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AYA Cancer
I wish someone told me
I wish someone had told me—Told me how much it would hurt. Not the blade that cleaved my skull, To extract the unwelcome guest, Nor the threads that stitched the wound shut, Or the scar, fracturing my head, Like parched and cracking earth.
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...Raspberry Sorbet Swirls in the Sky
I woke from the deepest sleep the doctor was above me what happened? I asked wearily you had a hysterectomy she said
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 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.
Read More...The Part That Died
When I found out I could not carry a child, a hush fell inside me—not silence, but something colder. A part of me dropped dead.
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