Coping with Scanxiety

Scanxiety. It’s a term that is all too familiar with cancer survivors. As I look back on my initial cancer diagnosis…

How to Be a Self-Advocate in Your Medical Care

These Things I Have Done

I now have more procedures in a month than I had had in my entire life leading up to now. I’m not including my surgeries or chemo treatments in this list, but I wanted to share the diagnostic tests that were the most scary and unknown. I went into a few blindly, let me spare you.

Two years too Late

I was diagnosed with cancer when I was 20 years old. I was sitting in the doctor’s office as they were explaining what my life was going to be like. My normal life was gone and was replaced with doctors’ appointments, surgeries, and chemo. After explaining my new life, they asked me if I had…

All My Babies Are Dead

Science says I never had a baby, just possibilities for babies. Science now says the chances of me ever having a baby is 0%, completely impossible. But in a world that tells us nothing is impossible, science tells me that 0% is a cold hard fact. The reason why all of my babies had to die…

A Funeral for My Hair

Sitting in the room with my oncologist for the first time, I remember one of the first questions out of my mouth when she told me I needed intense chemotherapy treatment. Not, “Will I feel sick? Will I feel tired? What are the health risks? Am I going to die?” The first words out of my…

Finding gratitude at the oncology ward

2015 humbled me

What I Learned Interning for Stupid Cancer

The cancer community is one people usually enter into strictly out of necessity. I’ve been lucky enough to have good health, and have therefore gone uneducated about the difficulties surrounding young adult cancer. I’ve spent my time interning at Stupid…

Cake For Dinner

“Can I please have a slice of the coconut cake?”

I saw it, just standing there all alone. It was the very last slice on the giant cake stand. It was just standing upright under the round clear glass cover. As if it was just waiting for someone to take it with them. And with…