{"id":250,"date":"2015-02-23T11:35:04","date_gmt":"2015-02-23T11:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.relevancereinvented.com\/?p=250"},"modified":"2015-02-23T11:35:04","modified_gmt":"2015-02-23T11:35:04","slug":"not-harder-cancer-focuses-mindsets-needed-survive-thrive-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.z11communications.com\/envirolutionary\/2015\/02\/23\/not-harder-cancer-focuses-mindsets-needed-survive-thrive-illness\/","title":{"rendered":"&#039;It&#039;s Not Harder Than Cancer&#039; Focuses on Mindsets Needed to Survive and Thrive After Illness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<![CDATA[Michael Holtz had just completed a marathon and was in the best shape of his life when he was diagnosed with stage-3b rectal cancer at the age of 43 in March 2012.\nNearly three years later, Holtz has written a book about his experience. <em>It&#8217;s Not Harder Than Cancer<\/em> is told around the mindsets he and his wife, Sarah, relied upon to survive the experience and plan for life after his illness.\n&#8220;Sarah and I made a conscious decision within minutes of my diagnosis to stay positive, and to not allow the negativity of others detract us from that attitude,&#8221; Holtz says. &#8220;It would have been easy to fall into self-pity. We wanted to present a united, upbeat front to the people we knew, no matter what we faced.&#8221;\nHoltz&#8217;s treatment plan included oral chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery and six months of infused chemotherapy. The size of the tumor necessitated removal of his rectum so he has a permanent colostomy, and treatment left him seriously fatigued and caused him to gain the 100 pounds he&#8217;d worked so hard to lose. But, he was otherwise unscathed.\nDuring his year of treatment, Holtz shared openly on Facebook and CaringBridge, a web site that privately connects seriously ill patients with family and friends. His posts were filled with positivity, gratitude and an eye toward surviving and thriving after cancer.\n<em>It&#8217;s Not Harder Than Cancer<\/em> is informed by Holtz&#8217;s CaringBridge posts, as well as by his experiences with Sarah and conversations with a close friend who encouraged him to think big about his life&#8217;s goals after treatment.\nHe has since learned that his cancer was more serious than he was told. &#8220;My surgeon told me late last year that I shouldn&#8217;t be as well as I am, that I&#8217;m lucky to be here,&#8221; Holtz said. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been given a second chance at life and I believe I have a duty to share with others what I learned about life during my cancer journey.&#8221;\nTo learn more about Michael Holtz and his book, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.michaelholtzonline.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">www.michaelholtzonline.com<\/a>.\n]]>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<![CDATA[]]>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[119,141,146,228,272,314,356,417,434,462,528,566,600,643,671,742],"class_list":["post-250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-book","tag-cancers","tag-caringbridge","tag-disease","tag-facebook","tag-gratitude","tag-illness","tag-love","tag-marathon","tag-mindsets","tag-positive-attitude","tag-runner","tag-share","tag-survivor","tag-thrive","tag-writer"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.z11communications.com\/envirolutionary\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/image9.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.z11communications.com\/envirolutionary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.z11communications.com\/envirolutionary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.z11communications.com\/envirolutionary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.z11communications.com\/envirolutionary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.z11communications.com\/envirolutionary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.z11communications.com\/envirolutionary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.z11communications.com\/envirolutionary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.z11communications.com\/envirolutionary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.z11communications.com\/envirolutionary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.z11communications.com\/envirolutionary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}