|
Wendi Fox Pedicone has penned an uplifting firsthand account of her breast cancer experience that Imagnis.com
proudly recommends. Diagnosed with advanced breast cancer in 2004, Ms. Pedicone
had no known risk factors and did not perform monthly breast self-exams. Her
tumor was found during an annual clinical exam offered at her workplace. Imaginis.com Editor Alissa Czyz was
asked to write the foreword (reprinted below) to Hanging Out With Lab Coats: Hope, Humor, and Help for Cancer
Patients and Their Caregivers. Part resource, part memoir, Ms. Pedicone's book takes cancer patients, survivors,
and caretakers on a captivating journey of self-discovery and hope.
Reprint of Foreword to:
Hanging Out With Lab Coats: Hope, Humor, and Help for Cancer Patients and Their Caregivers
A breast cancer diagnosis can trigger a host of reactions - denial, anger, apprehension,
frustration, hopelessness, depression, fear. What should I do? Which doctors should I see?
Which ones can I trust? What should I ask them? What tests do I need? What treatment is
best for me? Should I get a second opinion? A third opinion? How do I read my pathology
report? What exactly is a pathology report? Will I lose my breast? Will I lose my life? As editor of
Imaginis.com, I have heard from hundreds of breast cancer patients and survivors who have confided
that they didn't know where to begin to look for the answers to these and countless other
questions. Wendi Fox Pedicone's Hanging Out With Lab Coats: Hope, Humor, and Help for Cancer
Patients and Their Caregivers is that rare, exceptional resource that we are excited to add to our recommendations.
Ms. Pedicone asks, "Wouldn't it be magnificent to provide people with a wonderful reading experience
and help breast cancer patients get through their treatment by telling my story?" And this
is exactly what she does, with a wonderful balance of thoughtfulness and laughter. The reader is
invited to take the journey right alongside her, from the clinical breast exam where a nurse first
detects a lump to the mastectomy with TRAM flap reconstructive surgery to her hours of chemotherapy
and then radiation therapy.
While Ms. Pedicone provides readers with hundreds of detailed tips on almost every aspect of breast
cancer, from how to find reliable statistics on survival rates to how to locate a support
group, her book is much more than a directory of information on the best breast cancer resources
because each of her tips is framed within the context of her personal experience with the
disease. Through her near daily account of what it's like to be a cancer patient, Ms. Pedicone
covers the details that no one else talks about - how chemotherapy can give you gas, how
prescription-strength fluoride toothpaste may be needed while undergoing radiation, how sometimes
the best way to explain your illness to your three-year-old son is by sharing a dance. When
Ms. Pedicone sends out periodic e-mail updates to her friends, family, and coworkers, we
feel like one of the gang. We fight the battle with her, rejoice in the highs, suffer in the
lows, and ultimately share in her victory over "the invader."
Users of Imaginis.com often tell me that there aren't enough reliable sources of information on the breast
cancer experience available to the public. While Ms. Pedicone helpfully directs cancer patients, caregivers,
and families to her favorite resources, it is Ms. Pedicone's book that is the real find.
Alissa H. Czyz
Editor
Imaginis.com, The Breast Health Resource
To learn more about Ms. Pedicone, or to order her book, please visit 'Quick Picks' in the Imaginis.com bookstore
at http://www.imaginis.com/bookstore/.
|
