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A humorous, intimate, compassionate insight into the experience of illness and the process of recovery
Hi...and welcome. If you've found your way here, you or someone you know probably has lymphoma. I know how scary that is...and how lonely it can feel.
When I was first diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, I didn't know anyone who had ever had it. I felt alone with a disease that no one else had. That, of course, wasn't true.
Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma has the fifth highest incidence of all the cancers, and it's claimed the lives of some famous people, but I wanted to connect with people who had lived. I desperately wanted to know how they and their families coped. How lymphoma affected their daily lives. And how they maintained their identities as cancer transformed them from "normal" people into patients. At the time, little existed to answer the questions.
Through months of unsuccessful treatments and side effects, I found some of my own answers by keeping a journal. Writing, I found, forced me to identify my feelings and to figure out ways of coping with them.
I never was exactly sure how my husband managed to get through my illness. He proclaimed himself my biggest cheerleader the moment I was diagnosed and thereafter refused to admit what I often saw in his eyes. When I began turning my journal into a book, he "granted" me several interviews and told me the real story, which I had suspected all along.
The result is more than a simple recollection of medical problems and procedures. You'll ride with us as - together and separately - we rode cancer's emotional roller coaster from the moment of diagnosis until after treatment ended. You'll glimpse its impact on our marriage, our friends, our family and our own self-identities. You'll discover the role that my extraordinary medical team played in both my illness and my recovery. And you'll learn about the new treatment that saved my life after all else failed. If you have low-grade lymphoma, please take the time to read about it in "Radioimmunotherapy: The Treatment That Saved My Life."
The Roller Coaster Chronicles is the story I desperately wanted to hear when I was diagnosed. Though I never dreamed I'd end up writing it and though Alex and I were at first reluctant to bare our souls, we never wanted anyone to feel alone again. And so this book is for all who follow in our footsteps - patients, family members and friends. While each of our situations is unique, there are common threads to all our stories, and we hope that ours will offer you comfort, a tip or two to help you build your own survival techniques...and most of all, encouragement and hope.
Warmly,
Betsy is an inspiring, entertaining and experienced speaker who has spoken to patients and their families, to medical professionals about their impact on patients and families, and to donors about the importance of supporting cancer research. Recent engagements include Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Oncology Nursing Society, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. Contact Betsy to arrange for her to inspire and entertain your next audience.
Learn about radioimmunotherapy, the treatment that saved my life, best read in order:
to learn about radioimmunotherapy, the treatment that saved my life, and read other success stories!
Experts discuss lymphoma and helpful coping strategies on a series of
I hosted.
Comprehensive info about
the treatment that saved
my life.
Join me on
Listen to recent broadcasts on which I was a guest:
Watch the progress of a documentary
that was filmed during the summer of 2009 and will soon be released.
