Look Good Feel Better

It has been too long since my last post, my apology to all of you. The last two rounds of chemo tried to kick my butt while I kicked cancer’s butt.  I win 🙂  This brings me to one of the things I would like to talk to you about today.  What is it about being female where we are always taking care of others before we take care of ourselves?  I find myself  guilty of this, rather than taking this time to rest and heal, I continue to push myself to do things for others . . .  While I can argue with myself, that doing for others is always beneficial, I still need to accept the fact that most import is time for rest and healing.  Geesh, it is tough to admit my human frailties 🙂  We all want to believe that we are invincible, that we are the one that can do it differently, that we are the one that can burn the candle at both ends. . .  guess what, we aren’t. . .  we are all human and all need assistance from God to make it through this, and all need to take time to rest and heal.

I am very excited to share with you a wonderful program the American Cancer Society sponsors.  Look Good Feel Better, you can find information on the program at lookgoodfeelbetter.org

Look Good Feel Better classes are led by volunteers and are free to all cancer patients.  They are designed to help women be beautiful inside and out during their fight with cancer.  Hair is lost, skin is sallow, moods are down, anything to feel better is good 🙂  Over my last couple chemo sessions I can definitely attest to this.  There were many times when I didn’t feel that I had the energy to even color in eyebrows . . .  yep, they are gone, and trust me, people look much better with eyebrows.  It is funny, when you don’t have eyebrows, you really start to notice everyone’s eyebrows, I am seriously considering having mine tattooed after I finish chemo.  One of the ladies in my cancer support group lost her eyebrows during chemo and they never came back.  Her tattooed eyebrows always look perfect.  Hey, one less thing to think about is always good 🙂

Each of the Look Good Feel Better participants will receive a make-up bag filled with cosmetics donated by numerous cosmetic companies.  Bags are filled with foundation, moisturizer, eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara, etc for each class attendee to use and keep.  Everything you need to help you look good and feel better.

This week I was introduced to Qigong (pronounced chee gong).  From Wikiopedia – Qigong is a holistic system of coordinated body posture and movement, breathing, and meditation used for health, spirituality, and martial arts training. With roots in Chinese medicine, philosophy, and martial arts, qigong is traditionally viewed as a practice to cultivate and balance qi (chi), translated as “life energy”.

I attended a Qigong class on Monday evening.  Monday evening I had the best sleep since I have started chemo.  I don’t know if it was due to Qigong (what I believe it is attributed to), or because I was in the cancer center Monday afternoon getting fluids to remedy dehydration.  I will start attending class each Monday night and will let you all know how it progresses.  Here are some of my observations from the first class –

1. I have literally been freezing since I started chemo.  I finally felt warm from my fingers to my toes.
2. During one of the breathing exercises while we were standing I felt my back ‘click’ into place, a good feeling.
3. After the class I felt pain free (which is unusual for me).
4. After the class I felt complete serenity.
5. I slept the best I slept since I started chemo.

I am looking forward to practicing and learning more about Qigong.   It sounds like there have been very positive results for cancer patients practicing Qigong.  I will keep you all posted on what I learn and experience.  Would love to hear from you.

Wishing you all the best as you go through your journeys.  May God always be in your heart and on your mind as He walks each day with you.

Until next time.  🙂

 

• breast cancer
• chemotherapy
• faith
• God