 |
When Grady receives a diagnosis of breast cancer, she begins keeping a journal documenting her journey through the medical processes and mental anguish of cancer. Inflammatory breast cancer, or IBC, is a rare and extremely aggressive form of breast cancer that “accounts for one to three percent of all breast cancer cases in the United States.” Immediate chemotherapy is the first line of treatment, followed by surgery to remove the breast and then radiation therapy. The author decides to leave her job in advertising to concentrate on her treatment and begins to research IBC. In this research, she discovers a new drug, Herceptin, which has shown promising results from clinical trials. In 1998, Herceptin was new territory for treatment, but Grady found a doctor willing to treat her with the medicine. This book consists of the journals she kept during her treatment.
One thing that shines through this work is the author’s indelible spirit. There are moments of devastating sadness along with those that embrace the joy of life. The work is an honest, no-holds-barred revelation of the author’s medical procedures and her physical and emotional reaction to them. Even in the midst of her treatment, Grady finds humor and irony in what is happening to her. The included information on the drug Herceptin, which she discovered in her own personal research, is an interesting part of the work, as is her fight to find treatment with the drug. A nice touch is her relationship with her grandmother who is supportive and encouraging. She writes in a conversational manner which invites the reader into her world. Grady’s book will encourage anyone who reads it to treat each day as a special occasion and to fully live in each moment. This one should not be missed.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review