Patients Jennifer

If cancer is thought of more as a statistic, the volume Cancer Stories Lessons in Love, Loss, and Hope (Temple and Beeson, 2004) brings us back to reality. The School of Journalism at West Virginia University conducted a Cancer Project, with journalism students individually assigned to cancer patients, notably at the university s Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center. The final result, edited by John Temple and Joel Beeson, with an Introduction by Jennifer Roush, contains photo essays that chronicle the experiences and ordeals of cancer patients. A DVD accompanies this award-winning documentary, recipient of a 2004 Midwestern Regional Emmy. 

For the first few weeks or even months, these newly medicated patients continue to improve. Now that they feel more resilient, they re better able to handle the curveballs that life throws their way. A minor setback—like Jennifer s lonely feeling when her roommate went off without her—seems truly minor instead of a trigger for overwhelming sorrow. I finally get what people mean by don t sweat the small stuff, one of my patients once told me. Before, I never even knew there was small stuff. ... 

The author wishes to acknowledge the able assistance of Jennifer Jones, Dorothea Cloughley and several others in the patient editing of this text. 

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