58: Medical Advocacy w/ Tameka Diaz

Mom Tameka Diaz followed her gut that something was off with her daughter Evely (and had suspicions confirmed) not once, not twice, but three times! In each instance, she faced resistance of medical professionals and felt like she was on trial to prove that her daughter deserved tests and screens. The first time, Evely’s profound heart failure was discovered. The second time, Evely received a sleep study after much resistance, and found she had severe sleep apnea and required surgeries and machines to help her breathe at night. And most recently, they found epilepsy after another round of fighting doctors to give her daughter the tests to look into her concerns. Because of these experiences, Tameka is passionate in empowering other parents to follow our gut and never stop fighting for them. In this episode, she shares each of these three experiences and gives us advice on fighting for our own medically-complex children. She also speaks to the emotional breaking point she hit from all the stress and the necessity for caring for ourselves, too. Links: Find Tameka on Instagram @thediazgirls. Find me on Instagram @the_rare_life. Listen to Ep. 24: Disability Advocacy w/ Jenny McLelland.