By Andi Straus

I woke up one morning in August, 2020, with a curious pain in my side. More discomfort than pain, really, a little like gas pain but different. I didn’t think much of it, except that off and on I felt this pain over the course of several weeks. Something just wasn’t right. I checked with Dr. Google – maybe it was IBS? Pancreatitis? Gluten sensitivity? I finally made an appointment with my primary doctor who ordered a CT scan. All of a sudden I found myself on a cancer journey, a member of a club I had no desire to be a member of, in an alternate universe to the one I’d always known and had thought would last forever….