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4 out of 4 stars
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Praying for a Miracle when it’s Hopeless by Isabella Milan is a book about surviving stage IV metastatic breast cancer. Isabella thought she had it all. She was happily married to a loving man, lived in a doctor’s mansion, and was a doting mother to her young son. Then, everything changed when she was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer. She suddenly found herself severely debilitated with metastases to her brain, confined to a wheelchair, separated from her child, and going through a divorce from her cheating husband. Once on top of the world, she was now completely stripped of health, beauty, and her once happy family. Today, she is in remission. This story is about Isabella’s journey that allowed her to overcome her diagnosis and the challenges life threw at her. Her strong connection to God and the mental and emotional techniques she utilized are all shared in these pages. If you’re facing this deadly disease, she understands. She’s been there. She overcame it, and you can too.
This woman is incredibly strong, but she also lets you in on every moment of weakness she ever experienced. I read this book because my own mother is dealing with the same diagnosis, and it’s a challenge every day sometimes just to get through it. The future is uncertain, but Isabella shares that recovery is possible, no matter what your doctors tell you. Some of the things she went through were unbelievably harsh and cruel. She was abandoned by her husband and left to die when she needed him the most. It would have been so easy for her to give up and give in to her disease, but she didn’t. She used prayer and her son as motivation to get well, and although it took her years to achieve health and get her life back, she did it.
I recommend this book to anyone fighting terminal breast cancer and their family members. Although her book seems to be aimed primarily at women with breast cancer, her techniques, advice, and story could benefit any cancer patient. This book is also beneficial to people who lack a supportive family, as she did. She can relate to the feelings of isolation and the way relationships with so-called friends change once they learn of your diagnosis. This book was beneficial to me as a family member of someone with metastatic breast cancer, because I go through the same challenges of hopelessness. I need positivity in order to keep my mother positive. Her words are encouraging and her survival is something we all want to achieve, so I highly recommend this book.
There were some minor errors through-out the book which can be easily edited. Overall, the book looks professional and aims to help women understand what this diagnosis means and how to cope. She provides detailed information about statistics, staging, and prognosis in one chapter, and inserts diagrams here and there that were clear and legible. Faith, prayer, positivity, meditation, exercise, and determination to survive are all things she credits as tools for healing.
I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. Isabella is a caring individual who wants you to survive. She overcame impossible odds and is now sharing her journey with you. She didn’t give up, even when she couldn’t walk and needed to be cared for like an invalid. She regained her mobility, survived cancer, and conquered every challenge that came her way. Her book is a message of hope to those who may have lost it.
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Praying for Hope when it's Hopeless
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