OncoLog: M. D. Anderson's report to physicians about advances in cancer care and research.
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From OncoLog, October 2005, Vol. 50, No. 10

House Call: From My Bookshelf to Yours

We asked cancer survivors from the Anderson Network to recommend books and other reading materials for someone recently diagnosed with cancer, and here is what they had to say:

“I highly recommend Time on Fire by Evan Handler. Handler shares his experience of dealing with leukemia and navigating a bureaucratic healthcare system with wit, insight, and humor. I also recommend Cereal for Dinner: Strategies, Shortcuts, and Sanity for Moms Battling Illness by Kristine Breese and The Etiquette of Illness—What to Say When You Can’t Find the Words by Susan P. Halpern.”

“Here’s my list:

  • Bald in the Land of Big Hair: A True Story by Joni Rodgers,
  • 57 Good Things About Chemotherapy by Alec Kalla,
  • I’d Rather Do Chemo Than Clean Out the Garage: Choosing Laughter Over Tears by Fran Di Giacomo, and
  • Coping with Chemotherapy by Nancy Bruning.”

“As a breast cancer patient, I found the following to be helpful reading materials:

  • the Psalms (Holy Bible),
  • Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book by Susan Love, M.D.,
  • After Breast Cancer: Answers to the Questions You’re Afraid to Ask by Musa Mayer,
  • 100 Questions and Answers About Breast Cancer by Zora Brown,
  • The Victoria’s Secret Catalog Never Stops Coming: And Other Lessons I Learned from Breast Cancer by Jennie Nash, and
  • Road to Restoration through the Diagnosis of Breast Cancer and Walking on by Faith by Janice Workcuff.”

“The day after my cancer diagnosis, my minister came to see me and gave me his copy of Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient by Norman Cousins, which I would recommend to all patients. Cousins seemingly overcame a highly debilitating illness with, among other things, frequent doses of laughter. He wrote: ‘Ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep.’”

“Here’s my list of good reading for patients:

  • Any book by Bernie Siegel, M.D., including How to Live between Office Visits: A Guide to Life, Love and Health,
  • You Are Not Your Illness: Seven Principles for Meeting the Challenge by Linda Topf,
  • No Such Thing as a Bad Day by Hamilton Jordan, and
  • The National Cancer Institute Web site (or request reading materials from them), www.cancer.gov.”

“One book I read during my treatment is The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. That book was very uplifting and helped me to get through difficult days.”

“For me, getting all the information I could was my most successful coping mechanism. This resource has both coping and reading materials: www.nci.nih.gov/cancertopics/alphalist.”

“I recommend that people start out reading information targeted toward patients, but then move on to detailed information for health care professionals. Since I had melanoma, I also found using a melanoma-specific online bulletin board to correspond with other patients with the same diagnosis was very helpful. I use www.mpip.org/bb/bbindex.html.”

For more information on this topic or for questions about M. D. Anderson’s treatments, programs, or services, call askMDAnderson at (877) MDA-6789.

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