Breast Cancer

 

Anticipatory Grief

Anne Boyer’s book about surviving aggressive triple-negative breast cancer, The Undying, takes the reader inside what it feels like to endure chemotherapy without any promise of surviving. Boyer covers a wide range of topics—the physical suffering, fears about dying, figuring out how to cope with pain, research into the medical treatments, the philosophy and history of breast cancer procedures, and the social inequalities of a for-profit health care system. 

Poetry of Dying

Poetry and dying go together because when we’re facing the end of our life, our senses sharpen and our ocean of words distill into a surging river of images and metaphors.

 

Many of us would not want to take time away from living our last months to sit at a desk and deliberate over the right words to describe our dying. We would prefer to do some of the remaining items on our bucket list, or simply to enjoy each day free of everyone’s expectations.

 

Breast Cancer, Never Give Up

            At a benefit for breast cancer in East Peoria, world-famous Sylvia McNair sang music from Broadway and opera. Between songs she spoke of her battle with cancer and how crucial her community of close friends had been to her recovery. 




            She did not lecture about the disease, nor did she tell us how we had to fight the beast of breast cancer. She simply talked about her struggles and shared what enabled her to get through the chemotherapy, surgery, doubt, and despair. She did not hide from how hard the battle was, or how scared she had been when she thought she was going to die.