Living Time: Faith and Facts to Transform Your Cancer Journey (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Learning you have cancer is a shocking and fearful revelation, even for a physician. A former director of the National Institutes of Health and overseer of the National Cancer Institute, doctor and columnist Healy was working to expand the cancer genetics program at Ohio State University when she was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. For all her medical training and experience, she was as unprepared as anyone: "It's a universal fact: when serious illness strikes, we are the same vulnerable souls." Seven years later, Healy is now one of more than ten million cancer survivors in the U.S. Healy shares her personal story while also examining cancer risks, research, treatment and prevention. There's no professional distance here, but rather an inclusive and illuminating perspective stemming from Healy's dual role that makes topics like genetic research as accessible as chapters devoted to managing overwhelming fear and making healthy everyday decisions. Viewing the cancer experience as a "living time," as opposed to a "dying time," Healy's message is positive, hopeful, and no less honest or informative for it.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description

Living Time is at once a personal odyssey, an intimate doctor-patient communication, and a prescriptive guide for patients and their families. Writing with wit and humility, Dr. Bernadine Healy shares the hard-won insights that transformed her own struggle with a deadly cancer more than seven years ago, affirming her identity as patient and doctor with the many who share this journey.

Together with more than ten million survivors in the United States alone, Dr. Healy, former director of the National Institutes of Health, is a close witness to the medical advances that have brought us to a turning point in the war on cancer. This quiet revolution is curing a growing number of cancers and transforming many others from a death sentence to a chronic illness, one that calls for vigilance but not despair.

Beginning with her own compelling story, Dr. Healy interweaves it with one of the most lucid narratives ever written of what cancer is, how it works in our bodies, and how we can defeat it. She explains how genetic research and other new approaches are radically altering diagnosis and treatment, and she offers precise and empowering ways for patients and their families to access the information and support they need to secure the best in modern cancer care. She also underlines the urgency of accelerating the pace of research that could map out and destroy cancer in the twenty-first century.

Dr. Healy is forthright about the rigors of treatment and the toll cancer still takes, but readers will come away from her book with the information, resources, and heartfelt encouragement they need to look forward to a future with hope.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; 1 edition (March 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553804618
• ISBN-13: 978-0553804614
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #751,902 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A must for brain cancer patients/families, July 23, 2007

By	Tracy L. Loar (Ohio) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The first chapter of this book was mesmerizing. Could it mirror my family's crisis any more? It was very kind of Dr. Healy to share her experience. I now know that my family isn't the only one blindsided by an oligodendroglioma. There was a shift in the book, however, from personal to technical. It discusses how cancer happens on the cellular level. It's good information, but sometimes it read like a medical text. There is a lot of imformation on the types of research being done and the hope that all patients should have. It was general enough for anyone dealing with cancer, but particularly beneficial for those with brain cancer. She includes a wonderful list of resources for cancer patients. I also appreciated that even as a doctor, she encouraged cancer patients to make there own informed decisions about their health care.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars living time, July 3, 2007

By	Victor J. Albertazzi (davis, california United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

An excellent book, loaded with facts, for anyone suffering from cancer, heart disease or other medical conditions.

Victor J. Albertazzi, MD

5.0 out of 5 stars Intimate and informative, September 12, 2009

By	Susan L. Schulman Publicity "Susan L. Schulman" (NYC, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Living Time: Faith and Facts to Transform Your Cancer Journey (Paperback)

This book in extremely well written with valuable medical information as well as an intimate look at the struggles of facing and fighting cancer.