Fighting early-onset, stage 3 rectal cancer
Fuck cancer
I can only speak for myself, and I’ve been told more than once my brain’s a bit wonky, but “Fuck Cancer” isn’t how I feel about having stage 3 rectal cancer. Saying “Fuck Cancer” isn’t for me, someone who has it. It’s for those who don’t.
Nothing compares to…
Since I was seventeen, I've wondered if I could pull off the Sinead O'Connor look. After my second IV chemo treatment, I woke up one morning and discovered about a dozen hairs on my cream colored pillowcase. I ran my right hand through my hair. More. I probably did it another five times with the same results.
Chemo side effects: “everybody is different”
My mom and I are sitting in an exam room with the oncology nurse practitioner, Karen, a member of my oncology team. (You get a whole team when you’re diagnosed with cancer.) Mama has a paper and pen at the ready as the nurse talks about the first phase of my treatment, iv chemo.
What they didn’t say… cancer
The blood started showing up in late August. Didn’t hurt. There it just was with my stool and on the toilet paper. Back in my late twenties I had hemorrhoids. There’d been blood then. Prolly something similar I’d thought. They said it could be hemorrhoids, colitis, polyps, some kind of inflammation or growth...