A while back I scribbled some words about What Cancer Said And What I Said Back by Kellie Nissen. In that book she survived her bout with cancer and wrote a book about it. Unfortunately, not every one survives cancer and in Days Like These Kristian Anderson doesn’t survive. It’s a sad story and there’s the love angle that I don’t normally read, but this book is different.
Kristian Anderson was a television editor, musican, as well as a man of faith. He wrote a blog and kept that updated with what was happening and how he was going. After his diagnosis he made a video for Rachel’s 35th birthday to tell her how he felt. Being in the industry he was able to get some big names, such as Hugh Jackman, to give their time for a little segment in the video. That video went viral. Oprah Winfrey noticed and gave them a large cheque for medical expenses.
This would be very useful. One of the meds Kristian was on is called Erbitux. We’re in Australia and this medication used to cost $2,000 per week. A much needed medication. Kristian campaigned for it to be put on the PBS (Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme) to bring the cost down substantially. This campaign bore fruit and in September 2011 Erbitux became $35.50 per week. It’s expensive to have health issues and Kristian Anderson was the voice to reduce that expense somewhat.
What I found hard about this book
I read this book and also the other book about cancer by Kellie Nissen back-to-back, while I was in bed with shingles. Why I tortured myself like that I truly don’t know. I have lost people to cancer, but have not had it myself. There were things I could relate to during this book. Kristian got shingles. Why did his body decide things needed to be worse for him while he’s going through treatment for cancer? It’s because that’s how shingles works. The chicken pox virus stays in the body, living in the ganglia, until your immune system is compromised or until you are totally run down. The treatment for cancer destroys your immune system and so up popped shingles. Knowing the pain, itches and creepy crawlys from shingles intimately I very much sympathised with Kristian.
I’m not a person of faith. I believe in community rather than religion. And the references to Kristian’s religion were a bit of a challenge to read. The odd reference would be okay, but there were just so many. And I understand his faith is what helped him cope so I just put up with them.
But the main reason I had issues with it is the layout. Because Kristian had been documenting everything in his blog it was all there laid out, episode by episode. And that’s how it came to me in this book. It didn’t quite feel as if I were there with the family, but almost.
Having said that, though. That is equally the strength of this book. It’s because you feel as if you’re almost there with the family that it touches the heart quite so much. Because it’s written as diary entries meant to be read by anyone this book has a strength to it that wouldn’t be there if Rachel had written it herself after the event. Instead, Kristian has written most of it by taking excerpts from his blog. It is incredibly moving reading Rachel’s prologue and final chapter.
So, you have been warned. This book does not pull any punches. It does not show that it is easy to say goodbye to loved ones when one knows that death is imminent, because it isn’t. It shows the hardest parts of the cancer journey, and few of the easy parts. I am wishing I’d not read it while in bed with shingles, that definitely coloured my emotions.