From the Heart (2007)

by Kathy Kastan, LCSW, M.A.Ed.

"The first book written for women dealing with the emotional repercussions of heart disease, From the Heart will is a guide to women with heart disease move forward with optimism and courage. It addresses such questions as: How do you regain a strong self-image? Grapple with your fears? Talk to the people you love about your illness? Learn to trust your body?

This book combines Kastan's personal experience and expertise as a therapist with stories from scores of other women with heart disease. It is an invaluable resource which will help women reduce stress, give up hard-to-break habits, adapt to new lifestyles ? and thrive again."

The book can be bought at Amazon or obtained more cheaply at Abebooks.com.

This is a fine, useful book. It is recommended to any woman with a history of heart disease, at risk, or with friends and/or relatives with risk factors.

Not Yet by Wayson Choy (2009)

A Memoir of Living and Almost Dying

From Amazon.ca: "Framed by Wayson Choy’s two brushes with death, Not Yet is an intimate and insightful study of one man’s reasons for living.

In 2001, Wayson Choy suffered a combined asthma-heart attack. As he lay in his hospital bed, slipping in and out of consciousness, his days punctuated by the beeps of the machines that were keeping him alive, Choy heard the voices of his ancestors warning him that without a wife, he would one day die alone. And yet through his ordeal Choy was never alone; men and women, young and old, from all cultures and ethnicities, stayed by Choy’s side until he was well. When his heart failed him a second time, four years later, it was the strength of his bonds with these people, forged through countless acts of kindness, that pulled Choy back to his life."

Wayson Choy is a beloved Canadian author. It's strange that he is not much read in the "States." Not Yet is a remarkable book that is one of the best illness narratives we have. It weaves cross-cultural themes into the narrative as well.

Publisher information: Not Yet

At the Will of the Body: Reflections of Illness by Arthur Frank (1991)

In this deeply affecting memoir, Arthur W. Frank explores the events of illness from within: the transformation from person to patient, the pain, the wonder, and the ceremony of recovery. To illuminate what illness can teach us about life, Frank draws upon his own encounters with serious illness -- a heart attack at age thirty-nine and, a year later, a diagnosis of cancer. In poignant and clear prose, he offers brilliant insights into what happens when our bodies and emotions are pushed to extremes. Ultimately, he examines what it means to be human.

This was one of the first pathographies I read, and even to day, one of the most instructive and educational.

Frank feels that “illness is an opportunity, though a dangerous one… Critical illness offers the experience of being taken to the threshold of life, from which you can see where your life could end. From that vantage point you are both forced and allowed to think in new ways about the value of your life… Illness takes away parts of your life, but in doing so it gives you the opportunity to choose the life you will lead, as opposed to living the one you have simply accumulated over the years.”

Can be purchased from Abebooks.com starting at one dollar.