For World Patient Safety Day, Big Blend Radio's “Quality of Life” Show welcomes author Kenitra W. Dominguez to talk about her debut memoir, Because I Deserve It: What Chronic Illness Taught Me About Finding My Voice in the Healthcare System — out now from Avocet Books. Watch the episode above or listen/download the audio version on Podbean.
In 2021, a routine eye exam led Kenitra to an ER visit and, the next day, a diagnosis of idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH), a rare neurological condition with no known cause. What followed reshaped how she moves through the healthcare system — and became the foundation for a book that's part memoir, part practical field guide for anyone who has ever felt unheard by a doctor.
The Diagnosis
Kenitra wasn't chasing a diagnosis — she went in for glasses. "I wasn't really at that point, like I wasn't chasing a diagnosis," she recalls. "I was just going into an optometry visit, just a standard eye exam." What followed was a fast, disorienting cascade — from the optometrist's concern, to an ophthalmologist referral days later, to an ER visit that ended in a diagnosis she'd never heard of.
Bias in the Exam Room
Kenitra speaks directly to the extra burden placed on women of color navigating chronic illness: "We're frequently dismissed, like our symptoms are dismissed... there's a lot of racial bias just historically that exists in the healthcare system that we're still trying to work through." She describes it as having to become "a detective" just to get answers about your own body.
Building a Care Team
It took Kenitra three specialists to find the right doctor. Her advice: don't settle. "I've been in this body for 40 years now," she says. "No one knows my body better than I do." She built her care team using a model she researched from a top hospital's IIH program, with her primary care doctor acting as the "quarterback" connecting specialists — and stresses that front-office staff matter just as much as physicians.
"No One Is Coming to Save You"
I had very early on, in my diagnosis, realized that... no one is coming to save you. You're gonna really have to step up here and advocate for yourself... I realized that's not necessarily a fair ask to everyone who has a chronic condition who's trying to advocate for themselves. But I have to be honest — I feel like sometimes survival and our healthcare system demands it.
About the Book
Because I Deserve It combines Kenitra's personal story with practical tools including questions to ask healthcare professionals, how to prepare for appointments, strategies for building a care team, and how to request workplace accommodations. It's written especially for anyone who has felt unheard by medical professionals — with particular attention to the barriers facing women of color in a system not built with them in mind.
Because I Deserve It: What Chronic Illness Taught Me About Finding My Voice in the Healthcare System
Kenitra W. Dominguez | July 7, 2026 | Avocet Books | Nonfiction, Memoir, Self-Help
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-963678-25-3 | Ebook ISBN: 978-1-963678-26-0
Kenitra W. Dominguez is the founder of Bay Equity HR, a consulting practice helping purpose-driven organizations build equitable, people-centered workplaces. She serves on the Advisory Board of the California Black Women's Health Project and previously served on the board and executive committee of Workplace Fairness. She is a certified mediator, avid traveler, and newly certified open-water scuba diver, and holds a master's in Work Law and Social Justice from UC Law San Francisco. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, HuffPost, and Teen Vogue.
Learn more about Kenitra W. Dominguez at keniwdominguez.com.
Get “Because I Deserve It” on Amazon.
Follow her on Instagram and LinkedIn.