Anne’s Story – Bowel Cancer
| The teachings of …. ”Abraham Hicks”
You are a creator; you create with your every thought. You often create by default, for you are getting what you are giving your attention to, wanted or unwanted, but you know by how it feels if what you are getting (creating) Is what you are wanting or if it is not what you are wanting. (Where is your attention focused?) |
| Prior to being diagnosed with Bowel Cancer in 1996, I always felt that I was indestructible, or as my husband Robert always put it “She thinks she’s bomb proof!”.
The concept of being diagnosed with cancer at any time in my life was as unreal as me climbing Mount Everest!!! Also our lives have been very full and filled with variety and there was no time for ill health. We have lived in 2 countries, the UK and Australia. In Australia we have lived in 3 States. We have owned a 30 square house in Melbourne and lived a very social city life for 15 years. We have lived on acreage in a caravan and an annex while Robert built our house in northern NSW. At that time we lived a rural life and raced and owned thoroughbreds while both working. Then we moved from northern NSW to Queensland under difficult circumstances and our life changed drastically. The years from 1990 to the time of my diagnosis were the most stressful that Robert and I had ever experienced and I was also in an employment situation that was virtually untenable. But, at that time there were very few employment opportunities on the Sunshine Coast so I was unable to quit because financially we both needed to work. The reason I am going into so much detail of our lives is because I believe this has a direct bearing on my manifesting cancer. At the time I did not have a GP and I just picked a doctor at random to see because I had a bad case of the ‘flu. During the consultation I mentioned that I had noticed some blood when I went to the toilet, but I had been told by various people that it was probably haemorrhoids, so I ignored it as unimportant. The doctor then examined me and told me I had a strawberry sized growth that needed to be looked at and she would send me to a surgeon so that he could take a sample and do a biopsy. Even then it never occurred to me that it was anything serious. I had the biopsy done and a few days later I got a telephone call at work. It was the surgeon and he told me I had cancer and to go and see him immediately. I must say I wasn’t impressed with the fact that he gave me the diagnosis on the telephone. When Robert and I went to see him he told us that there was only one option. The bowel had to be removed. He was adamant that he would not just remove the cancerous growth; the only treatment he would consider was the removal of the bowel. This was a huge shock as you can imagine. But bowel removal seemed to be so drastic that I decided that I would not let this happen until I had a second opinion. I was fortunate enough to have Dr Kathy Chan recommended to me, not as a surgeon but as a Medical Practitioner who followed the cancer procedures of Doctor Ruth Cilento. Dr Chan made an appointment with a specialist in Brisbane from whom I could seek the second opinion. The Brisbane specialist felt that the removal of the cancerous polyp was an option and agreed to do the surgery. (I was very fortunate, as we didn’t have private health Insurance, that he was willing to take me as on as a public patient.) I would like to say here, that the Brisbane specialist knew the first surgeon and said he was first class and that he didn’t disagree with his diagnosis but felt that there was another option which was just removing the cancerous growth. I had the operation 1 month later. On examining the growth they found, in layman’s terms, that the cancer had started to grow little legs and was beginning to walk. He could not guarantee that it hadn’t walked outside the area that he had removed surgically. He gave me three options: To have radium. In having radium he told me that I would have diarrhoea for the rest of my life. To have the bowel removed. To do nothing. I asked him to give me the % risk that the cancer had spread outside the surgically removed area. He felt there was only a 10% chance that it had travelled, and 90% chance that it hadn’t.
Now, although I am not really a gambler I felt those odds were good enough for me to choose to do nothing.
It is now over 10 years since the operation without any sign of the bowel cancer so I know I made the correct decision. At the time I strongly held the belief that I had created the cancer in my body because I needed to drastically change my life. I needed to remove as much stress as I could and to do that I had to quit my job. We couldn’t really afford for me to do so but we decided that a live unemployed Anne was better than a dead Anne. I would like to say here the only health problem that would have made me quit my job was cancer, anything else I would have decided to keep working and work through it. I also followed Ruth Cilento’s cancer diet, did meditation, visualisation, and tried to deal with unresolved personal issues. That’s not the end of the story. I remained unemployed for 6 months and then I decided to go back to work part-time. My new job was 3 days a week which over a number of years grew to full time until my employer decided to sell and move overseas. This job generated no stress which was why I was content for it to go from part-time to full-time. But, unfortunately, the next job I took became very stressful and recreated the conditions of the job I had when I was diagnosed with bowel cancer. I also had unresolved anger issues which didn’t help. So here we were again!!!! I had re-created the same conditions in my life that gave birth to the bowel cancer. For some reason, out of the blue, Robert suggested that I have a mammogram. I had never had a mammogram before so the suggestion seemed a bit weird, particularly since it came from Robert, as he had never done anything like it before. Anyway, to humour him, I had one. The report didn’t indicate that I had cancer, what it did say was that there was some sort of an anomaly that should be looked at in the future. Well, I don’t believe in putting off until tomorrow what can be done today, nor did my Doctor, so she sent me to the Wesley Breast Clinic to get it checked out. To cut a long story short, after a wire biopsy they found that I had a tiny cancer in the left breast. A lumpectomy was done and the operation was very successful. Radium was suggested after the operation but I declined. No point in bombarding my breast with radium when there was no cancer there. The radiologist agreed with me so there was no conflict. Two months after my lumpectomy I tendered my resignation and eight months later I quit my extremely stressful job, even though I had intended to work for a least 5 more years. Enough was enough, no point pushing my luck. I had been extremely lucky that each cancer I had created had been removed before it became life threatening I now have no stress in my life, I am no longer angry, I have dealt with many unresolved issues and there is absolutely no way that I will ever create cancer in my body again. I really believe that cancer is the one disease that has the power to make us re-evaluate ourselves and our lives. This forces us to make all the changes that are necessary to enable us to live a very happy and fulfilled life. Then cancer has no fertile ground in which to grow. For me Cancer was a gift, albeit originally a scary one, but nevertheless a gift. To have a chat with Anne, you can phone her on: 07:54458732 Editors Note: Annehas beenour fearless holder of the purse at Cansurvive, our greatly appreciated Treasurer. Her personal warmth and dedication of time has supported many on their path to healing.
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