Description:
When someone you care about is diagnosed with cancer, what should you say? What should you not say? What are the best ways to offer help, or to help children understand what is happening? When Life Becomes Precious is an outstanding resource for answers to such uncomfortable questions. It includes specific tips for cultivating a support network, avoiding caregiver burnout, managing fear and anger (in both yourself and the cancer patient), finding the best doctors and other health care professionals to plan treatment, preparing for hospital visits, and, for the patient, dealing with cancer when at the workplace. Written with tact and warmth, this book is filled with advice that's likely to escape your mind during this time of stress, from 14 questions to ask before surgery to the medical and legal documents to have handy at all times to 8 reasons for switching doctors. Babcock, who has 23 years of counseling experience, also offers guidance for what to do when the cancer patient refuses all medical care: "Someone who refuses treatment and understands the repercussions of his decision is not in denial," she says. "You will have to learn to respect and accept his choice, however, even though you disagree. No other stance will support him, even though you think it will." Babcock also includes empathetic ways to discuss mortality, and tactics for making it through holidays and birthdays, along with contact information for more than 100 resources such as support organizations and networks, chronic pain centers, hospices, and newsletters and magazines. --Erica Jorgensen
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