Category: Onwards and Upwards

Onwards and Upwards No. 18

Hello my healing team,

I hope this update finds you well.

When I was first diagnosed with cancer, my world became a blur.  Many things that I was comfortable with, that I regarded as normal, changed.  They changed and I had absolutely no control over them.  Some changes that I had no control over included:

• With a broken shoulder, I found myself very limited in what I could do physically.
• I had to stop working, which at the time was the one thing that I spent most time doing.
• I was unwell which was foreign to me. I had always considered myself bulletproof.
• Living to 80 and beyond became a pipe dream as opposed to a birth right.

Effectively, I had lost control of my life.  I was absolutely disempowered. Move forward 15 months and I can now see positives associated with it.  Being in this position enabled me to strip back all elements of my life.  I was forced to stop doing everything that I was previously doing and returned to the base elements that I needed to exist.  By stripping my activities back to bare bones, I have been able to critically analyse the different activities that I fill my days with, then prioritise and enhance those that are most important to me. Fundamentally, I am using this insight to rebuild my life, focussing on what is important.  From a position of complete disempowerment, with support from family, friends and colleagues, I am now beginning to move forward with more clarity. I feel empowered.  Watch this space.

Take care

Geoff

Onwards and Upwards No. 17

Hello my healing team,

I hope this update finds you well!!

Today, 20 May 2015 is National Myeloma Day.  🎉 Yay happy Myeloma Day friends!!  The first text message I got this morning wishing me happy Myeloma Day put a smile on my face.  The latter part of text even made me laugh………but I cannot share that due to the explicit language used which was understandably derogatory towards cancer. As I sit here, I am a little confused. Am I meant to mourn or celebrate Myeloma Day??

I guess I have good reason to do both.  I can mourn as I think back of the challenges that my family and I have had to overcome, the pain and the anxiety we have endured, the uncertainty that comes with a cancer diagnosis.  But whilst I can mourn and dwell, I don’t.

Lets be clear. I don’t think that I will throw a party to celebrate today.  There will be no cake or candles. However, I will reflect on the positive aspects of my diagnosis, in particular the positive changes that I have made which include;

• I am now a lot kinder to my mind and my body.
• I work harder to live deliberately.  I focus on what I want more of in my life, and strive to obtain or achieve it.  No more plodding along.
• I appreciate my family more.  Being with them is so important. I have made a conscience decision to be more present.
• I find that I can encourage and influence people. So I now direct this skill to helping others whether it be through raising money for charity, encouraging people to register for donating stem cells, or for encouraging others to inject more ‘wellness’ into their own lives.

So as you can see, there are positives that can come from being diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma.  So can I ask that you embrace these positives with me by making an appointment to donate blood and (at the same time) registering to be a stem cell donor.  http://www.donateblood.com.au

Happy National Myeloma Day!!

Take care.

Geoff

Onwards and Upwards No. 16

Hello my healing team,

I hope this update finds you well!

As I have previously described, I have been going through a process of self review and goal setting.  I want to make sure that I live deliberately and a big part of that is making sure that I can positively impact on the lives of others. Even better, wouldn’t it be just bloody fantastic if I could do something to help save a life!!………. cue the next project for my brothers and I as part of the Brothers Book Club (BBC)!!

Statistics suggest that at some stage in the next 3-10 years, my Cancer levels may rise, and if this occurs, I will need to have another stem cell transplant (previously called a bone marrow transplant). See the photo of me having my last stem cell transplant.  It is planned that for my next transplant, the doctors will give me stem cells from a donor. I am extraordinarily lucky as two of my brothers have been found to be compatible donors for me.  I am amongst the lucky 30% of people that have a family member as my ‘life saver’.  Of the 1000s of people annually that need stem cell transplants, 70% rely on finding a donor through the bone marrow registry.  Sadly, many die waiting for a compatible donor.  This is where you can help.

What we need is more people registered as stem cell donors.  It is an easy process to register. You register when (or just before) you ‘Give Blood’.  It is that simple.  It’s also an easy process to donate stem cells. It is much the same process as giving blood.

You can get more info from here – www.abmdr.org.au

Recently, a good friend found her donor after waiting some time. I have another good friend who has spent the last 12 months waiting. The wait continues.  I figure that if I can influence 100 people to join the registry, one of those people could be a match, and I can say “I made a difference”.

Well you can make a difference too.  You can potentially save a life. Here is how……

RIGHT NOW – find out where your nearest Blood Bank is. Book some time into your diary to give blood.  www.donateblood.com.au

WITHIN TWO WEEKS – give blood.  When you are interviewed by the nurse, ask to be added to the donor registry.  You even get a free biscuit and a drink 😄.

So over the coming months, you will hear from my brothers and I on this topic.  As the Brothers Book Club, we are super keen to make a difference!!  We are super keen to help save a life.

Please help us.  Register now.  I look forward to hearing when you give blood and have joined the registry!

Please feel free to share this and join the push!!

Take care

Geoff

Onwards and Upwards No. 15

Hello my healing team,

I hope this update finds you well.

Over the past 12+ months, I have shared with you some of my goals. My first goal was to achieve Complete Remission……tick. Then,  I was determined to successfully return to work…….tick.  It was easy (and pretty obvious) that I set these goals.  When I was first diagnosed, I made a pact with myself, with my family and with you that I would do all that I could to ‘live deliberately’.  But over the past few months I have found myself a little lost on how to ‘live deliberately’ as I meander through my day to day activities.  This is where revitalising my goals and associated action plan come into it.

Over the past few weeks, I have been working to establish goals for myself so that I can plan to bring as many glorious new things into my life as is possible.  At the same time, I have made sure that I can deliver on and improve the non negotiable aspects of my life like being a good husband, a good dad, a good employee and a good person.

I started the process by writing down some of my dreams. What would I want to be doing and who would I want to be if there were no boundaries or limitations.  I considered all aspects of my life including my relationships, my approach to wellness, incorporation of fun, finances, nourishing my soul, and enhancing my career.  Keeping my dreams top of mind, I then set about writing down some goals that would put me on the right path to achieving my dreams.  I set myself 12 month goals as I think with this time frame, it is far away enough that I can be bold in setting ambitious targets, yet close enough so I felt the goal was achievable.  I then established some associated actions that I could stick to.  An example of the process I followed is below:

My dream – to live a healthy life where I have a rich, diverse and balanced diet. I am fit and active well into my 70s and 80s so that I don’t tire when engaging with my kids and their kids.  I am well educated on wellness and can encourage and support others to be well.

Wellness – 12 month goals

Continue to improve my diet.  Learn how to introduce more vegetarian dishes into my diet to replace some of the vitamins supplements I am taking.

Drop sugar acknowledging that chocolate is my achilles heal!

Re-establish my base fitness! Sign up to do one mini triathlon. Participate in next years Oxfam 100km walk.

Actions to achieve my goals

1. Research what are practical examples of foods to replace supplements.  Establish five vegetarian meals that we can incorporate into our weekly family meal plan.
2. Explore and review references on diet and wellness with the Brothers Book Club
3. Do at least one strenuous exercise session a week and otherwise be active. Within 5 months, work up to running 6-8kms.
4. Enter the BRW triathlon in March 2016. Enter the Oxfam Walk for 2016 and train with the team. Start training from October 2015.

It is by setting goals and associated actions that I can satisfy my need to live deliberately. So can you. However, although setting goals and working to achieve them is great, I remain open to unplanned opportunities and outcomes. Fantastic things can happen when you least expect it!

Take care

Geoff

Onwards and Upwards No. 14

Hello my healing team,

I hope this update finds you well.

A few more busy, but relatively uneventful, weeks have gone by. I am really getting into the swing of things with work and I am having a great time connecting with, and providing some assistance to some of the charity organisations that assisted me when I really needed support. The charity organisations I am involved with include the Myeloma Foundation and the Leukaemia Foundation.  Both of these organisations support Blood Cancer patients and their families. I am sure you will all have seen the ‘Worlds Greatest Shave’ advertised on TV (www.worldsgreatestshave.com). Hopefully you know someone shaving or colouring their hair!  This initiative raises money for the Leukaemia Foundation, who support people in my situation.  Please give generously to those doing the shave!

During my interactions with these foundations, with my writing, and while participating in different forums, I get a great sense of fulfilment when I get the opportunity to discuss my experiences and learnings.  I enjoy talking about the challenges that we all face in attaining wellness, what I have recently learnt whilst overcoming the challenges of cancer, and the ways that I have been able to overcome / manage my challenges in the relatively short time I have had to deal with cancer!  With all of these interactions I feel as though I am doing something positive, and in doing so, I am building up a bank of good energy to be used for implementing good initiatives!!

I have recently been thinking about ways to share detailed information with those close to me.  As I am from a big family, I thought I would use some of them as guinea pigs. So I have set up the ‘brothers book club’ where we all read the same book on wellness, then come together on teleconference to discuss the latest chapter.  It has been a fab success where we all have fun talking, learning and growing together.

Last night we were discussing ‘tuning into your intuition and listening to your body’. Integral to this was the part meditation plays in quieting the mind so that you can actually listen.  All of my brothers agreed that whilst quiet meditation may be beneficial, they had a hard time prioritising meditation, but instead preferred to employ other techniques to quiet the mind like exercise, watering the garden, listening to music, sleep etc.  I spent some time describing the value I get from dedicated mediation where you sit quietly and actively focus inwards to unravel your challenges, and let your intuition do the talking.

Trying to understand more about mediation, my dad posed the question to me………. “What will I get from meditation that makes me want to dedicate time to doing it”.  It’s a great question, but it was like trying to explain to an unfit person the joy of exercise.  I had a tough time!  So I posed the question to a great bunch of learn’ed people. Here is an excerpt of some of the helpful responses:

• For me meditation was a bit like starting exercise.  It took a bit of practice & discipline before I started seeing benefits.  I prefer to do in group sessions or be guided so I don’t get distracted.  I get distracted very easily!!!
• I think you need to pose it as a challenge. They won’t understand until they try so challenge them to turn everything off and spend 5 mins before they go to sleep. Remind them this is difficult………who can actually do it?
• I was blown away when someone said that it was the 42nd day of using the Chakra Clearing Meditation when everything just clicked into place. I guess everyone is different and it’s such a personal thing so it’s just a case of try it for a period and see what changes occur, maybe challenge them to keep a journal. Meditation simply allows the right brain to charge up while your left brain gets a chance to clean itself and reboot.
• Our brains are incredibly bombarded by stimulation, more so now than ever before.
• I believe there’s a place for active meditation. The space between where we are now and the traditional cave in the mountains where monks meditated is huge. I think knowing that it’s a gentle process of observing rather than stoping thoughts helps learners. Experience is the best convincer. Starting off small works well 3 mins, 5 mins and slowly building on.
• Get them to watch this www.theconnection.tv    The doctors and medical rockstars in this doco explain it better than anyone!
• …….you are potentially helping them get on an amazing path and sometimes our job is to do no more than plant the seed 🙂

So all I can do is encourage you to give meditation a try.  There are many great guided meditation tools online and in the ‘AppStore’. A couple of guided meditations that I used to learn the art include:

• Chakra clearing album that can be obtained from – http://www.newleafkinesiology.com.au/e-shop
• in the AppStore, Search ‘Yoga Nidra – deep relaxation practice’

I highly recommend doing an introductory course on meditation. These are short supported sessions, often in a group setting, where you can learn a few meditation techniques. For those in SE Melbourne, Lisa from One Sky Wellbeing (www.oneskywellbeing.com.au) runs a great course.  There will also be others near you.

Give it a go…….you will be surprised by what you find.

Take care

Geoff