Hello, and welcome back! This is episode 7.

This has been a rough week. I thought last week was rough with kidney stones, but that was just pain in my body. This is pain in my heart. Before we start today, I want to acknowledge what has gone on in the US this last week. This week, as a country, we experienced, up close and personal, the death of George Floyd. All of the country is reeling from this, and I have been just so sad for us as Americans. Because we all are – whatever color, we are one people, and as a society, it is like we have a cancer, where part of our own cells are damaging and destroying other parts of us. As a doctor, I really feel that I took a Hippocratic oath to do no harm. Right now, I feel like being silent makes me complicit. It is doing harm. It makes me part of the problem of white privilege. I am part of a female podcasting group, and they challenged all of us to make a statement on our podcasts this week, and I accept their challenge. I am continuing...

You are listening to the Best Life After Cancer Podcast, Episode #6.
Hi, and welcome back! This has been a crazy week here, and when I wrote this episode, I thought it was just what was going on in my life. I have recently been diagnosed with kidney stones, and this past week I had a lithotripsy, a procedure where they use sound waves to break up stones in the kidney and ureter. One of the benefits of being in medicine is that getting stuff done is a lot easier and less stressful, but even with that, it still isn’t fun. In NJ, you have to have a COVID test and be shown to be COVID negative for any nonemergent surgical procedure. I have a lot more sympathy for patients getting the test – they stick a qtip up your nose and it feels like they swab your brain. But, I was negative, and got the procedure. I knew all the folks in the OR, from the surgeon, to the anesthetist, to the guy who runs the lithotripter, so it was almost like getting together with a group of friends,...

Hello, and welcome back! This is episode 5. I am really excited to talk to you today. Today we are going to talk about body image. This is such a loaded topic for many people even without the cancer card! Today we are going to look at how changes in body image impact daily life, and how to deal with 3 types of body image changes. The term body image means different things to different people, so I started this week by looking up the official definition of the term. Google describes body image as the subjective picture or mental image of one's own body. Cancer.Net describes body image as how a person views himself or herself. Because of the many physical and emotional changes after a cancer diagnosis, people may experience both positive and negative changes to their self-image. Today we are going to focus more on physical changes. We discussed some emotional changes in earlier podcasts, and will come back to them in the future. Both cancer and its treatment may change how you look....

Hi, and welcome back! This is episode 4. Almost a month in already! Time flies when you’re busy. Although, sometimes even busy doesn’t make it fly, and that is a bit of how I am experiencing social distancing. Today, I am going to spend a few minutes reviewing first. We have previously gone through allowing negative emotions. We discussed the differences between thoughts and circumstances. Last week we talked about our primitive brains vs. our upper brain, and how the primitive brain is working to keep us safe. I’m wondering - were you aware at all this week of your primitive brain in the background? It is interesting, whatever I write about, I find I think about a lot more that week. This past week, I was really noticing all the times my brain was trying to keep me safe, and how infrequently what it told me was useful. But, I am grateful for that old brain of mine, when I do things like step in front of a moving car in a parking lot, and my primitive brain acts...

Hello, my best lifers, and welcome to Episode 3! I am so excited to get to talk to you again today! Today is really cloudy and super windy, but this morning, my husband and I got up and went for a quick walk with our two young dogs. We have a yellow lab and a german shepherd, both of which are under a year old, so they are less destructive if they get some exercise. It started to rain just as we got home, so I was feeling lucky that the world played nice and let us get our walk done instead of pouring on us. Now I am refreshed and ready to get down to work. I wanted to do a quick refresher before we started today. In the first podcast, we talked about allowing our emotions, leaning into them, instead of avoiding, resisting or reacting to them. It is a skill that takes time, and I hope you are making some progress. The second week, we talked about the difference between thoughts and circumstances, and how to start to be more aware of what the thoughts are that are causing the...

Hello, and welcome back! This is episode 2 of Living Your Best Life after Cancer. Today we are going to discuss the differences between thoughts and circumstances, and I will talk about a way to think about things that can give you some comfort. But first, did you try the technique of allowing negative emotions from last week? If you missed that one, maybe go and listen to it first, as what I am about to tell you will make SO much more sense. I was thinking after the podcast about one of the places that in the past I have really resisted emotions. As I mentioned last time, I have 4 kids, but what I didn’t mention is that I have a fear of something happening to both me and my husband, leaving them without parents. I also have a huge fear of flying. That may surprise some of the people listening to this who know me, because that fear doesn’t stop us from having epic adventures. I’m sure as we go along, you will hear about one or two of them. But, I digress. When my...

Hello, and welcome to Living Your Best Life after Cancer. I’m so glad you are here! This is your first step towards releasing your fear, regaining your joy and reducing your risk. I’m your host, Dr. Deborah Butzbach. I’m so excited to take this journey with you!
I can’t even tell you how excited I am to be starting on this journey. This is episode 1. Things are crazy right now in the world with all that is going on with the Corona Virus, and I considered delaying the launch of this podcast, but I know that fear of cancer is much more pressing than the chance of getting and dying from Corona for many of my patients, so this is happening NOW!
Today, we are going to talk about some of the things I have seen over and over again in my years of taking care of cancer patients, and one of the many easy techniques I have taught patients to help them deal with some of the most challenging emotions they feel.
But first, I’d like to introduce myself, tell you a...