Living with brain cancer
On March 20th, 2015, I walked into a cafe near MIT. It was a chilly afternoon, and I wore my beanie to keep my head warm after I lost all my hair following my proton beam radiation treatments. I was looking for a man named Steven Keating. A mutual friend of ours from the National …
A little more than one month ago, May 22nd, was my one-year anniversary since my brain surgery in 2018. It was the day I laid on the operating table, awake, as surgeons mapped out my brain's motor function and removed a section of my tumor. Since I was twelve years old, I’ve had several of these “anniversaries:”
This weekend I am honored to give the keynote speech to open the 16th Annual Young Adult Cancer Conference at Dana Farber. I have benefited immensely from this program, and cannot wait to join everyone tomorrow. My speech will be live-streamed at 9:15AM EST. You can follow via: DFCI webcast or going to the Young …
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I’m sick of being sick. I’m sick of laying on the couch. I’m sick of having to cancel plans I made months, weeks, or days in advance from grabbing a cup of coffee to going on spring break vacation. I’m sick of feeling good for a day or two, thinking I’m on the mend, only to realize I was being tricked. I’m sick of my doctors and I knowing what my symptoms are, but not knowing why. I’m sick of not knowing when I’ll feel better for a sustained amount of time.
I swayed back and forth as I climbed the ladder onto the deck of the ship. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, the salty ocean breeze waked me from my 3:00AM slumber. The mate yelled, "Jeremy, take the helm!" I tried to get my footing, stumbling onto the deck of the one-hundred-thirty-four-foot tall ship. …
I apologize that it has been almost two months since my last blog post. For many this online silence translated to concern for my well-being, and I am sorry that I made people worry. I haven’t written a post recently for several reasons. First, I wanted to spend the Holidays and my winter vacation focused …
Honored to have my essay featured online and in today's print edition of the Washington Post, originally published in Pulse: voices from the heart of medicine. I wrote this essay before my recurrence, but it still captures the complexities of identity when faced with life-threatening illness. I would like to thank Diane Guernsey and Paul Gross from …
Over the course of the past month, especially after writing my piece titled, "In Thinking About my Death, I Discovered How I Truly Wish to Live," I've heard through the grapevine that several friends are concerned I'm dying right now. To clear the air...I'm not. 😉 I can understand where this worry comes from. I …
A version of this post also appeared on Medium I sit here, exhausted, almost unable to write after my first round of immunotherapy and radiation treatments for my second recurrence of a high-grade anaplastic oligodendroglioma (read: brain cancer). I see my friends actively participating in our democratic process: campaigning, phone banking, getting out the vote. …
