Cancer is complicated

Cancer is complicated And other unexpected lessons I've learned

Clea Shearer

Book - 2025

"A comforting, empowering, practical yet beautifully written guide to living with breast cancer from Clea Shearer, cofounder of The Home Edit In 2022, Clea Shearer thought: This is going to be the best year of my life. The Home Edit, the company she had cofounded and worked so hard to grow, was acquired by Hello Sunshine. She had just finished filming the second season of her Emmy-nominated show Get Organized with The Home Edit. She turned forty surrounded by candles, flowers, friends, and family. And then, on March 8, 2022, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her life as she knew it was over. But life is full of nuances. As the months went by, Clea started to feel like she had been given an opportunity. What if she could share every...thing she experienced and learned throughout this process, so it would be a little less frightening for someone else? If she could manage to do that, maybe she could turn her cancer purposeful. Cancer Is Complicated is the book that Clea wishes she'd had when she started on her cancer journey. It is a memoir and a guidebook, blending Clea's experiences and all the wisdom and advice she's gathered through this process. The book follows Clea through every step of her journey, from the moment she first felt a lump in her breast, through treatment, to where she is today. Clea also offers insights on questions big and small-from how to be your own biggest advocate, to knowing whom in your circle to share your diagnosis with, to understanding the emotional side of cancer, to what to bring with you to chemo, to things to eat when nothing else tastes good, and so much more. Clea has built an incredibly successful career on empowering and helping people navigate the overwhelm of their homes-offering accessible ways for us to begin to put our lives in order. Here, she applies her wisdom to one of the most overwhelming and frightening experiences any human being ever has to face: cancer and illness. Warm, honest, and straightforward in its approach, Cancer Is Complicated is for anyone with cancer or anyone who loves someone with cancer. It is a reminder to care for ourselves and one another, and it is here to help readers feel less alone and more prepared for the journey ahead"-- Provided by publisher.

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Location Call Number   Status
2nd Floor New Shelf 616.99449/Shearer (NEW SHELF) Checked In
Subjects
Shearer, Clea, > 1982-
Breast > Cancer > Patients > Biography.
Breast cancer patients' writings, American.
Breast > Cancer > Patients > Life skills guides.
Cancer.
Breast.
Erogenous body parts.
Secondary sex characteristics.
Autobiographies.
Self-help publications.
Genres
Autobiographies
Self-help publications
Published
New York, NY : Viking [2025]
Language
English
Main Author
Clea Shearer (author)
Item Description
"The Open Field/Penguin Life" -- Title page.
Physical Description
210 pages ; 22 cm
ISBN
9780593830611
  • Prologue: Everyone Says It's a Journey but No One Says Where You're Going
  • 1. Cancer Doesn't Care If You're Busy
  • 2. The Realization
  • 3. What's Going On?
  • 4. The Biopsy
  • 5. Who Do I Tell?
  • 6. The Diagnosis
  • 7. Paris
  • 8. And So It Begins
  • 9. Complications
  • 10. The Red Devil
  • 11. Preparations
  • 12. Here Comes Ckemo
  • 13. Taking Back Control
  • 14. "Mommy, You're Beautiful"
  • 15. Routine, Reclusion, Reflection
  • 16. The Last Round
  • 17. It's Not Over, Is It?
  • 18. Up All Night
  • 19. Ringing the Bell
  • 20. The Rundown on Radiation
  • 21. My First Treatment
  • 22. Nights at the Radiation Basement
  • 23. "Meet Me at Midnight"
  • 24. The Nameless Sorrow
  • 25. New Year, New Drugs
  • 26. What and Who Helped, What and Who Didn't
  • 27. Reconstruction
  • 28. What Comes Next
  • Okay, a Few More Things
  • Acknowledgments
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Shearer, coauthor of The Home Edit Life and cofounder of home organization company The Home Edit, recounts her struggle with breast cancer in this down-to-earth memoir. After discovering a lump in her breast in 2022, Shearer rushed to her first-ever mammogram and learned she had cancer. A double mastectomy revealed that the disease had spread to her lymph nodes, necessitating an aggressive chemotherapy and radiation regimen so painful it sometimes felt as if she was dying ("like I was almost levitating over myself"). Shearer recounts the ups and downs of living with a disease defined by its unpredictability--"When it comes to cancer, things can turn on a dime"--and the emotional volatility it causes, from small joys like binging TV with her mom to the feeling of "slipping into a black hole" that followed her diagnosis. While the author's concrete advice (bring a friend or family member to medical appointments) is familiar, her matter-of-fact explanations of the bodily experience of chemo are valuable, and her breezy, good-humored tone keeps things from getting too heavy (still drugged after a surgery, she remembers thinking she had "an 86 percent chance of living five more years, and a 60 percent chance of dropping my phone on my face"). Those grappling with recent cancer diagnoses will find comfort and welcome humor here. (Sept.)

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