A breast cancer diagnosis is a most unwelcome intruder in life, one that signals a long marathon of tests, treatments, and emotional stress ahead.
With that journey comes moments of conflicting anger and triumph, confusion and clarity—and it leaves survivors so transformed, they might not even recognize themselves afterward.
In Reconstructing Hope, two-time survivor Donna Sidwell DeGracia offers support for people living out any stage of their breast cancer marathon.
Inside you’ll find personal stories from DeGracia and other people keeping their pace and leaning forward at the breast cancer finish line. As a physician assistant, DeGracia shares medical insight on mammograms, mastectomies, cancer types and stages, and more. Poetry between each chapter remind you that hope comes from beauty as much as it does from knowledge and community.
Donna Sidwell DeGracia is a physician assistant and an educator whose life and work have taken her from distant corners of the globe to intimate conversations about aspects of life that patients may not have shared with anyone else. Sometimes it is her own experiences as a patient, or as one acculturating to a new culture, that give her the insight needed for difficult conversations. As an educator, she is adept at breaking difficult topics into easily understood components. Her writings reflect her experience and perspective as well as the humility of one who has had the honor of walking with others through their pain. She recognizes both the need for and the fragility of hope as well as the difficult task of re-establishing or reconstructing hope that is lost.
Let Reconstructing Hope be your friend and coach as you battle onward in your breast cancer marathon. You have all the pieces of hope already inside you—now it’s time to assemble them.
