Book Summary: Roads to Meaning and Resilience with Cancer
Book Summary
Morhaf Al
Achkar, MD, PhD
The book, "Roads to Meaning and Resilience with Cancer" tells the stories of 39 patients with
incurable lung cancer. It aims to help patients, families, and healthcare
providers understand the experience of living with cancer. It also invites reflections
on the essential questions of meaning, resilience, and coping with adversity in
life. The author is a family doctor, teacher, and researcher who is also a
stage 4 lung cancer patient himself. He is patient #40.
Facing one's mortality,
patients with cancer develop an urgency to find meaning in life. They struggle
with the illness, its emotional impact, and the consequences of treatments.
But, with time, reflection, and support from others, they develop resilience.
Cancer patients often are not passive. Instead, they choose different
strategies to maintain and restore their health. They also leverage a variety
of approaches to cope better with their struggle.
The first chapter,
"Finding Meaning," explores how participants search for meaning.
There was no one answer to this inquiry. Some felt they had limited access to
purpose and meaning as if it had all been ripped off from them or that life was
nothing but chaos. Many individuals, on the other hand, find meaning in
relationships and connections. Those who were fortunate enough to return to
work found meaning in the spaces where they showed their talents. Those who
reconstructed their identities around their experience with cancer also found
meaning in serving others, especially the ones who struggle with a similar
illness. For many, meaning had become about service, and service gave them a
purpose.
People also developed
resilience in a variety of ways, and that was the topic of the second chapter,
"Building Resilience." Some relied on themselves and took pride in
being determined and strong-willed individuals. Some considered relationships
in their lives to be the source of their resilience. Knowing more was how some
of these people felt empowered. For others, religion arose as a source of
strength, and relying on divine power was necessary. Not everyone, however,
felt strong. Some participants felt broken inside.
People with advanced cancer
have an existential threat. With this threat comes, for some, the desire to do
all that is possible to abate the danger. Cancer also leaves many scars, and
its treatment has many complications. People want to live a more tolerable life
and one of better quality. In the chapter "Health Actions," the book
reviews patients' health choices. This chapter includes a diversity of
practices. It also summarizes reflections on the reasons for doing this or that
practice. Furthermore, it brings insights into what has worked or did not work
from the experiences of different participants. The practices spanned a variety
of diet choices, exercising practices, and complementary and alternative
medical approaches. Participants did not always agree on what counts as healthy
and what is useful. What is common, however, between all the participants who
had survived longer than what typical lung cancer patients used to is that they
also take targeted chemotherapy. The book includes participants' intimate
reflections on why they choose to take medicine and battle the disease.
The chapter "Coping with
The Struggle" presents reflections on what people do to cope with their
struggle. These are actions that people engage in to maintain a sense of
purpose and identity. Unsurprisingly, they did different things. To cope,
people maintained their agency by volunteering and doing advocacy work. Also,
they have shifted their frameworks around to better align with what is
conducive to carrying on. For example, they attempt to redirect their
attention, try to be positive, or use humor. Some have coped by learning about
their cancer and how to manage it. Others have coped by living life in the here
and now. Finally, some people needed extra rest and found that to be what
helped them cope.
Cancer is an experience of
struggle, and it shifts many aspects of a person's life. The person's roles in
life also change, and so do the relationships they form with people around
them. Further, the person's understanding of their life's purpose sways with
the uncertainty of their prognosis. Living with cancer is uncharted territory
for those experiencing the illness. This novelty is especially real for people
with lung cancer with oncogenic alterations. There are positive prospects that
came with targeted chemotherapies. Lung cancer patients are living longer and
with a better quality of life. There is hope. Still, there are many daunting
uncertainties.
The book is for cancer
patients who are tarrying at the limits of time. It is also for those who live
around patients with cancer: caregivers, families and friends, and health care
providers. People who struggle with other illnesses will also find aspects of
their story reflected here. Also, the ones who have experienced a crisis of
identity will discover elements of their story here as well. By sharing the
experiences of the forty authentic individuals, the book opens the space for
them to teach others. They have a lot of wisdom. This book is about the essence
of the human experience at its limits. It is for every reader.
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