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My Three Lumps
This is a real, detailed story of cancer survival-both the inspiration of trudging through the rough spots and finding something wonderful at the end, and the reality of how brutal cancer and its treatment can be. She was just a normal teacher, married for just over two years when the storm broke. Unlike most breast cancer patients, Anderson had to deal with cancer, an unexpected divorce, and dealing with keeping her house, job, and sanity, all around her twenty-eighth birthday. Included is an extensive list of cancer resources for patients, survivors, caregivers, and their families. Faced with a pre-midlife crises at 28, Anderson quickly went from being a normal English as a Second Language teacher to being a poster child for how to survive breast cancer, divorce, keeping a job and a house, and maintaining sanity. A longtime keeper of journals, she finally shares her quiet, inner struggles and hopes to inspire cancer survivors of all ages and situations. She is now a teacher in Central Minnesota, happily remarried to her new husband, Kern, and with a new daughter, Stella
312 pages, Paperback
First published January 22, 2013
101 people want to read
About the author
Gwen Rosha Anderson
1 book5 followersI was born to James and Marcia, who lived on a hobby farm in Central Minnesota. Eventually, I was gifted with eight sisters (I am #4). We lived a quiet, yet adventure-filled, childhood in the middle of nowhere. My favorite memories are of "running away" (for an hour, though we'd packed food for a day or so) and "Thundercats" in a large oak tree in our pasture.
In high school, I was not very popular, and I hit the books hard. I graduated with honors, and I enrolled at St. Cloud State University. I spent a semester abroad in Costa Rica, and I learned that there was much, much more out there than my small existence in MN.
Not knowing what to major in, I considered journalism, due in large part to my high school journalism teacher's praise of my journalistic writing. I decided on Spanish, my one love from HS, and teaching was the only thing I could think of to do with a Spanish degree. I ended up going straight into a Master's program in English afterwards.
My first teaching job led me to meet my first husband, where he lived. Through one more school district, I landed in Anoka-Hennepin, the largest school district in MN.
I could be bitter about my first marriage and how it ended, but instead I am grateful that life led me to the place I am now. I had amazing health care in A-H (that I wouldn't have had in my first district). I met many amazing new friends that helped me through incredibly difficult times. I reconnected with my large family, who never stopped being there for me even in my absence. I learned that I can be happy just being me, and being happy with myself led me to my new husband. I learned to appreciate all things in life that aren't cancer, including broken bones (because I have strong bones to break), mortgage payments (because we have a beautiful home to call our own), and crabby people (because they must have some tough things they are dealing with too).
I now live in St. Cloud, MN, with my husband Kern and our two-year-old, Stella. I have been through a whole lot, and I will never be ungrateful for my blessings.
In high school, I was not very popular, and I hit the books hard. I graduated with honors, and I enrolled at St. Cloud State University. I spent a semester abroad in Costa Rica, and I learned that there was much, much more out there than my small existence in MN.
Not knowing what to major in, I considered journalism, due in large part to my high school journalism teacher's praise of my journalistic writing. I decided on Spanish, my one love from HS, and teaching was the only thing I could think of to do with a Spanish degree. I ended up going straight into a Master's program in English afterwards.
My first teaching job led me to meet my first husband, where he lived. Through one more school district, I landed in Anoka-Hennepin, the largest school district in MN.
I could be bitter about my first marriage and how it ended, but instead I am grateful that life led me to the place I am now. I had amazing health care in A-H (that I wouldn't have had in my first district). I met many amazing new friends that helped me through incredibly difficult times. I reconnected with my large family, who never stopped being there for me even in my absence. I learned that I can be happy just being me, and being happy with myself led me to my new husband. I learned to appreciate all things in life that aren't cancer, including broken bones (because I have strong bones to break), mortgage payments (because we have a beautiful home to call our own), and crabby people (because they must have some tough things they are dealing with too).
I now live in St. Cloud, MN, with my husband Kern and our two-year-old, Stella. I have been through a whole lot, and I will never be ungrateful for my blessings.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 11, 2013
Life throws some crazy curveballs and some people know how to make the most of them. As a former colleague of the author who followed her Caring Bridge site, I found Gwen's story of dealing with adversity and battling cancer to be an inspiration. Her book adds complexity to the cancer story against a backdrop of just living an ordinary life...life at 28 with more than enough going on already!
July 28, 2013
This is a book written for, and best suited to, a niche market, that of women dealing with breast cancer (the most common form of cancer for women in the USA). Anglo Protestants will be most comfortable with it; it contains some anti-Catholic references that will leave any Catholic woman who is content with her religion squirming.
Before I go further, I should tell you that this book came to me courtesy of a Goodreads.com giveaway, and Gwen herself sent me a first edition of this lovely little book. Curious, I went online and Googled "breast cancer"+"memoir". This led me to an Amazon.com page that listed a lot of cancer memoirs. I counted eleven for breast cancer, and these did not include the other two I knew of, The Dog Lived (and So Will I) or the late great Gilda Radner's It's Always Something.
But there's something unique here, because no one else who was not famous had the courage to put her face right on the front of the memoir. It's a very brave thing to do. Rosha Anderson was told repeatedly (and to her frustration, and more on that) that "you're so young!" Far too young to leave the job market, she continues to work as a teacher, and thus, putting her face on the book and telling her students about her illness (and even going so far as to have a contest for which class could see her remove her wig and look at her post-chemo head!) is especially gutsy. I admire that.
I also wonder whether it made her memoir bland. The book addresses her lumpectomy, double mastectomy, and divorce, yet the rage is completely missing, merely showing up as occasional irritation. Toward the dead end of the memoir, she mentions this, and that it is time to get mad. There's an opportunity here to build toward the kind of crescendo that one expects in any story, whether it's fictional or personal, a rising and falling action that satisfies. Yet she leaves it dangling. I wonder whether fear of disapproval by her colleagues, students, and other people in her daily life have caused her to hold back, to inoculate her feelings during this turbulent time into something less than they really were.
I think that having cancer so early in life, though it may have contributed to her survival (the young being more likely to heal) also threw off the progress that she, and all young people go through in building a life. Most who get breast cancer, do so when they already have their whole house in order, so to speak. I've known a number of such women. They have a spouse or children who can be counted on to take them to appointments and look after them; Gwen ends up on her mother's sofa. Most women who deal with this have either a secure career or are retired; Gwen is still on a tenure track at school, and is forced to miss an entire semester for treatment, though she tries hard to avoid doing so. And most women have already invented their personalities, and are not dealing with the question she faces, though not squarely or dramatically enough in print, IMO, of "Who am I, and why am I here?"
There is a lot that could be done with this memoir to make it a good general read. Published in the original journal format she used, it lifts whole entries posted at CaringBridge.org, which sounds like a cancer support network, but it doesn't clean up the grammar, abbreviations, or mistaken punctuation. There is no effort to build the story to a climax; there is a photograph of her on the back of the book with a man and child, her new family, and the guy gets half a page at the end. The child is not mentioned at all. This is where it disappoints. Mostly, it is not an entirely honest read. On page 156, in the midst of all the cancer treatment and further planning, "I ended up vomiting in the bathroom". She is afraid she might be getting fat; she is a "former bulimic".
Really? Say what? Oh, no you didn't just drop that in there! What's up with that? Either talk to us about it as part of the whole story, or log back onto your computer and pull it out. She takes us through the in's and out's of the marriage (to an immature young man she was better off without; when he wanted to leave and she begged him to stay, I wanted to tell her, as the staff members at her school more or less did, to offer him a rookie card of some famous athlete if he'll run along and get out of her hair). She takes us through the roller coaster of her dating life, except for the one who really matters. And halfway through the read, we find out that she is throwing up in the potty on purpose? I think not!
For those dealing with breast cancer on a personal level, this is a valuable resource. She shares (and this is a teacher word that means "tells") a number of great sources of information at the end of the memoir, but the memoir itself is also a painstakingly clear record of blood levels, medications, and even the quacks in Mexico that she is smart enough to deflect when a controlling boyfriend attempts to coerce her away from chemotherapy and toward the Third World's solution.
There is gold to be mined here for breast cancer patients, and a lot survivors will likely be interested in and relate to it. This is her primary audience, and the book says as much on the cover.
Gwen's three lumps are gone, and she's still here. If you are facing the challenges that she has lived through, this book can give you both information and strength.
Before I go further, I should tell you that this book came to me courtesy of a Goodreads.com giveaway, and Gwen herself sent me a first edition of this lovely little book. Curious, I went online and Googled "breast cancer"+"memoir". This led me to an Amazon.com page that listed a lot of cancer memoirs. I counted eleven for breast cancer, and these did not include the other two I knew of, The Dog Lived (and So Will I) or the late great Gilda Radner's It's Always Something.
But there's something unique here, because no one else who was not famous had the courage to put her face right on the front of the memoir. It's a very brave thing to do. Rosha Anderson was told repeatedly (and to her frustration, and more on that) that "you're so young!" Far too young to leave the job market, she continues to work as a teacher, and thus, putting her face on the book and telling her students about her illness (and even going so far as to have a contest for which class could see her remove her wig and look at her post-chemo head!) is especially gutsy. I admire that.
I also wonder whether it made her memoir bland. The book addresses her lumpectomy, double mastectomy, and divorce, yet the rage is completely missing, merely showing up as occasional irritation. Toward the dead end of the memoir, she mentions this, and that it is time to get mad. There's an opportunity here to build toward the kind of crescendo that one expects in any story, whether it's fictional or personal, a rising and falling action that satisfies. Yet she leaves it dangling. I wonder whether fear of disapproval by her colleagues, students, and other people in her daily life have caused her to hold back, to inoculate her feelings during this turbulent time into something less than they really were.
I think that having cancer so early in life, though it may have contributed to her survival (the young being more likely to heal) also threw off the progress that she, and all young people go through in building a life. Most who get breast cancer, do so when they already have their whole house in order, so to speak. I've known a number of such women. They have a spouse or children who can be counted on to take them to appointments and look after them; Gwen ends up on her mother's sofa. Most women who deal with this have either a secure career or are retired; Gwen is still on a tenure track at school, and is forced to miss an entire semester for treatment, though she tries hard to avoid doing so. And most women have already invented their personalities, and are not dealing with the question she faces, though not squarely or dramatically enough in print, IMO, of "Who am I, and why am I here?"
There is a lot that could be done with this memoir to make it a good general read. Published in the original journal format she used, it lifts whole entries posted at CaringBridge.org, which sounds like a cancer support network, but it doesn't clean up the grammar, abbreviations, or mistaken punctuation. There is no effort to build the story to a climax; there is a photograph of her on the back of the book with a man and child, her new family, and the guy gets half a page at the end. The child is not mentioned at all. This is where it disappoints. Mostly, it is not an entirely honest read. On page 156, in the midst of all the cancer treatment and further planning, "I ended up vomiting in the bathroom". She is afraid she might be getting fat; she is a "former bulimic".
Really? Say what? Oh, no you didn't just drop that in there! What's up with that? Either talk to us about it as part of the whole story, or log back onto your computer and pull it out. She takes us through the in's and out's of the marriage (to an immature young man she was better off without; when he wanted to leave and she begged him to stay, I wanted to tell her, as the staff members at her school more or less did, to offer him a rookie card of some famous athlete if he'll run along and get out of her hair). She takes us through the roller coaster of her dating life, except for the one who really matters. And halfway through the read, we find out that she is throwing up in the potty on purpose? I think not!
For those dealing with breast cancer on a personal level, this is a valuable resource. She shares (and this is a teacher word that means "tells") a number of great sources of information at the end of the memoir, but the memoir itself is also a painstakingly clear record of blood levels, medications, and even the quacks in Mexico that she is smart enough to deflect when a controlling boyfriend attempts to coerce her away from chemotherapy and toward the Third World's solution.
There is gold to be mined here for breast cancer patients, and a lot survivors will likely be interested in and relate to it. This is her primary audience, and the book says as much on the cover.
Gwen's three lumps are gone, and she's still here. If you are facing the challenges that she has lived through, this book can give you both information and strength.
Read
February 29, 2016Local woman's memoir of dealing with breast cancer; dragged a bit and somewhat choppy, but inspiring.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews