One of the first things I explain to someone newly diagnosed is the necessity to learn to be your own advocate. What exactly does that mean?
Advocacy is the power and actions of an individual or group that aims to influence decisions.
Being your own advocate means voicing your concerns, and not stopping until you feel heard and satisfied. For many of us diagnosed at a younger age, our first introduction into the healthcare system is dealing with a breast cancer diagnosis.
When you’re frightened and overwhelmed (as I was), you have no idea what you need and how to even ask for it!
I’ve enlisted the help of the amazing @Trish_newyorkcity, one-half of the lovely ladies of
@HipHopHappyHour, to see if I could capture just a small bit of some of the wonderful nuggets she has on survivorship and being a cancer advocate.
In October, she shared a break-up experience on Instagram that she had with one of her doctors (and everything that led up to it) and showed that getting what you need as a patient can be as simple as a community-wide “Yelp” review to your doctor.
