Healing With Words: A Writer's Cancer Journey

By Diana Raab and Melvin J. Silverstein

Healing With Words: A Writer's Cancer Journey is a compassionate and wry self-help memoir written by an award-winning prolific author, nurse and poet, who at the age of forty-seven found her life shattered first by a DCIS (early breast cancer) diagnosis and five years later by another, seemingly unrelated and incurable cancer--multiple myeloma. The book includes the author's experiences, reflections, poetry and journal entries, in addition to writing prompts for readers to express their own personal story. Raab's journals have provided a safe haven and platform to validate and express her feelings. Raab views journaling to be like a daily vitamin--in that it heals, detoxifies and is essential for optimal health.

Readers will learn to:

Understand the importance of early cancer detection and how to take control of their own health

Discover the power of writing to release bottled-up emotions

Learn how the process of journaling can facilitate healing

See how a cancer diagnosis can be a riveting event which can renew and change a person in a unique way

Praise for Raab's Healing With Words:
"One woman's story, beautifully told and inspiring to those for whom journaling will ease a cancer diagnosis."
--Barbara Delinsky, author UPLIFT: Secrets from the Sisterhood of Breast Cancer Survivors

"Time after time, Diana articulates incisively the thoughts and feelings that convey hoped-for meaning and encouragement. She is a woman who knows what it is to live fully in the face of mortality. She will add value to the life of every person who reads this book. Healing With Words resonates at a spiritual level for me."
--Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab's Wife and Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette

Author's proceeds from the sale of this book donated to benefit the Mayo Clinic Foundation

Learn more at www.DianaRaab.com

Another inspirational book from Loving Healing Press www.LovingHealing.com

HEA039031 Health & Fitness : Diseases - Breast Cancer
SEL501000 Self-Help : Journal Writing
MED058160 Nursing - Oncology & Cancer

• Language: English
• Publisher: Loving Healing Press Inc
• Release date: Mar 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781615999958

Reviews for Healing With Words

[justjenniferreading · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I think everyone has been touched by cancer in some way. I've lost a few family members to cancer and there are also a few survivors in my family. I'm sure I'm not alone in that. While I've never had cancer I know what the fighter is going through in their battle. Most people have their own way of dealing with cancer, but for those who don't I think this book could be very helpful. The book is both a biographical story and a journal. I liked the format that it was written in. Raab talks about different points in her cancer journey and then gives prompts for the reader to write about their journey. She gives small prompts like "Describe your admission to the hospital". I think these are the kinds of things that are difficult for people to talk about, but I also think that keeping all these feelings bottled up inside is not the way to deal with them. I also liked the poetry that Raab wrote through her journey. She talks in the book about the different emotions she was feeling and these emotions come through in the poetry she has dispersed throughout. For someone who is dealing with cancer I think this book could be a beneficial tool to help the cope with what they are going through. While I've never written anything significant I used to keep a journal and also wrote poems and short stories. I've always found writing to be therapeutic. And while cancer is a disease of the physical body the medicines and treatments do little to heal the mind and soul. If you, or someone you know, are struggling with cancer I would recommend this book. It was sometimes difficult to read and it was very emotional. But at the same there were moments of hope and I think that those are the things that we all need to hold on to, regardless of what kind of struggle we are going through. A review copy of this title was provided by the author.

[carolee888 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I looked forward to reading Healing with Words A Writer’s Cancer Journey. The author, Diana M. Raab has experienced both Breast Cancer and Smoldering Myeloma (that could possibly turn into Multiple Myeloma). Did you know that a woman in United States is diagnosed with Breast Cancer every three minutes as per the American Cancer Society? You may well have friends and relatives with it. The small book is filled with steps of the author’s very personal experiences with cancer, poems that she wrote during her experiences and pages for the reader to write in their own experience during their own journey with cancer. . “Most of the time, I wanted to know everything, yet there were times that I wanted to know absolutely nothing. “ She wrote the same thing that I was felt when being tested for Multiple Myeloma (I do not have it but have a condition called MGUS that could turn into later in life). She had a whirlwind of emotions and used journaling as a way to heal herself. Her emotions ring true throughout the book. This is the book that I would have liked to have when I was first undergoing testing. This is the book to either give to yourself or your friend or family member at the beginning of testing for cancer, especially breast cancer. This book is like a friend walking the way with me. I would have liked to have read this book when I was undergoing the tests to find out what I had. I would have liked to have this book with me. It would have been like a friend walking the way with me.There is an appendix Labeled Healing Pages which has short description of ways to relax and meditation, a glossary and a very thorough listing of Cancer Support Organizations. The proceeds of the book will be donated to Mayo Clinic. I recommend this book for any one starting their journey through breast cancer or multiple myeloma.

[knittingmomof3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

From My Blog...Memoir, educational material, and a journal rolled into one, Healing With Words by Diana M. Raab is a deeply moving book to help others go through the process of living with cancer. Raab writes from personal experience as a cancer surviour and sadly again as a cancer patient. Raab’s book is filled with her personal accounts as well as advice about early detection, taking control of one’s health care, and writing prompts to get people writing about their feelings rather than keeping them bottled up. Healing With Words offers up not only a first hand account of battling cancer, it also offers relaxation advice, medical terminology, where to seek further advice and assistance, along with writing prompts to help the patient on the journey. Healing With Words is a work of love and pain, beautifully written through some of Raab’s darkest hours she wants to share the power of writing with others and in so doing help them to heal, if not physically, then emotionally. Healing With Words is an extremely emotional and moving book and one I would recommend to anyone who has cancer or knows someone diagnosed as well as those close to a cancer patient.