What does it take to survive four bouts of bone cancer? Combine the mind/body connection with chemotherapy. What does it really take? Everything.
'By These Things Men Live' is an uncompromising account of beating bone cancer four times in the early nineties--a blueprint for others confronted by this disease. The heart of the book is how I used Chinese internal energy exercises as a complement to both conventional chemotherapy and the high-dose chemo of two bone marrow transplants. It's message? Use the mind/body connection--internal energy exercises, meditation and visualization--both as adjuncts to allopathic medicine and as a means for surviving its devastating effects.
This is not the typical cancer survivor book, in which "butterflies lighted on my wrists" every time I ventured outside--as a result of the insights gained while fighting for my life. At times, terrifying--at other times, inspiring and outright funny. It's really about nerve, will and determination in the face of impossible odds--gritty heroism dredged up from the depths of the human spirit. And it elucidates life's most important lesson: No matter how many times one gets knocked down, no matter how many challenges one faces--don't quit! Get back on your feet. Talent and aptitude are good; but persistence and resilience are better to achieve success--not just when facing cancer, but in the struggles of everyday existence.