By Dr. Darla Shaw
As an 86-year-old who has survived three bouts of a rare nasal cancer in five years, I have spent a good amount of time hospitalized. How you spend this time in the hospital and recovering at home tells us a great deal about the positivity that you will bring to the healing process.
With cancer, it is not easy to fight back and attempt small forms of activity each day. Being exhausted, depressed, in pain, and just totally out of sorts does not encourage activity or creativity. However, if you are going to get back your life, you need to start addressing the problem in small increments while still going through treatment.
Journaling is always suggested as a pathway to recovery. Added to my journaling each day, I wrote down specific goals. These goals were doable but took effort and planning. For example:
Journal Entry for Monday, I will:
… walk at least one lap around the hospital floor with my nurses aid.
… call one friend on the phone.
… read at least five pages in my book or a magazine.
…have a conversation with one of my nurses or a staff member.
If I did not meet my goals for the day, I would not get down on myself. I would just try harder the next day.
My goals in the beginning included exercises on the floor or in bed (to music). They also included communicating with friends, family and staff, and reading and writing. These goals sound easy, but they are not. With cancer you often don’t want to do anything that requires any extra thought or movement.
Each day that I achieved my goals, I felt better about myself. I saw that I could make progress. I saw that maybe my life might get back to where it had been in the past. I knew, however, that it was going to take time.
I know that everyone’s cancer journey is entirely different and will progress in a unique way. This is just some insight into my pathway to recovery, a pathway that was new to me.
I started my journey into healing through the arts with activities that I never considered previously. When the hospital volunteer lady came around with magazines, coloring books, and crossword puzzles, I took the coloring books and crossword puzzles.
Surprising enough I enjoyed coloring and took it a step further. I began to draw stick figures of some of my strange experiences at the hospital. For example, making sock puppets out of the ugly yellow hospital socks, riding in the air in the weight bucket and inflatable cocoon for movement, and getting washed up like being in a car wash.
Each day as I created these simple drawings, I would put them on my empty bulletin board with brief captions. Before I knew it, staff came in to see my picture of the day and make comments.
The staff loved seeing themselves in my simple drawings and said, “when will I be on the board?” When I could not come up with a drawing for someone, I would write a short acrostic poem for them. For example: Karen, K (kind),A (artistic),R (runner) E (energetic) N (nurse). The staff loved these poems equally and I kept myself busy. I was not focusing on my health issues. I was focusing on others.
With the crossword puzzles, I would take the words from the puzzle and put them into silly sentences. In some cases, I even made up a short story with the words. This activity was challenging and became fun.
Hospital staff come from all over the world. I was fascinated by the countries they came from and asked the volunteer lady to bring me a world map and stick pins. When people came to assist me, I would have them fill out a small card with their name, country and put it on the bulletin board map. We all learned so much from this form of communication.
In addition to the map, I got large pieces of paper from the volunteer lady and offered the question of the day for staff. Such questions were: how you got your name, what was your favorite Halloween costume, what is your favorite musical group or movie? People came to my room that I had never seen before to read the answers to my question of the day and add their own answer.
At night when staff came to take vitals, we started a story telling group. I would come up with the topic of discussion for the night. Then, when and if staff were free for a few minutes, we would share stories. During the day I would then type up their stories and give them to them. I became so close to so many staff members through these sessions.
To keep myself busy right before Christmas, I took my get-well cards, cut out small pieces from them, pasted them to cardboard and made them into Christmas tree ornaments. These ornaments on my home tree brought me great joy.
Since in the hospital I had established a way of communicating and working with others, I continued that pattern when I got home. Now I was able to meet face to face with people who were going through cancer. I was able to zoom and take part in group meetings. I continued with art, doing crossword puzzles, creating simple funny sketches, asking people where they came from and writing up people’s stories.
The more you understand that joy comes from interacting positively with others, and not focusing on yourself, the sooner you will heal. Start with one small activity outside of your comfort zone and it will morph into others. It all takes time.
As a cancer survivor you have strength and an insight into yourself that most others do not possess. You have what it takes within you. What you need to do to further survive is to take a risk, let your creativity in the arts out, and see where it takes you. You have nothing to lose and so much to gain.