Living Beyond Breast Cancer: A Survivor's Guide for When Treatment Ends and the Rest of Your Life Begins [Paperback]

Marisa Weiss (Author), Ellen Weiss (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0812930665 | ISBN-13: 978-0812930665 | Publication Date: September 14, 1998 | Edition: 1

"How can I know if I'm really cured?"
"Will anyone ever be attracted to me again?"
"Will I ever get to enjoy sex again?"
"It is safe for me to get pregnant?"
"How do I live well beyond menopause without estrogen replacement therapy?"
"What do I tell my boss?"
"My daughter wants to know if she's going to get breast cancer too.  What should I tell her?"

If you are one of the 2.6 million women in the U.S. living beyond breast cancer, these may be some of the questions troubling you.  You've been through diagnosis and treatment; now you're ready to move from "I have breast cancer" back to "I am leading a normal life."  Living Beyond Breast Cancer will help you understand and manage the tough issues you face as you go on beyond treatment, and well into the future.

You'll learn how to become as healthy as possible for as long as possible by eating right, managing your weight, and finding an exercise program  that works with your lifestyle.  You'll find out what to do if you've got to stop taking hormones or want to start.  You may also need advice on achieving intimacy and having a baby.  You'll also find invaluable guidance on growing older and navigating troubling symptoms of menopause, particularly when they're brought on by chemotherapy or tamoxifen or by stopping hormone replacement therapy.  A normal life includes dealing with job and health care issues and wills. So you'll find in-depth information on these subjects too.

You're a survivor, and you've got a future.  This empathetic book, filled with comprehensive medical information, practical advice, and the voices of survivors who have lived through everything you're going through, will help you celebrate your second chance at living beyond breast cancer.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Breast cancer is never completely over," says author Marisa C. Weiss, M.D., a radiation oncologist. Even when x-rays are negative and doctors proclaim remission, breast-cancer survivors often suffer from continued health problems along with elevated levels of anxiety, and the specter of recurrence is just a small part of the picture.

Living Beyond Breast Cancer: A Survivor's Guide for When Treatment Ends and the Rest of Your Life Begins has won endorsements from both Bernie Siegel and former surgeon general C. Everett Koop. It deftly and with compassion maps out a guide for going back to a "normal" life: for handling fears of recurrence and worries that family members will develop breast cancer and for managing physical posttreatment problems, including the lingering side effects of radiation, fertility difficulties, changes in sex drive, and feelings of unattractiveness.

Living Beyond Breast Cancer is comprehensive--at more than 500 pages, it has the room to thoroughly cover pain control and medication, genetic testing, weight management, hormone and tamoxifen therapy, alternative treatments such as traditional Chinese medicine, breast reconstruction, and the various tests for recurrence, from PET and CAT scans to MRIs and blood testing for cancer markers. It's also a superb reference for emotional issues, from depression and generalized anxiety to insecurities about reentering the job market and revealing the cancer experience to coworkers. Weiss includes many quotes from breast-cancer survivors, so readers know they're not alone. The extensive resources and excellent index add to this book's immense helpfulness. --Erica Jorgensen --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Publisher

"An extremely useful source of information for living."
--Bernie S. Siegel, M.D., author of Love, Medicine & Miracles

"This upbeat self-help manual for women making the transition from breast cancer patient to survivor captures the broad range of challenges that women experience after treatment ends. The book provides practical solutions to common problems as well as sensitive discussion of important feelings. I am looking forward to recommending this book to my patients."
--Patricia A. Ganz, M.D., professor, UCLA Schools of Medicine and Public Health, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press; 1 edition (September 14, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812930665
• ISBN-13: 978-0812930665
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.4 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #673,796 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A comforting guide in the privacy of your home!, September 4, 2000

By 

Elsie E. Carraghan (Emmaus, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living Beyond Breast Cancer: A Survivor's Guide for When Treatment Ends and the Rest of Your Life Begins (Paperback)

My daughter was sitting with my husband and myself in the office of my radiation oncologist. She spotted "Living Beyond Breast Cancer" on the bookshelf. She like myself was so lost when we found I had breast cancer. Neither my husband, daughter or myself knew what was going to happen. She began reading the book and could not put it down. When the Dr. came into the room he made comment about the book she was reading. She was so elated with all the facts, which are printed in such simple language that we could understand. The Dr. saw her enthusiasm and offered for her to take it home. Since that time I have not been able to seperate myself from this book. As I progress thru my mastectomy, I find new items of interest. It also helped me understand what my partner, my husband, was feeling. I read one of the chapters to him, at our breakfast table. We sat and cried and agreed that the way he was feeling was as written in the book. I never realized just how much he hurt and how comforting it was to him to know there was a book written that could tell me how he felt.

I have since recommended this book to others. If you cannot get out to support groups or are afraid to go, this book gives you all the support you could ever ask for in the comfort of your home or office. I am 62 years old and a very active business woman. I wondered if my business life was over. The book proved my fears to be very wrong.

For myself and my daughter, it is our lifeline! Thank you Dr. Marisa Weiss and also Ellen Weiss. You have done a tremendous favor to women like me.

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a resource that I can relate to and use!, April 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Living Beyond Breast Cancer:: A Survivor's Guide for When Treatment Ends and the Rest of Your Life Begins (Hardcover)

This is the type of book I've been wanting. It offers wonderful support and needed information. The authors are empathetic and straight forward, guiding us to reach beyond (hence the title, of course) the psychological boundaries that women who have survived a bout with breast cancer put on ourselves. It offers clear, concise suggestions for what to do now and for facing the future, which may or may not include a recurrance of breast cancer. There are sections which are not applicable to me, but this is bound to be true when a text is so comprehensive. After checking this book out of the library three times, I have realized that this is a book all women who have had breast cancer need to own for themselves.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Needs to be updated, February 27, 2006

By 

Twinmama (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living Beyond Breast Cancer: A Survivor's Guide for When Treatment Ends and the Rest of Your Life Begins (Paperback)

There's a lot of good information in this book...for 1998. Breast cancer treatment and survival has come a long way since then; this book should reflect that. Also, was surprised at how much stuff they covered that *wasn't* post-treatment. A lot of what this book covered was in other books for the newly diagnosed and those going through treatment -- I wanted more about actual life after treatment, not more recaps of breast reconstruction.

Disappointing.