My Journey: A Worm’s Eye View of Cancer

About the Book

Retired, seventy-six-year-old Michael Barker was living the good life in beautiful Vermont. He sailed on Lake Champlain, played tennis in the summer, skied and snow-shoed in the winter, and enjoyed the glories of mountain living at its best. Then cancer struck. In 2014, Barker was diagnosed with aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and he needed treatment quickly.

In My Journey: A Worm’s Eye View of Cancer, he narrates the story of his diagnosis and treatment. Barker offers an example of one person dealing with a totally unexpected life-threatening disease. He tells what it was like to suddenly discover he had such an illness, how the treatment evolved, and what was good to know about doctors and hospitals before undergoing treatment.

Barker shares the view from the patient’s limited elevation, very near the bottom, once the treatments started. My Journey: A Worm’s Eye View of Cancer exposes some of the peculiarities of the medical system that can only be revealed from the bottom up, from the humble patient, one man who knew what it felt like to be a single, hurting cancer patient.

About the Author

Michael Barker earned degrees in engineering, architecture, and city and regional planning from the University of California, Berkeley. He worked in the planning field in California, the United Kingdom, Vermont, and Washington, DC. Barker lived in Vermont until his death.