Welcome to the comments and discussion of Chapter 13: Fluke of the book, Everything Changes: The Insider’s Guide to Cancer in Your 20s and 30s!  Catch up on Chapter 1: Ramenonmics, Chapter 2: When G-d Things Happen to Sick People, Chapter 3: Single, Chapter 4: Human Spectacles, Chapter 5: Malignant and Indignant, Chapter 6: Something in the Air, Chapter 7: Mortality Bites, Chapter 8: The Myth of Eternal Optimism, Chapter 9: It Girl, Chapter 10: The Fix, Chapter 11: Off the Map, and Chapter 12: Naked in the Streets.

Let’s get started!  Chapter 13!

Mallory:

This chapter held so many pieces of someone else’s story that I connected with whole-heartedly.

“When I talk about my cancer, I don’t say this is what I went through.  I saw this is what we went through.”

“I am now horribly afraid that everyone I love is going to die…Why?  I don’t know, just because cancer fucked my brain up.  It just messed me up.”

“…the end of chemo was the beginning for me.  The hard part is starting over again and moving on with life…The thought of recurrence scared the shit out of me…”

At the end of the chapter, the woman being interviewed shows her wedding album to the author.  The author, who’s own wedding album reminds her of her own recurrence which happened so soon after, has feelings of sadness about her own album still in its original box.  The author asks the woman is she wants to see her wedding album.  “If I started gushing, I wanted to do it with someone who deeply understood why.”

At the end of chapter, I wanted to call Kairol (the author) and give her a hug.

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Thanks for joining us for our Chapter 13: Fluke of Everything Changes: The Insider’s Guide to Cancer in Your 20s and 30s!  Join in soon for our final wrap up conversation.

If you’re just joining us, here are some logistics:

We will talk about a chapter each Monday until the book is done.  Then, we’ll use one more Monday to talk about general feelings from the book and anything else you’d like to discuss.  Join in, in the comments every week!  Also, there will probably be spoilers.  Read along with us!

How are you enjoying our young adult cancer book club?

Welcome to the comments and discussion of Chapter 12: Naked in the Streets of the book, Everything Changes: The Insider’s Guide to Cancer in Your 20s and 30s!  Catch up on Chapter 1: Ramenonmics, Chapter 2: When G-d Things Happen to Sick People, Chapter 3: Single, Chapter 4: Human Spectacles, Chapter 5: Malignant and Indignant, Chapter 6: Something in the Air, Chapter 7: Mortality Bites, Chapter 8: The Myth of Eternal Optimism, Chapter 9: It Girl, Chapter 10: The Fix, and Chapter 11: Off the Map.

Let’s get started!  Chapter 12!

Mallory:

This chapter focuses on so many important topics.  Anxiety and recurrence are the two that hit home for me the most.  She talks about having a supportive spouse as a caregiver, spending time being unproductive for the first time, and so much more.

“Those empty TV days were also the first time as an adult that I had allowed myself to be completely unproductive without worrying about the consequences.  In the end, I was much more productive that I would have been if I had forced myself to work when all I wanted to do was crawl into a hole.”

I deal with feelings of fear and shame often when it comes to the battle between wanting to be productive and wanting to crawl into a hole.  Some days I listen to my body and take breaks when I need to.  Other days I pull myself through the emotional sludge.  Sometimes I know I made the right decision and other days I’m not sure which one is “better” or more productive in the long run.  Matthew Zachary of Stupid Cancer is also featured heavily in this chapter.  Some of his ideas about the world I fully agree with, other make me cringe, but he offers many insights into the realities of being a young adult cancer survivor.

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Thanks for joining us for our Chapter 12: Naked in the Streets of Everything Changes: The Insider’s Guide to Cancer in Your 20s and 30s!  Join in next Monday for Chapter 13: Fluke.

If you’re just joining us, here are some logistics:

We will talk about a chapter each Monday until the book is done.  Then, we’ll use one more Monday to talk about general feelings from the book and anything else you’d like to discuss.  Join in, in the comments every week!  Also, there will probably be spoilers.  Read along with us!

How are you enjoying our young adult cancer book club?

Welcome to the comments and discussion of Chapter 11: Off the Map of the book, Everything Changes: The Insider’s Guide to Cancer in Your 20s and 30s!  Catch up on Chapter 1: Ramenonmics, Chapter 2: When G-d Things Happen to Sick People, Chapter 3: Single, Chapter 4: Human Spectacles, Chapter 5: Malignant and Indignant, Chapter 6: Something in the Air, Chapter 7: Mortality Bites, Chapter 8: The Myth of Eternal Optimism, Chapter 9: It Girl, and Chapter 10: The Fix.

Let’s get started!  Chapter 11!

Mallory:

This chapter focuses on the feeling of being off the map in many different ways.  The primary person interviewed by the author in this chapter lives in a community where there are distinct barriers to receiving quality care and where speaking about illness is seen as taboo.  Emotionally, medically, geographically we may all experience feelings of being off the map in various ways during our cancer treatments and survivorships.  Isolation, communication with friends and family, communication with a physician, access to quality and supportive care…these are all ways in which we can take control, feel out of control, get lost off the map in our cancer experiences.

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Thanks for joining us for our Chapter 11: Off the Map of Everything Changes: The Insider’s Guide to Cancer in Your 20s and 30s!  Join in next Monday for Chapter 12: Naked in the Streets.

If you’re just joining us, here are some logistics:

We will talk about a chapter each Monday until the book is done.  Then, we’ll use one more Monday to talk about general feelings from the book and anything else you’d like to discuss.  Join in, in the comments every week!  Also, there will probably be spoilers.  Read along with us!

How are you enjoying our young adult cancer book club?