Different Perspectives

I’m starting to get feedback on my book: Reconstructing Hope. Perspectives can be quite different. Young people studying medicine are commenting on what they have learned about the disease and about what patients go through.

Medical providers see it as an important resource for patients.

People who are well past the treatment stage or who work with breast cancer patients find it honest, and well written. They understand the vulnerability involved in sharing personal experiences.

Some of the most interesting feedback came from a woman who is half way thorugh chemotherapy. Some of her comments mirror things I heard from suvivors as I was conducting interviews for the book. She wrote (I left out some of the details about her personal journey):

The first several pages were actually quite depressing for me. I certainly viewed my cancer as a sprint...not a marathon. Received the news ok, I would deal with it and put it behind me. I had caught it very early. Actually I think I was in denial, a few tears after getting the diagnosis over the phone, but okay. Met with the surgeon, decided on lumpectomy and scheduled surgery immediately, not even giving it a second thought. Went through the surgery, all was well. The surgeon never told me there might be further treatment, guess that wasn’t her job, she is a surgeon. The real kicker came when I met with the medical oncologist and radiologist. That’s when I was shocked....as he told me I would need chemo and radiation. I immediately scheduled for a second opinion hoping for a different prognosis.

The author communicates very emphatically that this is not a sprint but a life long journey...I don’t want to hear that. I want to put it behind me and forget about it.... I have the exact same cancer as the author has. She gave me some very important information about the cancer of which I learned things from her that I didn’t hear from the doctors. Appreciate her expertise. Her relaying her insights about treatments gave me that extra boost of confidence that I am indeed doing the right thing in having the treatments that I am.

I appreciate the authors honesty and facts....something I don’t always want to be reading and I guess that is why I put it down for a while. Needs to be read in small doses so one can take time to process what is read. The poetry is awesome and a good diversion.

To hear that the authors 3 good friends are no longer on this earth after dying of breast cancer is not exactly joyful....

Another update on Reconstructing Hope....I now have a love/hate relationship with this book. After being very informative, the book goes on to talk about the cancer survivors life after treatment. I’m thinking okay, after treatment I go on with my life. No, the end of treatments is not the end of your cancer journey....I don’t like reading this. People have anxiety, depression, chemo brain...yikes. The author states we can never rule out the possibility of the cancer reoccurring. As survival rates increase, so does rates of reoccurrence, which I guess makes sense. However I do not want to live my life from now on worrying about every ache and pain, thinking cancer might be back. I choose Faith over fear. Of course it’s easy for me to say that now, time will tell. Also true as I am older, I have more of a grasp of my own mortality which is okay.

I still have the last part of the book to read. At some points I just had to stop reading and ponder and remember each person’s journey is different and each person reacts differently according to their personality. Like are you a person seeing the glass half empty or half full, or just grateful to have a glass!
Thanks for sharing this read....I will keep you posted as I journey on.