Episode 10: The Cost of Blackness: Almost Losing My Life

How Racial Disparities in Healthcare Almost Cost Me My Life ————-This episode begins as a check-in & brief life update but the true focus is on racial disparities in healthcare. In JULY I was diagnosed with Pulmonary Embolism in every lobe of both lungs, a deflated heart valve, deflated intra ventricular septum & a right heart strain after constantly being ignored by the doctors since reporting symptoms in JANUARY. Basically spent 7 months in pain, distress & constant fatigue after multiple doctors visits & their assumptions that I was just wanting pain medicine. By the time they decided to LISTEN and take me serious- I was NO longer able to TALK because my lungs were completely filled with clots— the irony. Imagine losing your life mainly because you’re Black— that’s my reality. My lived experience. The reality of so many. The reality of too many. (Side note: I sound different and winded because my lungs are still healing).