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At Face Value: My Triumph Over a Disfiguring Cancer by Terry Healey
Book Summary InformationAuthor: Terry Healey Edition: Paperback Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 2006-01-01 ISBN: 1883991986 Number of pages: 224 Publisher: Caveat Press
Book Reviews of At Face Value: My Triumph Over a Disfiguring CancerBook Review: A Triumph Over The Superficial Summary: 3 Stars
"At Face Value" details author Terry Healey's brush with death and his conversion from a focus on the externals of life to the fabric that makes up the human spirit. Healey, diagnosed with a fibrosarcoma while a college student, is a cancer survivor today. In "At Face Value," Healey chronicles his years-long journey from the initial, agonizing diagnosis through more than thirty surgical procedures and radiation treatments he endured.
Healey was not sure if he would survive the cancer, as it reoccurred. Once survival was a real possibility, he had to deal with having to never look "normal" as the fibrosarcoma radically disfigured his appearance, particularly his face. Thoughts of death and stares by friends and strangers were constant companions.
The author says "the book is not about cancer disfigurement but a much broader issue, society's quick judgment of people based on the superficial" and "our need to look beyond appearances." We need to look deeper, and focus on the internal fabric that makes up the human spirit.
The book explores the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual challenges faced by those forced on people faced with a serious life-threatening and disfiguring illness (or accident). These challenges are not unique to Healey. For example, a spiritual challenge most of us can identify with is our daily relationship with God. "I felt guilty about wanting to ask God for good health and favorable pathology results...why I only paid special visits to church when I needed help. Why couldn't I stop by church to say a few thanks now and then?...We all get caught up in our lives and tend to pray only when we're facing a major obstacle or illness ...eventhough (sic) I knew prayer always helps."
Today, Healey is a board member of the Wellness Community - helping others facing a life threatening illness - and is a highly sought after motivational speaker.
Summary of At Face Value: My Triumph Over a Disfiguring CancerTerry Healey was a junior at the University of California at Berkeley. At the age of twenty, his life had been smooth sailing, seldom interrupted with adversity or difficulty. Terry was confident and not concerned much with his appearance. But out of nowhere, a lump formed behind his right nostril. Cancer. He fought it and survived. But after multiple surgeries and radiation treatment, Terry would discover that he hadn?t even begun to deal with what would become his greatest struggle for years to come — the disfigurement that resulted from it.
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