Picking Up The Pieces Life After Cancer

One’s journey through cancer does not end with the last treatment. Cancer affects patients and survivors not only physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well. Living through cancer impacts one’s sense of self, one’s energy level, and one’s ability to move on. The cancer experience calls into question the meaning and purpose of life. It affects one’s relationship with self, others, and God. Moving forward from the shock and trauma of cancer requires that survivors take time to address these inner dimensions of their cancer experience. This book does just that. It is a compelling personal journey through the many challenges faced by survivors as they attempt to reclaim their life after cancer. The author, a ten year cancer survivor, believes that facing and walking through the emotional and spiritual upheaval of the cancer experience can have a transforming effect on one’s life. She describes her own process, focusing on the first two years after diagnosis---a time of intense fear, anxiety, uncertainty, and turmoil. Acknowledging, facing, and walking through this pain brought her to a place of greater emotional and spiritual freedom---to a richer quality of life. Although each story is unique, survivors live through similar emotional and spiritual struggles. Questions included at the end of each chapter invite the reader to reflect upon their personal journey as a way of working through whatever is preventing them from moving forward. This book is a must read for survivors living through the inner struggles surrounding their cancer experience and movement forward. It is a source of support for those feeling alone in their pain. It is a guide for those wishing to heal and grow emotionally and spiritually from the crisis of cancer. It offers hope and encouragement to all cancer survivors.

Introduces an innovative four-phase program, complete with daily practices, designed to assist cancer survivors in picking up the pieces of their lives during the recovery processs, combining the personal experiences of survivors with advice on how to develop a personalized Healing Plan, handle stress and physical side effects, and find essential resources and support services. Original.

here are over 10 million cancer survivors in North America, and every year doctors diagnose one million new cases. Most survivors emerge disoriented and scarred. The side effects are not only physical: Emotional and financial instability, changed relationships and spiritual questions leave many feeling overwhelmed. Survivors speak of feeling fragmented, of needing to "pick up the pieces" of their lives once the struggle with cancer is over. Practical, reassuring and informative, Picking Up the Pieces is based on 15 years of research and interviews with hundreds of survivors. Magee and Scalzo guide survivors through a unique process with daily practices that build a bridge from hospital to home, and beyond.

WINNER OF THE BEST HEALTH BOOK CATEGORY IN THE GUILD OF HEALTH WRITERS HEALTH WRITING AWARDS 2012 HIGHLY COMMENDED IN THE POPULAR MEDICINE CATEGORY AT THE BMA MEDICAL BOOK AWARDS 2012 Coping with life after cancer can be tough. The idea that the end of successful treatment brings relief and peace just isn't true for countless survivors. Many feel unexpectedly alone, worried and adrift. You're supposed to be getting your life 'back on track' but your life has changed. You have changed. With reassurance and understanding, Dr Frances Goodhart and Lucy Atkins help readers deal with the emotional fallout of cancer whether it's days, months or years since the treatment ended. Drawing on Dr Goodhart's extensive experience working in the NHS with cancer survivors, this guide is packed with practical and simple self-help tools to tackle issues such as worry and anxiety, depression and low mood, anger, low self-esteem and body image, relationships and sex, fatigue, sleep and relaxation. If you are a cancer survivor, this book will support you every step of the way. If you are supporting a loved one, friend, colleague or your patient, this is a vital read.

After the intense experience and range of emotion that comes with surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy (or all three), cancer patients often find themselves with little or no guidance when it comes to their health post-treatment. After Cancer Care is the much-needed authoritative, approachable guide that fills this gap. It includes information on how to maintain physical health—with chapters on epigenetics, nutrition, and exercise—as well as emotional health through stress management techniques. The cutting-edge and growingly popular science of Epigenetics has shown that you are not stuck with your genetic history: your choices in diet, exercise, and even relationships can help determine whether or not your genes promote cancer, and therefore determine your propensity for relapse. Your lifestyle has an effect on the most common types of cancer including breast cancer, prostate cancer, melanoma, endometrial cancer, colon cancer, bladder cancer, and lymphoma. The doctors present easy-to-incorporate lifestyle changes to help you “turn on” hundreds of genes that fight cancer, and “turn off” the ones that encourage cancer, while recommending lifestyle plans to address each type. In addition, they share 34 healthy recipes and tips on staying active and exercising, detoxifying your house and environment, and taking supplements to help prevent relapse. With more than three decades of post-cancer-care experience, Drs. Lemole, Mehta, and McKee break down the science into palatable, practical takeaways so that you can drastically improve your quality of life and enjoy many years of cancer-free serenity.

Clyde Colvin Besson, a minister with extensive experience in marriage and family counseling, offers comfort and guidance to the recently divorced and to anyone else struggling with feelings of despair and isolation.

Not many people experience the death of a child; fewer yet face the possibility of having to do it twice. Justin DeLong was a bright, energetic child when he was diagnosed with leukemia at age five. After battling the cancer, he went into remission for ten years, where he laughed and ran long-distance races and slowly entered adolescence. Sadly, in July 2000 he succumbed to the disease twelve days after his fifteenth birthday. Lisa DeLong and her family were left to pick up the pieces and try to find joy in life without their beloved eldest son and brother. Then, six years later, they discovered something terrifying-their youngest son, Jacob, had leukemia too. Blood Brothers is Lisa DeLong's story of what it has been like to have two sons with leukemia, a lifetime apart. As she struggles to understand how a loving God could allow this to happen, she searches for a way to keep her marriage, her family, and her own sanity together. Whether you're a mother, someone who has experienced cancer either in yourself or someone you love, or a medical professional, the story of these two Blood Brothers will speak to your heart and allow you to see how with faith, great triumph can come from unimaginable tragedy.

An honest and inspiring memoir of a young women battling psychosis, depression and anxiety The story is of a women who experiences mental health brought on by stress. A candid and intimate retelling of her breakdown, and her memories and experiences of her times in a mental health facility. Read the journal of her inner thoughts while in the mental health facility and after. With medical intervention and the love and support of her family and fiancé, she finds a way to manage and live with mental illness. Learn the importance of self care and what you can do to help yourself or a loved one going through mental illness. The story is written with the hope that others might be able to relate to some of her experience and know that they are not alone. The stigma of mental illness needs to be broken and people need to start talking about how they really feel.