How Do You Advocate for Yourself When Facing Cancer? with Catherine Curtin

For Catherine Curtin, wellness has never meant choosing between conventional medicine and a more holistic approach. After being diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer, Catherine spent more than a decade navigating surgeries, recurrences, chemotherapy, complementary therapies, meditation, and some incredibly difficult decisions about her health.

In this episode of The Well Known Podcast, Shannon sits down with Catherine to talk about what it actually looked like to advocate for herself through cancer while continuing to work, care for her patients, ask questions, seek additional opinions, and find ways to feel empowered when so much was outside of her control.

Catherine shares how her medical background shaped the questions she asked, why listening to her body became so important, how meditation became part of her daily life, and why finding physicians willing to have open conversations about both traditional and complementary approaches mattered so much to her.

What You’ll Learn

  • Why Catherine says listening to your body matters, even when you cannot immediately explain what feels wrong

  • How her leiomyosarcoma diagnosis and later recurrence changed the way she approached her own health

  • Why she sought additional testing, opinions, and treatment options throughout her cancer journey

  • How meditation helped Catherine feel more grounded and empowered during treatment

  • Why continuing to work and care for her patients became an important part of getting through some of her hardest seasons

  • What wellness means to Catherine today after everything she has experienced

If Catherine’s story resonates with you, like, subscribe, and share this episode with someone who might need to hear it.

Please note: This conversation reflects Catherine’s personal experience and is not intended as medical advice. Treatment decisions, testing, medications, supplements, and complementary therapies should always be discussed with qualified healthcare professionals familiar with your individual medical history.

Catherine Elizabeth Curtin, MSN, BSN, FNP-C, RN-BC

Beauty & Fly Aethetic Wellness

Catherine Curtin is a Nurse Practitioner with more than 30 years of experience in healthcare and over 18 years specializing in aesthetic medicine. She is the founder of Beauty & Fly, with practices in Bronxville and Bridgehampton, New York, and serves as a national trainer and speaker for the Allergan Medical Institute, where she trains medical professionals in advanced aesthetic techniques and patient care.

Catherine began her nursing career at New York University Medical Center in 1992 and later earned her Master’s in Family Health as a Nurse Practitioner from Pace University. Her clinical career has included positions at Memorial Sloan Kettering, Mount Sinai, New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell, and St. Vincent’s Comprehensive Cancer Center.

In 2006, Catherine expanded her focus into health, wellness, and preventive medicine, studying at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition while transitioning into aesthetic medicine. Before founding Beauty & Fly in 2020, she spent more than a decade as a leading aesthetic injector at Greenwich Medical Spa.

Her background spanning hospital medicine, oncology, wellness, and aesthetics gives Catherine a unique perspective on patient care, self-advocacy, and the relationship between conventional medicine and complementary approaches to wellness.

Chapters

  • 00:00 Meet Catherine Curtin

  • 00:55 From hospital medicine to aesthetics and wellness

  • 03:05 How Shannon and Catherine met

  • 04:10 Catherine’s original leiomyosarcoma diagnosis

  • 06:05 When cancer returned eight years later

  • 07:30 Surgery, recurrence and chemotherapy

  • 09:00 Meditation and navigating treatment

  • 09:45 Catherine’s experience with personalized testing

  • 11:00 What she learned from cold capping

  • 13:00 Exploring complementary wellness practices

  • 15:00 Why patient self-advocacy matters

  • 17:10 Learning that tumors can change over time

  • 18:00 Additional testing and monitoring

  • 19:15 Catherine’s experience with hyperbaric oxygen therapy

  • 21:00 Exploring treatment options outside the U.S.

  • 23:40 How work helped Catherine keep going

  • 24:30 Regenerative medicine and Catherine’s aesthetics practice

  • 27:00 Finding doctors willing to listen

  • 28:15 Catherine’s definition of wellness

  • 30:15 Where to find Catherine

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The Well Known Podcast provides educational and informational content only and does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Views expressed by guests are their own. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional regarding medical concerns.

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