January, 18th 2025: Join us for food, drinks, dancing, and author sharing — all to support our mission. Learn more here!
AYA Cancer
Cancer is Not My Identity
Life after cancer isn’t what I, or many, expect it to be like. Like a lot of others, it’s believed that once your treatment is over and you are disease-free, your life will go back to how it once was.
Read More...What I Wish MyChart Notifications Told Me
I wish someone told me that doing my best each day is enough. I don’t have to be some superhero and maintain the capacity I had before cancer crept into my life.
Read More...if someone told me…
I wish someone told me that survivorship would be the hardest part…
that it’s like a rollercoaster,
except the track changes every time you start the ride again.
Life Goes On?
I looked in the mirror as I furiously brushed my hair. It reached down maybe a third down my back. It’s taken 12 years to get this long. I’ve only ever trimmed and shaped it a few times; I worry about cutting a chunk off, in case it won’t grow back.
Read More...Skin
You took the skin off my back, literally.
You left me numb, emotionally and physically.
Young Breast Cancer Your Story and Mine: A Compact Guide
Due to the problem of omission of public breast health education, I believed that “it couldn’t be cancer.” I didn’t know my risk factors, and I believed I was too young. This belief fueled my own delay in seeking care for some months, which could have been detrimental to my survival due to the extra aggressive nature of my tumor being Triple Negative breast cancer.
Read More...A Kinder Way to Life
Cancer, like a death sentence, was pronounced on me at the age of 33. I guess I can be only thankful that I didn’t know I had it until long after my operation was over.
Read More...My Dance with Cancer
In 2021 it felt as if my whole world was coming to an end. I had received a phone call from my doctor that no one expects or only sees in movies. She would then go on to explain, as I clung to my railing, that I had what she believed to be a rare form of leukemia, BPDCN.
Read More...Does Cancer Ever Really Go Away?
That’s a great question. The day I was told “this looks like a malignancy” is far more memorable than the day I was told “your scans and labs are clean, and we shouldn’t need to continue treatment.” During my first visit back to the cancer center for a follow up, I was given the familiar wrist band that all patients receive.
Read More...Forever is Daunting
It feels as though the universe has been taunting me since birth. She beckons with whispers of promise, daring me to venture deeper into the vast, abstract abyss of time.
Read More...