything to do with how good the good parts of my life were."

Her realization is hardly unique. I have met and read about countless people
who, having faced life-threatening illness, end up happier, better able to
appreciate the good things and people in their lives, more willing to take
the time to smell the roses.

As Ms. Rollin put it: "It turns out there is often - it seems very often -
an astonishingly bright side within darkness. People more than survive bum
raps: they often thrive on them; they wind up stronger, livelier, happier;
they wake up to new insights and new people and do better with the people
around them who are not new. In short, they often wind up ahead."

This is not to suggest that battling cancer is pleasurable. Frustration,
anger and grief are natural reactions. Cancer forces people to put their
lives on hold. It can cause considerable physical and emotional pain and
lasting disfigurement. It may even end in death.

But for many people who make it through, and even for some who do not, the
experience gives them a new perspective on life and the people in it. It is
as if their antennas become more finely tuned by having faced a mortal
threat.

As a woman with incurable ovarian cancer recounted this spring in The New
York Times: "I treat every day as an adventure, and I refuse to let anything
make me sad, angry or worried. I live for the day, which is something I
never did before. Believe it or not, I'm happier now than I was before I was
diagnosed."

Sometimes such changes happen to those who live through the cancer
experiences of others. My mother died at age 49 of ovarian cancer, and I
went off to college thinking that every moment was precious, to be used
productively both for personal betterment and for what I could offer to the
world. At 18 I wrote a speech on preparing one's own epitaph - about being
able to say that however long your life, you lived it fully and made it
count for something meaningful.

Now, 48 years later, as people I know succumb to intractable illness or
sudden death, I am even more attuned to the need to savor every moment and
do whatever I can to make the world a better place and nurture relationships
with friends and family.

Michael Feuerstein, a clinical psychologist and author with Patricia Findley
of "The Cancer Survivor's Guide," was 52 when he was told he had an
inoperable brain
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics
/tumors/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier> tumor and was given a year to
live. But Dr. Feuerstein didn't die - he survived extensive debilitating
treatment and gained a new outlook.

He wrote: "I now realize that I am fortunate. Now, after the cancer, I find
I can more easily put life in perspective. I re-evaluated my workload,
opting to spend more time at home. I take more time for what matters to me
most: my wife and my children and grandchild. I also allocate time to better
understand cancer survivorship from a scientific point of view, so I can
help others in my situation translate this work into useful answers to the
question, 'now what?' I am optimistic about the future and excited to leave
my unique mark on the world."

'A Second Life'

When it comes to leaving a mark on the world,
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/lance_armstron
g/index.html?inline=nyt-per> Lance Armstrong takes first prize. After
surviving treatment for testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and
brain, Mr. Armstrong went on to win the Tour de France a record seven
consecutive times.

"There are two Lance Armstrongs, precancer and post," he recounted in his
2001 memoir, "It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back To Life." "In a way,
the old me did die, and I was given a second life." He created a foundation
to inspire and empower people affected by cancer, helping them live life on
their own terms.

"Cancer was the best thing that ever happened to me," he said. "I don't know
why I got the illness, but it did wonders for me, and I wouldn't want to
walk away from it."

Likewise, Fran Lenzo wrote in the magazine Coping: "
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics
/breastcancer/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier> Breast cancer has given me a
new life. Breast cancer was something I needed to experience to open my eyes
to the joy of living. I now see more of the world than I was choosing to see
before I had cancer. The things that once seemed so important, like keeping
a clean home, are less important. My priorities now are to enjoy everything
around me to the utmost. Breast cancer leaves me no time for personality
conflicts, arguments, debates or controversy. Breast cancer has taught me to
love in the purest sense."

Finding Happiness

There's no question that cancer, whether curable or ultimately fatal,
changes lives. It forces some people to give up careers and may jeopardize
their ability to earn a living. It leaves some people disabled and unable to
pursue athletic or other ambitions requiring physical prowess. It leaves
some people unable to bear or father children. Yet, time after time, even
people who have lost so much find new and often better sources of
fulfillment.

Recurring cancer and the extensive treatment it required forced Dr. Wendy
Schlessel Harpham of Dallas to give up her beloved medical practice. So she
turned her sights to writing, producing book after book that can help people
with cancer achieve the best that medicine and life can offer them.

Dr. Harpham is a 16-year survivor of recurrent chronic lymphoma. In her
latest book, "Happiness in a Storm: Facing Illness and Embracing Life as a
Healthy Survivor," she states: "Without a doubt, illness is bad, yet
survivorship - from the time of diagnosis and for the balance of life - can
include times of great joy among the hardships. You can find happiness.
Chances are the opportunities for happiness are right in front of you."

She suggests creating a "personal happiness list" to help you remember
favorite pastimes and reintroduce former delights into your life. Or perhaps
you might want to explore activities that in your precancer life, you
thought you had no time for, like studying a foreign language, traveling for
pleasure or spending more time with friends.

"You might need to explore different ways of seeing yourself and the world
around you," Dr. Harpham writes. "In doing so, you discover new types of
happiness waiting to be tapped, such as the happiness of sharing
invigorating ideas and nascent hopes with new friends, or the happiness of
knowing love in a whole new way.

"Happiness in a storm," she concludes, "is never about enjoying your illness
but embracing your life within the limits of your illness, and figuring out
how to feel happy whenever possible."

-end-



Trisha Williams, R.N.

BrainSurgery@Yahoo Group Founder/Moderator

4.8 cm meningioma left frontal/parietal/temporal lobes resected 5/3/99

CHECK OUT OUR BRAIN TUMOR PATIENT SUPPORT WEBSITE AT:
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