Happiness in a Storm: Facing Illness and Embracing Life as a Healthy Survivor [Hardcover]

Wendy Schlessel Harpham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 12, 2005

Harpham, a doctor and cancer survivor, offers an approach to illness that promotes physical healing and joyful living.

Award-winning author Wendy Schlessel Harpham, M.D., offers her program to getting good care and finding happiness when you are sick. Having coined the term "Healthy Survivor" while dealing with her own chronic lymphoma, Harpham encourages people dealing with cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or any prolonged illness to simultaneously do all they can to overcome disease and live life to the fullest. Happiness in a Storm shows you how to set the stage for the miracle of physical healing by making the best treatment choices for you, nourishing realistic hope, and taking action. But when it comes right down to it, what good is surviving if you are never happy? Harpham opens your eyes to the opportunities for happiness in life despite medical problems and even because of illness. You'll see how becoming a Healthy Survivor does more than increase your chances of a good outcome: it frees you to pursue happiness.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1990, Harpham, a physician with three young children, was diagnosed with chronic lymphoma. She has lived through reoccurrences, undergone a variety of therapies and is now in her sixth year of remission. In her latest book, she shares here the guidelines she has developed for becoming a healthy survivor: a patient who gets good care and lives as fully as possible. Harpham (After Cancer: A Guide to Your New Life) is no Pollyanna and fully acknowledges the devastating physical and emotional toll diagnosis and treatment take. Harpham advocates first choosing a treatment that is based on current scientific knowledge, rather than alternative approaches. Even for chronic conditions, she says, an appropriate plan of action can help control the disease and pain, and provide a sense of empowerment and optimism. The author offers a wealth of suggestions on nourishing hope, and her advice on managing family and financial stresses related to illness is particularly well founded on her own experience. Rather than a rigid program, this is a sensible and realistic compendium of techniques that will help survivors cope with serious illness while embracing times of happiness. (Sept.)
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Review

Frank, realistic, scientific, and up-to-date, but most important helpful….Harpham has turned the "how-to" book into an art form. -- Natalie Robins, author of Living in The Lightning and Copeland's Cure

Happiness in a Storm is more than a book, it is a blessing. -- Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., author of Kitchen Table Wisdom

A jewel of a book and a gift to all who are confronting a serious illness. -- JoAnn E. Manson, MD, Dr.PH., Chief, Division of Preventive Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

A warm, knowledgeable and personal exploration of living with cancer….wise and clear advice about riding the emotional roller coaster. -- David Spiegel, M.D., author of Living Beyond Limits

A wonderful book…must reading for people and families threatened by serious disease. -- Eric J. Cassell, MD, M.A.C.P., Clinical Professor of Public Health, Weill Medical College of Cornell University

An inspiring message of achieving happiness. -- Doug Ulman, Director of Survivorship, Lance Armstrong Foundation, Austin, TX

Everyone faced with a cancer diagnosis would do well to read this book. -- Susan P. Halpern, MSW, author of The Etiquette of Illness

Harpham speaks to people with cancer with an authenticity that comes through in shining colors in her new book. -- Jimmie Holland, chairman, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Pulses with the fervent heart and knowledge that its author brings as both patient and physician. -- Joanna Bull, M.A., founder, Gilda's Club Worldwide

Thorough, practical, concise, and hopeful. -- Christine K. Clifford, CEO/President of The Cancer Club, author of Not Now…I'm Having a No Hair Day!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton; 1 edition (September 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393060802
• ISBN-13: 978-0393060805
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,252,856 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In a crowded field, "Happiness" is in a class by itself!, March 12, 2006

By 

Nancy L. Howe "survivor and cancer researcher" (Scottsdale, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Happiness in a Storm: Facing Illness and Embracing Life as a Healthy Survivor (Hardcover)

A friend of mine asked me to recommend a book to help her cope with her cancer diagnosis. She had searched here on Amazon for "breast cancer" and gotten more than 2,000 results. "How do I know which one is right for me?" she asked. I told her the answer was easy: get this book, "Happiness in Storm." Dr. Harpham is not just a physician who has experienced her own cancer, although she is that. She is a mother, a wife, and a survivor of repeated recurrences and remissions of chronic lymphoma. Throughout her 7-year journey, Dr. Harpham --- Wendy to her readers --- has shown herself to be a profound observer and participant in the process of finding and nurturing hope and joy, even as she researches treatment options and restructures her life to eliminate obstacles to healing. Many survivors tell their stories forcefully and eloquently, and Wendy excels in this, but what sets "Happiness" apart is that Wendy speaks directly to the Big Question that all of us face as we embark on life after cancer diagnosis, during treatment, and beyond: "What is the best way for me to live now?" Each of us will arrive at our own answers, but Wendy offers herself as a skilled guide, helping us apply to our own lives her philosophy, forged in the trenches, which stresses personal choice, positive actions, and reality-based hope. I laughed and I cried as I read this book, and I experienced profound relief to find a physician who clearly draws the lines between what we can and can't control, and a survivor who took me by the hand and showed me how happiness can flower amidst it all. Wendy taught me how to create hope in my own life -- that's the finest gift I could give anyone.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read, October 20, 2005

By 

Jessica Miller "librarian" (Montreal, QC, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Happiness in a Storm: Facing Illness and Embracing Life as a Healthy Survivor (Hardcover)

Many patients after a cancer diagnosis are often reluctant to read about the subject. However if one were to read 1 book only, this is the book to read. Despite being a little long, there is much to be learned from it. Dr Harpham has a three pronged approach --- knowledge, hope and action. As a survivor, she knows about disappointments and recurrances. Yet she also knows about the joy of being alive after receiving cutting edge treatment. Her many metaphores are useful in getting her message across, and throughout the book she interweaves her personal experiences, lending credibility to what she has to say. While Dr. Harpham had to give up her medical practice out of necessity, as a writer she administers to a wider patient base. Being a librarian in an oncology library geared to the layperson, I consider this a must read.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book really works, November 15, 2005

By 

Gift Book Giver "SS" (TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Happiness in a Storm: Facing Illness and Embracing Life as a Healthy Survivor (Hardcover)

Books can make a difference, and this one definitely does! I've already bought multiple copies to share with friends and family facing various illnesses--and they're all telling me it works! I've seen how Dr. Harpham's book gives people hope and helps them find their own best path to healing.