Books Got Me Through Chemo. Maybe This One Can Sit Beside Someone Else Too.

There are certain places in cancer treatment that all start to feel the same after a while.

The waiting rooms with the uncomfortable chairs. The chemo suites with warm blankets and beeping machines. The quiet people staring at the floor because everyone is exhausted in a different way. The strange in-between feeling of trying to act normal while your entire life has been split into before and after.

You spend a lot of time waiting when you’re sick. Waiting for scans. Waiting for bloodwork. Waiting for side effects to calm down. Waiting for doctors to come back into the room with expressions you learn how to read before they even speak.

And during all of that waiting, sometimes the smallest things matter more than people realize.

A good conversation.
A text message.
A nurse who remembers your name.
A stupid joke.
A blanket fresh out of the warmer.
A book.

Books got me through a lot of long nights when my body hurt too badly to sleep and my brain wouldn’t shut off. They gave me somewhere else to go for a little while when everything in my real life felt too heavy. Sometimes I read to distract myself. Sometimes I read because I needed proof that people survive impossible things emotionally, even when they don’t survive them physically forever.

That’s part of why I wrote Life’s a Mess.

Not because I have life figured out. Honestly, most days I still feel like I’m figuring out how to exist inside all of this. I wrote it because I know what it feels like to be scared and angry and exhausted while still trying to crack jokes and answer texts and look “fine” for everyone around you.

I wrote it because illness can feel incredibly isolating, especially when you’re young and people don’t know what to say to you anymore.

And I wrote it because sometimes hearing another person say, “Me too,” can keep someone going for one more day.

So today, we’re doing something that feels really important to me.

For every copy of Life’s a Mess purchased today, we’re donating a copy to local cancer centers for patients to read in chemo rooms, infusion centers, waiting rooms, or wherever they might need it.

Maybe someone picks it up because they’re bored during treatment.
Maybe someone reads two pages and puts it back down.
Maybe someone cries in the parking garage afterward.
Maybe someone laughs at a joke they didn’t expect to laugh at while getting chemo.

Any of those reasons are enough for me.

I don’t want this book to just sit online as another product link floating around the internet. I want it to end up in the hands of people who need comfort, honesty, distraction, dark humor, or just proof that someone else understands how strange and hard this life can become.

Because cancer changes the way you see people. It changes the way you see time. It changes the way you define strength. And sometimes it changes the things you create too.

If you’ve bought the book already, thank you. Truly. Every share, review, message, post, recommendation, and purchase has helped turn this into something so much bigger than I expected.

And if you buy one today, just know another copy will end up beside someone else who may really need it.

Life’s a mess. Keep going.

— Izzy

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