One Bag Per Passenger

This winter, when I was planning and imagining how I would spend this spring and summer, it involved dating. I don't know where I was planning to meet these wonderful men, but there were going to be lots of them. I know I wasn't planning to meet them in a doctor's office or chemo infusion room. I was going to go out, have fun, and maybe meet someone that I actually liked enough to see a second or third time. Nowhere in all of my imagining did I have to tell some potential mate that I had cancer.

Now, this isn't an issue that's come up yet because I've been a little too busy with all of my head shaving and nap taking to actually meet the future Mr. Melnorth. But at what point in the dating game do you bring that ginormous piece of luggage to the table? Is that a first date disclosure so that we can both save ourselves a lot of time if he's too scared to deal with that? Or do you wait a few dates until everyone is emotionally invested and then hope he's mature enough to stick around?

Anyone I meet now will (hopefully) clue in that something is amiss by noting my lack of hair. But what if I'm wearing a wig? I don't remember a box you could check on Match.com for "survivor." Before, I know I would probably have skipped a guy who said that in his profile. And how do you gently introduce a topic like this? One of my guy friends told me not too long ago about a girl he had dated announcing on the first date that she had Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I can't for the life of me imagine how that came up in conversation, or even why she felt compelled to share it, but when is too soon to share?

I know this isn't something I have to figure out today, and when the time comes I'll know, and all of those other things you're supposed to say, but this is the stuff I think about. My head's a scary place right now.