Living Well Beyond Breast Cancer: A Survivor's Guide for When Treatment Ends and

Description: Living Well Beyond Breast Cancer: A Survivor's Guide for When Treatment Ends and the Rest of Your Life Begins by Marisa C. Weiss, Ellen Weiss This fully revised and updated edition of "Living Beyond Breast Cancer," fromone of the countrys leading breast cancer activists and experts, contains animpressive depth and breadth of essential information. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description What do I do now? Why am I still so tired? Am I really cured? How do I reduce my risk of recurrence? Is it safe for me to get pregnant? How do I get rid of the hot flashes so I can sleep?This fully revised and updated second edition contains crucial information about these issues and more-including the revolutionary medical advances in follow-up testing, ongoing treatments, and recovery. With answers for everything from how to deal with hair loss and weight gain to finding online support groups and understanding healthy foods and supplements, Living Well Beyond Breast Cancer contains a greater depth and breadth of information in its enhanced chapters-plus all-new chapters that cover current treatment options and preventative tips for those at high risk for developing breast cancer.Enhanced Chapters-. Tests- Peer, Poke, and Prod. After Mastectomy- Re-creating a Breast with or Without Surgery. Intimacy, Sex, and Your Love Life- Relieving Discomfort and Increasing Libido. A Child in Your Future- Fertility, Pregnancy, and Adoption. Reducing Your Risk- Living WellAll-New Information-. Pre-Survivors- Risks and Prevention. Thinking and Remembering- Clearing the Fog and Sharpening Your Mind. Bone Health- Weakness Explained and Strengthening Exercises. Sleep- Restoration and RenewalWith this book as your guide, youll have the tools not just to live beyond breast cancer, but to live well and well beyond this challenge in your life! Author Biography Marisa C. Weiss, M.D., is a physician who specializes in taking care of women with breast cancer. She is founder and president of the nonprofit educational organization Living Beyond Breast Cancer, which promotes the health of all women affected by breast cancer with conferences, workshops, newsletters, and a help line. Dr. Weiss works and lives in the Philadelphia area with her husband and three children. Ellen Weiss has served as editorial consultant to Living Beyond Breast Cancer since its founding. She is also the author of The Secondhand Supershopper. This is the first professional collaboration she has had with any of her six children. She and her husband live in the Philadelphia area. ELLEN WEISS has written hundreds of books for kids of all ages. Shes collaborated on dozens of books with Mel Friedman, including The Tiny Parents, The Adventures of Ratman, The Curse of the Calico Cat, and The Poof Point. Review "Women at any stage of the breast cancer journey, including those grappling with emotional issues surrounding the chance of recurrence, will benefit from the Weisses up-to-date and uplifting outlook."--Publishers Weekly Review Quote "Women at any stage of the breast cancer journey, including those grappling with emotional issues surrounding the chance of recurrence, will benefit from the Weisses up-to-date and uplifting outlook." -Publishers Weekly Promotional "Headline" A Survivors Guide for When Treatment Ends and the Rest of Your Life Begins Excerpt from Book CHAPTER ONE Over, Not Over I never forget. Cancer has become part of my consciousness, part of my society. With every cancer death, my heart turns over. Im always amazed at how other people take their lives for granted, as if theyll live forever. I became assertive, someone Id never been. I had a new voice. I said whatever I felt, like a cranky old lady. I knew nobody would stop me. I took my husband to an auction, my first post-treatment outing; I bought a few things, and he asked, "What areyou going to do with this junk?" I exploded--I just couldnt help myself: "You should be thanking God Im interested in something again!" Right after treatment I felt very old, and lost, like I was looking into my grave. I got help, and it took a while, but I came around to feeling reborn, reinvented. **** First Things First Its over. Treatment, that is. Youve survived the initial ordeal. Now what? No one hands you an instruction manual as you go from under treatment to beyond treatment. From Geralyn Lucas book Why I Wore Lipstick : I make a list of everything I want to do. Should I quit my job, leave my husband, travel the world? I decide that maybe the most courageous thing I can do is to try to return to my regular life, with the knowledge that there is nothing regular about it. Since everything has changed, how could we remain the same? Maybe its been two weeks, maybe two years, maybe twenty. But no matter how little or how much time has passed, the breast cancer experience is never completely over. Active issues, leftover concerns, and reminders can dog you every day or pop up just once in a while. When its all over, just when you think you should be celebrating this huge accomplishment, you may feel worse than you did during treatment. How confusing and disorienting. It starts to make sense when you realize that all parts of your life have beentouched by the breast cancer experience. It may have taken over your life: bills, taxes, job, vacation, housework, and even children were put on hold. Now, with the end of treatment, you have to adjust back to normal. But is that really possible? The fact is, life changes after breast cancer treatment. Normal will never look and feel exactly the same. The only thing you can do is to go forward with therest of your life, one step at a time. You have to find and create your new normal. Many of you speak of how changed you are, almost renewed. This is my hope for each of you as you read my book: a chance to renew your life, one that brings you comfort, meaning, joy, fun, and hope. Throughout this book, I will help you understand the challenges and identify the solutions to help you live well beyond breast cancer. Well start by looking at the issues youll begin facing immediately after treatment. Challenges You can cope with this new life. Countless women have done it and are doing it. When you feel as wobbly inside as a new toddler or as stiff and creaky as a little old lady, draw strength from these other survivors. They understand that your cheery frontis covering up the vulnerable, exhausted you. And unlike many others, they appreciate this new you. In time, you will, too. When chemo is all over, the supportive care is over too. Youre worn down by the accumulated side effects of all your treatments with nearly no pick-me-ups. Thats when many of my patients tell me they barely feel as if theyre among the living. Separation Anxiety After months or more of concentrated attention on you, your illness, and your therapy, you come to that moment when the days mapped out for you by hour and procedure come to an end. Many of my patients felt thrown into an emotional limbo: "Come back in three months, the doctor said. I felt like I was dumped, and I was so frightened," Janet recalled. Your health care team provided emotional support you may not have fully appreciated when so many things were happening to you at once--and at the end of your whirlwind treatment experience, you suddenly miss it. "I felt more scared after treatment wasover than I did before it started," said Gena. "During treatment I had peace." The scheduled routine and plan of attack were very comforting, and now theyre gone. "When treatment ended, I didnt know what to do with myself," Christy recalled. With the end of treatment, your family and friends generally conclude the disease is beaten and done with. Theres usually a shower of congratulations and celebrations. But you dont feel like yourself. Youre still feeling disoriented and conflicted: profound relief and exhilaration mixed with uncertainty and forced enthusiasm. "I dreaded going to my own end-of-treatment party," one woman said. Youre expected to feel great and back to normal and ready to get on with your life, but instead you feel lost. Separation anxiety takes on new meaning. Lingering Concerns As you move forward, a string of troubling questions can pollute your peace of mind: *What do I do now? *Wheres my support? *Can I really get along without my doctors and nurses? *When do I get to see my doctor again? *Now that I dont see my doctors every day or every week, how do I get all my questions answered? *What about that new treatment that I just heard about on TV--does it apply to me? Flooded with these kinds of questions, you can feel fearful and insecure--making you wonder: Can I ever handle my life on my own again? Cancer Worry Even if youve been discharged by your doctors, theres likely still that cancer worry in a corner of your mind: "Every time something hurts or I get sick, I think the cancer has come back." You may also fear that the cancer might grow back because you are no longer doing anything active to keep it away. Annamaries coping mechanism was ceaseless activity: "I got depressed . . . cancer was still on my mind twenty-four hours a day. I started looking for things I could do, things I still had to decide about, like diet, exercise, tamoxifen, anything I could possibly do to avoid recurrence." You may also worry whether the treatment really worked, whether youre fit to be discharged. Cancer worry is something you must learn to manage and live with. "Like a whale that moves into your living room" is how one patient described her lingering fears of breast cancer. "Over time, the whale gets smaller, but it never quite goes away completely. A tenant you cant get rid of. Maybe it gets down to the size of a magazine rack. Once in a while you bump into it, and sometimes it swells up into your face again, like when you have a mammogram and they call you back for extra views." Cancer worry dogs most of the people I take care of--a little or a lot. They carry it with them indefinitely, even as year after year proves them disease-free. Over time, the burden gradually gets processed, loosens its grip, and gets put in its place. Details ISBN0307460223 Author Ellen Weiss Publisher Three Rivers Press (CA) Language English Edition 2nd ISBN-10 0307460223 ISBN-13 9780307460226 Media Book Format Paperback DEWEY 616.994 Short Title LIVING WELL BEYOND BREAST C-2E Pages 511 Edition Description Updated Illustrations Yes Year 2010 Imprint Three Rivers Press Subtitle A Survivors Guide for When Treatment Ends and the Rest of Your Life Begins Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States Residence US Audience General/Trade Publication Date 2010-01-05 UK Release Date 2010-01-05 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:141687824;

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