🔒 When Healing Efforts Backfire: The Delicate Balance of Cancer Treatment
04/23/25 • 15 min
A health crisis unfolds as my scheduled port placement surgery gets abruptly cancelled. After weeks of waiting for insurance approval and preparing for chemotherapy treatment for my squamous cell carcinoma, I found myself on the operating table, IV inserted and ready to go, when blood tests revealed an elevated white blood cell count. The medical team immediately halted the procedure due to infection concerns.
My journey takes an unexpected turn as I confront the reality that my own healing attempts may have contributed to this setback. In trying to be proactive, I inadvertently aggravated the tumor, causing it to breach and weep. This experience highlights the delicate balance of the healing process and the limitations of our understanding of complex bodily systems. As I note during this vulnerable moment: "Sometimes you set something in motion that's hard to undo. These reactions and these systems are very delicate and we don't understand them nearly as much as we think we do."
Despite this disappointment, I remain steadfast in my approach, continuing with oxygenation therapy, physical exercise (what I call "sand therapy"), and infrared sauna sessions. The challenges are mounting as the tumor increasingly affects my ability to speak and function normally, creating a sense of urgency in my treatment journey. Through it all, I emphasize the vital importance of community support in healing and express profound gratitude for those standing with me. This episode serves as both a personal update and a meditation on faith, perseverance, and the humility required when facing health challenges that defy simple solutions. Will you join me on this journey of discovery and healing?
Intro for podcast
Here is the link for Sunday's 4 pm Pacific time Zoom meeting
A health crisis unfolds as my scheduled port placement surgery gets abruptly cancelled. After weeks of waiting for insurance approval and preparing for chemotherapy treatment for my squamous cell carcinoma, I found myself on the operating table, IV inserted and ready to go, when blood tests revealed an elevated white blood cell count. The medical team immediately halted the procedure due to infection concerns.
My journey takes an unexpected turn as I confront the reality that my own healing attempts may have contributed to this setback. In trying to be proactive, I inadvertently aggravated the tumor, causing it to breach and weep. This experience highlights the delicate balance of the healing process and the limitations of our understanding of complex bodily systems. As I note during this vulnerable moment: "Sometimes you set something in motion that's hard to undo. These reactions and these systems are very delicate and we don't understand them nearly as much as we think we do."
Despite this disappointment, I remain steadfast in my approach, continuing with oxygenation therapy, physical exercise (what I call "sand therapy"), and infrared sauna sessions. The challenges are mounting as the tumor increasingly affects my ability to speak and function normally, creating a sense of urgency in my treatment journey. Through it all, I emphasize the vital importance of community support in healing and express profound gratitude for those standing with me. This episode serves as both a personal update and a meditation on faith, perseverance, and the humility required when facing health challenges that defy simple solutions. Will you join me on this journey of discovery and healing?
Intro for podcast
Here is the link for Sunday's 4 pm Pacific time Zoom meeting
Previous Episode
The Timeline of Healing: How Perspective Shapes Health
Time isn't just a dimension we move through—it's a multifaceted tool for transformation and healing. While navigating my cancer journey with a tumor growing on my neck, I've discovered that the popular advice to "just stay present" barely scratches the surface of what we need for true wellbeing.
The past isn't simply a place of regrets to avoid. It offers rich opportunities for closure, forgiveness, and recognizing our growth. When we carefully revisit our history, we can heal emotional wounds, acknowledge responsibility for our actions, and learn valuable lessons that shape our current choices. As my energy becomes increasingly precious during treatment, I've realized how unresolved past relationships and experiences quietly drain our vitality—sometimes without our awareness.
Present moment awareness remains powerful, creating the foundation for reduced anxiety, improved focus, and better communication. I share how this perspective once helped me endure incarceration by viewing difficult circumstances as "just a moment in time." The present gives us the opportunity to accept reality as it is rather than as we wish it to be, which paradoxically creates space for positive change. This acceptance has been crucial in my relationship with family members who've been absent during my health struggle.
Looking to the future provides something essential that's often overlooked in wellness conversations: hope. By setting health goals, visualizing desired outcomes, and embracing change, we create motivation that pulls us forward through difficult times. During painful treatments, glimpsing a future without suffering gives me psychological relief and determination. The future perspective also helps us appreciate the long-term effects of our actions—like the trees I planted thirty years ago that now provide shade and beauty.
The most powerful approach comes from moving fluidly between these perspectives, using each one as needed for different aspects of healing. By breaking free from rigid time frameworks, we access a more nuanced toolkit for health transformation. What time perspective serves your wellbeing right now? Join us for subscriber-only episodes to explore these concepts more deeply, and share this episode with someone who might benefit from a fresh perspective on their health journey.
Intro for podcast
Here is the link for Sunday's 4 pm Pacific time Zoom meeting
Next Episode
🔒 Wrestling with Cancer: When Everything Hurts and Hope Remains
Pain transforms you in ways you never expect until you're living it day after day without relief. Throughout my cancer journey, I've experienced many challenges, but the last 24 hours have pushed me to new limits of endurance. What began as an attempt to stimulate activity on my tumor developed into an infection, causing constant drainage that required me to wear a makeshift paper towel collar all day. The restricted movement, difficulty sleeping, and persistent discomfort have created a new understanding of what it means to truly suffer.
When pain doesn't release its grip for months on end, it doesn't just hurt—it consumes your resources. I've discovered that pain demands increasing amounts of energy and willpower to face each day. This revelation has forced me to make difficult decisions about where my limited energy goes. Some calls from loved ones remain unanswered because I simply don't have the capacity to engage, even when those connections matter deeply to me.
Despite these challenges, there's progress and hope. The antibiotics prescribed by my doctor appear to be working, with drainage significantly reduced after just three doses. I'm looking forward to rescheduling my port placement so treatment can continue. Throughout this ordeal, I've been blessed with individuals who genuinely restore my energy rather than depleting it—true gifts from God who rejuvenate my spirit when I need it most. My faith remains unshaken; I know with absolute certainty that my body is capable of healing and that I will overcome this challenge. For those following this journey, thank you for your prayers and support. Subscribe to join me on this path and witness what unfolds as I continue fighting with everything I have.
Intro for podcast
Here is the link for Sunday's 4 pm Pacific time Zoom meeting
Healthy Living by Willow Creek Springs - 🔒 When Healing Efforts Backfire: The Delicate Balance of Cancer Treatment
Transcript
Well , hello and welcome to the Healthy Living Podcast . I'm your host , joe Grumbine , and this is another subscriber episode , and I'm really pleased that
Speaker 1this last couple of weeks we've been increasing our subscriber
Speaker 1the amount of people subscribing , and I'm super grateful for that . I just
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/healthy-living-by-willow-creek-springs-256871/when-healing-efforts-backfire-the-delicate-balance-of-cancer-treatmen-89873633"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to 🔒 when healing efforts backfire: the delicate balance of cancer treatment on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy