book reviews and stuff

Book reviews and stuff Wondering about statistics today as one of the mums from my class last year has been diagnosed with, you guessed it, breast cancer. Boooo! Hey she even put in money for my lovely get better present in March. It all seems so unfair. She has too small boys and has just had her 40th birthday. It seems too spooky. I am hoping to be done with my battle and she is just being. What percentage of women gets this disease before 50? Who are we? Why are we suffering? Is it all just random or have I done something to deserve this? If so has she done it too? My head spins. I am reading the Breast Cancer Book by Val Sampson and Debbie Fenlon. The book is quite informative and I will pass it onto my friend who’s English is pretty good. In the book it talks about different responses to diagnosis and different reactions you receive from friends and relations. I told my friend to go and see my surgical oncologist and told her his name. “Oh,” she said, “not him. I went to see him, someone else said he was the best but I didn’t like him one little bit. He was so negative. He never once said I was going to be OK.” Hey until I started reading this book I never would have considered positive feedback being important when choosing a surgeon. However, in some cases, it so clearly is. Although reading other blogs I suspect that professionalism and doing their job is also quite a high priority amongst us and a shame that so many people have to change doctors because they are not getting that. Val Sampson also talks about friends and how to pick them when you have cancer. It struck me that everyone on this website has had help with that as suddenly there is a support group ready at your fingertips. Some people chat and others blog a bit but all are sharing problems, thoughts, fears and concerns that others at home or around them can’t really understand. This is such a useful forum for all of us, even if I can’t often make the chat room or come to the get togethers. I don’t necessarily write this to be read, it helps to get it off my chest and onto the screen. However, thanks to everyone who does read or comment, it is always so wonderful and positive. Thanks Penny especially, from day one you made me feel welcome. My friend Rowena here in Mexico has also been a rock of support; maybe being an ex-nurse has helped her talk me up or down many a time. The book makes comments on husbands and partners too and some of the things Val write made me weep with the reality of it. Our men folk are trying their hardest and it is darned hard for them too. They don’t want to see us suffer and they can’t make us better. My husband has had his moments of course but I must remember he is going through hell too. As I said before it has been a steep learning curve for both of us and plenty of chipped plates in between. However, when it comes to guys it really is what they do and not what they say that counts. I may wish he would sometimes hug me and say everything will be OK and he will always love me reconstruction or no. However, as I sit here on a Friday afternoon my eldest child is out at a friend’s house and my husband has taken the youngest for a walk around the block. I have no radiotherapy tomorrow and the babysitter arrives in an hour so we can go to the cinema. I have a cup of green tea to keep me company, what more in the world could I want? So Sampson’s book is a good comprehensive guide to breast cancer however, I think I preferred Cancer Vixen by Marisa Marchetto but that is just my sense of humour I guess. I have been trying to upload some of her drawings but found it too much of a challenge. She even gave me permission the lovely lady. Any tips? It is scanned into a word document? The Breast Cancer prevention and recovery diet book by Suzannah Olivier is another gem I have been reading however, I think that I will really only pay heed to the chapter on Breast cancer super foods. Things you should eat and drink.. broccoli and green tea are high on the list and that made me feel good. The author states that if you add enough of the super foods you may not have room for the other bad stuff that you ingest! Little does she know? The rest of the book is very informative but for me hard going as the guilt very quickly set it. An interesting statistic being that if we treat ourselves 12 times a day, a couple of cups of coffee, 3 biscuits, a couple of glasses of wine, a bar of chocolate, etc that is 4380 ‘hits’ a year of things we should be avoiding. Maybe though the ‘hits’ are what keeps us going. Read ‘me going’ but maybe I am not the only one. As I ploughed through recipes for tofu I sipped my cappuccino and the jam from my doughnut dropped right into the middle of the book. Oops. Hits one an two for the day and it was only 11 am. Obviously having a bit of time on my hands means too much facebook (Jools and penny good to see you gals in a different light) again, although my husband persuaded me to take off all my photos, as he was afraid it could be dangerous. I don’t think they could be really but decided to be on the safe side. I am pretty sure that my photos would only serve to show potential kidnappers that we are well and truly not worth their effort. However, one never knows. So I took all my photos off. Then I noticed a new message. It was from an old school friend who has been organising a school reunion. Oh great! A gathering in that great metropolis of Swindon as we all turned 40 this year. I always thought school reunions were confined to American soap operas. Also if I ever had entertained the idea of going to one I suppose I would have imagined worrying about what to wear in order to minimize rolls of fat and hide the wrinkles. I never expected to be thinking of what to wear to cover up the fact that I am bald and have one tit! Luckily I am here in Mexico so no chance of even going anyway. Probably a good thing, cancer I guess not being a very school reunion topic of conversation wherever you went to school.