While I was eating lunch today, I watched episode 2 of season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. After lunch and the episode were over, I debated between watching the next episode or picking up and reading Everything Changes: The Insider’s Guide to Cancer in your 20s and 30s. The book came on Tuesday but I’ve been hesitant to start reading it because I knew it would make me cry; the book was described to me as being like the chicken soup books but for the darker sides of things.
By page 21, I was already back to Buffy. And I don’t mean I decided to put the book down and watched that next episode. I mean the very first story is that of a 24 year old woman with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma who says:
“I really wish there were people my age that I could relate to. Instead, my support group was Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVDs.”
I’m stunned. All I can think is how did the book know? That’s exactly what I’m thinking and doing. That’s my life.
I’m about half way through the book now and it’s amazing. There are other stories that don’t resonate with me as much like the story of a young man who abuses his ability to get controlled substances from his doctor and ends up checking himself into drug rehab while hooked up to his chemo and the story of a woman who found out she had leukemia and only a 20% chance to live just after having a baby, but I’m convinced that with thirteen unique stories this book has something for everyone who thinks they’re all alone.
I’d recommend this book to any young adult with cancer or anyone who wants to understand the real, unsugar-coated cancer experience.
Related posts:
The BPocalypse Theory
Favorite Things 2010: Cancer Survivor
Mini Vampire Fest
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Carrie,
Let me know when you finish the book. I would like to know what you think after reading the whole thing. I had not heard of this book before you mentioned it. It sounds like something that would be good for me to read.
Rachel
I had a bloggy friend that I’ve traded emails with back in 2008. She told me she was diagnosed with cancer. She stopped blogging not long after that, and every once in a while I’d send her an email to see how things are, but she never responded. I hope hope hope that she isn’t responding because she is better and busy living life and lost the password to her blog email or whatever. But I don’t know. It’s strange because we were not real life friends, but I felt like we could’ve been. I still think of her occasionally and I pray that she is okay.
75% of young adults survive cancer so odds are she’s okay. But it’s very strange, once your better you go back to real life but it’s a whole new normal and it’s quite possible she just needs to avoid the things that remind her of the time she did have cancer.
I’ll have to keep this one in the back of my mind to recommend to someone who’s facing cancer. Thanks for contributing your link to the Saturday Review at Semicolon.
I will keep this in mind for anyone in that age group who is diagnosed or knows someone who is. I was hoping it was more of a general audience-read. But it sounds fabulous.