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Living with Cancer > Handling Side Effects
The Great Outdoors
Take a walk in a park. Sit in a lawn chair in your backyard. Listen to the birds. Plant flowers. Research conducted at the
University of Michigan has demonstrated that spending time in nature has a measurable impact on reducing fatigue and improving
mental functioning among breast cancer patients. If you're at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center, consider having lunch in the
courtyard between the center and University Hospital. Take a detour on your way home through the
Matthaei Botanical Gardens.
Just be sure to pack your sunscreen.
A Trip to the Zoo
(Via Scrapbook)
For about four or five days after chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer, Kathy Lezotte is wiped out. To get through it, she focuses on the
weekends when she gets to see her three grandchildren. With the help of a friend, she also works on a scrapbook for her 3-year-old
granddaughter commemorating a trip to the zoo last year.
"We've been putting the pictures together and writing about the trip," Lezotte said. "My granddaughter remembers all of it."
Making scrapbooks is one of many creative options for giving your brain a break. The Cancer Center offers a Complementary Therapies
Program that can guide you through various projects to help foster a greater sense of calm and well-being. Options include art therapy,
music therapy and creative. (For more on these services, click here.)
If you're at the
U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center, take a detour on
your way home through the Matthaei Botanical
Gardens
Click
here for more information.
Enchanted Lands
For 8-year-old Naomi Rudolph, who has leukemia, books about horses are her favorite. She likes the movie "Enchanted," too. As children,
it's second nature to fall head-first into stories. As adults, we tend to be a little more discerning. Choosing a book or a film can be
overwhelming: How many times have you gotten to the video store and couldn't think of a single movie you wanted to see? We've put together
some lists to help jog your memory-and to help you ferret out some good stuff you might not have even known was there. View our picks.
For your consideration:
Harper's Magazine is a great waiting-room read. Besides thoughtful, full-length articles, the front of the magazine is filled with
bits of entertaining content from other sources-whether it be Mark Twain fables or a police report. These pieces are short and usually give you
a glimpse into a world you'd otherwise miss out on. Don't skip the Harper's Index, statistics presented in a thought-provoking way.
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