For the last couple of years I have always referred to my cancer treatments at hospital as ‘spa treatments’.
Of course, spa treatments in the cosmetic sense are non-medical procedures to help rejuvenate, relax and beautify the body.
These include massage therapy, body treatments, facials and waxing and the idea is that your body will feel considerably softer, smoother, and more relaxed as a result.
These are often held in fancy schmancy dedicated resorts where you get fluffy robes, slippers, champagne and lovely lunches.
Spa days are days with a velvet lining.
Of course, the hospital experience is nothing like that.
In a hospital setting, you will definitely not find full-body mud wraps, lava shell massage, sea salt body glows, aroma-therapy, reflexology, aromatic flower and milk baths or a detoxifying seaweed flotation.
Being on a ward is a clinical experience that can be distressing because it is full of noise, fluorescent lights and machines that keep beeping.
So why do I choose to call my immunotherapy infusions as ‘spa treatments’?
Well, it’s all down to mindset and setting myself up for success. It’s reframing a challenging situation in a more positive way.
The language we use can shape our perspectives and so colour our perceptions.
By saying ‘spa treatment’, I am taking control of my language, shifting my perspective and finding the upside in a difficult situation. Positive reframing is a positive shift in perception.
Treatments are there to help us and although they can bring about all manner of side-effects, I always go into my sessions with positive vibes that “this will do me good”. The situation doesn’t change, but I can.
By saying ‘spa treatment’ I am attaching a positive label to an experience and seeing an opportunity to reframe it so that it isn’t intimidating or nerve wracking.
Treatment can be as stressful as we make it so I choose to put myself in a positive frame of mind right from the outset in order to relieve anxiety and therefore improve my mood.
This gives the treatment a better chance.
Of course there is no scientific basis to that last statement, I’m just saying that if my mind can work for me then I’m giving my body a chance to relax more and it also makes me more resilient.
I can’t think about what can go wrong because that will make the treatment stressful and so I go in calm, strong and full of faith that things will go well.
And they have.
Going into a treatment positively makes a big difference to how you perceive things and experience them. Being positive and cognitively restructuring also recognises the importance of hope.
I’m not naïve enough to think that simply being positive and referring to active treatments as a spa session will reduce the potential and probable pain, fatigue, nausea, vomiting and distress. Of course it doesn’t.
But positive reframing works and overtime it can become a strong habit that acts as a bit of a fortress and it benefits your health and well-being.
‘Spa treatment’ sounds so much nicer than ‘chemo’ – even the word ‘chemo’ sounds poisonous and so by using more positive language things seem less intense. They are certainly less negative.
By reframing the experience we can have some say and control in the matter and life is less stressful. It gives me psychological energy to meet the challenge and as a dynamic coping strategy it helps me experience a higher quality of life.
And what about going on an actual spa day?
They do provide a real sanctuary for mind and body so we should consider them if budgets allow.
According to the Collins English Dictionary site, “Many European doctors actually prescribe spa treatment for their patients.”
Do they?
None of my doctors have ever suggested that and probably haven’t since the Victorian days of visiting places like Buxton and Bath for the purpose of ‘taking the waters’.
But they should be available and accessible to us just like anyone else although it is worth arranging a visit through a spa booking service such as the Safe Hands for Cancer Collection.
Cancer patients have every right, and need, to escape from their illness so they can be nurtured, recover a little bit and find some balance again.
So, after your ‘spa treatment’ at hospital, treat yourself to an actual spa day somewhere and live it up a bit because you deserve it.
In an ideal world, all cancer patients should take a monthly trip to a spa and make it a routine as part of a healthy lifestyle! Yes, we should all get this for free too!
Now I just need to take my own advice and go on one!