Questions
Everything people write about here, in the order a story tends to unfold. Open a question to read what everyone said about it.
Diagnosis & first steps
2 more questions nobody has answered yet
- How did you handle waiting for answers?
- How did you decide about genetic testing?
Telling people
5 more questions nobody has answered yet
- How did you handle telling people on their behalf?
- How did you decide who to tell, and who not to?
- If you have kids, how did you explain it to them?
- How did you handle people's reactions?
- What did you wish people had said, or not said?
Treatment & your care team
7 more questions nobody has answered yet
- How did you choose your hospital or care team?
- How did you make big treatment choices?
- How did you think about clinical trials?
- What was your first day of treatment like?
- How did you keep track of appointments and medications?
- How did you push back or speak up with your care team?
- What questions do you wish you had asked your doctors sooner?
Side effects & your body
8 more questions nobody has answered yet
- Which side effect did you least expect?
- How did you handle taste and appetite changes?
- What helped you manage fatigue?
- How did you handle hair loss?
- If you had surgery, what was recovery like?
- If you had radiation, what was it like?
- If you are on active surveillance, what is it like living with something you are watching rather than treating?
- What changed about your body that you did not expect?
Daily life, work & money
8 more questions nobody has answered yet
- What small things helped day to day?
- What did you bring to appointments to make them easier?
- How did you learn to manage their symptoms at home?
- What helped you deal with insurance or bills?
- What could you eat when nothing sounded good?
- How did you plan your day around your energy?
- How did you keep the rest of life running?
- What did you do for yourself while caring for them?
Emotions & mindset
8 more questions nobody has answered yet
- What coping tools did you lean on?
- How do you handle scan anxiety?
- How did you cope with fear and uncertainty?
- What got you through the hard days?
- What did a really hard day look like?
- What was the hardest part of watching someone you love go through this?
- What matters more to you now, and what matters less?
- Did you ever feel like you were a burden, and what helped?
Relationships & support
4 more questions nobody has answered yet
- How did you ask for and accept help?
- What did you need that nobody offered?
- Who turned out to be the person you could count on?
- Who supported you while you supported them?
Intimacy & fertility
6 questions nobody has answered yet
- How did cancer change intimacy for you?
- How did you talk about those changes with your partner?
- What do you wish you had known about fertility before treatment started?
- How did you handle decisions about fertility?
- If you were dating, when did you tell someone new?
- If you have started feeling more like yourself, what helped?
Where life is now
10 questions nobody has answered yet
- What was finishing treatment like?
- If your treatment is ongoing, what is that like?
- How do you answer when people ask if you are done with treatment?
- What does follow-up care look like for you now?
- How do you deal with fear of recurrence?
- What lasting effects are you still navigating?
- What does life look like now?
- What did the days look like once the caregiving stopped?
- What do you do now with everything you learned about their illness?
- What did you have to deal with afterwards that nobody warned you about?
Looking back
2 more questions nobody has answered yet
- What would you tell someone newly diagnosed?
- What would you tell a caregiver?