Author: Jeremy Geffen, M.D.
Most everyone has family members, friends, or neighbors who are living with cancer, have survived cancer, or have lost their lives to this disease. If you are currently involved in the care of yourself or someone dear to you who has cancer I think you would find The Journey Through Cancer an informative and helpful text. Geffen integrates the best information available regarding mainstream treatments alongside nontraditional holistic avenues to explore. He recommends healing that addresses the whole person, introducing steps to take beyond treating the physical manifestation of cancer alone.
When I find a book that interests me I've been known to give of myself completely over to it, allowing myself to dissolve into the narrative. My surroundings are forgotten, I allow the household chores to be put on hold, the answering machine answers my incoming calls. I will even skip meals. Instead I will ravish the pages, ignoring everything else.
However,I didn't read Dr. Geffen's book, The Journey Through Cancer in this manner. I basically knew before beginning to read it that the subject wasn't one that I would necessarily want to sink my teeth into. Cancer is a tough subject., And although I have lost a couple of friends and distant family members to cancer I have never been involved in choosing the type of care and treatments that were available to them. I basically felt emotionally removed from the topic. And because of this, it was my desire initially to read this book from this detached stance.
I read this book over a period of weeks, reading a chapter here and a chapter there whenever I found myself with a few spare moments. As it turned out, and certainly not out of coincidence, as I don't believe in coincidences, I often found myself reading the pages while I sat in doctors' offices. All of these waiting room sittings were for very basic health care such as chiropractic adjustments, dental checkups, and once while waiting for my son at the optometrist's. While I leafed through the pages of Geffen's practical guide for cancer patients my thoughts drifted to the realization that there were other people in the world in those very moments who were currently sitting in oncologists' offices. These people were not sitting patiently in chairs to get their teeth cleaned or have their eyes fitted for contact lenses. These people were facing the challenge of cancerous diseases,perhaps awaiting chemotherapy or radiation treatments, surgical consultations, etc. These are the people that would benefit most from this book. I hope that this simple review will help get copies of it in the hands of these people and their families.
Geffen grabs your attention with his introduction where he explains his personal dealings with pain and struggles of being a medical student who is called upon to help a father who has been diagnosed with metastatic gastric cancer. His experiences have given him two points of view, that of a physician, and another from being a compassionate family member dealing with the grief, anger, frustration, and helplessness of having the plague of cancer enter his heart arena.
Geffen lays out a seven stage program as the book title relates. The seven-levels are getting informed and educated about cancer, setting up a support network, exploring alternative therapies, helping with both emotional and mental issues, accessing life's ideals, and connecting with spirit. Geffen gives permission to skip back and forth between the chapters, not binding his readers to digest them in any particular sequence, which was nice for me as I didn't feel I was cheating for a change.
About the author: Jeremy Geffen, MD is a board-certified medical oncologist. He is the founder and director of the Geffen Cancer Center and Research Institute in Vero Beach Florida.
Geffen's Seven-Level Program
- Education and Information
- Psychological Support
- The Body as Garden
- Emotional Healing
- The Nature of Mind
- Life Assessment
- The Nature of Spirit
About Cancer
About Jeremy Geffen, M.D.
