How I created the best cancer treatment plan for me by embodying authenticity and response-ability

Hi. My name is Suz. I live in Portland, Oregon. 3 months ago, I was
diagnosed with breast cancer and I was scared. I went to go see the doctor,
the breast cancer team, about my treatment. I was imagining that this team
of physicians were going to meet with me, talk with me about the
treatments, and work out what would be the best treatment for me. What I
experienced was that there was this assembly line process of; I have this
diagnosis so this is what they do for me, XYZ, ‘boom, boom, boom, boom’.
Move me through the system. Nobody talked with me about me. I just had this
feeling in my body of, “No, I don’t want this. I want to be able to speak
about what I feel inside of, and what’s true for me, and what healthcare I
wanted.”

I had conversations with my physicians now over these couple of months of
making really important decisions about my healthcare, where I’ve used the
tools I’ve learned around speaking authentically to communicate with my
physicians exactly what’s true for me; what’s true in my body, what my
yeses and no’s are around my treatment so that I can cut through that
experience of the assembly line to get the individualized treatment that I
most wanted for myself.

Rather than just faint into this system the way it was setup, I got
grounded in my body and said, “No. This is what I want.” Then I spoke that
with power, and I was able to change the type of treatment that I was
getting in order to get a treatment that was better aligned with my body
and who I am. I’m really appreciating the tools of authenticity and
responsibility that’s allowing me to create the best care for me.