Laurie is… Not Done Yet

One of our own has just had her book published. Not Done Yet …Living Through Breast Cancer. I received my copy over Spring Break, my daughter was relaxing and my son was playing in the neighborhood with his friends so I decided to sit down and get started.

 

My first thought when I started reading was this book is a quick and easy read. Quick yes… but as I read further I do not think easy is the correct adjective. What Laurie writes about is not easy subject matter. She has taken a very difficult subject and written it into an easy to read format. I read through Parts One and Two very quickly. I sat shaking my head in agreement when my experience was similar. We all know that even though we may be diagnosed with breast cancer… there are many types and therefore many different treatments that may be prescribed.

 

The hard part for me came in Part Three: Metastasis, or “Worst Case Scenario”. This was so hard for me to read. I do not have metastasis and I did not want to imagine myself dealing with what Laurie has had to deal with. I put the book down for a day or so. Then I told myself… “This is not about me… this is Laurie’s story so just suck it up and keep reading.”

 

I took the book to my hair appointment and continued reading. I am so glad that I did. I learned much about Laurie throughout the book. From the colorful “knitted” cover photo right through her last post about learning a life lesson from her dog.

There were entries that I laughed while reading… Monday, July 3, 2006 as her boys pretended to be Wolverine.  The most touching entry to me… Wednesday, October 10, 2007 Etching Myself in their Memories … spontaneous tears ran down my cheeks right there in the hair salon. I share those same haunting thoughts.

 

I am glad that I had the chance to learn more about Laurie. I applaud her courage, her creativity and her approach to life. “Metastatic cancer has not ended my life; it has just caused me to live my life differently.” If my story becomes more similar to Laurie’s, I hope I proceed with the same courage and positive outlook.

 

As I read each post I found myself checking the date of the post and then checking today’s date and reflecting “okay, that was a year ago or two years ago”… thank goodness… she is not done yet!!