Tuesday 8 March 2016

I've published my first book

Cancer and Me

Since Christmas 2009, when I was rushed into hospital seriously ill, I have struggled with cancer. It was eventually diagnosed as Diffuse Large B-Cell non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and I was treated with chemotherapy. In 2012 it came back as Follicular Lymphoma - more chemotherapy, followed by two years of antibody maintenance treatment. Most recently in 2015 it was back again, resulting in a stem cell transplant.

I wrote about each episode as it happened, on my blog, which you can now find at www.andyburrows.me. This book is the collection of those blog entries.

You can read about how I coped with hospital, the procedures I had to undergo, including endoscopies, CT scans, other scans such as PET CT and MRI, and biopsies, as well as my experience of three different types of chemotherapy (R-CHOP, R-CVP and Bendamustine), Rituximab maintenance treatment and an autologous stem cell transplant. I also don't hold back in relating the emotional rollercoaster that was involved in having cancer, both for me and my family.

I hope that the book will be helpful to other lymphoma sufferers and their families, if only to compare notes and find that someone else has gone through exactly the same. I hope that by relating my first hand experiences I can help to take the fear away from some of these mysterious procedures and treatments for those who have to face them. And I also hope that I can dispel the myth that cancer is always all about doom and gloom, the myth that it's always horrendous, and the myth that treatment outcomes are always clear cut.

If you're interested, please go to my current website to find out how to get a copy.

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