incurable

When it comes to disease, who beats the odds and why? Author and researcher Jeffrey Rediger, M.D. has explored this mystery by studying the "super-healers"—those diagnosed with a terminal illness who survived against all expectations—to find out what helped them to heal. In this conversation with Christine, Dr. Rediger dives into the root causes of illness and explains how each of us can set the stage to experience our own healing and good health.

This first episode introduces the concept of a family dealing with the words ‘Incurable cancer’. Rhonda and Clayton ask each other to react to that news.  And they start exploring the difference between thinking through this news and feeling the news.

Their conversation includes discussion on how the individual processes versus how family members process it.  And it answers the question, (right in the moment) - would you rather be told it was incurable cancer or just cancer?

This episode was recorded in Rhonda’s hospital room and starts with the unexpected circumstances that led to the cancer diagnosis.  Connect to the incurable podcast group to hear other stories and share yours at incurablepodcast.com

In your final months of living would you dedicate time to recording down your thoughts, feelings and perspective so others could benefit from it?  Rhonda Bjelan did.

Coming May 1st is the new podcast, Incurable.

Incurable is a real time journey after being given a diagnosis of incurable cancer. It is a mother and sons exploration of what you go through in the last months of life,  Raw, honest and designed to help others understand this period in someone (and their families) life. 

It is for those who might be about to go through something similar, for friends and family to understand and for the simply curious.  Incurable explores what it means to die, to live and asks what happens to belief & trust in God during a terminal cancer journey.

Join Rhonda Bjelan and her son Clayton as they share what it means to be given the word 'Incurable'.

 SUMMARY

In his book, When There Is No Cure: How to Thrive While Living with the Pain and Suffering of Chronic Illness, author Craig K. Svensson answers the crucial question: “How do you live well when the physical foundation of your life is crumbling?” This is the challenge for millions who live with diseases for which there is no cure. These incurable ailments produce a life of constant pain, fatigue, numbness, dizziness, and other debilitating symptoms that create chronic suffering. In When There Is No Cure, Dr. Svensson guides readers to a path of thriving when life’s journey includes an incurable ailment. Drawing on his expertise as a pharmacist-scientist, as well as a fellow sufferer with several incurable diseases, Svensson helps patients steer through the twists and turns of life with chronic illness.

KEY POINTS

• Living well – even thriving- is possible and important.
• Some estimate that 10 percent of the population suffers from a disability or limitation that’s “invisible” (not obvious) to even the people closest to them.
• Before sharing your condition, ask yourself why someone would want to know and what would happen if they found out from another source.
• Instead of focusing on your level of pain, focus on how your condition affects your function and goals.
• Prepare a summary of your health condition--much like an elevator pitch.
• To avoid developing friction, everyone touched by the chronic illness must communicate openly.
• Pain specialists look at things holistically and help you understand what the pain is limiting in your life, direct you to resources that can help alleviate pain or compensate for challenges.
• Plan ahead to make inevitable shifts in recreational activities or professional pursuits.

QUOTES FROM SVENSSON

• “I have a nice triad of diseases that impacts the way that I live life but also has taught me how you can thrive in the midst of living with a variety of chronic illnesses.”
• “Thriving gets down to the valued relationships that we have…as well as being able to enjoy the diversity of things in life that we can experience.”
• “We’re always faced in life with the things we can and cannot do, so we need to put these things in perspective.”
• “When you’re living with pain, it’s more than just physical; it moves into the relational.”
• “Hope is the seed from which victorious living can grow in the bed of affliction.”

BUY When There Is No Cure: How to Thrive While Living with the Pain and Suffering of Chronic Illness 

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Special thanks…

• Music Credit
• Sound Editing Credit

After dealing with anxiety, depression, pain and other health issues for over 25 years, in 2004 Tanya Penny was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. She now considers herself 100% healed.

She tells us about the deeper work that is necessary for profound healing. We talked about how challenging it is to consider self-acceptance when dealing with health issues that we really want to overcome and what are some of the core practices that Tanya engaged in to heal herself, which she now teaches to her clients.

To learn more about Tanya, you can reach her through her website.  

Access Tanya's free gift:  You can download Tanya's Starter Kit here

The Thing About Unsolvable Problems...

(And incurable symptoms happen not just in our bodies but in other aspects of our lives as well)

Underlying any condition that we believe we've "tried everything" to fix is not an incurable condition but another, deeper belief.

That's a belief in the status quo.

A belief that your outcome - your current state - is a result of statistics. A belief that you are a statistic.

How can you know that this is the case? Because you and I live in a society that dismisses the outliers for being "abnormal" and irrelevant.

Outliers like the 10% (or more) of lung cancer patients who survive and recover.

The people with Down syndrome who have above-average IQ's.

The women who have remained fertile into their 50's.

These kinds of anomalies are thought to be the exceptions that "prove" the rules. You're not encouraged to try to be one of these (because that would be giving you false hope).

So it's normal, when you want to make a change, to try all the standard approaches first.

Not that it will lead to those amazing (but anomalous) results you really want ...but it's what everyone does.

The Danger of the Easy-Button

Following the usual options, following the norm, puts our focus on trying to be normal, instead of on resolving the symptom at its source.

While we wait for the outside-in solution, we decrease the likelihood of healing.

Screw the Status Quo

But this new skill - a skill most people in your situation never even bother to look for because they're looking for the silver bullet instead - is how you will heal.

Listen to Episode 12 of the Mind Over Symptom Podcast, "Do You Really Want to Heal?" to learn how to overcome the 3 obstacles preventing you from having the healing you desire.