Patients
The stories and experiences in this category are written by people currently going through treatments for cancer. Read these stories to find inspiration and know that you are not alone in your experience with cancer.
Want to submit a story? Click Here.
You Are Perfect
A few months ago, a young woman who knew me through a mutual friend asked me how old I was. When I told her I had just turned thirty, she said “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but when I’m your age, I hope I don’t turn out like you…. You know, with cancer.”
Read More...A Pharmacist’s Story
You know how they say that cancer affects everyone in some shape or fashion? It may be a personal journey or that of a friend, partner, coworker or family member.
Read More...You Have Cancer… Again.
“You have cancer … again.” You would think those words wouldn’t sting so badly the third time. As if you’d become numb to them or had grown a thick skin towards them or maybe the familiarity of those three words made them not so terrifying.
Read More...The Other Shoe
I remember my freshman Honors College Orientation. We were each given a fill-in-the-blank paper. What are your graduation goals? What academic goals do you have? What social groups are you going to join?
Read More...Men, Cancer, and the ‘S’ Word
Shame. The man who trusted his body feels betrayed by it. The man who had developed confidence in his environment feels suddenly and irrevocably lost. He’s facing a killer disease that he knows nothing about, without the language or tools to fight it. Now, he’s a “patient” at the mercy of doctors, insurers, and the health care system.
Read More...Warnings – My Ovaries Are Trying to Tell Me Something
Before I was discharged from the hospital my surgeon and my gynecologic oncologist had warned, “Stay off the internet. You’ll only succeed in terrifying yourself.” If their intent was to protect me by saying this they had both failed miserably.
Read More...March 2021 Magazine: What Cancer REALLY Does to Me
In this new magazine, the AYA cancer community dives into how cancer REALLY changes them. From rocking your faith or strengthening faith, realizing people don’t think you “fit” the mold, feeling guilting for surviving, what that damn “C” word does to you, and how some use their voice for supporting others. This is definitely a must read issue!
Read More...How Pokémon Prepared Me for Cancer
Like many children of the early naughts, I grew up on a strict diet of Pokémon. I watched the anime every day and spent my free time playing the Game Boy games. The adorable monsters consumed my life starting at five years old.
Read More...“I Want You to Give Me a Job”
Having someone who says “I want you to give me a job” is important because it let’s me know that I will not be a burden on her in that way, I will be helping her feel like she is doing what she can to support me.
Read More...Download the Top 7 Tips for a Successful Doctor’s Visit
In collaboration with our friends at Abridge, we developed the handout “Top 7 tips for a successful doctor’s visit”. Our goal is to have this be a resource to help organize and prepare patients before any oncology or PCP visit.
Read More...