Biblio Files: talking about books

The Red Devil
A Memoir About Beating the Odds
by Katherine Russell Rich Three weeks after seperating from her husband, Rich found a hard lump in her left breast. Her doctor refuses to take her seriously, telling her that if she's really worried, he'd be glad to feel her. After two months, she presses ahead, and finds that she does have breast cancer. So she got a lumpectomy, and then chemotherapy. Cancer treatments invaded her life to a greater extent than cancer had. Cancer joins her life, and she finds out which of her friends were really her friends. At 32, her circle of friends is young enough to make her the first in their circle to have a potentially fatal illness. And since her cancer is found in the 80s, the treatments were different. Through the decade covered in this book, cancer treatments change. Rich goes through numerous doctors and support groups. Her epilogue says that Rich's cancer has returned again. But that doesn't change the book, because this book is not about defeating cancer; it's about living with cancer. It's about life, not death.
The title is explained here

The second drug, bright kool aid red, zapped my body with a violent buzz that warmed me horribly and made me squirm. "Adriamycin," he said. "It's called the red devil." Later, to myself, I called it Drano, or Agent Orange, for that's what it felt like rushing through my veins. My poor veins, I thought, when I found out that Adriamycin is so corosive, they have to be careful not to spill any on your skin, or you could get third-degree burns and need skin grafts.

Happy/ Inspirational reading.