商品簡介
Barry was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia in 2005 and died in 2014. Bonnie, his wife of 37 years, became his caregiver. In this real time journal comprising both their voices, interspersed with narrative, patient and caregiver share their rollercoaster ride from diagnosis to hope to despair to hope and round and round again. Bonnie and Barry recount the harrowing experience of two stem cell transplants in wildly different but equally compelling accounts of apparently the same events. Barry and I created this book as a real-time journal. Not knowing the outcome, Barry hoped to leave a record of his state of mind as he navigated the stem cell transplant process. I wanted to document everything about my unexpected and daunting role as a caregiver. Barry, the patient, had no patience (and loved puns). He was blessed with a strong sense of irony and a fierce sense of humor. His writing reflects a life shaped by his work as an attorney, activist and writer, and husband, father, and grandfather. He never equivocates and always acknowledges and appreciates.We saw each other at our best and worst, sometimes in ways we would not have wished. We became both both stronger and weaker by our eight and half years living in a world bounded by cancer. Our book chronicles our lives during that time and presents each of our views of the same events: meetings with doctors; hospital stays; treatments; relationships with family and friends, and of course, our own emotional journey. We did not aim this book at any particular reader. For whom, then, is it written? Personally, I hope medical professionals read it to find inspiration in folks we came to love. I hope it offers heart and knowledge to people in similar circumstance, about how to manage stress and garner support from family and friends during the unbounded uncertainty of cancer or life-threatening illness.
