Living Well Beyond Breast Cancer: A Survivor's Guide for When Treatment Ends and the Rest of Your Life Begins » (Updated)

What do I do now? Why am I still so tired? Am I really cured? How do I reduce my risk of recurrence? Is it safe for me to get pregnant? How do I get rid of the hot flashes so I can sleep?  

This fully revised and updated second edition contains crucial information about these issues and more—including the revolutionary medical advances in follow-up testing, ongoing treatments, and recovery. With answers for everything from how to deal with hair loss and weight gain to finding online support groups and understanding healthy foods and supplements, Living Well Beyond Breast Cancer contains a greater depth and breadth of information in its enhanced chapters—plus all-new chapters that cover current treatment options and preventative tips for those at high risk for developing breast cancer.

Enhanced Chapters:
•    Tests: Peer, Poke, and Prod
•    After Mastectomy: Re-creating a Breast with or Without Surgery
•    Intimacy, Sex, and Your Love Life: Relieving Discomfort and Increasing Libido
•    A Child in Your Future: Fertility, Pregnancy, and Adoption
•    Reducing Your Risk: Living Well

All-New Information:
•    Pre-Survivors: Risks and Prevention
•    Thinking and Remembering: Clearing the Fog and Sharpening Your Mind
•    Bone Health: Weakness Explained and Strengthening Exercises
•    Sleep: Restoration and Renewal
 
With this book as your guide, you’ll have the tools not just to live beyond breast cancer, but to live well and well beyond this challenge in your life!

Publishers Weekly

This expanded second edition includes updated information reflecting advances in breast cancer treatment made in the past decade. Weiss, a physician specializing in breast cancer and founder of Breastcancer.org, and her mother, a writer and breast cancer survivor, have included new chapters on “mind-fog,” bone health, intimacy and sex, as well as the latest on hormone therapies, drugs and other treatments, and diagnostic technology. The text also covers topics that seem more suited to those who have been recently diagnosed or are still undergoing treatment (i.e., choosing a physician, hair loss, breast reconstruction and traveling the maze of scans and tests). Some survivors may prefer to race to the later chapters, which focus on life style choices, environmental concerns and genetic factors, homing in and preventing and managing recurrence. The authors explain that while several of the most influential risk factors (family history, being a woman and getting older) can't be controlled, women have the power to modify such other risks as weight gain (a hazard for recurrence as well as lymphedema), exercise, diet, smoking and use of alcohol. Women at any stage of the breast cancer journey, including those grappling with emotional issues surrounding the chance of recurrence, will benefit from the Weisses' up-to-date and uplifting outlook. (Jan.)

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Living Well Beyond Breast Cancer xi

Part 1 Treatment Over, On with Your Life

1 Over, Not Over 3

2 Support: Building a Network 15

Part 2 Additional Care Beyond Treatment

3 You and Your Doctors: Continuing Care 33

4 You and Other Health Care Professionals: Allied Care Team 63

5 Tests: Peer, Poke, Prod 76

6 After Mastectomy: Re-creating a Breast-With or Without Surgery 109

7 Ongoing Therapy: Hormonal, Herceptin, and Other Treatments 141

Part 3 Coping with Side Effects of Treatment

8 Fatigue and Loss of Energy 163

9 Understanding and Controlling Pain 173

Swelling (Lymphedema), Stiffness, and Skin Changes: Prevention and Management 205

11 Hair Loss and Nail Changes: Terrible but Temporary 230

12 Bone Health: Weaknesses and Strengths 247

13 Thinking and Remembering: Clearing the Fog and Sharpening Your Mind 268

14 Menopause and Growing Older: Hot and Cold, Wet and Dry 285

Part 4 Caring for Your New Self

15 Sleep: Restoration and Renewal 315

16 Your Immune System: Blows and Boosts 329

17 Sustenance: Nutrition and Supplements 338

18 Weight and Exercise: Gains and Losses 358

19 Intimacy, Sex, and Your Love Life 380

20 A Child in Your Future: Fertility, Pregnancy, Adoption 399

Part 5 Preventing and Managing Recurrence

Reducing the Risk of Breast Cancer 425

22 Recurrence: If Cancer Comes Back 443

23 Endings: Comfort, Closure, and the Circle of Life 459

Conclusion: Through Crisis Comes Opportunity 481

Index 487