Zack

  Finishing chemo isn’t the finish line you expect it to be. It’s a huge milestone, yes—but it also opens the door to a different kind of challenge: learning to live with the unknown. Recently, we had what they call a “follow-up scan”—the kind that checks to make sure nothing has changed since the last one. The results came back: everything has stayed the same. No new growth. That’s good news. That’s positive. Are we grateful. Truly. But here’s the thing: now we will  live scan to scan. Every few months and wait for a machine to tell me whether we get to keep moving forward—or whether we have to start fighting again. It’s hard to explain what that does to your mind. There’s a constant undercurrent of anxiety, even when things are going well. You become hyper-aware of your child's  body. Every ache, every headache, every strange sensation becomes a potential threat. And yet, alongside the fear, there’s hope—sometimes quiet and cautious, other times loud and defiant. Hope h...