I was diagnosed with lymphoma at 24. While chemo isn’t fun (and if I ever have another lumbar puncture in my life it’ll be too soon), the mental side was much harder than the physical for me.

I needed inpatient treatment, so from probably August until just before Christmas I was mostly in hospital, with the occasional week or two break. By the end I was having people bring me McDonald’s most days, because the idea of another bland hospital meal was incredibly depressing—which sounds silly writing it out, but it really started getting to me.

Interrupted sleep and reduced privacy on the ward starts to wear you down too—the times where my immune system was as its lowest and I was moved to private side rooms were actually a big improvement for me, it got lonely but being able to put some music on and having my own bathroom helped a lot.

Not sure what my point was with this but 0/10 would not recommend.