Cancer

The Many Unseen Challenges of Survivorship

I don’t think any AYA would agree with the definition of survivorship, at least in the traditional sense. Through media and life in general, the AYA community is largely forgotten. I think the traditional definition of survivorship only applies to much older generations who have outrageous amounts of money in their retirement accounts.

The Sympathetic Magic of Dolls

There are many cultures where dolls are considered a magical item. Animism attributes a soul to the inanimate: plants, objects, and natural phenomena. I remember the first time I read about the Shinto belief that there is a spiritual essence, or kami, in all things.

The Cancer Between Us

We were just kids
Playing catch, kiss, and release
With the fish of our dreams
On the afternoon of our lives

Hope

We have a tree called Hope. The anniversary of Matt’s diagnosis is a painful day for us; there was no happiness, so we do not celebrate it. Instead, we celebrate the anniversary of his completion of treatment.

I Am the (Cancer-y) Lorax. I Speak for the (Cannabis) Trees.

In a world where I’ve dedicated my life to caring for others, it took a cancer diagnosis to realize that sometimes I needed to be taken care of. Who would have thought? As an INFJ-T Myers Briggs personality type, the turbulent “T” has only intensified post-cancer.

How to Support Friends Through Survivor’s Guilt

I think it is important to support cancer patients who are going through their cancer journey. There are many cancer survivors who are struggling with survivor’s guilt and have lost someone who has been through cancer.

I Found My Inner Voice Again

Do you occasionally look in the mirror and say to yourself, “I love you?” Honestly, I still find it difficult to say those three words to myself today. Five years ago, before I developed breast cancer, I would occasionally stop restlessly in front of the mirror.

Deciduous: A Poem for Processing Chemo Hair Loss

This year, I get to be deciduous.

Drop my cells to the floor, prep the soil for this post-traumatic growth that I’m sowing.

My Path to “Re–”

It has been nearly two years since diagnosis, and I feel so far from rediscovering myself.

Reclaiming my body.

Resuming my life.

Recapturing lost time.

Or repairing broken relationships.

Love and Gratitude Help to Overcome Anxiety

It’s in the fine evening of September 2019 that I had so much confusion and having headache; I already have peptitmal (partial seizures) for the last 15 years and I took anti-seizure medications to control the seizures and I had developed a lot of side effects due to those drugs. I thought it was also due to that and my chronic illness and fatigue effects have been like that for the past 15 years.