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.
