Speaker 1: Welcome everyone to Amy and TJ.
Speaker 2: We are at least I am coming in hot today,
Speaker 2: literally actually coming in hot. Were you embarrassed to be
Speaker 2: next to me on the way into work today?
Speaker 3: I am never embarrassed to be next to you under
Speaker 3: any circumstance.
Speaker 1: What's the temperature outside sixty something today? Yeah, so normally
Speaker 1: you would wear.
Speaker 2: A jacket, but this is Coke Wether.
Speaker 1: It's cold weather for sure, right.
Speaker 2: Uh. Yes, So by the time I made it to
Speaker 2: the subway, I had to strip down to my tank
Speaker 2: top and then walked out of the subway and felt
Speaker 2: amazing with a tank top on.
Speaker 3: You know, if I was listening to this and I
Speaker 3: heard Amy Roebox say she stripped down in public to
Speaker 3: her tank top, the visual I have is different from
Speaker 3: what I actually saw. When I was on the train
Speaker 3: with you. Still had you still had pants and other
Speaker 3: things on, right right, I was sweating profusely. And this
Speaker 3: is a problem I think a lot of women of
Speaker 3: a certain age understand. But I've been dealing with this
Speaker 3: since I was forty, when I was put into a
Speaker 3: medically induced menopause. That was something that happened from my
Speaker 3: breast cancer diagnosis and It's one of those things that
Speaker 3: just lives on like it's just it feels like it's
Speaker 3: never gone away. So for ten years, hot flashes have
Speaker 3: really ruled my life. In this morning, or at least today,
Speaker 3: that was an extra special fun commute, extra special fun.
Speaker 1: Yes, right, Eddie. I knew people were staring at me.
Speaker 1: It was embarrassing.
Speaker 3: But this happens every day, several times a day, and
Speaker 3: I know when it's going to I can tell when
Speaker 3: it's happening. It's fun for me now, it's game because
Speaker 3: you start ripping off like blankets and whatnot in the
Speaker 3: middle of the night, and all I do is reach
Speaker 3: over and I just take my finger and just give
Speaker 3: it a little slide up your back and soaking wet, so.
Speaker 1: Wet, so wet. I'm not being dramatic. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not being dramatic. This is a real thing. I
Speaker 1: go through sheets every three weeks.
Speaker 2: It is. Yeah, it's a dramatic event for me, multiple
Speaker 2: times a day, and it's just when it happens in public,
Speaker 2: it's so embarrassing. It's happened on planes, and today, I
Speaker 2: think for one of the first times it happened.
Speaker 1: On this subway.
Speaker 2: I say all of this to bring up because this
Speaker 2: is part of the theme of today's podcast. We are
Speaker 2: in the month of January, a lot of people are
Speaker 2: focusing on their health, and I really wanted to take
Speaker 2: the time today to remind women that.
Speaker 1: This is a month.
Speaker 2: This is a reminder as we reset and we focus
Speaker 2: on improving ourselves, to make that appointment for your mammogram.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of people out there know that
Speaker 2: I'm a breast cancer survivor, and I am only a
Speaker 2: survivor and a thriver because I was pushed into a
Speaker 2: MAMMO van for a work assignment back in two thousand
Speaker 2: and thirteen, and I thought I was the picture of health,
Speaker 2: and turns out I had stage two invasive breast cancer.
Speaker 2: It had already spread to my lymph nodes, and curiously enough,
Speaker 2: at the time, the recommendation was that women who had
Speaker 2: no family history could wait until they're fifty, So I
Speaker 2: had no intention of going at any point before I
Speaker 2: was fifty. It was only because of a work assignment
Speaker 2: that I went ahead and did it at forty to
Speaker 2: kind of show other women, hey, it's not that bad,
Speaker 2: it's not that horrible of a test, and it can
Speaker 2: save your life. Well, it wound up doing just that
Speaker 2: for me, and I have been preaching mammograms. They're not perfect,
Speaker 2: but they're the best test we have. And so I
Speaker 2: just want to encourage any woman out there who's dragging
Speaker 2: their feet, who is at any age, honestly whenever you
Speaker 2: feel it's necessary, because and we'll talk about this, and
Speaker 2: I've said this so many times, this focus on family
Speaker 2: history is ridiculous. Only fifteen percent of breast cancer patients
Speaker 2: have family history with breast cancer. So eighty five percent
Speaker 2: of us who are survivors or who have been diagnosed
Speaker 2: have zero family history. So that shouldn't even be a
Speaker 2: part of your equation as to whether or not you
Speaker 2: should get a mammogram or when you should get a mammogram.
Speaker 1: And it's changed, I know.
Speaker 3: Interesting, it is a part of the equation, or should
Speaker 3: be if you do have a family est so you.
Speaker 1: Have twice the chance of having or developing bast.
Speaker 3: Can and you should get in there and beyond it,
Speaker 3: no matter kind of what age you got to be diligent.
Speaker 3: But to your point, and I've had this conversation with
Speaker 3: you when we've done shows before and we've been in
Speaker 3: commercial breaks or somewhere in the office that I was
Speaker 3: blown away, like, wait a minute, I thought it was
Speaker 3: all about family history, and you explained that it was not.
Speaker 3: And the numbers are so low. Don't get me wrong,
Speaker 3: it's still important to talk about, but it seems like
Speaker 3: a lot of women do think, Hey, I don't have
Speaker 3: a family history. I'm good until forty forty five.
Speaker 2: Fifty that was me and I was definitely to fifty.
Speaker 2: So I just it's a reminder, and in fact, if
Speaker 2: you all have been following the news, I'm sure you have.
Speaker 2: In the last few weeks, we've seen two women, women
Speaker 2: who are in the public eye, who have come forward
Speaker 2: to announce that they too have breast cancer. Nicole Eggert
Speaker 2: you may remember her from Baywatch Charles in Charge.
Speaker 1: She is now.
Speaker 2: She was just diagnosed with stage two breast cancer and
Speaker 2: she found it through a self exam. And then, wow,
Speaker 2: what an impassioned speech CNN anchor Sarah Seidner gave this week,
Speaker 2: just a powerful on air announcement and reminder about taking
Speaker 2: initiative and taking control of your own health. She was
Speaker 2: just diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. She's in treatment
Speaker 2: right now, and she reminded all of us, and this
Speaker 2: is staggering. Stage three now is absolutely curable. But if
Speaker 2: you're a Black woman or a woman of color in
Speaker 2: this country, you are forty percent more likely to die
Speaker 2: from breast cancer.
Speaker 1: That is appalling.
Speaker 3: It's appalling, and it's you start to read up on
Speaker 3: this stuff and it really pisses you off that that
Speaker 3: black women once again are bearing the brunt of something
Speaker 3: in this country at a disproportionate number. So black women,
Speaker 3: and again we talk about women. Of course it overwhelmingly
Speaker 3: breast cancer affects women. But every man that can hear
Speaker 3: our voice right now is impacted by breast cancer because
Speaker 3: you got all of us, got a mom, well, got aunts,
Speaker 3: got sisters, got cousins, got friends, got somebody is impacted.
Speaker 3: But black women, you have a if you're listening to
Speaker 3: our voices, and if anybody out there has a Black
Speaker 3: woman in their life that you care about, you need
Speaker 3: to be talking to them about this. Because it was
Speaker 3: staggering to me that under the age of forty the
Speaker 3: numbers for black women, you are, you your chances of dying.
Speaker 3: If you're a black woman right now, under the age
Speaker 3: of forty, you get diagnosed with breast cancer and you
Speaker 3: have a friend, a white woman who's under forty diagnosed
Speaker 3: with breast cancer. Both of you under forty diagnosed with
Speaker 3: breast cancer. Your chances of dying almost double hers chances
Speaker 3: of dying from it, and this is something we can
Speaker 3: do about it. Look, there's so many socioeconomic reasons for this,
Speaker 3: and you go back to just systemic racism in this
Speaker 3: country that has led to a position to where black folks,
Speaker 3: black women have less access to healthcare. They are in
Speaker 3: places and neighborhoods that oftentimes that don't have the best
Speaker 3: and our mental factors. You also have this issue where
Speaker 3: you talk about poverty, not eating the best, which also
Speaker 3: has an impact. We're disproportionately impacted by wave gain, obesity.
Speaker 3: All of those things have an impact. But I am
Speaker 3: blown away that the chances of a black woman getting
Speaker 3: breast cancer are still less than a white.
Speaker 2: Woman's, but they die more regularly.
Speaker 3: You yet it, you have a much greater chance of dying.
Speaker 3: And that's just that We've got to keep beating that drum.
Speaker 3: And I'm glad Sarah sidon Or, who somebody I worked
Speaker 3: with when I was seeing and she's been there a
Speaker 3: long time and is as good as they come, and
Speaker 3: I'm glad she this has come to the forefront.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and if you can, anybody google her and google
Speaker 2: her speech that she gave on air. It is It
Speaker 2: is incredible, and it is powerful, and hopefully it will
Speaker 2: save lives. It will inspire people who haven't or don't
Speaker 2: want to, or have had a hard time finding a
Speaker 2: way to get a mammogram, to push and to advocate. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: as women, a lot of times we do have to
Speaker 2: advocate for ourselves, and so that is part of the equation. Also,
Speaker 2: note you know, I know, and I've preached early detection.
Speaker 2: I have preached prevention because the sooner you find your
Speaker 2: breast cancer, the better chance you have of surviving it.
Speaker 1: Period.
Speaker 2: But it's important to note anyone, whatever stage you are,
Speaker 2: as zero to three, that's an early stage breast cancer.
Speaker 2: Thirty percent of those of us who had an early
Speaker 2: stage breast cancer will go on to develop stage four
Speaker 2: metastatic breast cancer. And a lot of people out there
Speaker 2: might not know the difference in the distinction. I certainly
Speaker 2: didn't before I was diagnosed. But this is the best
Speaker 2: way to describe it. While amazing drugs and treatments and
Speaker 2: therapies have come about in the last five to ten years.
Speaker 2: We can extend the lives and create a better standard
Speaker 2: of living for women living with stage four breast cancer.
Speaker 2: But right now it remains incurable and it is ultimately terminal,
Speaker 2: and people don't like to talk about it because it's
Speaker 2: sad and it's scary. But if we don't talk about it,
Speaker 2: we can't get the funding we need. Because there is
Speaker 2: a cure for breast cancer. It's called cash and that
Speaker 2: creates research which will eventually create a cure. And I
Speaker 2: know that every scientist I've talked to believes it is imminent.
Speaker 2: It will happen in our lifetime. But for people who
Speaker 2: are fighting for their life, it can't come soon enough.
Speaker 2: And one of those people is one of my best friends.
Speaker 2: Her name is Morgan Mitchell. She is a force. I
Speaker 2: met her five years ago April third, twenty nineteen, to
Speaker 2: be specific. We were at a cancer Gallas sponsored by
Speaker 2: five under forty. You mentioned women under forty. I was
Speaker 2: diagnosed at forty, but I had had my cancer for
Speaker 2: a couple of years according to doctors, so I absolutely
Speaker 2: got breast cancer in my thirties. Morgan found her breast
Speaker 2: cancer at the age of twenty eight, and that is happening.
Speaker 2: More and more younger women are being diagnosed with metastatic
Speaker 2: stage four breast cancer and doctors don't know why, but
Speaker 2: it's happening at a much higher rate than it has
Speaker 2: in the past. And get this, Morgan found her lump
Speaker 2: on the day she got engaged to her now amazing husband, Bob,
Speaker 2: who we love and adore. But what an unbelievable date.
Speaker 2: You know, you always remember the day you got engaged.
Speaker 2: But she found her lump, and then a few days
Speaker 2: weeks later, she ended up getting the diagnosis that she
Speaker 2: couldn't have imagined. That it wasn't just breast cancer, it
Speaker 2: was staged four metastatic breast cancer that had already spread
Speaker 2: to her liver. And so now she found herself planning
Speaker 2: treatment and surgeries at the same time she was planning
Speaker 2: a wedding.
Speaker 1: Well guess what.
Speaker 2: Six years later, Morgan is in studio with us to
Speaker 2: talk about her journey and to inspire you a to
Speaker 2: be an advocate for your own health, but be to
Speaker 2: live better, to live differently, and to live with purpose.
Speaker 2: So Morgan, welcome to the iHeart Studio.
Speaker 1: Who Amy TJ. Thank you guys so much.
Speaker 3: Okay, this isn't fair, all right, because people can't see
Speaker 3: your face, Okay, because what she just said metastatic and
Speaker 3: people don't want to talk about it because it's sad.
Speaker 3: I've known you for I don't know how many years now,
Speaker 3: and the one thing that's never come across my mind
Speaker 3: when I'm around you is the word sad or a
Speaker 3: feeling of sad. I know when I first that run we.
Speaker 1: Took Williamsburg Bridge, there was a doozy that we took.
Speaker 3: I messaged her afterwards like, who the hell is this lady?
Speaker 3: Because you are you hear metastatic and you want to
Speaker 3: you think like, oh my goodness, what But you are
Speaker 3: a joy with every room you walk into. And there
Speaker 3: ain't nothing I've ever seen sad about you.
Speaker 4: Nothing, Thank you, TJ.
Speaker 1: I try to live that way for sure, but you know,
Speaker 1: the ups and downs. It's a roller coaster of emotions.
Speaker 1: But you got to look at the glass half full,
Speaker 1: because looking at it the other way it's just too
Speaker 1: damn sad.
Speaker 3: Were you always like that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, for the most part.
Speaker 2: I mean retime marathon or before this, you climb mountains,
Speaker 2: you hike, you're so energetic and athletic and and had
Speaker 2: so many plants and still do, but they all got
Speaker 2: disrupted and interrupted and changed because of this diagnosis. I
Speaker 2: will say, you are a badass director of business at
Speaker 2: a major media company and you are wheeling and dealing.
Speaker 2: I have been with you when you are getting a
Speaker 2: chemo treatment and you are closing like what a seventy
Speaker 2: million dollars deal on the phone. I mean, I think
Speaker 2: we have a picture of it. It was remarkable. Thank you?
Speaker 2: Maybe yeah, I know sometimes you say I don't have
Speaker 2: a choice but to do that, but you do. You
Speaker 2: could curl up in fetal position and say, why me
Speaker 2: do you do that?
Speaker 1: Have you had those moments?
Speaker 2: How do you keep living your life and at the
Speaker 2: same time dealing with this diagnosis that I'm sure you
Speaker 2: never forget any moment of any day? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Crazy to wake up? Hot flashes are a great room, Like, oh,
Speaker 1: I have cancer. How many do you get a day?
Speaker 1: It depends on the day, to be honest, probably once
Speaker 1: or twice. Yeah, but it's for real. The shedding is
Speaker 1: for real. But you had asked about do I ever
Speaker 1: you know, call up in a field position? Absolutely? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: But I am surrounded by amazing people who lift me up,
Speaker 1: like yourself, like family and friends, an amazing husband, And
Speaker 1: I think really finding the joy in life is how
Speaker 1: we've been able to just put one foot in front
Speaker 1: of the other and go. I also think a lot
Speaker 1: more rolls off my back. Pre cancer, I was stressed
Speaker 1: out about work, stressed out about everything, you know, very
Speaker 1: type A, cared way too much about what everybody thought.
Speaker 1: And you get this diagnosis and all of a sudden
Speaker 1: you're like, wait a minute, I'm the only one that can,
Speaker 1: you know, make this really better and make my life
Speaker 1: the way that I want to. And while six years later,
Speaker 1: I can be grateful for the diagnoses, which probably to
Speaker 1: some of you will seem insane, Thank you therapy. Are
Speaker 1: you grateful? I am, yeah, for the cancer. I am
Speaker 1: grateful for the diagnosis and the experience. But I think
Speaker 1: that it's allowed me to meet a lot of amazing
Speaker 1: women and really impact my life in such a positive way.
Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong, there are days when I just
Speaker 1: wish I didn't have it and life could be so
Speaker 1: much easier, and the what ifs and the what ifs
Speaker 1: really bring you down, And those are the hard questions
Speaker 1: to quiet the nerves, quiet the voices inside of your
Speaker 1: head and work with a therapist or speak to your
Speaker 1: husband about it. You know, having lots of conversations with
Speaker 1: Bob about like what do we want to do, what
Speaker 1: do we want to get out of the next five years?
Speaker 1: What do they look like for us? I didn't want
Speaker 1: kids until I met Bob, and I knew that my
Speaker 1: life once I found out about breast cancer was going
Speaker 1: to be forever impacted. And I think that Amy has
Speaker 1: been the hardest challenge of them all, is kind of
Speaker 1: dealing with your whole future being kind of thrown up
Speaker 1: in the air and kind of lit on fire.
Speaker 3: You said, you guys talked about like what did the
Speaker 3: next five years look like? What have What did those
Speaker 3: five years look like?
Speaker 1: That's a great question. Lots of traveling, teach lots of traveling,
Speaker 1: lots of taking the girls trips. Bob would tell me
Speaker 1: to take more girls trips, and really focusing in on
Speaker 1: getting out in the mountains and renewing our sense of
Speaker 1: just exploration, so climbing a lot of mountains. Amy had
Speaker 1: mentioned we went to New Zealand on our honeymoon, we
Speaker 1: got married, We lived life to the fullest. I don't
Speaker 1: think that our wedding would have been the fairy tale
Speaker 1: slash celebration of life that it was if I wasn't
Speaker 1: diagnosed and dealing with something so chronic. And I think
Speaker 1: that was something Amy you had mentioned that stage four
Speaker 1: is ultimately terminal. And I think the biggest learning for
Speaker 1: me was when I had gotten my second opinion and
Speaker 1: the doctor at the time that on collegist said, we
Speaker 1: like to think about your life as an encyclopedia, lots
Speaker 1: of chapters. Some might be short, others might be really long.
Speaker 1: And so for me that was a good analogy to
Speaker 1: really take home and apply because some treatments I've been
Speaker 1: on for nine months, others I've been on for three years.
Speaker 2: Talk about I'm curious because a lot of people want
Speaker 2: to know what is treatment like for you? Yeah, when
Speaker 2: you're metastatic, where are you in your treatments and what
Speaker 2: are they like? How often are they just give us
Speaker 2: a sense of what it's like as a patient.
Speaker 1: So from diagnoses to now, I have been on a
Speaker 1: three week regimen of infusions. They have varied from immunotherapies
Speaker 1: which are great, you don't lose your hair, I say, great,
Speaker 1: They're not fun, you get hot flashes, you get a
Speaker 1: lot of really not fun GI symptoms, let's be honest.
Speaker 1: And it's been frustrating. So with each treatment and each
Speaker 1: kind of new drug that I've tried, the side effects
Speaker 1: are different. So it's all about symptom management. But right
Speaker 1: now I am on a drug that's a drug conjugate,
Speaker 1: which basically means chemo plus that immunotherapy that i'd speak
Speaker 1: or spoke about, and it's hard, it's challenging. I'm down
Speaker 1: for the count for about a week. A lot of
Speaker 1: my girlfriends would say, you're down for the count is
Speaker 1: like somebody's average day. So I'm thankful for that. I
Speaker 1: have probably had an abundance of energy. I always have
Speaker 1: been a ball of energy. I think that's amy why
Speaker 1: you and I are like of ken if you will.
Speaker 1: And it's just really stinks. I guess the week after
Speaker 1: treatment because you're really kind of nauseous. Your head could
Speaker 1: be in the porcelain bowl, and you just like, did
Speaker 1: I go out and have a three day bench or
Speaker 1: how am I feeling right now?
Speaker 2: Right? But you're still going to work, You're not missing
Speaker 2: days of work. And you know what I think of
Speaker 2: when I think of Morgan. She likes to type this
Speaker 2: to me or texas to me, LFG, let's can go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is you.
Speaker 2: And every time I hear that or see that, I
Speaker 2: think of Morgan like that is I feel like you're
Speaker 2: a mantra LFG. Even when you're going into treatment, even
Speaker 2: when you know you're gonna have a bad day. Let's
Speaker 2: do this, let's get this done. But this is you've
Speaker 2: explained this to me, the last treatment available to you
Speaker 2: right now. Explain that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's been six years since I was diagnosed.
Speaker 1: In those six years, this drug it's called in her
Speaker 1: two astra Zeneca came out with it. I want to say,
Speaker 1: now it's been two years, it'll be two years in
Speaker 1: the summer that they release this drug, and it was
Speaker 1: not available six years ago. And now I'm on it
Speaker 1: and you're constantly checking in with your doctors on how
Speaker 1: does your blood work look, how are your pet skins looking?
Speaker 1: And if this stops working, I don't have like another
Speaker 1: option of a new drug to try that could potentially
Speaker 1: continue to save my life. We would have to recycle
Speaker 1: and go back to a different chapter that I may
Speaker 1: have already tried, and for me psychologically, to go back
Speaker 1: to something that didn't work. I brain can't compute that.
Speaker 1: You know, it's hard to compartmentalize when you know that
Speaker 1: something didn't work and there's a potential.
Speaker 2: To have to go back to that, but right now
Speaker 2: it is working. Yes, yeah, all right, and you have
Speaker 2: something very big happening tomorrow.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about that after the.
Speaker 2: Break because it's something that you've fought for that isn't
Speaker 2: necessarily something that doctors advocate for or even support in
Speaker 2: some cases. The choice you've made something you're doing tomorrow,
Speaker 2: and we're going to talk about that when we come back.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Amy and TJ.
Speaker 2: We have one of my favorite people with us here today,
Speaker 2: Morgan Mitchell. She is a warrior, she's a survivor, she's
Speaker 2: a thriver. She is living with stage four metastatic breast cancer.
Speaker 2: And I teased something she's going to do tomorrow, but
Speaker 2: actually I wanted to before we get to that, go
Speaker 2: back a bit because you got emotional, not about yourself,
Speaker 2: but when TJ was talking about black women and how
Speaker 2: they suffer disproportionately to women of any other color, you
Speaker 2: got emotional. You actually have a personal connection to this
Speaker 2: and story to this, and it starts with five hundred forty,
Speaker 2: the organization in which we met.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you meet so many powerful women throughout a breast
Speaker 1: cancer journey, and I think for me being in a
Speaker 1: room with young professionals that are you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: this amazing African American woman. She is a doctor and
Speaker 1: she also has Stage four and I met her at
Speaker 1: five hundred and forty and I remember her saying that
Speaker 1: my own hospital didn't take me seriously. And it stuck
Speaker 1: with me. How could somebody's own hospital, that they're a
Speaker 1: doctor not take her seriously or say, oh, you'll be fine,
Speaker 1: you'll be back in two weeks, here's your drug regimen.
Speaker 1: You've got this. And the fact that it's probably because
Speaker 1: she was black drives me insane and it's not fair.
Speaker 1: And I know that I had an angel in this,
Speaker 1: a girlfriend who was working for the breast surgeon that
Speaker 1: I was initially diagnosed by. And if you don't have
Speaker 1: somebody like that telling you what to do, the questions
Speaker 1: to ask, helping you, pushing you through it, it can
Speaker 1: be a really dark, scary journey, even in the medical world.
Speaker 1: And it's I honestly get stick to my stomach because
Speaker 1: it's it's not fair and it's not right, and so yeah,
Speaker 1: I got super emotional about it because I couldn't imagine
Speaker 1: not having the army behind me to get me to
Speaker 1: where I am now. And that's why I'm strong.
Speaker 3: And that leads to the numbers. Right, Well, it's disproportional.
Speaker 3: You all talk all the time about you have to
Speaker 3: be your own advocate. I know you have been your
Speaker 3: own advocate. You have to do the same walking in there,
Speaker 3: and for black women oftentimes who do not have the
Speaker 3: backing and the voice and they're being believed. But it's
Speaker 3: wild that the number one, the number one cancer for
Speaker 3: deaths in this country. The leading cause of cancer deaths
Speaker 3: is lung cancer for white men, The leading cause of
Speaker 3: cancer deaths for white women lung cancer. The leading death
Speaker 3: from cancer for black men is lung cancer. The leading
Speaker 3: cause of cancer death among black women is breast cancer.
Speaker 3: The only group in there that lung cancer isn't leading
Speaker 3: the way. So where does the for you all, and
Speaker 3: you were just talking about this, where does the difficulty
Speaker 3: in the advocacy come from? And being able to tell
Speaker 3: her all the time she has whatever issue and then
Speaker 3: she used to go starts googling. I was Jesus, please
Speaker 3: don't go Google.
Speaker 1: Because you're gonna have all kinds of.
Speaker 2: New ways when you have When you have a cancer diagnosis,
Speaker 2: even if you've survived it and you're in technical remission,
Speaker 2: any little hiccup is a massive wave of fear that
Speaker 2: it's come back.
Speaker 3: But if you have a scratch on the back of
Speaker 3: your hand, if you still go. But you go, and
Speaker 3: you do all the research, and then you go ask
Speaker 3: the question you advocate for yourself. What were the challenges
Speaker 3: you had in getting someone to first believe you, listen
Speaker 3: to you, and then take a course of action that
Speaker 3: you wanted.
Speaker 1: Yeah, great question again. I had mentioned that I had
Speaker 1: an angel of a girlfriend who worked for a breast surgeon.
Speaker 1: She was my first call. I mean, Bob and I
Speaker 1: are laying in Yosemite. He's gonna propose you guys. Had
Speaker 1: mentioned that, and I like, feel a walnut sized lump
Speaker 1: in my breast and I'm like WTF. So we woke
Speaker 1: up on East Coast time and I called my girlfriend
Speaker 1: immediately and had like full on panic attack with her.
Speaker 1: She was eighty percent or benign, and I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: but this doesn't feel right. Doesn't feel like dense breast tissue,
Speaker 1: which is what I had had, and having her kind
Speaker 1: of helped me get through the stages and seeing her
Speaker 1: passion because her mother also is a breast cancer survivor
Speaker 1: and is a breast cancer survivor. That really helped me
Speaker 1: kind of show me the ropes of you know, this
Speaker 1: is your health. You are the one that has to
Speaker 1: go home at the end of the day, not them,
Speaker 1: and you have to live with yourself. And so we've
Speaker 1: kind of always lived by that mantra of what feels
Speaker 1: right for you. Yeah, and Amy te's this a little bit.
Speaker 1: But tomorrow I'm having a masectomy of my left breast
Speaker 1: and I've already had my right breast removed. This is
Speaker 1: very not on protocol for metastatic breast cancer. It's controversial. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is. Why because typically they don't like to remove
Speaker 1: the host and put you through that trauma of surgery. So,
Speaker 1: like Amy had mentioned, you know, some old school thoughts
Speaker 1: would be that it's terminal, so why put you through
Speaker 1: that from a quality of life standpoint, And so we're
Speaker 1: treating you systemically, you know, from your brain all the
Speaker 1: way down to your toes with the medicine that you're on,
Speaker 1: So why go through that? Because essentially those meds should
Speaker 1: shrink everything and keep you alive. So why do you
Speaker 1: want to go through it?
Speaker 2: I mean, you know you have tumors in your liver, correct, yes,
Speaker 2: And why then would you want to remove your breast.
Speaker 2: I mean it's obviously a very traumatic surgery, which you
Speaker 2: already know, So why do that?
Speaker 1: Ames, I'm going to be thirty five in a few weeks,
Speaker 1: like I need to have my situation situated. I got
Speaker 1: to feel good about myself, and so a lot of
Speaker 1: it is all mental. You know, I had a reoccurrence
Speaker 1: or not a reoccurrence, because I have always had breast cancer,
Speaker 1: but I had more tumors pop up in my right
Speaker 1: breast during COVID, and during COVID, you know, they would
Speaker 1: only do surgery that was required, and so we really
Speaker 1: pushed to get the double missectomy at the time, and
Speaker 1: doctors did not recommend that at the time for me,
Speaker 1: given my situation, given the blood work, given my treatment regimen,
Speaker 1: which is still every three weeks. My butt is in
Speaker 1: that infusion chair. So I had to get back to
Speaker 1: my systemic therapy and get back on the meds, so
Speaker 1: luckily and her two has been working and it's been
Speaker 1: working for two years. And I think you were with
Speaker 1: me at the treatment where I was just asking a
Speaker 1: lot of questions, really pushing. I'm like, okay, well I'm
Speaker 1: not happy. I mean, you got a lot of pushback.
Speaker 2: I want to just say from the doctors, I was
Speaker 2: kind of I was impressed and amazed at your tenacity
Speaker 2: and you coming back at a doctor. A lot of
Speaker 2: women don't have that hutzpot, like they don't feel like
Speaker 2: they can push back from what a doctor's telling you
Speaker 2: because the doctor's told you no.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I've been fortunate enough to have such a
Speaker 1: good relationship with my care team where they're willing to
Speaker 1: hear you out. And I do think with metastatic a
Speaker 1: lot of it is quality of life. And I'm going
Speaker 1: to try not to get emotional, but it's like I
Speaker 1: just got married, you know, Bob, and I are like
Speaker 1: wanting to have this fruitful life, and every time I
Speaker 1: hop in the shower, I feel like f in Frankenstein.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: And you're constantly reminded. So I didn't need to continue
Speaker 1: to feel that way for the next I don't know,
Speaker 1: five ten twenty years that I'm alive, Like, I want
Speaker 1: to make sure that I look and feel as much
Speaker 1: like a woman even though I'm going through crazy treatment
Speaker 1: right now. I lost my hair within her too. That
Speaker 1: was really hard.
Speaker 2: An amazing wig by the way, I mean amazing.
Speaker 1: Those Orthodox women in Brooklyn know what's up. Thank you.
Speaker 1: You know, everybody has something that they go through in
Speaker 1: their life. And I think, just advocating for what you want,
Speaker 1: you came with me to that treatment Amy. The next
Speaker 1: treatment three weeks later, I brought in Bob and I said, baby,
Speaker 1: I need you. He goes, what do you need? I said,
Speaker 1: I need you to have my back, and I need
Speaker 1: you to tell them how depressed I've been because behind
Speaker 1: closed doors, like it's been tough. You know, it's not
Speaker 1: all rainbows and butterflies, and this is the raw, real
Speaker 1: stuff where you're like, I just want to feel normal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think you know what people discount the fact,
Speaker 2: like it sounds superficial and silly to say you care
Speaker 2: about your hair or you care about how your breasts look.
Speaker 2: That is so important because when you have breast cancer,
Speaker 2: so much of what makes you a woman is taken
Speaker 2: away from you. Your ability to have children oftentimes if
Speaker 2: you have a hormone positive cancer like you do, and
Speaker 2: I did your breast and even though yes you're going
Speaker 2: to get a mistectom and you're going to get reconstructive surgery,
Speaker 2: which is an amazing thing, you know how they feel.
Speaker 2: I know how they feel every time you're in a shower.
Speaker 2: It's so funny you mentioned that, because that is when
Speaker 2: I'm so aware of what I've been through, because you
Speaker 2: have no feeling, and it's a strange. It's like two
Speaker 2: rocks or boulders are like just kind of put on you,
Speaker 2: and it's just like you know, the novacaine you feel
Speaker 2: in a when you have your teeth and you're going
Speaker 2: to the dentist and that's always there on your chest.
Speaker 2: But if you don't look the way you want to look,
Speaker 2: and you don't feel the way you want to feel,
Speaker 2: it's hard to be in it to win it. In
Speaker 2: a way, like the mental part of it is such
Speaker 2: an important part of the physical healing as well, and
Speaker 2: I think that's discounted often.
Speaker 3: But is there a disagreement between patient and doctor sometime
Speaker 3: about what quality of life actually means? You mentioned that,
Speaker 3: but they might think your quality of life it should
Speaker 3: be not having surgery, do you think? But how do
Speaker 3: you bridge that gap? And I assume the doctor. You
Speaker 3: can't just tell a doctor this is what you're going
Speaker 3: to do. Do you have to kind of shop around
Speaker 3: and keep getting second, third, and fourth, and fifth and
Speaker 3: sixth opinions. How does that work when there's a disagreement
Speaker 3: about what quality of life looks like for you?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think what was on my side was two
Speaker 1: years of asking for this and really pushing for it.
Speaker 1: I love my oncologist, but you're absolutely right. And so
Speaker 1: she actually helped me find the breast surgeon that I
Speaker 1: went and saw, and the breast surgeon has done a
Speaker 1: lot of research on women under the age of fifty
Speaker 1: with oligo metastatic. That word means in one place. So
Speaker 1: I have multiple tumors on my liver that are breast
Speaker 1: cancer positive, but it's in one place. And so the
Speaker 1: research that my doctor had done basically just proved that
Speaker 1: essentially the quality of life and prolonged life was not
Speaker 1: impacted but potentially helped the women under the age of
Speaker 1: fifty livelong. And it was a controversial report because they said, well,
Speaker 1: you researched women that are healthier. I'm giving everybody big
Speaker 1: air quotes here healthier. So you know, I'm thankful that
Speaker 1: I had worked out kind of a multi step plan
Speaker 1: with that breast surgeon, and we're thankful that I even
Speaker 1: can do this because I know mentally it's just going
Speaker 1: to make me feel that much better. Like talking about
Speaker 1: the wig, I remember going in the next day to
Speaker 1: work feeling so confident, so common, the game changer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it should not be discounted, and you shouldn't
Speaker 2: be embarrassed to say I need this, this matters, this helps, this,
Speaker 2: This has a huge impact on my well being, and
Speaker 2: it's important for us to be able to say that
Speaker 2: and not be embarrassed about it. Like that is a
Speaker 2: part of this treatment and going through something like this.
Speaker 2: The other big thing I know that you've been dealing with,
Speaker 2: and this is something you know. The average age for
Speaker 2: women to get breast cancer is sixty two, and I
Speaker 2: think a lot of people think of breast cancer as
Speaker 2: an older woman's disease post menopause. But for people who
Speaker 2: are pre menopausal, for women who were gosh, you were
Speaker 2: twenty eight, you want to have babies, you wanted to
Speaker 2: have a family, You had an idea of what your
Speaker 2: life was going to be. And fertility is such a
Speaker 2: huge thing, especially when you're a cancer patient. You've had
Speaker 2: to go through a lot to even have the opportunity
Speaker 2: to possibly have a child.
Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about that. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: when I found out that it was stage four, it
Speaker 1: was a Friday, December first, twenty nineteen. My girlfriend had
Speaker 1: sat me down and was like, next steps is fertility,
Speaker 1: and we'll get you into appointments the following week for
Speaker 1: your oncologists, but you need to figure out your fertility
Speaker 1: clinic now now. I called my GP and I was
Speaker 1: set up immediately at Cornell with a fertility specialist who
Speaker 1: saw me at six am the next morning. And I
Speaker 1: will never forget that. And she was so kind and
Speaker 1: pulled me into her office and said, I'm a breast
Speaker 1: cancer survivor too, We're going to get you through this, kiddo.
Speaker 1: And she's been my doctor from a fertility standpoint ever since.
Speaker 1: But my doctor, my oncologist, fought with my fertility doctor
Speaker 1: back and forth because I had estrogen positive breast cancer
Speaker 1: and I remember this where you know. This then sparked
Speaker 1: a whole heated discussion in our family where the moms
Speaker 1: and our family were like, you gotta just save you.
Speaker 1: You can adopt, it'll be fine, don't worry about it.
Speaker 1: They kind of agreed with my oncologists that said, I'm
Speaker 1: not saving your future babies. I'm saving you, and like
Speaker 1: I'm keeping you alive and again just having your people.
Speaker 1: I'm so grateful for Bob that he said, well, we're
Speaker 1: kind of great, we're kind of cool. Marks like I
Speaker 1: want that chance to have a biological child. And Bob
Speaker 1: is adopted, and so it sparked a lot of really
Speaker 1: interesting conversation and we pushed back and I remember I
Speaker 1: was onlol, I was getting an estrogen suppressed, starting the shots.
Speaker 1: I will never forget being in a bar in a
Speaker 1: basically doing the men appure, which is all of the
Speaker 1: hormones that you have to take to go through egg
Speaker 1: freezing in a bar because my friends decided to throw
Speaker 1: Bob and I an engagement party nice and just being
Speaker 1: down and literally just shooting up like no big deal,
Speaker 1: Like I'll never forget that. And you know, we were
Speaker 1: able to save five eggs, and from those five eggs
Speaker 1: from a twenty eight year old, we have two baby
Speaker 1: girl embryos and now we're working through the sergacy process,
Speaker 1: which also is just mind boggling and crazy, but really
Speaker 1: thankful that we're even in a place and situation where
Speaker 1: we can even afford it.
Speaker 3: But the oncologies, I'm going back because this is my
Speaker 3: ignorance and learning about all this, and I'm assume a
Speaker 3: lot of people are as well. But what is the
Speaker 3: fight between the oncologist and your fertility doctor. What the
Speaker 3: oncologist thinks you were putting yourself at risk potentially yes
Speaker 3: by doing so? Yes, What is that? I say, I
Speaker 3: don't completely understand how you making decision about fertility then
Speaker 3: ends up putting you adversely at risk for something else?
Speaker 2: What is that?
Speaker 1: So typically when you're doing IVF, you wouldn't suppress your
Speaker 1: estrogen TJ. So that is basically the big difference is
Speaker 1: that my fertility doctor knew that I had estrogen positive
Speaker 1: breast cancer, so she put me on letrasol. And that
Speaker 1: was the discussion, right of your stage four we're not
Speaker 1: talking around here, you need to get on treatment immediately.
Speaker 1: And I was like, okay, you know you're deer in
Speaker 1: headlights when you first find out this news. And so
Speaker 1: really that's the argument of stage four, we need to
Speaker 1: start you on treatment immediately. And this was my you know, experience,
Speaker 1: but I am sure that other doctors with other stages
Speaker 1: would probably push for no fertility too, so that they
Speaker 1: can immediately hop on your medication and start saving your life.
Speaker 1: It's a delay in treatment.
Speaker 2: You're adding estrogen into your body.
Speaker 3: Yeah, two weeks, but it was that serious too when
Speaker 3: you hear stage four, two weeks is too too long
Speaker 3: for the oncologist. I don't want to wait a moment.
Speaker 1: Right, even though we were suppressing my estrogen, so that
Speaker 1: that's the crazy thing. I mean, at twenty eight I
Speaker 1: probably should have popped out like thirty eggs, but because
Speaker 1: we were suppressing my estrogen, I only got five. But
Speaker 1: that's five more than I would have had had I
Speaker 1: not done it.
Speaker 2: And at stage two, by the way, my oncologist told me,
Speaker 2: granted I was also forty and already had children, but
Speaker 2: she point blank said this to me almost immediately after
Speaker 2: my diagnosis, you are out of the baby making business.
Speaker 2: Be glad you had two kids, but you're not going
Speaker 2: to do anything. I mean, they did give me a
Speaker 2: two week window, but she was adamantly opposed. Even at
Speaker 2: stage two for me to harvest any eggs. And that's
Speaker 2: something that people don't think about when you now have
Speaker 2: younger women getting this disease at advanced stages. It's something
Speaker 2: that people don't consider, and it's important. It's a big
Speaker 2: part of who we are as women and what we
Speaker 2: thought our life would look like. And when it's taken
Speaker 2: away from you, suddenly it becomes something you didn't ever
Speaker 2: think you had to consider. Exactly what have the emotions
Speaker 2: been for you?
Speaker 1: The emotions a roller coaster, the sergacy stuff, survivor guilt robes.
Speaker 1: I'm I find myself in weird places. You know you
Speaker 1: when you are diagnosed with stage four. Stage four means
Speaker 1: a lot of different things. I have friends with it
Speaker 1: in their bones and brain, in their liver, brain, long,
Speaker 1: you know, more than just ol ago metastatic. And so
Speaker 1: for me, it's tough to see those women go. It's
Speaker 1: tough to keep fighting and so it's such an emotional
Speaker 1: roller coaster that it's it's been a challenge. And again,
Speaker 1: friends are huge. Families huge.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: My family is always just so positive, which is great. Uh.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I have to be like, Okay, fam I love you,
Speaker 1: but let me be sad. For a second, please like
Speaker 1: cut out the jokes, like this is serious, but cancer.
Speaker 4: Humor works, it works, you need it right it absolutely
Speaker 4: It sounds a cob but it's actually it's a survival tool,
Speaker 4: so true.
Speaker 1: And you have to laugh. You have to laugh.
Speaker 2: You have to laugh, and you've taught us to laugh
Speaker 2: and to live differently. We're going to talk more about
Speaker 2: how you live and I want you to inspire everyone
Speaker 2: listening the way you've inspired me. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Amy and TJ.
Speaker 2: We have more with the amazing Morgan Mitchell and Morgan.
Speaker 2: I wanted to you you know something that people asked
Speaker 2: me even when I had my diagnosis. But I'm sure
Speaker 2: you get this all the time, Stage four metastatic breast cancer.
Speaker 2: I know that some people say it's like the way
Speaker 2: you're treated, it's like almost witnessing your own funeral while
Speaker 2: you're still alive, and people don't know what to say,
Speaker 2: they don't know how to act, they don't know what
Speaker 2: to do. Can you talk a little bit about just
Speaker 2: let people know what's a good thing to say and
Speaker 2: maybe even what's a bad thing to say.
Speaker 3: It's okay, you all, We are going to continue with
Speaker 3: Morgan here just a second. But crazy as it sounds,
Speaker 3: she told us when she came in she was expecting
Speaker 3: a call from her doctor. She has. The surgery we
Speaker 3: talked about is tomorrow, and she just had to get
Speaker 3: up to take the call from her doctor who is
Speaker 3: going to talk her through and explain what the process
Speaker 3: and the surgery is going to be tomorrow. It's amazing.
Speaker 3: We didn't plan this, she said, Hey, guys, just heads up,
Speaker 3: and sure enough the phone rang while we're here in
Speaker 3: the middle of this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and she has to go make sure she knows
Speaker 2: what's happening tomorrow. It's a surgery. It's an amputation. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's not a boob job. I think a lot of
Speaker 2: people think it's just some Oh you're getting new boobs, great,
Speaker 2: good for you.
Speaker 1: I wish I had.
Speaker 2: I mean, no, this is a major surgery and she
Speaker 2: has to get everything lined up and she has to
Speaker 2: know what she's doing tomorrow. So we're gonna let her
Speaker 2: take care of that. In the meantime, I wanted to
Speaker 2: mention I was able to talk to And she's also
Speaker 2: been in the news lately. Shannon Doherty. She's also stage
Speaker 2: four metastatic. She was diagnosed with early stage I believe
Speaker 2: in twenty fifteen, and in twenty seventeen she found out
Speaker 2: that in fact it had recurred or there was a
Speaker 2: recurrence and it was metastatic. And she said to me
Speaker 2: after she was newly diagnosed that figuring out the mental
Speaker 2: part of this is the hardest part. And she referred
Speaker 2: me to, of all things, a snoopy Charlie Brown cartoon
Speaker 2: that she says she reads daily to get her through
Speaker 2: the day, to get her going, to keep her mood
Speaker 2: and her mind in the right place. And I was like,
Speaker 2: Charlie Brown cartoon, but I was going to share it
Speaker 2: with you all because it's it's really a beautiful thing,
Speaker 2: and I encourage you how to look it up. Charlie
Speaker 2: Brown says, I think Morgan's coming back in. Actually, hey Morgan, we.
Speaker 1: Kept going without you, So come on back, sit down,
Speaker 1: come to the MiCT my instructions for tomorrow.
Speaker 2: All right, in the morning, let's go LFG.
Speaker 1: All right. You came right in the middle of I
Speaker 1: was talking.
Speaker 2: You know, you're familiar with Shannonhorty stage four metastatic, and
Speaker 2: she was brave to come out and talk about it
Speaker 2: and be you know, basically a model for everyone to
Speaker 2: look at and watch and see and learn from, because
Speaker 2: there's so much to learn. But she was She referred
Speaker 2: me to this Charlie Brown cartoon that she leans on,
Speaker 2: that she looks to every morning to get her going
Speaker 2: when she's not necessarily in the mood to do just that.
Speaker 2: Charlie Brown says to Snoopy, we only live once, Snoopy
Speaker 2: kind of like Yolo. Snoopy says to Charlie Brown. Wrong,
Speaker 2: we only die once. We live every day. And that
Speaker 2: is what I see you doing. What do you say
Speaker 2: to yourself? Who do you turn to? Is it Bob?
Speaker 2: Is it yourself when you're feeling like you just don't
Speaker 2: want to get up, when you're afraid?
Speaker 1: It's Bob. It's my closest friends, and you know whether
Speaker 1: it's our safe word. I need a distraction, and my
Speaker 1: girlfriends just crack me up with crazy stories. And if
Speaker 1: for Bob, it's where are we going next? Baby? What
Speaker 1: mountain are we climbing? And Norway's up on our list
Speaker 1: this summer? I love that.
Speaker 2: And you and when you when you were when you
Speaker 2: were interrupted by your doctor, you were going to tell
Speaker 2: us what what people can say should say and what
Speaker 2: they shouldn't say.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so please never say, oh, like you've got this,
Speaker 1: I had a mom or a you know, aunt or whatever.
Speaker 1: Everybody situation is different, and so I think, yes, it's
Speaker 1: nice to have common ground, but it's simple, I'm thinking
Speaker 1: about you. I'm here for you. I know that this
Speaker 1: is gonna be tough or I don't know what you're
Speaker 1: going through at all, but I'm here for you and
Speaker 1: I want you to know that you're supported or I'm
Speaker 1: part of your army, I'm part of your tribe. Please
Speaker 1: never just blank stares when somebody tells you because they
Speaker 1: don't know what to say. I've gotten that, and that
Speaker 1: probably was the worst because I think a lot of
Speaker 1: us with just emotional EQ after we get diagnosed with cancer,
Speaker 1: know that when people screw up and don't say the
Speaker 1: right thing, it's coming from a place of love or
Speaker 1: the one if anybody can do this, it's you go no,
Speaker 1: that's yeah, No, that one's that one's also not so great,
Speaker 1: or you know, God really just is going to be
Speaker 1: by your side and if anybody can and can fight this,
Speaker 1: you know he'll be there for you. Because you don't
Speaker 1: know what religious spectrum people are on. Let me tell
Speaker 1: you what I've been rollercoasting a round of like my
Speaker 1: beliefs with a cancer diagnosis, and so I think it's
Speaker 1: just really making sure that your friends and family, wives, sisters,
Speaker 1: whoever gets diagnosed just knows that you have their back.
Speaker 3: It's always with you. But do you like sometimes going somewhere,
Speaker 3: going out? I mean, I'm used to going Every time
Speaker 3: I go out with you, we don't end up talking
Speaker 3: about cancer.
Speaker 1: We know God, I thank God, we just don't. But
Speaker 1: is that okay?
Speaker 3: I never think to give a nod to And if
Speaker 3: I didn't know, and nobody knew, they wouldn't have no
Speaker 3: clue that you're going through what you're going through.
Speaker 1: They would have no clue. Yeah, I mean because of
Speaker 1: how you live, the energy you get. We're talking about
Speaker 1: this all.
Speaker 3: You walk into a room sometimes it is dark and
Speaker 3: wonder what's wrong with everybody. Sometimes you are the light
Speaker 3: that needs to come into the room. You are always
Speaker 3: the light. I have never been in a room where
Speaker 3: you aren't the light when you walk in. Never thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm serious. It's just how you live and your output
Speaker 1: because it's the only thing you can control. And TJ,
Speaker 1: you know I'll never forget when you you're such a
Speaker 1: gentleman and put me in a cab and made sure
Speaker 1: I've found my uber like and got home safe, for example.
Speaker 1: And I think just it's the kind things like that
Speaker 1: that you can do for people that are going through
Speaker 1: things where it's almost like you doing all right, and
Speaker 1: you've done that, and it opens the door for me
Speaker 1: to be like, you know what I'm not or you
Speaker 1: know what I'm not, But I don't want to think
Speaker 1: about it tonight. So let's party or let's have a
Speaker 1: good time. Let's, you know, get together with a group
Speaker 1: of friends and just be silly, because that's what life's
Speaker 1: all about. I think Amy had mentioned, you know, laughter
Speaker 1: really cures all, and it does.
Speaker 3: It's Fiel's boy. She I messaged her earlier asking how
Speaker 3: you were doing. Her response, yes, let's ingo.
Speaker 2: That is her mantra, and and it is one of
Speaker 2: those things where you can control how you respond, you
Speaker 2: can't control anything else. What's the biggest lesson you have learned?
Speaker 2: Is there one that you can point to through all
Speaker 2: of this? With all of this, I mean, there is pain,
Speaker 2: there is fear, there is suffering. What have you learned
Speaker 2: that the rest of us maybe don't know.
Speaker 1: There's so many lessons from it. I think for me,
Speaker 1: you can't take any day for granted. And I know
Speaker 1: a lot of people say that it may be cliche,
Speaker 1: but we don't know what tomorrow holds. And I think
Speaker 1: that keeps me going to have that smile on my
Speaker 1: face and to keep an optimistic demeanor about myself. And
Speaker 1: that's the biggest lesson that I think I could take
Speaker 1: from all of this. And also, you know, there's always
Speaker 1: going to be people that want to bring you down
Speaker 1: or hate on you, and for me, I have no
Speaker 1: time to think about them anymore.
Speaker 2: And you have been I'm gonna cry, the biggest supporter
Speaker 2: with everything that happened last year. You were amazing, like
Speaker 2: you get it, like those are the writer dies and
Speaker 2: you are one of my rider dies. And I know
Speaker 2: you didn't get to meet my good friend Olivia Hutcherson,
Speaker 2: but I know we talked about her all the time,
Speaker 2: and for those who don't know, she passed away just
Speaker 2: after Thanksgiving this past year, after fighting so beautifully and
Speaker 2: living so beautifully for several years with Stage four. But
Speaker 2: when we think about how life is so unexpected, you
Speaker 2: don't know what tomorrow brings. I think cancer patients and
Speaker 2: cancer survivors and cancer thrivers just are a little bit
Speaker 2: more aware of how precious that time is. And you
Speaker 2: have spent it, and you are spending it so well,
Speaker 2: and I am I am learning from you and through
Speaker 2: you how to live better each and every day. You're
Speaker 2: that special and you're that beautiful, and I love you.
Speaker 1: I love you. Two rooms, and get on that get
Speaker 1: on that plane. If you're healthy enough to get on
Speaker 1: a plane and see the world, get on that plane.
Speaker 3: Birthday is when yours is coming up.
Speaker 1: With Valentine's Day. You got some Aquarius girls in the house.
Speaker 3: What's the plane for the birthday?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Okay, what's the next trip?
Speaker 1: Healing up? Next trip? Uh, we're going to Cabo in June.
Speaker 3: Okay? And you tell you mentioned earlier about your treatment
Speaker 3: every three weeks. But just sitting here right now, just physically,
Speaker 3: how do you feel just on a day to day,
Speaker 3: how do you feel physically tired?
Speaker 1: I know it doesn't look like I'm tired, but you
Speaker 1: know after a marathon the next day, okay, where you
Speaker 1: have to walk downstairs backwards just to survive. Yes, some day,
Speaker 1: some days. My bad days feel like that, but the
Speaker 1: good days just feel like that runner is high that
Speaker 1: you're just so fortunate enough to experience. And I'm grateful
Speaker 1: that I have marathoning to fall back on because it's
Speaker 1: such a good I think analogy for what I have
Speaker 1: ahead of me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you've still got a lot of marathons to run. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and we're grateful for you. Morgan. Thank you so much,
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for coming in today.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Guys.
Speaker 2: Want to let everybody know you can check out Amy
Speaker 2: and DJ on Instagram to weigh in, say whatever you
Speaker 2: want comments away.
Speaker 1: Let's limit that a little, but I really.
Speaker 2: Do hope that, I really do hope that you listen
Speaker 2: to Morgan and you hear her story and you live
Speaker 2: better because of it.
Speaker 3: And folks get your mammograms. Fellas out there, women in
Speaker 3: your life, you need to remind them it's not just
Speaker 3: about women. This affects us all. So men you are
Speaker 3: in this game as well, remind them all. There is
Speaker 3: a ninety percent survival rate within five years for people
Speaker 3: who are diagnosed with breast cancer. So this is something.
Speaker 3: If it's called early, if it's diagnosed, if it gets
Speaker 3: to treatment, this is something you can absolutely get past
Speaker 3: and deal with, and we need to remember that. And
Speaker 3: we know one in eight women are diagnosed with breast cancer,
Speaker 3: but you know what that means, seven out of eight
Speaker 3: won't be So everybody has to be in this to
Speaker 3: support the one in eight. And your words something you
Speaker 3: didn't you said before we started. You said I got
Speaker 3: slapped in the face with life, and that stuck with me.
Speaker 3: I wrote that down to the top of my page.
Speaker 3: But I love that you got slapped in the face
Speaker 3: with life. And when that happens to you, Morgan, you
Speaker 3: are You are the absolute And I don't say this
Speaker 3: just because you're sitting here. I say this behind your
Speaker 3: back all the time. You are an anomaly. You are
Speaker 3: a joy like I have never seen. And if she'd
Speaker 3: never told me you had metastatic breast cancer, you just
Speaker 3: that chick is awesome because of the way you are,
Speaker 3: period point blank. So I will say it here publicly.
Speaker 3: I say it behind your back. I don't say it
Speaker 3: to your face enough. You are an absolute joy and
Speaker 3: an anomaly in life. And I'm so glad I got
Speaker 3: to meet you. I'm sorry that breast cancer brought us together.
Speaker 3: Breast cancer brought you two together, but you know that's
Speaker 3: how life goes sometimes. But I just wanted to say
Speaker 3: that to you. Here you are and I love you too, girl.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys,