I’m coming up on my first follow-up appointment post radiation ablation. I’ve been waiting 6 weeks for this appointment so I haven’t thought too much about it until the last few days. Trying not to worry and whatnot. I’m not sure what the doctor will tell me, probably not much of anything. They usually don’t. For some reason I thought having cancer would get me more understanding and patience from doctors. It really doesn’t.

For many years now I’ve been going round and round with doctors. Some are condescending, some dismissive, some slap a label on me and send me off with a random prescription. If I’ve learned anything from all this it’s that I must be my own advocate. I must learn all I can, weigh the options, and do what’s best for me. While I’m not a doctor, I am the expert of myself. My intuition about my health has guided me, especially in the last year. Doctors only see symptoms and deficiencies and rely on blood work for the answers. But I live in my skin, with cancer coursing through my tissues, with the symptoms, the pain, the daily ups and downs of having a chronic condition. So who better to know the best course of action?

I believe people have become too reliant on doctors for the answers. Consequently, they have stopped listening to themselves. We are so far removed from our intuition that we blindly trust outsiders with our most precious resource, our health and well-being. I’ve come to believe that the best thing someone can do for their health is to get more in touch with their own intuition. By trusting ourselves more we also feel more in control and therefore have less fear. So while fear is natural during a trying time, I believe the emotion is pointing us towards the solution, which is to look within ourselves, challenge the fear, and trust our intuition.