A year after undergoing harrowing treatment for metastatic cancer, Dr. Carolyn Stack recognized the severity of her cognitive and emotional limitations. She could no longer focus on reading, engage in a conversation with her partner, or follow the plot of a TV show. Worse, she had lost her sense of self as a vital, intelligent, productive partner, friend, and clinical psychologist/psychoanalyst. In her quest to understand what had happened to her, the author discovered that research on chemo brain was still in its infancy and that personal accounts of living with this condition barely existed. She became determined to write the book she wished had been available during the worst of her disability.
The result is a fascinating weave of her experiences coping with devastating cognitive and emotional losses, tales from other cancer survivors, summaries of current scientific research, social commentary, and potential remedies.