Illinois ladies facing bc

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Comments

  • navymom
    navymom Member Posts: 842
    edited October 2017

    Hi Jewelz,

    Welcome to the thread. I am not in your area, so I can't help with your question. But there are many ladies who check this thread often and they will be along soon to help you.

    Also would like to invite you to a thread (there are many) that was started by a TN sister..Its called "Calling all TN's". Lots of love and support and information there. Feel free to join in.

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited October 2017

    Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.



    Mohandas Gandhi

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited October 2017

    Jewlz, let me welcome you as well. I too am not close to the Chicago area, but there are many there. This thread has been here for some time and so it may take a bit but someone will pop in. Navy Mom is right -- there are a number of threads that would be appropriate I think. Hopefully you will find someone soon who could answer your questions as they apply locally.

    We are wishing you well.

    Jackie

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited October 2017

    Living our life means that we take our life day to day and moment to moment, always trying to deepen our understanding of what it means to be human. Life will never be perfect, and we will always be in a state of moving towards completeness. Don, 84, put it this way: "You have lived the life you have lived. When we accept the life we have lived, then we can begin to be whole." He echoed an often-heard theme: When we judge our life we diminish ourselves. The more we can eliminate all need to compare, compete, grade, and judge our lives, the closer we get to wisdom.
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    John Izzo

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited October 2017

    Two today -- couldn't make up my mind.


    A look filled with understanding, an accepting smile, a loving word, a meal shared in warmth and awareness are the things which create happiness in the present moment. By nourishing awareness in the present moment, you can avoid causing suffering to yourself and those around you. The way you look at others, your smile, and your small acts of caring can create happiness. True happiness does not depend on wealth or fame.
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    Thich Nhat Hanh


    Life offers its wisdom generously. Everything teaches. Not everyone learns. Life asks of us the same thing we have been asked in every class: "Stay awake." "Pay attention." But paying attention is no simple matter. It requires us not to be distracted by expectations, past experiences, labels, and masks. It asks that we not jump to early conclusions and that we remain open to surprise.
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    Rachel Naomi Remen

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited October 2017

    "Protect your spirit from contamination. Limit your time with negative people."

    -- Thema Davis

  • chisandy
    chisandy Member Posts: 11,408
    edited October 2017

    Julie, Crystal Lake is pretty far N and W of the best-known Chicago-area cancer centers. I use NorthShore Health System. Closest to me (but probably furthest from you) is Evanston Hospital (where I had my lumpectomy & radiation) and adjacent Kellogg Cancer Center (where I see my oncologist and get my Prolia shots). My support group meets at Evanston's prof. bldg. too. Closer to you are Glenbrook and Highland Park Hospitals--both of which have Kellogg Cancer Centers. They're about 26 miles or so from Crystal Lake.

    Advocate is a very good hospital system (disclosure: my husband is a cardiologist at its SW suburban Christ Medical Center). Its closest hospitals to you are Good Shepherd in Barrington, Sherman in Elgin, and Condell (perhaps their best outside Cook or DuPage County) in Libertyville. Christ, Good Samaritan, Lutheran General, IL Masonic and Condell have the best cancer centers in the system; but except for Condell they're either in Chicago, Oak Lawn or Downers Grove--all too far, IMHO, from you.

    CTCA is in Zion, about 20 mi. east--but though it may offer cutting-edge care it's very picky about what forms of payment it accepts--no Medicare. Cash or top-drawer private insurance only. And they usually don't take advanced stages either unless the patient is quite young (they want to burnish their success record so they can boast).

    Northwestern has both breast health and cancer centers at Lake Forest Hospital, as well as cancer care at its Grayslake Outpatient center. U of C, Rush and Loyola have nothing anywhere near you.

    How far are you willing to drive for your surgery, radiation & infusions? Once you've had your surgery (if that's the route your team wants to take), you can get radiation & chemo at any branch in your chosen system that offers them; you need to go to a cancer center to see the specialists on your team.

    There is also the Cancer Wellness Center (open to patients using a variety of hospital systems) in Northbrook--it offers classes, support groups, nutrition counseling & complementary therapies such as yoga, meditation, Tai Chi & Qi Gong, acupuncture, aromatherapy, art & music therapy, and massage (which is wildly popular, so be prepared to wait weeks-to-months for an appt.).

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited October 2017

    What you seek is seeking you.

    Rumi

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited October 2017

    Because they were all so good today.....


    As we work to create light for others,
    we naturally light our own way.
    - Mary Anne Radmacher

    The unselfish effort to bring cheer to others
    will be the beginning of a happier life for ourselves.
    - Helen Keller

    Good works are links that form a chain of love.
    - Mother Teresa

    Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward heaven.
    - Henry Ward Beecher

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited October 2017

    You don't get old from living a particular number of years: you get old because you have deserted your ideals. Years wrinkle your skin, renouncing your ideals wrinkles your soul. Worry, doubt, fear, and despair are the enemies which slowly bring us down to the ground and turn us to dust before we die. -Douglas MacArthur

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited October 2017

    You don't get old from living a particular number of years:you get old because you have deserted your ideals.Years wrinkle your skin, renouncing your ideals wrinkles your soul.Worry, doubt, fear, and despair are the enemies which slowly bring us down to the ground and turn us to dust before we die. -Douglas MacArthur

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited October 2017

    When we become expert at loving and caring for ourselves,
    we feel healthy, centered, and strong. We don't need to
    escape from our reality through shopping, eating, drinking,
    drugging, or losing ourselves in abusive relationships.
    We feel warm and safe within ourselves.
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    Susan L. Taylor

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited October 2017

    In a noisy world, seek the silence in your heart. And through the power of silence, the energies of chaos will be brought back to harmony--not by you, but through you, as all miracles are. When we visit this silence regularly, particularly in the morning, then the days of our lives become lit from above. Darkness and fear are cast from our midst, slowly at first, one moment at a time. Ultimately, all darkness will be gone from every heart.
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    Marianne Williamson

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited October 2017

    Find out how much God has given you
    and from it take what you need;
    the remainder is needed by others.
    - Saint Augustine

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited October 2017

    When one bases one's life on principle,
    99 percent of his or her decisions are already made.
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    unattributed

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited October 2017

    You lose the very life you seek when you wallow in stupid luxuries.You don't need nine-tenths of the things you scramble for.Don't be afraid to have nothing.Happiness is not what you have, but who you are.You are already who you need to be. -Diogenes

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited November 2017

    What is the essence of life? To serve others and to do good.

    - Aristotle -

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited November 2017

    The ingredients of happiness are so simple that they can be counted on one hand. First of all, happiness must be shared. Selfishness is its enemy; to make another happy is to be happy one's self. It is quiet, seldom found for long in crowds, most easily won in moments of solitude and reflection. It comes from within, and rests most securely on simple goodness and clear conscience. -William Ogden

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited November 2017

    Goodness is the only investment that never fails. -Henry David Thoreau

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited November 2017

    The finest gift you can give anyone is encouragement. Yet, almost no one gets the encouragement they need to grow to their full potential. If everyone received the encouragement they need to grow, the genius in most everyone would blossom and the world would produce abundance beyond the wildest dreams. We would have more than one Einstein, Edison, Schweitzer, Mother Theresa, Dr. Salk and other great minds in a century.
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    Sidney Madwed

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited November 2017

    Do we spread loving kindness? There are many who say that this is our ultimate goal on this planet--to spread loving kindness to our fellow human beings. And when we are able to accomplish this goal, we find that our lives are transformed in the process. We're no longer so strongly focused on things and negative thoughts and feelings, but we've become truly happy, content human beings who love life and living.
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    tom walsh

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited November 2017

    Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.

    - Desmond Tutu -

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited November 2017

    Appreciation is the highest form of prayer,
    for it acknowledges the presence of good
    wherever you shine the light of your thankful thoughts.
    - Alan Cohen

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited November 2017

    How often are you worrying about the present moment? The present moment is usually all right. If you're worrying, you're either agonizing over the past which you should have forgotten long ago, or else you're apprehensive over the future which hasn't even come yet. We tend to skip over the present moment which is the only moment God gives any of us to live. -Peace Pilgrim

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited November 2017
    We all have to go through the tumbler a few times before
    we can emerge as a crystal.

    Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross


  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited November 2017

    The most excellent and divine counsel, the best and most profitable advertisement of all others, is to study and learn how to know ourselves.This is the foundation of wisdom and the highway to whatever is good. -Pierre Chardin

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited November 2017

    Friends. . . they cherish each other's hopes. They are
    kind to each other's dreams.

    Henry David Thoreau

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited November 2017

    The quote today is from one of my favorite people -- and my signature lines are from her as well.


    Whether you know it or not, one of the most important relationships in your life is with your Soul. Will you be kind and loving to your Soul, or will you be harsh and difficult? Many of us unknowingly damage our Souls with our negative attitudes and actions or by simple neglect. By making the relationship with your Soul an important part of your life, however, by honoring it in your daily routine, you give your life greater meaning and substance. Use your experiences--all of them--as opportunities to nourish your Soul!
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    Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited November 2017

    Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into.
    - Wayne W. Dyer

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,770
    edited November 2017

    To free us from the expectations of others,
    to give us back to ourselves--there lies
    the great, singular power of self-respect.
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    Joan Didion