(TW: mention of suicidal thoughts.) I spent the first few days of 2023 in the hospital. 12 days later, I’m still dealing with feeling sick because I was dismissed by the ER providers. When I shared this story on my social media, I asked if anyone else had ever been dismissed by their healthcare team. Not surprisingly, it was one of my most engaged posts, with several people sharing their stories. It’s hard, but we need to advocate for ourselves to our doctors sometimes. No one knows our bodies better than us. So today we’re talking about self-advocacy, how it can save your life, and what steps you can take to start advocating for yourself.