Customer Reviews

What Helped Get Me Through: Cancer Survivors Share Wisdom and Hope

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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I have had close relatives with cancer and I am a cancer survivor. I wish I had this book when my father and SIL had cancer because I didn't know exactly how to help. This is the perfect book for friends and family members who want to help but don't know how. I am one of the patients often quoted in the book so I know these comments come from the heart of the survivors who wrote them. I appreciate seeing my experience from the reader's vantage point. I also enjoyed hearing about what got other people through. None of us could have done it alone. I wish there was such a book for kids and teenagers with cancer. There needs are different and I find myself wondering how to help them uniquely because I am a school nurse. I currently have a student undergoing chemo for testicular cancer. We can relate in general but he needs kids his own age to be there and to talk to. Excellent resource. I recommend it for every place of worship, library, doctor's office and as a personal resource if you love someone with cancer.

From: www.BasilAndSpice.com
Author & Book Views On A Healthy Life!

A FirstLook Feature

Book Review: What Helped Get Me Through (American Cancer Society, 2008) by Julie K. Silver, M.D.

Edited by the award winning author, Julie K. Silver, herself a breast cancer survivor, the objective of What Helped Get Me Through is to provide stories, memories, and personal histories in the form of wisdom and hope by cancer survivors to others living with cancer. Dr. Silver surveyed hundreds of cancer survivors from around the world and interviewed medical experts and cancer leaders during her research for What Helped Me Get Through.

What Helped Get Me Through offers guidance, emotional support, and advice to those just diagnosed with cancer and those undergoing treatment. Cancer survivors have been in the same situation, and speak their own words about survival, pointing out the small details to the major discussions of the emotional, physical, and spiritual aspects of having the disease.

What Helped Me Get Through from cover to cover:

* How to manage fear, uncertainty, and speak with your young children. (Dr. Silver had to do this herself.)
* How to explore and decide upon treatment options.
* How to take care of yourself, spiritually, physically, and emotionally.
* How to interact with your family and friends, allowing them to make a difference.
* What would have helped, but was too difficult to ask for.
* What could have helped at the time of diagnosis.

Dr. Silver also has included short lists which are invaluable:

* 5 Things You Should tell Your Partner Who Has Cancer
* 5 Things To Tell Your Children About Your Cancer
* 5 Things For a Friend To Do
* 5 Things Your Oncologist Should Tell You
* 10 Tips to Help Children and Families

A personal sample: "I was my own worst enemy, and I found myself living on the computer, looking for the worst news possible. I cured that by going to work...it really helped the depression and getting back into a normal life.--Kathie, nurse and social worker, diagnosed with kidney cancer at age 53 in 2005 in Kingston, New York."

There are many survivors who participated in What Helped Get Me Through, including famous names, that are out on the front lines supporting cancer research today. You'll recognize Lance Armstrong, Carly Simon, Scott Hamilton, Sharon Osbourne, Susan Vreeland, Elyse Caplan, retired Senator Edward W. Brooke, Lynn Eib, Hester Hill Schnipper, among many many others. Cancer knows no limits of age, race, gender, nor economic position. We are all affected, as What Helped Get Me Through testifies to.

On a personal note, I walked into the emergency room to hear my own father's diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. We needed this book then. What Helped Me Get Through will encourage many families through diagnosis and treatment, offering hope. Sometimes those days are dark, but there is always hope.

BackStory Byte: Julie K. Silver, M.D. is celebrating her fifth year of breast cancer survivorship. She is also the author of more than a dozen books, including: After Cancer Treatment: Heal Faster, Better, Stronger (Johns Hopkins Press), chosen by Library Journal as a top twenty health book (2006) Life After Stroke (Johns Hopkins Press),and Super Healing (Rodale). Dr. Silver has received the American Cancer Society's prestigious Lane Adams Quality of Life award (2006) because she of her dedication to cancer care survivorship. Dr. Silver is an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and a practicing physiatrist in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and on the medical staff at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Silver also holds the title of Chief Editor of Books at Harvard Health Publications.

The American Cancer Society helps people facing cancer get through their treatment and recovery by providing a range of free and confidential programs and services for patients and caregivers, which help people learn about their disease and treatment options, receive everyday help for dealing with cancer challenges, and connect with others for emotional support.

5 Stars

Cancer is nothing one can get through without learning a valuable life lesson. "What Helped Get Me Through: Cancer Survivors Share Wisdom and Hope" is a collection of wit and wisdom from those who have defeated one of life's greatest challenges in cancer. With advice ranging from the most devastating diagnosis, to the long, grueling fight one must face, to final recovery and much more, "What Helped Get Me Through" is an absolute must for anyone facing this monster or have relatives who have to fight the fight.

AN excellent book. Provides a candid and open account of survivorship. Should be read by patients, families and clinicians alike.

"Goddesses Don't Buy Green Bananas" is a heart-felt compilation of extraordinary photos of some extraordinary women. It is a pictorial essay that will grab your attention with stories of triumph, conviction, power and bravery.; a book that Lesley Daley (author/photographer) wished was available when her thirty-five year old husband was diagnosed with cancer. Driven by her own desperate need to find "comfort" with cancer, she produced this book.The "Goddesses" that are photographed in this book are real-women; they are wives, mothers and friends. Their ages are from 12 to 70 years old; a widespread audience can personally identify with one or all of them. Each one was just too young, too much in love or had too much work to do. There was not a right time to get cancer. It takes away too much and it does not care who you are. Cancer shows no respect about age, beauty, wealth or fame. It s only when cancer faces unusual human capability that the story is some times reversed. The book can be purchased directly from the author on the website - goddessbook.com.