Sarah Watts

When people I know are diagnosed with cancer, I'm always amazed by how they react to the news. Within the past year, two women in my life have been given...

Before my diagnosis and in the weeks after, my dog – an eight-year-old pug named Tang Tang – stuck pretty closely to my side. I didn't think anything of it...

When I first heard the term “second cancer” about a year ago, it sounded like a bad joke. Unfortunately, it's something very real. Second cancer, I learned, is not the...

When I noticed blood in my urine, my doctors sent me to get an ultrasound to rule out anything serious. Instead, what they found was a 4-cm mass on the...

Like many in my generation, I have “real” friends – people whom I've met in person -- and “Facebook” friends – people with whom I've only spoken online. At the...

When I got my bladder cancer diagnosis I had no personal experience with cancer and I had just turned 29. Because I was relatively young, and because none of my...

My friends joke that there's nothing too personal for me not to share on Facebook, and I have to agree. For some reason I don't understand, things just feel more...

Illustrations by Lucius Wisniewski for this comic done in partnership with his wife, Sarah Watts. There were many things that surprised me about my journey with bladder cancer. Maybe one...

Telling our kids about cancer and surgery was not an easy task. Thankfully, they responded a lot better than we thought they would. Illustrations by Lucius Wisniewski for this comic...

Getting a cancer diagnosis is never easy. But when you have cancer and an anxiety disorder, you tend to jump to the worst possible conclusions. Illustrations by Lucius Wisniewski for...

In so many ways, caregivers make it possible for people diagnosed with bladder cancer to survive. After I had my TURBT surgery, my mother drove me home from the hospital...

When I first heard that I'd need chemotherapy to treat my bladder cancer, terrifying visions swam into my head. Knowing virtually nothing about cancer treatment, I pictured chemotherapy like it's...

Maybe it's a generational thing (I'm a Millennial), but when I get news that's confusing or scary, my first urge is to research it extensively on the Internet. My urologist...

It sounds silly, but hear me out: Having bladder cancer has given me a renewed appreciation for my health and my mortality, sure. But it's also given me a phobia...

Every six months, my friend Cheryl and I get together and celebrate our good health. Cheryl and I are both cancer survivors – bladder cancer for me, and appendix cancer...

When I had my bladder cancer removed last year, the doctor warned me that I would need to wear a catheter bag for a few weeks after surgery to give...

Like other survivors I've spoken with, my life seems permanently divided into two parts – Before Cancer and After Cancer. Before Cancer, it's safe to say I was a hot...

When I was first diagnosed with bladder cancer, I turned immediately to statistics to try to make sense of this new and terrifying disease. I wanted to know – what...

Over lunch, a friend and fellow cancer survivor confided in me that in addition to chemotherapy and a total lifestyle overhaul, one of the things she credits with staying cancer-free...

When we hear the word cancer, there are certain images that tend to pop up in our heads. We picture a balding patient with dark circles under her eyes and...