Perspective

I'm convinced that Josh's mind-body connection is very strong (much more so than maybe most people, but certainly mine), often to detrimental effects. Stresses in his life are likely to be born out in physical symptoms. Many years ago, maybe when he was in his late 20s or early 30s, he had an episode of shingles. It's an annoying, very painful, usually pretty temporary condition that is typically seen in people older than 60. And now he has a nasty noma he's fighting against.

In the fight, the mind-body connection now shows up in psychosomatic symptoms. The day before the second round treatment, Josh woke up in the early morning with a metallic task in his mouth - something that hadn't appeared until a day or two after the first round. During our last drive down to Houston for the third round treatment just two weeks ago, Josh started feeling the uncomfortableness in his digestive system that usually appears as the chemotherapy is starting and continues for several days afterward. The mere anticipation of the chemotherapy affects Josh significantly. During our visit to Galveston, I took a moment to talk with Josh's mom about schedule coordination during the week of Josh's fourth round. He overheard and insisted we stop because just the thought of another round disturbed him.

And it's not just the negative thoughts that have power over Josh's body condition...it's the positive ones, too. As Josh laid in the bed at MD Anderson getting the first 2 hours of simply saline drip as part of the first round of treatment (to flush out his kidneys), he suddenly felt really good physically. His aches and pains were virtually gone; he was able to lie in the bed without any discomfort - something he hadn't been able to do for several months, even on a significant number of pain medications. Simply knowing that he was finally getting treatment after many weeks of waiting relaxed him. Certainly a demonstration of his strong mind-body connection, this time a very positive one.

A good friend of mine recently caught up with these blog posts and offered a bit of sage advice that I hope Josh will take to heart: change your perspective.

Throughout Josh's blog posts here, he's mentioned several times the "poison" that they put into his body and how bad it makes him feel afterward.

"nasty stuff it is" Day 5???, April 5, 2010

"I am about to have a bunch of poison pumped into my bloodstream voluntarily and it is going to make me feel like crap for the next 4-6 days" Round 2, April 21, 2010

"two poisons they inject into my veins every three weeks" No Pain, No Gain, April 30, 2010

My friend has wisely counseled that Josh frame the chemotherapy in his mind as healing, a great thing, a great investment of time. Visualize during the 7 hours the power of the healing medicine pumping through his body, creating a healthy system, fighting and destroying that noma. Start looking forward to it.

As Isaac (Josh's younger "doctor" brother) keeps reminding me, there will be physical symptoms that Josh can't just will away with the power of his mind. But a change in perspective, a focus on the positive, certainly could be a very powerful tool to help minimize the physical aftereffects and maybe eliminate the physical symptoms Josh has experienced before the treatment.