Free Downloads Let Me Get This Off My Chest: A Breast Cancer Survivor Over-Shares
Tamoxifen hot flashes, mastectomy, reconstruction, breast cancer etiquette, Frankenboobs, bras with special attachments—Margaret Lesh shares all in her funny, heartfelt collection of essays, anecdotes, and life lessons from the perspective of a two-time breast cancer survivor. She’ll tell you when it’s okay to play the cancer card, what you should take to the hospital, and gives suggestions on how to cope in those dark moments of the soul. With practical tips sprinkled throughout, LET ME GET THIS OFF MY CHEST explores how breast cancer changed her outlook on life, offering honest insights, humor, and sensitivity as she looks for the silver lining in a not-so-great situation. Whether you are a woman diagnosed with breast cancer or whether you know someone with breast cancer, this book was written for you.
Paperback: 202 pages
Publisher: StoryRhyme.com Publishing; 1 edition (July 15, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0615812511
ISBN-13: 978-0615812519
Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.5 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (163 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #325,732 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #107 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Diseases & Physical Ailments > Cancer > Breast Cancer #1626 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Women's Health
This book does memoir right. Perfectly paced and deliciously readable, Let Me Get This Off My Chest combines self-help, education, humor, and reflection. The book is so beautifully human--personal without being over done, funny without being distracting. Have you read memoirs or non-fiction where you skip chunks because the author trails off into filler? Gunk that makes the book longer but not better? There is no gunk here, except the gunk left behind by surgical tape, no filler except the saline in the post-mastectomy frankenboobs. The author chose to organize the book in a VERY useful, entertaining way and though you might *have to* finish the book in one sitting, if you do read a few pages and have to set it down, you'll be able to pick right back up as though you never left. That's a well-told story.The book's themes are very universally applicable. Anyone whose life has been touched by illness, injury, loss can relate to it without that exhausting feeling of being emotionally dragged back through the hard time. The book's tone balances a difficult subject with lovely precision--never overly painful, never like opening a wound--this was like having a cup of coffee with a friend whose been there. The author is both a thoughtful person and a skilled writer--those qualities are reflected in the various scenarios she shares--the wig party (LOVED THIS!!) is a scene I will remember for years to come; the loss of women in her life going through the same thing when their paths diverge. Support groups, spouses, work, money--all the good stuff is there but told in a way that hasn't been done to death and I don't think has been done this well until now.If you think reading a book about cancer will scare you or make you sad, don't be afraid. This book won't hurt, I promise, unless belly laughs cause you pain. But even then, it's worth it.
This is not the first book that I have read (or, I should say, tried to read) on the topic of breast cancer. However, it is the only one that I've finished. My previous reads just brought me to tears. That's not what I was looking for. Let Me Get This Off My Chest was exactly what I needed. I am 4 weeks post bi-lateral mastectomy. This book provided me with the information that I needed to feel somewhat normal. I can relate to the writer on almost every level. The subject matter is heavy, duh!, but was handled in a light-hearted manner. It's a quick, easy, and valuable read.
The author strikes the perfect tone of humor and intimacy as she chronicles her breast cancer experiences. Like a trusted girl friend who tells it like it is, she shares her fears, struggles, and hopes as she navigates the world of breast cancer surgery, treatment and its impact on her family and friends. As someone who has traveled this territory three times. I recommend this highly readable and optimistic book.
I lost my grandmother to ovarian cancer. She was diagnosed and then dead 13 days later. Cancer...scariest word there is, period.Margaret manages to capture every human emotion there is in this book. I've now read it twice. As tough as the subject matter is and as much as I wish she, or anyone, didn't have to go through this, she left me feeling like no matter what, everything would be okay.
Within hours of receiving this book in the mail, I had read the entire story cover to cover! As I took in the intimate details of Lesh's battle with breast cancer, I felt like I was sitting with a friend in my living room, listening to her personal tale over a glass of wine. Her easygoing and genuine recount of her journey through two rounds of diagnoses, treatments, post-op adventures, and finally reconstruction offered a beautiful mixture of tender emotions and comedic fascination.Lesh revealed the private parts of her story, like bodily reactions to medications, sex, and psychological darkness, with such an art of honest and humorous couth that I appreciated the "overshare" of information.In addition to sharing her personal experience, Margaret Lesh does the reader a favor in listing out tips for caregiving, hospital stays, and post-op comfort plus great resources of information for different phases of the cancer-fighting process.I truly feel that if/when my time comes to battle cancer of any form, I have a comrade who I can turn to for advice, understanding, and most importantly, a good hearty laugh amid the serious business that is cancer.
Margaret doesn't hold back any punches and isn't afraid to say what she was going through in every aspect of her life with this terrible "monster" known as cancer. There are so many of us out there (whether they are just beginning to go through this ordeal) or like Margaret (going through it again); her "over-shares" are "our shares". I'm glad she wrote this book and glad that the publisher wasn't afraid to print it! Congratulations, Margaret, for beating the odds again and God bless you! Hope you won't have to write a sequel to this book.....but keep your books coming! You're books are a pleasure to read!
This is a must read if you, like me, have had anyone close affected by cancer. You will laugh and cry at Margaret's first-hand experiences. Excellent book with a lot of insight, hope and wisdom.
Let Me Get This Off My Chest: A Breast Cancer Survivor Over-Shares Getting Things Off My Chest: A Survivor's Guide to Staying Fearless and Fabulous in the Face of Breast Cancer Cancer Survivorship Coping Tools - We'll Get you Through This: Tools for Cancer's Emotional Pain From a Melanoma and Breast Cancer Survivor Breast Cancer and Me: The Hope-filled and Sometimes Humerous Story of a Breast Cancer Survivor Restorative Yoga For Breast Cancer Recovery: Gentle Flowing Yoga For Breast Health, Breast Cancer Related Fatigue & Lymphedema Management The Breast Cancer Survival Manual, Fifth Edition: A Step-by-Step Guide for Women with Newly Diagnosed Breast Cancer Breast Cancer and Iodine : How to Prevent and How to Survive Breast Cancer I Am Not My Breast Cancer: Women Talk Openly About Love and Sex, Hair Loss and Weight Gain, Mothers and Daughters, and Being a Woman with Breast Cancer Fuck Off, Cancer: Breast Cancer Shaken not Stirred Bald Is Better with Earrings: A Survivor's Guide to Getting Through Breast Cancer Breast Cancer? Breast Health!: The Wise Woman Way (Wise Woman Herbal) Turning Off Breast Cancer: A Personalized Approach to Nutrition and Detoxification in Prevention and Healing The New Testosterone Treatment: How You and Your Doctor Can Fight Breast Cancer, Prostate Cancer, and Alzheimer's Easy Chicken Breast Cookbook: 50 Unique and Easy Chicken Breast Recipes F'k Cancer - Coping & Coloring: The Adult Coloring Book Full of Stress-Relieving Coloring Pages to Support Cancer Survivors & Cancer Awareness ... Books & Swear Word Coloring Books) (Volume 6) Semicolon; Memoir of a Colon Cancer Survivor Be a Survivor - Colorectal Cancer Treatment Guide On The Far Side of The Curve: A Stage IV Colon Cancer Survivor's Journey Leader of the Band: The Story of a Four-time Cancer Survivor Hollis Sigler's Breast Cancer Journal
