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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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The Life You Save May Be Your Own
In elementary school, my teachers always told us it was important to understand math because “you won’t always have a calculator in your pocket.” That sentiment hasn’t aged well, given that my iPhone and Alexa are always within reach.
Read More...The Give and Take of Cancer
I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 39 – a time in my life when everything finally felt steady. Life had a rhythm, a sense of peace I had worked so hard to build. I had a stable job I genuinely enjoyed, daily routines that grounded me, and a grown, independent daughter who had become her own beautiful person.
Read More...Choosing Hope
Cancer has taken so much. It’s hard to think of what it’s given. But I suppose it has put me in the here and now – forced me to be in the present. Required that I think of life as a gift where tomorrow isn’t guaranteed.
Read More...Overcoming Health Anxiety
For as long as I can remember, getting cancer has been one of my biggest fears. When I was a child, my parents had a medical encyclopedia with a symptom checker section I used to pore over, with every symptom eventually leading to an “Emergency! Get help now!” or “This could be a life threatening disease like cancer, go to the doctor!” box.
Read More...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…”
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