Last week, my best friend Karin died of cancer. I mentioned my friend?s condition last month in this post about designing a life you love. I took the week off to process the grief and the loss. It felt wrong to dive back into writing about design or travel without addressing it.
I?ve lived with the reality of my friend?s diagnosis for the last ten months, watching her journey and being by her side each day. I was there when she received those dreaded words, ?You have cancer?. I was there through her chemo, through her surgery, through her follow up chemo, through her recovery when we thought she?d beat it. I was there when the CT scans showed the cancer was back with a vengeance, when her oncologist told her it was terminal, and when it took her life six short weeks later. I thought today I?d share what I?ve lived and learned in the hopes it may help any one of you when a friend or family member receives a cancer diagnosis.
 
my friend Karin wearing her favorite dress on our trip to Paris in 2016
Do Your Research. This was my first exposure to a cancer diagnosis in someone close to me, so I took the time to learn about this disease. There are many forms of cancer and several stages of cancer and there is a lot of information online that will educate you. Surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy are the three ways oncologists fight cancer. There are also experimental trials. My friend had colon cancer so learned everything I could about it, and what her options were for surv...