All healing is essentially the release from fear. –A Course in Miracles
I am always very happy when one of my readers takes the time to share the story of discovering the great healing strength we all have within us. Christine’s experience, shared here with you today, is one such inspirational story.
Twins and Cancer
submitted by Christine Kalafus
It was January 2001 and I was very pregnant with twins when I received my breast cancer diagnosis. When people say that cancer “touched them” I think that is a very gentle description for what I interpreted as a slap. After undergoing an immediate C-section (the babies were 3 weeks from due date) I had a lumpectomy the same day. My cancer was aggressive and the size of a golf ball but luckily I had been insistent about the suspicious lump to my physician and had it removed before it spread. Regardless, I had chemotherapy and radiation. I was 31-years-old, with a 4-year-old and infant twins.
To say the experience was life altering is an understatement! Throughout my treatment I took a proactive stance about my health and a partner in the care that I received from my medical team. Visualization played a large part in my recovery. I credit visualization with coming out of 30 consecutive days receiving radiation without a single burn, flaked skin or fatigue. Dr. Siegel’s books as well as Lance Armstrong’s book, It’s Not About The Bike, helped awaken a strong and powerful spirit within that I began to realize existed.
In 2008 I began a peer counseling program at Day Kimball Hospital in Putnam, CT, where cancer survivors speak one-on-one with cancer patients. When you are going through a personal war like cancer it’s a wonderful feeling to meet other warriors. I am honored to be able to do this!
Thank you, Christine, for your inspirational story—and for carrying on the tradition of sharing your story with others in your role as a cancer survivor. The gift you give in peer counseling for cancer patients can guide people toward finding, as you did, that “powerful spirit within.” You are a very special healer.
–Love, Bernie