Silent But Resilient (el. knyga) (skaityta knyga) | Carmen Cassidy | knygos.lt

Aprašymas

When Carmen Cassidy first noticed a small area of firmness on her tongue, cancer was the furthest possibility from her mind. A healthcare professional and nonsmoker, she assumed the irritation would resolve. Instead, months of appointments, conservative treatments, and persistent symptoms preceded a diagnosis of Stage IVa oral tongue cancer. Silent but Resilient follows Carmen from those first uncertain months through biopsy, diagnosis, major head and neck surgery, partial tongue removal and reconstruction, cervical lymph node dissection, chemotherapy, radiation, and the long process of learning to speak, swallow, eat, work, and live differently. Woven throughout the memoir are practical sidebars that place Carmen's experience in context, offering accessible information about oral cancer, the Two-Week Rule, diagnosis and treatment, self-advocacy, follow-up care, rehabilitation, and the lasting effects of treatment. " Recovery did not mean becoming the person I was before cancer," Carmen writes. " Recovery meant discovering who I could become because of it." The first time I looked in the mirror, I barely recognized the woman staring back at me. My tongue had been reconstructed, and the scars on my forearm and thigh were permanent reminders of what it had taken to save my life ... The simple act of eating, something I had always taken for granted, had become exhausting, frustrating, and, at times, heartbreaking. Speaking was even harder ... But beneath all those changes, one thing remained the same. I was still me." -- from the Prologue