The Art of Having a Sane or Real Conversation with Someone Diagnosed with Cancer

Perhaps of all the health conditions a person could be diagnosed with, the one that seems to invoke the greatest amount of fear and terror is the diagnosis of cancer. When I get a call from someone diagnosed with this condition or from a relative calling me on behalf of someone in their family with cancer, I can often feel the extent to which they are gripped by the fear of death.

When I first started working with people with cancer in my health practice, I would pick up on this fear and was very much attached to wanting to save everyone who came my way with this condition. I tended to take it very personally if I couldn’t help them or they died.

Fortunately for me, I eventually came to another realization which was — if someone is truly ready to go, what’s wrong with them dying from cancer? After all, we all have to have something that takes us out of here at some point when we are ready to go. For some people it’s cancer, and for others, it’s something like a heart attack, stroke, Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson Disease, an accident, etc. Death is something that’s a normal and inevitable part of life that comes for some at a young age and others at a later age.

For me, I found I just can’t have a “real” or “sane” conversation with someone who has been…