Customer Reviews

Your Brain after Chemo: A Practical Guide to Lifting the Fog and Getting Back Your Focus

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Your Brain After Chemo yanks something out of the closet that cancer survivors need to talk about - impaired cognition after chemotherapy. I can tell you from my own experience, it's a relief to know that others suffer. Fast-reading, filled with tips and survivor stories, this book is important.

Your Brain After Chemo - is an incredibly helpful guide for anyone experiencing chemo brain, for patients who may be starting a course of treatment, and for family members and caregivers. It's sure to become an invaluable resource for understanding cognitive changes, and hopefully for taking steps toward recovery.

The authors have done a great job explaining the complex science in a wonderfully approachable way! Pick up this book and start to 'lift the fog and get back your focus.'

An informative scientific review of available evidence that chemotherapy agents have significant cognitive effects on patients. I found it particularly relevant to the current experiences my spouse is having with the agent cisplatin. Of particular interest to me was the inclusion of personal anecdotes of patients who have experienced these effects during and after their therapies.

It reassured me that these effects are not unique to our situation.

I would recommend this book as required reading for all medical oncologists.

This book is a must have for people undergoing chemo and for people who had had chemo. The book explains the effects that chemotherapy has on your brain, information not widely publicized by doctors. The book also shares some very poignant stories from other people that have also undergone chemo and who have experienced chemobrain. Most importantly the book highlights important strategies to cope with and to overcome chemobrain. It is an easy, entertaining and extremely informative read.

As a cancer survivor whose treatments caused significant cognitive impairment, this book has been a godsend. It's very sensible, well-written, and its utility for me has been enormous.

For many people, losing some cognitive function doesn't seem so awful. For me, it was a calamity, as I think it must be for many (the numbers are HUGE-- as many as 25% of people who've done chemo have diminished cognitive functioning after 5 years. Considering that people getting chemo number in the millions in the US, that represents a tragic loss).

My own cognitive function returned, but it took a lot of effort over a couple of years. Much of one's recovery from loss of cognitive function, I found, involves developing compensatory strategies-- knowing how to re-arrange your ways of doing things so you make fewer mistakes. This book's tips and tricks about how to get functioning again are invaluable.

This would also be a great book for families and caregivers of people recovering from cancer, since it clearly explains what the cancer survivor often cannot properly express (it's hard to describe your brain with your brain not functioning correctly). It also does a huge service by teasing apart how different chemotherapies have different side effects.

A book on this subject could easily be grim, but there's just the right amount of lightening up and humor along with the more sobering truths. Learning how to laugh at oneself is a vital part of the recovery process.

A great addition to the growing literature of this illness.

How wonderful it would be if cancer survivors were given this resource early in their diagnosis to ask questions and understand what impact chemotherapy might have in their situation. Close monitoring of the effects and early intervention with professionals to minimize the effects, should be a part of every survivor's wellness plan. This book gives survivors the information they need to understand what is happening and how very real it is, along with tips for getting back on track. Some of the stories of real survivors who have been impacted is heartbreaking. As a breast cancer survivor, I could relate and was glad to hear I was not alone. It explained much of what I knew was happening but was unable to articulate.

Any health library or general collection catering to cancer patients will find specific and key the guide Your Brain After Chemo: a Practical Guide to Lifting the Fog and Getting Back Your Focus. One of the foremost researchers in chemotherapy's effects and a journalist and cancer survivor combine talents to explore emotional and physical reactions to chemo treatments, blending science with health insights in a book that should be a foundation title in any serious health or general library.

While I can articulate a number of the effects of chemo brain I have experienced--this book really goes beyond my meager attempts and nails those chemo brain effects that I've had but just couldn't quite put my finger on its description. For those of us with chemo brain--the first 70 pages or so will have you going: "Yep, got that"... "that's me alright"... "didn't know THAT was related to chemo brain"... I could've stopped reading right then and there and have been totally satisfied with this book--but wait, there's more!

Even better--the two authors do a great job in laying out explanations on the causes and mechanisms of chemo brain. Not a medical book--but the book has substance. It presents information on the early research efforts focused on chemo brain. It has good information on ways to potentially combat the effects of chemo brain. It creates a completely new, yet balanced picture on the recovery aspects of chemo brain--including information I've never seen before on the long term chemo brain possibilities.

If there's time, this ought to be required reading by the patient BEFORE one undergoes chemotherapy. Not that it'll change your mind to engage the process--but it could prepare you for one of the larger mysteries of chemo--should you experience chemo brain post-treatment.

Every chemo clinic ought to have this book on the coffee table in the waiting room. Every health care worker associated with chemotherapy--who has not actually had to suffer from the effects of chemo brain--ought to read this book--if you truly want to get a glimpse into our world. This goes double for the docs!!! And those of you who deal with us on a regular basis as we go through our recovery effort might want to read this as well.

Regards,

Larry

Your Brain After Chemo is the book I had been waiting for! When I went through my treatments the concept of "chemo-brain" was just a theory. Those of us going through it knew better but did not have enough available information to understand the phenomenon we were experiencing. This book helped me clear up the mystery and implement exercises that helped me come back to "normal". Survivor stories make it very identifiable and a great, up-lifting read.

I read this book as a clinician very interested in helping patients recover after cancer treatment. I was happy to learn about this book's existence as there is generally a dirth of information available for our patients. I found it easy to ready and practical. I think it's important for cancer patients and survivors who are experiencing problems with their memory and thinking to know that they are not alone or "crazy" in experiencing the cloudiness that can occur. The authors also did a great job of addressing the myriad of other issues that can affect our thinking in this setting: sleep, hormones, nutrition, exercise, etc. Overall, this book was very much worth the read.