The doctor tells you that you have cancer. Most likely, one of the first things you want to know is how good -- or bad -- your chances are for surviving the cancer. If you do not ask, you will be told when the combination of recommended treatments are discussed with you. It's all about percentages. But what do percentages really mean for you personally? Not much. Cancer is a complex disease, with an equally complex outcome. At this point, you have two choices. You can give up -- feeling like cancer is a death sentence -- or you can decide to believe that your chances are as good as the best predicted percentages ever given to a cancer patient. I really like Deepak Chopra's example of statistics when he compared them to the weather. "If the average temperature in New York City for the year is 54 degrees Fahrenheit, that does not inform me what the temperature is just now or today. Similarly if you are a citizen of Bangladesh and the average income of a Bangladeshi happens to be $65 per household per year, that does not tell me what your personal income is if you happen to be a Bangladeshi."

Deepak Chopra, who took part in last year's Blog for Hope, posted that conventional medical doctors often accuse those practicing alternative therapies of nurturing false hope. But Dr. Bernie Siegel states, "There is no such thing as false hope. Either you have hope or you don't!" Doctors are no different than the patient when it comes to choices in attitude about a cancer diagnosis. Some doctors have a hopeful attitude about cancer survivorship, while other doctors seemed resigned to belief that cancer will eventually kill anyone diagnosed with the disease. If you are diagnosed with cancer, no matter the predicted percentage of outcome for your cancer, why not take the high healing road of hope? Because in reality, no one knows what your chances are, and hope has a way of fostering a more positive outcome than an attitude of hopelessness. Hope. Or as Rob Breszny suggests, when deciding what you will choose to believe about life in general, "Pronoia. The opposite of paranoia. Pronoia is defined as the sneaking suspicion that the whole world is conspiring to shower you with blessings." Expect blessings.