For every amazing, caring friend, there’s another who has drifted away. The one who wholeheartedly promised, “if you need anything, I’m here,” and wasn’t. There are just some friends, for whatever reason, who won’t be there for you, even if you really want them or need them in your corner.
FOMO, the abbreviated slang meaning “fear of missing out,” is a huge mental and emotional side effect of being a young adult cancer survivor and represents just a sliver of the unique challenges we have to face during and well after the fight of our lives.
I had the day off from work and was busy putting together a special anniversary dinner for my husband. In the midst of chopping vegetables, I heard my cell phone ring but couldn’t reach it in time. I’d missed a call from my dermatologist.
In 1998 at age 24, I worked for a Congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives, and I had plans for law school. But, the unexpected happened when I was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Having such a simple question asked a certain way can really humanize you during a time when normalcy seems like the distant past. I was still Mary. I still had the same parents, same car and same clothes. Why should being a little extra sick make a difference?
Annette Hill got wonderful news in early May of 2014 when she learned she was pregnant. But toward the end of the month, after discovering a lump in her breast and pointing it out to her doctor, she got hit with a very different kind of news: she also had stage III breast cancer.
