When Planning Meets Uncertainty

Support my art on Patreon - a little goes a long way. Buy the book on Amazon (affiliate link).Buy the book on Kobo (affiliate link).This piece traces two moments in time shaped by fear, decision‑making, and the limits of control: the early days of a breast cancer diagnosis and, years later, the terror of a possible recurrence. In June, Becky grapples with cognitive fog, overwhelming choices, and the strange dissonance between who she thought she’d be in a crisis and who she actually is. Faced with two separate cancers, uncertain test results, and competing treatment paths, she finds relief not in certainty but in making a few clear, logical decisions—especially the choice of a double mastectomy without reconstruction. Statistics, once comforting, lose their meaning when the diagnosis is personal and immediate. Years later, that fragile equilibrium is shaken again by a biopsy and a familiar, unbearable wait. The mantra that once offered calm—in the absence of a diagnosis, I am healthy—is repeated not as reassurance, but as survival. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★