Product Description
"Keep Your Breasts! Preventing Breast Cancer the Natural Way" 2002, 6th printing is revised and updated with the new studies on Hormone Replacement Therapy and Mammograms. it has five new references and is completely revised.

The author healed herself of breast and uterine cancer 12 years ago on the all-natural "MOTEP" program. She has not had any recurrence.

Women and men around the world have healed themselves on this program. The book is in three languages and is used as a College Textbook. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

A much needed resource for women
This book is must read for every woman. In a world of "treat your body however you want and then poison it to get better" system, Susan Moss offers a highly desirable alternative for pro-active health seekers. I read this book shortly after surviving cancer and it gave me a lot of peace of mind, making me see that I had an active say in my health. That is wasn't out of my hands, that if I took charge of my own health, instead of relinquishing my power to the "man in the white coat", I could actually grow the muscle of self-healing. Truthfully, I think this book would be inspirational for everyone, because she teaches you the value of trusting yourself and steering your own ship. I am a person who believes in using many different modalities of healing, western and eastern medicines, and I highly recommend this book. It provides valuable information no matter what route you take on your healing journey.

Empowering story of an alternative approach to healing cancer
I went to the Cancer Control Society Conference this Labor Day weekend in L.A. Susan Moss was quietly sitting at her booth in the Ballroom. She told me that she is a cancer survivor that healed herself with a comprehensive 20 step plan she designed called MOTEP-the "Marathon Olympic Tumor Eradication Program". I bought this book and am glad I did. Susan is an artist, not a MD or Nutritionist. "Keep Your Breasts" is about her personal experience with Breast and Uterine cancer. Susan rejected surgery, chemo and radiation in favor of a natural holistic approach and healed herself.

Susan's plan includes sound nutrition, exercise, emotional & spiritual healing and what I call energetics. She actively engages the power of the mind, emotions and the connection with her Higher Self (athough that isn't her term for whatever you want to call God,the Universe, All That Is etc.) She uses Guided Imagery, the power of intent, the sound vibration of chanting, and creative visualization. Her story is written in a very matter-of-fact practical way. She doesn't label what she did the way I have. But those of you who understand transpersonal psychology,hypnosis, metaphysics and energetics will appreciate her approach.

She researched all the Cancer Diets and developed her own version of a cancer fighting diet low in fat, low salt,devoid of sugar with raw foods,juices and fruits & veggies. She incorporates carrots (Vit A), barley (Vit B17-laetril), Citrus (Vit C)along with other cancer fighting foods into her diet.

Bucking the advice of the medical system when you are in a state of fear takes courage. It also takes discipline, determination and a strong belief in the bodies ability to heal itself. If you have cancer you owe it to yourself to listen to what she has to say. Even if you decide to go the traditional route of surgery, chemo & radiation you can still compliment your treatment with her MOTEP plan. I hope you find her story as uplifting and empowering as I did.

Understanding Cancer
The best statement made in her book, SURVIVE CANCER, is Ms. Moss' simple expression that "Cancer is a systemic disease".Women hear that they have a cancerous tumor of the breast and immediately want the "foreign object" removed from their bodies.But when you cancer is a systemic disease--it doesn't simply exist within a tumor.And cutting into it only spreads it!Do not fall victim to the fears that the medical community instills in its patients who are diagnosed with the disease.Educate yourself, ask questions, and take time to make a life saving decision relative to your treatment.

I read the first edition of this book...
I for one am open to alternative medicine, although I see that several of the other reviewers here are not, since they fall back on an appeal to the authority of "professionals" and their cut-drug-and-burn "official" treatments, which they claim are "proven treatments."I have always wondered:Just what are these "proven treatments" proven to do for the cancer sufferer?

Well, I have always known that there is a lot of cancer in my family tree.When I was a teenager, my mother and I lived with an aunt and uncle.The uncle got laryngeal cancer (no surprise, after having smoked for 60 years).He underwent surgery and radiation.I was horrified.I made up my mind that there had to be something different out there, something better, something that did not leave a cancer victim horribly mutilated, with his immune system shot.

When I finally moved out on my own, I started reading literature about alternative cancer treatments.I thought then, and still think, that it is criminal that the medical "profession" can shut down the competition the way it has.But the cancer underground is quite alive.

As I recall, when I read this book, I liked a lot of what the author had to say.My biggest complaint, however, as with nearly all self-published books I've seen, is the appallingly bad job of proofreading that was done--at least on the first edition.I hope that she found competent proofreaders for the second and later editions.

The author, in the first edition, made mention of the fact that she "dusted off" her writing skills, and that she had friends proofread the book for her, including someone who was supposedly a professor of English somewhere.

Well, to me it looked as if her writing skills needed more dusting off, and it looked like she needed someone who actually knew how to spell proofread the book.She misspelled Dr. Privitera's name at least once or twice, and there were way too many other typos there.In short, while the cover looked nice, the inside looked unprofessional.

I am truly happy that Ms. Moss was able to get better using her self-directed program.I am not personally convinced that low-fat is the way to go, because there are many different approaches to alternative healing, some of which do use fat (for instance, the Gerson and Budwig protocols make heavy use of flaxseed oil).

Additionally, at least one other alternative regimen is actually a HIGH-fat diet; it was originated by the Polish doctor Dr. Krasniewski (called the Optimal Diet).It uses a lot of animal fat, even lard and butter.The modified version I am using actually uses a lot of coconut oil.

Further:Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski, in Houston, is genuine and reputable.They tried to shut him down; however, he has cured many people of hard-to-cure cancers such as brain tumors.

You can also check with the Cancer Control Society; they can also refer people to different practitioners.You don't have to go the cut-drug-and-burn route if you don't want to.

Susan Moss is informative and inspirational
"keep your breasts" and "survive cancer" are both truly very informative and inspirational books.
Being a brain cancer surviver twice, I truly fit into Susan MOss's shoes.
She is a great believer of curing the disease naturally and her MOTEP healing program is just incrediable.
I wish I had read her book earlier and dealt with my illness in a different way, she makes more sense than any of my doctors.
I hope to follow her guidelines and change my life style and beat the odds.
I highly recommend her books ... Read more

Product Description
In this riveting narrative, Barron H. Lerner offers a superb medical and cultural history of our century-long battle with breast cancer. Revisiting the past, Lerner argues, can illuminate and clarify the dilemmas confronted by women with--and at risk for--the disease. Writing with insight and compassion, Lerner tells a compelling story of influential surgeons, anxious patients and committed activists. There are colorful portraits of the leading figures, ranging from the acerbic Dr. William Halsted, who pioneered the disfiguring radical mastectomy at the turn of the century to Rose Kushner, a brash journalist who relentlessly educated American women about breast cancer. Lerner offers a fascinating account of the breast cancer wars: the insistent efforts of physicians to vanquish the ""enemy""; the fights waged by feminists to combat a paternalistic legacy that silenced patients; and the struggles of statisticians and researchers to generate definitive data in the face of the great risks and uncertainties raised by the disease.And for this new paperback edition, Lerner has included a postscript in which he discusses the recent findings the most recent breast cancer controversy: do mammograms truly lower mortality rates or do they lead to unnecessary mastectomies? In Lerner's hands, the fight against breast cancer opens a window on American medical practice over the last century: the pursuit of dramatic cures with sophisticated technologies, the ethical and legal challenges raised by informed consent, and the limited ability of scientific knowledge to provide quick solutions for serious illnesses. The Breast Cancer Wars tells a story that is of vital importance to modern breast cancer patients, their families and the clinicians who strive to treat and prevent this dreaded disease. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

i loved it
i learned so much and it was such suchan easy ad flowy read. i loved itl it was funny and witty.

A MUST READ for every woman
Barron Lerner's "Breast Cancer Wars" joins Ellen Leopold's "Darker Ribbon" as an eyeopening look backstage at the Breast Cancer Follies in America.They are both important books, and make many of the same points, but if you are of a mind to read only one history of this disease, make it this one.

Leopold's book, written from a frankly feminist (and that's OK)point of view is dry and academic.But as a frank feminist myself, I must say I much preferred Lerner's lively, even juicy, warts-and-all look at the nature of American surgeons and how they make their decisions.But be warned: like they say about watching sausage being made, it ain't pretty.In fact the chapter on super-radical surgery that was the fashion for a, thankfully short, period of time in the 1950's upset me so much that I couldn't sleep that night.Do NOT read that part at bedtime!The phrase "human remnant" used by one famous surgeon in referring to his patients - or what was left of them when he got through with them - still gives me nightmares.

Lerner is himself a doctor - he teaches internal medicine and medical history at Columbia, so he has an insider's knowledge and interpretive skills that Leopold lacks.In detailing why, exactly, it took nearly half a century for American surgeons to even agree to scientifically test the efficacy and safety of the radical Halsted mastectomy, Lerner exposes the thought processes that dominate the surgical profession.Trust me, you will never look at your doctors the same way.

His thoughts on the risk aversive, controling mentality of the American population, and how that is reflected in the kind of doctors and medical procedures we traditionally prefer - the mindset that allowed the Halsted and its horror chamber cousins to hold sway for so long - is particularly important.

Toward the end of the book, Lerner touches on chemotherapy - which is a case of poisoning the many in order to help aminiscule few.It is impossible not to see the similarities with the now discredited Halsted.Like the Halsted, chemotherapy is basically a sales job, with no studies that show it is very helpful at all to non-metastatic women.And yet, we risk averse, bigger is better, give it all to me Americans - and our doctors - are embracing it with the same mindless fervor as the radical mastectomy.

Wake up folks.Read this book - it is a must.

Frightening and fascinating.You must read it.
Before signing the consent forms for my lumpectomy, I asked my surgeon if there was a possibility that I might wake up from my operation without a breast."No," he said, "we don't do that any longer."

Ah, but they used to.In fact, according to "The Breast Cancer Wars" it was standard procedure during most of the twentieth century for a woman to go under the knife for a biopsy and wake up without her breast, axillary nodes, and her chest wall muscles.If she were unlucky enough to be operated on in the fifties, she might also be minus an arm and part of her rib cage.

Chapter 4, "The Scalpel Triumphant:Radical Surgery in the 1950s" is truly grotesque to someone who had her own surgery in December, 2001.One surgeon of that middle decade even accused a colleague of "having performed a 'humanectomy.'"People who went in to the operating room with breast cancer might lose a whole forequarter (clavicle, scapula, and an arm).For reproductive cancers, there was an operation called the hemipelvectomy, "which required removal of the 'hind-quarter': a leg and an adjacent bone from the pelvis."A surgeon named Pack performed over 200 hemipelvectomies on men and women, acquiring the nickname 'Pack the Knife' from his admiring colleagues.

How did the war against cancer come to involve such radical surgeries?According to the author, surgeons gained experience with extreme operations during World War II, where they also learned about the life-saving qualities of blood transfusions and penicillin:"Indeed, the Surgeon General had reported a remarkable 96 percent survival rate among injured World War II military personnel."

When the surgeons returned from the battlefields, they were prepared to take extreme measures against an enemy more ancient than the Nazis.Cancer researcher Michael Shimkin later noted, "'surgeons went radical and then superrradical' during the decade following World War II."

I started reading this book fully prepared to despise William Halsted, the surgeon who invented the radical mastectomy and performed it first in 1882.However that was not to be the case.Halstead was a great surgeon and "believed that his operation, if performed early enough in the course of the disease, could substantially prolong the survival of patients"--as did generations of surgeons following his training and example, even though 75% of their patients were dead five years after surgery.

Even after statistics like the above, randomized controlled trials involving lumpectomies and follow-up radiation, womens' activism, better mammography, and a new theory on how breast cancer metastasized, older surgeons performed radical and modified radical mastectomies well into the 1980s--a century after Halstead performed his first.When speaking of one of the old-school surgeons who turned 80 in 1980, Dr. Susan Love, herself a notable breast surgeon, remarked: "It was sad.He had lived too long.He just couldn't make that critical jump."

Dr. Lerner has written a superb medical and cultural history of America's war against breast cancer.Women who are considering treatment options for breast cancer should, at the very least read Chapter 11:"The Past as Prologue--What Can the History of Breast Cancer Teach Us?"

FIRST-CLASS HIDDEN HISTORY
Like many others who have discovered this treasure of a highly readable but profoundly illuminating book. I fully agree with Dr. Susan Love, who called it a "riveting" story and "one of the best books I have read in a long time." As someone who has long been active in the women's health movementI am sure that THE BREAST CANCER WARS will become a fixture on the short list of "must have" titles for any patient or advocate. Dr. Barron Lerner is a gifted writer, a caring clinician(Associate Professor of Medicine and Public Health at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons) a distinguished PhD medical historian, as well as the devoted son of a breast cancer survivor whose "quiet perseverance in the face of a terrifying disease has been an inspiration." Thus, he brings a thoroughly rounded perspective to the history of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment that (to my knowledge) no other male physician has ever attempted, much less achieved. His fascinating descriptions of the central role that activist patients have played in forcing doctors to treat breast cancer more humanely, and, yes, believe it or not- more scientifically, is a major contribution to modern social and science history.Dr. Lerner's title is well-chosen, as he escorts us through the maze of controversies and "wars" that mark breast cancerdiagnosis, treatment and prevention, showing them to be dramatic, amazing, frustrating, sometimes ridiculous, and often highly unfair to patients. While THE BREAST CANCER WARS is not a "how to" book it provides women- and men-with a wealth of necessary background and information that will enable them to become far more savvy and sophisticated on every aspect of any breast cancer discussion.

A Very Important Book
In trying to understand and have an appreciation for the larger perspective of Medicine, Doctors and the Medical/Cancer Establishment, I found "Breast Cancer Wars..." to be the most insightful and helpful book of its kind that I have read. And in seeking to understand my disease (Leukemia), and the process I have been going through, I have read dozens of books on Health, Healing, Cancer, Medicine, the Medical Establishment etc...

Dr. Lerner provides a comprehensive, readable and above all balanced book in which he examines all the factors which impact on the development of a cancer treatment in the U.S. And he maintains this sense of balance while examining what is one of the most emotional, sensitive and controversial areas in all of cancer diagnosis and treatment; Breast Cancer and the Radical Mastectomy.

What particularly distinguishes his writing is the way in which he is able to provide a clear, detailed history and narrative while exploring the human, cultural, political, societal and gender-related issues that have impacted on the development and treatment of Breast Cancer.

In this extremely controversial and politicized area, he does not look for, or find a villain; his is not an attempt to blame or demonize. And that is a great relief.

Instead, in discussing the individuals involved - the physicians who first espoused and continued to advocate the use of Radical Mastectomies and those who opposed it, the prominent women who elected this procedure for themselves, the women who began to oppose the Radical Mastectomy and who challenged the medical system, the women who used their influence and resources to initiate important cancer and support organizations - Dr. Lerner provides very human portraits which helped me to appreciate how and why these individuals developed their views, and how each one of them came to effect the course of the debate and the evolution of Breast Cancer treatment.

And he does not fail to convey the tremendous emotional, physical and psychological impact that these doctors, individuals and organizations have had on women coping with Breast Cancer.

I recommend this book to anyone who is trying to understand the context of an illness and treatment and the various forces, from individual to societal, which play a role in the treatment of disease in the U.S. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (18)

A fun look at cancer
Gail Konop Baker has done two things with Cancer is a Bitch. First, written a wry and satirical look at her own journey with cancer, and second given us some truth and honesty in what it takes to balance both health, home, children, and a recalcitrant husband. At times the book and its insights seemed a bit too superficial, but in all, it was a quick fun read.

Read, enjoy, and listen, too, if you like
Why a memoir?And don't tell me it's because everyone's got a book in them.This, I do not want to know until everyone also has a ghost writer on hand, or has a way with words like, for instance, Gail Konop Baker.

'Cancer is a Bitch, Or I'd Rather Be Having a Midlife Crisis' is as honest a title as it is an amusing one.What started as a journaling project after a diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ morphed into a blogging endeavor and eventually yielded this terrific little documentary of one woman's wallow.Yes, wallow.But not with the negative connotation that we've all been warned off of - or warned off of admitting, at least.

Gail Baker chronicled her dizzyingly fast cycles of hope, despair, anger, frustration, and triumph in words that are both frank and funny.As a companion to someone going through a health crisis, 'Cancer is a Bitch', is a firm hand-holding and a gripe session and a hug.And if you happen to be free of the fear of your own mortality just now, it's a lesson in grace and a pleasure to read.

Gail spent a little time with me at PsychJourney dot com, talking over the spaces in between the lines of Cancer is a Bitch, Or I'd Rather Be Having a Midlife Crisis.You can learn more about Gail and her terrific blogs, The Accidental Memoirist, and The Secret Lives of Doctor's Wives, at GailKonopBaker dot com, as well.

Oh, and go get a mammogram.

What woman are going through!
Gail's book is such an open and honest insight into what goes through a woman's mind when the doctor's say "This looks suspicious". I read and thoroughly enjoyed the book, about how the diagnosis of cancer can change everything in a person's like. Gail's writing is like a journal, filled with her deepest thoughts of what is like to be told "you've got cancer..."I strongly recommend reading the book and getting copies for woman who have either been recently diagnosed or have gone through breast cancer.It provides an insight as to what will happen and provide solidarity to those who have gone through it...

Cannot recommend highly enough

A pleasant read.
At the age of 45, Gail Konop Baker is a mother of three with a radiologist as a husband. She practiced yoga, ran, ate organic food, and rarely became sick. Gail also hoped to start her writing career with her novel about a woman with breast cancer. Then, strangely enough, not long before Valentine's Day, Gail is diagnosed with breast cancer. This begins her struggle with marriage, children, with her oldest going to college soon, family, and of course, the cancer itself-all in a heartfelt and humorous way.

Baker's humorous tone made the novel a quick read. I also liked that, for a book that deals cancer, the novel was not sad or too self-pitying. The novel is titled as Cancer is a Bitch: Or I'd Rather be Having a Midlife Crisis, but through the novel, Baker has a midlife crisis, so the novel is not just about cancer, which was also nice. I enjoyed reading about her family and experiences. Because her husband was a doctor, Baker knew most of her doctors on a more personal level, which, I'm sure you can imagine, can be odd, especially when you're lifting up your shirt at your doctor's appointment.

The best part about this novel is that I would want to read it even if Baker did not have cancer or was going through a midlife crisis. That's how powerful of a narrator she is. She can make going to the grocery store seem interesting.

A book about cancer that won't leave you exhausted...
Although everyone's experience with cancer is different, and no one can write about it in the same way, I was able to read this author's book without feeling a cloak of heaviness push me down. Although the subject matter is not an easy one to relate, Cancer is a Bitch was written with a light and humorous hand; of course, the author doesn't disregard the emotional and physical impact of cancer, but in her telling her own tale, she doesn't allow herself, and thus the reader, to become burdened by it to the point of inertia or write with a overly-sentimental pen. There are poignant moments, and moments of clarity: this is cancer and sometimes people with cancer die...a cancer that can alter the way a woman looks physically, the way she perceives herself as a woman, the dynamics of her family changing - all these things could be darkly drawn, but the author did not bury her book in high drama....I forgot about these darker moments as I read Konop Baker's witty accounting. When I closed the book, I wondered if the author will be writing something else? ... Read more

Product Description
In the early nineteenth century in the United States, cancer in the breast was a rare disease.Now it seems that breast cancer is everywhere.Written by a medical historian who is also a doctor, Unnatural History tells how and why this happened.Rather than there simply being more disease, breast cancer has entered the bodies of so many American women and the concerns of nearly all the rest, mostly as a result of how we have detected, labeled, and responded to the disease.The book traces changing definitions and understandings of breast cancer, the experience of breast cancer sufferers, clinical and public health practices, and individual and societal fears. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Moving and Thoughtful History of Medicine
This is a moving and thoughtful book that packs a lot into relatively few pages.It has haunted me for months since I read it. It is a nuanced, non-polemical account of the hidden dialectic (hidden, at least, to us laymen) between surgeons and internists, family physicians and researchers, counselors and advocates, about what cancer means and how to respond to it.Aronowitz moves skillfully back and forth between broad-stroke history of medical technology and the famous researchers of the past 200 years, and the intimate details of individual patients and their physicians and loved ones, gleaned from journals, correspondence, and medical records.It's not for the faint of heart:Some of the basic themes of the book are profoundly depressing.Aronowitz shows that there was essentially no change in age-adjusted breast cancer mortality in the 200 years between 1800 and 2000, and that most of the apparent improvements in outcomes related to defining more conditions as "cancer" that were less likely to result in death, and treating them aggressively.He also carefully disects the ways in which physicians treating breast cancer cope with the essential hopelessness of much of what they do, including lots of subtle, well-meaning, and even unintended deception of their patients, and finding myriad ways to define "success" that do not depend on prolonging a patient's life or improving its quality.He carefully attends to the interplay of hope, pain, and spiritual fulfillment in the face of death.And he casts a cold light of analysis on many popular ideas about detection and treatment.But he is sympathetic and compassionate towards all, doctors and patients.Most of all, patients. ... Read more

Product Description
The true story of four friends diagnosed with breast cancer before they were thirty, and the monthly luncheon that lifted their spirits.

A diagnosis of breast cancer before the age of thirty had brought Patti, Jana, Jennifer, and Kim together for a monthly lunch at their local Nordstrom's café, but it was a desire to provide hope to others that would make them friends for life.

The fruit of their lunchtime labor, Nordie's at Noon shares the personal stories of each of these courageous women. A source of humor, strength, inspiration, and education, the book is a celebration of friendship and of living life to the fullest. "A rare book that has the saddest of endings and yet still manages to be life affirming,"* it encourages women everywhere to be proactive with their health--and to realize that no one is "too young" for breast cancer. (*People Magazine) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (28)

Nordie's at Noon - Excellent read
This book offers excellent insight into the cancer patient's feelings. I went through 5 years of breast cancer treatment with my best friend and this book helped me understand a lot of what my friend went through. She kept a lot to herself, always had a positive attitude toward her survival but I didn't always know what she was feeling. I highly recommend reading this book.

The truth hurts...
Confession time:I'm the Melanie whom Patti drove to St. Louis to see, and I also met Kim during my time in the sorority.I didn't know 75% of the people or events mentioned in this book, to my regret.During my first reading, I felt almost hostile: Who were these people?When did this happen?Why didn't I know about this?I even thought I recognized my wedding as the one Patti felt uneasy about during the section about choosing to be postive in the short time we have.Everyone projects their own insecurities, and after the second and third readings, I came to realize that I was angry with myself for allowing my own fear to limit my interactions with Patti.Sure, I had the excuses of distance, a young son and a full-time job, but the truth was that it was easier to pretend that I had been supportive and loving when I was truly just shielding myself.I encourage everyone to take a hard look at what it means to be "supportive".I wish I had.

Tearjerker Novel
This book was amazing.It is the story of four women in their fight against breast cancer.I couldn't put it down.I didn't want it to end.This book is not just about breast cancer.It inspires you to enjoy and appreciate life.I know a few women who have battled breast cancer and it made me feel closer to them.

Wonderful!
I read about this book in People magazine and just had to get it.The book was even better than I could even imagine.Would recommend buying the book for all your girlfriends.A real tear jerker!

FANTASTIC!
I have been a long-time supporter of breast cancer research and really enjoyed the tales of these women who were all diagnosed much younger than anyone thought possible. This book made me laugh and cry. While I was sad when it was over, I walked away inspired and uplifted. Would make a perfect gift for any woman in your life! ... Read more

Product Description
As Normal as Possible is the story of breast cancer from a caregiver's perspective. Ray Hall was the caregiver to his wife, Brenda, from her first diagnosis in 1996 to her passing in 2008. It tells of their journey through treatments, the effects of those treatments on their lives and the many medical evaluations she encountered through their ordeal with this dreaded disease. The story of the cancer and its issues is intertwined with the story of her life during their years together. Ray wanted to tell this story because it helped him with the devastation of her being gone and often when a celebrity is diagnosed with this disease it becomes a huge story and is splashed all over the headlines, which is as it should be. Brenda Hall was not a celebrity known by the public by any stretch of the imagination; as a matter of fact she avoided the spotlight at all costs. She was a celebrity to her family and friends, the people who were part of their everyday lives. But, she was one of the thousands of ordinary women living ordinary lives who are diagnosed with this disease. As Normal as Possible is Ray's loving tribute to his wife and their life together! A portion of the proceeds from all sales will go to fund breast cancer research. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A True Love Story
My sister is married to one of Ray Hall's brothers, so I have known Ray and Brenda for over 40 years. I knew Ray was writing this book and had been looking forward to reading it.It arrived on Tuesday, and I read it cover-to-cover that night. While the book chronicles Brenda and Ray's journey from the time she was diagnosed with breast cancer until she lost her brave battle, what I mostly gleaned from the book was not the story of her illness, but the story of their incredible love.Not since "The Notebook" by Nicholas Sparks have I read so moving a tribute.There is something in "As Normal As Possible" for every person who will read it.

A medical autobiography telling of a caregiver's experiences caring for his wife Brenda during her struggles with breast cancer
R. Lee Hall's AS NORMAL AS POSSIBLE: A BREAST CANCER STORY offers a medical autobiography telling of a caregiver's experiences caring for his wife Brenda during her struggles with breast cancer. It is both a tribute to her life and a survey of caregiving challenges and a cancer patient's struggles.

Loved the Book!
I knew Brenda and Ray also; however, we had lost touch with each other over the years.But after Brenda died, a friend of mine had the book and I read it.It was personally touching for me, not only because I knew Brenda and Ray, but also because I am a breast cancer survivor.It reminded me of how lucky I am to still be a SURVIVOR.It is a very touching story, even if you don't know them.It amazes me how well Ray documented the years of appointments and the highs and lows of the disease and their lives. I would encourage anyone to read the book!

A loving tribute about a special lady
This book is about the struggle my Aunt went through and how she wanted to live "As normal as possible".She was a brave & courageous woman who never gave up. When I found out my Uncle was writing this book, I thought maybe it will help others who are going through the same thing. What I didn't realize at the time, it was also helping my Uncle.He was fighting for his life, Brenda was his life, and when she passed, he lost a part of him.See this is a story not only about my Aunt and her battle with breast cancer, it's also about the love my Uncle has for her. She was his everything! When I hear "A love like that only comes around once in a life time," I know they were talking about them.
The first anniversary of my Aunt's passing is coming up soon and when my Uncle started writing this book in memory of her, I hope it also started the healing process for him.What I will always remember about my Aunt was she had the most infectious laugh I have ever heard. She made me think I was the funniest person in the world. She made me feel special and loved and I will never forget it or her. For those of you who have/and are fighting against breast cancer, you are courageous, brave, beautiful and loved. This book is touching, inspiring, happy & sad. A loving tribute to all who are fighting against cancer.

The most touching & inspiring book I ever read!
From the first page, to ther last page and every page in between. Touching, inspiring, tender, happy, sad, informative, believable, unbelievable all in one. You will not put it down, I have read it cover to cover three times and I'am on the forth reading and still pick up pieces of enlightenment. You are depriving yourself if unread. ... Read more

Product Description
Cancer can be devastating for a family.The big words that surround this disease and its treatment can be even more overwhelming for the young children affected.When Mommy Loses Her Hair is a story about Little Tony, a 4 year old boy who overhears his parents talking about his Mommy’s cancer, and what is involved in her treatment.Through patient conversation, Daddy helps Little Tony understand cancer, and how it will impact their family.By cleverly relating the steps involved in cancer treatment to a popular children’s activity, Cervellini-Calfo simplifies complex vocabulary, and delicately suggests how a child can get involved with a family member’s care.Infused with hope and faith, When Mommy Loses Her Hair is an effective approach to understanding cancer for the entire family.Cervellini-Calfo has created a fundamental tool to help children and grown-ups alike for years to come. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

LONG TIME COMING
I FOUND A COPY OF THIS BOOK IN MY PUBLIC LIBRARY AND SHOWED IT TO MY FAMILY DR. AND MY HUSBAND'S CHEMO DR. AND BOTH AGREED "THIS BOOK WAS A LONG TIME COMING".THERE WAS A NEED FOR THIS BOOK FOR CHILDREN, BECAUSE IT DOES NOT TARGET JUST BREAST CANCER BUT IS AN EASILY UNDERSTOOD BOOK ABOUT ALL CANCERS.BOTH DRS.EACH ORDERED 12 COPIES FOR OFFICES AND PERSONAL USE.CONGRATULATIONS ON A JOB WELL DONE,AND, IF YOU HELPED ONE CHILD UNDERSTAND ABOUT THIS DISEASE IT WASWELL WORTH THE EFFORT

Excellent book!
Excellent book, well written, easy for children to understand.Keep up the great work!!

Disappointed
I'm glad I chose to have this book sent to me before giving it to my grandchildren.Their mother is going through chemo and the title sounded as if it was the perfect book.However, it basically just gives medical terms and explains what that means i.e., radiation, chemotherapy.It is probably an attempt on the author's part to be inclusive, but it is only a dictionary - not something warm and comforting to read to children.

This book needs more exposure
I was searching for a book for my little sister, and I had no idea this one was out there.We got it, and it has been such a help to our family!Cancer centers and hospitals everywhere should make patients and their families aware of this book.

A Beautiful Book
This is truly a gentle, sensitive book. It explains in easily understood language what must be so confusing for a child. ... Read more

Product Description
This small pocket guide includes background information on breast cancer, but focuses primarily on the drugs used for treatment and symptom management of breast cancer.It includes patient education informationfor each of the drugs, and serves as a valuable companion resource for oncology nurses. ... Read more

Product Description
The diagnosis of breast cancer challenges a woman?s sense of self, her body image, and ultimately her own mortality. In this health guide, breast cancer survivor and nurse Lucia Giuggio Carvalho provides a basic overview of breast cancer, its biology, psychology, and treatment options. This comprehensive approach to facing breast cancer covers:

• Physical changes that occur with treatment, such as hair loss, early menopause, fatigue, sexuality, and weight gain/loss
• Treatment options, including surgery, chemotherapy, clinical trials, radiation, hormonal therapies, and reconstructive surgery
• Support systems, medical insurance coverage, and financial considerations
• Complimentary alternative medicine choices, and more

Customer Reviews (1)

Way too many assumptions made about people in this book
This book is annoying and presumptuous. Here are some examples:

1) Not everyone was in complete shock and denial when they found out they had breast cancer. Some of us saw it coming, and were prepared for it.

2) Not everyone, after diagnosis, realizes that previously their priorities had been all wrong and now realize they need to make big changes. Some of us came to that realization years ago and had already begun a new path.

3) Not everyone, after diagnosis, suddenly realizes they are mortal. Some of us knew that since we were six years old.

Like way too many books aimed at women, this book has an overly paternalistic, hold-your-hand quality, which, if that is the kind of book you are looking for, will be fine with you.

But for those of us with a little more going on upstairs, this book falls flat. ... Read more

Product Description
One out of nine women in the United States will develop breast cancer in her lifetime.For too long, women have erroneously believed that there is little or nothing they can do to prevent this dread illness.Our major medical efforts are directed toward detecting and treating, rather than preventing, breast cancer.

Professor Jane Plant, one of Britain's most eminent scientists, contracted breast cancer in 1987.When orthodox medicine gave up and she was told she had only three months to live, she used her extensive scientific training and her knowledge of other cultures to find a way to survive.In her research, she was startled to find that in China breast cancer affects far fewer women than in Western countries.Plant considered there could be a dietary trigger for the illness.As Plant continued her research, she became convinced there was a casual link between consumption of dairy products and breast cancer.

In this book, Professor Plant shares the discoveries that allowed her to triumph over breast cancer. With a clear statement of the scientific principles behind her discovery, Professor Plant includes detailed suggestions, including menus and recipes, for ways to alter your diet by eliminating or reducing consumption of many suspected cancer-causing agents, especially dairy products, and replacing them with healthful alternatives.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Jane Plant's Program worked for me
I went through conventional treatment for breast cancer--6 months of chemotherapy, surgery and radiation.I was given the all clear.A year later routine scans showed metastatic disease in my lung--devastating news.My oncologist was hopeful but not encouraging for my long-term prospects.Incredibly luckily for me, someone close to me heard about Jane Plant and her research that suggests a link between breast cancer to dairy.I had been a daily and enthusiastic consumer of dairy products but I stopped as soon as I learned about it, and read Jane Plant's book.I was persuaded by the science, and have spent the past year almost vegan and completely dairy free.I went back into chemotherapy, and found I coped much better with the side effects because of my plant-rich diet. It hasn't always been easy (I miss cheese!), but here's the payoff: my lung tumor started to shrink within a few weeks, and I have just been pronounced cancer free.I will stay off dairy food, and I want to spread the word as widely as I can.If you've got breast cancer, or if you're at risk, what have you got to lose by giving up dairy?I feel wonderful, and I'm beginning to believe I've got my life back.Thank you, Jane Plant!

For ALL cancer patients
This book provides a very thorough analysis of the connection between dairy and cancer.I've purchased copies for family and friends, but when they look at it, they put their fingers in their ears and go "la-la-la-la..."Cow's milk is so ingrained in our culture, nobody wants to admit that it could be detrimental to our health.So, I now give a copy to anyone I know who already has cancer; at least they have a good reason to explore alternatives to helping themselves stay healthy and alive.

Quit Milk, Survive Breast & Prostate Cancer
The leading cause of death for women between 25 - 75 years of age is cancer.The type of cancer that kills the most women is breast cancer.About 1 out of 10 women will contract breast cancer.

That is a large number of wives, girlfriends, mothers, sisters, friends and coworkers who will be lost to people.

One of these victims was almost Dr. Jane Plant, the first female head of the British Geological Survey and one of the first women hired by the British Geological Survey as a scientist.

Floored by a diagnosis of breast cancer,Dr. Plant decided to respond with what she knew best:science. Part of what theBritish Geological Survey does is to analyze the relationship between diseases and geographic areas to find links between the disease and what is going on with the land.

Dr. Plant knew from her work that Asians of the far east do not get breast or prostate cancer as often as westerners do. It has been noticed that until recent times Asians tended not to consume milk.

Still having a growing breast cancer tumor threatening her life after having had a mastectomy, several other surgeries,several radiation treatments and chemotherapy Dr. Plant decided to remove all dairy products from her diet.

The tumor began measurably shrinking after a few days and the cancer disappeared from her body not to return.

This story sounds like a fairly typical anecdotal account. What makes this book atypical is that being a breast cancer survivor who is also a scientist Dr. Plant's book has ample citations from well respected sources to support her beliefs.

Dr. Plant's strongest argument is that cows and human beings share a hormone in common:Insulin Like Growth Factor 1 ( ILGF-1). This hormone is identical in structure in both cows and humans.Cancer is basically cellular reproduction running amok and ILGF-1 stimulates cellular growth.Higher levels of this hormone in the blood stream have been associated with increased breast and prostate cancer activity. Dairy cows have been systematically bred for centuries to produce more milk, which means that their bodies also produce more ILGF-1, which finds its way into milk.Contemporary dairy production in the US also involves feeding cows a cocktail of various hormones to increase milk production.

The dairy industry has always maintainedILGF-1 in milk is not a problem because ILGF-1 doesn't survive the human digestion process. In her book Dr. Plant quotes two contemporary studies that show that it is likely ILGF-1 does survive digestion intact and does make it into the human blood stream.

Dairy products and to a lesser extent meat are the dominant sources of ILGF-1 in the diet of most westerners.

Dr. Plant also presents citations for many studies that show possible relationships between cancer and milk. Most of them having little to do with milk fat.Dr. Plant took personal interest in this observation.Like many women she had always made it a point to eat low fat dairy products to avoid potential health issues.

Dr. Plant also gives a fascinating description of how she thinks science works and where she thinks the philosophy of contemporary cancer research has gone astray in terms of good science and has deprived people of freedom from breast cancer.

This book is not dry and maintains the tone of a personal story while being clear without sacrificing rigor with the facts.

The book also gives her personal account of what she went through emotionally and psychologically while she was being treated for cancer.

It has many useful tips for someone else who might be going through the same ordeal. For example, she is convinced that had she known about philosophical differences inthe medical culture she could have delayed if not avoided her mastectomy.

Neither a vegetarian or a vegan Dr. Plant concludes her book with a dietary regime for reducing breast ( & prostate) cancer risk. It calls for a vegan diet dominated by organic produce for people who have cancer and as near vegan a diet as people are willing to tolerate to prevent breast ( & prostate) caner.

I found this book to be enjoyable as well as personally empowering.The book has a warm, personal tone.It also plays out like a fascinating detective story of science while giving the reader a lot of information to take charge of their health.

DONNA FISHERAuthor of Silent Fields and More Silent Fields

Even though I had heard about dairy and the breast cancer connection I never came across enough detailed information to make a firm decision.This book by Professor Plant leaves me in doubt that I must start eliminating dairy from my lifestyle but in an educated way and how to get calcium from other food sources.As breast cancer is high risk today we must to all we can to prevent its occurrence. Thank you Professor Plant.

Donna Fisher - author
SILENT FIELDS The Growing Cancer Cluster Story When Electricity Kills...
MORE SILENT FIELDS Cancer and the Dirty Electricity Plague The Missing Link...

A diet to save your life
What we eat DO reflect how our body function.Everything that we eat wrong will accumulate into a life of illness and disease. This book details a change of nutrition venue that can literally change the health of your life.Today's society is consuming high levels of toxic chemicals from pesticides to drug-infested meats.I have followed the recommended change in my daily food choices and my (migraine)headaches and sinus allergies are gone!I've started my children on this healthy diet as well.
If you have any cancer or disease, this change will definitely give you a new outlook in life. ... Read more

Product Description
"This book is a fine resource for every doctor, patient, and family who has to confront the reality of breast cancer."
—Bernie S. Siegel, M.D., Author of Love, Medicine, and Miracles
Attitudes about breast cancer diagnosis are changing, and women and their families are becoming more assertive about managing their disease. They know that more choices are available now than ever before, and they are willing to make them.
This book encourages you to take control. Cathy Hitchcock and Steve Austin, N.D., have written a book for women who are ready to actively participate in their diagnosis and treatment.
A husband and wife team, Hitchcock and Austin walk you step-by-step through each part of diagnosis, treatment (both conventional and alternative), and prevention (including prevention of a recurrence). With the help of a flow chart, they examine different diagnosis options. They also suggest questions to ask your doctor and offer checklists, summaries, and overviews.
Interwoven with all this information, Cathy shares her personal story as a breast cancer survivor. She describes her ordeal upon discovering the lump and the transitions she has gone through to live with the diagnosis in a life-affirming way. Unlike many other breast cancer patients, Cathy didn’t simply accept the choices offered by medical doctors. Instead, with the help of her husband, she studied the research and made her own decisions about conventional and alternative treatments. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

We ARE free to think and decide
Of the books I read when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001, this was the one that seemed most objective. It was also most challenging to blind acceptance of what the medical establishment might have us believe. Cancer treatment is NOT a black-and-white process, and this book shows why. Patients have the right and responsibility to participate in decisions about their health care, and this book gives information to help in the decision-making process. I very much hope that Steve and Cathy will soon publish an update, as the statistics, surgical options, drug regimens, etc have changed dramatically since 1994. Notably absent is mention of DIEP flap breast reconstruction. Nonetheless, this book will never be totally irrelevant, since the process of acquiring knowledge, and the concept that we ARE free to choose our health care, are timeless and liberating.

The ultimate breast cancer reference, naturally
As a naturopathic physician, I have never seen any book on any type of cancer as well thought out and executed as this. What a fantastic resource. I have found answers to questions I've had about this disease over and over again. I can only hope that they'll do a 2nd edition to update the research.

A very good book giving you all the facts for treatments .
The husband and wife team give an excellent view of he treatments and follow up of what to do after treatment. He is the doctor who does the research. She is the person with breast cancer and her choices, and why she chose as she did. And what she is doing now to try and prevent a reoccurence. ... Read more

Product Description
Breast Cancer, 2nd edition is the 7th volume of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Care Series, featuring the best standard treatment protocols from the experts at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. As more is learned about the relative roles of different treatment modalities, a pattern of practice is emerging where several different disciplines are involved early in the diagnostic and treatment phases of breast cancer. The impact of new and established diagnostic approaches that utilize radiodiagnosis and pathology in combination are requiring that a full range of special expertise from these disciplines be made available to patients. This clinical guidebook is an essential resource for the busy practitioner, allowing for quick, authoritative access to the latest and best in multimodality therapies. Topics covered in this volume include screening for early detection of breast cancer, hereditary breast/ovarian cancer genetic syndromes, diagnostic radiology, ultrasonography, pathology, surgical options, radiation therapy for early and advanced breast disease, tumor markers, standard and high-dose chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, reconstructive surgery, post-treatment rehabilitation, and symptom management and quality of life. Over 125 photographs and line-drawings illustrate the principles discussed in the text. This handbook will become an important guide and resource for community oncologists, as well as general surgeons, internists, and family practitioners. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Practical Guide for Breast Specialists
The second edition of Breast Cancer' MD Anderson Guide incorporated all important developments in breast cancer management: prevention, screening, and therapeutics were revised. It is a practical guide, with a direct language, showing how is the institutional routine at Nellie B. Connally Breast Center in MD Anderson. Perhaps the great message emerged from this book is the multidisciplinary approach to breast cancer care as the best practice today. Unfortunately this approach is not for all realities, and remains a great challenge for most centers in developing countries. But, at the end, it is a fast, complete, and practical review recommended for all breast specialists. ... Read more

Product Description
A compassionate and uniquely authoritative guide to surviving breast cancer

Dr. Carolyn M. Kaelin is nationally recognized as a leading expert on breast cancer. At the age of 42, this highly respected cancer surgeon and the director of the prestigious Comprehensive Breast Health Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital, one of Harvard Medical School's main hospitals, had a young family and demanding career. When she discovered that she had breast cancer, she was suddenly transformed from doctor to patient--and learned firsthand just how this terrible disease makes women question their sense of self. Now, following a mastectomy and an ongoing course of chemotherapy, her prognosis is good and her passion and commitment to helping other women with breast cancer is greater than ever.

In a book that will be a source of priceless information and much-needed understanding and support for women with all forms of breast cancer, Dr. Kaelin provides the most up-to-date information on virtually every aspect of the disease, both as a top specialist in the field and as a survivor. Compassionate, comprehensive, and uniquely authoritative, Living Through Breast Cancer provides women with:

Product Description

"Breast cancer may very well be history's oldest malaise, known as well to the ancients as it is to us. The women who have endured it share a unique sisterhood. Queen Atossa and Dr. Jerri Nielsen -- separated by era and geography, by culture, religion, politics, economics, and world view -- could hardly have been more different. Born 2,500 years apart, they stand as opposite bookends on the shelf of human history. One was the most powerful woman in the ancient world, the daughter of an emperor, the mother of a god; the other is a twenty-first-century physician with a streak of adventure coursing through her veins. From the imperial throne in ancient Babylon, Atossa could not have imagined the modern world, and only in the driest pages of classical literature could Antarctica-based Jerri Nielsen even have begun to fathom the Near East five centuries before the birth of Christ. For all their differences, however, they shared a common fear that transcends time and space." -- from Bathsheba's Breast

In 1967, an Italian surgeon touring Amsterdam's Rijks museum stopped in front of Rembrandt's Bathsheba at Her Bath, on loan from the Louvre, and noticed an asymmetry to Bathsheba's left breast; it seemed distended, swollen near the armpit, discolored, and marked with a distinctive pitting. With a little research, the physician learned that Rembrandt's model, his mistress Hendrickje Stoffels, later died after a long illness, and he conjectured in a celebrated article for an Italian medical journal that the cause of her death was almost certainly breast cancer.

A horror known to every culture in every age, breast cancer has been responsible for the deaths of 25 million women throughout history. An Egyptian physician writing 3,500 years ago concluded that there was no treatment for the disease. Later surgeons recommended excising the tumor or, in extreme cases, the entire breast. This was the treatment advocated by the court physician to sixth-century Byzantine empress Theodora, the wife of Justinian, though she chose to die in pain rather than lose her breast. Only in the past few decades has treatment advanced beyond disfiguring surgery.

In Bathsheba's Breast, historian James S. Olson -- who lost his left hand and forearm to cancer while writing this book -- provides an absorbing and often frightening narrative history of breast cancer told through the heroic stories of women who have confronted the disease, from Theodora to Anne of Austria, Louis XIV's mother, who confronted "nun's disease" by perfecting the art of dying well, to Dr. Jerri Nielson, who was dramatically evacuated from the South Pole in 1999 after performing a biopsy on her own breast and self-administering chemotherapy. Olson explores every facet of the disease: medicine's evolving understanding of its pathology and treatment options; its cultural significance; the political and economic logic that has dictated the terms of a war on a "woman's disease"; and the rise of patient activism. Olson concludes that, although it has not yet been conquered, breast cancer is no longer the story of individual women struggling alone against a mysterious and deadly foe.

Customer Reviews (5)

Breast Cancer from 480 B.C.E. to present day
This was a well written book which followed many personal stories of women through out history and their battle with cancer. It is a history book but was written dramatically and keeps the reader interested. It covers almost every topic concerning women and breast cancer. The only complaint is that the second half of the book is based more on the politics and legislation of breast cancer which becomes slightly repetitive and boring.

A Must Read for Everyone Affected by Breast Cancer
As a metastatic breast cancer patient, I found this book to be enormously enlightening. For the first time, I feel as though I really understand this disease and how we've gotten to this point in time in terms of prevailing attitudes, available treatments, doctor-patient relationships, and overall prognosis. Although it's a history lesson, this book has also served to give me a new perspective for evaluating my own personal options. I feel empowered by the information in these pages. It points out how deadly serious breast cancer is, even though some would have us believe otherwise. I recommend this book for everyone who is affected by breast cancer (which should be practically everyone).

A sensitive,multi-faceted and comprehensivelook at breast cancer
James Olson is to be commended for writing this much needed history of breast cancer for the layman.My husband is a radiologist beginning a fellowship in breast imaging.He discovered this fascinating book and when he was finished I asked him to give it to me.Like the previous reviewer, I couldn't put it down.I don't have breast cancer, but I am of the age when many of my peers have developed this frightening disease.Olson is realistic, empathetic, and well informed.My favorite line came from former child star Shirley Temple Black who, rather than have a biopsy turn into a radical mastecomy, responded to the press by saying, "The surgeon will make the incision.I will make the decision."You can't read this book without having enormous respect for the women who did their own research, asked the right questions, and took on the conventional wisdom and arrogance of male physicians.At the same time, Olson is brutal on the hucksters and frauds who attempt to explain away cancer with psychobabble and unproveable theories.Bathseba's Breast is not an optimistic book, but it can be reassuring that slow, steady progress is being made in the battle against breast cancer.

Fighting with Hope Against Breast Cancer
Bathsheba's Breast: Women, Cancer & History by James Olson is a far-reaching examination of the dreaded disease of breast cancer.Impressive for its scope of historical, medical, political and personal references, the book transcends its obvious historical imperative by including much about living with hope in the face of adversity as well as dying without surrendering to the evil disease.

A cancer diagnosis today is not necessarily a death sentence.Olson explains how breast cancer has threatened all women, regardless of demography, since at least the time of the pharaohs and probably since creation of the species.The fifth of Olson's 11 carefully referenced chapters inaugurates the book's evolution of Hope for breast cancer sufferers, signaling with its title, "New Beginnings: Assault on the Radical Mastectomy." Make no mistake, neither the chapter nor the book reveal the silver bullet that will conquer breast cancer.However, from this point forward, Bathsheba's Breast explains how medical science has made progress against the disease - sometimes despite itself - and how that progress appeared to be accelerating at the end of the 20th century, albeit in tortuously slow steps for those fighting the disease.Increasingly credible optimism emerges as Olson explains the evolution of medicine's knowledge and attitudes about breast cancer, the birth of breast cancer patient advocacy and the growing arsenal of weapons that medical researchers, physicians and patients are bringing to the fight.

Olson is comprehensive, well organized and even entertaining in an appropriate tone for such a serious topic as he gives us the history, evolution and status of the war against breast cancer.Bathsheba's Breast is suitable for all readers, regardless of gender, ethnicity, age or health.Its appeal to such a broad audience lies mainly in the mature tone and integrated style with which Olson approaches all aspects of the subject.It's also because he's deciphered cancer's jargon of "omas" and "ectomies" so they're understandable, both in definition and in context.Readers will be pleased how smoothly he combines history, complicated medical research, political science and public opinion with the personal stories of patients to produce a compelling read.

Faithful to the historigraphical method, the book ventures 3,500 years back to an Egyptian surgeon who wrote about "bulging tumors" in the breast for which "There is no treatment."Olson tells how Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, studied the nature and cause of cancer, attributing its cause to "black bile," one of his four theoretical fluids of the body: blood, phlegm, yellow and black bile.The book develops a special character as it links these ancients to women of subsequent history who suffered from breast cancer. We learn about victims like Theodora, wife of Justinian, the emperor of Byzantium in the sixth century, Anne of Austria, the mother of Louis XIV in the 17th century, George Washington's mother in the 18th century, Abigail Adams, daughter of President John Adams in the 19th century and many sufferers in the 20th century.These personal experiences of breast cancer victims provide substantive information and welcomed inspiration for all readers, no doubt especially for those with the disease.Some stories are optimistic, others sad, some even humorous. Teddy Roosevelt's far-from-bashful, strong-willed daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, battled the disease throughout much of her life.She lost one breast to cancer in 1956 and in 1970, at age 86, underwent a second mastectomy on the other breast.Emerging from the second operation, she announced unashamedly she was "America's only topless octogenarian."

The 20th century's sexual revolution, catalyzed by nude photos of Marilyn Monroe and increasingly large monthly circulations of Hugh Hefner's "Playboy" magazine beginning in the 1950's, established the cult of the breast in America.Olson explains how big breasts became big business as society placed new value on them because of their erotic appeal.As America's fascination with the breast was exported around the world, women, men and physicians became more amenable to alternative treatments for breast cancer. Ironically, preoccupation with eroticism encouraged the pursuit of a cure.

Bathsheba's Breast adds credibility and emotion to the history of breast cancer by sharing experiences of many 20th century women who've fought the disease with bravery and hope.The legacy of Rose Kushner's 16-year battle against breast cancer and the indifference it often suffered from arrogant physicians and disinterested politicians is unforgettable.Her emotions flared - as do those of readers today - as we read about a surgeon shouting at her, "No patient is going to tell me how to do my surgery."

No doubt Kushner told that surgeon what she wrote in her best-selling, 1975 book, Breast Cancer, "We women should be free, knowledgeable, and completely conscious when the time comes for decision, so that we can make it for ourselves.Our lives are at stake, not a surgeon's." Kushner is the founder of the American breast cancer advocacy movement who battled valiantly but ultimately lost her war with the disease in January, 1990.

The evolution of breast cancer advocacy in America inspired by Rose Kushner is a compelling part of the book.Olson visits labs and legislatures to explain breast cancer's clinical and political issues, ranging from the campaign for lumpectomies and radiation instead of radical mastectomies as initial treatment alternatives to the need for greater government support for cancer research.He tells how Shirley Temple Black, Betty Ford, Happy Rockefeller, Betty Rollin, Jill Ireland, Linda McCartney, Dr. Jerri Nielsen and many others had the courage to go public with their battles against breast cancer, generating publicity that kept the disease in clinical and political focus.

Although Olson mentions it only quietly in a brief preface at the beginning of the book, his personal battle against cancer has permitted him to fuse Bathsheba's Breast with an empathy that's probably the ultimate reason why the book is as good as it is.It wastes no time with irrelevance as it moves seamlessly from history, medical science and politics to the media, pop culture and patients.The story of the battle against breast cancer is multi-faceted and James Olson shines a bright light on all of them.

An Excellent Blend of History and Medicine
My husband purchased this book for me after he heard the author on NPR.I could not put it down.The author's approach to looking at breast cancer over time, the changes in treatment options, and how accidental findings changed the course of medical treatment over time was illuminating.The book also raises the spectre as to how much of breast cancer treatment advances, or lack of, were the result of this being primarily but not exclusively a female disease. I do not have a formal medical background, so I was a little leary that it would be too technical.But instead, I found it to be highly readable and engaging.It also sends a strong message that from the beginning of time breast cancer held no one harmless.And in many ways, the key to the advances have come from patients taking their health destiny into their own hands and not simply accepting a physician's treatment recommendation.Certainly sheds light on the more recent discussions about the value of mammography as a diagnostic tool.Well worth reading!! ... Read more

Product Description
Breast cancer survivors Kelley Tuthill and Elisha Daniels are redefining what it means to be a cancer patient. More than 200,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer each year, but that diagnosis does not mean sitting on the sidelines while life passes you by. Both Tuthill and Daniels worked throughout their extensive cancer treatments and continued to enjoy their family, friends, and high-profile careers while fighting the fight of their lives. You Can Do This! shares with you the strategies that worked, what didn't, and what they wish they'd have known at the time of diagnosis, namely to:

* Send a message to the world that you are healing, not dying.

* Surround yourself with people who know how to make you feel better.

* Try to stick to your routine when possible. Go to work. Take the kids to school.

* Have a plan for what you will do at 2:00 a.m. if you cannot sleep.

* Keep wearing makeup and high heels. You dont have to look and feel like a patient all the time.

* Believe that you can beat this!

Benefiting from the expertise of Dr. Ann Partridge, an oncologist at the renowned Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston who helped both of the authors through their own cancer journeys, this triumvirate answers questions like: Can you keep working? How do you pick out a wig or pencil in an eyebrow? What role might reconstruction surgery and prosthetics play in your recovery? What steps can you take to retain a professional, healthy image despite the effects of chemotherapy? How do you broach the subject of cancer with small children? Is it possible to lose your hair and not your sense of humor or libido?

Inside You Can Do This!, Tuthill and Daniels help the newly diagnosed patient work through the initial shock of diagnosis and move forward to face the coming challenges with courage, strength, grace, makeup, and high heels. By offering advice on looking your best, even when you no longer look or feel like yourself, Tuthill and Daniels emphasize that you can continue to lead an active life and that it's perfectly acceptable to research chemotherapy alongside the latest offerings from Chanel. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

You can do this
Great book for Breast Cancer patients and anyone involved with caring for or caring about a Breast Cancer patient. Covers a great amount of information in understandable language about a highly personnal disease - each person has different decisions to make according to their own specific diagnosis. I am a 3 year survivor and wish it were around when I was diagnosed!

The best breast cancer book!
Kelley and Elisha have created a truly wonderful book that is sassy, informative, entertaining, inspiring and personal. Never preachy, simply personal and heartfelt, their stories ring true for so many women and families fighting breast cancer. Do not hesitate for one second to purchase this book for yourself or someone you love. It will help tremendously! ... Read more

Product Description
Coming in paperback: the groundbreaking graphic memoir that has inspired breast cancer patients to fight back—and do it with style.

“What happens when a shoe-crazy, lipstick-obsessed, wine-swilling, pasta-slurping, fashion-fanatic, about-to-get-married big-city girl cartoonist with a fabulous life finds . . .a lump in her breast?” That’s the question that sets this powerful, funny, and poignant graphic memoir in motion. In vivid color and with a taboo-breaking sense of humor, Marisa Acocella Marchetto tells the story of her eleven-month, ultimately triumphant bout with breast cancer—from diagnosis to cure, and every challenging step in between.

•One of Time.com’s top ten graphic novels of the year
•Slate.com’s medical book of the year
•One of the Wall Street Journal’s five best books on living with illness
•Finalist, Books for a Better Life
•Finalist, National Cartoonists Society Graphic Novel of the Year

“Powerful . . . A vibrant, neon chronicle with plenty of atti­tude . . . A triumph of imagination and spirit.”
—Los Angeles Times

“Ebullient . . . Visually invigorating and unflinching.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Irresistibly authentic . . . These words and pictures convey humility and humanity with witty grace and heartfelt power.”
—The Miami Herald

“Funny, eye-opening, moving.”
—TimeAmazon.com Review
Cartoonist Marisa Acocella Marchetto's graphic memoir about her battle with breast cancer is as bold, vibrant, and brave as she is--pumped full of color, the story leaps off the page and into your heart. Poignant and funny, this inspiring story is made all the more powerful by Marchetto's cartoons. Lucky for us, Marchetto agreed to create a cartoon just for Amazon.com customers. Check out her strip below. --Daphne Durham

Amazon.com Exclusive: A Cartoon from Marisa Acocella Marchetto

Meet Marisa, a self-described "shoe-crazy, lipstick-obsessed, wine-swilling, pasta-slurping, fashion-fanatic, single-forever, about-to-get-married big-city girl cartoonist with a fabulous life." Her graphic memoir, Cancer Vixen describes what happens when she finds a lump in her breast. Want to know what happens to an author when they discover their sales rank at Amazon.com? Read Marisa's exclusive strip below to find out.

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... Read more

Customer Reviews (61)

Enlightening
Enlightening, humorous, loved the artwork and the format for such a serious subject. Helped me get a better perspective on what my sister is going thorugh.

beauty
one if the most meaningful pieces of grafic literature ever produced. my family, sons daughters grandchildren have benefited from this novel.

Gift for my mom's cancer anniversary
My mom had an aggressive form of breast cancer, and her chances were low of making it to 5 years.When she made it to 5 years, I gave her this book to congratulate her and she LOVED it.She has since given it to other friends in her breast cancer support group.I think that speaks volumees about the content.

Vixen all right!
A very creative way to cover the good, the bad and the ugly of breast cancer and its affect on a woman and those around her.

Cancer Vixen
Cancer Vixen: A True Story

When I read that this book was a true account of the author's experience with a cancer diagnosis, and that the author chose to do the book in a cartoon format, it intrigued me and I ordered it. After finishing the book, however, I did not feel that I fully understood the author's experience; that picturing her encounter with cancer with cartoons did not resonate with me as much as words would have. I learned from reading this book that I much prefer to read the words--apart from cartoon pictures--of a person's story. She did use words, of course, but it was not a flowing story of what happened, but rather a choppy mixture of cartoon pictures with words being spoken. If someone asked me exactly what she went through, I could not describe it.For myself, I prefer words, with some pictures or graphics occasionally inserted, but not a total story done in cartoons. ... Read more

Product Description

a cartoonist examines her experience with breast cancer in an irreverent and humorous graphic memoir.

Customer Reviews (34)

Dark but Funny
This book really made me laugh when I had breast cancer, but there is no question that it is not for everyone. The humor is very dark.The seller was great.

You'll love this author!
People look at me strangely when I say how much I love this book. Miriam Engelberg left us a wonderful gift in tracing with such realism and wit her day-by-day experience of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. It is unbelievable that cancer proved stronger than this vivacious and funny, not to mention beautiful woman. How is it possible that her memoir makes me laugh out loud and to the point of tears on nearly every page? I guess her book is not for everyone, but if you like (maybe) dark humor, you'll love this book, and you'll love this author!

Disappointed
Would have been a decent read except for the crude and vulgar street language...that ruined it for me.

A quick and original read
Miriam Engelberg has accomplished in her memoir something that is both original and insightful, made possible by her near pessimistic tone and wit. Her book, Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person, surveys nearly everything between her emotional meltdown at work upon her diagnosis of breast cancer to her lack of revelation during her treatment. The narration is both humorous and near satirical seen in Engelberg's ploy and play on the protocols and strangeness of cancer and all its entities. Engelberg leaves nothing out of her book- not even the awkwardness that cancer strikes up. Whether it's a blue wig, noticing a person's redirection of attention to your bosom after you tell them it's breast cancer, or inability to anything else but watch television- Engelberg leaves nothing out. The conclusion of the book deals with the discovery of Engelberg's cancer relapse and metastasis in other organs. It is here that Engelberg exposes the most about her feelings and makes a true effort to defining her life while maintaining her distinctive and hilarious voice.
What makes this book so interesting is the medium in which Engelberg chooses to tell her story- comics. But this isn't your classic DC's, Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person uses the advantages of comics and their ability to divert from the plot and add, no pun intended, comic relief and the author's real thoughts in a fresh way. The book's mission is not inform a reader about cancer as seen in its use of layman's terms and avoidance of the detailed biological processes of cancer but it is instead created to entertain and make cancer seem maybe not as bad and show that life doesn't end after diagnosis. However, Engelberg is very insightful on the effects of chemo and how it riddled her social and emotional life though she does her best sometimes to make it seem nonexistent.
This is the first time that I have ever read a graphic novel and found this type of medium both effective and extremely entertaining. The voice and tone of Engelberg's writing is not geared toward self-sympathy nor holds a "poor little me" attitude but a reader still likes and sympathizes with the narrator because her personality which typically pushes away erratic emotions, and embraces her own flaws is occasionally broken and changed and it is that near breakdown that draws a reader into Engelberg's case. Here is a lady who has had cancer already and gone through the all the chemo and radiation and emotional stress- then it relapses into Stage IV breast cancer but she's found a way to cope with her comics. It is her ability to continue on to do what she likes that inspirational to any of her readers.

Comic Genius
This book present facts, emotions and all other kinds of stuff in a way that makes you laugh at the whole perversity of the universe. Worth a read, definitely worth owning -- especially for the newly diagnosed. ... Read more

Product Description
Cancer touches nearly everyone, whether firsthand or through the life of a loved one. Counselor and teacher Yvonne Ortega discovered this when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and began her journey to recovery. In Hope for the Journey through Cancer, she shares with readers her personal triumphs and setbacks with humor and refreshing candor, always reminding us of God's desire to meet us exactly where we are. These sixty devotions are divided into sections--diagnosis, surgery, treatment, and recovery--each incorporating Scripture into daily life. Ortega's attention to even the most basic hopes and fears that a cancer patient faces each day offers encouragement that can come only from one who has been there herself. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

The difference between hope and despair
The Bible tells us that God is the God of all comfort (2. Corinthians 1:3). In her book "Hope for the Journey through Cancer," Yvonne Ortega brings that concept to life as she walks with readers every step of the way, sharing her own experiences and bringing them back to the Word of God. Each devotion begins with a "Hope Builder" - a passage of Scripture which readers are to look up in their own Bibles. I LOVE that Yvonne directs us to the Bible as the very first thing. Those with cancer will be able to relate to every devotion in the book. Yvonne mixes humor with profound truths, bringing hope to all who read. Her own story is amazing, but she is not the center of the book. God is. And you are--that is your faith and hope through thsi incredible journey. (If you don't have cancer, count your blessings but purchase this book for those you know who do!)

From another cancer survivor...
Oh, how I wish I'd had this excellent book forty years ago when I was diagnosed with cancer! A young wife and mother, pregnant with my second child, I was devastated and terrified of what the cancer diagnosis meant to me and my family. Thank God for Yvonne Ortega, who has written this book with such humility and candor, offering hope to those who so desperately need it. An excellent resource!

--
"Cancer." Even the word strikes fear in the human heart.No other disease affects the human spirit so deeply.Unlike other diseases where the body wears out or is attacked, cancer is the human body turning upon itself.Oncology patients often wrestle with their mortality, the pain of broken dreams, and a need to understand the causes of human suffering.All of these questions naturally lead to a spirituality quest.

In her new book, Hope for the Journey Through Cancer, Yvonne Ortega takes on the role of a spiritual guide.Ortega has been down this road.In 2001, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.In Hope for the Journey Through Cancer, she cleverly retells her story in 60 short devotionals.She documents her fears, anger, devastation, and joys as she battles cancer.Each devotional starts with a recommended passage of scripture for personal reflection and proceeds to connect that passage to an experience that Ortega had during her journey.Each devotional is ended with a short prayer.Ortega's writing style is open and honest.The reader can feel her emotions as moved down the road of cancer.She takes her reader with her as she is stunned by her diagnoses, depressed while shopping for a wig, and even when she wrestles with wither to have chemotherapy.Ortega's journey is not white washed.She displays her weaknesses.The reader can clearly view her fears, anger, devastation, and joy as she battles cancer.

The advantages of the book are many.First, Ortega has a universal writing style.While she is specifically a breast cancer survivor her story is applicable to a vast variety of oncology patients.Her book potentially has the possibility of assisting family and friends to understand this overwhelming journey.In addition to her universal appeal, she discusses most of the traditional treatment options available to cancer patients.She underwent surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation.The devotionals are arranged chronologically, so a patient can probably find a devotional that parallels his or her own journey.Last of all, the book should be praised for its honesty.Ortega invites patients and families to join her on this journey and she selflessly opens up her own life as a picture of that journey through cancer.

missing help
like a cancer patient misses a piece of themselves, any person supporting a cancer patient loses themselves. to the process.
this devotional helps any and all through the process. the grief-striken, yet hope-producing process. Kudos to Yvonne for putting the hope on paper for the rest of us.

Hope for the Journey Through Cancer
It is an excellant book.It gives the cancer patient a feeling that he/she is not alone in her feelings.It really helps give hope and a feeling of companionship. ... Read more

Product Description

Despite the risk of developing breast cancer, many women still have a limited knowledge of its causes and prevention. The Complete Natural Medicine Guide to Breast Cancer uses the most recent research studies and clinical evidence to explain the causes of breast cancer and techniques for its prevention.

Some of the topics covered are:

• Comprehensive explanations for the causes of breast cancer -- hereditary, hormonal, environmental
• Identifiable environmental risks
• Self help detoxification programs, diet plans and herbal recommendations
• Natural medicine strategies which complement conventional medical treatments and promote recovery
• Psychological support

Protective factors are highlighted and valuable exercises and worksheets for breast care are included, such as The Breast Health Balance Sheet, an extensive questionnaire that helps to determine risk factors.

Written in an empathetic and accessible style, The Complete Natural Medicine Guide to Breast Cancer is an excellent resource for women seeking breast cancer information.

Customer Reviews (6)

An embracing intelligent assist
As a naturopathic doctor and breast cancer survivor, this book helped me through the process in a way I could not have gotten any other way. It is written in plain English though it manages very complex concepts. It covers all parts of the cancer experience and was my written guide through the process. I recommend it highly to anyone with breast cancer and anyone who loves anyone with breast cancer and wishes to help.

A comprehensive resource
I was looking for guidance in what I can do to help prevent breast cancer, beyond the basic list of low fat diet, eating broccoli, exercising and avoiding alcohol. This book is an outstanding, comprehensive resource from a naturopathic standpoint. It goes into great detail on explaining hormones, estrogen's role in the cancer process, how chemicals and toxins in our environment contribute to the increase of breast cancer, what role the liver plays in detoxifying our body and how we can support the liver. The author also gives explicit recommendations on diet and supplements, what they do and how much to take, plus nontoxic alternatives to household cleaning products etc. Breast cancer prevention involves your whole lifestyle and some of the changes may be hard, but the benefits to overall health and our immune system can be enormous. You may not be able to make all the changes at once, but I for one am working on them. This book was written several years ago before the recent studies on the benefits of Vitamin D in breast cancer prevention. The author minimizes the importance of Vitamin D, which is the only real negative of the book, in my opinion. Actually, I would have also liked if she had gone into greater detail on thermography as an adjunct or alternative to mammography. This book is also helpful for women who have cancer, to help them support their bodies through treatment and to help prevent recurrences.

New agey nonsense
My wife was given this for free. Her mom died of breast cancer. We care about this issue.

I was dismayed by the book's regular "this is good for that" medical advice. Let's say I'd like to see a little more proof, for example, that a coffee enema is good for liver detoxification. And that detoxification should be done at change of seasons. What? I have a phd in a hard science, so my standards of proof are a bit high.

Simpler advice: avoid processed food

A must have for EVERYONE
This book is amazing!I got it at the library originally, wasn't really interested but it looked fairly new so I thought, why not?Once I opened the cover, I knew I had to have a copy of my own!!
First off this book is NOT telling you not to have medical treatment-as a matter of fact, it supports it completely.What it is saying is what you can do holistically in ADDITION to your medical treatment.! This book is a must for everyone not just those with breast cancer!It tells you what to eat to prevent cancer...Green Tea is like Magick!!What to eat to rid your body of unwanted radiation.What to consume when you go thru Chemo.It lists different foods, drinks, and herbs and tells their medicinal benefits.
What a great book!! If you don't believe me, go to your local library first and check it out...you'll soon be ordering it thru Amazon yourself!!:)

This Book Will Save Lives
Sat Dharam Kaur explores cancer from every angle - from heredity to toxic load to diet to spiritual well being. Cancer does NOT have to happen and we really can control our own health. Truly the most informative book out there on how to prevent breast cancer or heal yourself if you have already been stricken with this terrible disease. There is hope. Thank you Dr. Kaur for having the courage to write such a bold and wonderful offering to the women of the world! ... Read more

Product Description
At age 38, Lillie Shockney was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent mastectomies in 1992 and 1994. In this telling memoir of personal and medical triumph, she shares her unique approach to her diagnosis, informed by her years as a nurse and her knowledge of doctors and hospitals. Her work in the medical field helped her decide she would approach her challenge with caring for her own caregivers, compassion for her family, hope and prayer, and above all, humor. Throughout, she talks candidly about her experiences, from informing her 12-year-old daughter about her diagnosis to her fears about how her mastectomy would change her marriage and sex life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

A wonderful learning experience
So many of us have had to face saddness, fear, illness, and death in our lives.Breast cancer is not prejudice, it does not discriminate, or is understanding, and so many women today are faced with having to deal with this disease in someway.Reading Lillie's book made me realize that although it is frightening, it was okay - okay to change your appearance, your lifestyle, and your outlook on life.With the use of laughter and the comfort of her family and friends, this woman took a life altering experience and, with her mind set, she changed her way of seeing the world.She is a survivor, and after reading this book, you feel the strength that she has gained, and will have the courage and spirit overcome any challenge life gives you.

It made me cry - and laugh.
After my friend had breast cancer surgery, I bought Lillie Shockney's book for her and read it myself to be sure it was appropriate.I was impressed with the way she conveyed her hope as well as the hard times.She sharedher effective use of humor, and expressed the importance of gatheringpeople around for support.I gladly passed the book on to my friend withthe hope she would find support in reading about someone who has copedusing methods she has also used.I recommend this book to anyone who iscoping with breast cancer, either as a patient or as a supporter of afriend or family member.

I followed every word, it happened to me...
I found this to be an excellent guide.It was well written and didn't use long technical words.My experiences paralled hers and it gave me great insite on the disease.It also has very good references and contacts.Ihave recommended it to many people.I would like to see her write more ofwhat is happening after the years.

a MUST READ for every woman!!
I do not have breast cancer and have never had a mastectomy, but I am a woman and that gives me a 1 out of 8 chance of being a member of this club.Lillie Shockney takes you into the examining room, operating room, eveninto the bedroom.But, most importantly, she takes you into her heart.With humor,candor and common sense, she takes away some of the fears andtaboos associated with breast cancer and mastectomies.Her book spurred meto make an appointment for a long overdue mammogram!!God Bless you andyour family, Lillie, for sharing a very personal experience.

A witty, yet sensitive view of surviving breast cancer.
I've been awarded the opportunity to see up close what a benefit Lillie's book can be to many women facing the shocking diagnosis of breast cancer.As the owner and manager of a small book store, I've had the opportunity toarrange a speaking engagement for Lillie, regarding this issue, at ourlocal university, followed by a booksigning at my store.I could clearlysee on the faces of many in attendance, the appreciation they felt inmeeting someone who knew first hand what they, as "members of theclub" were experiencing.Many times since then, I've recommendedLillie's book to customers at my store who have expressed an interest inbreast cancer resources, either for themselves or for loved ones.Moretimes than I can count, I've given the book to friends, relatives and even"secret pals", because I feel strongly that the story told inthis book deserves to be shared.The only "problem" that Ican find with this book, is that it's difficult to classify!We had quitea time at my store deciding where to shelve it.It could rest easily onthe Inspirational shelf, as well as in the Humor or Psychology andSelf-Help sections! ... Read more