By Nora Cain
When individuals and families are faced with the daunting news of a cancer diagnosis, they need resources to help them understand the diagnosis and treatment options. The Health Library has a wide variety of these resources, and among them is a new series of patient-centered guides from O’Reilly & Associates publishers. These book are available without charge on The Health Library’s Web site and they may be checked out for 72 hours. The E-Books Link on the home page will take you to the search screen on the netLibrary collection where you can search through 560 health related topics.
For those familiar with other O’Reilly publications, these new books provide the same consistently high level of information and clear writing, which make the subject accessible and comprehensible for the reader. These deal with cancers other than those most commonly captured by the media.
The titles include “Colon and Rectal Cancer: A Comprehensive Guide for Patients & Families,” “Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma: Making Sense of Diagnosis, Treatment & Options” and “Childhood Cancer: A Parent’s Guide to Solid Tumor Cancers.”
These books offer a sense of the journey that cancer diagnosis is about to launch. They are good introductions to the subject, and serve as complementary texts to the more in depth treatment-specific information that most people will also seek. “Colon and Rectal Cancer” and “Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma” are written by Lorraine Johnstone and follow the same format. The author outlines the resources used to develop the book, while encouraging readers to make use of the indexes and bibliography for their own research as they begin the journey through cancer treatment and recovery.
She also explains who should read the book and more importantly, who should not. For instance, in “Colon and Rectal Cancer,” Johnstone points out that symptoms that mimic colorectal cancer can be attributed to other disorders and need to be diagnosed by a qualified physician; and that for malignancies of the gastrointestinal tract other than colorectal cancer, this book contains information that is incorrect for those diseases.
A similar warning precedes the beginning of “Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma,” which should help separate out the readers who may be attempting self-diagnosis.
“Colon and Rectal Cancer” begins, “In the face of fear, you’ve chosen to educate yourself about colorectal cancer and its treatment - a courageous and positive approach to moving past a dreadful event. This book will help you do so.”
The author allows the reader to have a clear idea that others have been through this experience and what to expect. The books move from diagnosis through treatment; and in the case of the colorectal cancer book, living with an ostomy and most of the concerns that attend having to wear an appliance. The author does not shy away from the specific details, and along with straightforward discussion, includes many clear illustrations that should help patients and family members have a better understanding of how to live a full life following surgery. Both books give a clear idea of what to expect from chemotherapy and radiation treatments, and suggested ways of coping with side effects. The author provides chapters on “Sexuality, Fertility and Pregnancy,” “Insurance,” and “Clinical Trails,” as well as “When Treatment Fails.”
The book “Childhood Cancer” by Honna James-Hodder and Nancy Keene differs from the preceding books in that is addressed to the parents and families of children who have been diagnosed with cancer. The chapters “Coping with Procedures,” “Surviving Your Child’s Hospitalization” and “Family and Friends” provide touchstones for those going through what is inevitably a difficult experience.
Having access to information about ways to make procedures more endurable and less frightening for children is a godsend. The authors are parents who have had children with cancer, and their intention is to provide shortcuts through the time and energy consuming process of collecting, assessing and prioritizing information for parents.
“After all, parents are busy providing much of the treatment that their child receives. They make all the appointments, prepare their child for procedures, buy and dispense medicines, deal with all of the physical and emotional side effects, and make daily decisions about when their child needs medical attention. In a sense, this book grew out of our concern that overwhelmed parents should not have to duplicate our efforts to gather and organize information,” the book explains.
The sections that deal with the specific solid tumor cancers of childhood provide good descriptions of the cancers and how they are treated.
The book includes a chapter on death and bereavement, and features appendices filled with detailed information about treatment centers, support organizations, books and online resources for doing in-depth research on the subject.
For anyone in need of a book that deals with any type of cancer, the O’Reilly books are a very good place to start.
Note: The Health Library resources are not intended as a substitute for medical care.
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