The Five Gifts of Illness: A Reconsideration

This was a great book in getting the feelings and emotions that have been flowing through me out of my head. You start to feel very isolated when you become apart of the cancer community. The relationships change with your pre-cancer days...there is a sense of loss of what life used to be like before illness. I hope this book is the beginning of the many programs and organizations dedicated to the survivor culture. With so many people living longer with chronic illness...no one has taught us how to live with ticking time bomb in our bodies. Hoping this will lead to more help for us lost survivors out there...I have made my caregiver read it so hopefully she'll have a better understanding of why i just can't 'snap out of it'. I would recommend this book for anyone who has chronic illness or any caregiver of a person with a chronic illness to understand what we are going through better.

As a cancer survivor myself, this book helped me to explain what I was going through as a survivor...AFTER treatment was long gone. My husband is reading it now and seems to understand me a bit better.

This book is a must read for anyone who has ever been diagnosed with a chronic illness or any acute life threatening disease (cancer, such as myself). This book is a true gift...when someone is diagnosed and you do not know what to do for them or what to say...this book is the perfect gift! The FIVE Gifts of Illness: A Reconsideration thoroughly discusses the different phases one goes through when diagnosed, after when coping, and when moving forward with life. If you are stuck and cannot reach acceptance, this book gives the guidance and tools to make it happen! It shows that positive attributes may stem from negative events in our life. Jill Sklar does any amazing job discussing all of this in the book, very informative and well written! Highly recommended! -deb kirkland, cancer survivor 12/20/01