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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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The Power of Your Herd
Unlike the year prior, this would be the year my son and I would attend our Bible study group hand in hand, together. The year before, my Hodgkin’s lymphoma didn’t completely respond to treatment, and I found myself welcoming further treatment options. This was a huge milestone in my journey—I was no longer in treatment, and I didn’t have to live in my stem cell transplant bubble. My son was going to his Bible study group, and I was going to my group.
Read More...Life or Something Like It
Navigating my adult life, I did everything right. I went to school for a long time. I got a doctorate, bought a house on my own, had a thriving professional career, a relationship, friends, and thoroughly enjoyed life. I was a planner, had my future mapped out, and always kept in the back of my mind the idea that I had so much time to complete the things I wanted to do.
Read More...Mosaic: Finding New Identity and Purpose After Cancer
Fresh, unaltered
Clay still under my nails
A new vessel
Created by my hands
Parts of Me
Rediscovering myself after cancer. That is a phrase I never thought I would have to use. Some days it’s still hard for me to wrap my brain around my diagnosis. Other days, it seems too real and it’s scary to think about. I could never say there is a “positive side to cancer” (because there is not), but cancer has taught me invaluable things about myself.
Read More...My Body is a Jerk
My body is a jerk. A common refrain of mine and an easy short-hand to answer why something happened. Why do you have to go to the bathroom so often, Dil? My body is a jerk. Why did your spine get compression fractures? Because my body is a jerk. Why are you still testing positive for COVID-19 six months after you got over it and have no symptoms? Because my body is a big, fat jerk.
Read More...Different Body
Endured, tolerated, persisted, resisted; these are some verbs that come to mind when I think of my body. A different kind of body that was brought into the night side of life. A stressed body condemned to immobility. As a childhood cancer survivor, it is hard to remember specifically what I felt when I was diagnosed or going through treatment, but if I study my scars and listen to my body, I can discover a once-devastated geography.
Read More...Not Always A Cinderella Story
I remember walking into the waiting room at the Allan Blair Cancer Center and seeing a few older couples in the waiting room. I also saw a younger couple around my age sitting beside each other; the girl was filling out the paperwork while the boy looked at her with concern.
Read More...My Body, My Battle
I’ll pray and then I’ll sleep
I’ll sleep and then I’ll eat
I’ll eat and then I’ll try to do something productive
I’ll do some chores and then I’ll be short of breath
I’ll sit and rest
Cancer Made the People Come Back
They emerged from long silences and came from all times and many different places. They drew as near as possible through words and cards, and so many flowers—so many my small house could not even hold them all.
Read More...Swept Away: Healing Lost Trust
I am the parent of a kindergartener. For colorectal cancer, I am early onset. Most people at my facility are elderly. How can they relate to cancer at my age, as a mom of a young boy?
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