“For the better half of my early 20s, I was Bubble Girl. When I found o...” — Suleika Jaouad Quote

For the better half of my early 20s, I was Bubble Girl. When I found out I had leukemia at 22 my world suddenly dwindled to four white walls, a hospital bed, fluorescent lights and a thicket of tubes and wires connecting me to an IV pole.

Before my diagnosis with leukemia, two years ago at the age of 22, I'd always excelled at making resolutions. But I was never as good at keeping them.

And journaling became the place that I was able to find a sense of narrative control at a time when I had to cede so much control to others. It really - it became the place where I began to interrogate my predicament and to try to excavate some meaning from it.

But no conversation between doctor and patient can magically turn an uninsured patient into an insured one. Doctors are just as helpless as patients when it comes to solving the problems of the uninsured.

It just feels like Erwin and me... even at night I don't feel I have to look pretty in bed.

We all have a great time. And then I go to bed, get up and do it all over again. I like my life.

I am very grateful to God everyday that my eyes flutter open and I can jump out of that bed!

I always remove my makeup before sleeping and moisturise before bed and in the morning.

I have a Bible near my bed.