(STAT News) – I’ve seen it as a psychologist — and experienced it as a patient

Even through Zoom, I could tell she was unraveling. Her face was drawn, her shoulders hunched, her eyes darting just off-camera like she was bracing for bad news. She told me the incisions from her colon resection were healing well. Her vitals were stable. She said all the right things — “I’m lucky, it could’ve been worse, I just want to move on.”

But her body told another story. Her voice was flat. Her posture, rigid. Her hands trembled when she lifted her tea. She couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t concentrate. She kept scanning herself for signs that something–anything–was wrong again.

She was 32. A young woman with colon cancer. The surgery had saved her life. But she hadn’t returned to herself. (Read More)