In addition to my personal passion for working with cancer patients, I also work as a Nurse Practitioner for a palliative care team. One of our goals on this team is to work with patients in the home setting to prevent (re)hospitalization. I explain during my in-home visit that I am more than willing to help the patient in any given situation, as long as it is safe and appropriate. I review that I have two rules (or requests) if my assistance will be effective. 

I am going to share these rules today on the blog. While these rules are of the utmost importance for anyone battling an illness or disease, they also hold true for the majority of us in our day-to-day lives with our partners, co-workers, children, etc. You may be surprised at the simplicity of them... But I encourage you not to rush through and say 'duh,' but more so reflect if you are actually following them. 

Rule #1

It is difficult for your care team* to help you if you are not letting them...

Our series at church right now is called Big Questions and that was today's topic. In my 15+ year medical career, I am not sure there is a single question I have asked more often than this one. "Why do bad things happen to good people??" I was so excited to learn and pray and receive this message today. Our teaching pastor spoke, prompting me to think there would FOR SURE be some explanation of this in the Bible. And while a few verses were shared, the pastor's biggest answer was 'I don't know.' 

I was less than pleased with this... 

But I was moved to tears by the end of the service, realizing that in difficult and unimaginable times, we can call on Jesus, and He will ALWAYS be right there with us, because there is no pain he does not understand. There is no suffering He did not go through to save you and me. 

Physical pain? He was crucified. Emotional pain? He was mocked, spit at, sold by his dear friend. Spiritual pain? Anguish as He asked if there was any other...

Try, try again. I was reminded of this concept this past week when I saw a newly diagnosed Stage IV cancer patient. She was having a terrible time with nausea after starting chemotherapy. I reviewed her oncology notes/records, and it seemed she had appropriately been prescribed numerous different types of anti-nausea medications. (There are about 6 different classes of drugs which often are used to help with nausea. If you ever are unfortunate enough to have nausea after your treatment and the medication you are routinely taking does not help, ask our doctor if there is a different option you could try.)

This patient actually had medications from 4 of the different drug classes and just recently was given a 5th and 6th drug to try. One of the newest drugs she felt was most effective was a patch, delivering continuous medication through the skin. I inquired about the other medications and which one(s) she felt worked the best/most. She shared she didn't think many of them helped...

There are so many fad diets. And even just fad diets. All you have to do is listen to commercials on the radio for 5 minutes and you will be inundated with outlandish answers to all sorts of problems. "Cool sculpting can remove unwanted fat round the mid-section, underarms, upper thighs..." Next commercial: "Such-and-such office sees 20lb weight loss on average with first month, using no diets, no exercise, no HCG, no injections, blah..blah...blah..." Don't get me wrong. I think all of it sounds 'too good to be true' also. And if there is one thing I can stand behind, if it sounds too good to be true, it's not true.

What is true? I tell my patients frequently that your body requires wholesome foods/nutrients to act as fuel. What we eat/drink becomes our fuel source, much like a car requires gasoline to get from point A to point B. Our bodies require sustenance to function. I see, often, due to side effects from treatment or medications, eating is a challenge. The goal is not to...

I was listening to Sunday service this morning on my phone. The kids had swim, and my husband picked up an overtime shift and it just worked better for me to spend some time with God through my AirPods. 

I ended up crying during service as I had a pretty powerful 'ah ha.' Let me first rewind and share my morning did not start spectacularly. My son came in around 4am and woke me up. I am not even sure why, but I walked him back down the long hall and into his room. As I was getting cozy in his bed next to him, seconds away from both of use drifting back to sleep, the smoke detector outside of his room started chirping. 

There is no way I could handle this on my own at this hour. I knew my husband would wake a little before 6am, and he could switch out the battery. So, there I was... looking at the ceiling, practicing breathing techniques (more on that in weeks to come), praying that the endless chirps wouldn't wake the kids. My husband's alarm finally sounded, and I...

Kind of seems like a word that gets thrown around a lot in our current-day culture, right? Mindfulness. But what exactly does it even mean? And how do any of us achieve such a task...

I recently watched a lecture by Dr. Shauna Shapiro, and she points out that there are 3 necessary aspects to mindfulness:

1. Intention 2. Attention 3. Attitude

This seems so spot on to the way I view and practice mindfulness, so I thought this week I would dive deeper into this topic.

1. Intention. Anytime we set out on a (new) venture, it's important to remember 'why' we are doing said task to begin with. Decided to switch jobs? Why? Put your kids in a certain school? Why? Call your Mom or best friend everyday on your drive to work? Why? Dr. Shapiro referenced a phrase, "The most important thing is to remember the most important thing."

So often it is easy for us to get bombarded and bogged down with everything life throws at us. It can be easy to forget what we are living for or why we are even...

It was my 36th birthday on Friday. I had the best weekend celebrating. Friday my husband surprised me and took off work. He was home for an evening of pizza with the kids, my in-laws (salt of the earth humans) and my long-time friend, who the kids refer to as Grandma. There was cake, candles, and laughs. It was great. 

Saturday we had friends over. It was more than 10 people. And it was awesome. It felt normal and amazing, and I so enjoyed spending the day surrounded by loved ones. My kids stayed up way past their bedtime playing with the other kids. It was exactly what I hoped it would be.

Today was also a good day. Festivities winding down, the kids had swim practice. My oldest daughter (age 5) is turning into quite the swimmer. It's so awesome to watch. I think my favorite part is seeing how 'coachable' she is. Her swim instructor has 20+ years of experience coaching young kids. She gives our daughter a 1-2 sentence instruction and then our daughter does it. It blows my...

I feel like our present-day culture and the pressures of society lead us to feel we are not allowed to change our minds. So often, we post on social media about a feeling or belief we have. We tell friends, family, coworkers, "Well, I would NEVER do..... xyz." And then, there is a shift. Something pulls at our heart. Something calls to us... And suddenly, we are right, smack-dab in the middle of contemplating the very thing we claimed we would never do.

I was reminded this past week of this very thing. I met last week with a former physician colleague who is in the beginning stages of staring his own Wellness practice, with a Functional Medicine foundation. He is looking for a MindBody coach to help support the patients in the Wellness center. I have been in touch with him in regards to what I am doing with my cancer program. So we decided to get together to discuss how things are going for each of us.

During our time together, we discussed my willingness to work with patients...

I finished the book The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer this past week. Man is it good. I highly recommend it. There are a few takeaways that I want to share. Firstly, we are all humans who experience feelings and emotions (something I tell my patients daily). These feelings and emotions lead to experiences. And those experiences are what shape us into the people we are... Stay with me. This book points out that you and I as individuals are NOT the emotion itself. We are a body, a mind, a soul, experiencing the emotion. But we are NOT the emotion itself. 

I am not anger. I am not fear. I am not joy. I am not sorrow. I have a body that feels a physiological response to emotions. I have a mind that tells me stories (often times not true) about the experience. But my soul? My soul is what I need to pay attention to... and what so often gets missed. Part of being on this earth, the book discusses, is allowing emotions to flow through you-- to open up. To open your...

I flew out to my home state of Wisconsin this past Tuesday. Yesterday we laid to rest my Uncle and Aunt, both who passed from COVID19 complications. It was tough. It was tough for me to watch my cousin, an only child, say goodbye to her parents. It was hard to watch my Dad commemorate his younger brother. And it obviously got my wheels spinning...

Man, this life is short. We spend so much time worrying about things that do not necessarily matter. Sure in the moment it seems like certain things are pressing and require our utmost attention. But I can't help but think about the countless hours I have spent worrying about my appearance, sleepless nights spent worrying about this new business, hours upon hours upon hours of mindless scrolling...

And for what? I have heard before that you may not remember everything a person has said to you, but you will always remember the way he/she made you feel. My Uncle made me laugh. He made me feel happy. And my Aunt? My Dad said it...