Well, hey, folks!  This is a big week!  It is the anniversary of my first podcast a year ago.  So exciting!  I can’t believe I have done 48 episodes – at the start, I couldn’t imagine doing the first four, and now I am done 12 times that!  I know many of you feel like we are old friends at this point, but for the people who are new, I want to tell you how this all came to be.  As most of you know, I am a radiation oncologist, and I have been in practice for more than 20 years.  About 5 years ago, I was struggling in my life.  After having years of fertility treatments, and then ultimately, 4 kids, I was slowly gaining weight.  I thought this was from not exercising and really loving food.  I was fighting with my kids, and always irritated with my spouse.  I was feeling burnt out at work.  I blamed most of this on being too busy and feeling sluggish from my weight.  I knew I needed a change, but...

Hey, my friends. Welcome, welcome. When this airs, I will just be getting back from a hiking trip with my family for the kids’ spring break. If you have listened to prior podcasts, you will know that I have a huge wanderlust and a bucket list of 25 epic trips in 25 years. Most of the trips on the list are outside of the US. But, even though my husband and I are vaccinated, my kids are not, and there are major restrictions in travel outside of the US still, so this spring break was one that we decided to stay local and do some hiking. It’s a good time to be away from crowds and 4 teen boys can carry good packs. I’ll share some pictures in the Facebook group of our adventures. I have to admit, I was hoping to complete our Patagonia trip that got cancelled at the start of the pandemic. Even though we had insurance, our trip was not reimbursed, but we got a credit to use within a year. Well, here it is, a year later, and the borders are still closed, so it’s...

Working Through Negative Emotions After Cancer: The Timer Technique

If you spend your whole day worrying, you need to put some limits on your brain. Believe it or not, we can actually tell our brain what to spend its time thinking about. I created this technique for patients about 15 years ago, and this has been lifechanging for many. Today, we will learn to allow bad feelings for some part of the day, and then tell our brain that it is done with fear, worrying, obsessing, what-if-ing for the next 24 hours. This is how you do it. Get a timer, your phone, the oven timer, whatever you have. Set aside time that you can do this without interruption – if you have a crazy life like me, one option is getting to work early and sitting in the car away from everyone! This time will make you a better parent, spouse, daughter or son, friend, and colleague, so don’t feel like you are being selfish taking this time every day. Set the timer for 15 minutes. Then really allow all...

You are listening to Best Life After Cancer Podcast 34!

Well, hey, my friends, how are you today? I started this podcast a while ago, and it never came to fruition, but I am realizing it is such an issue for so many women, I really needed to just get it out and into the world. Ever have a week where things don’t go the way you planned, and it ends up with someone being angry with you? We all have had that. The worst is when you apologize several times, and they decide to stay angry. I don’t live that way, so it is foreign to me. Hard to understand and interpret. I, like many other women, am quick to label it as my fault. I try to fix it, but to no avail. Then come really great feelings like shame and fear. What will it mean if someone is angry with me? Who will they tell? What will happen? It makes me want to run and hide. As a physician, this fear sometimes comes up when a patients is angry at me. I worry if they complain, what the administration will say, what my peers...

You are listening to Best Life After Cancer Podcast Episode 30!

Well, hey, my friends, how are you today? When this podcast is released, I will be off with my family, enjoying some time away where we can be outside and have a white Christmas, but I wanted to have this ready for you to listen to. This is the first time we will be away from home at Christmas since we had kids. It is the first year that officially no one believes in Santa (although I am pretty sure my youngest was paid by his siblings to keep up the show for a while, but that is another story). Because so many of our usual holiday events were not possible due to Covid, we decided to change things up and go away, and create some new traditions. And, oh, my brain has so many thoughts about that. So today is part of the “working on your brain” aspect of living your best life after cancer. I think for so many, emotions are more heightened after cancer, and the holidays are times when emotions are running high...

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...