Wait, It Gets Worse

Love, Death, and My Transformation from Control Freak to Human Being

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Pub Date 19 Mar 2019 | Archive Date 18 Jan 2019

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Description

"Tender, funny, and deeply uplifting, Wait, It Gets Worse is about more than facing the unexpected; it’s an everywoman’s guide to living a life that matters."
—Arianna Huffington

With a voice that is wise, irreverent, and filled with sharp humor, Wait, It Gets Worse is a story about following all the rules only to learn the hard way that control is a lie and an illusion, and that love will save your life.

Lydia Slaby was thirty-three years old and had everything she believed would make her happy: three fancy private school degrees; a successful husband who was in the inner circles of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign; a high-paying job as an attorney—even an enviable yoga practice. But under the surface Lydia’s life was in free-fall. Her new marriage was one argument after another, she had a job she never wanted, and for some reason she had begun to rapidly lose weight and turn a strange shade of yellowish-green. When she made a doctor’s appointment to talk about the toll of extreme stress, she was instead admitted with a diagnosis of lymphoma.

As a cancer survivor, Lydia tries to piece back together her marriage, her career, and her own worth. She begins to rewrite her value as a human being and build her own version of faith until, finally, she is moving forward instead of back. It’s an imperfect rebirth, but “perfection” is something she must abandon if she is to at last find the perspective that will open a new, calm, healthy life.

"Tender, funny, and deeply uplifting, Wait, It Gets Worse is about more than facing the unexpected; it’s an everywoman’s guide to living a life that matters."
—Arianna Huffington

With a voice that is...


Marketing Plan

- National broadcast and print campaign
- National trade marketing and sales campaign
- Advance digital ARC distribution to reviewers, librarians, media, and booksellers on Net Galley
- National publicity campaign
- Author tour in Chicago and east coast cities
- Private events with cancer organizations and social influencers
-www.lydiaslaby.com

- National broadcast and print campaign
- National trade marketing and sales campaign
- Advance digital ARC distribution to reviewers, librarians, media, and booksellers on Net Galley
- National...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781633310285
PRICE $17.00 (USD)

Average rating from 17 members


Featured Reviews

Wow! Lydia Slaby! Your raw narrartive of all that you went through over the years is amazing. Your recollection of each hospital visit and procedure shows the pain that you went through. All while your husband stepped up to the plate to be by your side. Though this book is about a difficult time, Lydia's writing is very conversational; hence why she started a blog to document her journey.

Since reading this book, I have visited the Hair Optional blog to see Lydia's progression. I think this novel will help those struggling with similar health situations and will show that yes it does get worse, but be a fighter because there is a life out there :)

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Reading cancer memoirs is a strange hobby, I admit. But it’s one of mine.

And this is a wonderful cancer memoir. Lydia Slaby is honest and straightforward. She is able to inhabit the key moments in her experience with cancer and to describe them without the gauzy hindsight that is common in looking back.

I especially appreciate the way she confronts the illusion of control that is common to the young and the strong, and describes her process of learning to live without that particular untruth.

Bravo, and please write more!

With thanks to NetGalley and Dirsuption Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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I'm not sure what led me to pick this books. I love the name and the cover, but honestly the subject didn't really interest me, but nonetheless I selected it and started reading.
This writing style is friendly and relaxed. You feel like you are sucked onto her couch as she tells you this wonderful, powerful, emotional story about her struggles with cancer, recovery, herself, her relationship, her professional life etc. It flows and is easy to get just read multiple pages without even realizing.
This isn't your typical cancer/survival story. She really just tells you about her. You can listen and walk away or you can choose to gleam more from what she's tried, gone through and learned. Whichever. It seems she would be happy with either and she's just happy to tell you her tale.
I enjoyed seeing the different side of this fight. She states " I was so desperate to go back to the hospital I actually was beginning to welcome the idea of getting hit by a car". Who says that? Why? Well she does and she will tell you why.... and it all makes sense.

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Lydia Slaby has written a splendid memoir of living with cancer.

But, wait, as she says in the title, it gets worse, when non-existent conditions are diagnosed, leading to two major and life -threatening surgeries. It's a good thing for her physicians that Ms. Slaby, an attorney, is not of a litigious nature, because if ever there were grounds for negligence or malpractice suits, she has them. However, she devotes herself to recovering and recognizes that sometimes things just turn out as expected.

This is not to say that by any stretch of the imagination that she is a Pollyanna type. No. The very opposite. Lydia Slaby is a fierce and courageous woman and an excellent writer. So often personal accounts of terrible illnesses are poorly written "Why me?" stories, but not so this quite remarkable book. I couldn't out it down. This is a true profile in courage, told with love for all the people in it, by an admirable woman. Highly recommended.

I received this book as an ARC from the publisher and NetGalley.

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This was a very human, very raw book about facing Cancer, fighting it & trying to relinquish control in order to heal, not just physically but emotionally, mentally & spiritually. I particularly enjoyed reading the last section where she combines therapy and holistic methods to try and figure out how to rebalance.

It's not too triggering and it is not overwhelmingly sad. I think it is the perfect balance for anyone wanting to reading a memoir - even if you have cancer, in my opinion, it wouldn't be too much.

I'd 100% recommend this.

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