Loving, Supporting, and Caring for the Cancer Patient
A Guide to Communication, Compassion, and Courage
By (author) Stan Goldberg
Publication date:
07 October 2016Length of book:
212 pagesPublisher
Rowman & Littlefield PublishersDimensions:
239x158mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9781442266155
At least once in your life someone will say to you, “I have cancer,” and when she says the three words, you may struggle with a response. If a loved one or friend hasn’t informed you of a cancer diagnosis, it’s only a matter of time until they will. Every year fourteen million people worldwide learn they are living with or may die from this insidious illness. The uncertainty of cancer causes anxiety in those diagnosed and feelings of inadequacy in loved ones and friends who want to help.
When someone says “I have cancer,” what will you say? More importantly, what will you do? In Loving, Supporting, and Caring for the Cancer Patient, readers will learn specific ways of going beyond the response “I’m so sorry,” and practical behaviors that will ease a loved one or friend’s journey. They range from being specific immediately after a diagnosis, to honoring their loved one or friend at the moment of passing.
Based on Stan Goldberg’s own cancer journey, thirty years of counseling and coaching people living with cancer and their loved ones, and as a bedside volunteer in four hospices over eight years, the book is filled with poignant accounts of clients and patients, personal reflections, and age-old stories filled with infinite wisdom.
When someone says “I have cancer,” what will you say? More importantly, what will you do? In Loving, Supporting, and Caring for the Cancer Patient, readers will learn specific ways of going beyond the response “I’m so sorry,” and practical behaviors that will ease a loved one or friend’s journey. They range from being specific immediately after a diagnosis, to honoring their loved one or friend at the moment of passing.
Based on Stan Goldberg’s own cancer journey, thirty years of counseling and coaching people living with cancer and their loved ones, and as a bedside volunteer in four hospices over eight years, the book is filled with poignant accounts of clients and patients, personal reflections, and age-old stories filled with infinite wisdom.
Goldberg dedicates his book to his granddaughter, saying that he hopes her generation 'will find [it] irrelevant and ask, ‘What was cancer, Grandpa?’' Until then, family members and friends of people diagnosed with the disease can use any of his 270 suggestions and principles for helpful behaviors that go beyond just saying, 'I’m so sorry.'.... [Many] are good reminders, such as supporting a loved one’s decision to stop life-extending treatment. Goldberg, a professor emeritus of communicative disorders at San Francisco State and a prolific author, draws heavily and wisely on his experience as a former hospice volunteer. For example, he notes that people often mistakenly think the need to communicate diminishes as people speak less as they approach death. Actually the reverse is true, he says. 'Silence in the dying is less a sign of not wishing to communicate and more a sign of uncertainty, fear, or regret.' He notes that 'dying is not about you' and advises people to grant forgiveness to loved ones who ask for it. Like his other recommendations, this one seems destined to help family members as well as terminal cancer patients feel better.