What's the Next Step?

About the Book

“Adjusting to a life-threatening illness is akin to finding yourself dropped at the base of Mt. Everest and being told to start climbing. It is a difficult task at best, but a guide can show you the tools and techniques to make the journey much easier. And in so doing you can get some time to enjoy the view, now and then.”

In his moving and ultimately life-affirming book, What’s the Next Step? My journey with cancer,first as a caregiver and then as a caretaker, Bob Fritz shares his experiences as a “caregiver” for his first wife, who succumbed after battling breast cancer for thirteen years, and then as a “caretaker,” a patient himself, fighting brain cancer. But more than a sharing of experiences, Bob, an engineer by training, offers a set of “tools” gleaned from his caregiving and caretaking on how to deal with many of the difficult challenges that a person approaching life’s end could encounter. These include “Fencing with the Physician,” “A Friend Has Abandoned You in a Time of Need, Now What?” and “Who’s in Charge Here?” The workbook format provides ample space for the reader to record his or her own insights and feelings. Many pages are introduced with thought-provoking quotations that encourage the reader to fully explore the topic being discussed.

Without question, you will be inspired by this wonderful book and the thoughtful and perceptive man who wrote it.

About the Author

Six months after being treated for brain cancer, I realized this had been the happiest six months of my life. A large part of my career as an engineer has been using the basic tools for sorting through a morass of information. It was time to apply these tools. What I hope to pass on are tools, hoping that you too can enjoy yourself while navigating the jungle of internet overload and well-intentioned advice. With a bit of effort you’ll be able to give your friends the gift of your calm, while leaving your loved ones with a lesson on doing it right. And for you? You are climbing a mountain; I hope this will allow you at least to enjoy the view.

Denial is the enemy. Silence is its delivery system.
--Bob Fritz