Health & Recovery · The room
Writing from inside
the experience.
Ten original pieces written during treatment and recovery, preserved here as lived experience.
I’m still in it
Diagnosis, remission, recurrence—and writing from within the experience rather than safely beyond it.
What keeps me going
God, gratitude, growth and giving: four ways of finding somewhere to stand when certainty disappears.
The other fight
Medical treatment addresses the physical fight. Fear, uncertainty and the pressure to be strong form another.
What are you carrying?
The invisible burden of protecting family and managing how other people experience your illness.
The things nobody tells you
Bowel problems, haemorrhoids and one small, practical idea that made chemotherapy a little more manageable.
A second problem opened quietly
Fentanyl, withdrawal, patience and the consequences treatment can have for the people closest to us.
Writing through treatment
Discovering writing as a way to process illness and communicate when treatment made ordinary life smaller.
The PEG
A feeding tube saved my life—and changed body image, intimacy and what recovery came to mean.
When your brain looks fine but doesn’t feel fine
Post-chemotherapy cognitive and sensory overload, especially while driving and riding at speed.
AI as cognitive support
Using artificial intelligence to reduce mental load when concentration and processing capacity were limited.
About these writings
Useful experience, preserved carefully.
These pieces began as posts in an online cancer support community. They are observations from particular moments, not a comprehensive account and not medical advice.
As they are prepared for the Athenaeum, their original voice and context will remain visible. Later reflections may be added where experience has changed the answer.
About contributing to this room →In the Reading Room
Part of a wider conversation.
For a longer reflection on what serious illness asks of us—and what may remain when the immediate fight recedes—read The Other Fight.