What to do after getting first diagnosed with cancer

Transcript

Hi I’m Dr. Branyon with New Hope Unlimited. Today’s subject, I decided I wanted to talk about being first diagnosed. I know that if you’ve got cancer or if you are a caregiver of someone who’s been diagnosed, I know that if you think about it, you can remember the moment or the day that you were told you have cancer. I’ve spoken to so many people and so many of our patients come in and they will say, if I only knew back then what I know now, I may have done things differently or I might have been a little more informed or thought things over a little bit better. Now by that, I want to say that when you’re diagnosed or whether most people, when they’re diagnosed, they have all kinds of different emotions coming through.

Everything from fear, anxiety, just, grief, scared, it’s all kinds of emotions.

And I have to say, I have found that, that’s very normal, you’re not abnormal, we’re all humans and we all get a little bit afraid especially if we don’t know what’s going on. Now, I want to tell you that the first thing I’d like to see people do is don’t jump to conclusions. We’ve always heard that phrase, don’t jump to conclusions. Now I know that’s hard, but what happens is in my working years, I have seen that doctors or the nurses will tell you the diagnosis and then it’s all of a sudden like “Woof! You’ve got to listen to me, you’ve got to do this, you’ve got to do that”. Instead of calmly saying, “Now Susan, Sally, Joe, Jim, whatever, whatever your name is or their name”. If they could have just said, this is what we’ve got, now these are some options and really give the options and really give the truth about a few things and if in, in fact, that helps the brain to all of a sudden not shutdown because when we hear such bad, horrible words such as cancer, then people forget that they’re the same person, the same wonderful person they were yesterday, the day before they got diagnosed. They are not some scattered, desperate person even though it may feel like you are. I understand, but what I’m trying to say is, and I hope I’m not being a little confusing, but what I’m trying to say is do your best to stay out of the fear, fear stops us, fear puts us in a box and we can’t think clearly.

Also, and I know this is gonna sound like craziness, but if you can stay off the internet, you know the internet is one of the best things that ever happened to us, but it’s also not such a great thing at times too. For instance, you get on the internet and you start punching in melanoma, lung cancer, liver cancer, sarcomas, brain cancers, whatever. And then all of a sudden you’re going to see some of the worst stuff you’ve ever seen, and it seems like you don’t see a lot of good stuff. But believe me, there is a lot of great stuff. What you see a lot of times when it comes to the statistics, is not always the real things either. There’s a lot of fake patients on the internet, there’s a lot of fake products on the internet and I just, I’m trying to tell you the truth because I know what you’re going through. I’ve gone with it, through with my family, my mom. I’ve gone through it with thousands of patients and their family members and their friends. It’s hard, but sometimes we make it harder than it even is, believe it or not. So try your best to stay off the internet, try your best to stay away from the negativity. When the doctor tells you something, take it, because we can’t be in denial.

You’ve got to listen and you’ve got to do something about it, it’s true, but take it.

If you feel like you need a second opinion, it’s your right, get a second opinion, whatever it is. But let me tell you, sometimes the medical system can be a brotherhood, so I would go to a doctor that doesn’t know the doctor that you went to. And you don’t have to, you can take the records with you so that you don’t have to get all the other records or everything redone, but I think that’s important. So I would just say do your best to just take a deep breath, know who you are, you are a magnificent person with an immune system that was really designed to help heal yourself. But now sometimes, in today’s world, it’s not possible, you do need help with those abnormal cells. But I don’t want you to live your life in fear because that keeps you from educating yourself, I don’t want you to jump like that. I want you to take a deep breath, sleep on it, think it through, look for the positive, there’s a lot of positive that sometimes fear keeps you from seeing or finding and like I said, stay off the internet, when it comes to looking up to figure out what is gonna be your diagnosis and your lifespan, things like that, don’t put that stuff in your head, put the good stuff. “I’m gonna beat this”, stomp your foot and scream it out loud, “I’m gonna beat this if all possible”.

You know there is amazing possibilities that happen, there’s miracles that happen every day. And really a miracle is not a miracle, it’s sometimes what’s our birthright, but if you don’t believe that it possibly can happen to you, it’s not gonna happen. So work on that mindset, don’t go in the gutter, to stay out of the gutter the best you can and stay away from fear.

What does fear stand for? False Evidence Appears Real.

Now, remember, you can’t be in denial but being in the gutter is not going to help you. With all of our patients who’s ever been in remission, they will tell you that right there, the number one thing is don’t let yourself believe all the negativity and be as open-minded to possibilities. I hope this helped, I know it’s a short video so I have to keep things short, but we’ll get back to this subject again soon. I hope you have a wonderful rest of the day and I’ll see you tomorrow.