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Turning Pain into Power through Advocacy

Turning Pain into Power through Advocacy

by | Jul 12, 2022

When I heard the words, “You have Lupus,” I didn’t know the magnitude of how much my life was going to be tested. It started in 1980 when rashes and unexplained fevers plagued my life. Seeing doctors about my symptoms led to solutions that were only temporary. Fifteen...
Creating Your Own Self-Advocacy Style

Creating Your Own Self-Advocacy Style

by | May 5, 2022

We cannot always choose what happens to us in life, but we can choose how we respond and handle it. Take for example, the time that I had a physical examination with my relatively new primary care physician. They did blood work and I received a report, along with a...
Tell Me Your Story: How Narrative Medicine Fosters Trust

Tell Me Your Story: How Narrative Medicine Fosters Trust

by | Apr 27, 2022

Curled up on her hospital gurney but unable to sleep, the middle-aged Latinx female trauma patient sighed, “I am tired of being tired.” Before daybreak, “Rosa” (not her real name) had arrived at work to open her New York restaurant but was interrupted by an intruder...
Simple Measures to Put Caring Back in Health Care

Simple Measures to Put Caring Back in Health Care

by | Apr 20, 2022

Editor’s note: When oncology and hospice nurse Theresa Brown was diagnosed with breast cancer, she couldn’t believe how disorganized and unempathic her care was. Ultimately she called it D.I.Y. care, as in Do-It-Yourself: figure out the treatment process, find the...
Improving Cancer Care for BIPOC Women is Everyone’s Cause

Improving Cancer Care for BIPOC Women is Everyone’s Cause

by | Apr 13, 2022

For women of color facing breast cancer diagnoses, making decisions is a precarious balancing act, a process with significant implications across healthcare and society. Diagnosis tends to occur at a younger age (that is, before 40, when many screening programs become...

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