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TERESA: What brought you to Mayo Clinic Connect?
@flusshund: My doctor(s) didn’t prepare me for the long-term effects of chemo and radiation. I was looking for more information, and my parents had always followed the advice of the Mayo Clinic, so it was a name I knew and trusted for medical expertise and advice.
TERESA: What motivates you to take part in Mayo Clinic Connect?
@flusshund: I’m doing whatever I can to help keep people from going through what I’ve gone through. In particular, I try to help newly diagnosed lung cancer patients understand what’s ahead. I also know that I’m emotionally handling my stage 4 prognosis well, and I hope to be able to share that with others.
In terms of helping others not to have to go through what I’ve gone through, I’m also a lung cancer funding research advocate with GO2 for Lung Cancer, a civilian reviewer with the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP), and a Patient Review Advocate with the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC).
TERESA: What about Mayo Clinic Connect makes you feel comfortable to share and to be open with the community?
@flusshund: Firstly, the mentors and the moderators. They lead by example as their responses are always balanced, rational, and sensitive to the emotions of the person they’re responding to.
TERESA: What support groups do you participate in?
@flusshund: I participate in several online communities. In the Mayo Clinic Connect community, I focus on the discussions and members in the Lung Cancer support group.
TERESA: Tell us about a meaningful moment on Mayo Clinic Connect.
@flusshund: More than one person has replied that my comment was helpful and either relieved their anxiety or gave them hope. I’m grateful for the opportunity to provide comfort and positive feelings for the future.
I know cancer is a very emotional subject for many people all the time. I always hope members take my comments in the spirit I offer them. It’s gratifying to read that someone feels I’ve helped them somehow.
TERESA: What surprised you the most about Mayo Clinic Connect?
@flusshund: Honestly, the balance. I know that any type of cancer can be a very emotional experience. I work with a lot of talented engineers who are very logical in their daily work. Yet I’ve met a few of them who are cancer survivors and still have very strong emotions about what they’ve been through.
I believe the mentors have a lot to do with the calm, hopeful, and positive atmosphere I typically see in Mayo Clinic Connect.
TERESA: What energizes you, or how do you find balance in your life?
@flusshund: I’ve wondered why I seem to be dealing with my lung cancer so well. I believe part of my perspective is due to my supportive wife. I also believe that meditating for over 40 years, including attending a Zen center on the top of a mountain for formal training when I was 21 helps me maintain a balanced life perspective.
I also love my job as a NASA engineer. We are Artemis!
And I amuse myself by saying I will turn our one-acre plot into what looks like a botanical garden. I’ll never get there, but I love working on the gardens, the blueberry patch, the trees, etc.
TERESA: What do you appreciate the most in your friends?
@flusshund: Almost all of my friends are and have been very good at what they do.
TERESA: Do you have a favorite quote, life motto or personal mantra?
@flusshund: Lately: “Never tell me the odds.”
TERESA: If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see cast as you?
@flusshund: Are you kidding? George Clooney, of course!
TERESA: What do you love about where you live or vacation?
@flusshund: We live in a rural neighborhood. Both my wife and I love the quiet and being surrounded by nature.
TERESA: Puppies or kittens?
@flusshund: Puppies
Member Spotlights feature interviews with fellow Mayo Clinic Connect members. Learn more about members you’ve connected with and some you haven’t met yet. Nominate a member you think should share the spotlight.
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@flusshund
I so appreciate the opportunity to interview you for our Mayo Connect Spotlight. Thanks for sharing your story with the greater Connect community. Your desire to reach out and encourage others who are facing cancer is what makes Connect such a great place for us all.
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12 Reactions@flusshund Thank you for wonderful interview and your thoughts about Mayo Clinic Connect. Your emotional support of other is a model for all who come here.
May I say that I don't think I've met an engineer who followed Zen Buddhism. The practice is really quite the opposite of the logical and analytical mind and it's evident from your interview that Zen has been a major influence in your balance. I love your plan to turn your acreage into a botanical garden! I'm imagining the birds and insects that will flourish in all that beauty.
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10 ReactionsI'm interested in what you said about Zen training. I've meditated daily for fifty years and lived in Zen monasteries. I've also studied with Jewish teachers, as I'm Jewish by birth, and currently I'm in a small weekly interfaith group. We sit zazen for twenty minutes, are right now reading the Jewish prophets, and discuss. I've just done this because I'm a quester and was raised without religion so then wanted to investigate. I don't think of myself as particularly "anything"--my practices are just like brushing my teeth. Two years ago when I got the diagnosis of a rare hard to treat breast cancer I was very surprised to find a sense of calm, even happiness, within. How could this be? Eventually I realized that I'd been cultivating certain approaches without quite realizing it. I never thought Zen would "work." Work for what? Then I felt kind of silly to have not even noticed my own effort. Now I'm just very grateful and inspired. So I was very interested in what you said--enjoyed it. Thank you!
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10 Reactions@flusshund Great interview!! And I’m glad to hear how important it is for you to help others! We’ll probably never meet because I mentor the autoimmune group and caregivers group. But, I can share your positivity and advice with others!
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8 ReactionsThanks for an uplifting read this morning. It takes a special person to be able to endure the whole cancer chemo-radiation thing and help people at the same time!
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12 Reactions@flusshund
Gret to meet you and best of luck. With respect to odds, I always want to know them because then I know how hard I have to work to beat them. And I will beat them!
Best always,
s!
Scott Jensen
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9 Reactions@naturegirl5, thank you. The Zen thing started from being a geek. I heard meditation could help you need less sleep. In the 1970s, the Amazing Kreskin sent free self-hypnosis instructions for a SASE. Next, I received a transcendental meditation guide for another SASE. I was meditating daily as a 15-year-old nerd. And I needed less sleep so I could write better lab reports!
Then, I wanted to be the best at it, and the Zen monks seemed to be that. I entered a Zen Center on my 21st birthday for two months of formal training and came out a new person.
As for the acreage, the butterflies and chiggers are flourishing at the moment! lol I could do without the chiggers.
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6 ReactionsWonderful and uplifting interview!
Thank you for caring for others to share your story which gives the gift of hope to others !
The journey is a mystery and every turn is another opportunity to beat the odds!
I love gratitude, when we focus on gratitude it sends positive vibes to my entire body!!
Stay well, keep helping others and thank you 🙏🏼
Hopeful@2024
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8 Reactions@flusshund Hi Matthew, what a nice interview. You had me at Zen. That is fascinating. Not many 17 year olds care to learn such a practice. Loved your motivation for it at that time.
I admire how you handle your diagnosis and choose to share your experiences to help others. What an impressive resume you have there, too. Connect is lucky to have you
Meditating in your acreage amongst the butterflies...it sounds so beautiful and healing. Enjoy the peace and calm, and thank you for sharing your story.
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4 ReactionsI love the ambition to turn one-acre into a botanical garden!
That’s the kind of ambition I had 15 years ago for my half-acre. And I worked on it tirelessly. Today I have a place where birds 🦅 enjoy and various creatures thrive. What with more than 40 varieties of fruit trees etc. I would try to share a photo.
It is the process one goes through while developing such a garden that matters. Working with the nature and see the plants responding to your efforts. And the plants respond in a big way.
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9 Reactions