Why We Make these Cancer Thriver Resources for You
By Jenny Bradley, Cancer Thriver & Certified Cancer Coach
The Personal Cancer Connection
To get the first glimpse of why I started crafting these cancer thriver resources, we’ll rewind back years before the pandemic…all the way to 2017.
On a chilly day in December of 2017, I stood by my patio door with my phone pressed up against my ear. Intently listening while I looked out onto the browning bush, a nurse bluntly delivered delivered the primary results from my painful biopsy. “It is a carcinoma. We’ll have to send it on for further detailed pathology and that will inform a treatment plan.”
I have been entrenched ever since that phone call over five years ago in diligent pursuit of what we can do to support our healing during a cancer journey.
Within two weeks of being diagnosed, I was having my first appointment with a doctor who would help guide my holistic and integrative cancer therapies options. The way the various doctors offices schedules worked, it just so happened that I could get into the naturopathic clinic before my first official conventional oncology appointment.
Choosing an Integrative Cancer Care Approach
Sitting on the exam table of the conventional oncologist’s tiny white walled room with a brown pocket door, I could feel my heart beating faster as I asked if I should see hormone specialist, since my pathology report showed my cancer was highly hormone driven. To my surprise, he said he didn’t think that’d be helpful.
If I was going to be a cancer thriver, not just a survivor, I was going to need to support my overall body. It seemed like it would make the most sense to look closer at what my hormones were really doing. After all, the one thing the conventional medicine could offer my particular case was a type of hormone therapy that would throw me into medically induced menopause (and have negative quality of life side effects as well as potentially causing strokes and other types of cancer).
While finishing that conventional oncology appointment that day, I knew take intentional action beyond what the traditional cancer doctors could offer me. I wasn’t against them. I needed more tools in my cancer thriver resources toolbox.
I Know What It Feels Like
I get what it’s like to feel like there is more out there that can help you on your way to healing. As someone in the “5 under 40” demographic, I understand what it’s like to be one of the youngest people in the waiting room at the cancer clinic. I also know what it feels like to have well intended people say hurtful things about my cancer journey.
It’s hard in the American culture to choose options that might seem like they are going “against” the standard of care (soc). I put the word “against” in quotes above because in my case, I wasn’t radically going against it. Standard of care had barely anything to offer me. And if the typical things were going to be recommended (they weren’t), then I wanted to have therapies in my arsenal that could help mediate side effects and give me a better quality of life.
My healing modalities include diet, lifestyle, and alternative and integrative treatments. I’ve undergone full body scans, cryoablation, and continue to consult with surgeons about next steps. All of this takes tenacity and a cancer thriver mindset!
Crafting the Shrink the Mutant Cancer Thriver Resources
As an Enneagram 5, I LOVE researching and have three degrees! I decided a few months into my cancer journey to start my @shrinkthemutant Instagram account as a place to show people what I was learning and doing that wasn’t exactly “standard of care” but was helping support my overall healing and wellness. I added writing a blog to share more info and resources.
A few years after my diagnosis, I spent time being formally educated in nutrition becoming a Certified Culinary Nutrition Expert. Then, I went on to get certified as a Cancer Coach. And now, we have created Shrink the Mutant School here to be a one stop shop for Guides, Workshops, Courses, and 1-on-1 Coaching that can help fellow cancer thrivers as well as friends of cancer patients.
Sharing what I’ve learned is inescapable for me, just ask my husband, Mike! He is my closest supporter and daily encouragement. We get asked often how people can better support friends going through a health crisis. So, I have been putting together a variety of Guides and Workshops for our Shrink the Mutant School. Together, we hope this info brings insight to you!
You can find me regularly on my instagram @shrinkthemutant , my blog, writing articles & speaking on podcasts, and my on 1-on-1 coaching calls with my cancer thriver clients. All of this time and effort I put into these cancer thriver resources is to help make the cancer journey a little brighter for others along the way.
Proceeds from these cancer thriver resources go back to my continued cancer treatments. Thank you for your support of this thriver as I live with cancer and attempt to bring you meaningful resources.
-Jenny Bradley
Master of Arts in Intellectual Leadership
Certified Cancer Coach
Certified Culinary Nutrition Expert
Cancer Thriver
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