Riding The Cancer Roller Coaster

A diagnosis of cancer is devastating at any age. For teenagers and young adults, it presents a unique challenge both socially and emotionally. You strive for independence, but cancer leaves you completely dependent on those around you. At an age when you want nothing but to be with your peers, isolation resulting from a compromised immune system leaves you starving for social contact. When you should be able to start setting goals for the future, you are confronted with the possibility of having no future at all. This all makes staying positive very difficult. Through her own experiences as a two-time cancer survivor, and previous teen cancer patient who faced a forty percent chance of survival, Clarissa Schilstra has learned a great deal about all of these challenges and how to cope with them. In the pages of this book, she shares those stories and strategies, in an effort to provide a guide through the emotional roller coaster that is cancer treatment and life as a cancer survivor. A foreword by Lori Wiener, PhD, DCSW, FAPOS is included.

This powerful book provides a goldmine of insights into the experience of illness and the process of healing from the perspective of a lymphoma patient and survivor. Betsy's story is both humorous and compassionate as she takes an intimate look back at her medical journey and the effect it had on her marriage, self-identity and life perspective. For patients, caregivers and physicians, this book is a significant contribution to the field of illness narratives.

Cancer not only involves coping with the physical disease and treatment, but it also means facing and dealing with hidden losses that will affect how you view and live your life. In this insightful book, Juliette Chan explains the emotional and mental impact of cancer and practical steps to manage this.

An autobiography of cancer patient, cyclist and author Wayne Tefs.

Dealing with cancer at any age is not easy, and it is hard to stay focused and keep a good attitude. However, keeping a positive outlook and one's sense of humor are two of the things that cancer survivor Leo Dugo found helped him and his family get through his battle against Stage 4 cancer . . . especially the humor part. Attitude Determines Altitude takes you through the Dugo family's roller-coaster cancer journey in the form of his CaringBridge Journal entries and present-day thoughts. Sprinkled with humor, these writings helped lighten the bad days and made the good days better-and, hopefully, they will do that for you, too. As Leo's father, a pilot, taught his son, the aviation phrase "attitude determines altitude" translates into everything we do in life. In other words, the better our attitude, the better our life!

An Amazon Best of the Month Book "For all the insight he offers into the hard science and thorny logistics of studying cancer, Dr. Scadden’s most moving passages consider the effect of the disease on the people who suffer from it and those who care for them." —The Wall Street Journal A doctor’s riveting story of loss and hope in the world of cancer. What is it like to encounter cancer? How does it feel to face the unknown, to enter a world of hope, loss, and dread? From the diagnosis of his childhood friend’s mother to his poignant memories in the lab, David Scadden’s seen the unknown world of cancer from the lens of a young boy, a classmate, a researcher, a friend, a doctor, and a neighbor. Scadden chronicles his personal memories of cancer – his visits to his sick neighbor and his classmate who left school and never came back. Now Dr. David Scadden, co-founder of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and one of the world's leading experts on immunology and oncology, writes his memoir, Cancerland, with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael D'Antonio. With riveting stories and moving compassion, Scadden and D’Antonio paint a still rapidly changing landscape in the context of all too common stories of loss. Ranging from Scadden’s personal childhood memories to his triumphs and regrets as a doctor, Scadden illuminates a light at the end of a dark tunnel. Through opening a window into the science of medicine in the world of the unknown, Scadden and D’Antonio humanize cancer while inspiring action that we all so desperately need.

The book the Silent Storm is written and tells the story about a normal family whose life was turned upside down when they found out their daughter had cancer. Carrie, the daughter, was a normal nine-year-old that was a vibrant, energetic, and healthy young girl who played many different sports-her favorite being soccer. Then one day she had gone to school and fell ill. The school notified the parents, and Carrie was picked up and brought home. After two days of hospital visits, the doctors found a large tumor on her ovary. At this time, panic set in, and the doctors agreed that surgery was the first course of action. The surgery was done the next morning, and the tumor was, in fact, cancerous. At this point, the shock of hearing those words left the whole family devastated. At that time, the doctors advised that chemotherapy was the only and most important course of treatment, so with the Mom and Dad's permission, the treatment began. After many months of treatment, the doctors advised that Carrie was in remission. The news was good, but the worry never goes away. Continue the journey, and read the Silent Storm. Feel the roller-coaster ride of ups and downs, and learn that cancer is not a death sentence anymore. Cancer can, indeed, be treated and cured. See how Carrie beat her cancer and moved on with her life. God bless to all who have been touched by this disease.