Breast Cancer Rundown

Top Tips for Self-Care

When people ask me for my opinion about their breast cancer diagnoses, I first send them to the memoir I serialized on this substack for paid subscribers. It tells the story of my miscarriage, followed by hyper plastic signs and symptoms, healing with Integrative Manual Therapy, and then re-emergence of trouble—and how I dealt with it all. It’ll give you a comprehensive view of the way I’ve come to conceive of healing throughout the years of being a healthcare practitioner and patient.

That said, here’s a quick run-down of the resources I found valuable:

• IMT - Integrative Manual Therapy is the only modality I received when healing from exudate and puckering in my breast tissue as well as fatigue, weight loss, edema, and phlegm. Technically a form of physical therapy, it will support organ function and keep your routes of elimination open so that your body can heal. You can find practitioners and take classes here.

• Turkey Tail mushroom - The only supplement I took was the one Paul Stamets gave to his mother when she had breast cancer. I’m also a fan of Lion’s Mane.

• German New Medicine - When I was sick, I found it helpful to consider the perspective of Dr. Ryke Geerd Hamer’s work, which perceives how conflicts and shocks become expressed in the body through subconscious programs meant to help during times of extremis. In the case of breast cancer, they think the body subconsciously enlarges breast glands when there is a worry about a loved one in order to ‘create more milk.’ When the family member is out of danger, a cyst or tumor appears as a healing phase. Whether or not your symptoms are ‘conflict-active’ or ‘conflict-closed’ can help focus your treatment and relieve distress. It’s worth your time to become familiar with this elegant understanding of the body’s intelligent strategies.

• Diet - When I was sick, I nourished my body with grass-fed organic meats, eggs, organic vegetables, and gluten-free grains. I wasn’t eating a lot of dairy, but I cut it out completely after I became well because I find it now causes breast pain. The Chinese Medicine view of raw or vegetable-only diets is that they are cold in nature and while this may clear signs and symptoms of stagnation due to heat (which could be some types of tumors), they do not address the root cause, are hard to adhere to, and may create other problems. The rule of thumb I consider when choosing foods is, “Does it cause gas?” If your body isn’t digesting it and it’s causing inflammation, it’s probably not for you.

• Myofascial processing - I found it massively helpful to simply put my hands on my body when I was unwell. Sharon Giammatteo’s book, Body Wisdom, is a comprehensive overview of this simple, crucial therapy.

• Meditation - The time I spent in quiet contemplation of what my dying might mean for my son was perhaps the most important thing I did while I was sick. Coming into equanimity with my fears allowed my body to shift into a healing, parasympathetic response. It is simply the best medicine there is.

Love,

Stella