The Accidental Caretaker

The Accidental Caretaker
Bill Dillard
Outskirts Press, Inc.
ISBN: 1432702831
Non-Fiction, Health
Reviewed by Frederick Noronha

If you wanted to know what motivated this book, read author Dillard's dedication. In it, he talks fondly of the memory of his wife and "best friend for over twenty years" Marylyn. And he puts its poignantly: "The Marylyn we knew... would want to be remembered the way she was before her battle with cancer."
In 12 chapters (plus a resources directory), this book tells you the author's family's story; what to do if you're an "accidental caretaker"; coping with stress; being the team-manager; your 'battlefield' at home and more.
Challenges, tools, hospitals, insurance, wills and 'life goes on' are some of the other topics touched on. It's sad. At one level, this is the author's story. At the other, he's rising above his personal grief, and trying to generously share his knowledge with others.
But there's more than just that: "This book is written by a husband who became an Accidental Caretaker first, then became a cancer patient too, and survived to tell about it." As Dillard puts it: "Cancer is a very quiet, sneaky disease, and unless found early often becomes life threatening."
There's an evocative foreword to this book. Gena Volas-Redd, MD writes: "Bill (the author) has touched our lives. He taught us how to laugh and poke fun at the death and dying process. he taught us how to grieve and laugh in the same breath."
his book, notes Volas-Redd, is a "practical rendition of do's, don'ts, how's, when, why of caring for loved ones with cancer including yourself."
Some of the writing here are very practical. Takes these Accidental Caretaker tips:
* Make certain your doctor is listening to you and answering your questions. If you don't understand the answer, have them explain. When you feel your doctor isn't listening, it may be time to make a change and find one who will.
* Take someone with you to your appointments -- two heads are better than one and four ears and better than two are.
* Memory is never enough when you are in a very stressful situation. You simply can't remember all of the doctor's names, procedure dates, results, and medications.
* Start a written journal with all your medical history. It will be important in working with new doctors. It gives them the history they need for diagnosis and treatment procedures, and will be a baseline medical history.
* Cancer can sneak up on you without warning. Regular checkups are essential; any early warning is better than none at all.
This book held me spellbound enough to keep reading it even as it dawned one night after I had been working very late. We grumble about life, but fail to realise how easy things are till we read about what others have gone through.
One small limiting factor: the typography of the books. In the e-book version I received, the frequent use of capital letters and italics kind of distracted and detracted from the work. Otherwise, if cancer has had anything to do with you, or you just wish to understand it, this is a book one could unhesistatingly recommend.