Recent Work

Chemotherapy can be effective at destroying cancerous tumors — but at what cost? Because the medication is diluted in the bloodstream, high doses are required. Then, once in the body, the chemo drugs attack not only cancer cells but also healthy white and red blood cells that fuel a person’s immune system and grow their hair, nails, and vital organs.

In July 2015, Melissa Thompson gave birth to her first child, and within a few days, she began suffering from high fevers and was struggling to breastfeed. Her doctor diagnosed her with mastitis and prescribed antibiotics. When the problems persisted, Thompson was sent to a breast surgeon, and six weeks after her daughter was born, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Tumors were blocking her milk ducts.

CANCER IS TERRIFYING AT any age. But now imagine coupling fears about the illness and its costs with pay-ing for college, starting a career or buying a first house. Patients in those situations may be about to start their life in debt before getting on their feet.

Hypnosis can reduce side effects and stress for patients with cancer, and even substitute for anesthesia during some surgeries.

NATALIE MARTINEZ WAS 47 when she was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer and told she’d need surgery to remove the tumor. But she was terrified of general anesthesia.

Years earlier, her mother had encountered difficulty regaining consciousness after an operation, and the experience had affected Martinez. “I wasn’t sure I’d wake up,” Martinez says, “and when I heard I needed surgery, I ...

Lu Salas was 24 weeks pregnant with twin girls when her partner, Brenden, noticed a nickel-size lump in her breast. Her obstetrician told her breast changes were common when the body was gearing up for nursing. “I had a friend who had an infection in her milk ducts when she was pregnant,” Lu, design director at Nordstrom, recalls. “That’s what I was worried about.” But the lump grew. In a couple of months, it felt four times ...

I’ve realized the little stuff doesn’t matter anymore.

Spencer Sutton knows a lot about things with wheels: He likes to push his toy trucks in the dirt and can name various construction vehicles. He’s also big into dinosaurs and rockets and hide-and-seek. But when it comes to his mom’s cancer he knows only that she sees a doctor, and that’s how Kathleen and her husband, Mike, hope to keep it. “I just want him to know he’s loved,” she says.

For years after her daughter was born, Lacey Sikora’s goals were short-term — seeing her go to preschool or maybe kindergarten. “Now my goal is to see both my children graduate from college, get married and have kids,” says Lacey, a writer in Chicago. “Beyond that, I want to make sure our family remains strong and that we’re still in the kids’ lives even after they leave home.”

That’s a luxury Lacey might not have had. In January 2004, ...