Lessons From My Cancer Journey

In this deeply personal and inspiring talk, Kay Johnson shares their courageous journey through cancer, offering valuable insights and life lessons along the way. From the moment of diagnosis to the triumph of survival, Kay Johnson takes you through the highs and lows, the challenges and victories, and the profound transformation that cancer brought into their life.

Transcript

In 2007, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, Which had already traveled to the lymph nodes. So in that case, The procedure that you go through is first you have surgery, Then you have chemotherapy, And then you have radiation. And I had never had anything like this, This totally, As it mostly, As it usually does for everybody, Just kind of knocks you off your feet. And I thought to myself, I wondered what choices that I had control over could I make that would support me throughout this experience. And so I want to share those with you. I don't think I recognized them as I was going through it, But as I looked back on that experience, I could see things that I did that helped me, And maybe they can help you if you're in any kind of a situation like this. So the first thing that you have to do is to choose a cancer surgeon, A breast cancer surgeon. So we live near a Swedish hospital, And so Terry and I went over there. We did some research, The doctors that were there. We picked one we thought looked great, Had lots of recommendations, Somebody I knew had recommended her. So we went in and had a first-time meeting with this person. So she came in with her folders and put them down on the desk, And she started explaining what the process was going to be, What would happen first and second and so on. So we get all done. We leave. Terry says to me, Well, She seemed fine to me. What do you think? And I said, Yeah, But you know, I don't know. I have another recommendation from a dear friend, But this doctor is over at Rose Hospital, Which is not convenient. But you know, I think I'd like to visit that person as well. So he said, Well, All right, Whatever. So I dragged him over there. Now we're having another meeting with another doctor. So this person walks in. She puts her papers down on the desk, And she looks at me and says, So tell me about yourself. Well, I think you can imagine that in that moment I thought, Hmm, This is different. I think this may be my surgeon. The lesson there is listen to those small little voices within you that say, Ah, That doesn't feel quite right, Or maybe I should look a little further, Or maybe I should talk to somebody else. That would be one of those choices that really impacts your experience. Every exchange with that particular surgeon was really quite lovely. And when the day that they were wheeling me into the surgery bay, She came out into the hall and said, Could I hold your hand now while we walk in here? You know, Things are going to be OK. I thought, This person is incredible. You can see how it would change my, It erased my fears as we were moving into the surgery unit. Then the second thing, This was 2007, Everything was not electronic. So every time you did something, They gave you a paper. So I created this notebook. And I was looking at this notebook, Because of course I put it on the shelf, And I looked at the spine and I thought, What am I going to write on that spine of that notebook? And so I chose to write the word healing, Not cancer, Healing. And then the front of the notebook, You could put cards and so forth in there. Somebody sent me a card, You may have seen it, Of a fishbowl and a goldfish jumping out. And the words were, Anything is possible. I put that card in there. So when I took my notebook, Because I was going to see some doctor or something, I saw healing, I saw the card, And then I opened it up and inside I put pictures of my grandchildren. Now if I had not happened to have grandchildren at the time, I would have put a picture of my dog in there. Not only did I see that, Rather than the first page of whatever that was going to be in there, But I had the opportunity when someone was drawing blood, Which seemed like was happening constantly, I could say, Do you want to see pictures of my grandchildren? They never said no. And then I said, So are you married, Do you have children? Sure enough they did, And then they showed me pictures of their children. And so instead of me sitting there thinking, Gosh, I should have drunk more water, I mean this really hurts, We were in a different energy. That supported me emotionally and spiritually to create my materials that reflected back to me what I wanted instead of what I was actually going through. One of the things that I did as well was I stayed very close to the church, And I recommend this to anybody who's going through a tough time, Whether it's medical or whether it's a divorce or losing a job or having a relationship issue, Losing a loved one. Because when you're at church, The people around you will lift you just by being in their energy. And it's talking to the minister, Just talking to them after the service, The music, Taking any classes. You get into a group and it just simply lifts you. Plus, I always recommend that people see a practitioner when they're dealing with something hard. And I did. I saw a practitioner every two weeks. This woman is still a practitioner at Mile High. She helped me create my affirmation, And my affirmation was, Every cell in my body is vibrating at the frequency of wholeness, Health, And divine love. Now it was kind of long, A little bit longer. It took me a while to memorize it. But I used that affirmation, Especially in the middle of the night. I would wake up during chemotherapy, I didn't sleep well. So I wake up in the middle of the night, There's nothing to do, Nobody to talk to, Too tired to get up. I would repeat the affirmation over and over and over to keep me from going down the worry rattle. And I'll tell you something honestly, I didn't require that I believe it. I just required that I say it. Because just saying the words, Repeating over and over, This is what I want, This is where I'm headed, That alone was spiritual and emotional support for me. I failed to mention that I was actually in ministerial school during this time. But I did not intend to become a minister. I went to Roger and said, I just want to keep studying science of mind. And that's what was available. So he said, I said, I don't really want to be a minister, But would you let me take ministerial classes? And he said, Okay, Don't worry, You'll figure it out. And so I asked my people I was with that were in class, I said, If you have any energy healers or people you think I should see, Let me know and I'll go do that. And so they recommended things. I knew nothing about energy healing in those days. And I would go and do these various experiences that they recommended. And again, To have somebody else be talking about healing in such a very different way, It was fascinating. So I had the spiritual healing that was going on, I had these energy healers that were talking about moving energy in certain ways. Those again, Were choices that I made that really supported me both emotionally and spiritually to move through this difficult time. I think I was most afraid of the chemotherapy because that's what, You know, It's when you lose your hair and all this stuff happens well and you don't feel good. So they had, You go to a place, I was in a recliner and then they have a hanging the bags of the stuff. And one of them was red. And I thought, This does not speak healing to me. So I took my label maker and I made healing and I wrote out love. And I put those stickers on those bags so that if I would wake up from a little nap or whatever while this was going on, I would see those words. I just wouldn't see the bags that were going in, You know, The information or I mean the liquid that was going into my body. I would be reminded, We're healing, This is love. I would listen to my ultimate Aum and I would meditate during that time period. That was my time to be, To do my meditation. Some people like a social event when they go to do chemo. I chose the other. So then after you finish the chemotherapy, They give you a break for about a month. And then for me it was radiation. This was every day, Six weeks, Five days a week. So you go, You wait for your appointment, Etc. And so I was kind of fussing about this and a friend of mine said, You know what, I have a bunch of books that are so funny and fun to read, Let me bring you these. So she brought me this bag of books by Janet Ovanovich who writes the Stephanie Plum series, Which I bet you somebody out there has heard of or read. So Stephanie Plum has a pet hamster named Rex and she is a bounty hunter. She knows nothing about this business and she works for her cousin Vinnie in New Jersey. So you can see this is a case of hilarity about to happen. And so I would be sitting in the waiting room giggling about these books. And by the way, I only let myself read them when I was going to radiation. So by the time I was going into the room, So the women that were running the radiation part said to me, You know, Hardly anybody comes in here smiling. What are you doing? And so I told them about these crazy books and we all had a good laugh. It was just another small decision that helped support me emotionally and spiritually. And so as I've talked about those, I'm hoping maybe you have thought of things that you can do to help you through whatever hard thing you might be facing right now. It turned out that after I finished the whole cancer experience, We had to do a workshop, Create a workshop for part of our training. And so everybody's trying to figure out what they were going to do it on. And again, My classmates said to me, Okay, You should do it on healing. And so I did the, That's what I did. And I did a little piece of it for the class that was part of the assignment. And when I was finished, I thought, I guess maybe I really am going to become a minister after all. That experience, For as crummy as it was in so many ways, Actually created a turning point in my life. That can happen. Choices along the way are important, Small choices. What supports you emotionally? What can support you spiritually as you're going through whatever it is you're going through? If it supports you emotionally, It's spiritual.

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