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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:
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 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/. |
