There is a particular kind of silence that lives in exam rooms. It is not the peaceful kind. It is the silence that follows after you describe your symptoms… and they are minimized. The silence after you say, “Something isn’t right,” and the response is a raised eyebrow. The
I remember sitting with my laptop open, long after the house had gone quiet. Biopsy complete. Diagnosis confirmed. Surgery scheduled. Now I wanted numbers. Survival rates. Treatment outcomes. Recurrence statistics. I wanted something solid to hold on to. Something measurable. Something that felt like control. Instead, I found qualifiers. “Limited
The aroma of disinfectant clings to the air in every oncology clinic. Sterile. Controlled. Clinical. But what no one prepares you for is the other thing that lingers there. Isolation. Cancer is hard. That is universal. But cancer while BIPOC carries an additional weight that is rarely named and even