Cancer's a B: Energy

The word energy has so many different meaning these days. There's the traditional meaning of having strength to do physical and mental activities. For some reason the "mental" aspect of energy always stuck with me. I remember many of my elders often telling how much mental energy can drain you physically. As a child, teenager and college-aged know-it-all, I really never understood what they were talking about. Thinking can make you tired? Well with that said, and now that I have experienced my elder soothsayers' heeded warnings first hand, I have a whole new perspective and respect for energy.

The thing about battling cancer is you need energy. Lots of it. Physical energy. Mental energy. And then some kind of energy that is still a mystery - not sure where it came from and how to bring it back. I just call it Super Energy.

Cancer by itself drains your energy, in fact one of the symptoms of cancer is "chronic fatigue". For me, my bout with energy is very different than most. 

For example, I just underwent two major surgeries involving my colon, intestines, stomach and other innards in less than 30 days. That alone is over-the-top exhausting, but throw in a cancer battle and it certainly challenges your energy limits and parameters. Both your mental and physical energy limits.

A few years ago my friend Mark battled oral cancer and had major surgery. After his surgery, Mark was out of work for 4-5 months and lost around 30 pounds during his recovery. His actual cancer removal surgery wasn't as major as the lymph node removal surgery that accompanied the removal of cancer cells from his tongue. Not downplaying the chunk of tongue they took along with the skin grafting that followed, but his major surgery was extracting the lymph nodes in his neck.

Imagine an "L" flap cut on your neck starting below your ear and cut vertically down to the collar bone. From there a couple inches of a horizontal cut to create a flap so the doctors can take out the lymph nodes from the neck in order to check them over for any cancer cells. Ouch. That is the type of surgery that takes months to recovery from. Mark had to drink his food for a couple months due to the tongue surgery and the neck surgery limited his mobility involving his neck. Your body is using so much mental and physical energy to do just about anything and everything at that point.

When I was sharing my perspective on "energy" with a group of friends, regarding the whole cancer battle and recovery, my cancer-surviving friend Mark chimed in with a perfect example.

"Just making a grilled cheese for my son Alex only took about 20 minutes to do, but it zapped about 6 hours of energy from me," Mark said.

His example was dead on. There are days and times when you will stare into a nowhere-land-of-focus for 20 minutes just trying to build up enough mental energy to get up off the couch. Its like you have to mentally motivate yourself to use any physical energy.

For me, the biggest challenge with energy has been the C.Diff infection I picked up at the hospital. There is a nasty infection called C.Diff that one can get from antibiotics. C. Diff, is a bacterium that can cause symptoms ranging from diarrhea to life-threatening inflammation of the colon. Apparently I am a great candidate for C.Diff because I am a healthy individual without a history of antibiotic use or exposure to health care facilities. Oh, the irony.

Managing and fighting C.Diff virtually takes all your energy. The amplified digestive juices moving around painfully in my sutured organs, the chronic cramping feeling from the vibrating gases percolating below and my poor confused colon screaming for help because another trip to the bathroom is near.

It becomes a sick cycle of using all your available energy to get to the bathroom and reenact the epic bathroom scene from Dumb and Dumber. In fact, I have surpassed that scene multiple times with my own version involving screams, cries and pleas to the heavens above.

That was three weeks of energy. A sick perpetual cycle of bathroom, rest, bathroom, rest. And it doesn't matter what you eat because you eject it hours later. Trying to get nutrients and sustenance into my system was very difficult due to low energy and the fear of what raw pains lurk ahead for my colon during the next bathroom visit.

Then there is the energy from friends, family and others. There are the prayers from churchgoers and positive vibrant energy from the hippie spiritual folk. Both are awesome waves of energy to receive. I know there are skeptics out there regarding healing words and thoughts, but if you can tune into the frequency, you can feel the energy transfer inside of you and it motivates your heart and soul. I welcome and encourage positive thoughts and prayers whole-hardheartedly. My alter boy training and inner-hippie totally paved a path for me to believe in devout prayers and joyful mojo vibes.

This type of energy can ignite your mental energy and summon that secret special Super Energy, too. Special energy that combines physical and mental energy while adding a twist of forward momentum. Something about seeing a name you haven’t seen in years or a fun memory a friend reminded you of. This is the type of personal momentum and motivation that can start something great. Something inspirational. Something worth living for.

Overall you need many forms of energy to battle cancer and recover from the surgeries and treatments. From managing the mental aspect of the Big C to the physical strength needed, positive energy is the best medicine there is.

A group of Jason's friends, colleagues and family members have an online benefit fund. If you would like to donate or find out more, click here - https://lendahandup.org/help-a-family/#/charity/91