Overlooked is a podcast that tells powerful stories about women's health conditions which don't get enough attention. The conversation continues beyond the episode in our newsletter, where host and creator Golda Arthur gives you the backstory to what you hear on the episodes, additional links to go deeper on the topic, and updates on upcoming workshops and other news. Sign up below to get Overlooked delivered straight to your inbox.
Stories from the First Person Health workshop
|
First Person Health is back, and this episode is a special, ovarian cancer edition of the workshop. Our cohort this time was Deborah Binder, Jen Johnson, Nikki Myers and Molly Goodman, all ovarian cancer patients and survivors who took part in this storytelling class. I know this looks like a ordinary zoom room, but extraordinary stories came from this cohort, as it does every time with this class. It takes a bit of courage and commitment to oneself to reexamine your health story, and find a way to bring it to life creatively, in sound. I'm always in awe of the material that emerges from this workshop.
This cohort of First Person Health was made possible by the Amy Krouse Rosenthal Foundation, and its executive director, Betsy Katten, joined us for our final class in the workshop series to listen to these powerfully-told stories of transformation. You can learn more about the work of the foundation, and the moving story of Amy Krouse Rosenthal here. The class is a series of three workshops: in the first one, we open our ears and learn to listen more closely, intensely. The second class is a deep dive in audio and storytelling skills. And by the third class, each participant has made a 6-7 minute audio story, talking about their illness, diagnosis or recovery, and how it transformed their lives. As always, it's my great privilege to teach this workshop. It's part of a personal mission to share the storytelling skills I applied to tell my mom's story with ovarian cancer: I'm reminded that the reason she agreed to do the first season of Overlooked was to help other women with their own ovarian cancer journey, and this is my way of carrying on that mandate. My next workshop is early in the new year and if you want to learn more, and join the wait list, click here.
Lighting things up for ovarian cancer awareness month: Nikki Myers, one of the participants in this class, told me a terrific story I wanted to share with you. Here it is, in Nikki's own words: I had originally been trying to find a way to have the 'Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas' sign lit teal for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. Our Las Vegas T.E.A.L. committee simply didn’t have enough time to raise the $1,035 lighting fee this year, so I reached out to the County to learn more about the process. They offered to help with an ovarian cancer awareness proclamation instead.
I also reached out to Mayor Shelley Berkley and asked if she had any ideas for another way the city could support ovarian cancer awareness. I honestly didn’t expect what happened next ,she suggested lighting City Hall teal.
The lighting at City Hall hadn’t been working properly for several years, but the Mayor made it happen. On September 1, my husband Andy and I stood there together and watched City Hall light up teal.
After 11 years of Teal Tuesdays, and after losing so many women along the way, that moment meant more to me than I can really put into words. It felt like a beautiful way to keep the conversation going and honor the women we’ve lost while raising awareness for the women who are still here.
I’m especially thankful to Mayor Berkley for listening to my request and finding a way to make it happen.
What else is going on: 📕 I'm reading this book. It's not new, but it has me spellbound. 💃🏾 Next month I'm going to a 90's dance party to raise funds for ovarian cancer and if you're in New York, you should too (The dance party supports Tell Every Amazing Lady, a New York-based advocacy organization). What's coming up - the next episode of Overlooked is about our relationship with our doctors. Do you have a story about a doctor's appointment that went very wrong - or very well - that you'd want to share? Email or send a voice memo to hello@overlookedpod.com. Wishing you the best of health, Golda
|
Overlooked: a women's health podcast
Overlooked is a podcast that tells powerful stories about women's health conditions which don't get enough attention. The conversation continues beyond the episode in our newsletter, where host and creator Golda Arthur gives you the backstory to what you hear on the episodes, additional links to go deeper on the topic, and updates on upcoming workshops and other news. Sign up below to get Overlooked delivered straight to your inbox.
Thank you for sharing this show with your people! Please keep it up by forwarding this email to someone who wants to know more about HPV, pap smears and cervical testing. I first found Brittany Chaffee through this article she wrote, which has a title that’s aligned with Overlooked's mission: I wanted to talk to Brittany about her years of abnormal pap smear test results, and some of the procedures she writes about, which I had never even heard of: a colposcopy, which is an examination of the...
The inspiration for this episode comes from an incident that took place last December: a sudden, 10-out-of-10 headache brought me to the ER. Despite its severity, I found myself downplaying my pain when they asked, "How bad is the pain?" Anyway, I was given a CT scan, IV and fluids, and about six hours later, they told me it did not seem to be a dangerous condition and discharged me. That visit really triggered a bunch of questions I had about how we can advocate for ourselves better as...
The most memorable doctor’s appointment I ever had was about 10 years ago, at my first annual check-up. I had been out-of-sorts; it felt like being a puzzle where the bits were drifting slowly away from each other. I didn’t say this to the doctor, because - well, I didn’t know how to. Puzzle? Drifting bits? And it was a weird thing to bring up, since it was so generalized. But there was this one specific symptom I needed to tell him about. “I have this tightening in my chest,” I said. “Like a...