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Surviving the Cure: Cancer was Easy,* Living is Hard
I thought I knew cancer. After all, I'd lived it. And when I went into remission, I thought I was in the clear. It wouldn't be long before I could get back to a normal life and rejoin my friends.
However, I soon learned cancer was only the beginning. Not long after I returned home, my lungs started failing. The cure was killing me.
Extreme treatments prevented an all-but-certain death, but at great cost: 100 pounds of weight gain, emotional and mental trauma, and a bone disease for which joint replacements were the only fix.
Though I was in physical and mental agony after my release from the hospital, I decided to try to piece together a life worth living. One where I could be happy, could joke about my condition, could have the best parking spots. Maybe even one day hold the supremely enviable world record for most joints replaced.
But none of that could happen until I picked myself up. The only question was: could I?
However, I soon learned cancer was only the beginning. Not long after I returned home, my lungs started failing. The cure was killing me.
Extreme treatments prevented an all-but-certain death, but at great cost: 100 pounds of weight gain, emotional and mental trauma, and a bone disease for which joint replacements were the only fix.
Though I was in physical and mental agony after my release from the hospital, I decided to try to piece together a life worth living. One where I could be happy, could joke about my condition, could have the best parking spots. Maybe even one day hold the supremely enviable world record for most joints replaced.
But none of that could happen until I picked myself up. The only question was: could I?
- GenresNonfiction
334 pages, Paperback
Published February 28, 2017
About the author
Andrew Bundy
2 booksMy name is Andrew Bundy, a cancer survivor and also a survivor of the treatments that followed. Of the many things that saved me, humor and writing were at the top of the list (and continue to do so). I recently published my memoir about the hidden side of life after cancer, "Surviving the Cure: Cancer was Easy,* Living is Hard," now in print and as an ebook. It explores the rarely discussed topic of what life beyond cancer is really like, challenging the misconceptions people have that once you're "cured" of cancer, you can return to your old life after a few months of recovery. Instead, I wound up inadvertently being a serious contender for the most joint replacements—I'm at 10, the record is 12. I'm young enough that I'm pretty confident in obtaining that super-enviable record. I needed the surgeries anyway, might as well go for broke.
Though I've published nonfiction, my heart lies in fiction. My imagination runs rampant on a daily basis and has spawned numerous worlds, people, plots, and strange curse words. I've written dozens of short stories, and a few novels and novellas as well. I just gotta, you know, edit them. I tend to stick to sci-fi, satire, weird meta-stories, and post-apocalyptic genres. But really, I just write the story and then figure out where it "belongs" after it's done.
To learn more about my experiences with cancer, the cure, and to see updates about my progress with life, visit my blog at: Surviving the Cure
Though I've published nonfiction, my heart lies in fiction. My imagination runs rampant on a daily basis and has spawned numerous worlds, people, plots, and strange curse words. I've written dozens of short stories, and a few novels and novellas as well. I just gotta, you know, edit them. I tend to stick to sci-fi, satire, weird meta-stories, and post-apocalyptic genres. But really, I just write the story and then figure out where it "belongs" after it's done.
To learn more about my experiences with cancer, the cure, and to see updates about my progress with life, visit my blog at: Surviving the Cure
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 10, 2017
-?- was Easy,
People who have survived difficult times have experienced a part of life that exposes truths we do not often talk about. I was interested in what insights I might find in hearing this story. I will be thinking about a few things in my life that I may need to start looking at in a different way. This is not a book about cancer. It is a book about living.
People who have survived difficult times have experienced a part of life that exposes truths we do not often talk about. I was interested in what insights I might find in hearing this story. I will be thinking about a few things in my life that I may need to start looking at in a different way. This is not a book about cancer. It is a book about living.
March 17, 2017
A marvelously candid book that ventures into what it really means to go through cancer, then live a purposeful life *after* cancer–something that few books present. I finished this book in two days, eager to read more. The narrator is incredibly witty and will have you laughing about gross medical procedures while crying over the double-edged sword that is "the cure."
June 9, 2017
A powerful, poignant, and darkly-humorous story of not just the battle against cancer, but the years of emotional and physical trauma that come afterward, when a cancer survivor becomes a fighter against the cure that saved his life. Everyone should read this book.
December 17, 2017
******Goodreads Giveaway*******
This is a very vivid story of what it is to have cancer, survive and life after. Thankful that someone wrote about this perspective so that those of us that are friends of survivors can better understand. The only thing I didn’t like was the excessive use of the “f” word. Just not my thing. But thanks for sharing your story!
This is a very vivid story of what it is to have cancer, survive and life after. Thankful that someone wrote about this perspective so that those of us that are friends of survivors can better understand. The only thing I didn’t like was the excessive use of the “f” word. Just not my thing. But thanks for sharing your story!
September 28, 2017
The Whole Truth
As an RN, I am always trying to warn people about the "do everything possible" mentality, because they usually have no idea what "everything" can mean. Bundy does it beautifully.
As an RN, I am always trying to warn people about the "do everything possible" mentality, because they usually have no idea what "everything" can mean. Bundy does it beautifully.
March 30, 2017
A gritty look at surviving cancer
An eye opening look at what our teenagers go through during treatment as well as a tongue in cheek poke at the Doctors delivering it. Well worth the read.
An eye opening look at what our teenagers go through during treatment as well as a tongue in cheek poke at the Doctors delivering it. Well worth the read.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews