How Therapists Can Advocate for Black Women’s Health |
In January 2024, I was rushed to the emergency room. It was freezing cold outside, and I felt just as cold inside my house and colder in the hospital. I was shivering, and my body felt foreign. I didn’t know what was going on. I was scared. No, I was terrified. I had a child at home and one in college. I had clients who valued me, therapists who depended on me, and a life I wanted to keep living. But I thought I was dying. Seriously. And the medical team didn’t make it better. It wasn’t their fault, but the conversations that were circulating around me had words like heart attack, stroke, hypertension, and “Wait, I haven’t seen this before.”
Fast forward to this past weekend. I met with a friend who told me that one of our mutual friends had colon cancer. She was previously diagnosed with cancer, had the masses treated and removed, and went on living her life. A few months later, she had another pain while on vacation, went to the ER, was admitted to the hospital, had more scans and screenings, and was diagnosed with colon cancer. She agreed to let the doctors conduct surgery and remove the cancer. They accidentally left a couple of cancerous cells in her body. So, when she began to have more pain, she went to her doctor and found out that the cancer was not completely removed, had spread, and........