Wellness Place of Wenatchee, WA Being Well With Cancer... Wellness Place of Wenatchee, WA building

Before you heard the words, "You have cancer," what did you worry about?... family, work, money, maybe not in that order - but basically this is a common list.

Our worry list changes on a daily basis, depending on our day and sometimes on the moment - parents, spouse, children, our job, maybe a strange noise in our car - and then we have the long term worry list - college, retirement . . .

And, somewhere on this list, we have our health, an ache, a small, nagging gut feeling something isn't right in our system. This is the scary part of our list. And when we hear those words, "You have cancer," we forget the list. Instead of a list, we now face the "what ifs."

Cancer

--- It will take over your life. In the beginning, you really won't hear everything the doctor is saying to you; your mind automatically starts to protect you by closing down some of your reactions. Mentally your body puts up walls. About this time you'll be asked, "Do you have any questions?" Of course you have questions. But what are they? "Am I going to die? How long do I have? What about my family? Insurance? How will treatment make me feel?" The list grows and grows.

Here is where Wellness Place can help you. We don't have all the answers, but we want to help you find them. You are not alone and Wellness Place has people like you who have been where you are right now. Cancer becomes a part of your life and you can learn to live with it. The Wellness Place Friend for Life program is staffed with our neighbors and friends already living with cancer - and they are dedicated to being here for you. Our many support groups offer confidential and informative support for you and your family members and our free lending library is continually growing to meet your needs.

Learning to live well with cancer isn't going to be easy. Cancer is a difficult adversary; but we haven't any choice. Our choice comes when we each make our own, individual decision on how we plan to live our life - in recognizing life is moment-to-moment existence. If we let cancer overwhelm us, then we give up our ownership of each moment - and we won't have a life. We are survivors learning the language of cancer and finding, as we go, the tools to help all of us move forward.

Let us make a difference!

Contributed by Priscilla Vidisky