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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Moving Through Anger
The Summer of 2018 I began grasping at straws, in search of something permanent, unchanging — while my entire world was shifting constantly after my diagnosis of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
Read More...Peace Amidst Chaos
There are many things in life that we prepare for. We study or practice and hope that when the time comes, we are ready for whatever we face. We spend time studying for our driving test and practicing on the road with watchful parents beside us. We spend years and years in school, hoping that we’ll be prepared for the first day of our first job.
Read More...We Were Made for Great Things
My memories as a child are filled with lazy summer days and rainy winters shooting ants down storm drains. Church on Sundays wearing dresses my mom designed lovingly and paid a seamstress to have made for me. Those days were filled with wonder and laughter, love and ease.
Read More...Fear as a Moat, God as My Fortress
This week, on July 9th, I’ll go for my 16th and final round of intravenous chemotherapy. I’m praying to the God I believe hears us, and asking that this is the last one I ever have to do intravenously, but also hopefully, at all.
Read More...Infirmity Gave me a Reason to Believe
Adopting a life of spirituality to gain internal strength, resilience, faith, and optimism allows one to conquer the external yet strenuous trials and tribulations that life may present. At the age of 13, on my bed of affliction, my life changed forever.
Read More...“Why Didn’t You Ask for Help?”
“Why didn’t you ask for help?” Moving Beyond Shame and Into Community. This question was asked by a relative as we were packing my family’s apartment in preparation for moving into our new home, and I have been thinking about it since.
Read More...Faith is a Feeling
It’s late at night, but I feel like writing. Throughout my day I’ve scrolled through The Cancer Patient Instagram stories. The topic has been primarily centered around religious people, and the stupid things they’ve said and the myriad of ways we’ve been hurt by them.
Read More...From Melanoma to Mindfulness
Malignant melanoma. The words glowed back at me from my work computer screen as if they were highlighted in neon yellow. “That must be a mistake,” I thought, as I glazed through the remainder of the virtual pathology report.
Read More...The Botany of Breast Cancer Awareness Month
It’s a wonderful coincidence that elephants are my favorite animal. My elephants, my cancer, were lurking inside my private rooms. I’d been very reluctant to go public, to put a big reveal out into the world that I have breast cancer. I didn’t want to post an announcement online about my cancer.
Read More...Serenity in the Big Ditch
Adversity creates a yearning for serenity. With struggle a calm moment is desired, and the appreciation for when it occurs is significant. I first found whitewater learning to kayak in Glacier National Park with First Descents. Anxiety was a real concern I had with anything done around that time.
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