This is what worked for me. I am sharing my strategy in hopes it might help you, too. 

When I was 48, I received two cancer diagnoses in one year.

My first one was a shocker. I thought I was one of the healthiest people I knew. There were complexities to my case (as there so often are) that prompted me to fly across the country to see the world’s thyroid expert, but the surgery that diagnosed the thyroid cancer was essentially the cure. 

A few months later, after my annual mammogram, I heard the C-word again. I could barely breathe or think. In that foggy and slightly infantile state, I passively did what I was told, crying the whole time on the cold biopsy table.I hadn’t educated myself on anything; I was just going through the motions.  

My first formal breast cancer diagnosis came back, and I needed to decide on doctors and treatment. But to do this, I knew I first had to find a way to calm my panic. An adrenaline-choked mind can’t process or learn what it needs to learn to make good decisions. 

I used to be a professional researcher in charge of research for CNN’s National Desk. I knew how to dive down quickly into a topic and find the experts before the internet and googling was a thing. I formulated critical questions and synthesized the essential points our reporters and producers would need. I eventually left CNN to write a book, do a lot of community work, and raise my four daughters.

Cancer kicked my professional research mind back into gear. I figured out a simple but effective way to organize and process the unfamiliar information flooding in not only from doctors but also from my friends, fellow patients, and my own medical research.

I learned how to learn and think clearly despite the stress that had hijacked my normally high-functioning brain. School came easily to me, but learning and thinking clearly when you are afraid of dying is a different animal.

I know the simple strategy I created for myself allowed me to find great physicians and avoid being harmed by the side effects of over-treatment.

My approach helped me access tips that made treatment more manageable. My strategy saved my sanity (and that of my family) by giving me the serenity to know that I made the best decisions possible for my case. It helped me have a happy and positive experience after my difficult diagnoses.

There is so little you can control right now, but I want you to get through this as easily as possible. The Bev Strategy is a way that helps you control what you can and make informed decisions.

Fast forward to now: after a scare this year turned out to NOT be cancer, I wanted to use the gratitude I felt to do something to help others.  Thus, this website was born.

I had cancer, but the system I created for myself can also help patients with other difficult diagnoses.