If you have chosen to begin reading this book, it is likely that cancer has shown its ugly face to someone you know, if not yourself. This text began as a compilation of my life struggles and conquests, but developed into much more. Its content is shared exactly how I remember, serving as a collection of experiences from the lives of many individuals. My life has taken strides from one point in time to the next, sometimes connected and at others without any transition periods at all. This book was not written to brighten one’s perspective or leave the reader feeling better upon its conclusion, but instead directed at challenging human emotion and feeling. My aims include trying to address issues that include ‘what does chemotherapy feel like?’ and ‘how can one care for others who are undergoing chemotherapy?’ It is also my hope that from this manuscript, readers will reflect upon their own lives. I am but 30 something years old, yet I have seen, felt, and witnessed a life full of pleasure and pain. When contemplating a beginning point for this text, I realized that I had to address my background, as it provides the structure that shapes who I am. Being raised in a middle-class Catholic family, I had all the necessities of life—good schooling, loving parents, and a tight-knit family as well as a host of friends. Life was ordinary by all means . . .
