Ordinary Life: A Memoir of Illness (Conversations in Medicine and Society)

Praise for Ordinary Life: “It reads like a novel, but Kathy Conway’s journal of three cancers is the smartest kind of self-help: it gives us permission to be wise or whiney, strong or self-indulgent, whatever it takes to get through the dark nights of chemo and dread.” —Robert Lipsyte, columnist, New York Times and American Health “ Ordinary Life is a brave book . . . the kind of journey so many, many women are living through—with spirit, heart and courage—with vision and in community.” —Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of Eleanor Roosevelt Ordinary Life is a frank portrait of one woman’s experience of living through three cancers, from diagnosis through treatment and on to recovery. Unlike the usual self-help book that portrays illness as a transformative experience in which the individual ultimately prevails physically, spiritually, and socially, Ordinary Life isn’t afraid to inhabit and explore the nightmare world of human emotion evoked by life-threatening disease. Kathlyn Conway shows all sides of her reaction to a deadly illness. Often she is despairing, angry, lonely, terrified, and raging against her disease and its implications. Hers is a journey to the heart of darkness into which illness can take any individual. Yet Conway’s very act of courage and honesty in exposing her fear reveals how normal such feelings are. Kathlyn Conway is a practicing psychotherapist who lives in New York City with her husband and two children. Library Journal A psychotherapist with a husband and two children, Conway has been diagnosed with cancer three times in her 47 years. Her first brush, a diagnosis of Hodgkin's disease, occurred when she was in graduate school. In recounting here her breast cancer experience, Conway offers a searing memoir of her terror, isolation, and personal concerns. She documents her fear of dying, the pain of surgery, questions of how clothes would fit after surgery, and concerns for her family. Conway was not a stoic patient, often lashing out at her family in fear and anger. Detailing a different kind of survivor-filled with pain and anguish, worrying over small details-her book is more realistic than most narratives and should thus reassure other women undergoing cancer treatment. Highly recommended.-Janet M. Schneider, James A. Haley Veterans Hosp., Tampa, Fla. Praise for Ordinary Life: It reads like a novel, but Kathy Conways journal of three cancers is the smartest kind of self-help: it gives us permission to be wise or whiney, strong or self-indulgent, whatever it takes to get through the dark nights of chemo and dread. Robert Lipsyte, columnist, New York Times and American Health Ordinary Life is a brave book . . . the kind of journey so many, many women are living throughwith spirit, heart and couragewith vision and in community. Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of Eleanor Roosevelt Ordinary Life is a frank portrait of one womans experience of living through three cancers, from diagnosis through treatment and on to recovery. Unlike the usual self-help book that portrays illness as a transformative experience in which the individual ultimately prevails physically, spiritually, and socially, Ordinary Life isnt afraid to inhabit and explore the nightmare world of human emotion evoked by life-threatening disease. Kathlyn Conway shows all sides of her reaction to a deadly illness. Often she is despairing, angry, lonely, terrified, and raging against her disease and its implications. Hers is a journey to the heart of darkness into which illness can take any individual. Yet Conways very act of courage and honesty in exposing her fear reveals how normal such feelings are. Kathlyn Conway is a practicing psychotherapist who lives in New York City with her husband and two children. In this compelling account written from within an illness, Kathlyn Conway gives us a deeply honest description of her own struggle with breast cancer and its many reverberations through her everyday life, bringing us to the heart of the experience of illness without preachiness or sentimentality. Conway did not experience cancer as a means for reevaluating her life, but rather as a terrible threat to her future and that of her family. Making difficult choices among treatment possibilities, dealing with nurses, doctors, and lab technicians, undergoing a mastectomy, and enduring chemotherapy, Conway discovered that although she wanted to play the part of the brave, long-suffering patient, she could not. Angry and upset much of the time, overwhelmed by her situation, she found it difficult to cope even with the support her family and friends provided. In her willingness to share this story of herself as a frightened, sometimes selfish, often despairing human being, Kathlyn Conway gives us not only an unsettling portrait of our everyday mortality but a renewed appreciation of life itself. Ordinary Life is a frank portrait of one woman's experience of living through three cancers, from diagnosis through treatment and on to recovery. Unlike the usual self-help book that portrays illness as a transformative experience in which the individual ultimately prevails physically, spiritually, and socially, Ordinary Life isn't afraid to inhabit and explore the nightmare world of human emotion evoked by life-threatening disease. Kathlyn Conway shows all sides fo her reaction to a deadly illness. Often she is despairing, angry, lonely terrified, and raging against her disease and its implications. Hers is a journey to the heart of darkness into which illness can take any individual. Yet Conway's very act of ocurage and honesty in exposing her fear reveals how normal such feelings are.