This blog is long overdue. I like to write when I’m clear headed and have done research on the topic I am writing about. Not today. Today, on my 62nd birthday, after surviving breast cancer twice, I am once again experiencing the gripping fear of PTSD after breast cancer.
Today is emotional while I wait on test results, but I couldn’t feel more determined to finally share why PTSD feels like a choke hold around my throat. It happens when I go for routine tumor markers. I did that today and I wait for the results with fear; fear so many breast cancer patients experience. The wait, the PTSD, it all comes with the heavy burden of hearing you have breast cancer.
Our Responsibility as Patient Advocates
I spoke to a friend and colleague yesterday, a fellow patient advocate, about our responsibility to share our lived experience and voices with the medical community and other patients. We do this in hopes of not only improving care for patients but also improving practice in medicine.
This experience is one I have put on the back burner for three and a half years. It is difficult for me to talk about. I am still angry. I have forgiven my health care provider who was involved at the time, but I have not forgotten.
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