Check Your Language

The language of cancer: victim, survivor, thriver, patient. What do you call yourself and what do others call you? Below is a link from New York Times Health Pages and author Susan Gubar, who wrote the terrific book called, "Memoir of a Debulked Woman" about her ovarian cancer experience.

In the article below she writes about cancer's language and how we identify ourselves. She raises the tricky linguistics versus timing question: if you are not at the five year mark can you claim "survivor? If your cancer was 20 years ago can you still play that card? I live with these questions . I'm a cancer caregiver and a cancer...what? survivor? patient? person?

Gubar is simply a great writer. So click on the link below and take a look. And share this one with your friends.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/not-a-cancer-survivor/?smid=pl-share

Graphic Novels

I got this new book, “American Widow” by Alissa Torres, from the library yesterday. I read two pages on my way to the Town Board meeting and then four hours later (after a horrific meeting that lasted until almost midnight) I read more to distract and soothe my brain, and finished the book this morning.

Take a look at this book: You may even be able to read it in a chair at the bookstore. It’s a graphic novel and clearly one of the best examples of why this genre can work better to tell some stories than a full narrative with words. The other book that I have seen do this in an equally powerful way is the funny but also poignant “Cancer Vixen” by Marissa Marchetto. Interesting that these graphic memoirs—two stories of woman surviving our worst fears--loss of the one we love and the threat of losing our own life—are best told with fewer words and more images.

And yes, these are the threads of love in the time of cancer. How do I face fear and loss and the paradox of staying a vixen, a caregiver and an independent woman?