Since my first article "The Angry Pancreas", my exposure to working with people who have pancreatic cancer, or cancer period, has been in many ways an unexpected soul journey. What I've learned so far, is that not everyone is in alignment with life and the effort to live. While the medical profession is aggressive in its approach to treating cancers, in many ways they set the stage for failure by creating an attitude of emotional helplessness and hopelessness. In the last fifty years, there has only been a five percent drop in the cancer death rate. And so begins my story about a woman in Sweden named Susanne who decided not to do what she was told and chose instead to live.
We began our work together in August, 2008 by phone. In her early sixties, Susanne is an artist, who prior to her illness loved to paint. She is sensitive, well educated, and a refined woman. Luckily, she is fluent in several languages including English. In brief, she had emotional estrangement issues from both of her parents and had never learned to express anger for fear of more rejection.
Susanne was diagnosed with Stage III pancreatic cancer in June 2004. This means that the cancer had begun to spread and was found in one or more local lymph nodes. After what was called a successful operation, removing part of her pancreas and the tumor in the standard Whipple procedure, all remaining organs and lymph glands in the area were determined to be clear and healthy. As an additional safety measure, she underwent six months of chemotherapy.
We began our work together in August, 2008 by phone. In her early sixties, Susanne is an artist, who prior to her illness loved to paint. She is sensitive, well educated, and a refined woman. Luckily, she is fluent in several languages including English. In brief, she had emotional estrangement issues from both of her parents and had never learned to express anger for fear of more rejection.
Susanne was diagnosed with Stage III pancreatic cancer in June 2004. This means that the cancer had begun to spread and was found in one or more local lymph nodes. After what was called a successful operation, removing part of her pancreas and the tumor in the standard Whipple procedure, all remaining organs and lymph glands in the area were determined to be clear and healthy. As an additional safety measure, she underwent six months of chemotherapy.
She was told that after enduring the entire traditional medical treatment protocol, she could expect to live at least three years. Perhaps subconsciously following her doctor's orders, at exactly the end of her three year prognosis, she developed a new "highly aggressive" tumor on what was left of her pancreas and was given an ominous prognosis. In fact, her oncologist, when asked about life expectancy, answered "according to my book you should not be sitting here".
In an attempt to nutritionally take matters into her own hands, Susanne tried dietary changes from a book by a cancer survivor, but subsequent tests showed no change in her condition. Six months later she began to have severe unrelenting mid-thoracic pain and was advised to undergo more chemotherapy. She did so for three months until she and her doctor decided to take an eight week break over the summer so she could travel. In her mind she had decided not to resume the treatments but, according to her, didn't know how not to. Under pressure from both her family and her doctor she had one month before her next CAT scan to determine the extent of her next course of treatments. Intuitively recognizing the need for "deep work" to be done, she sought help energetically through EFT.
When we began our sessions Susanne had no appetite, had difficulty eating solid food, was losing weight, and had little or no energy. Because of that, she spent most of her time on the couch not really able to leave her house. She was on pain medications that kept the constant pain at a level 4 intensity. Her last blood test results had confirmed her declining state of health, and further impressed on her the desperate nature of her situation. Starting in late August, we had only one month before her next scan. We worked with dizzying intensity twice a week. At the end of our month of sessions, the exams and scans were done; her oncologist stated that her blood tests were "excellent" and that the cancer had not grown. Susanne herself had admitted by then to having felt a shift back to the way she felt before she became ill.
This article will only include the most impactful set-up phrases of our first month together in what I'd like to refer to as "phase one" of her recovery. There were a lot more tapping phrases that were used during the course of our sessions, so if anyone is interested, they are welcomed to contact me.
With our initial consultation I determined we should begin our sessions with collar bone breathing for best results. It also helped that Susanne was completely open and honest and ready to look at all sides of her life-- the good, the bad, and the ugly. She admitted to spending a lifetime of stuffing down emotions, and the only way she could show real anger was to cry. Here are some examples:
When we began our sessions Susanne had no appetite, had difficulty eating solid food, was losing weight, and had little or no energy. Because of that, she spent most of her time on the couch not really able to leave her house. She was on pain medications that kept the constant pain at a level 4 intensity. Her last blood test results had confirmed her declining state of health, and further impressed on her the desperate nature of her situation. Starting in late August, we had only one month before her next scan. We worked with dizzying intensity twice a week. At the end of our month of sessions, the exams and scans were done; her oncologist stated that her blood tests were "excellent" and that the cancer had not grown. Susanne herself had admitted by then to having felt a shift back to the way she felt before she became ill.
This article will only include the most impactful set-up phrases of our first month together in what I'd like to refer to as "phase one" of her recovery. There were a lot more tapping phrases that were used during the course of our sessions, so if anyone is interested, they are welcomed to contact me.
With our initial consultation I determined we should begin our sessions with collar bone breathing for best results. It also helped that Susanne was completely open and honest and ready to look at all sides of her life-- the good, the bad, and the ugly. She admitted to spending a lifetime of stuffing down emotions, and the only way she could show real anger was to cry. Here are some examples:
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Starting in late August, we had only one month before her next scan. We worked with dizzying intensity twice a week.
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