After Breast Cancer: A Common-Sense Guide to Life after Treatment » (REV)

Hester Hill Schnipper, LICSW, brings a unique expertise to her subject: not only her many years as an oncology social worker and the creator of a highly respected support program for women with breast cancer—but also her own experience as a breast cancer survivor. A member of the Oncology Social Work Department at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, she lives outside Boston with her husband, the distinguished medical oncologist Lowell E. Schnipper, MD.

As women quickly discover, their life when treatment ends is very different from what it was before their diagnosis. Often exhausted, anxious, and emotionally volatile, they are beset by physical discomforts, fearful of intimacy, afraid for their children, worried about recurrence. Anticipating a return to “normalcy,” they discover that the old version of normal no longer applies.

There could be no more knowledgeable guide for women embarking on this complicated journey than Hester Hill Schnipper, who is herself both an experienced oncology social worker and a breast cancer survivor. This comprehensive handbook provides jargon-free information on the wide range of practical issues women face as they navigate the journey back to health, including:

•Managing physical problems such as fatigue, hot flashes, and aches and pains

•Handling relationships: your children, your partner, your parents, your friends.

•How to regain emotional and sexual intimacy

•Coping with financial and workplace issues

•Genetic testing: why, whether, when

•How to move beyond the fear of recurrence

•And much more

This indispensable book will help you rediscover your capacity for joy as you move forward into the future—as a survivor.