What do you think?
Rate this book
Living with Breast Cancer: The Step-by-Step Guide to Minimizing Side Effects and Maximizing Quality of Life
Your complete resource for handling the physical and emotional effects of breast cancer treatments. At the time of diagnosis, breast cancer patients are faced with many overwhelming decisions about possible treatments. Living with Breast Cancer provides you with an overview of what to expect from testing and treatment, which cancer specialists you may need to see, and common terms to use to help communicate your needs to your team. This empathetic resource full of relatable stories teaches patients and caregivers how to ask the right questions to get the best possible care. The authors explain how to minimize the symptoms and side effects of treatment and outline coping strategies to deal with the stress of breast cancer treatment, including the changes in your body from cancer and its therapies. The book helps readers • make sense of their diagnosis
• set goals and prepare for treatment
• understand the different types of therapies, tests, and scans
• manage the symptoms and side effects of treatment, such as nausea, fatigue, shortness of breath, weight fluctuations, and depression
• learn what medications and lifestyle modifications can help with symptoms
• live and cope with progressive cancer Living with Breast Cancer is your definitive resource for handling the physical and emotional effects of breast cancer and treatment.
• set goals and prepare for treatment
• understand the different types of therapies, tests, and scans
• manage the symptoms and side effects of treatment, such as nausea, fatigue, shortness of breath, weight fluctuations, and depression
• learn what medications and lifestyle modifications can help with symptoms
• live and cope with progressive cancer Living with Breast Cancer is your definitive resource for handling the physical and emotional effects of breast cancer and treatment.
- GenresHealth
352 pages, Paperback
Published September 20, 2022
2 people are currently reading
3 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Want to read
January 28, 2026“I remember standing in the lobby of a hospital in Boston on the morning of 9/11. We’d gathered there after news of a hijacking had spread, and we watched on TV as the towers collapsed. Like everyone else I kept watching it over and over again because I couldn’t grasp what was going on. I saw it, but I couldn’t quite believe it. That’s when a patient took my arm and said, “That feeling you all have right now - that it’s so unreal, that it can’t be true. That’s what it feels like to be told that you have cancer.” 3
“At that time most oncologists referred patients to palliative care only at the end of life, to help them deal with the unique medical and emotional concerns that arise after anti-cancer treatments have been suspended. Some oncologists didn’t understand how their patients would benefit from seeing an additional doctor or nurse practitioner earlier in treatment.
And yet, when I met with patients, I found that I was sometimes the first person to ask them how they were spending their time every day, how they were sleeping, and whether there was anything they wanted to do that they couldn’t because of the treatment. I also asked them detailed questions about how they were doing in the days after an infusion (intravenous chemotherapy) and went over all of the medications given to treat their symptoms, asking, “Is this working for you?” And “How well is it working?” Or “Should we try something else?” 5
MANAGING THE SIDE EFFECTS OF HORMONAL THERAPY
“Hormonal therapies, also known as endocrine therapies, are some of the most commonly used drugs to treat breast cancer (see Chapter 4). Specifically, they are used to treat women with breast cancers that have the estrogen or progesterone receptor, although some tumors have both receptors. Tumors that have these receptors are said to be estrogen receptor-positive and/or progesterone receptor-positive. Some people use the term hormone receptor-positive more generally. Having this receptor means that estrogen can stimulate a tumor cell to grow and replicate. Hormonal therapies block estrogen from binding to cell receptors, or prevent the body from creating estrogen. This blocks tumor cells from growing and replicating. 117
CONTROLLING NAUSEA 130
MANAGING CONSTIPATION AND DIARRHEA 145
MINIMIZING PAIN 161
SHORTNESS OF BREATH 179
GAINING OR LOSING WEIGHT 189
SUDDEN FEVER 203
CLOTTING AND BLEEDING ISSUES 210
EXHAUSTION 214
DEPRESSED OR ANXIOUS 227
AFFECT THE BRAIN 241
CANCER IS PROGRESSING 251
HOPING WITH ADVANCING CANCER 262
HEALTHCARE PROXY 272.
LIFE SUSTAINING TREATMENT 273
LEGACY WORK 280
DOCTOR SAID TREATMENT IS NO LONGER WORKING 282
MY BODY FEELS LIKE IT’S SHUTTING DOWN 291
“At that time most oncologists referred patients to palliative care only at the end of life, to help them deal with the unique medical and emotional concerns that arise after anti-cancer treatments have been suspended. Some oncologists didn’t understand how their patients would benefit from seeing an additional doctor or nurse practitioner earlier in treatment.
And yet, when I met with patients, I found that I was sometimes the first person to ask them how they were spending their time every day, how they were sleeping, and whether there was anything they wanted to do that they couldn’t because of the treatment. I also asked them detailed questions about how they were doing in the days after an infusion (intravenous chemotherapy) and went over all of the medications given to treat their symptoms, asking, “Is this working for you?” And “How well is it working?” Or “Should we try something else?” 5
MANAGING THE SIDE EFFECTS OF HORMONAL THERAPY
“Hormonal therapies, also known as endocrine therapies, are some of the most commonly used drugs to treat breast cancer (see Chapter 4). Specifically, they are used to treat women with breast cancers that have the estrogen or progesterone receptor, although some tumors have both receptors. Tumors that have these receptors are said to be estrogen receptor-positive and/or progesterone receptor-positive. Some people use the term hormone receptor-positive more generally. Having this receptor means that estrogen can stimulate a tumor cell to grow and replicate. Hormonal therapies block estrogen from binding to cell receptors, or prevent the body from creating estrogen. This blocks tumor cells from growing and replicating. 117
CONTROLLING NAUSEA 130
MANAGING CONSTIPATION AND DIARRHEA 145
MINIMIZING PAIN 161
SHORTNESS OF BREATH 179
GAINING OR LOSING WEIGHT 189
SUDDEN FEVER 203
CLOTTING AND BLEEDING ISSUES 210
EXHAUSTION 214
DEPRESSED OR ANXIOUS 227
AFFECT THE BRAIN 241
CANCER IS PROGRESSING 251
HOPING WITH ADVANCING CANCER 262
HEALTHCARE PROXY 272.
LIFE SUSTAINING TREATMENT 273
LEGACY WORK 280
DOCTOR SAID TREATMENT IS NO LONGER WORKING 282
MY BODY FEELS LIKE IT’S SHUTTING DOWN 291
January 11, 2023
audible:Very well written and understandable to everyone.I got this book to read to learn more about what my sister would be going through.I would recommend it to everyone with someone going through this. It had so much information and will be very helpful. Lauren Pedersen was a wonderful Narrator. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews