Cancervive - Hardcover

Nessim, Susan; Ellis, Judith

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0395561906 ISBN 13: 9780395561904

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1991

Synopsis

For this country's five million cancer survivors, the good news is that they are cured; the bad is that they cannot put cancer behind them. They are ostracized by old friends and former lovers, discriminated against on the job, refused insurance, left with physical and psychological effects from the cancer, often unable to have children, and always fearful of recurrence. Yet because they have been "cured," they have difficulty communicating their problems to friends and relatives or to the medical profession.
Susan Nessim, who had cancer in her late teens, faced many of these hidden problems. Several years ago she founded Cancervive, a support group that deals with the problems of survivorship. This book is based on the experiences of Cancervive's members and the advice of experts in the field. In recent years, recognition of the needs of former cancer patients has led to the formation of support groups in ten major hospitals across the country. Other survivor groups are regularly being founded as former cancer patients and their families become an increasingly vocal constituency. Addressed to the individual cancer survivor, this book, with its expert advice and its understanding, empathetic tone, will also be a resource for the growing postcancer community.

About this title

Reviews

While advances in cancer therapy now account for an estimated 50% permanent remission rate, Nessim, founder of the support group Cancervive, charges that society still stigmatizes survivors of the disease. In an excellent handbook based on her own successful battle against cancer as a teenager, she addresses recovered cancer patients, their families, friends and health professionals. Assisted by freelance writer Ellis, she offers positive, empathetic advice on how to control fears of recurrence and long-term side effects--including infertility--as well as anger and depression. Nessim also makes suggestions for regaining sanguine self- and body-images essential for securing jobs, insurance and more. Cancervive members have their say, too, recounting how they handled anxiety about new relationships. With the help of a support group, the author maintains, the survivor can have a healthy, forward-looking life.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A down-to-earth guidebook for survivors of cancer, who face many problems when they finish treatment and reenter the everyday world of the well: ending their emotional ties with their care- givers; managing fear of cancer's recurrence; rebuilding relationships with family, friends, and lovers; obtaining medical insurance; getting or keeping a job; coping with the long-term effects of chemotherapy and radiation and sometimes with loss of a body part or loss of fertility. Especially useful are the sections on insurance and job discrimination, which summarize legal rights and provide lists of sources for help and information. The value of support groups such as Cancervive, which Nessim (herself a cancer survivor) founded, is emphasized. Personal anecdotes from cancer survivors and professional advice from social workers, oncologists, nurses, and others are used judiciously throughout to reinforce the authors' points. Although aimed specifically at former cancer patients, the common-sense approach employed by Nessim and Ellis (the latter has written for Life and L.A. West) makes this valuable reading for survivors of other chronic illnesses facing social barriers and physical and emotional burdens. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

The nearly six million survivors of cancer in the United States often find that life after cancer can be fraught with difficulties. Nessim, who had cancer as a teenager, founded Cancervive in 1985 as a support group to help patients deal with the problems of survivorship. She writes that "surviving is an experience wrought with pain, joy, anger, and optimism . . . it challenges our ability to endure." Drawing on the personal testimonials and accounts of survivors, Nessim offers advice on what comes after the cure: physical, emotional, and psychosocial problems; employment discrimination; insurance difficulties; and biomedical issues related to treatment such as fertility. This book aims to help survivors live warily but without anxiety. Recommended for health care col lections.
- James Swanton, Albert Ein stein Coll. of Medicine, New York
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0395561906
• ISBN 13: 9780395561904
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 264