10/17/2026
Life after cancer treatment comes with a five-year follow-up protocol, for most of us. But what your body went through during treatment requires a longer timeline than that.
Mine did. I was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma at twenty and treated with MOPP and radiotherapy. My oncologist told me I’d likely need thyroid medication down the line, and that fertility could be an issue. I had five years of scans and blood work, and then I was discharged and never called back.
Sixteen years later, my fatigue was debilitating, my cold sensitivity had me pouring hot water into a mug just to warm my hands enough to type, and my anxiety problems caused insomnia that lasted for days. Just ask my family and friends- they’d never heard of someone not sleeping for 3-4 nights on end.
Survivorship isn’t one thing. It’s four, and each needs its own plan:
1. Recovery and repair. Your nutritional foundation, gut, energy, hormones, muscle, sleep, skin and hair.
2. Recurrence risk reduction. Nutrition matched to your specific cancer type, plus support for immune surveillance.
3. Late effects monitoring and mitigation. What your treatment puts you at risk for, what to watch for, and what testing to ask for. Secondary cancers live here, separate from recurrence.
4. Lifelong chronic disease risk reduction. Survivors carry a higher lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, metabolic disease and chronic kidney disease.
Most women leave treatment with a scan and blood work schedule. Not a clinical plan for any of these four.
Am I missing anything else?