Jay Gupta, Basem Gawish, Linnea Duff
It was a great day, with a large room at the Simches Research Center packed to the brim with survivors and caregivers. We all enjoyed a light breakfast, accompanied by guitarist Michael Caruso (Jazz for a Cure) and then after opening comments from Liz Brunner of WCBV NewsCenter 5, thoracic oncologist Dr. Lecia Sequist gave us a primer on the genetic underpinnings of cancer formation (abnormal DNA makes abnormal protein…etc, etc…) and then an overview of targeted therapies. It was fascinating and underscored my conviction that personalized medicine will soon render chemotherapy a thing of the past.
Next up was a panel composed of four patients as well as three caregivers from the Mass General Cancer Center Staff. This part of the program is always a crowd pleaser, as there is something both moving and inspirational about hearing patients talk about their own journeys. They each made wonderful contributions; I loved the comment about the gratitude felt each day simply for ‘being verticle’. And then the hilarious yet also poignant description of the ‘flossing enigma’—that moment, where you look at your situation (terminal) and wonder if you even need to continue flossing. This explanation was made in response to a question from the audience about making plans. After we all stopped laughing, the panelist went on to explain that yes, you do need to keep planning for the future. After all, he had already lived quite a few years past his original prognosis.
One of the panelists was a very young man, Basem Gawish. He articulated extraordinarily well the need to ‘split your soul from your body’ when feeling physically diminished by your disease and attendant treatment. He described lying in a hospital bed and yet running and leaping in his mind—just beautiful.
Next up was my dear friend Jay Gupta, from Yogacaps, Inc. He gave a brief oral history of yoga and then led the crowd through a series of moves that can be done in one’s chair. His wife Terry (also my dear friend and Jay’s partner in Yogacaps) helped him demonstrate and when Jay asked if I would too, I didn’t say no. First time for everything—I am generally a back of the room girl. Anyway, it was fun to have that vantage point, particularly when Jay got to the part where he had everyone flap their hands above their heads as if we were preparing to take flight—all those moving arms in the air provided an indelible image.
We then broke for a boxed lunch, which gave us a nice chant to chat (and to listen to more pleasing music compliments of Michael Caruso). After lunch we returned to our seats for one more presentation, as Susan Pollak, who is the president of The Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy, led us through some mindfulness exercises. It was a gentle way to end the day.
So thank you to all those who made this conference possible, including Susan Zuker and the Conquer Cancer Coalition of Massachusetts, who provided generous funding. Until next year!
*The conference was videotaped and will be made available online.
life and breath: outliving lung cancer 
Hi Linnea! Please come back to twitter! We are building a presence for the lung cancer community there and desperately need your voice. In fact, we are going to have our first-ever lung cancer community #lcsm tweet chat on Thursday, July 25 at 4 pm pacific/7 pm eastern, moderated by Dr. Jack West. Please connect with us on Twitter @lungcancerfaces. We are most grateful for all you do. Thank you.
Deana, I have been ‘working’ on graduating to twitter. Not sure where to start, but, for what it’s worth, I intend to.
Linnea
thanks for the post – i felt like i could have actually been there the way you described it. happy you and all the others made it happen – great event
Thank you Gwen! It was a fabulous event.
Linnea
It sounds as if you enjoyed a wonderful event. You look to be glowing in the photo, so good to see! I do want to watch the video when it becomes available. We have had a rough week, Steve was hospitalized for the long holiday weekend Thursday thru Sunday. Pain, pain meds, scans, contrast, nausea, vomiting all led to bowel blockage. The good (wonderful) news is his brain is clean, the bad news is, it looks like he will need radiation to stop pain from spine lesions. He has lost nearly 30 pounds in three weeks. Back to square one again. Of course, he is a tough one and continues to stay in good humor. Please keep posting, Linnea, you are a light in the darkness of cancer. Stand Strong, Hedy
Hedy, what a rough ride—good news not tempered by bad news would be a welcome change. Thirty pounds in three weeks is a lot. Again, although Steve is tough, I’m glad he has you by his side. May this ride get easier.
Linnea
The conference sounds awesome! I think I’d go to more and share more with others if meetings in this format were more common. Of course, maybe they are happening, and I’m just not getting the memos. LOL Philly has a huge medical community, and it would be naive to think things like this aren’t happening, right? I guess? Maybe?
Jessica, I have no idea how common such a conference is. MGH is a pretty amazing community…I take nothing for granted about my experience. But what the heck, give Philly a call and ask them what’s up!
Linnea
HI Linnea…thanks so much for writing up all about the conference. I also wrote about the conference in my blog: http://www.ingearcoaching.com/blog You might enjoy reading that also.. It was nice to have lunch with you there.
Laurie
Laurie, thanks for sharing the link to your blog and I can’t wait to come and play!
Linnea