Today, at age 24, when my peers are dating, marrying and having children of their own, my cancer treatments are causing internal and external changes in my body that leave me feeling confused, vulnerable, frustrated - and verifiably unsexy. — 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 to parties and dating, and I was stuck - literally - in this one hospital bed for weeks… — 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
The bone marrow transplant procedure itself can be dangerous, but it is swift, which makes it feel strangely anti-climactic. — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
