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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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Dear Leukemia
Dear Cancer, If I could ask you one question, it would be a single word: why? Why did you storm into my life four years ago? Do you even know the darkness you brought? The way you made my heart tremble, my body ache, my mind scream for peace.
Read More...The Quiet Battle: Navigating Life After Cancer
“The end of treatment isn’t the end of cancer—it’s the beginning of everything no one warned you about.” I used to think survivorship was the finish line. That once treatment ended, I’d be “back to normal.” I imagined life picking up right where I left it.
Read More...A Conversation About Survivorship
The first time I rang the bell after my 6 months of hell, I felt nothing. I watched as my nurses rallied around me and celebrated my “success” but inside I knew my fight wasn’t done. I tried my hardest to fake my enthusiasm but in the end I knew that I was just beginning my fight.
Read More...Cancer Sucks
You know what sucks? Dying alone. You know what sucks more? Cancer. You know what sucks even more? Dealing with it when you’re 17, and supposed to be getting your life started. It’s hard.
Read More...My Scar, My Story
At 19, melanoma left a lime-sized hole in the back of my head. That scar tells a story I spent decades stashing away. “Since you are already here,” my mother urged, “why don’t you also have the doctor look at that thing you found on the back of your head?” I was 19 and the picture of health.
Read More...The Unexpected Gift of Hardship
There’s a peculiar irony in the act of surviving cancer. One might assume that the end of treatment signals a triumphant return to normalcy, a victory lap, if you will.
Read More...Time Doesn’t Erase Memories
I happily chattered as I walked into a visitor center for a large company along with about 50 others in my similar profession. I knew we were visiting a company with a healthcare imaging division, but I also knew them for many other products.
Read More...The Hardest Battle I Faced After Surviving Cancer
Before cancer, life felt steady, predictable, and even comfortable. I believed that when something went wrong, you handled it. If you got sick, you saw a doctor, got better, and moved on. That was the script I’d always followed. I made plans, assuming time was on my side. I thought I was doing fine. I thought I was safe.
Read More...The Second Battle: Rebuilding After Cancer
We spend more than a year—sometimes even longer—fighting every day for our lives through cancer. Then, in remission, our bodies remain on high alert, bracing for the next blow.
Read More...Surviving Survivorship
No one prepared me for survivorship. No one braced me for how much harder surviving cancer would be than it ever was fighting it. No one told me it would be impossible to reclaim a life that once existed before cancer crudely intruded.
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