After The Cure jacket blurb
After the Cure is focused on a single issue: chemotherapy. As Lochlann Jain noted in Malignant, chemo is inherently oxymoronic: it is a poison that cures, and it is sometimes unclear whether patients have died from chemo or from cancer. Chemotherapy can also have serious, long lasting side effects, yet post chemo ailments such as brain fog, fatigue, infertility, secondary neoplasms, etc. are virtually unspoken of within any mainstream cancer narratives. Breast cancer tends to be especially subject to overwhelmingly optimistic patient narratives which cause many patients to do not fit that model to feel excluded, inadequate, or marginalized. After the Cure is a conscious and pointed intervention into mainstream breast cancer narratives, an archive of the stories of people who are “cured” but not “well”.
Key quotes:
Pg. 1
This quote perfectly encapsulates both the phenomenon of lingering unwellness after being “cured” as well as the exclusion of these issues from the popular narrative. When the lingering effects of chemotherapy and the threat of relapse are not acknowledged, patients feel frustrated and lied to.
Quote from Annie Briggs, Pg. 31
This quote addresses a woman’s struggles with cognitive dysfunction resulting from chemotherapy, colloquially known as “chemobrain”. It can last at least ten years, and is extremely frustrating for those who suffer from it.
Read more about remission and relapse