Finding What You Love During Cancer
- Lizzy Musi, 32, is continuing her work as a race car driver despite receiving ongoing treatments for stage 4 breast cancer. Most recently, she competed in the NPK Invitational in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
- Musi has triple-negative breast cancer, one of the most aggressive forms of the disease. It does not have any of the main drivers of breast cancer the estrogen receptor, the progesterone receptor and the HER2 receptor and consequently doesn't respond to treatments that target them.
- Filling your days with activities that bring you joy is one great way to prioritize your emotional well-being while living with cancer. One of our experts recommends trying to do ten things that bring you joy every day.
- Working on how you think about your cancer journey is another way to live well with cancer. One of our experts says we need to have “the courage to live in the face of uncertainty.”
Musi, a star of the hit reality show “Street Outlaws: No Prep Kings,” has been battling stage four, or metastatic, triple-negative breast cancer since her diagnosis earlier this year. Triple-negative breast cancer is one of the most aggressive forms of the disease because it does not have any of the main drivers of breast cancer the estrogen receptor, the progesterone receptor and the HER2 receptor which means it doesn't respond to treatments that target those drivers.
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“Racing honestly is the only thing that's giving me my motivation right now,” Musi said in a video from the end of May.
Most recently, she competed in the NPK Invitational in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Musi’s latest post shares a clip of her tearing up the track in her stylish all-black car.
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“@lizzymusi heating up the track in Bowling Green, KY for No Prep Kings!,” the caption by Simpson Race Products read.
According to a video posted by Leigh Millican Hubbard someone who regularly shares results from “No Prep Kings” races Musi won the first round and lost the second in a very tight race. Needless to say, she’s out there doing her thing and crushing it despite ongoing cancer treatments.
Living With Cancer Like Lizzy Musi
For Lizzy Musi, living well with cancer means continuing to do what she loves race car driving. For others, it might mean making time to play soccer, knit a sweater, write a poem, go for a run, play the piano, swim in a pool, read a novel or even just watch the ocean.
Whatever it means, try to make it happen.
Dr. Dana Chase, a gynecologic oncologist at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, says we know from “good studies” that “better quality of life is associated with better outcomes.” She says if your emotional well-being is connected to the activities you do, then you should be doing more of them.
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"So working on your emotional health, your physical well-being, your social environment [and] your emotional well-being are important and can impact your survival,” Dr. Chase said.
"If that’s related to what activities you do that bring you joy, then you should try to do more of those activities."
If you’re looking for a way to implement more of the things you love in your day-to-day routine, Dr. Chase recommends starting by writing down some of the activities that make you happy.
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"Sometimes I will talk to a patient about making [a] list of the top ten things that bring them joy," Dr. Chase said. "And trying to do those ten things…to make at least 50 percent of their experiences positive throughout the day."
Another way to prioritize your emotional well-being while living with cancer is to reflect on how you think about your cancer journey. Dr. William Breitbart, the chair of the Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, says acceptance is key.
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“We all have to live lives of uncertainty,” Dr. Breitbart said. "What the task becomes is having the courage to live in the face of uncertainty, realizing that you cannot necessarily control the uncertainty in life, the suffering that occurs, limitations, challenges both good and bad.
"You may not be able to control those but you have control over how you choose to respond to them and the attitudes you take towards them."
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