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Diagnosed at the young age of 38 with Inflammatory Breast Cancer, Dorothy A. Geary was shocked to learn that the five-year survival rate for her type of cancer at the time was zero percent. Initially given no hope, Dottie, who still had young children at home, was thrown into the underworld of the worst breast cancer nightmare. After extensive experimental treatments, there are now no visible sign... More

Diagnosed at the young age of 38 with Inflammatory Breast Cancer, Dorothy A. Geary was shocked to learn that the five-year survival rate for her type of cancer at the time was zero percent. Initially given no hope, Dottie, who still had young children at home, was thrown into the underworld of the worst breast cancer nightmare. After extensive experimental treatments, there are now no visible signs of cancer-eight years after her original diagnosis. Her story of survival is the best translation of H O P E any woman might find.

Convinced that more could be done to offer comfort and hope to other women with breast cancer, Dorothy set about to fill a gap on the resource book shelves. After surveying the books available, she found there were "large medical books that husbands and dads do not read, and children couldn't understand. There are women to women books... showing actual photographs of naked women with mastectomy scars and reconstruction...that couldn't be shared with anyone but my husband (and he only looked once)." What was 'out there' seemed either too simple, too dismal or too cerebral.

In trying to reach out to the younger women of child-bearing age being diagnosed with more aggressive cancers-the average age of aggressive cancer is 35-Dorothy has touched women of all ages with her insights, art, compassion and gentle humor. The content of this book is not heavy or academic. It addresses the very palpable issues and feelings each person experiences with the diagnosis, treatment and healing of breast cancer. The simple sketches reach to the heart of our most basic fears, aloneness, and colliding feelings, as we deal with the emotional, physical, spiritual and familial implications of what is happening to our bodies, when they are assaulted by cancer.

This book, placed on the table among others will be the first book patients choose. It reads quickly in a hospital or waiting room. Even though it talks openly about cancer, no one will be embarrassed to leave it on the coffee table in their living room. It's cute and written simply enough that even small children can understand. You'll laugh, and cry, and laugh again as Dorothy uses her experiences to help you through your journey.

Before You, There Was Me... is a precious resource for any woman or family experiencing breast cancer. A merciful and hopeful gift from another survivor! Every physician who must share the diagnosis, every center that provides treatment, every health professional who offers services, every caretaker or loved one who wants to support a woman with breast cancer all the way to wellness, should have this gem of a book within arm's reach.

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