When Life Becomes Precious: The Essential Guide for Patients, Loved Ones, and Friends of Those Facing Serious Illnesses

by Elise Babcock

When you hear that someone you love has cancer...
You want to be as supportive as possible. But how?

Elise NeeDell Babcock has devoted her life to answering this question and now puts her twenty-three years of experience as a counselor into this immensely useful guide. When Life Becomes Precious contains hundreds of tips for helping patients, primary caregivers, co-workers, and family members,

What to say (and not to say) to someone when you first find out they have cancer
• How to be supportive without being intrusive
• How to build a winning health-care team
• How to handle holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries
• How to explain the disease to children
• Which gifts and gestures can do the most good

From techniques for handling anger and anxiety, to uplifting success stories, to a comprehensive resource section, here is the information and inspiration you need to help those you love and to make each day--each moment--more precious.

When Life Becomes Precious will be the first book
• Offer tips on ways to help patients, caregivers and co-workers
• Provide a long and diverse list of gifts that are appropriate to give to families that are living with cancer
• Offers reasons why fear makes people shy away from discussing cancer and techniques on how to overcome that fear
• Present the things that families do that doctors like and dislike

When Life Becomes Precious will teach readers to assess and put into perspective, their own feelings about the disease so that they can truly help those who are afflicted with it. The use of cartoons, anecdotes and personal stories will set an upbeat and positive tone. Readers will come away fully prepared to deal with the realities of cancer.

Genres: Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book discusses cancer in a straightforward way which eased some of my anxieties and made me feel less helpless. It also helps outline what things the patient and their family are going through, how they might be dealing with it emotionally, and specific things you can do to help. I highly recommend it to anyone who is close to a cancer patient, or anyone going through a major illness (I see the title has been updated to reflect this).

Basically, if you want to learn to be an empathetic, caring person, this is the book for you.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received the news that my best friend, age 26, had been diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma. I went through a whirlwind of emotions and looked for guidance on the "rights" and "wrongs" of grieving and handling a serious illness. I would recommend this book to anyone who has a friend or loved one with cancer. It helped confirm that my feelings were normal no matter how crazy I may appear. It also gave insight on how to help and support both the patient and those closest to them.

[Rosy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was helpful and reassured me it was OK to feel what I was feeling. Touches on relationship issues which is strongly affected when there is chronic illness in the family. This book guided me to keep my relationship strong with my mother and sister and at the same time, to take care of myself.

[Laura Van · Rating 1 out of 5]

Elise was never a counselor. That's why there's no degree mentioned in her bio in the book. She had a B.S. in psychology. She never finished her masters and didn't get accepted into UofH graduate program. She died of a drug overdose on 2/1/2010 after years of substance abuse. RIP

[J Crossley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a good resource when someone you love faces a serious illness. It helps guide you to finding out what would help that person the most, how to interact with the person (without being standoffish or overbearing), and provides ways to help the person navigate this difficult time.

[Wendy Hollister · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for those who have a loved one who is sick.