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Survivorship
The stories and experiences are written by people after cancer treatments. These stories are written for those learning how to get back to work, college or just trying to be themselves again. Just getting past treatments isn’t enough, it is surviving and thriving that is key to being you again.
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What Lies Beneath
Physically, I’m okay. Scans are clear. Labs are clear. Doctor appointments get pushed back to every six months, sometimes even yearly. The unsettling feeling still creeps in on the first of every month—checking my breasts diligently, holding my breath, and for a split second, seeing a lump as big as before.
Read More...The People I Lost, the Self I Found
Hi herd, hope you all are well. I am writing again to talk about the one lesson that cancer has taught me today. Do you know what that is? It is people.
Read More...Move Over Deet
In late winter / early spring of 2016, at the age of 35, I was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer. This, along with the surgery and 12 rounds of a chemotherapy called FOLFOX were a complete surprise.
Read More...The Reverse Mullet Undercut
My hair was my thing. Long, luscious, naturally straight, and easy to style. All my life I really took it for granted how beautiful and effortless it was.
Read More...Perpetually Healing
For me, side effects are just that, to the side of it all. Brain cancer wrecked my body. From night one in the ICU until I was transferred to inpatient rehab 7 weeks later, everything from daily hygiene, dressing, eating, were all done for me.
Read More...A Farewell to Pregnancy
“There are many ways to be a mother.” My doctor is sitting across from me, his eyes looking directly into mine. I am in an exam room with my husband and sister.
Read More...Dear Body
This topic is touchy for me as I never spoke about my body to anyone before. Growing up in a close-knit society where your neighbors will report any indecent behavior on your part, I was always afraid to expose my body anywhere.
Read More...My Bones Ache
My bones ache, My muscles burn, An unusual hurt, Now, an ordinary burden. My brain zaps, My body weak, I can’t go onIt makes me weep.
Read More...Permission Slip
Immature. Iconic. Classic. If you grew up when I did, those three words easily describe Blink-182. And if you had told my younger self that Blink-182 would one day help me process cancer survivorship, I would have laughed in your face—because 1) that seemed incredibly unlikely, and 2) surely I’d be quite elderly if/when I got cancer.
Read More...Beyond the Diagnosis: How Cancer Redefined My Work and Purpose
When I was diagnosed with breast cancer at 36, my world separated into a clear before and after. I had no family history, no known genetic mutations, and I was living a very active lifestyle, so the diagnosis came out of nowhere.
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