When I Was Sick with Cancer, My Tinder Guys Made Me Feel Alive
Some of the most supportive men in my life last year, I met by swiping right
By Rachel Moscovich
Illness was not the story I wanted to tell about myself. But two Decembers ago, at age 36, I found out I had a small breast tumor. Ten days later, on Christmas Eve, I was told that my Hodgkin’s lymphoma had come back for the third time. Both were manageable, my doctors said.
I remember waking up each morning and having to accept that this was my life. I didn’t know anyone who’d gone through cancer three or four times by their mid-30s. I didn’t know you got to go through it that many times.
I was alone with my oncologist when he told me about the breast cancer. I had hardly told anyone when I’d gone in for the biopsy. When you live alone, no one knows when you come and go, or where you’re going. No one has to see you scared. I figured this would go down as just that — simply a scare — and I could get through that on my own. Hearing the news from him, I felt destabilized. I got up, though, and walked myself home.
My parents came with me to the Christmas Eve diagnosis. When you’re single in your 30s, sometimes your parents still take you to the doctor. If you’re lucky, I suppose.
