Cancer My New Normal

This book guides readers through the most crucial areas of post-cancer recovery. Each chapter presents the story of a cancer survivor who meets the challenges of survivorship and contains tips and solutions for problems encountered in all aspects of survivorship.

Having this book on my nightstand is like having an empathetic and wise friend at my side as I chart a new course after cancer treatment. Dr. Harpham blends practical information with the intimate understanding of a veteran. Her book serves as a companion and inspiration on my voyage. —Ellen Hermanson, editor, Networker (National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship Newsletter) This is the first book written by a doctor for the layperson that addresses the medicine, the practical issues, and the psychosocial elements of recovery after cancer treatment. The author a cancer survivor herself, understands that surviving cancer is more than just killing cancer cells and getting through treatment. Patients must deal with the emotional, social, spiritual, and financial fallout of a cancer diagnosis. By helping survivors understand that they can’t go back to where they were before cancer, she liberates them to move forward to a different, “new normal.” Writing in a reader-friendly, question-and-answer format, Dr. Wendy Harpham addresses a wide range of issues realistically yet hopefully. Among them are understanding the medicine of reevaluation, follow-up, and prevention treatment; dealing with the most common physical aftereffects of treatment; learning how to make decisions about work and school; relating to friends and family; helping children deal with parent’s cancer; and coping with the practicalities of living wills and insurance. An important section on post cancer fatigue will be of special interest to patients who find that exhaustion is one of the most difficult problems with which they deal.

Despite the insecurities every fourteen-year-old girl faces, Livi Deane loved her deep brown eyes. She was devastated when doctors told her that, despite months of exhausting chemotherapy to treat the retinoblastoma she was diagnosed with at twelve, she would have to have her eye removed. Livi was already frail, scared and had lost all her hair to the aggressive cancer treatment. But now the resilient teen was facing her biggest challenge yet. After falling into depression following the life changing surgery, Livi picked herself back up and rediscovered her strength, adjusting to life with a prosthetic eye. Livi speaks fearlessly about living with impaired vision and a prosthetic eye. She regularly shares her experiences with children experiencing the same horrific illness and is an ambassador for The Childhood Eye Cancer Trust. In this utterly unputdownable memoir, Livi Deane demonstrates how to triumph over pain. Through her lifechanging story, she proves that no matter what trials we face, we can adapt, overcome and find our new normal.

The New Normal explores the relation between the subject and the state after the events of 9/11 that left the world stunned. It looks at this relation through the lens of trauma for the mind, biopolitics for the body and visuality for the body politic. This interpretive frame helps examine how the 9/11 violence created a moment where the mind, body and body politic could be redefined after 9/11. In an important theoretical intervention into 21st-century American Studies, it asks what the relation between the state and those it expels from its citizenry is. It makes a special mention of sites of incarceration such as Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib as 9/11 phenomena. While referring to sources as diverse as 9/11 poetry, political and presidential speeches, journalistic accounts, atrocity photographs, and theories of trauma, biopolitics and visuality, the book argues for the presence of a new normal.

ON THAT DAY in February...that day that changed my living and my life...hell's minions had moved in around me like a 'black ops' team on a critical mission of destruction. The enemy had sat patiently within the strongholds I had helped build, planning this siege and launching his assault to destroy me. Those old taunts from the enemy punctuated my thoughts, old wounds fueled the fight. I was on a downward spiral into my own 'slough of despond' - accelerating fast towards self-destruction. It was a silly thing, really, that thing that made the facade of my unhealed, unyielded life crack and shatter to the ground around my feet. I can see all too clearly now in hindsight how often and how willingly I had worked with my enemy to take me down. I was persuaded by my false self that I was hiding well what I knew I was - fearful and needy. That day so many old hurts and pains were bumped. Angry tears rushed to the surface as suddenly as if they had just happened. I had cooperated with the dark domain and gone to a destructive place by succumbing to the lies I had been hearing from my enemy for years. By the simple act of forgetting a sandwich the scab of insignificance was torn off and my wounds fully exposed. I had cried out for deliverance from my past with a puny voice of supplication many times before, but this time when I cried for help a gentle guiding soul led me to a place of yielding, a place I had never traveled, a place where I could be SURPRISED BY GOD!

Discover how business owners and entrepreneurs around the world have coped with the new 'normal'.

Diana at age 65 working with the medical community, pharmaceutical community and helping herself through a diet rich in cancer-killing foods plus so much more is healing Stage IV breast cancer after 10 months.-Is it risky to take long road trips and jet travel while on chemotherapy and chemo drugs?-What is the number one killer of cancer patients?-What drives the cancer cells and what can you do to prevent it? Hint: It's not sugar!-Choosing between options that can rob you of life or put you on the path to healing.-Given the cost of dealing with cancer, it is a very worthwhile choice to build a better lifestyle now.

"A really important influence in my and many others road back to physical and mental health during and post cancer treatment. Without Tess' support who knows where we'd be." Steve, cancer survivor "This book is an absolute game changer. Practical, clear, accessible guidance. I already love introducing Tess' work to couples craving re-connection post cancer treatment, and now I have this go-to instructional guide." Victoria Cullen, founder of A Touchy Subject "Your impact on others suffering is just so profound. Love you for that Tess. Thank you!" SJ, cancer survivor Impacted sexuality from cancer treatments is one of the most common challenges people face, yet is one of the most under-addressed. Cancer treatments can impact all aspects of our lives, so why is no one talking about the more 'intimate' struggles we face? If you've received a cancer diagnosis, or are the loved one of someone who has, this book offers support and solutions to recover and increase connection, intimacy & sexuality, during and after treatments. Jam-packed with fun activities and easy-to-do strategies for how to improve things like; low libido, changes in body image and body confidence, when things are 'dry & sore', dating, the more direct side-effects treatments can have on our body and ways to heal and work around them like pain, fatigue, when sex hurts, drops in sex-drive and so, so much more. This book is a must-have for anyone impacted by cancer who may need support, because we all deserve love and connection. Written by a sexuality clinician and educator, who's also had cancer, this book is filled with practical information and ways you can reconnect with yourself and/or a partner, from someone who's literally been there. With down to Earth humour mixed in with a dash of neuroscience, Tess offers a positive path to your intimacy recovery, so what you thought was sexually impossible, becomes possible.