Being Single, with Cancer

Book excerpt: My Dance with Cancertells Tracy’s story of facing ovarian cancer as a thirty-something single woman from diagnosis through treatment and now “survivorship.” Tracy addresses the physical and emotional aspects of the disease, and highlights lessons she learned and shared through her blog, A Single Cell. Tracy speaks directly to the hopes and fears, insecurities and triumphs of a single person with cancer. She discusses the emotions and practicalities of dealing with a diagnosis, including getting support as a single person and what patients who are single need from those around them. She shares intimate stories of her experiences and looks at the roles of fear, friends, family, dating, traditional holidays and creating new ones based on her cancer experience. She looks at the lessons learned, setbacks, the importance of paying it forward, how people can protect themselves, states of mind and the role of gratitude. Tracy ends with a chapter on love, including the importance of loving herself, highlighting the journey she took to learn to love her self and trust her intuition. Tracy invites the reader to answer questions at the end of each chapter so they too, can learn life lessons from their experience.