Survivor: Taking Control of Your Fight Against Cancer

By Laura Landro

Book Overview

Shortly after her thirty-seventh birthday, Wall Street Journal reporter and editor Laura Landro was told that she had chronic myelogenous leukemia. Survivor is the remarkable account of her battle... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684843358
• ISBN13: 9780684843353
• Release Date: October 1998
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.8" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Should be required reading

Ms. Landro is the quintessential reporter who 'reported' the biggest story of her life, and thereby saved it in the process. She described how she took charge of her battle against leukemia, rather than ceding her life to what looked like very dangerous medicine, and it worked. Landro's story is about the incredible power of a bright and utterly rational person to shape her destiny and survive because of it. The book belongs in hotel rooms with the Gideon Bible (no, INSTEAD of the Gideon Bible...) and ought to be dispensed in pharmacies and physicians offices. It's the ultimate celebration of the human will to survive.

A primer for doctors in the information age

Laura Landro tells her story of survival from chronic myelogenous leukemia and bone marrow transplantation with the excitement and fullness of fine fiction.As she enters " the netherworld of medicine", Laura's journalist's instincts kick in. Information proves crucial, for she must choose between two cancer centers with subtly differing treatment protocols and prepare for the certain loss of ovarian function to chemotherapy. Attitude and humor help pass the darkest sickroom days. Imagine watching Laura, pallid from anemia and bloated from steroids, primp, preparing her face for the future. A reading of her mother's daily log defines determination and suggests, incidentally, that fine writing must be hereditary. Humor is good medicine: Her brothers' constant high spirits penetrate the wall of pain. Her colleagues from "The Wall Street Journal" perform a hilarious video skit that pulls her toward the future. Support materializes from friends and "the ranks of afflicted want to reach out to you...and put you in touch with experts who helped them." At a near breaking point for Laura, Marilyn's unforgettable letter plums the depths and eloquence of friendship. Healing goes beyond hospital walls. If Survivor is a "survival guide" for patients, it is equally a primer for healthcare providers in the information age. Patients who arrive with Internet pages are today's survivors. Like Laura Landro, they plan to "come out on the other side". Doctors couldn't play on a better team.

Guidebook for a "cancer experience" from a survivor

Laura has done an excellent job of not only sharing an intensely personal cancer experience, but she has also gathered together multiple resources and self-advocacy behaviors under one bookcover to aide all individuals, families or friends confronted with the same. Her forthright honesty, ability to include even the little daily details of living/surviving, and her fantastic sense of humor blend together to give a sense of control and hope to all of us. Almost everyone today is touched in some way by cancer, whether it be ourselves, a family member or a friend. We can all learn from what Laura has shared. I commend her greatly for such an insightful and useful book.

Spellbinding triumph over disease and adverstiy

The brilliance of Laura's book is in the use of her keen intellect to save her own life. The lessons she teaches us can be used by any patient in any disease to be the system...and beat the disease that threatens their life.

A must read for families dealing with leukemia

Ms. Landro's personal story is a must read for families dealing with the horrors of leukemia...It is an honest and educational account of the bone marrow process and the way the patient and care givers must respond when faced with devastating news...You will want to become a bone marrow donor after reading her personal account. At a minimum, your sensitivity of the fragility of health will be seriously heightened.