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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We Understand Each Other
There are times in each of our lives that we feel isolated from the people around us. We feel left out, struggle making friends, finding our purpose, but that’s life, right?
Read More...On an Island Far Away From Home
I don’t think I can think of anything more isolating than having cancer and ongoing treatment in a foreign land away from home, friends, and family.
Read More...Diagnosis
Everyone’s journey with cancer is different. And yet, everyone’s begins the same. One minute, you’re a person. The next, you’re a patient. A cancer patient.
Read More...Into the Woods
Cancer is one of those things in life that everyone understands is a tragic occurrence, but no one *really* understands what it’s like unless they’ve been through it, or are close to someone who has—which is one of the reasons, of course, why it can feel especially isolating to be an AYA cancer patient.
Read More...About the Journey
This haiku was inspired by Life of Pi, a book by Yann Martel, about a young boy lost at sea in a small boat with a tiger named Richard Parker. Despite many hardships and life threatening circumstances at sea, Pi’s perseverance and hope spur him on.
Read More...The Invisible Battle
It all started when I was diagnosed with Graves disease and thyroid nodules in the summer of 2020. I was told I was a complex case but my endocrinologist never said the word cancer to me, so it never even crossed my mind. Being 33 years old and diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer is never something I could have imagined.
Read More...Dear Cancer, It’s Time to Break Up
Dear Cancer,
When you first entered my life, I greeted you with my fists up, ready to fight. You were scary… but I knew giving up was scarier. You never failed to remind me day after day that you were there. You whispered in my ear, “Time is running out. Just give up. You’re never getting out of here alive.”
Read More...Dear Cancer, I Knew That Something Was Lurking
Dear Cancer,
I’m not really sure how to address you. You’re kind of like that mean girl who bullies just because she can or the mysterious stranger in the corner of the room—the kind that people are interested in but don’t want anything to do with.
Read More...Dude, Where’s My Erection? (Part II)
Welcome to Part II of a three-part conversation exploring the cancer and erection connection (turns out, there was so much good stuff to share that I had to extend the series!). As we dug into the nitty gritty of what erections actually are and how they work back in Part I, it became clear that there are several steps in the process that are vulnerable to the impacts of cancer and its treatments. Next on the agenda is what to do about it!
Read More...Dear Cancer, You Tried to Take My Life Away Twice
Dear Cancer,
On Feb 26, 2023, you surprised me when I was referred to a blood specialist. My blood count showed I was anemic and the numbers got very high. My doctors could not figure out why I was anemic or why my abdominal area felt hard around my belly.
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