Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

PANDEMIC PEACE
With the arrival of COVID-19 comes bouts of uncertainty, but a lot can be learned from warriors’ experiences with cancer and channeling resilience.

Living with the incurable blood cancer multiple myeloma for the past 10 years has taught Brandon Plewe of Mill Creek, Utah, how to face life’s uncertainties. The experience has equipped him with the resiliency to cope with the novel coronavirus, as have the cancer battles of others, too.

“I don’t think we are nearly as shell-shocked as the normal person,” says Plewe.

Plewe, who is married with three small children, says it’s something he and his wife Katie have begun to talk about. In fact, when he was at his annual checkup at the Huntsman Cancer Center in Salt Lake City in April, his doctor said something that surprised him.

“He said, ‘I keep telling my staff [now] we know what our patients have always been going through,’” Plewe says.

The uncertainty of not knowing whether one will catch the potentially deadly virus that causes COVID-19 has filled many with anxiety. As of June 23, 2.3 million Americans have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and 123,000 died from it, according to Johns Hopkins University. As states relax social distancing guidelines, the death toll is expected to rise to nearly 147,000 by August, says the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. Scientists and health officials do not know much about the new virus and there is no vaccine.

Yet, Plewe is able to calmly coexist with the news surrounding the pandemic. He and other cancer fighters have developed what senior oncology support counselor Michael Williams, Ph.D., of Wellness House in Hinsdale, Illinois, would call a “toolbox” for facing uncertainties. “That skill set brings an attitude of calming, a sense of control. Sometimes, a sense of pride [that one can handle what is in their path],” says Williams, who has a doctorate in psychology.


A ROADMAP TO RESILIENCE

As her children’s summer activities began to get cancelled in March, Los Angeles-area resident and breast cancer survivor Courtney Mizel started to get depressed. Life kept getting cancelled, she says, and she was upset for her two teenage daughters who would miss out on things they enjoyed.

Then, she began to feel tightness in her chest, was achy and had a fever. Her doctor ordered a COVID-19 test, and as she waited days for her results, she grew anxious. She was worried about the people she may have spread the
virus to on her travels and at a conference, including those who were immunocompromised.

Mizel tested positive. “All of a sudden, because I had something that was physical and medical […] I thought, ‘I know how to do this,’” she says.

She remembered her fight with cancer and how the belief that God would only give her what she could handle got her through it. A switch to the familiar went off in her head. “Had I not had breast cancer, that switch wouldn’t have gone off,” Mizel says.

Williams says it is these past experiences, along with a connectedness to others, that builds resilience. According to a report in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry, other factors that promote resiliency are self-esteem, positivity, positive emotions and personal “hardiness,” which researchers say has three dimensions—a sense of control over one’s experiences and outcomes; cultivation of a sense of peace and meaning in life; and learning and growing from positive and negative life experiences.

Both Mizel and Plewe say they had to let go of what they couldn’t control during their diagnoses. Mizel, who says she has a Type A personality and is a planner, explains she had to realize she couldn’t plan everything. Regarding the coronavirus, Plewe says he can only focus on what he can control. “I can control being careful,” he says. “I can wash my hands. I can wear a mask.”


BECOMING ROLE MODELS

Plewe says he has always been a positive person. When he was hospitalized and receiving cancer treatment, loved ones would say, “We have to be positive … we can’t be sad, because you’re so happy.” Others followed his lead and adopted the same mindset. “I believe for the most part, positivity and a strong [mental attitude] are a decision,” he says.

Plewe believes positivity plays a role in healing. And researchers at Johns Hopkins University found those with a family history of heart disease who also had positive outlook were one-third less likely to have a heart attack or
cardiovascular event within five to 25 years.

Plewe’s health care team also broke down what could have seemed insurmountable into small tasks. Plewe had to learn to walk again after losing six inches of height from a spine collapse. Multiple myeloma can cause bones to deteriorate, and prior to his diagnosis, he fractured every
one of his vertebrae.

He first mastered rolling over in bed, then swinging his legs over, then standing up, and ultimately walking. Anything can seem doable if you break a big problem into bite-size steps, Plewe says.

Williams says those who have been diagnosed with cancer can be role models for others. “Social comparison plays out all of the time,” he says. If others see those affected by cancer surviving and walking outside with
masks on, living their lives, “one thing begets the next.”

Cancer survivors can be open with others about their experiences as a way to help others cope. “[Survivors can] use their experiences of having gotten through cancer to share that everything will be okay.”

More
articles

PERFUME
Fashion

Sprayin’ on the Spritz

You smell soooo good—or at least you will once you try out these perfume picks! Everyday Runway columnist Melissa Berry offers up her personal faves as well as some crowd pleasers from readers.

Read More »
HEALTHY EATING
Lymphoma

Eat Well to Live Well

Inspired to take charge of her health after being diagnosed with cancer, Lindsay Yarrow creates recipes that are nutrition-packed with good-for-you foods and flavors—plus, they provide everything the body needs to help fight cancer.

Read More »
GILDAS CLUB CHICAGO
Organizations We Support

Ready for Primetime

Inspired by one of history’s most influential comedians, Gilda’s Club Chicago offers classes to let those affected by cancer let loose and play.

Read More »