Mastectomy Books

"I read this book when I first was deciding on what procedure to do and it was a tremendous help. It helped me to understand the different reconstruction methods in a clear concise way."

The Breast Reconstruction Guidebook is simply the best guide available covering the entire process of Mastectomy and Breast Reconstruction.
Well done Kathy Steligo.

This book was incredibly helpful to me. At a time when I was extremely anxious and being bombarded with lots of complicated information, this book provided me with exactly what I needed in an easy to understand way. The author has firsthand knowledge of the topic, which I think makes a real difference. The book has lots of photos, diagrams and information on resources. If you're in the unfortunate situation of needing to consider breast reconstruction, this book tells you everything you need to know.

This is the definitive guide for breast reconstruction. It covers every type of reconstruction, is fair and balanced and VERY readable. It takes a complex subject and really makes it easy to understand. When you are facing such an emotional decision and hard surgery - it helps tremendously to have information to help guide your decision making. This book is it. Highly recommended before you consult with your first surgeon.

I bought The Breast Reconstruction Guidebook several weeks ago and it has been an incredible resource! Due to a genetic mutation (BRCA2), I'm preparing for bilateral prophylactic mastectomies. The Breast Reconstruction Guidebook clearly explains mastectomy and reconstruction procedures, questions to ask my potential surgeons, how to prepare for surgery, and what to expect during my recovery. Kathy Steligo's book has helped me sort out my options at a very scary time, and for that I am truly grateful!!

This is an incredible, thought-provoking true-story of a young woman who has watched her mother die from cancer and then tests positive for a gene mutation that makes her nearly 90% likely to get cancer herself. What would you do if you had that knowledge?

Author Jessica Queller eloquently takes us with us on her journey. Despite the heavy material, this book is an easy read - I read it in 2 days - because her writing is clear and the story is so engaging.... You want to know Jessica and are rooting for her all the way.

This book is for EVERY WOMAN - not just those with BRCA mutations or with cancer in their family. It is for anyone who believes that true stories often make the best books, and are drawn to the extraordinary stories of 'ordinary' people.

I read this book in one day. It's a great read. Jessica really makes you think about your options. My mom is a breast cancer survivor and the BRCA test has always been in the back of my mind. It's definitely something that needs more discussing.

I am faced with the same genetic predisposition to breast cancer and it was a life-saver to read about another person's triumph.

The author explained her gene risk for breast cancer and ovarian cancer in an emotional informative way. I purchased the book because my daughter, twin sister and myself had just been tested for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutation. Our test results are that we all have a "variant" that is the same so it is genetic but it is a variant that the lab has never seen in the whole world thus it is "uncertain" what it means other than it is genetically being passed in our family. Reading this book helped me understand gene mutations. The author truly is "beautiful" inside and out.
Joan Reams

This book is a must for anyone with the BRCA mutation or anyone who wants to understand a woman's journey after she finds out she has a BRCA mutation. It is brutally honest and therefore, absolutely compelling. As one who has walked this path, I can tell you that Jessica is very brave to lay it all out there for others to benefit from. I wish her health and happiness.

I was honored to be on the receiving list of Carla's "Metamorphosis" emails as she went through this experience, but the book brought even more insight and inspiration and a better understanding of her journey. I have given this book to several friends who have faced the same or similar diagnosis - it gave them comfort to read Carla's account and to know that they shared many of the same experiences and emotions.

It is clear to this reader that Carla's diagnosis and treatment has been a source of personal growth and insight, lovingly shared with those around her. After reading the book, one cannot help but notice the "Divine Interventions" that touch our daily lives. Quite an inspiration - an absolutely fabulous book!

Anyone going through a life-changing situation such as cancer, no matter what type, can benefit from this book. The importance of humor, accepting help from others, and believing God is with us every step of our journey is echoed throughout this very inspirational book. Carla writes with such honesty, courage, and hope; you can't help but feel uplifted & strengthened after reading it. I highly recommend this book!
Barbara Richards

What an incredible book! Carla takes a very tough topic and helps you understand her emotions while going through this incredible phase of her life. This gutsy and powerful book is a must read for any individual going through a life changing situation.

Going through the ordeal of breast cancer is horrific enough, but to have the wherewithall and courage to write about the experience....amazing! Anyone facing this diagnosis must read about Carla's journey. It's a most insightful and inspiring story from a woman who has walked the walk.

This was a well written book which followed many personal stories of women through out history and their battle with cancer. It is a history book but was written dramatically and keeps the reader interested. It covers almost every topic concerning women and breast cancer. The only complaint is that the second half of the book is based more on the politics and legislation of breast cancer which becomes slightly repetitive and boring.

As a metastatic breast cancer patient, I found this book to be enormously enlightening. For the first time, I feel as though I really understand this disease and how we've gotten to this point in time in terms of prevailing attitudes, available treatments, doctor-patient relationships, and overall prognosis. Although it's a history lesson, this book has also served to give me a new perspective for evaluating my own personal options. I feel empowered by the information in these pages. It points out how deadly serious breast cancer is, even though some would have us believe otherwise. I recommend this book for everyone who is affected by breast cancer (which should be practically everyone).

James Olson is to be commended for writing this much needed history of breast cancer for the layman. My husband is a radiologist beginning a fellowship in breast imaging. He discovered this fascinating book and when he was finished I asked him to give it to me. Like the previous reviewer, I couldn't put it down. I don't have breast cancer, but I am of the age when many of my peers have developed this frightening disease. Olson is realistic, empathetic, and well informed. My favorite line came from former child star Shirley Temple Black who, rather than have a biopsy turn into a radical mastecomy, responded to the press by saying, "The surgeon will make the incision. I will make the decision." You can't read this book without having enormous respect for the women who did their own research, asked the right questions, and took on the conventional wisdom and arrogance of male physicians. At the same time, Olson is brutal on the hucksters and frauds who attempt to explain away cancer with psychobabble and unproveable theories. Bathseba's Breast is not an optimistic book, but it can be reassuring that slow, steady progress is being made in the battle against breast cancer.

My husband purchased this book for me after he heard the author on NPR. I could not put it down. The author's approach to looking at breast cancer over time, the changes in treatment options, and how accidental findings changed the course of medical treatment over time was illuminating. The book also raises the spectre as to how much of breast cancer treatment advances, or lack of, were the result of this being primarily but not exclusively a female disease. I do not have a formal medical background, so I was a little leary that it would be too technical. But instead, I found it to be highly readable and engaging. It also sends a strong message that from the beginning of time breast cancer held no one harmless. And in many ways, the key to the advances have come from patients taking their health destiny into their own hands and not simply accepting a physician's treatment recommendation. Certainly sheds light on the more recent discussions about the value of mammography as a diagnostic tool. Well worth reading!!

Bathsheba's Breast: Women, Cancer & History by James Olson is a far-reaching examination of the dreaded disease of breast cancer. Impressive for its scope of historical, medical, political and personal references, the book transcends its obvious historical imperative by including much about living with hope in the face of adversity as well as dying without surrendering to the evil disease.

A cancer diagnosis today is not necessarily a death sentence. Olson explains how breast cancer has threatened all women, regardless of demography, since at least the time of the pharaohs and probably since creation of the species. The fifth of Olson's 11 carefully referenced chapters inaugurates the book's evolution of Hope for breast cancer sufferers, signaling with its title, "New Beginnings: Assault on the Radical Mastectomy." Make no mistake, neither the chapter nor the book reveal the silver bullet that will conquer breast cancer. However, from this point forward, Bathsheba's Breast explains how medical science has made progress against the disease - sometimes despite itself - and how that progress appeared to be accelerating at the end of the 20th century, albeit in tortuously slow steps for those fighting the disease. Increasingly credible optimism emerges as Olson explains the evolution of medicine's knowledge and attitudes about breast cancer, the birth of breast cancer patient advocacy and the growing arsenal of weapons that medical researchers, physicians and patients are bringing to the fight.

Olson is comprehensive, well organized and even entertaining in an appropriate tone for such a serious topic as he gives us the history, evolution and status of the war against breast cancer. Bathsheba's Breast is suitable for all readers, regardless of gender, ethnicity, age or health. Its appeal to such a broad audience lies mainly in the mature tone and integrated style with which Olson approaches all aspects of the subject. It's also because he's deciphered cancer's jargon of "omas" and "ectomies" so they're understandable, both in definition and in context. Readers will be pleased how smoothly he combines history, complicated medical research, political science and public opinion with the personal stories of patients to produce a compelling read.

Faithful to the historigraphical method, the book ventures 3,500 years back to an Egyptian surgeon who wrote about "bulging tumors" in the breast for which "There is no treatment." Olson tells how Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, studied the nature and cause of cancer, attributing its cause to "black bile," one of his four theoretical fluids of the body: blood, phlegm, yellow and black bile. The book develops a special character as it links these ancients to women of subsequent history who suffered from breast cancer. We learn about victims like Theodora, wife of Justinian, the emperor of Byzantium in the sixth century, Anne of Austria, the mother of Louis XIV in the 17th century, George Washington's mother in the 18th century, Abigail Adams, daughter of President John Adams in the 19th century and many sufferers in the 20th century. These personal experiences of breast cancer victims provide substantive information and welcomed inspiration for all readers, no doubt especially for those with the disease. Some stories are optimistic, others sad, some even humorous. Teddy Roosevelt's far-from-bashful, strong-willed daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, battled the disease throughout much of her life. She lost one breast to cancer in 1956 and in 1970, at age 86, underwent a second mastectomy on the other breast. Emerging from the second operation, she announced unashamedly she was "America's only topless octogenarian."

The 20th century's sexual revolution, catalyzed by nude photos of Marilyn Monroe and increasingly large monthly circulations of Hugh Hefner's "Playboy" magazine beginning in the 1950's, established the cult of the breast in America. Olson explains how big breasts became big business as society placed new value on them because of their erotic appeal. As America's fascination with the breast was exported around the world, women, men and physicians became more amenable to alternative treatments for breast cancer. Ironically, preoccupation with eroticism encouraged the pursuit of a cure.

Bathsheba's Breast adds credibility and emotion to the history of breast cancer by sharing experiences of many 20th century women who've fought the disease with bravery and hope. The legacy of Rose Kushner's 16-year battle against breast cancer and the indifference it often suffered from arrogant physicians and disinterested politicians is unforgettable. Her emotions flared - as do those of readers today - as we read about a surgeon shouting at her, "No patient is going to tell me how to do my surgery."

No doubt Kushner told that surgeon what she wrote in her best-selling, 1975 book, Breast Cancer, "We women should be free, knowledgeable, and completely conscious when the time comes for decision, so that we can make it for ourselves. Our lives are at stake, not a surgeon's." Kushner is the founder of the American breast cancer advocacy movement who battled valiantly but ultimately lost her war with the disease in January, 1990.

The evolution of breast cancer advocacy in America inspired by Rose Kushner is a compelling part of the book. Olson visits labs and legislatures to explain breast cancer's clinical and political issues, ranging from the campaign for lumpectomies and radiation instead of radical mastectomies as initial treatment alternatives to the need for greater government support for cancer research. He tells how Shirley Temple Black, Betty Ford, Happy Rockefeller, Betty Rollin, Jill Ireland, Linda McCartney, Dr. Jerri Nielsen and many others had the courage to go public with their battles against breast cancer, generating publicity that kept the disease in clinical and political focus.

Although Olson mentions it only quietly in a brief preface at the beginning of the book, his personal battle against cancer has permitted him to fuse Bathsheba's Breast with an empathy that's probably the ultimate reason why the book is as good as it is. It wastes no time with irrelevance as it moves seamlessly from history, medical science and politics to the media, pop culture and patients. The story of the battle against breast cancer is multi-faceted and James Olson shines a bright light on all of them.

Ms. Klein's book is an inspiration for anyone going through a life crises; illness, death, divorce. Her writing is clear and concise, with no stumbling blocks for the grammatically particular among us. Her sense of humor softens the harsh realities we must face when life demands the full strength of our character. Her book gives us practical application steps with the philosophical and spiritual insight to apply them.

This is very special book written about breat cancer survival by someone who underwent a double mastectomy. It is easy to read and offers clear, thoughtful advice to others undergoing the same experience. It is also useful for people undergoing other kinds of hardships who want to adjust to their own difficulties and fight to be strong and healthy. In simple steps the author confronts the many difficult aspects of surviving a traumatic situation, learning to understand one's own needs and feelings, and strengthening one's own inner resources to achieve emotional well being. I was deeply touched by the author's honesty, positive outlook and sense of humor.

Ronnie Kaye has a marvelous ability to take a potentially devastasting experience and show how to transform it into a stepping stone of life. As both a man and a doctor, I found her book not only enlightening, but touching as well. Besides illuminating for us -- doctors, patients & family --about how to cope with breast cancer, Ronnie Kaye also provides the reader invaluable lessons about humor, unconditional love, and the nature of the indomitable spirit. The reader has the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of a marvelous teacher who speaks from personal experience in leading the reader to their own triumphant life.

Ronnie Kaye has written a wonderful book to help people deal with the emotional issues of a breast cancer diagnosis. It is one of the few that addresses fear of the unknown and the emotional roller coaster that women are on when dealing with breast cancer. When a woman is being treated, her medical team's focus is on the clinical part of saving her life. Emotional issues are rarely addressed or women are told to go find a support group. By using examples of how she has helped women in her own breast cancer support groups, Ronnie clearly defines coping skills that will help women regain some control in their lives and live with the fear. Her book is laced with real life scenarios...the very things that all breast cancer patients face. But she gives us suggestions and ideas on how to live instead of dying. Ronnie has been there. She knows that a devastating diagnosis doesn't mean the end. Instead, she will guide the reader to an understanding of how breast cancer can be an opportunity for growth and fulfillment.

Very well thoughtout book and positive while being frank about a very difficult topic.

Nancy Reuben Greenfield's book is a one-of-a-kind find. Young women experiencing breast cancer often have the added pain of facing the experience through the eyes of their young children. This book helps mothers and other adults find the words to explain beast cancer and mastectomy simply and sensitively for the very young child. The theme centers around the effect from the child's perspective, namely the difficulty in "hugging my mommy" as she recovers from mastectomy surgery. The book offers mother and child ways to deal with this stressful time. It is probably ideal for the 4 to 8 year-old girl, but would also be suitable for boys and for older and even younger ages. The combination of sensitive words and exquisite illustrations by Ralph Butler brought tears to my eyes.

This excellent book gently prepared me for my mastectomy. I found it easy to understand and reassuring. It was written in a way that reduced my anxiety and concerns. It was concise, so I didn't feel overwhelmed by too much information. The part on emotional recovery and sexuality was particulary helpful.

This book is a must-read for every woman concerned about breast cancer. The author expresses every patient's frustrations with her diagnosis, variety of treatment options, and recovery. She also covers very useful subjects such as how to tell your children about cancer and what to say to co-workers before and after surgery. An upbeat, optimistic story of how one woman rediscovered family, friends and faith while dealing with a serious illness.

This book is a must-read for anyone facing a mastectomy. Even if you don't plan on doing reconstruction it's important to see pictures of what your mastectomy is going to look like. Fortunately I was able to see pictures ahead of time - the pictures were a shock, but I was prepared when the bandages came off. It was much less traumatic for me to be shocked by a photograph than to be shocked by my own body. Facing a mastectomy is a frightening thing, but educating yourself ahead of time so you know what to expect will make the whole process more bearable. I am so thankful Myself: Together Again is available to educate women. I had other resources at the time of my surgery but this book is by far the best. It is tastefully done, and it's an honest and revealing account of mastectomy and reconstruction. This book is straight and to the point, and a quick read. This book is all about the photographs; there isn't much text but there doesn't need to be. Not only does it prepare women for mastectomy, it also offers hope that you can feel whole again and that reconstructed breasts can look incredibly real. I applaud Debbie Horwitz for having the courage to literally bare all for the benefit of other women. You will never fully know how many lives you have affected so positively and so deeply, Debbie! Thank you!