Hi all, I just wanted to say a few words about my feelings about anal cancer and recovery. After attending a course on well being after cancer, provided by a local cancer charity who have been great in motivating those with life after cancer treatment. It might be worth looking at what your areas you live in have going on. I have been thinking back in the early days when my body had been through some gruelling treatment and I was left with what I can only describe as a temperamental teenager living in my stomach. I think they live there well on for a good twelve months playing up when it suits them. You try all sorts of things to make them happy and sometimes they just throw it back in your face. I have learned that there is no one magic answer as we are all unique but when we do find something that makes that teenager within us happy, life is calm again until the next time. Now my teenager is different from yours and the way we respond to things is so different and it’s down to how we think and act. The first year you are recovering from a big kick in the confidence of your body but you can learn to nurture it and sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind to that teenager and encourage it leave. In this course we learn that our minds are the biggest healers and I am learning that deep breathing and relaxation helps fantastically in learning to trust this body again. Stress and anxiety is poison and this can have a big impact on your bowels. The very early post treatment months is the biggest challenge and we are going through some negative thinking and on how we can control this petulant teenager. Diet and exercise is one of the best things I found helped and those on here giving me encouragement which I am so grateful for. I am aiming for complete normality but who knows but I am still telling my inner thinking that I am aiming for it. I avoid foods that at that time don’t agree with me but it doesn’t mean they never will. I definitely avoid foods and drink that I know will encourage that teenager to stay. When I find a food that provides me with that perfectly formed stool I congratulate myself (who would believe I would be thinking like this). Twenty months post treatment I am starting to feel confident in my body and that teenager within me is starting to pack its bags and move to another host. We are our own advocates as to how we move toward the best normal we can be with the help from all of us on here giving hope and support and ideas which we found helped US but might not help YOU. you need to treat the whole package of MIND, BODY AND SOUL.
Great post Jaycee12 with a wonderful analogy regarding tummy issues & the petulant teenager, I agree it’s not just the physical self that needs addressing during a brush with cancer or any serious illness it’s definitely treating the whole package as you say mind, body & soul that’s what truly makes us well again … Irene75359 your post reminds me of a saying I heard a while ago that seems to become more apparent the older I get ‘I opened my mouth & my mother popped out!’ 
Nicola
Love this Jaycee - yes 100% mind, body & soul and what we feed into each of these individually, as well as the whole package to gain a balance, makes such a big difference. I'm mindful to what goes into my system, from all different senses, that's why I'm frustrated with the toxicity ahead and I can't exercise etc.. at moment due to ongoing pain. But I also try not to be in a fearful place, we all need to be kind to ourselves and re-assess what we need in any given moment in time...with patience, self love & care we recover and grow stronger. Easier said than done at times and we also need to allow those times to come & go!
I think it's easy to forget at times our bodies are mostly water and in fact our cells are very intelligent and respond individually as well as together to form the whole, e.g. of an organ. There's still much the medical world doesn't understand and in more recent years found out cells regenerate a lot quicker than was once thought...I like to keep this in mind! Have you ever looked at the research from Dr. Masaru Emoto, the Japanese scientist who revolutionized the idea that our thoughts and intentions impact the physical realm. It's fascinating and have been many studies done on different substances, from water to plants. You can even do this yourself to test it out. This all feeds into how our thoughts communicate with our cells etc.. so bringing together the mind, body & soul as a whole.
I do hold onto a belief that 'everything happens for a reason' it's not until in hindsight that we can sometimes see that. I'm frustrated with the past 6 months of severe pain from external lumps, but I only thought today, on the flip side unless I'd had those external lumps I may not have caught this at the stage I have and it could have been worse. Not always easy to take positives from situations though! But life is naturally full of ups & downs, it's the duality of life, the positive and negative - without one you would not know the other. E.g without experiencing hot you wouldn't fully know cold, or if someone was always happy they wouldn't necessarily know as they wouldn't have anything that forms a contrast in their experience. I think life throws stuff at us to make us re-assess things, alter a path or tweak our lives in whatever way that may be to propel us into a better place eventually. All the people i've read about who started in a bad place or had major impacts on their lives and it wasn't until that they changed their whole direction ahead for the positive.
The teenager part reminded of how I was with some of the bad peri-menopause symptoms I suffered - I hadn't thought of it like that, but I can see now that's how I was. I'm just on the other side! I'll look out for this part of me with treatment ahead!
Today the nurses gave me a form with info on a wellbeing session and out of all of the information she gave me she strongly recommended it. I will defo look into it & join. Many thanks for your inspiring message 
