Music for Cancer Treatments

I have been asked often what kind of music I listened to during my treatments, and if I chose to use mental imagery while getting "poisoned" -- errr -- I mean, "treated" with chemotherapy. Personally, meditation is my pain and chemo drug of choice, and call it what you will. Finding a way to silence your inner demons, finding balance in chaos, having faith that transcends any circumstance and seeing the humor in life is pretty critical. I can assure you that it's much easier said than done, so I did find that utilizing images and music certainly helped. No...I did not use a picture of a cute, baby koala (although I have a link to ZooBorns on my blog if that does it for you). Instead, I looked through sales catalogs of yachts. Afterall, the $9 million yacht pictured in the catalog was cheaper than the $25 million beach home I had my eye on after my recovery, so it was a steal in comparison. LOL. Hey -- you know --- one can dream up anything to get through sitting in a room with freezing saline and chemo surging through your body. Some choose baby zoo animal pictures, and I happened to choose the idea of sailing to a remote island, and sipping drinks with colorful, little umbrellas in them. Which, now leads me to my choice in music for my cancer treatments. Some of my favorite music during treatments was Bob Marley (especially "Everythings Going to be Alright"), Jack Johnson and Israel “Izzy” Kamakawiwoole. Trust me, you'll be picturing that green or red “chemo” dripping through your IV as a tropical, *magical* elixir to get well in no time.

My iPod was a lifeline of sorts during treatments. It is also why one of the latest blogs on the Lance Armstrong Foundation's (LAF) web site completely intrigued me. Using Twitter, the online social network tool, LAF asked their LIVESTRONG fans what their favorite music was during treatment...and the list was great to review. If you are going through treatment, I encourage you to visit the blog post to see what your fellow cancer warriors used as "power songs" to get them through their battles: http://livestrongblog.org/2008/12/16/songs-during-treatment/ Listen --- and LIVESTRONG!