The Cancer Survivor Handbook: Your Guide to Building a Life After Cancer

According to the National Cancer Institute, there are an estimated 13.7 million living Americans who are cancer survivors. The institute expects that number to rise to almost 18 million over the next decade. The Institute of Medicine notes that patients diagnosed with cancer have an estimated 64% chance of surviving five years, up from 50% three decades ago. And most of them have lingering symptoms, both physical and emotional.

The Cancer Survivor is a companion and guide for those millions of individuals who are finally done with treatments but are still on the journey to wholeness. Beth Leibson completed her chemotherapy and radiation in 2007. She had beat cancer, but was left with lingering memory issues, exhaustion, depression, pain, and the fear that at any point, the cancer could return. Here she tells the story of how she rebuilt her life, and shares advice from other experts, addressing the emotional, medical, and professional challenges of life after cancer. Here are the questions you’re afraid to ask (“When will my sex drive come back?”), the questions you hadn’t yet considered (“How do I reenter the work force after a ‘break’ of a year or more?”), and those you know you should be thinking about but haven’t had the energy for (“What supplements or alternative therapies should I be taking to regain my strength?”).

Warm, honest, and full of sage advice, this is the book Leibson wishes she had had when the nightmare of cancer treatments drew to a close and the overwhelming reality of starting life over again began.

Beth Leibson is a freelance health-care writer and editor who has been published in numerous national, regional, and business magazines and newsletters. She writes regularly for Amoena Life Magazine, a publication geared to breast cancer patients and survivors. She’s the author of I’m Too Young to Have Breast Cancer!, which received an award from the Susan G. Komen Arkansas Foundation. She lives in New York, New York.