We all know that October is Breast Cancer Awareness and Gather has its own breast cancer survivors. Harvard Medical School’s Dr. Julie Silver has become a well-known and trusted voice in the Gather Community over the past couple of years. She’s written scores of well-informed and helpful health articles that all of our members have benefited from. While we know her for her informative articles, you may not know that she’s also a breast cancer survivor. After experiencing her own battle with cancer, Julie decided to bring all of her advice, experiences, and knowledge together in a book to help out survivors.
What Helped Get Me Through is a book meant to help cancer fighters find the path to survive and thrive. It’s also meant to answer the important question that you have likely asked yourself when you heard that someone you care about has been diagnosed with cancer: What can I do to really help? Compiled of Julie’s personal experiences, as well as advice from the several hundred survivors she surveyed (including celebrities, cancer advocates and medical experts), the book is guaranteed to help you or someone you know get through this awful disease.
In collaboration with Julie, Gather is giving away 15 copies of this amazing book to members for reviews. Tell us in the comment thread below who in your life has been touched by cancer and we’ll choose 15 members at random to receive it. Please have reviews posted by November 5, 2008.
Julie will also be on Gather for a LIVE CHAT about her book and breast cancer awareness on Tuesday, October 28th at 8pm EST in Gather's Health Essential. Make sure to join her conversation!
All comments must be made by Sunday, October 19, 2008 to be considered.
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Comments: 23
Cancer hits more than just the victim.
I would love to read this book as I am a firm believer in being prepared for crisis before it hits.
I had a scare myself a few years back, but after a needle biopsy and ultrasound, everything was just fine, but I have to stay on top of the mammograms just to be on the safe side.
I was diagnosed with leukemia - CLL January of this year. I have already received chemotherapy and at this time I am considered to be in complete remission.
I am glad to be a survivor and still get a bit nervous at my oncology check-ups.
“Disease may score a direct hit on only one member of the family but shrapnel tears the flesh of the others."
Indeed, many of you are describing the tremendous impact that cancer has had on your lives even though you've never had the disease yourself. The grief over the past and the worry about the future are profound. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Breast cancer, leukemia, skin cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer have all taken the lives of people in my family. My sister has had colon cancer since May of 2006 and there is no longer anything that can be done for her. The cancer has mutated and all we have to hope for is to just try to control the growth so she can live a little while longer.
She cannot walk because of arthritis in both hips which will never be fixed because she has to be on chemo for the rest of her life, however long that may be. I take care of her. I can't work because she needs help cleaning her ostomy bag, and cleaning up after her when she gets sick from the chemo because she can't get to the bathroom in time.
I take her to all her appointments, I make all the arrangements for an ambulette to pick us up, I call her doctors, I call her health insurance, I do everything because she is so depressed. I'm depressed too, I cry every night but I have to be the strong one. It's just us now, no one is left. I will do anything to have her with me as long as possible.
I need to know what helped Julie get through it because I need to help my sister get through it, and I need to get through it too.
I need to be at the chat and I will be there.
My Grandmother and Father-in-law are both cancer survivors, and I lost my Grandfather to cancer many years ago.
There are also many others in my life who have been affected by cancer, it is such a prevalent disease now. Fortunately more and more progress is being made in treating it.
thanks
My grandmother had colon cancer in her mid-40s (back in the mid-60s) and survived. My mother died of lymphoma in 1977, an aunt, uncle and good family friend all died in 1989 (lung cancer, liver cancer, and brain cancer), my father died of esophageal cancer in 2002. My aunt (mother's sister) and uncle (her husband) are currently breast cancer and prostate cancer survivors. K's sister died less than two weeks after a pancreatic cancer diagnosis (from a pulmonary embolism related to treatment).
Right now a close friend is battling cancer that has metastasized in multiple locations. His goal is to be healthy enough to walk me down the aisle and give me away at my wedding, November 15.
Cancer has intimately and profoundly shaped my life. A part of me, no matter how hard I try, is convinced it is likely cancer will touch me personally before I die. It seems almost inevitable with my family history. It would be interesting to read the book and reflect on it and review it, if given the opportunity.
When a close family member has cancer, you really feel like you're a victim too. My mother was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in 2003. The doctors actually called it 'in the lining of the breast', which was something I'd never heard of before. After all the buildup and the preparation for the surgery and then the physical draining of the surgery itself - it's devastating to hear the doctor say, "We don't know if we got it all." My mother faced this for over a year and a half and died on Memorial Day, 2005. I still feel like a victim. When I have worked as a volunteer with the Breast Cancer 3-Day and the local Race for the Cure, and they ask if I'm a survivor, I really want to say yes. I barely survived. I'm just sort of...keeping my head above water. Everytime I go in for a smashagram I'm terrified. When am I going to get this horrible disease? Cancer in three members of my immediate family, and the chances of me getting it is way too high. I'd like to read what the author has to say.
I look forward to the live chat!
Katie
Survivor Corps