|
|---|
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
title: Between Me and The River: Living Beyond Cancer: A Memoir
author: Carrie Host
genre: memoir/non fiction
pages: 298
published: 2009
first line: I hate having to stand by like a stranger in my own life.
In her memoir, Between Me and The River, Carrie Host tells her story about living with cancer. After being misdiagnosed with having Chrons Disease, she was officially diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, called Carcinoid Cancer, for which there is no cure since chemo therapy doesn't seem to work well it. The only hope she had was surviving surgery to get all the tumors out of her body, tumors that were the size of grains of rice and have spread throughout her organs.
Reading Carrie's memoir was very emotional for me. I started reading this book and could not put it down. Before I knew it, I was finished in two days. Carrie is an inspiration and her story is one full of hope.
Reading how she had to tell her young children that she had cancer made me cry. How does a mother tell her children the unimaginable? Another part that was very emotional was when Carrie was rushed to the ER with a high fever and it seemed she might not survive. Her mother was in the room with her, and was hugging her as if she might never see her daughter again.
All the while, Carrie never gives up hope and fights for her life, she wants to be there with her family and loved ones. Her husband, her family and friends are there with her throughout her ordeal, cheering her on and helping her. She meets doctors and nurses along the way who offer her support and hope.
Through all the painful tests, medications, operations and hospital stays, Carrie shows immense bravery and strength.
This book is emotional and heartrenching, you will need a box of tissues handy. Reading Carrie's story makes you realize how precious life is, and not to waste it.
Cancer will reveal many things to you. One of those is that the old life that you keep wishing you could go back to simple doesn't exist.
Do not underestimate your own desire to live. Hope is a powerful thing.
Cancer can be like that. It creates moments where you're so scared that you absolutely cannot breathe and you feel as if you are drowning. In the seconds that drag, while you are trying to come up for air, you become clear about wanting to live. This sets you up for the most beuatiful part of your life. Now you have taken that breath because you've wanted to.
About:
Carrie Host serves on the board of directors for the Caring for Carcinoid Foundation (www.caringforcarcinoid.org), which is the only not-for-profit foundation dedicated to discovering a cure for carcinoid and related neuroendocrine tumors. An accomplished public speaker, Host addresses cancer patients and the medical community at CFCF and other cancer-related fundraising events across the country. A third-generation Colorado native, she lives in Boulder with her husband and their three children: Chanel (19), Marco (17) and William (6).
Special thanks to Lisa Roe for sending me a copy of this book to read and review.
