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Standing at Water’s Edge

“In Standing at Waters Edge, Dr. Janice Post-White, a cancer healthcare specialist herself, generously and colorfully takes us into the world of a family confronted by childhood cancer…. Life and its seasons do not stop for childhood cancer, and her words teach us how overwhelming the aloneness can be for a family and for each of its members that is evoked by threats to their wellbeing and survival…. She teaches us how our words, touch, and presence can make the cancer experience better for our very ill children and their families. This book is our guide and will take us as close to the family pediatric cancer experience as we shall be able to get.”

—Pamela Hinds, William and Joanne Conway Chair of Nursing Research at Children’s National, pediatrics professor at George Washington University in Washington DC

“What a beautiful, poetic and honest account of a parent’s greatest fear—facing the loss of a child to a serious illness. This book will move you, enlighten you, and ultimately inspire you. For what is a brush with death, if not a deeper call to life?”

—Henry Emmons, MD, author of The Chemistry of Joy and The Chemistry of Calm

I’m A Cancer Nurse, But I Didn’t Spot My Own Son’s Cancer. Here’s What I Wish I’d Known.

“By Christmas, the purple velvet robe he wore, as the King carrying frankincense to baby Jesus in the preschool reenactment, dwarfed his rail-thin body.”

Liz Olds kicks off the show with Janice Post-White, whose memoir Standing at Water’s Edge details her experience as a cancer nurse whose four-year-old son contracted leukemia, changing everything for her.

In this episode of “The Vitals,” Dr. Janice Post-White discusses how she balanced working as an oncology nurse through her child’s cancer diagnosis, and the lessons she learned from the experience.