How do you define yourself as a creative?
Author. Entrepreneur. Futurist. Maman. Dancer. “Me, I’m a creator” - Santigold
How did you approach care for yourself during your diagnosis and treatment?
I’m not much of a shopper, but early on, after one of my follow-up mammograms or biopsies, I was just overcome with fear and grief and what ifs. I left the breast cancer center and drove straight to my favorite eyeglass shop. I was grouchy, sad, and lousy company. And I needed some reminder of beauty and possibility. I picked out a pair of gold glitter frames that glistened in the sunlight and those glasses became the staple of my diagnosis and treatment wardrobe. When I look back at pictures now, I can always tell when I was in my breast cancer era.
When I was diagnosed, I had a bittersweet realization that I had several friends and family members who had recently gone through their own breast cancer journey. No two cancers are the same, but I learn in community, so I called on them to tell me their stories. In the age of texting and apps, it meant a lot that they each sat on the phone with me to tell me what prompted their diagnosis, how they made decisions about their treatment plans and what, if anything, they would do differently.
One friend, who had delayed treatment for a couple of years, said she spent too much time becoming an expert in her cancer and not enough time planning the life she would get to live on the other side of treatment. That really inspired me to pick my head up and look beyond my immediate fears to a new future with my family.
I also reached out to a dear friend who is a naturopathic doctor to help me build a plan to prepare my body for major surgery and recovery. She said that a critical component of surgery prep is to reduce inflammation, so she helped me build an eating protocol and identify supplements that would help my body heal faster.
Make a plan for how you’ll process your feelings throughout diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. I underestimated how emotionally exhausting navigating breast cancer would be. The fear and grief were heavy and it made it hard for me to make decisions. I was lucky that my wife was able to come to all of my appointments with me, hold my hand, make me laugh, and remind me of my questions/decisions in real time.
I was also very fortunate to have doctors in my friend group who helped me prepare for my care team’s official recommendations. Talking with them gave me time to process my emotions before I would be faced with a decision. Even if you don’t have this expertise in your personal community, call on every resource in your breast cancer center and survivorship program. You don’t have to do any of this alone.
Let people help. I was so blessed by my built-in support group —- friends, family, and colleagues all showed up for me the ways that they could. I’m used to being the one who organized everything for everyone else and this was a real life lesson on how to let myself be cared for by my community. Whether it was food ministry, picking the kids up from school, or sitting with me - everyone made a difference in my healing journey.
Rhonda Broussard is the Founder and CEO of Beloved Community and Awa by Beloved, dedicated to building sustainable paths to racial and economic equity. A decorated educator and researcher, she has studied and taught around the world, from France to New Zealand, and was honored by the French Ministry of Culture as a Chevalier of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques. Rhonda has led networks of language immersion and International Baccalaureate schools, is the author of One Good Question: How Countries Prepare Youth to Lead, and has a number of publications in Forbes and academic journals. She lives in New Orleans with her wife, Kim, and their bilingual family, where she also studies and teaches dances of the African diaspora.
