The New Cancer Survivors: Living with Grace, Fighting with Spirit

257 Pages·1999·5.67 MB·English

by  Natalie Davis Spingarn

m The New Cancer Survivors
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The New
Cancer Survivors
Living with Grace,
Fighting with Spirit
Natalie DavisS pingarn
The Johns Hopltins University Press
Baltimore and London
Note to threa der: This book is not intendepdr otvoi de medical or legal advice
for peoplew ith cancer. The servicoef sa competentp rofessional should be
obtained wheneverm edical, legal, or other specific advicei s needed.
0 1999 Natalie DavisS pingarn
All rightsr eserved. Published 1999
Printed in the United Staotef sA merica on acid-free paper
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The JohnHs oplrins University Press
2715 North Charles Street
Baltimore,Maryland~1~18-4363
www.press.jhu.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data will be found at theo f end
this book.
A catalogr ecord fort his book is available from theB ritish Library.
ISBN 0-8018-6266-3
ISBN 0-8018-6267-1[p blr.)
“I reason, Earth is shor.t . . ” is reprintedb y permission of the publishers and the
Trustees of Amherst College from The Poems of Emily DickinsonT,h omas H.
Johnson, ed., Cambridge, Mass.:T he Belltnap Press of Harvard UniversityP ress,
copyright0 1951,1955,1979,1983bythePresidentandFellowsofHarvard
College.
Excerpt from “East Coker” inF our Quartets, copyright0 1943b y T. S . Eliot and
renewed I 97 I by Esme Valerie Eliot, reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace
&Company.
”Ode to my Cancer-RiddBeno dy” from An Unfinished Life,c opynght0 1990
by Barbara Boggs Sigmund, reprintedb y permission of the Arts Councoifl
Princeton.
“Watching the Moon” fromTh e InkD ark Moonb y Jane Hirshfield and Mariko
Aratami, copyright 0 I 990 by Jane Hirshfield and Mariko Aratami, repribnyte d
permission of Vintage Books, a division of Random House Inc.
“Gravy“ by RaymondCarverinA NewPath to the Waterfallc, opyright 0 1989
by The Estaotfe Raymond Carver, reprintebdy permission of Grove/Atlantic,
Inc.
For my fellow survivors, past, present, and future:
Be strong, Be Strong, and u lse tS trengthen One Another.
-adapted from II Samuel 10:12 and I Chronicles 19:13
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@ Contents
Preface ix
1 Hanging In There
2 The Bad News
3 Talking and Hoping
4 Being Sick: The Short Run
5 A New Subculture: The NewS urvivors
6 Tools and Crutches
7 Complementary and Alternative Therapies
8 Significant Others: A Part of the Main
9 The Media and the Message: Cancer asM etaphor
10 Work: The Passion of Labor
11 Money
12 The Big Picture: A Search for Meaning
Appendix: The Cancer Survivors’ Bill of Rights 217
Notes 22 I
Index 23 3
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Preface
Living is what thisb ook is about, notd ying-except insofar as
dying has, in thep ast few years, become a parto f the natural
process of living. Some of the “cancer book^" now happily
available on bookshop and librarys helves tell personal tales of
great fortitude; others describe special cures ranging from vitamin
therapy and mind control to shark cartilage. Still othersp rovide a
wealth of material ond ifferent aspects of survivorship, like the
prevention of cancer and its recurrence.
This book takes the matter beyond the how-to and personal
story approaches to address realistically the paramount issues
for thoseo f us whoa re, after alls, till alive: livingw ith a serious,
scary illness, and dealing with what that illness brings in both
our medical and nonmedical lives, without becoming a burden
to ourselves and those around us. It is neither a case history nor
a medical tome. Rather, it is the distiolfl atthieo nex periences
of the author, who is also a health care wriotfe ro,t h aenrds who
have been through it all.
It aims to be useful to all survivors and to those who are help-
ing them. And thougith d oes not try to “put a happy face” onto
painful human and social problemit ss,e eks to serve as a matter-
of-fact, upbeatg ift for the newo r seasoned survivor.
For much of my adullti fe, I have written about heaclathre
and social policy for newspapers and magazines. AI ffetellr ill
with cancer in thee arly I ~ ~ OIS be,g an to write in termof sm y
own experience, particularly in thWea shington Post’s “Out-