Waiting Isn’t Wasted
There’s a special kind of waiting that comes with cancer. It’s not the waiting in line at the grocery store. It’s not the kind you fill with your phone or a podcast. It’s the waiting for scan results, the waiting between treatments, the waiting to see if something is working, and sometimes simply the waiting to exhale.
Early on, we thought these stretches of time were just something to get through. They felt like uncomfortable pauses on a long road, empty spaces between the things that actually mattered. But over time, we’ve learned …
You Don’t Have to Become Your Own Doctor
There are a few pieces of advice that quietly change the course of your life. Sometimes you recognize them immediately. Sometimes it takes years. For us, one of those moments happened long before cancer entered our lives.
Our friend Cindy worked in healthcare. Over the years she encouraged us to become active participants in our own healthcare. She also said something that’s stayed with us ever since: “You’ll always be your own best advocates.” At the time, we appreciated the advice, but we didn’t fully understand it.
Then one morning, I woke up in severe pain. We couldn’t get in to see my doctor, so …
The Report That Changed Everything
When I was discharged from the emergency room, I thought I knew what had happened. The diagnosis was pneumonia.
A few days later, I logged into my patient portal and started reading the reports from that visit. Buried in the radiologist's report was a sentence that stopped me in my tracks. It referenced a “known transitional cell carcinoma.”
No one had mentioned cancer. No one had told me they suspected …
Which Path Is Right for You?
When we first heard the words, “You have cancer,” one of the first things we started looking for was a roadmap. Surely there had to be one. What tests should we have? Which doctor should we choose? What treatment was best? What was the “right” decision?
The more we researched, the more we talked with our doctors, and the more we met people who had walked this journey before us, the more we realized something we hadn’t expected …
The Day Everything Changed
There are moments in life that divide everything into “before” and “after.” For us, that moment came with three words:
“You have cancer.”
Looking back, we can still remember where we were. We can remember the phone call. We can remember trying to absorb information that seemed to come faster than we could process it. What we remember most, though, is …
The Conversation We Couldn’t Find
There are moments in life when information isn’t enough.
If you’ve recently heard the words, “You have cancer,” you’ve probably discovered that for yourself. There are doctors to meet, tests to schedule, treatment options to understand, articles to read, and statistics to sort through. Information is everywhere. You may also discover that, even surrounded by information, you can still feel completely alone.
Information answers questions like, “What is my diagnosis?” or “What are my treatment options?” It doesn’t answer questions like, “What was surgery really like?” or …