Dr Bernadine Healy Covers Cancer Etiquette in Living Time
Dr Bernadine Healy, a respected cardiologist and brain cancer survivor, has written a book which includes useful advice for people wondering what to say — or not say — to a friend or family member recently diagnosed with cancer.
In 1991, President George H.W. Bush appointed Dr Healy the first woman director of the National Institutes of Health. She was also chosen to lead the American Red Cross during their response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
After being diagnosed with a brain tumor in early 1999, Dr Healy was surprised by some of the awkward comments and gestures she received from those who discovered she was a cancer patient. People who meant well would do inappropriate things like grabbing her hair to see if she was wearing a wig and one woman told her “It’s amazing how good you can look when you’re dying.”
Hoping to spare future cancer patients the discomfort of these difficult encounters, the doctor decided to include practical tips on cancer etiquette when she wrote her own book Living Time – Faith and Facts to Transform Your Cancer Journey.
One simple piece of advice she offers readers is to think about how you’d like to be treated before you start speaking. As the author says,
“One thing you don’t want to do is to instantly assume it’s terminal.”
Bernadine Healy, MD
Oliogodendroglioma Survivor
Living Time covers more than just cancer etiquette, it also contains Dr Healy’s personal and professional insights about cancer treatments and the future of cancer research. To read an excerpt from her book, click here.
Living Time is published by Bantam, a division of Random House, Inc. To find out if a public library near you carries it, check out WorldCat.org
If you’d like more tips on supporting a loved one with cancer, there’s a lot of useful information on the Common Questions on Caring and Helping web page published by Massachusetts General Hospital.
Source: CNN
Related Links: Cleveland.com; getyourheadinthegame.org
Technorati Tags: cancer books; caregiving; cancer support; mixed gliomas; oncology
Print This
|
| Sphere: Related Content
No Comments »
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
Browse All Categories: Next article: Brookhaven Finds Faster Way to Tag Formaldehyde
Previous article: More Breast Cancer Surgeons Learning Plastic Surgery
