Table of Contents
Preface Who Am I and Why This Book ix
Interlude: My Summer of Bliss 1
Prologue: Everything I Know I Learned in the Waiting Room 5
1 I Can't Believe You Said That! 15
Interlude: My Cancer and My Friends 53
2 How to Give Good Visits 63
Interlude: Cancer Girl 95
3 The Perfect Present 101
Interlude: Why I Hated Hospitals and How I Came to Love This One 123
4 Two Degrees of Separation, One Degree of Need 135
Interlude: Keeping a Friend Company in the Cave 147
5 Sickness and Shame 155
Interlude: Losing Faith in My Body 171
6 Your Money or Your Health 177
7 Dealing with Dementia-Relating to People Who Have It and People Taking Care of People Who Have It 185
8 Coming Through for a Friend at the End of the Road 195
Interlude: Meditations on My Mortality and the Shadow of Life 207
9 As Bad as It Gets 213
10 The Best of Friends-Case Histories to Learn from and Live By 239
Acknowledgments 263
Appendix Resources 265
Index 273