The actress, 44, was told she might be going through early menopause, that she had irritable bowel syndrome, that something was wrong with her menstrual cycle, that it was a stomach thing. And yet her abdominal cramps, mood swings and leg pain continued. 'It's like my therapist says: When you hear hooves, don't assume they're zebras.'įor two years, Drescher's cancer was not diagnosed. 'They try and treat you for the simplest thing first,' she said. Her pain was caused by something else, they said. She does not want what happened to her to happen to you.įor a long while, doctors were convinced Drescher did not have cancer. I think we have to figure out what the life lesson is in something terrible.' There are silver linings to things, no matter how awful. Then I rewrote it again, and I twisted it all in a way that I can see some of the experiences - nurses that hated each other and were fighting every step of the way my parents, and they're always very funny me saving my cousin Susan with the Heimlich maneuver not a week after my surgery. Then when I went back, I put in more of my pain, my fear.

I think I got out a lot of anger, rage and frustration. 'The first version of the book was a lot of facts and not as much humor. I found it very therapeutic.'Ī testament to her long ordeal is inadvertently revealed when she says the book ( Warner Books, $24.95) went through several drafts. Sometimes it's good to write things down and find the humor in them. Anderson Cancer Center, where she is a patient advocate. 'It's really laugh-out-loud at times,' said Drescher, in town recently to promote her book and visit University of Texas M.D. But in the hands of a comedian with writing talent (her first book, Enter Whining, was a best seller), Cancer Schmancer reads like the diary of a best friend, complete with the funny bits. In the hands of someone else, the book would be unbearably sad. Her book unflinchingly reveals her pain and suffering, including the gory details of her illness - her fight with doctors, who took so long to diagnosis her disease the effects of a radical hysterectomy the fear of sex after such an ordeal.

Fran drescher cancer schmancer book