Picasso's Woman: A Breast Cancer StoryOn a windy January morning in 1991, Rosalind MacPhee discovered a lump in her right breast. When it turned out to be malignant, her various roles - poet, paramedic, mother, wife, emergency rescue worker, avid hiker - had to make way for another: a woman with breast cancer. Picasso's Woman is an intensely personal account of this experience. With a lean, ironic narrative style, Rosalind MacPhee chronicles how her diagnosis and treatment affected every part of her life. An outdoorswoman, she tells her story as an adventure, and like any good adventure, the book has its heartstopping moments as well as those of reverie and toughmindedness. She enlists her friends, a motley crew of colorful and often outrageous women, to help save her life. The result is an everywoman's drama of fear and courage, anger and laughter, loss and survival, and a celebration of the lives of women and their claims on one another. |
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ambulance anaesthetic anaesthetist answered asked beta-carotene biopsy body breast cancer breath called cells chair chemotherapy closed my eyes coffee decided Deirdre Deirdre's diagnosis disease doctor door dressed drink everything face feel felt Freyja friends gave gently glanced going grinned hand happened head heard Hiroshima hospital immune system Jenny Jules and Jim Kahlúa Katherine kayak knew laughed Lions Bay listened live looked lump lumpectomy lymph nodes mammogram mammography mastectomy metastasis morning morphine moved night nodded nurse okay pain palliative care paramedic patient Peter Picasso's Woman prosthesis pulled Rosalind seemed Shannon sleep smiled someone sound stared started stood stop surgery talk tears tell thing thought told took trying tumour turned voice waiting walked watched week window woke women wondered