I am a strong, athletic, never-been-sick type of person. I am also very career-driven. So when I was diagnosed with stage IV squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue, a type of oral cancer, in 2016, I thought it’d be no problem. I’d undergo treatment and keep working while I was doing it.

Boy, was I wrong. That might be true for some people, but it sure wasn’t for me. I was hospitalized for a week after my very first chemotherapy...