A Way Back to Health: 12 Lessons from a Cancer Survivor

Author: Kelley Skoloda
Publisher: She Writes Press
Page Count: 256
Pub Date: November 9, 2021

Thank you so much to BooksForwardPR for the advance reader copy.

Review:
This is my first nonfiction of the year! This book is about the author’s cancer journey and the lessons she learned along the way. Kelley was able to capture the common challenges that cancer patients go through especially those who undergo chemo treatments. The  book is full of quotes and references from published journal articles, and statistics. It’s written almost like a research paper to me but still mixed with her personal experience. I absolutely appreciate the personal testimonials of other cancer patients in this book.

Cancer patients with little to no medical background would definitely benefit from reading the book. I have a background in public health and bioinformatics. I also worked at the hospital and I’m currently working in a pharmaceutical company specializing in oncology treatments so most of the information and tips written here are familiar to me. My mom’s also an RN/BSN so I deeply appreciate the author’s gratitude towards her oncology nurses.

Some of the things that stick out from the book are welcoming and showing kindness, doing some research, and speaking up to advocate oneself. I understand how doctors would advise not to Google your disease or turn to the internet about one’s diagnosis. People are prone to misinformation. It’s very important to be educated on what websites are reputable. Researching can also lead to cyberchondria (in short, getting anxiety from Googling symptoms). Another point is about trusting the science and clinical trials. Drug development takes years or even more than a decade until a certain drug or treatment is approved for market. A drug that was approved in 2001 or 2004 can sound scary and outdated but since we’re still far from accessing personalized medicine (treatments), right now, we have to rely on standard treatment regimens based on clinical trials. On the other hand, sometimes, speaking up to one’s physician and asking questions are very important to be more in charge and informed of one’s medical condition.

I admire the author’s “I’m in control” and can-do attitude over her cancer journey. She’s definitely a strong woman mentally that helped her physically. Although not all cancer patients have the resources that she had— a flexible job and supportive family and friends, each person, no matter their economic status in life, encounters personal problems that are unique to them. In this book, she also wrote initiatives and organizations that current cancer patients can look into. I definitely recommend this book to current cancer patients/survivors and their family and friends. In light of the “my body, my choice” propaganda, she took it to an opposite, rather scientific and medically sound approach where she advocated for herself as a patient and found the best possible care she could find for herself.