Reconstruction: life after breast cancer - Rosamund Dean - Middling Along
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I’m delighted to welcome today’s guest, journalist and author Rosamund Dean. Former Deputy Editor of Grazia magazine, she’s the author of Mindful Drinking: How Cutting Down can Change Your Life, and her latest book, Reconstruction (How to rebuild your body. Mind, and life after a breast cancer diagnosis) which is a pragmatic but positive handbook for anyone navigating a diagnosis of primary breast cancer.
Rosamund’s book is not only an exploration of her own personal experiences of breast cancer, but a warm, relatable, practical guide to what to expect at each stage, even down to what to pack in your hospital bag…
In this episode we’ll cover:
How it feels to receive a breast cancer diagnosis (in the middle of a pandemic!
The crushing fatigue of cancer treatment and being forced to stop and rest - and how this impacts on someone’s identity
Dealing with early menopause symptoms when HRT isn’t an option - and the reality of how poor the provision of information is for cancer patients
That treatment can induce a second menopause in post-menopausal women who undergo treatment for BC
Menopausal symptoms and their similarity to the side effects of chemotherapy - disentangling which is which
The treatment that Rosamund is now taking to strengthen her bones
The strain of looking out for symptoms of recurrence of the cancer
The important of exercise not just for multiple facets of physical and mental wellbeing but for reducing risk of recurrence by between 30-60%
Life - and living well - after breast cancer treatment
You can find Rosamund on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/rosamunddean/ and Reconstruction (https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Reconstruction-by-Rosamund-Dean/9780008585204) is available wherever you like to buy your books! Rosamund also has a regular newsletter, Well Well Well, which you can subscribe to here: https://rosamunddean.substack.com/