Reviewer Bani Sodermark. Bani has a Ph.D in mathematical physics and has been a teacher of physics and mathematics at the university level in both India and Sweden. For the last decade, her interests have been spirituality, healthy living and self-development. She has written a number of reviews on Amazon. Bani is a mother to two children.
Author: Teresa J. Rhyne
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Inc.
ISBN:
978-1-4022-7172-4
Navigating
away Cancer
This is a heartwarming book.
The story
starts with Teresa Rhyne, a San Diego attorney and ardent dog lover,
returning home after a short vacation in Ireland. The reason for the
above diversion was to recover from the trauma of a painful second
divorce, which also coincided with the euthanization of both her two
dogs. She had also recently met a man called Chris, whose company she
liked, but was at a point in her life, when emotions like true love,
seemed very superficial and unreal to her.
But Love has its
own ways of entering our lives. The first to claim her attention and
her heart was an ebullient, demanding and perpetually hungry beagle
puppy who came serendipitiously into her life. She calls him Seamus.
Pretty soon, after a rough start, Seamus and Chris take to each
other, and it seems that life was settling down for the three of
them. The relationships between them deepen as the human partners
also meet both the parents of the opposite sex. This state of affairs
was to change.
The first thing to happen was that Seamus’
groomer discovered a suspicious lump in his behind. This lump turns
out to be malignant and Seamus is given a year to live. Surgery is
scheduled with chemotherapy to follow. The latter turns out to have
negative effects, but Teresa and Chris handle the situation together
and emerge from the ordeal with a strong sense of togetherness,
despite an expenditure of several thousand dollars. This closes the
first part of the book.
A year later, Teresa finds a lump in
her breast and is also advised surgery with chemotherapy and
radiation treatment to follow. After learning of her diagnosis,
Teresa sensed a knowing that the pattern of her malignancy, would not
be substantially different from that of Seamus and that she would
recover in toto, despite the doctors’ more pessimistic prognoses.
The rest of the book details how they went through the ordeal
together while Seamus kept their spirits up with his boisterous
antics.
However, this book is not just an account of a
difficult situation that is navigated with blood, tears and sweat. It
is a story that is also bedecked with a great deal of wry humour, in
addition to a detailed and honest self enquiry. One gets to see both
sides of Teresa and Chris, their frailties as well as their strengths
and ends with deep respect for their integrity in the face of dire
challenges.
Idiosyncracies of practitioners of the medical
profession (both for humans and animals) are also highlighted in this
book. Teresa is clear about the kind of doctor (veterinarian) she
wants for herself and her pet, she strongly rejects medicos who
regard their patients as pieces of machinery without feelings. There
are also a few episodes about how Teresa makes her peace with Chris’
family despite initial apprehensions of communicating with a
mother-in-law.
For me, this book is a testimony of Love and
Life, of how seemingly unrelated incidents can lead to total
transformation of lives over time. As mentioned earlier on in this
review, this is a warm, feel good book that will make us wonder at
Life’s inscrutable ways of working.
Warmly recommended.