Dedicated to All Cancer Patients and Their Loving Supporters
July 13, 2018 I was diagnosed with aggressive Prostate Cancer. Metastatic. Stage IV.
I was told I had two years to live.
Since that day, people have called my return to health a miracle. I call it owning cancer. The truth is, you don't know how you'll react to a terminal prognosis until a doctor looks you in the eyes and says, "I'm sorry. You're situation is bad. You have two years to live." Following the initial shock, and given the short time frame, I realized the question I faced wasn't "Why me?." It had to be, "How me?."
I believe I’m still here because I chose to look at the prognosis as a challenge. And though I don’t know how long I’ll be here, neither does anyone else. What I do know is this: Love, traditional medicine, and extensive research have resulted in my dedication to a renewed lifestyle which includes stress management (both negative and positive), a daily meditation practice, and well-informed changes in diet, making it possible for me to regain my health and remain here. Unexpectedly, a terminal prognosis came with a bonus: An awareness that comes when you realize that everything you do may be the last time you do it; bringing a clear, calm poignancy and gratitude for everyday moments; from the magnificent to the most mundane and everything in between. While my latest scans -- October 2025 -- have come back negative, doctors continue to warn me it's likely I still have microscopic, extremely unpredictable and aggressive cancer cells living deep in my bones. I've come to think of those cells as a hibernating grizzly bear that I dare not wake. And so I continue to manage my cancer on a daily basis.
In the mean time, my hope is to alleviate other peoples' fears and maybe help them find solutions so they too may possibly own their cancer and perhaps extend their lives. While all cancers are different, I’ll share with you here what I’ve learned, with an emphasis on prostate cancer.
- Dennis Maneri
My use of a star field
... here and throughout my work, is inspired by the poet, David Whyte, who closes a poem with the words, "seeing at last the star you did not know you were following." He says the ancient metaphor of following a star is so true because when you're following a star, it disappears for half the day, missing in the daylight hours when you're overwhelmed by the priorities of the day, yet reappearing in the vulnerabilities of the night. I didn't know I would follow this star until someone told me I have cancer.
A New Outlook on Cancer
For many people
a diagnosis of cancer -- especially a terminal one -- means a decision that has to be both quick and binary: Traditional medicine or an alternative approach.
That is no longer always the case.
For myself
and thousands of other cancer patients, an integrative approach, combining traditional treatments like chemo and radiation with personal changes to affect body chemistry, is providing new, inspiring results.
Here you can
learn how I made my body as inhospitable as possible to prostate cancer through a combination of standard medication and my BIG THREE: A Mindful Lifestyle, Diet, and Meditation.
Rather than blogging here, I'll be posting on Substack under the handle Dead Man Chatting where I'll share early journal entries; reflections on a terminal prognosis and the steps I took to survive. Then I'll compare those perspectives with what I've learned in the five-plus years since I was supposed to be dead.
https://substack.com/@deadmanchatting
Prostate cancer patients
... I'm not a doctor and I'm not offering medical advice. What I'm doing here is this: Sharing the many steps I took to improve the efficacy of the medications doctors prescribed me. If you feel you need more medical information so you can make better informed decisions, one great resource is the Prostate Cancer Research Institute which has dozens of informative videos you can find on YouTube. They discuss just about every diagnosis and treatment options; all delivered by experienced specialists. You can also contact them at help@pcri.org
(I wish they'd been around in 2018.)
Coming Soon
Owning Cancer:
The Power of Shared Wisdom
Early in 2018, my neice Leigh, who was in her late 20's, told me she thinks of me as a wise person and asked me to write down for her the sources of my wisdom: who and what has influenced me. It was a good question; one that became particularly timely when I was diagnosed that summer with stage IV prostate cancer and told I had two years to live. Curating the sources of my wisdom became one of the many steps I took in a healing process that's rendered my cancer dormant. It’s my hope that the fruits of this healthy process will benefit Leigh -- and hopefully -- a few others.
