Dating after cancer can be scary, but dating with cancer can be down right daunting.
BY Sarah DeBord
PUBLISHED September 15, 2018
Sarah DeBord was diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer at age 34. In the years since, she has turned her diagnosis into a calling, and become an advocate for other young adults diagnosed with colorectal cancer and parents with young families facing cancer. She works as a communications and program manager for the Minneapolis-based Colon Cancer Coalition , volunteers her time with the online patient-led support community COLONTOWN , and blogs about her often adventurous experiences of living with chronic cancer at ColonCancerChick.com.
A few years after my marriage ended, I finally tried to date. I frequently see blogs and articles from young people in the cancer world addressing the concerns and stress of dating after cancer. But what about the conversations that address dating with cancer? After all, the one thing that was keeping me from dating was my disease.
I didn't have the energy to explain that every other weekend I wouldn't be available while recovering from treatment, or that my pixie haircut wasn't by choice, or that you can have cancer without actually looking like a cancer patient. Dating as a healthy person is stressful enough. I wasn't sure I was up for the added burden of explaining all the fun that came along with dating a girl like me – a girl who had cancer, but wasn't necessarily dying from it.
I didn't have the energy to explain that every other weekend I wouldn't be available while recovering from treatment, or that my pixie haircut wasn't by choice, or that you can have cancer without actually looking like a cancer patient. Dating as a healthy person is stressful enough. I wasn't sure I was up for the added burden of explaining all the fun that came along with dating a girl like me – a girl who had cancer, but wasn't necessarily dying from it.
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