1 Finance - Will writing, putting information about key finances in a central place/s
2 Household - Collation of household documents, airlooms etc..
3 Councelling - Councelling and key principles to come to terms with end of life and terminal
4 Well Being -Avenues to help come to terms with end of life and terminal
5 Support - Support for self and loved ones
It took me several months before I did this, I wasn 't in the right headspace
in the early days and couldn't see the value in it. However it can be powerful stuff and as important IMHO as the trestment itself.
It'S now been 14 months for me since my diagnosis and circa 9 months since I'd really got up to speed on well being.
It provided me with a quality of life, despite the mostly difficult and painful times I still feel overall those additional months have been worth living.
Plus 9 months might not sound much but when going through is actually a decent chunk of time. I had a short holidasy with family,
experienced birthdsys, festive occassions, got back on my bike and had one more summer of riding etc..
Well Being - Services / treatments
I had a brilliant naturalpath from here here
, an integrative naturalpath still takes a holistic apporach but is cancer specific integrating plans with your current cancer treatment.
This plan in may cover much of the below as covers, diet, supplemental, exercise and other well being.
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Pastoral support - I found this very empowering. Whether religious or not I suspect would help many people spiritually for end of life.
I recevied some visits from a local vicar.
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Online sleep meditation and CBT - I used a wellness insight timer on my phone to play some, also youtube for sleep meditation.
My goto sleep meditation being a podcast by my clinical phsycologist Andrew.
Here he has shared one I found to be very effecitve plus some useful podcasts for other situations, some of which
I feel will help my family post my death.
I also followed sleep sanitation techniques such as eating 3+hours before bed, removing blue light etc.. Also via sleep books
to try to accept fears like death rather than try to shut out these fears. This all helped for a while but the biggest benefit for me was the councelling
to get at the underlying causes. As that also solved sleep problems.
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Exercise - Coupled with outdoor exercise I think is a powerfull form of well being and shown to help againt cancer.
I found cycling and walking a while each day beneficial. Plus short periods on a rebounder trampoline and HIIT workouts.
The rebounder was especially useful when recovering from surgery and gentle exercise is needed.
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Diet and supplemental measures - I did this via the naturalpath and nutritionalist. There is alot out there on diets and most
will err towards an organic whole food approach, mediteranian diet being one example. Something high in nutrients, low in suger. I found this
helped providing me with energy and new flavours to try. So I got a new joy in food
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Reiki - I found this form of treatment quite powerful in helping spiritually and visually
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Accupuncture - I found this form of treatment useful in the treatment of some of the symptoms of chemo.
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Barbaric Oxygen therapy - I've found articles both for and against this in terms of it's cancer fighting properties. However it did
help me heal post surgeries and from a well being perspective feel good.
Well Being - Activities
Alongisde accessing treatmens and services there were several activities that helped from a well being perspective.
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Hobbies and new skills - For me it included reading books, re-learning how to build websites and playing computer games.
The later may not seem like an obvious choice, but I find them fun and it helped take my mind off of pain and other things. I.e. provided
escapism.
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Actions for the children, here now and future - Very rewarding to do things that will leave a mark and help them now and in years to come.
This included getting memorable keepsakes for each. setting up computers which should take them through the next 5 years at school.
Teaching them new skills and furthering existing ones (i.e. excel, powerpoint, chess for example).
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Activities to engage with my family - This I found initially difficult as many had been physical and were no longer possible. However
it can be acheived in a different way, in part with different activities i.e. non physical. For me, this was table football, chess and other board
games with my children. With my wife who started running, whilst I couldn't run with her I could advise on shoes, equipment, training etc...
