Ordinary Miracles
By S. David Nathanson, MD (Praeger, $49.95)
The survival rates today for women and men facing breast cancer are nothing short of an “ordinary miracle,” according to the oncologist author, who here collects stories from 71 patients focusing on how they dealt with the disease.
1. It often takes a few fear-filled days after diagnosis before patients can reasonably evaluate their options and begin to accept their condition.
2. While some consider surgery the most daunting aspect of dealing with breast cancer, others find that the operation eases emotional pain.
3. Procedures that can feel routine to medical staff can be poignantly meaningful to the patient. If she requests that a husband, sister or mother be with her, staff should — within reason — accommodate her.
4. Chemotherapy can be as dreadful as the disease itself. Support from family and friends, fully understanding the process, reliance on a greater power, even humor are needed to get past the hardship of chemotherapy.
5. “Most breast cancer survivors do not simply return to their previous lives, even after the successful course of treatment. They are changed by what happened to them. Some feel … a greater sense of awareness.”
