Sonny was self employed hard working man who was diagnosed with end stage Multiple Myeloma (cancer of the bone plasma) in 2013. We were always that hard-working average couple who heard about others who had cancer. We never expected to hear those words directed at us. Within the first year of being diagnosed he had many complications and set backs of what was supposed to be routine treatments to get back to a somewhat normal life. It is an account of our reality, my husbands cancer and how we delt with everyday life and obstacles of unfairness in cancer. Sometimes in anger, hate, humor, and love. Everyday dealing with fear of the unknown and always questioning our inability to understand why us. This is not written to obtain everyone pity for us, but to let others know thought it’s not easy there is always hope and to never give up. No matter the outcome or the ride along the way, you may question God but clearly, He is always in control.
This book examines children and young people’s attempts to participate in conversations about their own treatment throughout uncertain cancer trajectories, including the events leading up to diagnosis, treatment, remission, relapse, and cure or death. Clearly and compellingly written, Clemente relies on a new multi-layered method to identify six cancer communication strategies Illustrates that communication is central to how children, parents, and healthcare professionals constitute, influence, and make sense of the social worlds they inhabit—or that they want to inhabit Provides ethnographic case studies of childhood cancer patients in Spain, using children's own words Examines the challenges of how to talk to and how to encourage patients' involvement in reatment discussions In his critique of the “telling” versus “not telling” debates, Clemente argues that communication should be adjusted to the children’s own needs, and that children's own questions can indicate how much or little they want to be involved Uncertain Futures is the winner of the 15th Annual Modest Reixach Prize.
James Bond's survival of multiple myeloma since 1992 is an amazing story of tenacity, hard work and good fortune. In this book Jim shares his and his caregiver wife's, Kathleen, approaches and experiences and difficulties. This book provides two acronyms Jim developed that summarize their approaches to surviving a deadly, incurable blood cancer. Multiple myeloma's average survival is about 5 years. There is no cure, yet. Jim primarily is treated in Cleveland at University Hospital's Seidman Cancer Center and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, with second opinions from Mayo Clinic and Mass. General doctors specializing in multiple myeloma. They continue to share their story, which they have done in over 30 US states, Washing DC at the National Academy of Science, and in Canada, Spain and Japan. They welcome opportunities to help other multiple myeloma patients and caregivers by sharing their experiences. They do not give medical or drug advice in their talks nor in this book. They live in greater Cleveland, Ohio and enjoy their 2 grown boys, their wives, and 3 grandchildren. Searching Jim's name and multiple myeloma provides much of their story and contact information.
Cancer ranks second only to heart disease as a leading cause of death in the United States, making it a tremendous burden in years of life lost, patient suffering, and economic costs. Fulfilling the Potential for Cancer Prevention and Early Detection reviews the proof that we can dramatically reduce cancer rates. The National Cancer Policy Board, part of the Institute of Medicine, outlines a national strategy to realize the promise of cancer prevention and early detection, including specific and wide-ranging recommendations. Offering a wealth of information and directly addressing major controversies, the book includes: A detailed look at how significantly cancer could be reduced through lifestyle changes, evaluating approaches used to alter eating, smoking, and exercise habits. An analysis of the intuitive notion that screening for cancer leads to improved health outcomes, including a discussion of screening methods, potential risks, and current recommendations. An examination of cancer prevention and control opportunities in primary health care delivery settings, including a review of interventions aimed at improving provider performance. Reviews of professional education and training programs, research trends and opportunities, and federal programs that support cancer prevention and early detection. This in-depth volume will be of interest to policy analysts, cancer and public health specialists, health care administrators and providers, researchers, insurers, medical journalists, and patient advocates.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A searing, deeply moving memoir of illness and recovery that traces one young woman’s journey from diagnosis to remission to re-entry into “normal” life—from the author of the Life, Interrupted column in The New York Times ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, The Rumpus, She Reads, Library Journal, Booklist • “I was immersed for the whole ride and would follow Jaouad anywhere. . . . Her writing restores the moon, lights the way as we learn to endure the unknown.”—Chanel Miller, The New York Times Book Review “Beautifully crafted . . . affecting . . . a transformative read . . . Jaouad’s insights about the self, connectedness, uncertainty and time speak to all of us.”—The Washington Post In the summer after graduating from college, Suleika Jaouad was preparing, as they say in commencement speeches, to enter “the real world.” She had fallen in love and moved to Paris to pursue her dream of becoming a war correspondent. The real world she found, however, would take her into a very different kind of conflict zone. It started with an itch—first on her feet, then up her legs, like a thousand invisible mosquito bites. Next came the exhaustion, and the six-hour naps that only deepened her fatigue. Then a trip to the doctor and, a few weeks shy of her twenty-third birthday, a diagnosis: leukemia, with a 35 percent chance of survival. Just like that, the life she had imagined for herself had gone up in flames. By the time Jaouad flew home to New York, she had lost her job, her apartment, and her independence. She would spend much of the next four years in a hospital bed, fighting for her life and chronicling the saga in a column for The New York Times. When Jaouad finally walked out of the cancer ward—after countless rounds of chemo, a clinical trial, and a bone marrow transplant—she was, according to the doctors, cured. But as she would soon learn, a cure is not where the work of healing ends; it’s where it begins. She had spent the past 1,500 days in desperate pursuit of one goal—to survive. And now that she’d done so, she realized that she had no idea how to live. How would she reenter the world and live again? How could she reclaim what had been lost? Jaouad embarked—with her new best friend, Oscar, a scruffy terrier mutt—on a 100-day, 15,000-mile road trip across the country. She set out to meet some of the strangers who had written to her during her years in the hospital: a teenage girl in Florida also recovering from cancer; a teacher in California grieving the death of her son; a death-row inmate in Texas who’d spent his own years confined to a room. What she learned on this trip is that the divide between sick and well is porous, that the vast majority of us will travel back and forth between these realms throughout our lives. Between Two Kingdoms is a profound chronicle of survivorship and a fierce, tender, and inspiring exploration of what it means to begin again.
As a healthy fifty-eight-year-old woman, a cancer diagnosis rocked author Gail Rognans world. In I Lost Two Boobs and Gained Two Balls, Rognan shares how she moved from fear and doubt to strength and serenity. She offers a raw, candid account of how she grew a pair and found her voice, realizing that in order to live she had to speak up and risk being judged and criticized. Her unconventional path to healing is both a memoir and a practical, supportive resource for anyone whose life has been touched by cancer. Each chapter offers tips and resources for current cancer patients and chronicles the steps Rognan took in her own journey. By facing her illness and possible death head-on, she is offering knowledge that may make it easier for those who also have a difficult path to travel. By sharing her story, she sheds light on the darkness and guides you each step of the journey. Her story shares how you can learn how: our mind, body, and spirit intersect to help us heal ourselves; alternative health treatments can be combined with traditional health treatments; to listen to ourselves so we can avoid illness; and our illness can teach us about who we really are. Realistic and inspiring, I Lost Two Boobs and Gained Two Balls offers a poignant story for those touched by cancer.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a documentary from Ken Burns on PBS, this New York Times bestseller is “an extraordinary achievement” (The New Yorker)—a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer—from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence. Physician, researcher, and award-winning science writer, Siddhartha Mukherjee examines cancer with a cellular biologist’s precision, a historian’s perspective, and a biographer’s passion. The result is an astonishingly lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived with—and perished from—for more than five thousand years. The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance, but also of hubris, paternalism, and misperception. Mukherjee recounts centuries of discoveries, setbacks, victories, and deaths, told through the eyes of his predecessors and peers, training their wits against an infinitely resourceful adversary that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out “war against cancer.” The book reads like a literary thriller with cancer as the protagonist. Riveting, urgent, and surprising, The Emperor of All Maladies provides a fascinating glimpse into the future of cancer treatments. It is an illuminating book that provides hope and clarity to those seeking to demystify cancer.
They come from different backgrounds and from professions as varied as medicine, education, and entertainment, but these ten women share one thing in common: They all have breast cancer. This book describes their experiences, exploring their initial fear, rage, and uncertainty, and reveals how each eventually coped, in her own way, with her diagnos
A Mind-Body Approach to Healing If you have received a cancer diagnosis, you know that the hundreds of questions and concerns you have about what's to come can be as stressful as the cancer treatment itself. But research shows that if you mentally prepare yourself to handle cancer treatment by getting stress and anxiety under control, you can improve your quality of life and become an active participant in your own recovery. Created by leading psychologists specializing in oncology, the Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery program is based on mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), a therapeutic combination of mindfulness meditation and gentle yoga now offered to cancer survivors and their loved ones in hundreds of medical centers, hospitals, and clinics worldwide. Let this book be your guide as you let go of fear and focus on getting well. With this eight-week program, you'll learn to: • Use proven MBSR skills during your treatment and recovery • Boost your immune function through meditation and healing yoga • Calm feelings of fear, uncertainty, and lack of control • Mindfully manage difficult symptoms and side effects • Discover your own capacity for healing and thriving after adversity
