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Notebook Guides You Through Cancer Battle

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 2, 2008

When you're fighting cancer, you want to be armed with as much information as possible.

You need to know when and where you have appointments, stay on top of a slew of medications and be ready to ask myriad questions for any and all health care workers you encounter.

The Lance Armstrong Foundation has created an incredibly practical resource you can use to compile all those resources.

The "Livestrong Survivorship Notebook," more importantly, helps direct a person living with cancer through the overwhelming journey from diagnosis through recovery. It simplifies a trip to the doctor by suggesting you jot down your physical and emotional health on a daily basis, and even offers ways to ask questions.

The first third of the pages in the three-ring binder makes up a health journal, where you can keep important information about radiation, transplants and surgery. It also lists what documents you'll want to copy and have in your possession if you need a second opinion or the records get lost.

Another comprehensive portion is dedicated to helping you find physical, emotional and practical resources. It includes frank talk about the aftereffects of treatments. There is also an attractive magazine offering inspiring stories of individuals who beat cancers of all kind. Lance Armstrong, the world-famous cyclist, testicular cancer survivor and driving force behind the Livestrong campaign, also shares his own experience.

You can get a free notebook at livestrong.org/notebook or by calling 1-866-235-7205. Shipping and handling costs may apply in some cases.

The notebook's popularity, and the foundation's desire to reach out to disadvantaged cancer survivors, led to a new partnership with the American Library Association. A copy of the notebook has been distributed to 14,200 public libraries across the country, including at least one in the Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative. You can review and copy the information you want to keep.

- Mary Shedden

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