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Patients
The stories and experiences in this category are written by people currently going through treatments for cancer. Read these stories to find inspiration and know that you are not alone in your experience with cancer.
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Take Care of Me
Strong hits me in the chest, a shove
Away from the comforting embrace
I’m left longing for
Strong leaves me alone to go on
Because I’ve “got this” and
If I’m strong then you don’t have to see me
Strength, Redefined.
I learned too young that strength isn’t loud. It doesn’t always stand tall with its chest out, doesn’t always roar.
Read More...Finding My Pack: How Cancer Taught Me the True Meaning of Brotherhood
Through my cancer diagnosis, I never truly understood the transformative power of connecting with another survivor. I had read the bold-faced words: community, compassion, empathy again and again in pamphlets, online articles, and support brochures, but they were just concepts that felt far removed from my own reality.
Read More...White Flag
He walked in greeting me with a hello… as if he was waiting to meet me. And it began, Can I go over your story? My story? I was familiar
Read More...CANCER AND AUTISM/AUTISM AND CANCER
The narrative I knew of myself for so long was that I was difficult. I was a sensitive child who couldn’t be pacified, didn’t smile but cried easily and didn’t handle change well.
Read More...The Luck of the Irish: A Parable of Inheritance, Illness, and Hope
This past St. Patrick’s Day my daughter and I were listening to John Lennon’s “Luck of the Irish”. She wondered aloud whether people realized the phrase was meant to be ironic. Lennon certainly did, singing, “If you had the luck of the Irish, you’d be sorry and wish you were dead…”
Read More...I am a Zebra
As the child of a single parent, I was raised to be a strong, independent individual who wanted to be the best possible version of myself. In my attempt at perfectionism, I had illnesses – IBS, eating disorder, anxiety, body image and acceptance issues.
Read More...Breast Cancer
We were told we had time. That day after day, Our tomorrows stretched, Like little waves under a full moon, On the deep blue ocean, Our potential lapping, At the horizon: Limitless.
Read More...A Year in “Rear View”
Random ramblings on a day of new significance. It’s funny how a date on a calendar changes its meaning within a year. May 23rd, 2024. The day I logged into MyChart and read and re-read the pathology reports, and knew this was going to upend all our plans and hopes for 2024.
Read More...Dear Cancer, You Won’t Stop Me
I have some choice words for you. I can tell you off or tell you to go somewhere, or say that I hate you. But you’re a smug, stubborn son of a gun and don’t care. I have no choice but to fight you and go to battle.
Read More...