Writing About Cancer
Writing—whether done privately in a journal or publicly in a blog for the whole world to read—can be a powerful form of therapy. Writing can help you cope with the realities of living with cancer.
Writing is also a way to leave a legacy, something that is often important to people who have cancer.
I have been a writer, editor, and teacher for more than 20 years. For the past eight years, since I was first diagnosed with breast cancer, the focus of my work has been on writing about cancer. For me, this writing is a way to make a living, a way to help other people (my very personal legacy), and an intense kind of therapy.
It all started, eight years ago, with a piece about fear:
"How many ways can you say scared? Terrified, apprehensive, afraid, nervous, freaked out--just plain scared.
"For the two months since my breast cancer diagnosis, I've been riding an emotional roller coaster over the prospect of undergoing chemotherapy. Chemotherapy. You know, the treatment where they pump you full of poisons to kill cancer cells and your hair falls out and you vomit for days at a time and the cure is nearly as deadly as the disease. That treatment."
Those two paragraphs began Chapter 1 of Jeanne's Diary. I am proud of the diary, in part because it was where I finally found my voice as a writer (this after more than 10 years as a journalist).
My cancer-related writing, most of which is now gathered in this blog, includes:
•Jeanne’s Diary, which was first published on the OnHealth Web site in 1998 and 1999.
•Running With Fear, a cover story for Seattle Weekly that won a first place award from the Society of Professional Journalists in 2004.
•“The Best Summer of My Life,” a screenplay I am working on now.
•And a book, also called “The Assertive Cancer Patient,” that I am writing now.
It is through writing about cancer that I have been able to live with cancer.
The writing gives me a way to make sense of what is happening to me (especially when it all feels so out of control), and a way to vent when things are most intense. Otherwise, I'd probably be out smashing plates on the bridge, or jumping OFF the bridge.
Writing keeps me sane. And calm, mostly.
I love my blog, The Assertive Cancer Patient, and it takes up most of my time right now, but I also teach writing at the University of Washington Extension, in small workshops, and in a special free workshop that is only open to people living with metastatic cancer.
See the links below for more.
Write About It: A Workshop for People Living With Metastatic Cancer
@ Jeanne Sather 2006
Jeanne - I enjoyed all 4 of the posts for today. As you know, I have a blog on my cancer journey (Life Changing Cancer at www.dahlborg.blogspot.com), and I find writing it very therapeutic for lots of reasons. I liked what you had to say about that, and the links. Thanks!
About the obituary, I haven't written mine yet, although I've thought about it. My recent thoughts about obituaries have focused on two women (women I didn't know and whose obits I saw only because of a google alert) who died in the past six weeks of the same rare cancer I have (gallbladder cancer), and whose obituaries did name the cancer. Because it's so rare, I was really grateful to them and their families for naming the disease. And no, their obits didn't say anything about a "courageous fight with gallbladder cancer," they just named that the disease had taken their lives. I'll have to think about the wording I would prefer, since, like you, I don't like the military metaphors.
Thanks, Jeanne, for lots to think about!
Posted by: Lynne Dahlborg | December 29, 2006 at 04:55 PM
Posted by: Lynne | December 30, 2006 at 05:26 PM