Fred Chong Rutherford
fred chong rutherford

Anemia

I’m anemic again, officially. All that blood loss from the last few months, I knew what I was feeling. Thank god for Dr. Oneto and her snappiness, and thank god for CBT and me finally learning to advocate for myself and be an adult about my health. I must have been getting a flare again starting in August, and I bet if I had blood work it would’ve shown that.

There’s one number I’m scared about, because it’s a cancer indicator, but I know it’s not cancer. Just a familiar old set of conditions that’s slowly getting dealt with.

Related talks & stories

Fred speaking on this

Growing up as the only kid who looked like him in a small, unkind town — and the unlikely place an escape route showed up.

Written for a parent worried about their own child — about a family that went quiet after a loss, and the long process of learning to speak again.

Why he stopped celebrating his birthday, and what nearly thirty years of strange, sudden loss taught him about staying alive.

A childhood nighttime visitor, a phrase he didn’t understand until years later, and a piece of his family’s history he didn’t know he was carrying.

← All writing