Reading recommendations for someone with a new diagnosis

carefulcheryl

Hello! I recently have been diagnosed with Endometrial cancer. It was a total shock and I am still just trying to process everything that I have going through my head. I am in my early 40's and had basically no symptoms. I have had heavy periods my whole life and the last time I went to the doctor for blood work I discovered I had anemia. We started to investigate what could be causing the anemia and the doctor suggested an ultrasound. Eventually I found out I had a fibroid that I needed to get removed. I never would have expected for the pathology to come back as cancer.

It's been quite a ride so far. I am scheduled for surgery in less than two weeks and will be having a Robotic hysterectomy and will find out at that point what the next step will be. So far I know that the results show that the cancer cells are grade 1.

I work as a librarian so of course my first impulse is to start reading everything I can. What did you read that you would recommend? Blogs, books, memoirs, fiction, nonfiction? Anything would be great. I would also love to hear good podcasts recommendations/documentaries. Thank you!

NoTimeForCancer

carefulcheryl, welcome. I am finding some of the links on our pinned post at the top of our page isn't working so well, but one of the helpful things posted there were tips from the ladies on after surgery. I don't have any recommendations on your reading list, but you might find this one below worth your time.

https://csn.cancer.org/discussion/320841/tips-for-surgery-and-after

Forherself

Welcome Carefulcheryl. You have a type of cell that most often requires no treatment. But rarely the type changes after surgery. Interesting question about books. My doctor gave me a few articles to read. As far as educational books I did not find any with enough information to merit buying them. I googled my type and read all articles about 7 years and up. The older articles are inaccurate. They used to group endometrioid and serous together so results for both types were inaccurate. Endometriod for the worse and Serous for the better. Your question brought a funny memory to mind. My cousin, who is a medical social worker gave me the book Being Mortal by Atul Gawand. We are dear friends and I enjoyed the book knowing she was not thinking clearly. Reading this board was the greatest education for me.