Ordinary Miracles

ISBN: 9780275994693

出版社: Greenwood Pub Group

出版年: 2007-4

页数: 250

定价: $ 56.44

装帧: HRD

内容简介

The author of this book, an esteemed surgeon, calls the survival rates today for women and men facing breast cancer nothing short of an "ordinary miracle." Ordinary, because the vast majority of patients live at least two decades after diagnosis, due to great advances that have been made in early detection, surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. But also a "miracle" because we know that key elements for a woman or man succeeding in a personal battle against breast cancer include completely intangible qualities of courage, fortitude, trust, persistence, faith, and hope. Although science cannot completely explain it, a supportive network of family and friends with those qualities also empower patient survival and recovery. In these pages, the author shares stories from his patients, teaching us about the experience of breast cancer and explaining how they found and fuelled the will and power to defeat the disease. The author admits that he cannot fully describe what goes through the hearts and minds of breast cancer patients as they discover, deal with, and finally triumph over the diagnosis. So, in this book, he acts as a narrator, letting his ordinary yet miraculous cancer survivors tell their stories, certainly filled with fear of the known and unknown, and with pain, but opening up to courage, love, sometimes humour, and finally hope. "It is hope that firms up their resilience; hope that initiates their fortitude. Hope is an important component of healing," says the surgeon. Seventy-one survivors, including one man, tell their stories to illustrate every step of the experience.