My Perfect Prescription for Coping with Cancer
by Kimberly Tronic
At age 36, I lived a charming life: I had a great job, great friends, three cats, and an impressive collection of refrigerator magnets.
I started getting on-and-off stomach pains in 2017, but I thought nothing of them until a few months later when I felt queasy and my abdomen suddenly swelled up. I checked into the ER, thinking I had a gallbladder issue, but an overnight hospital stay and a battery of tests led to this verbal bomb: “Good morning. You have cancer.”
It was not a good morning. It was The Big C. Ovarian cancer, stage III. I’d need six cycles of chemo (eighteen treatments) and surgery to remove my ovaries, uterus, and spleen. Ugh. My stress-free life suddenly swerved into scary new territory.
Like a typical 30-something woman of my station, my first instinct was retail therapy. I bought clothes and candles, then meandered into a record shop down the street. As I mindlessly flipped through a bunch of CDs, a comedy album caught my attention.
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