Vital voices: Advocating for yourself as a lung cancer patient
“I’ve constantly been fighting outward and trying to make the world a better place, this is the first time in my life that I’ve had to fight so hard for my own health.” - YoNasDa, lung cancer patient
Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING] My final straw was when that oncologist said, let's just wait till the cancer grows and then we'll go ahead and tackle this, and that was it for me.
My oncologist, my first one, she was not personable. She was, like, you're going to get on this one pill.
There's not a lot of side effects. You're not going to lose your hair. You're going to be able to live your life like the way you want to live it.
Immediately, the first day that I took the pill, I was sick. I was so sick.
I lost, like, 20 pounds in the first month. I'm constantly going into the ER,
and I'm having, like, these aches throughout my body. And I'm like my bones hurt.
What is going on? It was brushed off like it was in my head. No, I don't think you need to see me, the oncologist would say.
You need to talk to your primary care physician on why you're having these dizzy spells
or why my heart rate is dropping dramatically. Having to see my son have to take care
and see his mom constantly in the bed became a huge reality for me.
My hair was down to here. My mother, full blood Native American, daddy Black, I've always had long, beautiful hair,
and my hair started shedding. That's when I got so scared, and I called my oncologist. And she was, like, you need to talk to a dermatologist.
What? I ended up talking to the Black nurse and I said, girl, that oncologist, doctor so-and-so,
said that I need to go see a dermatologist because my hair is falling out. She's like you don't need to see a dermatologist.
That's a side effect of the medication that you're on. I was having so many side effects and constantly in the hospital that my oncologist told me,
hey, you know what? I think you just need to get off of this until the cancer grows, and then let's go ahead and attack it from there.
I was just like, no, we're not going to wait for this cancer to grow. I'm constantly been fighting outward and trying to make the world a better place.
This is the first time in my life that I have to fight so hard for my own health
and for me just to even be seen. [AUDIO LOGO]
lung cancer
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