A diary that captures in real-time what I experienced, what I learned, what I thought, what I feared, and what I hoped during the months I struggled with illness. I was diagnosed with breast cancer on September 22, 2014. I had a mastectomy on October 1 and began chemotherapy on the 29th of the same month. This is the chronicle of cancer in my breast.

Before I became ill, I had the arrogance of the healthy. I didn't believe it could happen to me. I had friends who got sick. I thought I understood what they went through. I had no idea. I started writing this book from the very first day the bomb dropped. It was my medicine and my therapy.

If illness taught me anything (and it taught me a lot), it is that each of us is her own individual case. The body experiences illness and treatment in its own way. “There are no diseases, there are patients,” our ancient Hippocrates said. Centuries have passed, and we have come back to this very deep —and so self-evident— phrase.

S.N.