Every
year over 200,000 women and 1400 men hear the dreaded words: You
have breast cancer. While people generally do not feel ill when
they are diagnosed, they are plunged into a world of surgeries and treatments.
Those
medical aspects of breast cancer are difficult, to be sure, but there
are additional challenges:
The
night before her first mastectomy, Lois Hjelmstad penned a poem, "Good-bye,
Beloved Breast." It was the beginning of the book about her breast
cancer experience, Fine Black Lines: Reflections on Facing Cancer,
Fear, and Loneliness.
Lois
did not intend to write a book. She was simply searching for courage,
comfort and a sense of certainty about what she had to do. A farewell
poem for her radiation therapists followed. She shared the first twenty
poems she had written about her cancer experience with her oncologist,
who said, "You have to do something with these."
Nine
months later, when new symptoms appeared and new decisions were required,
a sense of urgency propelled her to resume work on the project. In 1993,
Fine Black Lines was published. It currently is in its sixth
printing.
Fine
Black Lines has brought comfort, courage, and a new capacity for
joy to thousands of women in the United States, Canada, and England.
For
insight into some of these hurdles and validation of your feelings,
read intimate and powerful excerpts from
Lois Hjelmstad's book, Fine Black Lines: Reflections on Facing Cancer
and her short articles on breast cancer issues.
Read
excerpts from Fine Black Lines.
To see the book cover and Table of Contents, click
here.
To see "What Others Say About Fine Black Lines, click
here.
