Jordy Ponce

And she said, no, no, no, actually,

It's fantastic.

These are tears of relief because I can finally talk to someone who understands what it's like to sit in this chair.

You know, my family try as they might.

They're great.

They just don't quite understand.

And then I talked to the next person and the next person and the next.

And I started seeing more and more reactions of the same nature.

And I realized a lot of these patients want someone in the trenches with them who's going to get it.

You know, someone who's not going to placate them or tell them everything's going to be okay or...

This is surprisingly common, but when you tell someone you have cancer, one of their first reactions is to immediately tell you about a great aunt who died of the exact same cancer you have.

So someone who wasn't going to do that, at the very least.

And I was doing more connecting and more sharing of myself, and it was amazing.

I remember a patient who was an older woman going through cancer largely by herself, and she was experiencing depression as well.

And one day she came in and she said, Jordi, I finished my chemo regimen.

And I was like, that's fantastic.

And we celebrated and I said, did you ring the bell upstairs in the infusion center like you can when you finish chemo?

And she said, no, I was by myself.

And I was like, you are not by yourself right now.

And I dragged her up to the infusion center.