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Derry News/Eagle Tribune SHARING FAITH DOWN CANCER'S LONG PATH DERRY – The Rev. Walter Moczynski often helps patients find their way to spirituality in his work as the director of pastoral care at the Dana-Farber Institute in Boston . And, he points out, spirituality is not only about believing in God. Moczynski – featured speaker at “Spirituality and the Cancer Journey” at Promises to Keep in Derry, N.H. last month – told the story of a 15-year-old boy coming to him shortly after being diagnosed with cancer. “He was in treatment and said that he went to his priest but still wasn't comforted,” he said. Moczynski asked him what it was that he really loved to do, and the boy said going to the beach on Cape Cod , a place he'd loved since he was much younger. Moczynski told him to have his family take him there that weekend. “He came back and told me that he was walking alone along the beach and all of a sudden he felt that everything was ‘one,'” Moczynski said. “He was at peace with things after that.” The boy went on to recover and began helping other children with cancer. Moczynski told of many instances during the past 20 years when patients diagnosed with cancer would teach him about spirituality. “For some patients, spirituality is more private than sexuality,” he said. “Patients often don't say which religious affiliation they are with on admission (for treatment). They don't want to be labeled.” “Spirituality and the Cancer Journey” was the fourth event in the “Let's Talk” series hosted by New Hampshire Oncology-Hematology and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The next program in the series, “Genetic Counseling,” is Nov. 21 in Exeter , N.H. The spirituality program was divided into two sessions, one for professionals and the other for patients and caregivers. Moczynski said that he often revisits a person's spirituality during the cancer journey. “It's a long journey from diagnosis to surgery, treatment, physical therapy and more. “Patients will often say they're fine and that they don't need me. That's OK. But I'm there if they change their mind.” Moczynski told the professional audience that the chaplain isn't always the right person, especially if a person's faith was shattered. “It can be a nurse, or even the janitor who mops the floor in the wee hours of morning, that the patient will open up to,” he said. Moczynski has seen many patients find solace in spirituality – even if the prognosis is bad. “A patient once told me that he was living more now that was dying than when he was living,” he said. Donna Waterman, a member of a panel of cancer survivors and professionals during the second session, told the audience that she discovered she had a rare form of lung cancer after a fall from her horse left her with broken ribs. “I think it was God's plan,” she said. “I had many ways to break that fall, but for some reason, I didn't. The X-rays showed I had small-cell lung cancer. I never smoked.” Waterman said that she was one of those women who did “a thousand things at once.” “A friend told me that now I was in the hands of the Lord. I felt tremendous relief. It was beyond my control.” She said that she breezed through the subsequent radiation and chemotherapy treatments because of her faith. “The fall from the horse was a miracle. I've been in remission for 2 ½ years,” she said. “Fear came knocking at the door, faith answered it and there was no one there.” The Rev. Arthur Reublinger said that we are living in an over-caffeinated world. “We talk too fast. When you ask your patients, ‘How was your day?' wait for the answer,” he told the assembly of health-care workers. Reublinger, who works with dying patients in hospice, added, “The core of life is like the flame in a votive glass candle, after the wax has melted.” Mary-Lou Armstrong says she isn't very religious. She relies on her sense of humor to get her through after losing her husband to colon cancer two years ago. She became a volunteer at the Payson Center for Cancer Care at Concord (N.H.) Hospital. “I myself get a lot of strength from the patients,” Armstrong said. Douglas Weckstein says he is learning from his patients about how to address their spirituality. “There's always been a line that doctors don't want to cross,” he said. “Some doctors and patients feel that doctors should be focused on medical issues.” Weckstein said he and other doctors need to get beyond feelings of being uncomfortable, telling cancer patients and caregivers in the audience, “We ask you to teach us.” |
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