When Your Life is Touched by Cancer

Bob Riter is the Executive Director of the Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes in Ithaca, NY, an organisation that provides support, information and community to people affected by cancer. His involvement in the cancer community began in 1996 when he was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 40. Bob writes about cancer in his column for the Ithaca Journal and his essays have appeared in Newsweek.

Introduction Acknowledgments Foreword Just Diagnosed Advice for those Newly Diagnosed Cancer and Positive Thinking It's OK to Ask Your Doctor These Questions How Old is too Old to Treat Cancer? Second Opinions If Your Mom has Cancer Good Cancers and Bad Cancers Communicating with Your Doctor Why Aren't They Doing More? Clinical Trials Cancer-Related Anxiety Cancer and Depression Watching and Waiting Telling the Kids Telling the Parents What to Say--and Not Say When a Loved One Has Cancer Thoughts and Prayer Tree During Treatment Keeping Yourself in Balance Non-Traditional Cancer Therapies Cancer and Alternative Therapies Doctor-Patient Interactions Chemo Nurses and Radiation Therapists A Better Phrase than Staying Strong How You Feel and How You Look Too Little and Too Much Cancer Treatment Advocating for a Loved One Groundhog Friends Helping from a Distance Helping Those We Don't Like Helping Friends with Cancer Being Present More than Tired Chemobrain Understanding Friends with Cancer Visiting Those in the Hospital Single with Cancer Cancer as a Marathon Holiday Gifts Holiday Gifts for those with Serious Illness When a Partner is in Denial After Treatment The After-Treatment Blahs When Loved Ones Complete Treatment Survivor's Guilt Post-Cancer Relationships Donating Blood and Organs Survivors Can Help the Newly Diagnosed Cancer as a Chronic Disease Beginning to Talk about Hospice What to Say When Cancer Returns Personal Reflections and Random Essays My Cancer Experience Don't Ask about My Battle Uncertainty and Commitments Mental Illness and Cancer The Ugly Stepsister of Cancer Cancer and the Nature of Hope I have cancer. What's new with you? My "Cancer Sucks" Button Small Acts of Heroism The Uncertainty of Cancer The Transitions of Cancer The Good That Emerged The Look People Give You Surprising Facts about Cancer Stepping Up for Neighbors New Year's Wishes Good News in Cancer Our Cancer Professionals New Nurses and Cancer Patients Veterinary Oncology The Guys at the Corner Table Doing What I Do