How I scored gold in the Cancer Olympics

And how some people don’t seem to realize this competition is a two-way street.

Above: Me on my final day of four cycles of chemotherapy for a Stage IIb seminoma, July 29, 2022. I have been cancer free since then.

“You’re handling this so well!”

That’s what my friends and family kept telling me throughout my Summer of Cancer.

They marveled as I dutifully performed the role of the stoic, uncomplaing cancer patient. I weathered four increasingly grueling cycles of chemotherapy for testicular cancer—all while reporting about the monkeypox outbreak, waging a one-man war against misinformation about the virus on Twitter and raising tens of thousands of dollars for an HIV charity event.

“You’re handling this so well!” everyone said as I endured hair loss, nausea, chemo brain, Covid, Covid rebound, migraines, shingles, heartburn, dizziness, fluid retention, insomnia, bloating, gum sores, constipation, a tremor, a foul taste in my mouth, neuropathy, fatigue and unless I’m forg…