Getting Married After Cancer – Guilt Is Part Of The Diagnosis
Before proposing to Katie, I couldn’t stop thinking about how the proposal would align with my cancer diagnosis and the uncertainty of my future. Katie and I had been dating long-distance for two-and-a-half years while she attended graduate school in San Antonio. Even though I was about to start a clinical trial for chronic myeloid leukemia, I was […]
Discovering The Nature Of Hope
“Your field vision test hasn’t shown any improvement. There’s a possibility that the vision impairment is permanent. Your eye pressure was extremely high for days before you came in, and there’s no telling how long it was symptomatic before you even noticed. We can give you another week to strategize a plan for work, but […]
Life-Changing Perspectives
I wrote this article for MD Anderson’s Cancerwise blog. You can view it here. I’ve fought leukemia in one way or another for the past six years. For the first four, I pushed my diagnosis aside in an effort to be carefree, and enjoy the freedoms available to those who don’t have cancer. I walked away. I made a mistake. […]
Emotional Health Begins With Communication
A couple of hours after I received a call from my doctor, notifying me of my leukemia, I walked into my house. There sat Josh, my younger brother, in the chair opposite the front door and my dad on the couch immediately to the right. I could tell by my brother’s tears that word had already […]
Life Is A Marathon
I’m not much of a runner. My only experience running a timed event was during a junior high track meet. I ran the equivalent of one lap, or 400 meters. It didn’t turn out so well. I was responsible for the last leg of a 1600 meter relay so by the time I was passed […]
Unmasking a History of Non-Compliance
In January 2006, I was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia. Never could I have imagined that I would be a 25-year-old living with cancer. I’d soon find out that it wasn’t the leukemia itself that was burdensome; it was the unexpected cost of managing a chronic illness that led me astray. You won’t read that in the […]
Life Through Headphones
Two weeks ago, I sat in a coffee shop and stared at a blinking cursor on a blank screen. The cafe was filled with noisy conversation, a non-ambient soundtrack and customers who yelled orders over obnoxious blenders. I kept wishing things would be different, fantasizing about conversation levels dying down and hoping that people would […]