In 2010 there were 209,060 reported cases of breast cancer in the United States. 207,090 of them were women.At the age of 32, the author, Meredith Goldberg was one of them. From Cocktails to Chemotherapy follows what happened to the author after her August 2010 diagnosis-almost two years of surgeries, scans, MRIs, biopsies, chemotherapy, radiation, and, finally, navigating what happens when the oncologist gives you the okay to resume your regularly scheduled life. Goldberg's path followed much the same trajectory as tens of thousands of other women have followed with one exception; she made the decision to freeze her head during chemotherapy to prevent her hair from falling out. One of the first people in Washington, DC to use cold-cap therapy, Goldberg became a guinea pig for an essentially unproven technology. But vanity drove her will even though her oncologist, the nurses, her family and friends all thought she was insane. Who in her right mind would willingly keep their head at -31 degrees Celsius for eight hours (four during treatment, four post treatment) while being pumped up with a cancer cocktail designed to kill anything in its path? Why couldn't she just take a nap like everyone else? But that was just it; she wanted to be like everyone else. Goldberg wanted to look like all her friends who were getting married, having kids, moving up in their careers. While she was doing none of those things, at least she could look like she was. Riding a careening roller coaster of emotions, Meredith had issued one clear directive to her friends and family: keep her laughing.From Cocktails to Chemotherapy is for the practical. The pissed off. The scared. The confused. The ones who still want to laugh. More than a memoir; it's a guide book, a cancer roadmap with chapters that will arm any newly diagnosed patient with a "how to" for finding doctors, setting terms with friends and family, dealing with wild mood swings and how to face what happens when you eventually prevail: everyone spends so much time trying to keep you from dying that no one thinks to help you cope with what happens when you get to live.
About the Author: When Meredith Goldberg was three years old, she wanted to be a manicurist. Upon realizing that she lacked the artistic skill, she started making things up in her head including imaginary friends, which kept her company growing up as an only child on Long Island. Her imagination keeps running to this day where she is a Marketing Director in the hospitality industry. When diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 32 and faced with a year of boredom, Goldberg began to chronicle her adventures with navigating this new world of doctors, medicine and what comes "next". Goldberg lives in Washington, DC where she spends her days eating, creating hashtags and dressing up Monti, her hotel's disaffected beagle. She is also the co-founder of My Chemo Bag, a DC non-profit dedicated to assisting those entering into chemotherapy at local hospitals and cancer centers around the city. From Cocktails to Chemotherapy is her first non-fiction work.