For the better half of my early 20s, I was Bubble Girl. When I found out I had leukemia at 22 my… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share Image
Ever since a therapy dog visited me in the hospital during my first cycle of chemotherapy in May 2011, I became fixated… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share Image
When I was first in the hospital, some of my visitors seemed so intent on not upsetting me that they avoided the… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share Image
Like a lot of other cancer patients lying in hospital beds or in chemotherapy suites, I have spent a fair amount of… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share Image
During the first year of my cancer treatment, adopting a dog was out of the question. I spent more time in the… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share Image
Getting diagnosed with cancer at 22 really magnified the in-betweenness that I felt. All of my friends were starting careers and going… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share Image
With a Catholic mother and a Muslim father, I've always had a great interest in religion, but I've never practiced one myself. After I… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share
It felt like 10 years, but I was actually in treatment for three-and-a-half years. I finally finished in April. Two years ago, I had… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share
There are days when I even long for the paralegal job that once upon a time made me so miserable. It wasn't the perfect… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share
When I finally returned home after my five-week hospitalization, I could feel the stares of strangers on my bald head and thinning eyebrows. Everywhere… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share
The bone marrow transplant procedure itself can be dangerous, but it is swift, which makes it feel strangely anti-climactic. — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share
Even amid the shock of my diagnosis, I held onto the hope that I'd be able to make the most of my down time… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share
I'll never go so far to call cancer a gift. It's a really terrible disease. It's taken the lives of so many of my… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share
I think often when we talk about things like cancer, the kind of final act at the end of the story comes with a… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share
Before my diagnosis with leukemia, two years ago at the age of 22, I'd always excelled at making resolutions. But I was never as… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share
Like a lot of other young people, I never thought about health insurance until I got sick. I was 22, and my adult life… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share
And there came a point in my treatment where I couldn't see that end in sight. And that was the most challenging, I think,… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share
But no conversation between doctor and patient can magically turn an uninsured patient into an insured one. Doctors are just as helpless as patients… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share
Cancer magnifies the in-betweenness of young adulthood: You're not a child anymore, yet you're not fully ready to live in the adult world, either.… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share
I get along well with my medical team and I have a tremendous amount of respect for them. But the idea of discussing my… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share
For the better half of my early 20s, I was Bubble Girl. When I found out I had leukemia at 22 my world suddenly… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share
