Coping with cancer | Cynthia Hayes

The Lindsey Elmore Show

Lindsey Elmore

Health & Fitness, Nutrition, Alternative Health, Medicine

5.0 • 529 Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2021

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When coming face to face with an unexpected cancer diagnosis, there may be several heavy emotions. From treatment, to recovering from treatment, to wondering if and when that cancer might come back, the decisions someone coping with a cancer diagnosis is forced to make can feel like weathering an unsettling storm. Cynthia Hayes, a cancer survivor herself, worked with close colleagues including a psychologist, two oncologists and more to write her book “The Big Ordeal: Understanding and Managing the Psychological Turmoil of Cancer.” She shares the many sides of dealing with the emotional turmoil with cancer, from a raw and unique perspective. The lessons in her book provide tips and tools that you need to deal with just about any health-related diagnosis. Prior to her own cancer diagnosis, Cynthia worked with the Montefiore Medical Center as Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer where she focused on telling stories of health and recovery. She gained a deeper understanding of medicine and the opportunity to build relationships with cancer professionals who helped her write her book, “The Big Ordeal.” Among many commitments, Cynthia now mentors patients that are going through gynecological cancer treatment as a part of the Woman To Woman program at Mt. Sinai hospital in New York. https://thebigordeal.com/ https://cynthia-hayes.com/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	When you get a diagnosis of cancer, it can lead to a lot of stress and anxiety.
0:07.9	From the shock and disbelief that comes from the initial diagnosis to the decisions that have to be made,
0:15.5	where you may face information overload, as well as problems in deciding what is the right choice for you,
0:26.6	especially when your decision making ability is clouded by lots of different people's opinions.
0:41.2	We go through our treatments, which means that we may be facing side effects from medications, which are not only just the nausea and vomiting, but the
0:48.7	emotional turmoil of depression and cognitive impairment and helplessness and identity crises.
0:56.0	There's this ongoing effort where we have to get tested and monitored and does it come back?
1:01.2	And do we have recurrence?
1:03.2	Or what if the treatment that we chose doesn't work, where we start to experience sadness and anger about what is actually going on and why is this
1:13.6	problem afflicting me. For some people, a diagnosis of cancer leads to an end of life where we have to
1:23.2	face the big monster of death that accompanies us wherever we go, but seems to draw just a bit
1:33.1	closer with the diagnosis of cancer. This can bring frustration, guilt, loss of purpose,
1:41.4	and feelings of profound helplessness. Once we reach the end of treatment,
1:48.8	there is a moment where we go, all right, it's all done. Yay. But yet, there is a loss of a structure
1:57.7	that has become life, the life that you craft when it is time to get treatment
2:06.6	for cancer. When we get to the other side of it, it can take years to fully recover emotionally
2:16.4	from the turmoil of cancer. How can we come to the other side of cancer
2:22.9	and look at it not as a death sentence, not as one of those moments where we were afflicted
2:32.4	by something terrible for seemingly no reason. But how can we find
2:38.1	the meaning within the struggle, find the benefit within what is seemingly such a huge drawback
2:46.8	in our lives? And how do we weather the storm of the emotional turmoil that is cancer welcome to
2:56.4	the lindsaylmore show a podcast that helps you find fulfillment amidst chaos on this show i
	...

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