Good advice from cancer survivor Mary Jane Palmer:

During this past school year, Palmer taught dual credit math and physics at Warsaw High School for Carl Sandburg College; she taught physics and tutored at Carthage High School; and she taught an evening physics class at Carl Sandburg College Carthage Branch Campus.

In June, before this grueling schedule began, she discovered a lump in her breast.

...Her advice to someone who gets a cancer diagnosis? "Call somebody." Talk to people who have been through it. Learn all you can.

Palmer has learned much on the internet, and from her students and friends at school.

“I learned the power of positive thought and prayer. That has definitely helped. I can tell it. I thank everybody."

Having recently attended a forum on cancer survivorship, it seems to me, from a spiritual/religious perspective, that the term "pilgrim" might provide a richer, deeper source of meaning and strength for those afflicted by cancer. Does this reverbrate for some of you? If so, in what ways do you live life as a cancer survivor and as a pilgrim?

You can join this discussion in the Spiritual Pathways community forums.

Houston breast cancer survivor Teresita Ladrillo was feeling the usual side-effects of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation when she elected to try a different kind of pick-me-up: yoga.

Enrolled twice weekly in a class offered at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Ladrillo performed exercises aimed at calming tension and recovering lost mobility, problems stemming from her treatment.

"It proved very helpful," says Ladrillo, 52, a dentist from the Philippines now preparing to take U.S. licensing exams. "Learning to breathe deeply and slowly gave me relief when I would get tense and some of the poses gave me back the elasticity and flexibility that radiation takes away."

The classes are part of M.D. Anderson's efforts to incorporate yoga into treatment plans for cancer patients. On Sunday, center researchers reported the ancient discipline can help cancer patients function better physically and feel better about their health.

There's more at the Houston Chronicle. For more information on the Complementary/Integrative Medicine Program see http://www.mdanderson.org/departments/cimer/.

Related:
M. D. Anderson Announces Collaboration with India's Largest Yoga Research Institution to Gain Scientific Evidence of Yoga Benefit to Cancer Patients
Short Course of Tibetan Yoga Improved Sleep in Cancer Patients
Large National Cancer Institute Grant Will Test the Effect of Tibetan Yoga on Women with Breast Cancer
Do Mind/Body Techniques Work?