After Breast Cancer: A Common-Sense Guide to Life After Treatment

by Hester Hill Schnipper

As women quickly discover, their life when treatment ends is very different from what it was before their diagnosis. Often exhausted, anxious, and emotionally volatile, they are beset by physical discomforts, fearful of intimacy, afraid for their children, worried about recurrence. Anticipating a return to “normalcy,” they discover that the old version of normal no longer applies.

There could be no more knowledgeable guide for women embarking on this complicated journey than Hester Hill Schnipper, who is herself both an experienced oncology social worker and a breast cancer survivor. This comprehensive handbook provides jargon-free information on the wide range of practical issues women face as they navigate the journey back to health,

•Managing physical problems such as fatigue, hot flashes, and aches and pains

•Handling your children, your partner, your parents, your friends.

•How to regain emotional and sexual intimacy

•Coping with financial and workplace issues

•Genetic why, whether, when

•How to move beyond the fear of recurrence

•And much more

This indispensable book will help you rediscover your capacity for joy as you move forward into the future—as a survivor.

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

LICSW

Reviews

[Caryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every woman who has had a breast cancer diagnosis and has almost completed daily treatment should read this book. It is filled with validation, tons of helpful resources for those who don't have many, and will leave you feeling totally not alone. It's also a great gift for a woman who has finished treatment.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now that I have finished my radiation treatments and I am just taking Tamoxifen, reading this book makes it feel like I am still doing something. There have been some helpful hints on dealing with side effects and it helps to know that what I am feeling is normal. Some of the chapters don't apply to me, but I am reading them anyway.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, it offered good advice. It's just that I don't really want all that much advice. It forced me to think about the future and the possibility of reoccurrance of breast cancer. Things I definitely don't want to think about. Also, it was not humorous in the least. What I take away from this book? Why isn't there a cure??????????????

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book - at times I felt like I was reading my own diary. She lays everything out in a very informative and human way and if you or a loved one have been affected by cancer at all you will recognize yourself in these pages.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

never having had breast cancer, i think this would be extremely useful to breast cancer survivors.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is "right on!!"

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent sensible helpful....strangely comforting.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good reference for dealing with your life after major treatment ends.

[Ganesh]

In an interview with Powell's Books, Anne Fadiman -- one my favorite essayists -- said this was the best book she found on breast cancer.

[Alie · Rating 5 out of 5]

God Bless this book. Finally, a book about what happens when it's over...that is, it's over for everyone else, but the whole rest of an entirely new life starts for the cancer survivor.

[Cathy Tarr]

This is also a great book. It deals with issues more for after treatment but can be read for by someone who likes to look ahead and has time to.