Product Description
Newly updated and revised, this is the only book on breast cancer that deals honestly with the realities of living with metastatic disease, yet offers hope and comfort. It features the stories of 40 women and men as they struggle to come to terms with metastatic breast cancer. All aspects of facing advanced breast cancer are covered, including: coping with the shock of recurrence, seeking information and making treatment decisions, communicating effectively with... More >>
Advanced Breast Cancer: A Guide to Living with Metastatic Disease, 2nd Edition
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
This book is very well written, but very depressing. As a woman with advanced breast cancer, I face each and every day with joy and happiness. Each day is a gift, and I plan to unwrap many more. I fill my mind with positive thoughts about LIVING, about being that statistic who makes it, about willing my cancer to go away. And it is. When I was first diagnosed, I purchased this book because I intend to live, and this book promised a guide to that. I ended up in tears after only a short time of looking through this book, because it is more of a guide to dying.
Rating: 2 / 5
This was a book for a friend of mine. She has stage 3.5 of breast cancer. She said the book gave her more information than most other sources. She learned things vital to her illness. I am so sad a cure has not been found for this.
Rating: 5 / 5
This book explains it all and makes the disease and treatment options a lot easier to understand.
Rating: 5 / 5
This is a good look into the world of metastatic breast cancer. I’ve been trying to research the subject, and this book is one of (apparently, unfortunately) a very few texts that deal with the issue. Most of the “gazillions” of books on breast cancer are of the powderpuff type with their false hopes and happy endings. Not so this one: it really tells it like it is, and for that I thank Musa Mayer.
I purchased this book so that I could understand my mother’s recent diagnosis, and it definitely gave me insight. As her eventual caregiver, I want to know everything I can about this disease. This book shows us the harsh realities of the disease, and though the content is pretty depressing, it has prepared me to deal with what is happening–and what lies ahead.
I have some criticisms about this book, though, on a general/technical level: 1) I felt like there was a lot of repetition in the book. Some of the quotes were repeated more than once…and eliminating some of this unnecessary repetition would really cut down on the book’s length. Which brings me to 2) The book is terribly long, and I feel like the same thing could have been said in a more pared down version (including removal of the repeated quotes). Length is a problem for those of us who are suddenly overwhelmed with so much extra responsibility from a sick loved one…and, as in my mother’s case, though a patient could benefit from some of the book’s information they may be very tired, uncomfortable, stressed, depressed, confused and therefore cannot read many pages at a time.
If you are looking for a book on this subject…and if you have the time and energy to read it…then by all means do! It’s one of the few you’ll find that deal with advanced breast cancer, and though it’s realities may give you a harsh slap in the face it’s definitely calming to prepare yourself for the inevitabilities.
Rating: 3 / 5
Advanced Breast Cancer was the first book I read after getting the news that my breast cancer had spread to the bone. I had read Musa Mayer’s story of her personal experience with primary breast cancer, Examining Myself, only a year before when I faced Stage II cancer, and found it completely absorbing. I was unsure, however, how she would deal with the subject of metastatic disease, which she does not herself have.
I am so grateful for her treatment of the subject. While Advanced Breast Cancer is not an easy book to read, and is perhaps not suited to those who are still in shock and very frightened, it provides the kind of clear information that ultimately relieves fears of the future, rather than exacerbating them. Information from a “factual”, medical point of view is good and necessary, but I always find myself asking, “But what will really happen? Will I be allowed to suffer?”, or be abandoned, or treated as “less than”. As the one man profiled in the book notes, “One thing I have thought about in the past is that there are no lessons on dying. For many, death is not the problem, but rather the process of dying. No one can teach you that, and it’s an unknown territory”. It is true that we will all face death essentially alone. This book, however, allows us to glimpse the ways others have journeyed toward that “good night”, and makes us feel somewhat less alone.
If this book scares you, put it away for a while. But don’t discard it. You may come to a time when it tells you exactly what you want to know.
Rating: 5 / 5