Living with Cancer

Vicki A. Jackson, MD, MPH, is the chief of palliative care at Massachusetts General Hospital. David P. Ryan, MD, is the chief of hematology/oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital. Michelle D. Seaton is the coauthor of The Way of Boys: Raising Healthy Boys in a Challenging and Complex World and The Cardiac Recovery Handbook: The Complete Guide to Life after Heart Attack or Heart Surgery.

• Chapter 1: How am I Going to Get Through This? Part I: Making Sense of Your DiagnosisChapter 2: Setting the Goals of TreatmentChapter 3: Understanding the Biology of CancerChapter 4: What Is a Liquid Tumor?Chapter 5: How to Prepare for TreatmentChapter 6: Tests and Scans in TreatmentChapter 7: How Am I Supposed to Cope with This?Chapter 8: How Do I Cope with Changes in My Body? Part II: Managing Symptoms and Side EffectsChapter 9: Controlling NauseaChapter 10: Managing Constipation, Diarrhea, and Bowel ObstructionChapter 11: Minimizing PainChapter 12: Should I Worry about Shortness of Breath?Chapter 13: What If I'm Losing Weight?Chapter 14: What if I Have a Sudden Fever?Chapter 15: Bleeding and Clotting IssuesChapter 16: Why am I So Exhausted?Chapter 17: Why Do People Keep Asking if I Am Depressed or Anxious?Chapter 18: How Does Cancer Affect My Brain? Part III: Dealing with Progressing CancerChapter 19: They Tell Me the Cancer Is ProgressingChapter 20: Living and Hoping with Advancing CancerChapter 21: What About Practical Concerns?Chapter 22: My Doctor Says that Chemotherapy Is No Longer EffectiveChapter 23: My Body Feels Like It's Shutting DownChapter 24: What Is a Good Death? Index7

An unusually comforting and genuinely useful resource. Booklist For anyone who has been diagnosed with cancer, or for those who have friends of family facing this illness, this guide will be an extremely invaluable resource. Patients at any stage of the disease will find rich, useful information that can help them cope more effectively with their illness. Foreword Reviews