Full Circle Discussion with Jessica Catlin Replay

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Jessica Full Circle Discussion Replay from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Jessica Catlin, our Colon Cancer Empowerment Lead takes a deep dive into her memoir, Full Circle: How Politics, Depression, and Yoga Helped Me Crush Colorectal Cancer and Crisis. Her book is dedicated to people living with colorectal cancer, care partners, anyone impacted by mental health challenges, and anyone seeking inspiration for meeting–and crushing–crisis. Tune into this replay to hear this engaging conversation with Jessica and others as she shares her story and answers questions. 

This program was aired in a meeting format so attendees had the option of having their camera on or off. Some voices you hear may be off camera.

Full Circle: How Politics, Depression, and Yoga Helped Me Crush Colorectal Cancer and Crisis Synopsis

At first, the doctors didn’t believe anything was wrong. Jessica was a politically active, self-aware, health-conscious student of yoga, and the doctors dismissed her bloody stool as a likely hemorrhoid. But nearly one year after she originally sought help, 39-year-old Jessica finally got the life-threatening results: She had Stage 3 colorectal cancer.

In the year that followed, Jessica endured chemoradiation, cancer surgery, ostomy surgery, chemotherapy, and ostomy reversal surgery as well as managing her preexisting mental health conditions. She blogged about the experience every step of the way, giving her readers a window into the fight of her life and encouragement for meeting their own challenges.

Full Circle: How Politics, Depression, and Yoga Helped Me Crush Colorectal Cancer and Crisis is an intimate, page-turning look at one woman’s battle with young-onset colorectal cancer, just as the incidence of this disease is on the rise among the under-40 population. Furthermore, Jessica addresses head-on the additional challenges–and advantages–of being a mental health patient and contrasts the medical system’s treatment of cancer and depression.

This book is dedicated to colorectal cancer patients and caregivers, mental health patients and caregivers, and anyone seeking inspiration for meeting–and crushing–crisis.

Introducing Jessica Catlin, Colorectal Cancer Empowerment Lead

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Jessica Catlin Introductory Video from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

PEN’s new Empowerment Lead, Jessica Caitlin, introduces herself and her journey with rectal cancer. She also encourages anyone looking for support to reach out to her at jess@pivotsolutions.live  or on Twitter at @jesscatlin or LinkedIn.

Transcript

Jessica:

Hi, I’m Jess Catlin. I am a survivor of stage 3B rectal cancer, young onset, and I am so excited to be the new Colorectal Cancer Empowerment Lead for the Patient Empowerment Network.

I currently live in Chicago and I was here when I was diagnosed at the age of 39 with rectal cancer, only after I was turned away at age 38 because the doctors thought I was too young for colon cancer.

Obviously, being an advocate for myself was a huge part of my success in coming out of rectal cancer. I have been a survivor for five years now, so my doctor says I’m officially cured. But being empowered was a huge part of my treatment, as well, and as being a survivor too and some of the issues that have come up ever since my treatment was over.

So, I have done a variety of different things with organizations, speaking at walks, speaking to medical school students, so on and so forth. So, now being part of the Patient Empowerment Network seems like a wonderful way to really tie it all together. We’re here to help you, to answer questions, to be a source of information, inspiration. Even just to be a friendly ear because nobody knows this journey like somebody else who has been through it. As the organization’s name suggests, to empower you because we know empowered patients really have the best chance to thrive.

Listed here on my bio page are links to some of those talks and webinars, and so on and so forth, that I have done with other organizations if you want to check those out. Going forward, I will be creating original content for the Patient Empowerment Network and I don’t know what that looks like yet, I want to hear from you. I want to know what is most helpful. Is it blogs? Is it short videos? Is it webinars or panel conversations? Let me know. My contact information is here on this bio page. Please feel free to reach out or on social media as well, and please consider sharing your own story too. Even if you feel like you don’t have it all figured out or are in the middle of things right now, that can be very inspiring and helpful to someone who is following in your footsteps.

Additionally, you can also support Patient Empowerment Network with your time, talent, or treasure. Thank you so much for stopping by. Thank you for being a part of and supporting Patient Empowerment Network.