The subtitle is “What do you do when cancer catches you with your pants down?”  Catchy, doncha think?  I think that is because while he was dancing with cancer, he was also going through a separation from his wife and a bankruptcy.  Talk about a one-two punch!

Barry got the news, as many do, after months of misdiagnoses at various emergency rooms.  By the time the cancer was discovered, it was pretty advanced, but Barry will tell you Canada has a great healthcare system and that Princess Margaret Cancer Center was outstanding. Advanced as the cancer was, he was declared healthy after less than eight months of treatment.

Look at the title of the book again.  You’ll see it’s in all caps except for the first c in cancer.  The disease is always referred to as “the big C,” and he decided that it would be much easier for him to deal with if he ignored that moniker.  Hence the small, rather than the big, c.

Now, good as Canadian healthcare, there’s going to be idiots in every system.  The diagnosing doctor told him right out that it was cancer and that it was very serious, very serious.  (Sigh.  At least all the other characters we meet in the book have a much better bedside manner.)

When the doctor told him that, Barry said, “Are you saying I should get my affairs in order?”  “Yes, yes, get your affairs in order.”  Barry said, “But I haven’t had any affairs.”  The doctor responded that that was “not funny, not funny, Mr. Spilchuk.”  But it is!  It’s hysterical.

It’s true that Barry has an unsinkable sense of humor.  But it’s also true that he was in the first stage of grief: Denial.  But the sense of humor did a lot to get him through the ordeal.  Oh, yeah, the nurses loved him!

As for the idea of the cancer dance, that’s how he saw it.  If you see cancer as the enemy, it has control.  So you sort of dance with it – the doctors try a treatment and the cancer responds a certain way.  Based on that response, the doctors try another treatment, the cancer responds, and on and on.

A side effect of one treatment was that Barry’s tongue swelled so much it hardly fit in his mouth.  And it got very dry.  The treatment for that was a paper towel sandwich.  He gives you the recipe, including tips for preparation.  I’ll let you read about that on your own.  And you’ll love the story about his going potty.  I don’t want to spoil it for you, so I won’t tell you about it here.

One of the most impressive things about the book to me is that, at the time,  when you bought it from his site, he sent you two copies. He figures that everybody knows at least one other person who has been affected by cancer, so he wants you to give the other book to someone who needs it.

So you know, the book icon I use here is the actual cover, but that’s not what you’ll see when you click on it and go to Amazon. Also, if you’d like to hear him on my radio show, click here.