(Kathryn Mannie/ Global News) — Charlene fought for years to have her pain and high-fever symptoms taken seriously by doctors. So long that even she even began to take their doubts to heart. Maybe there really was nothing wrong with her.
But 15 doctors and two-and-a-half years later, her fears were finally validated. She was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 2015 at 37-years-old, and then with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2016.
The confirmation of a diagnosis is usually where a person’s cancer journey begins, not nearly three years after, but that was the case for Charlene — a Black woman who was forced to advocate for her life in a health-care system that would not listen to her.
Charlene, who asked that we only use her first name, spoke to Global News about her ordeal trying to get a definitive diagnosis.
“During those two-and-a-half years, it was a lot of visits to the emergency department and me feeling like I wasn’t being heard,” Charlene described. “There were a lot of judgments on the health-care providers’ parts.” (…)