Tag: medical trauma

• The Devil and the Drip

  

  Chemo may save your life, but it does not arrive gently. Mine brought nausea, bone pain, hospitalizations, isolation, fear, and the long, unfinished afterlife of survivorship. This is the truth about the terrible bargain of cancer treatment: brutal, necessary, life-saving, and far uglier than most people understand.

  70staples

  March 25, 2026

  Cancer & Chronic Illness, Survival & Recovery

  cancer survivor, chemotherapy, cholangiocarcinoma, medical trauma, reflective essay, scanxiety, survivorship, Whipple procedure

• The Eye That Would Not Die

  

  Seventeen years ago, a vicious eye infection nearly cost me my sight and my life. What followed involved an airlift to Seattle, a terrifying MedJet flight, a drug-dealing hospital roommate, an overdose, an escaped prisoner asking about dragons, and a bill proving that terror, apparently, is very expensive.

  70staples

  January 6, 2026

  Humor & Essays, Survival & Recovery

  absurd true story, dark humor, emergency airlift, eye infection, hospital nightmare, medical trauma, orbital cellulitis, survival story