A Year in the Life of a "Dead" Woman : Living with Terminal Cancer Paperback / softback

Perhaps I should have realized that cancer runs in my family.

After all, three grandparents and my father and brother perished from this disease.

Yet, when I received my colorectal cancer diagnosis, I was surprised.

I never expected to be primarily identified as a cancer patient.

Following a typical combination of chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, and more chemo, I was presumably cancer-free when my post-treatment scans looked clean.

Nonetheless, within a year I received a terminal diagnosis; cancer had metastasized in my lungs.

Thus began my year as a dead woman--a time of chaotic emotions, new priorities, and rapid-fire plans and changes.

Expecting the unexpected became a theme in my life, but what turned out to be most shocking are social, familial, and even my expectations about what is realistic for a dead woman to be or do."Preconceptions about a terminal cancer diagnosis frequently are based on popular culture depictions of cancer and dying, which can be misleading as a guide for knowing what to expect when you're expecting to die.

This memoir provides one "dead" woman's often-irreverent, pop culture-illustrated guide to life that deconstructs some common preconceptions about living with a terminal diagnosis.