Jessie Gruman in Today's NYT Health Section

Advice on Dire Diagnoses From a Survivor
By JANE E. BRODY
From July 3, 2007, New York Times

Everyone knows lightning is not supposed to strike in the same place twice, let alone four times. Yet it did for Jessie Gruman, 53, the founder and president of the Center for the Advancement of Health, in Washington. She knows all too well what it’s like to be on the receiving end of bad health news: first at age 20 with a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s disease, 10 years later with cervical cancer, then five years ago with viral pericarditis (a potentially fatal infection of the heart’s lining) and just three years ago with colon cancer.

With each diagnosis, knowing her life hung in the balance, she was “stunned, then anguished” and astonished by “how much energy it takes to get from the bad news to actually starting on the return path to health.”

But following all four bouts with life-threatening illness, return to health she did, and the lessons she learned prompted her to write “AfterShock: What to Do When the Doctor Gives You — or Someone You Love — a Devastating Diagnosis,” published this year by Walker & Company.

I consider this book so valuable I plan to keep it on my bedside table should I need it later on [Emphasis added]. Its recommendations are based not just on the author’s experiences with illness, but also on interviews with more than 250 others: patients, family members, nurses, doctors, health plan administrators, managers of busy practices and nonprofit leaders.

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