Friday, May 23, 2008

No Such Thing As a Bad Day
by Alexander Green

Dear Reader,

Hamilton Jordan passed away this week without much fanfare.

History will remember him as Chief of Staff to President Jimmy Carter and as a high-level advisor to independent Presidential candidate Ross Perot.

But some of us will remember him for other reasons...

Jordan was diagnosed with cancer three times. The first was lymphoma, which he believed was a result of his exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. That battle was followed by bouts with melanoma and prostate cancer.

Eight years ago, he published "No Such Thing as a Bad Day," the story of his personal struggles. In an interview with WebMD, he was asked about his choice of title.

"Well," he said, "I was counselling a young man who had a brain tumour, and I called him one day, and I asked him, 'Are you having a good day?' and he said, 'Well, my wife is 32 years old, my kids are 4 and 6, and my doctor tells me I have about two months to live. There's no such thing as a bad day.'"

Jordan was clearly impressed with this attitude because he came to embody it himself. Despite surgery and gruelling chemotherapy, he used what he called all his "emotional and spiritual resources"
to focus on being well, repeatedly telling friends and family he was "just very, very lucky and blessed."

During the course of his journey, Jordan created his "Top Ten Tips for Cancer Patients." Perhaps you know someone you can share them with. Here they are:

1. Be an active partner in the medical decisions that are about your life. Don't be passive. Learn about your disease and participate in the decisions that are made.
2. Seek and know the truth about your illness and prognosis. If you don't have the facts and know the truth, you won't make good decisions.
3. Get a second opinion. Good doctors don't mind that. If yours objects, find another one.
4. Determine up front how broad or narrow your physician's experience is. You want someone who is very familiar with your disease.
5. If you have a poor prognosis or rare form of cancer, try to get to a center of excellence. (A place like Johns Hopkins, M.D. Anderson or the Cleveland Clinic, if possible.) Sometimes this is a matter of cost, but insurance generally covers treatments at these centers.
6. Do not allow your caregivers to project their values, goals, and expectations onto you. In his book, Jordan tells the story of a 68-year-old patient who was diagnosed with prostate cancer. His 35-year-old doctor reasoned that since his life expectancy was only five or six years, he should do nothing. The patient rejected the diagnosis and had his prostate removed. Many years later he was still alive and in good health.
7. Understand the economics of cancer care. Let your doctor know what you're willing to do to supplement your coverage to get a good diagnosis. Don't find yourself in a situation where you turn down a $600 test your doctor wants to run because your insurance doesn't cover it.
8. Find a doctor in whom you can place your trust and confidence. If your doctor doesn't believe he or she can cure you, you won't believe you'll be cured. Find one with a fighting spirit.
9. Treat your mind as well as your body. Get outside. See friends. Stay as active as you can. When you are happy and engaged with life, your immune system is stronger.
10. Your attitude and beliefs are your best weapons against cancer. Your emotional, intellectual, and physical responses to the words "You have cancer" have a lot to do with your survival and quality of life. A positive spirit and the will to live can be a highly effective force in your treatment.

Jordan's own attitude was exemplary. As he battled cancer, he maintained a meaningful, active lifestyle. He was a consultant to Nike and a trustee of the Lance Armstrong Foundation. He was a board member of privately-held Proxima Therapeutics, as well as two non-profit organizations: the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation and the Lasker Foundation.

He and his wife, a pediatric oncology nurse, also founded one of the nation's first non-profit camps for children with cancer - Camp Sunshine in Decatur, Georgia.

In an interview, Jordan said, "It's very powerful for a child who is newly diagnosed with cancer to go to Camp Sunshine, to have a friend or counsellor who has the same cancer they had, who has been cured or had a limb amputated, or are bald. It has a powerful effect on the attitudes of these children."

Today Camp Sunshine offers a year-round program, including 24-hour onsite medical and psychological support. It currently serves more than 500 kids and is free of charge to all families.

Hamilton said he would always remember his "raw fear" at his initial diagnosis. But he also said he would never forget the focus, realization and sense of purpose his cancer brought him, too. He called it "the ironic blessing."

In his book, Jordan writes, "A life-threatening disease like cancer casts our life and purpose in sharp relief. Some cancer patients allow cancer to dominate and define their lives... But there are many, many more who use their illness to find new meaning in their lives. And these are the patients who greatly exceed their prognosis or medical expectation."

Jordan did. He lived 22 years beyond his initial cancer diagnosis, finally succumbing to the disease Tuesday at age 63.

How can we honor his memory? Sending a donation to Camp Sunshine is one possibility. Trying to emulate the courage and compassion he showed in life is another. At the very least, we can all acknowledge a simple truth:

There really is no such thing as a bad day.

Carpe Diem,

Alex
P.S. I'd like to dedicate today's broadcast to Spiritual Wealth reader Bill Dennis. Thanks for writing, Bill. And keep the faith.

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Alexander Green is the Investment Director of The Oxford Club and Chairman of Investment U, a free, internet-based research service with over 300,000 readers. (The Oxford Club's Communique, whose portfolio he directs, is ranked third in the nation for risk-adjusted returns over the past five years by the independent Hulbert Financial Digest.) Alex i s also the author of "The Gone Fishin' Portfolio: Get Wise, Get Wealth...and Get On With Your Life." And he's been featured on "The O'Reilly Factor," and has been profiled by Forbes, Kiplinger's Personal Finance, CNBC, and Marketwatch.com, among others. He lives in central Florida with his wife Karen and their children Hannah and David.

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