Five years ago, Melanie Masterson was a healthy, fit mom of three little girls. She ran behind her double stroller, did yoga, ate a plant-based diet and, at 39 years old, she was getting ready to rekindle her work as a freelance writer. She found herself feeling increasingly exhausted, but with a 7-, 5- and 2-year-old at home, who wouldn’t be? Then she started coming down with terrible colds and would cough so much she'd break ribs. Eventually, her ribs started breaking for no reason at all. By the time she sat in a doctor’s office to hear a diagnosis that would change the trajectory of her life, she had seven broken ribs. The cause? Metastatic breast cancer that had spread so thoroughly into her bones that her oncologist didn’t think Melanie would live for a year.
In the years since Melanie has undergone chemotherapy and radiation, a double mastectomy, a hip replacement, broken more ribs and suffered compression fractures in her spine. She lives with constant and chronic pain. But she is still living.
This is a conversation about how to keep going when you take up permanent residence in what author Susan Sontag called, "the kingdom of the sick." It's about finding joy and peace despite living with both debilitating pain and debilitating sadness. It's about what illness takes from us, what makes life worth living and what we want to leave behind for the people we love when we die.
To follow Melanie’s story, go to www.themelimello.substack.com.