A chart note can change your life in seconds, even when it’s wrong. I’m joined by registered nurse, DNP candidate, and founder Rachelle Dumas, who knows patient safety from both sides of the bed. After nine pregnancy losses, she finally welcomes her son, then later wakes up with sudden vision loss and stroke symptoms and gets dismissed in the ER. What follows is a painful look at how misdiagnosis, delayed testing, and “you’re fine” thinking can spiral into real harm, especially for Black women navigating maternal health and emergency care.

We also get specific about the tools and systems shaping care right now. Rachelle explains why informatics and AI in healthcare can either humanize the experience or distance us from it, depending on how carefully we build and use it. She shares a terrifying moment where a post-surgery note mentioned “three aneurysms” and nobody returned calls for a week, highlighting how documentation errors and weak follow-up create avoidable fear, extra costs, and dangerous delays.

From that gap, she creates HERD (Human Enabled AI Reporting and Documentation), a patient advocacy app designed to help patients and caregivers document concerns, find the right escalation path, and report harm while it’s happening. We also talk about pregnancy loss support, why language matters, how resource gaps leave families isolated, and what “moving forward” after medical trauma looks like when you’re still healing.

If you want a grounded conversation on patient advocacy, medical gaslighting, misdiagnosis, Black maternal health, and responsible AI, press play. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review with the one change you want healthcare to make next.

Nobody warns you that a diagnosis can change your body, your confidence, your relationship, and your sense of self all at once. Sandra L opens with a clear challenge: patients are tired of being dismissed, talked down to, or treated like a template, and real patient-centered care only happens when we communicate and build solutions together.

We’re joined by Ebony Mushell, founder of Proud The Lab, a bilateral breast cancer survivor and lupus patient advocate creating tools for healthy sexuality in chronic illness, cancer, trauma, and disability. Ebony explains why sexual wellness in cancer care is often ignored even though studies suggest a huge share of patients experience sexual dysfunction. We talk honestly about supermenopause, body image shifts, fatigue, intimacy after surgery, and how illness impacts partners and kids. Ebony also shares the turning point that led to Proud The Lab after being turned away for help, and why dignity-affirming whole-person care should be the standard.

You’ll also get practical steps you can use immediately: Ebony’s three recommendations for clinicians to break the “mutual silence” around sexual health, plus three ways patients can prepare, track symptoms, and use their voice through notes, portal messages, and better questions. We end with the five circles of human sexuality and the resources Proud The Lab is building to bring joy, connection, and confidence back into survivorship.

Subscribe, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review. What’s one health topic you wish your care team would bring up first?

What does it truly mean to fight for your life while helping others find their path forward? Coach Patricia Pearson, known affectionately as "Coach Pat," brings us into her world as a business success coach, publishing mentor, and most remarkably, a stage four lung cancer warrior who has been battling for nearly five years.

This conversation unveils the often misunderstood world of clinical trials through the eyes of someone living the experience. Coach Pat dispels common misconceptions—particularly the fear that participants might receive placebos instead of treatment. "For life-threatening diseases like mine," she explains, "you'll either receive the standard care they'd normally give you or the trial drug." This crucial distinction has empowered her to participate in two different clinical trials when standard treatments began affecting her other organs.

The power of support systems shines throughout Coach Pat's journey. From her healthcare advocate Sandra Washington to her church family at Abundant Life Family Worship Church and her medical team, these relationships provide the foundation for her remarkable resilience. She shares wisdom about selecting doctors who truly listen and communicate effectively, noting the stark difference between her physician who provides detailed explanations and another who barely spends ten minutes with her.

Perhaps most moving is Coach Pat's perspective on purpose. Despite nearly five years battling stage four cancer while maintaining both her coaching business and a full-time job, she remains steadfast in her belief that "God has not kept me here for four years plus for no reason." She compares resilience to a tree in winter storms—it may sway and lose leaves, but its roots grow deeper into the ground, making it stronger.

For anyone facing health challenges or supporting someone who is, this episode offers practical insights about clinical trials, finding the right medical support, and maintaining faith through difficult times. Listen now to discover how being proactive about your health demonstrates the love you proclaim for yourself and others.