by Carol Page
[Breast Cancer? Let Me Check My Schedule, by Donna Cederberg, Daria Davidson, Joy Edwards, Carol Hebestreit, Betsy Lambert, Amy Langer, Cathy Masamitsu, Sally Snodgrass, Carol Stack, and Carol Washington. (Vancouver, WA: Innovative Medical Education Consortium, Inc., 1994).]
While a diagnosis of breast cancer is devastating to any woman, patient surveys have revealed that professional women, used to controlling all aspects of their busy lives, find it difficult for their own reasons. They develop unique coping stragegies and, as patients, seek more information, take an active role in decision making, and insist on being treated as intelligent, capable partners in their treatment. This book illuminates these differences for the benefit of other women, as well as health care professionals who are often stressed by this kind of patient.
The authors are ten professional women who have been treated for breast cancer. They represent a cross-section of lifestyles, ages, ethnic backgrounds, and geographic locations. One of them is Carol Stack, a professor in Berkeley's Graduate School of Education and in women's studies. The authors discuss and analyze every aspect of their experience: the discovery of their cancer; deciding on treatment; undergoing treatment; its impact on their work, insurance, and sick leave; its affect on their relationships and their sexuality; dealing with emotions; genetic implications; helping family cope; and "cancer as a wake-up call."
The drive that makes these women so successful in their careers is evident in their particular styles of coping. Yet their insights will be invaluable to all of those one-in-eight women diagnosed with breast cancer. --Carol Page *