Reconstructing Hope

In 2006 I received the diagnosis so many women fear: breast cancer. As a medical provider, I thought I knew a lot. I had done tens of thousands of breast exams over the course of my career and had offered support and cried with women who had positive biopsy results, but being a patient was a whole new experience.

Over the next few years, friends (many of them also in healthcare) approached me as they received the dreaded diagnosis. It hit me that if we, educated women in the healthcare field, felt lost and ill informed, so must millions of others.

That realization planted a seed in my brain. That seed grew into a quest to learn more, and finally morphed into a project and a book. I started with a series of interviews with breast cancer survivors, family members of breast cancer patients living and deceased, and health care providers who worked specifically with breast cancer patients. The interviews started with one single prompt: “tell me about your experience with breast cancer”. My own identity as a breast cancer survivor was like a secret handshake that made complete strangers seem like close friends who shared intimate details of their lives with one another.

Soon I had stories, poetry, and a lot of helpful information that transformed my single lonely voice into a symphony of shared experience. While the breast cancer experience is unique to each individual, I found commonalities in the stories I heard. These commonalities formed the basis of my book.

In 2018 I was again diagnosed with breast cancer. The second round was field research full of new experiences and new perspectives. My book, Reconstructing Hope, is a work of love. I have poured my heart and soul into it and, in return, have processed my own breast cancer experience and grown in ways I did not anticipate. Breast cancer is truly filled with oxymorons.

I am excited that the book will finally be out this October. I am hopeful that it will help others process their own breast cancer experience, and find hope going forward. I am also hopeful that other medical people can look beyond mammograms, biopsies, and treatment options and see the personal side of the disease and the marathon that continues far beyond the end of treatment.