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Your Partner Has Breast Cancer?: 21 Ways to Keep Sane as a Support Person

FINALLY: SUPPORT FOR THE BREAST CANCER SUPPORT PERSON

The breast cancer patient is the designated victim, and with good reason. But the support person is the silent victim, the one who takes on all of the household chores, answers questions for well-wishers, assumes double income responsibility, becomes both parents, and is always the pillar of strength, even when he or she doesn’t feel like a pillar of strength.

The increase in the incidence of breast cancer has brought with it a corresponding increase in literature on breast cancer: what it is, where it comes from, what to expect, what’s being done to treat or eliminate it, the politics of breast cancer. At a world-renowned breast cancer center the day you learn you’ve joined the club, you are given time to explore the center’s informational Web site.

One segment of the literature is on the topic of how to be a support person for the breast cancer patient. Here, topics include a basic overview of the disease, tips on how to be a support person, the important message that breast cancer affects the whole family, and what you can expect of your sex life for the foreseeable future.

But there is no book on how to keep sane while you’re taking over your partner’s share of the household chores; feeding, clothing, and washing her; caring exclusively for the children; sleeping less; and maybe compromising your job because your stress level is affecting your work while you’re being the support person.

Until now.

Azenphony Press is pleased to announce the release of Your Partner Has Breast Cancer?: 21 Ways to Keep Sane as a Support Person, by Ken Wachsberger. This 28-page, 3 ½” x 8 ½” booklet was written to satisfy Ken’s own need to figure out how to keep sane while he was coping with his wife’s breast cancer experience and also losing his job in the summer of 2000. The first draft was finished at the hospital while his wife was receiving her final chemotherapy treatment.

“When I needed help for myself, I found a lot of material on how I could help my spouse but nothing on how I could help myself while I was helping her,” Ken writes. “This booklet is what I was looking for then. I hope it is what you or a loved one is looking for now.”

By addressing the emotional needs of the main support person, Your Partner Has Breast Cancer? fills an important void that social workers, religious leaders, support people, surgeons, and nursing staff agree has been empty for too long:

“I feel a great sense of relief in having found a book to offer those whom I counsel after they have received the diagnosis that they or their loved ones have breast cancer. Your Partner Has Breast Cancer? is the kind of book you can't put down. I read it in one sitting, then went back and read it again. The story is masterfully told, the advice lovingly conveyed. Wachsberger's clear, informed, and inspiring book offers first-hand experience and compassionate advice that will be a tremendous help to people whose lives have been turned upside down, especially support people, whose journeys through diagnosis and treatment of cancer can be lonely and confusing. Everyone whose lives have been touched by cancer should have a copy. This is a welcome volume for all our libraries.”

—Cantor Ann Zibelman Rose, Temple Beth Emeth, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Facilitator of TBE Caring Community, including Healing and Spirituality Group and Woman Cancer Survivors’ Support Group

“Ken’s book is a much-needed and welcome addition to the cancer literature. His advice is simple, clear, and compassionate.”

—Eileen Coan, Medical Librarian, The Gathering Place, Beachwood, Ohio

“This booklet records lessons learned during an intensely personal, painful, and clearly powerful journey the author was forced to take when his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. In writing about how he dealt with the disease, Wachsberger describes what it is like to live with and love a person with this diagnosis. He also describes what it is like to hold together a family through the process of diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. Readers will find heartfelt advice for others in similar situations. Here too are poignant reminders to live each moment to the fullest. Indeed, Wachsberger reminds us that moments are very important because there may not be any after that. Recommended for public libraries and especially for libraries with strong consumer health collections.”

—Sarah Watstein, Director, Academic User Services, Virginia Commonwealth University

“…a short, helpful booklet that should give every caregiver hope”

—Diana Dyer, MS, RD, author of A Dietician’s Cancer Story.

“All I can say is wow! I found this booklet helpful, informative, moving, and clearly a labor of love.”

—Dr. Helen Pass, Former Director of University of Michigan Breast Care Cancer

Your Partner Has Breast Cancer? is educational, informative, anecdotal, and inspirational.

Single copies are $5.50, including postage. Send check or money order to 21 Ways, c/o Azenphony Press, PO Box 130884, Ann Arbor, MI 48113-0884.

To find out how your organization can purchase bulk quantities for use as premiums, thank-yous, gifts of appreciation, conference attendee information packages, and other low-cost, highly appreciated ideas, please contact Emily Schuster, (734) 973-6536 or emily@azenphonypress.com.

Also available in easy-to-read, 14-point type, 4” x 6” booklet format ($10.00, including postage) for visually challenged support persons.

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