Thanks for the Mammogram!: Fighting Cancer With Faith, Hope, and a Healthy Dose of Laughter

Rating:
Summary: Laughing through the Pain
Review: "Almost everyone - whether it's your friend, neighbor, coworker, wife, mother, or sister ? has been touched by breast cancer. The cancer survivors I've talked to over the years say that what helped them through their ordeal was faith and often humor." ~Laura Jensen Walker

What is more healing than laughter when you are faced with a situation you can't control? Even science has shown the healing power of laughter. Cancer isn't funny, but somehow the author finds a way to heal through her own vibrant wit. Many of the chapters are rather serious until the end when she gives the punch line.

This is a book about courage, hope and humor. Laura Jensen Walker demonstrates her ability to face the challenge of cancer and fight it with faith, hope and "mild/laid back" humor.

I learned a lot about reconstruction, chemo and was amazed at how Laura's husband stood by her through the entire process.

"How to Lose Thirty Pounds in Thirty Days: The Chemo Diet Way. The original Slim-Fast liquid diet. (But not one I'd recommend.)" was an interesting chapter to be sure. This spells it all out, tells you what chemo is all about and it isn't fun especially if your nurse forgets to give you "zofran." Yes somehow Laura finds a way to appreciate the effects of rapid weight loss even when it is the result of chemo.

If you want to understand what a cancer survivor goes through, this is the book. I recently read "Knowing Stephanie" which I can also recommend for the detailed information and pictures.

The last chapter on what really matters was also quite inspirational.

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Rating:
Summary: Funny, moving, poignant... and fearless.
Review: (Okay, I'm a bit older than eight, but the site wouldn't let me tell you my real age. National Security or something...) Thanks for the Mammogram is Bombeckian (as in Erma). Laura Jensen Walker not only tells us that laughter can heal, she shows us. Her ability to live on the bright side glimmers from each page and through her, we learn to face difficult facts: breast cancer strikes one in eight women, but 100% of their spouses. Yet we can choose our response to the disease; we can decide not to let it ruin our lives.

Alternately showing herself to be our big sister, best friend and cheerleader, Walker has, er, bared all in the higher interest of exposing the stigma associated with breast cancer for what it is: a killer.

But she doesn't stop there. Walker shares perhaps the most telling detail of all, that her own mother is a breast cancer survivor, and passed a steely will and hearty sense of humor on to her daughter. An inheritance that may have saved Laura's life. Discover that as one quote used in the book puts it, "Whoever is happy will make others happy too." (Anne Frank)

I'm decidedly not a crier, but I did cry through the chapter written by the author's husband. I recommend this read-it-all-in-one-sitting title for anyone with breasts.

Rating:
Summary: Silly, Real, Refreshing
Review: Breast cancer is a big deal. Serious stuff. Many women die from it. Other women endure masectomies. Why make light of such a heavy topic? Simple: humor is healing.

Laura Jensen Walker has something to say about breast cancer. She's a survivor. She has faced this beast, and now is able to articulately help readers smile in the midst of a tough time.

In "Thanks for the Mammogram!" Jensen tells her story. Most of the book details a narrative of her diagnosis, treatment and how she survived. However, in reflecting through the most difficult of moments, she draws us in ala Erma Bombeck into candid silliness. It is as practical as it is funny.

Boldly bringing humor into a discussion of cancer marks this book as a standout among its peers. Having lost my mother to lung cancer and flipping through too many solemn tomes of pop-psychology, I read through Jensen's book refreshed. I wished my mom could've read this book. At a certain point, cancer is cancer, and anyone with any cancer would enjoy "Thanks for the Mammogram!"

Each page is a different view of her situation. For example, she spends a delightful chapter on the end of her chemo, and how she and her husband (a 'Disnoid') celebrated this landmark at Disneyland. We read of her struggle to find a decent book to read (unless Mickey Mouse's various adventures appealed to an adult woman, that is).

The chapters are in very chewable chunks--none too long.

With chapters like, "To Baldly Go Where I've Never Gone Before" (a consideration of Capt. Jean Paul-Luc Picard, Michael Jordan and other sexy baldies, she looks for the upside of a hairless head), you, like me, might find a new way of seeing what so many people go through.

She admits her fears, but pushes also the benefits of having a realistic, yet positive view of dealing with breast cancer. Jensen explains her husband's point of view in the whole matter (even letting him write a chapter, "Her Body, His Pain"). She walks the reader through the process, citing how she related to people who had or didn't have cancer.

I fully recommend "Thanks for the Mammogram!" by Laura Jensen Walker. It is a very worthy gift for those whom you love who have cancer, or know someone who does.

Anthony Trendl

Rating:
Summary: Thanks from a Breast Cancer Survivor
Review: Laura Jensen Walker was an author before she had breast cancer; so her cancer experience is very well written! She takes the reader through chapters which share just enough, but not too much, of her personal life. She gives background such as her Air Force days with diets, her love for Broadway musicals, and her relationships with family, friends, and her husband which influenced her walk with cancer. Each chapter leaves the reader inspired, informed, and encouraged. Laura shares how faith, hope, and laughter help cancer patients. I laughed, cried, and laughed some more through every chapter! I recommend this book for cancer survivors as well as for others, too. The ladies in my Book Review Club really enjoyed it - all readers will be lifted!

Rating:
Summary: You'll want your friends to read this after you
Review: Not since Erma Bombeck has this generation had a woman writer like Laura Jensen Walker, who speaks to you like your funny best girlfriend, sister, or mother. This book is wonderfully written, full of wit and useful information about breast cancer which is often not covered in more "clinical" journalistic articles found in typical media. The thing I liked best about this book is that by using anecdotal humor, she works in important facts and information about breast cancer in a way that makes them interesting and relevant instead of spewing a lot of statistics at you. It makes the information so much more real and memorable.

I definitely learned things about going through breast cancer that I never knew or never heard discussed before (eg.-did you know that to reconstruct a breast post-operatively, the nipple is "tattooed" on to look more realistic?) The book has a point besides merely entertaining and enlightening. It gives the reader practical advice on how to cope and how to help those around the patient cope with the problems, life threatening decisions, and fears from being diagnosed with cancer. The chapter written by her husband as caregiver is especially memorable because you rarely hear about the man's reactions and experiences though they are clearly very affected by the ordeal of the disease when it strikes a family.

This book would make a wonderful gift for anyone who has been touched by cancer in some way. It was carefully written to entertain, but not offend, while talking about a terrible disease. And in the end, I found it very uplifting as well. Love and laughter can go a long way when left with nothing else.

Rating:
Summary: A "Must Read" book when faced with breast cancer
Review: This is an incredible book. Laura Jensen Walker has beautifully and sometimes humorously, written about her breast cancer journey. I read this book in the hospital following my breast cancer surgery (3/01) and have been very inspired by Laura's writing. This is the first book I loan out to others when they are first diagnosed. I highly recommend "Thanks For The Mammogram" !!
Karen Lange, Asst. Mgr., FriendsInTouch.net (an online breast cancer support site)