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Speaker 1: Hey, Hey, Hey, ba fam it is Mandy Woodruff Santos.

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Speaker 1: I am here with a very special guest this week.

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Speaker 1: Marina Franklin is a veteran comedian. She's an actor. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you say multi hyphen it, but there's not enough hyphens

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Speaker 1: I think in existence for what this amazing woman has

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Speaker 1: done and pioneer in her space. Actor writer, she's a host.

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Speaker 1: She has been a standout premier comedian for years now.

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Speaker 1: I'm not going to reveal her age, but when you

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Speaker 1: see her, I mean I swear you could not guess,

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Speaker 1: and she says it in her stand up. She ages

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Speaker 1: very well. But to be so experienced at her craft,

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Speaker 1: She's got some amazing work coming out now that's actually

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Speaker 1: available for y'all to check out. I encourage you to

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Speaker 1: check out her comedies special single Black Female, It's Hilarious

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Speaker 1: on Amazon Prime. She's also a part of this really

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Speaker 1: amazing documentary series on FX called Hysterical, which is taking

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Speaker 1: a real look behind the curtain at the comedy you know,

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Speaker 1: the comedy club scene, and what it's like to be

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Speaker 1: women in that scene, and especially for folks like Marina

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Speaker 1: coming up and trying to break out in the very

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Speaker 1: crowded space and a male dominated space, and it's a

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Speaker 1: wonderful project that she's a part of, which we'll talk

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Speaker 1: a bit about on today's show. But let me stop

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Speaker 1: with my rambling and introduce y'all and say hello to Marina.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much.

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Speaker 2: It was a good ramble, Was it all right? Okay? Yeah,

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Speaker 2: the intro was spectacular. I'm always cringing because I forget

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Speaker 2: I need to change the bio on my website. So

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Speaker 2: I appreciated what she did there.

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Speaker 1: Does that mean really not a viciously likable person, Marina?

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Speaker 1: I mean that was years ago, someone who gets asked

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Speaker 1: for bios all the time, and I'm just like, ugh,

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Speaker 1: someone else write this viciously likable?

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Speaker 2: Someone else wrote that. Yeah. I was like, okay, I

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Speaker 2: mean I think in that year, in that year.

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Speaker 1: Okay, I don't even know what that means. Like that

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Speaker 1: means like, you know, you can't throw it, but you're

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Speaker 1: gonna smile afterward on stage?

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Speaker 2: You know. The thing is is they always wonder are

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Speaker 2: you a likable comic? Are you know? On stage? Like

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Speaker 2: some comics have an edge where you wouldn't want to

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Speaker 2: approach them afterwards, and some comics are likable. So that's me.

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Speaker 1: Oh, okay, you're the kind of comic that you want

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Speaker 1: to hang out with. I don't know. I kind of

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Speaker 1: feel like, don't I mean, to be a comic, don't

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Speaker 1: you need to have I mean, you need to have

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Speaker 1: this like bit like this, this razor sharp wit and

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Speaker 1: ability to give people shit and give them a hard

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Speaker 1: time and call them out. But then yeah, be likable

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Speaker 1: enough for folks to want to come back for more abuse.

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Speaker 2: Well, no, I mean I don't know. Most of the

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Speaker 2: comics I know, you wouldn't want to hang out afterwards.

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Speaker 2: Oh no, okay, Oh no, they're they're smart, they're quick.

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Speaker 2: I mean, the most of the ones that I know.

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Speaker 2: I'm not speaking for. There's a lot of comics these days,

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Speaker 2: so I'm not speaking for all of them. The comics

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Speaker 2: I know they're pretty, you know, they have very strong personality,

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Speaker 2: So hanging out with them after the show, you I

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Speaker 2: wouldn't do that.

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Speaker 1: Okay, it does feel like, I mean, what's it like

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Speaker 1: from your perspective? Because you have been in this business

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Speaker 1: for how many years? Now?

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Speaker 2: Twenty two years now?

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Speaker 1: I guess yeah, yeah, so over the I mean that's

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Speaker 1: a generation, right, so over the past twenty years. I mean,

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Speaker 1: how have you felt the scene has changed for black

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Speaker 1: female comics. Do you think that it is better than ever?

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Speaker 1: There's still so much we have so much room to

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Speaker 1: grow and so so much further to go. What's it

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Speaker 1: like from your perspective?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's definitely on the right path. You know. You

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Speaker 2: have a lot of black female comics working now at

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Speaker 2: the same club, like the Comedy Seller where I work,

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Speaker 2: you know, mostly that's where that's like my home club.

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Speaker 2: You'll have three black female comics on one show and

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Speaker 2: it's not even a thing anymore. And that's and they

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Speaker 2: don't mix y'all's names up, and they don't mix our

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Speaker 2: names up, all right, they better not, you know. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I mean, but what's interesting is it's it's such a

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Speaker 2: good path to be on because now we're getting the

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Speaker 2: opportunity to see, oh, maybe I should change my joke.

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Speaker 2: Maybe we're talking about the same things. You know, when

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Speaker 2: I was the only black female comic in the room

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Speaker 2: going on stage, I was the only one representing black women.

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Speaker 2: Now there's three or four five black women there, and

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Speaker 2: I've got to go, oh, well, she's talking about that too.

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Speaker 2: Now I get to work on my craft the way

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Speaker 2: white men have been working on their craft for years,

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Speaker 2: you know, because they're always going up against someone who

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Speaker 2: may be talking about the same thing. And that's that's

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Speaker 2: part of the craft of stand up is having original

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Speaker 2: material that's unique to you. So it's on this way,

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Speaker 2: it's in a good direction. But I would say that,

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Speaker 2: you know, continue to do the work. You know, we

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Speaker 2: we can't all be Tiffany Hattish, you know, that's the

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Speaker 2: name that is commonly. This is what you know they

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Speaker 2: tend to do, is they'll they'll find one, you know token.

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Speaker 2: I would say, she's you know, black woman, and go,

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Speaker 2: that's the that's who we want you go into an

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Speaker 2: audition to go can you be more like her? Can

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Speaker 2: you be more like Tiffany? And we're not. You know,

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Speaker 2: we're not a monolithic right isn't that the word I

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Speaker 2: always get there? Word bro And we're yeah, we're not.

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Speaker 2: We're yeah. I think that's how it goes. But you know,

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Speaker 2: we're all we all have very unique different ways of

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Speaker 2: approaching comedy, styles, acting, everything. We all look different. There's

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Speaker 2: just Sheer' z Amata, There's Nicole Bayer, There's Yaminika Sanders,

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Speaker 2: there's Marina Franklin. You know, there's Wanda Sykes. You have

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Speaker 2: all these options now to choose from, so that shouldn't

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Speaker 2: be the excuse, and yet it does still happen. So

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Speaker 2: you you know, you go into these rooms, you have

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Speaker 2: these conversations, and you see that even though I'm having

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Speaker 2: the conversation with women and I see the change, I

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Speaker 2: still see some people are stock.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I was gonna say, it's it's

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Speaker 1: so ironic to me because I I don't know funnier

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Speaker 1: people than the Black women in my life, like hands down,

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Speaker 1: and that just may be, you know, indicative of just

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Speaker 1: the collective trauma that you endure as like a black

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Speaker 1: woman in this country. But we are the funniest people.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I swear to god, I don't laugh harder

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Speaker 1: than I do when I go to the black female

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Speaker 1: Facebook groups for Peloton, black what is it? Black Girl Magic?

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Speaker 1: Peloton addition, and the I'm in a planting group black

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Speaker 1: women who love gardens, Oh my.

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Speaker 2: God, Oh I have to check that out because I

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Speaker 2: do love to garden kill the plant I'm trying to

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Speaker 2: bring back my baby tears.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of there's it's a safe space for

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Speaker 1: any plant killers, plant homicide is a common topic. But

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Speaker 1: when I tell you the comments and I live for them,

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Speaker 1: so I am. I'm so excited because I agree with you.

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Speaker 1: Why don't I know more? You know, Why can't I,

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Speaker 1: at the top of my head come up with like

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Speaker 1: black female comics off the top of my head. But

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Speaker 1: you are sort of having this this big moment, you know,

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Speaker 1: well into your career now you are You're touring with

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Speaker 1: Jim Gaffigan, right.

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Speaker 2: Well, I'm not touring with him, but I do shows

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Speaker 2: for him when he's in the city or when he asks,

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Speaker 2: you know, so like I did shows for him, you know,

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Speaker 2: when the pandemic just started. We were doing like shows

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Speaker 2: for cars basically, you know, he had all these dates

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Speaker 2: like yeah, so, and it was just a way to

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Speaker 2: still honor those tickets and give people a chance to

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Speaker 2: get out the house, you know. And he asked me

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Speaker 2: if I was if I would want to every now

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Speaker 2: and then Jim would ask me to do a show.

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Speaker 2: I'm not his regular tour person. And then before you know,

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Speaker 2: I was booked actually to do Radio City Music Hall

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Speaker 2: with him. And the pandemic happened so recently, you know,

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Speaker 2: as things are in New York coming back to some

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Speaker 2: sort of normalcy. He asked me to do Radio City.

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Speaker 1: Music Hall and I said, yes, of course you did.

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Speaker 2: I was like that, I said, yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, what was so? I think you're from Chicago.

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Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, I'm originally from Chicago. I you all over Chicago. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: I moved around a lot, which is part of my

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Speaker 2: routine or was. I don't talk about that as much.

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Speaker 2: You know when I when you first start, you're kind

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Speaker 2: of do and you're like, you know, this is my ancestry,

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Speaker 2: this is what happened, this is who I am. So

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Speaker 2: I grew up in Highland Park, Illinois, which is predominantly white.

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Speaker 2: It's a Jewish neighborhood too, which by the way, i'm

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Speaker 2: twelve percent of my twenty three and meters. That's what

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Speaker 2: they told me. And actually it went up this summer.

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Speaker 2: I don't know why, anyway. So I grew up in

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Speaker 2: Highland Park and then moved to the South Side of Chicago,

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Speaker 2: which was a black neighborhood on the South Side Chicago.

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Speaker 2: Then moved to the suburbs of Chicago, which was a

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Speaker 2: multi like diverse neighborhood. It was like the utopia of diverse,

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Speaker 2: interracial you know, black and white people, schools, everything, So

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Speaker 2: I had all of those experience, so I'm like a chameleon,

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Speaker 2: you know. I had to adjust.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. I know you've talked about in previous interviews

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Speaker 1: sort of feeling like, well, it was too late for me,

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Speaker 1: or in your stand up like it was too late

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Speaker 1: for me. By the time I moved to a black

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Speaker 1: neighborhood like or a black school area, I was white.

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Speaker 1: As far as they were concerned.

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Speaker 2: I didn't have the skills. I didn't know how to

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Speaker 2: I didn't know double Dutch. And I talk about that

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Speaker 2: in my routine because that was a very traumatic moment

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Speaker 2: because it was about playing, you know, kids play, and

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Speaker 2: the way the girls were playing on the South Side

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Speaker 2: of Chicago double Dutch, and I really wanted to play,

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Speaker 2: but I know I didn't know what it was, and

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Speaker 2: they didn't understand why I didn't know what it was.

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Speaker 2: And so on my block, I trained, Oh.

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Speaker 1: Really like Rocky, like black Girl Rocky double Dutch. Sure

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Speaker 1: that's got to be like a cartoon or something.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, and I remember them like, you gotta jump,

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Speaker 2: you got you gotta jump wild at first, you gotta

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Speaker 2: make sure your legs are wide open. Sounds crazy, but

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Speaker 2: that's exactly how you jumped in order to learn and

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Speaker 2: then eventually your legs will close in and you'll be fine.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I did some double dutch back in back in

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Speaker 1: the mean streets of Union City, Georgia.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and turning right turning was important, like and.

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Speaker 1: Sing during it because there were songs. So you were

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Speaker 1: like you had three, four or.

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Speaker 2: Five turn around, pop up, twist it off.

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Speaker 1: I don't know. We got to show you double dutch aerobics. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: that's conversation for another time. There's actually aerobics now around

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Speaker 1: double dutch. Talk to me about since Brown Ambition. First

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Speaker 1: of all, our show we talk about everything under the

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Speaker 1: sun when it comes to wealth building and career and

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Speaker 1: as black women, especially just normalizing those types of conversations.

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Speaker 1: And so I want to hear you know, just before

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Speaker 1: we kind of get into a bit more personal story

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Speaker 1: and what I'm excited to talk to you about your

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Speaker 1: dirtey and your recovery from breast cancer. I would love

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Speaker 1: to talk to you and just hear you know, what's

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Speaker 1: it like making it as a comic financially you know,

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Speaker 1: and how has the pandemic impacted your business? And how

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Speaker 1: has that been for you and how have you been

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Speaker 1: able to get through it?

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Speaker 2: I mean it's not easy. I mean, but I I'm

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Speaker 2: a older comics, so twenty two years. I have a

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Speaker 2: sort of like the longer you do something, the more people,

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Speaker 2: you know, the more opportunities you have, the more people

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Speaker 2: take care of you, you know, the more you commit

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Speaker 2: to a career. So I was I did okay, you know,

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Speaker 2: I was fine. I wasn't working. I collected unemployment. I'm

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Speaker 2: not like, you know, one of the ones who had

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Speaker 2: so much money that I couldn't collect unemployment. I collected unemployment.

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Speaker 2: You know. I learned to pivot. That was the word, right.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I did my podcast Friends Like Us, and I sold

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Speaker 2: T shirts and face masks and coffee mugs, and I

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Speaker 2: did my own virtual zoom shows instead of like doing

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Speaker 2: other shows. People would ask you to do their virtual

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Speaker 2: Zoom show. And I said, why, I know how to

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Speaker 2: get on the internet. Why am I always giving my

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Speaker 2: product away? So I did my own Zoom show and

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Speaker 2: I had people come on and open for me, and

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Speaker 2: I would make you know, like five hundred dollars just

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Speaker 2: in my kitchen.

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Speaker 1: So you were out there side hustling with the best

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Speaker 1: of us.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I was. I was sorde hustling, and then

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Speaker 2: I had some money saved. So I was fortunate to

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Speaker 2: have done that. But a lot of times I thought

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Speaker 2: about what if I was just starting, Like I remember

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Speaker 2: when I first started as a comic, you know, how

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Speaker 2: I was really like struggling waiting tables or you know,

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Speaker 2: I was working at a consulting firm answering the phones.

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Speaker 2: What would have happened if I had nowhere to go

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Speaker 2: to and it would have been very tough. I really

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Speaker 2: don't know, you know. I think about the younger comics

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Speaker 2: and how difficult this must have been for them. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: So I try to keep that in mind whenever I'm

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Speaker 2: like kind of relaxed and oh I did this so well,

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Speaker 2: I go, you know, but it could have been different,

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Speaker 2: So I keep it in mind.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, it's like it's time to count your blessings. But

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Speaker 1: also it's a bit of survivor's guild. I think a

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Speaker 1: lot of folks are like a teeny tiny bit well,

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Speaker 1: healthcare is also a big one, and that is, you know,

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Speaker 1: especially if you're an artist and you're or you're a

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Speaker 1: creative person and you're in the city, and I recently

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Speaker 1: became independent and launched my own business as well, and

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Speaker 1: I couldn't have done that as easily as I did.

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Speaker 1: And I'm I'm pretty transparent about that if I didn't

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Speaker 1: have my husband's you know, health care. And I think

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Speaker 1: what I wanted to ask you about is how do

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Speaker 1: do you have health care as a comic, Like, how

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Speaker 1: does that work? And is it expensive? Because in the

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Speaker 1: middle of a pandemic, you know, at a time when

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Speaker 1: our health is really in jeopardy, it's insane to me

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Speaker 1: that we have so many Americans still, you know without

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Speaker 1: that access.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I have health insurance. I had to

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Speaker 2: when I was getting breast cancer, you know, dealing with that,

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Speaker 2: I was forced to really pay attention to what health

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Speaker 2: insurance I have.

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Speaker 1: When did you find out when were you diagnosed with

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Speaker 1: breast cancer? And at that time, what was your status

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Speaker 1: with your health care?

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Speaker 2: Well, so that was two years ago, and I was

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Speaker 2: paying for health insurance through SAG and it was very expensive.

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Speaker 2: And then when you have breast cancer and you have

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Speaker 2: these bills coming in and you find out, oh, they're

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Speaker 2: not going to pay for everything, and learning how to

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Speaker 2: navigate that that was all new to me. You know,

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Speaker 2: I never had breast cancer before. I never had like

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Speaker 2: emergency situation where I had to figure out how to

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Speaker 2: pay for stuff. So it was hard because you're you're

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Speaker 2: new in your diagnosis, you're afraid, you're not sure if

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Speaker 2: you're going to live, and then you're on the phone

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Speaker 2: with people begging them to pay for your bills. And

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Speaker 2: a part of that is humiliating because then you go, well, why,

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Speaker 2: you start going into like why didn't I do this

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Speaker 2: with my career? Why am I? Why am I in

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Speaker 2: this position? Why am I not married and using my

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Speaker 2: husband's insurance? You know all those things, and when you

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Speaker 2: have an emergency like breast cancer, you do need to,

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Speaker 2: you know, do what you need to do to take

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Speaker 2: care of those bills. And I had other friends who

300
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Speaker 2: told me this is what you need to do, this

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Speaker 2: is how you need to set yourself up, this is

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Speaker 2: you know, look ato all the programs and so that

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00:15:54,960 --> 00:15:58,600
Speaker 2: was very helpful. Your friends really are your best advocate.

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Speaker 2: I had a young they write me this morning about

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Speaker 2: my set, and she was like, I really appreciated it

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Speaker 2: because I was just diagnosed and I'm thirty eight. And

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Speaker 2: I said to her, let your friends be your best advocate.

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Speaker 2: So keep them around, keep them, keep them, keep them around.

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Speaker 2: And you know whoever that is. You know, it could

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Speaker 2: be a stranger that all of a sudden becomes your

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Speaker 2: friend because they are better at being an advocate for you.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well take me back to that.

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Speaker 2: So I'm going to flash as I'm talking about this.

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Speaker 1: No, I mean, well, it's fresh, right, I mean, so,

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Speaker 1: what's your So a couple of years ago you were diagnosed.

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Speaker 1: How did you find out that you had breast cancer?

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Speaker 1: And then what stage was it?

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Speaker 2: You want the real story or well see the joke.

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Speaker 2: And it is true. I say this on stage. I

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Speaker 2: was when I was having sex. I don't have it anymore,

321
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Speaker 2: but when I was, I don't I had. You know

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Speaker 2: you it is fine.

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Speaker 1: Married and it's not that great on the other side,

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Speaker 1: so keep going. It's just woo.

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Speaker 2: Well, but you're right, but they usually the truth of

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Speaker 2: the matter is you women usually do find it during sex. Huh.

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Speaker 2: You know a lot of women, well, their partner will

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Speaker 2: find it, you know, to fill something That wasn't my case.

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Speaker 2: My partner was asleep, so I had time to fill

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Speaker 2: around and found it on my own.

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Speaker 1: Oh man, So you were you. I mean you weren't.

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Speaker 1: Were you weren't intending. It wasn't like I'm going to

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Speaker 1: do a breast exam for my own health and benefit,

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Speaker 1: but you were. You found it yourself by feeling.

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Speaker 2: Badly basically, and I had time. I mean, that's really

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Speaker 2: what it was. I was like, oh, I know how

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00:17:46,520 --> 00:17:48,440
Speaker 2: to take care of me. So and I was like, oh,

338
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Speaker 2: what's that. So that's how I found it seriously, and

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00:17:51,640 --> 00:17:53,040
Speaker 2: then I was like and then I woke them up.

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Speaker 2: I said, hey, you feel this. Uh he was like, yeah,

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Speaker 2: I do feel that. Then I I would take showers

342
00:18:00,040 --> 00:18:01,520
Speaker 2: and I would do the thing like I felt like,

343
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Speaker 2: I was kind of ridiculous, but I would. I was like,

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00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:08,000
Speaker 2: I do feel something. And so I went in and

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Speaker 2: I had it checked. And the first time I went in,

346
00:18:11,200 --> 00:18:14,560
Speaker 2: they said, we don't really think you have anything. That

347
00:18:14,680 --> 00:18:15,400
Speaker 2: was the first time.

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Speaker 1: This was a gynecologist.

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Speaker 2: That was the the the not the guynecologists. But they

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Speaker 2: send you to the person who does the mammograms. You know,

351
00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:28,640
Speaker 2: they could send you to different locations in New York.

352
00:18:28,680 --> 00:18:31,199
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's not all in the ones. That's that's another

353
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Speaker 2: whole thing. But sometimes you have to travel to like

354
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Speaker 2: eighty six Street, go to the place where they do that,

355
00:18:37,240 --> 00:18:41,920
Speaker 2: and that first time they said, well, we see something,

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Speaker 2: but it's not big enough. And that was the year

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Speaker 2: before I was actually diagnosed. And then that year, literally

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Speaker 2: a year afterwards, I went told my doctor again, I said,

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Speaker 2: I do still feel something, and I noticed when she

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Speaker 2: was doing feeling around doing the ultra sound. Which is

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Speaker 2: important to mention because a lot of women have dense

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Speaker 2: breast tissue. You can't find everything with the mammograms. Sometimes

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00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:10,800
Speaker 2: you will find it with the ultrasounds. So it's important

364
00:19:10,800 --> 00:19:13,560
Speaker 2: to mention that if you have dense bress tissue, you

365
00:19:13,720 --> 00:19:16,880
Speaker 2: have to always ask for an ultrasound, and you have

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Speaker 2: to ask because a lot of times they don't offer it.

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Speaker 1: Okay, and they did not.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they did not find mine. With a mammogram. They

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Speaker 2: found you know, calcium shows them a sign of something.

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Speaker 2: The ultrasound gives them a little bit more information. And

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Speaker 2: then that same doctor a year ago said, oh, it's

372
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Speaker 2: probably nothing. This time said, you know what, it's gotten

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Speaker 2: a little bigger, so we'll just do a biopsy just

374
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Speaker 2: to make sure. And I didn't understand what a biopsy meant.

375
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Speaker 2: So I was going to the commedy Stone. I was like,

376
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Speaker 2: I got to get a biopsy tomorrow and they were

377
00:19:47,680 --> 00:19:53,000
Speaker 2: like Marina. I was like what, completely close? And then

378
00:19:53,040 --> 00:19:55,399
Speaker 2: I realized everyone was like, Brina, that's serious. And then

379
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Speaker 2: I went back in for the biops, the biopsy I

380
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Speaker 2: had like to and that's when, Yeah, that's when he

381
00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:09,720
Speaker 2: was like, my doctor, my guynecologist actually called me, which

382
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Speaker 2: apparently they're not supposed to do. But she wanted to

383
00:20:13,720 --> 00:20:15,879
Speaker 2: get in touch with me right away. And it was

384
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Speaker 2: a Friday night, and she said, we're shocked, but yes,

385
00:20:20,760 --> 00:20:25,200
Speaker 2: you do. You have breast cancer. And then that moment

386
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Speaker 2: I was really I was in a state of shock

387
00:20:29,080 --> 00:20:29,720
Speaker 2: pretty much.

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Speaker 1: Did she leave it at that? I mean, I feel

389
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Speaker 1: like no.

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Speaker 2: She told me. She was like, I'm gonna have my

391
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Speaker 2: husband do this. He's gonna be the surgeon. You're gonna

392
00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:40,920
Speaker 2: go in on Monday. We're going to take care of this.

393
00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:43,720
Speaker 1: They wanted to do a lump, so it's called a lumpectomy.

394
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Speaker 1: Did you have the lump removed right away?

395
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Speaker 2: You don't really know exactly right away. That's the thing

396
00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:51,199
Speaker 2: that's sort of like a lot of women don't understand

397
00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:53,639
Speaker 2: is they have to make that decision. It takes time

398
00:20:53,640 --> 00:20:56,080
Speaker 2: for them to make that decision, and then you also

399
00:20:56,200 --> 00:21:00,440
Speaker 2: have to make that decision for yourself. So it's all

400
00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:05,320
Speaker 2: based on what your diagnosis is in the stage of

401
00:21:05,359 --> 00:21:09,359
Speaker 2: your cancer. So they can't really tell you that until

402
00:21:09,400 --> 00:21:13,080
Speaker 2: they know the stage. They kind of have an idea.

403
00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:15,159
Speaker 2: And that's what was confusing to me, because I was like,

404
00:21:15,280 --> 00:21:17,119
Speaker 2: I thought you said I was stage one. What happened?

405
00:21:17,119 --> 00:21:19,840
Speaker 2: What's going on? You're still doing more? Because what happens

406
00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:23,760
Speaker 2: is they'll tell you the initial stage and then they

407
00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:28,400
Speaker 2: still do more tests after. And I had several biopsies

408
00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:31,080
Speaker 2: after that, so I didn't just have the two in

409
00:21:31,119 --> 00:21:34,560
Speaker 2: the beginning. I had several. I had, like you know,

410
00:21:34,760 --> 00:21:37,200
Speaker 2: like I had to go in like two more times

411
00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:40,040
Speaker 2: or three more times. And then also they had to

412
00:21:40,080 --> 00:21:42,480
Speaker 2: do the left breast as well, just to make sure.

413
00:21:42,560 --> 00:21:45,159
Speaker 2: And then sometimes they see something and they're not sure,

414
00:21:46,440 --> 00:21:49,879
Speaker 2: so yeah, it's a lot. And then then they take

415
00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:53,760
Speaker 2: it and they go, well, we're seeing stage one, but

416
00:21:53,880 --> 00:21:57,280
Speaker 2: we have to really still figure it out. Now they

417
00:21:57,320 --> 00:21:59,680
Speaker 2: do a genetics test. Two.

418
00:22:00,359 --> 00:22:03,639
Speaker 1: If you do you have a history in your family.

419
00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:09,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, my aunt had breast cancer, but she was always like, oh,

420
00:22:09,119 --> 00:22:11,680
Speaker 2: you know, people don't really talk about it in your family.

421
00:22:11,720 --> 00:22:15,160
Speaker 1: It's really interesting in your family, they didn't talk about it. Yeah,

422
00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:17,719
Speaker 1: my neighbor and Lynn, I'll give her a shout out.

423
00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:19,760
Speaker 1: She was the inspiration for me to even do a

424
00:22:19,800 --> 00:22:22,280
Speaker 1: show like this because I had her over and she's

425
00:22:22,320 --> 00:22:24,119
Speaker 1: kind of like my auntie here in the neighborhood and

426
00:22:24,160 --> 00:22:28,080
Speaker 1: she had a double mass sectomy and told me that

427
00:22:28,119 --> 00:22:29,919
Speaker 1: about her breast cancer story. And she said that she

428
00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:33,520
Speaker 1: found out when she was at her grandmother's doctor's visit.

429
00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:36,159
Speaker 1: Her grandmother couldn't drive herself, so she Lynn was just

430
00:22:36,200 --> 00:22:38,280
Speaker 1: there in the background, like I'm taking your doctor, and

431
00:22:38,359 --> 00:22:41,240
Speaker 1: just casually her grandmother mentioned that she had had breast

432
00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:44,760
Speaker 1: cancer and so did her mother and everything, and Lynn said,

433
00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:46,240
Speaker 1: it just wasn't talked about.

434
00:22:46,600 --> 00:22:46,840
Speaker 2: You.

435
00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:49,399
Speaker 1: They would make up other ways people died, like they

436
00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:52,720
Speaker 1: would tell you that they, oh, they were just sick

437
00:22:52,800 --> 00:22:55,040
Speaker 1: or they had a you know, a heart condition or something.

438
00:22:55,080 --> 00:22:57,720
Speaker 1: But there was some kind of stigma to that breast cancer.

439
00:22:57,760 --> 00:23:00,159
Speaker 1: And that was how Lynn found out that she had

440
00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:04,680
Speaker 1: this family history of breast cancer and started to get

441
00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:06,800
Speaker 1: screened and then you know, they found it and it

442
00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:10,199
Speaker 1: was super aggressive, even though she had detected it early.

443
00:23:10,960 --> 00:23:13,680
Speaker 1: So I don't know why, why why do you why?

444
00:23:13,680 --> 00:23:15,000
Speaker 1: In your family? I know you can only kind of

445
00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:18,320
Speaker 1: speak about your experience, but why don't you think it

446
00:23:18,359 --> 00:23:20,680
Speaker 1: was something that was talked about.

447
00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:24,520
Speaker 2: I think it's just it's it is like specific to

448
00:23:24,800 --> 00:23:31,159
Speaker 2: black culture, black families, the mistrust in medicine. It plays

449
00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:34,320
Speaker 2: into all of that, you know, and the way we

450
00:23:34,359 --> 00:23:41,600
Speaker 2: talk about health in black circles. You know, that's my

451
00:23:41,720 --> 00:23:44,520
Speaker 2: assumption is that's where it's coming from. But I also

452
00:23:44,600 --> 00:23:46,919
Speaker 2: because I do remember my grandmother and the way she

453
00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:50,000
Speaker 2: would talk about the mistrust of doctors. You know, my

454
00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:52,720
Speaker 2: grandmother never had breast cancer, but I remember the way

455
00:23:52,760 --> 00:23:56,000
Speaker 2: she would talk about things. It was like, you know,

456
00:23:56,119 --> 00:24:01,040
Speaker 2: everything except for what the doctor said, you know. And

457
00:24:01,200 --> 00:24:03,480
Speaker 2: I would think, on my this is my aunt on

458
00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:08,400
Speaker 2: my mother's side. I think that, you know, that side

459
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:11,040
Speaker 2: of my family's just not that close. And so you

460
00:24:11,320 --> 00:24:14,720
Speaker 2: you grow apart. You kind of hear about someone in

461
00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:18,120
Speaker 2: your family like having something, but no one's really invested

462
00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:21,840
Speaker 2: because we're all living our daily lives. But it's important,

463
00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:24,840
Speaker 2: I think you because you start to realize when you

464
00:24:24,840 --> 00:24:27,760
Speaker 2: have your own emergency how important it is to stay

465
00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:31,280
Speaker 2: connected with your family. And then you go, oh, well,

466
00:24:31,320 --> 00:24:35,159
Speaker 2: this is a learning lesson about family. You know, don't

467
00:24:35,200 --> 00:24:37,879
Speaker 2: don't do that. You know, if anything, the pandemic probably

468
00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:40,399
Speaker 2: taught us that too. It's like stay in touch with

469
00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:43,320
Speaker 2: your family because you just never know, you know, what's

470
00:24:43,359 --> 00:24:47,960
Speaker 2: going on with them. And I would say, like my

471
00:24:48,080 --> 00:24:51,359
Speaker 2: family on my mother's side definitely is very It's not

472
00:24:51,400 --> 00:24:54,560
Speaker 2: as connected, it's not as close the conversations were had.

473
00:24:55,359 --> 00:24:58,800
Speaker 2: You know, even with my father. My father will put

474
00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:02,240
Speaker 2: these drops in his eye. I was like, I just

475
00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:04,240
Speaker 2: knew him as putting those drops in his I guess

476
00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:06,320
Speaker 2: he just needed drops in his eyes. And plus I

477
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:08,359
Speaker 2: was young. You know, when you're young, you go, you know,

478
00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:10,480
Speaker 2: the old people, they do things you don't really care.

479
00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:12,760
Speaker 2: You know, you're like, ah, how long are the old

480
00:25:12,760 --> 00:25:15,520
Speaker 2: man doing stuff? You know, But after a while, when

481
00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:17,680
Speaker 2: it starts to affect your life, you realize, oh, those

482
00:25:17,800 --> 00:25:21,680
Speaker 2: drops meant some day I may have glaucoma. Conversations should

483
00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:24,960
Speaker 2: have been had, you know. But you learn, and then

484
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:27,560
Speaker 2: you try to tell people that are younger than you

485
00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:31,080
Speaker 2: how it's important. Hopefully they listen, Hopefully they retain it.

486
00:25:31,600 --> 00:25:33,400
Speaker 1: I mean, and just as you were speaking, I'm sitting

487
00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:35,920
Speaker 1: here like of course. I mean, you think about that.

488
00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:38,600
Speaker 1: They used to call this guy the father of gynecology,

489
00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:43,120
Speaker 1: and he pioneered so much research and advances and female

490
00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:48,760
Speaker 1: gynecology by practicing on black women, like practicing on our

491
00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:52,080
Speaker 1: bodies and using us like you know, using us like

492
00:25:52,359 --> 00:25:55,040
Speaker 1: mice in an experiment, and you think of that being

493
00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:59,280
Speaker 1: just like so horrific, but it's having real So bringing

494
00:25:59,359 --> 00:26:01,760
Speaker 1: it back to modern day, I mean, this is the

495
00:26:01,840 --> 00:26:05,280
Speaker 1: fact that we're not maybe talking about it or or

496
00:26:05,320 --> 00:26:09,080
Speaker 1: hearing about it so often. You know, you found yours luckily,

497
00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:14,240
Speaker 1: you know, because you're you know, doing your thing badly. Listen,

498
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:17,879
Speaker 1: listen so bad? Did that? So do you do you

499
00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:21,679
Speaker 1: keep in touch with that guy to let him know

500
00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:23,520
Speaker 1: thank you so much for that night.

501
00:26:24,960 --> 00:26:26,160
Speaker 2: You think you save my life.

502
00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:31,560
Speaker 1: So after the testing, after the testing, when was it

503
00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:34,160
Speaker 1: that the you're dealing with so much? I mean, you're

504
00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:37,040
Speaker 1: you're probably emotional in stress and all of that. When

505
00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:40,919
Speaker 1: did the bills start coming? Was that immediately? Was it

506
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:41,399
Speaker 1: later on?

507
00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:43,120
Speaker 2: Did you feel like a they started talking you about

508
00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:47,439
Speaker 2: the bills right away? Well? Really, oh god, there's no like.

509
00:26:47,520 --> 00:26:50,479
Speaker 2: Look I just gotta just I said. Look, So they

510
00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:54,680
Speaker 2: start they ask you for your insurance. The whole step

511
00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:57,840
Speaker 2: of the way. There's no like, oh, you know, you

512
00:26:57,840 --> 00:27:00,240
Speaker 2: don't come in and they're like, oh my god, you

513
00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:03,880
Speaker 2: have breast cancer. There's none of that, you know there

514
00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:08,080
Speaker 2: there it's a job for them. You know, they're dealing

515
00:27:08,119 --> 00:27:11,000
Speaker 2: with a lot of women who have breast cancer. You're

516
00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:15,600
Speaker 2: one of many. And I went to you know, I

517
00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:20,000
Speaker 2: went through it rough because I went to a city hospital.

518
00:27:20,640 --> 00:27:23,600
Speaker 2: And I went to that city hospital, which I don't recommend.

519
00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:26,720
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, if you if if you can

520
00:27:26,800 --> 00:27:29,639
Speaker 2: avoid going to a city hospital, if you can't, it's okay.

521
00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:32,360
Speaker 2: They do a great job there too. But I what

522
00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:35,199
Speaker 2: I would say is your wait time is going to

523
00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:38,080
Speaker 2: be longer. I used to sit and wait like sometimes

524
00:27:38,119 --> 00:27:41,720
Speaker 2: six seven hours just to be seen. Yeah, because it's

525
00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:43,960
Speaker 2: a city hospital, they're dealing with, like, you know, other

526
00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:48,399
Speaker 2: emergencies that come before you. Sometimes there's there's no like

527
00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:51,159
Speaker 2: there's no one holding your hand and being like oh

528
00:27:51,240 --> 00:27:56,479
Speaker 2: miss Franklin. You know, not not overwhelmingly no, you know,

529
00:27:56,560 --> 00:27:58,960
Speaker 2: it's like what insurance do you have? You know, that

530
00:27:59,080 --> 00:28:02,160
Speaker 2: question comes at you hard. It's almost like they take

531
00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:04,840
Speaker 2: you to the back, they counsel you about you know,

532
00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:07,840
Speaker 2: we need that money. Yeah, you know, I mean they

533
00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:11,280
Speaker 2: that it's a business. So when you walk in, you know,

534
00:28:11,359 --> 00:28:13,119
Speaker 2: that was the thing I didn't realize. I was like,

535
00:28:13,200 --> 00:28:16,560
Speaker 2: oh my god, Like this is what people were talking

536
00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:18,760
Speaker 2: about when they say they have a pre existing condition

537
00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:22,280
Speaker 2: and they get treated like this. It's it's horrible, you know.

538
00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:24,520
Speaker 2: And then you get that one person that works there

539
00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:27,080
Speaker 2: that's an angel and that is really taking care of

540
00:28:27,119 --> 00:28:29,720
Speaker 2: you and that's really listening to you, and that does

541
00:28:29,760 --> 00:28:31,480
Speaker 2: happen as well, So you just got to find them

542
00:28:31,480 --> 00:28:32,560
Speaker 2: in those spaces.

543
00:28:33,080 --> 00:28:35,960
Speaker 1: Did you feel prepared to advocate advocate for yourself? I

544
00:28:35,960 --> 00:28:38,560
Speaker 1: know you said that your friends were really important, but

545
00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:40,719
Speaker 1: when you were in that position and not feeling like

546
00:28:40,760 --> 00:28:43,880
Speaker 1: you had someone in charge of making sure that Marina

547
00:28:44,040 --> 00:28:46,239
Speaker 1: was okay and that you sort of had to be

548
00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:49,320
Speaker 1: that person, did you feel prepared to, you know, be

549
00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:52,120
Speaker 1: outspoken to to get the care that you needed. Did

550
00:28:52,120 --> 00:28:53,200
Speaker 1: you feel like you had to do that a lot?

551
00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:55,800
Speaker 2: I never had to do that before. This was the

552
00:28:55,840 --> 00:28:58,640
Speaker 2: first time that I actually had to like even think

553
00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:02,640
Speaker 2: about my body in the way. And I've learned a

554
00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:07,920
Speaker 2: lot about myself, like I don't listen well. And because

555
00:29:07,960 --> 00:29:11,640
Speaker 2: I had a friend and I knew right away because

556
00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:14,280
Speaker 2: I had a friend who had breast cancer and I

557
00:29:14,360 --> 00:29:18,840
Speaker 2: called her immediately. She was right after the doctors, the

558
00:29:18,920 --> 00:29:21,320
Speaker 2: doctor when she gave me the diagnosis. I called my

559
00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:24,400
Speaker 2: friend Jenny, my friend, and I cried, you know, and

560
00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:29,480
Speaker 2: I was like just bawling. And then she was just like, Marina,

561
00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:31,760
Speaker 2: it's okay. I know I'm gonna get you through this

562
00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:33,960
Speaker 2: because you just don't think it'll ever happen to you,

563
00:29:34,840 --> 00:29:37,120
Speaker 2: and then you just don't know how to process it.

564
00:29:37,640 --> 00:29:40,360
Speaker 2: And she was just listening, and then she says, I'm

565
00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:41,960
Speaker 2: going to go with you. I'll be an advocate for

566
00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:44,160
Speaker 2: advocate for you. I'll be your friend. You know, I've

567
00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:45,800
Speaker 2: been through this, I know how to take you through.

568
00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:48,280
Speaker 2: And you're going through all that, so you don't even

569
00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:51,120
Speaker 2: know what to think. You know, you have someone there

570
00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:54,240
Speaker 2: that's really helping you. So, you know, my instinct to

571
00:29:54,320 --> 00:29:57,640
Speaker 2: reach out. Thank god that was there so that I

572
00:29:57,640 --> 00:30:00,560
Speaker 2: didn't do it by myself because my family not here,

573
00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:04,160
Speaker 2: you know, my family's like all in Chicago and San Francisco.

574
00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:08,440
Speaker 2: So I really had to rely on friends. And then

575
00:30:10,120 --> 00:30:14,600
Speaker 2: eventually I I you know, I say this on stage,

576
00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:18,040
Speaker 2: I have thirteen friends with breast cancer. So you know,

577
00:30:18,280 --> 00:30:20,000
Speaker 2: you say, you say it's one, and it is one

578
00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:23,040
Speaker 2: and eight by the way, so it's a it's an epidemic,

579
00:30:23,400 --> 00:30:25,960
Speaker 2: you know. But when you say to that to people,

580
00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:27,600
Speaker 2: when you say one in eight to people, they don't

581
00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:30,000
Speaker 2: really respond, you know, because they don't they see those

582
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:32,800
Speaker 2: little stick figures and they go, eh. But you say

583
00:30:32,840 --> 00:30:35,000
Speaker 2: you have thirteen friends with breast cancer, and all of

584
00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:39,600
Speaker 2: a sudden you go, I go, exactly, yes, it's real,

585
00:30:39,920 --> 00:30:44,440
Speaker 2: it's serious. And so I have thirteen friends with breast cancer.

586
00:30:44,480 --> 00:30:47,600
Speaker 2: I took three of them will go with you know,

587
00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:51,960
Speaker 2: I would swap out friends, you know, and they would

588
00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:55,080
Speaker 2: go in and listen for me. Sometimes I wasn't listening,

589
00:30:56,080 --> 00:30:58,560
Speaker 2: and then my one friend Jenny told me to record

590
00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:04,440
Speaker 2: big I do that biggest advice, Yeah, I do. Ask

591
00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:08,600
Speaker 2: the doctor's one. No, No, it's important because I yeah,

592
00:31:08,760 --> 00:31:11,320
Speaker 2: I would listen to it and I would hear myself

593
00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:16,280
Speaker 2: ask the doctor a question they had already answered. So

594
00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:18,520
Speaker 2: I knew I wasn't listening, and that's how I knew.

595
00:31:18,560 --> 00:31:20,520
Speaker 2: I was like, I got to continue to record every

596
00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:23,480
Speaker 2: time I go in because that's how I get the information.

597
00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:25,520
Speaker 2: Because I would hear and I go, oh my god,

598
00:31:25,520 --> 00:31:28,560
Speaker 2: they just answered this question. And also I didn't even

599
00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:30,280
Speaker 2: hear this while I was sitting there.

600
00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:34,440
Speaker 1: Was it just because you were overwhelmed? You think, or

601
00:31:34,560 --> 00:31:37,600
Speaker 1: kind of my mind wanders a million different directions during

602
00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:38,920
Speaker 1: a converse. It's a real bad happen.

603
00:31:39,160 --> 00:31:42,200
Speaker 2: No, I have a d D too. I used to Yeah,

604
00:31:42,280 --> 00:31:43,920
Speaker 2: podcasting taught me how to listen.

605
00:31:44,040 --> 00:31:47,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, my god, turn your tabs off, and yes, absolutely.

606
00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:50,760
Speaker 2: I'm so much better. People used to say that they

607
00:31:50,840 --> 00:31:54,200
Speaker 2: could see me fade while I was listening to them,

608
00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:55,920
Speaker 2: and I was like, oh no, you could see that.

609
00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:58,160
Speaker 2: I thought I was playing it off, and they're like, no, no,

610
00:31:58,240 --> 00:32:03,120
Speaker 2: it's obvious you're not listening. But this, this taught me

611
00:32:03,400 --> 00:32:07,640
Speaker 2: a lot. And yeah, listening to those audios back and

612
00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:09,640
Speaker 2: I can still listen to them to this day. If

613
00:32:09,680 --> 00:32:12,000
Speaker 2: I wanted to just get more information and it saved

614
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:16,240
Speaker 2: my life. It actually taught me, Like, as I listened

615
00:32:16,280 --> 00:32:18,800
Speaker 2: to it, it taught me about my staging of cancer.

616
00:32:19,080 --> 00:32:20,960
Speaker 2: It taught me, you know that I have to get

617
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:24,280
Speaker 2: like an uncle type test that tells me what type

618
00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:26,800
Speaker 2: of treatment I'm gonna get. And that's what I mean

619
00:32:26,840 --> 00:32:30,480
Speaker 2: by there's a certain point in this where your staging

620
00:32:30,520 --> 00:32:33,600
Speaker 2: goes up after they do the lump actomy. Now, when

621
00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:35,520
Speaker 2: you decide to get the lump act to me or

622
00:32:35,560 --> 00:32:38,400
Speaker 2: you decide to get a missect me, those decisions are

623
00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:43,280
Speaker 2: based upon your genetic you know, history, and your stage.

624
00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:48,640
Speaker 2: Well I was stage one, but after the lump actomy,

625
00:32:48,760 --> 00:32:52,480
Speaker 2: I was stage one, hey, which I was like, what's

626
00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:55,600
Speaker 2: that about? You know? And then my doctor told me

627
00:32:55,640 --> 00:32:58,040
Speaker 2: what that was about was that the cancer they found

628
00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:02,880
Speaker 2: it had traveled intro many marine nod which is in

629
00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:05,800
Speaker 2: the actual breast tissue. There's nodes within the you know,

630
00:33:05,880 --> 00:33:08,320
Speaker 2: you have your lymph nodes, there's nodes within the breast.

631
00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:14,040
Speaker 2: Rarely happens now very important. I listened to that tape

632
00:33:14,120 --> 00:33:17,160
Speaker 2: when she talked about that. So when I went for

633
00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:23,880
Speaker 2: my I forget, I'm forgetting the name of it. When

634
00:33:23,920 --> 00:33:26,800
Speaker 2: they do the HISS they do the information about your

635
00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:32,000
Speaker 2: actual cancer, I forget, oh genetic, I forget what it's call.

636
00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:37,760
Speaker 2: It's the uh, it's something. It's where they actually finally

637
00:33:38,280 --> 00:33:40,560
Speaker 2: analyze it and tell you what type of treatment you're

638
00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:43,000
Speaker 2: gonna get. Okay, and there's a different person for that

639
00:33:43,160 --> 00:33:44,360
Speaker 2: while they had read it wrong.

640
00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:49,360
Speaker 1: Oh lord, Yes, from the beginning or.

641
00:33:49,800 --> 00:33:53,840
Speaker 2: This was after everything, after my lumpectomy, after my surgeon.

642
00:33:53,960 --> 00:33:57,640
Speaker 2: It told me I was staged one job, one job,

643
00:33:58,080 --> 00:34:00,640
Speaker 2: and I went in. But the thing is in memory, no,

644
00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:02,640
Speaker 2: which is what I have, is very rare to see.

645
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:05,040
Speaker 2: So what the person saw, or what they thought they saw,

646
00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:08,439
Speaker 2: was cancer that had spread to my chest. So they

647
00:34:08,440 --> 00:34:12,120
Speaker 2: had staged me wrong. They staged me at two like

648
00:34:12,280 --> 00:34:16,200
Speaker 2: B which told said that the treatment would be chemo

649
00:34:16,480 --> 00:34:20,479
Speaker 2: for a year and then radiation. It was wrong.

650
00:34:20,480 --> 00:34:22,160
Speaker 1: I thought you were going to be heading toward chemo.

651
00:34:22,239 --> 00:34:23,319
Speaker 1: You thought you were at stage two.

652
00:34:24,719 --> 00:34:27,799
Speaker 2: I knew I wasn't. And when I went back to

653
00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:34,839
Speaker 2: which was my Then you get an oncologist, right, which

654
00:34:34,880 --> 00:34:37,200
Speaker 2: is different from your surgeon. All these doctors. I thought

655
00:34:37,200 --> 00:34:39,719
Speaker 2: it was just one person you go to. No, so

656
00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:43,000
Speaker 2: I go to the oncologist, and then oncologist says is

657
00:34:43,719 --> 00:34:45,959
Speaker 2: And I remember my uncle saying to me, he's a doctor.

658
00:34:46,040 --> 00:34:48,840
Speaker 2: He said, make sure you don't get a doctor straight

659
00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:53,000
Speaker 2: out in June or July. I said, he goes, you

660
00:34:53,040 --> 00:34:55,200
Speaker 2: know why, and I go, no, he goes, they just

661
00:34:55,280 --> 00:35:00,520
Speaker 2: graduate from school. I go, oh, so city h hospital.

662
00:35:00,880 --> 00:35:04,279
Speaker 2: They give me it on colleges. She looks young I

663
00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:07,960
Speaker 2: bring my Irish friend in to advocate. She goes, Oh, Marina,

664
00:35:08,480 --> 00:35:10,520
Speaker 2: she goes, I'm going to tell you something. This young

665
00:35:10,600 --> 00:35:16,040
Speaker 2: lady should be good someday, should be good someday, but

666
00:35:16,120 --> 00:35:21,640
Speaker 2: not today. Run And sure enough she had told me

667
00:35:21,719 --> 00:35:24,760
Speaker 2: that I was staged two with you know, confidently, without

668
00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:28,360
Speaker 2: really looking at that chart. I said, can you get

669
00:35:29,080 --> 00:35:30,279
Speaker 2: can you get your father in here?

670
00:35:30,360 --> 00:35:30,440
Speaker 1: Now?

671
00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:34,000
Speaker 2: I said, can you get the head surgeon who's in

672
00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:35,880
Speaker 2: charge of all of you, can you bring him in?

673
00:35:35,960 --> 00:35:38,000
Speaker 2: And he looked at it and he said, yeah, this

674
00:35:38,120 --> 00:35:41,960
Speaker 2: is done wrong, this has been analyzed wrong, and it's

675
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:43,320
Speaker 2: important for her treatment.

676
00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:46,440
Speaker 1: I mean, good for you and your friend to even

677
00:35:46,800 --> 00:35:49,080
Speaker 1: because I in that situation, I mean, you feel like

678
00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:51,399
Speaker 1: the doctors have all the power and everything they say

679
00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:56,520
Speaker 1: is you know, Bible, but that's so not true. And yes,

680
00:35:56,640 --> 00:35:59,160
Speaker 1: for you to advocate for yourself in that way. So

681
00:35:59,239 --> 00:36:04,000
Speaker 1: what was the treatment plan then when you were stage

682
00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:05,360
Speaker 1: one stage one A?

683
00:36:06,480 --> 00:36:08,759
Speaker 2: So after we figured out that they were wrong, and

684
00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:11,399
Speaker 2: we figured out the real treatment and with the real

685
00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:16,400
Speaker 2: number was one A. It's just radiation, so no chemo. Also,

686
00:36:16,440 --> 00:36:19,400
Speaker 2: the unco type test gives you a score. So the

687
00:36:19,480 --> 00:36:22,680
Speaker 2: doctor will say to you, you have an option to

688
00:36:22,719 --> 00:36:26,080
Speaker 2: do chemo. But the unco type test, which is not

689
00:36:26,120 --> 00:36:29,720
Speaker 2: available to everybody. It just depends on your exact cancer.

690
00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:35,080
Speaker 2: You know, mine is progested. I can't say it estrogen positive.

691
00:36:35,320 --> 00:36:40,000
Speaker 2: You know her too negative. So because of that, I

692
00:36:40,040 --> 00:36:42,520
Speaker 2: get that test. Not everyone gets that test, and that'll

693
00:36:42,520 --> 00:36:47,080
Speaker 2: tell you a score, and that score tells you whether

694
00:36:47,160 --> 00:36:49,279
Speaker 2: or not you do chemo or not. And I was like,

695
00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:52,200
Speaker 2: and my.

696
00:36:52,239 --> 00:36:54,360
Speaker 1: Score one that really puts you on your butt? Is

697
00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:54,759
Speaker 1: that right?

698
00:36:54,920 --> 00:37:00,000
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah it does. And so what happened was all

699
00:37:00,160 --> 00:37:06,240
Speaker 2: so the the rules had changed for radiation and chemo.

700
00:37:07,160 --> 00:37:11,440
Speaker 2: Women with one a just six years before I was

701
00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:16,799
Speaker 2: getting diagnosed, would go through chemo. So I had met

702
00:37:16,800 --> 00:37:22,120
Speaker 2: a woman. Actually I've done stand up to cancer comedy

703
00:37:22,160 --> 00:37:24,880
Speaker 2: show and after the show, I met a woman who said, oh,

704
00:37:24,920 --> 00:37:27,200
Speaker 2: you didn't do chemo and you were wanted I go it.

705
00:37:27,360 --> 00:37:30,240
Speaker 2: And I felt horrible because she was the same stage

706
00:37:30,280 --> 00:37:33,759
Speaker 2: that I was, but just six years ago. It just

707
00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:37,320
Speaker 2: you know, medicine is always learning. Yeah, So I did radiation,

708
00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:40,720
Speaker 2: and I did radiation for the month of October. Actually

709
00:37:40,719 --> 00:37:44,239
Speaker 2: we're going into the month the anniversary three years during

710
00:37:44,280 --> 00:37:46,720
Speaker 2: Breast cancer Awareness Month, I was getting radiation?

711
00:37:47,480 --> 00:37:49,120
Speaker 1: Was that last year or the year before?

712
00:37:49,440 --> 00:37:50,040
Speaker 2: Two years?

713
00:37:50,239 --> 00:37:55,279
Speaker 1: Two years? Okay? Yeah, so you when were you kind

714
00:37:55,280 --> 00:37:55,840
Speaker 1: of giving.

715
00:37:55,640 --> 00:37:56,720
Speaker 2: In twenty nineteen?

716
00:37:56,840 --> 00:38:02,000
Speaker 1: By nineteen? Yeah? Are you answer free? Now? Do you have?

717
00:38:02,160 --> 00:38:05,800
Speaker 2: I don't call it cancer free because you get cleared

718
00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:12,120
Speaker 2: within like five years. They say, really, But I you know,

719
00:38:12,280 --> 00:38:14,279
Speaker 2: I never really look at it as that. I look

720
00:38:14,280 --> 00:38:21,440
Speaker 2: at it as I'm good for now and uh, and

721
00:38:21,520 --> 00:38:23,040
Speaker 2: That's probably not the best way to look at it.

722
00:38:23,080 --> 00:38:26,120
Speaker 2: But I'm always being healthy. I'm always you know, since

723
00:38:26,120 --> 00:38:31,759
Speaker 2: that time I'm vegan, you know, I I've changed my

724
00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:36,120
Speaker 2: whole life around. I've made some strong choices. Try to

725
00:38:36,160 --> 00:38:40,160
Speaker 2: cut out sugar, you know, as much as I can.

726
00:38:40,239 --> 00:38:43,560
Speaker 2: I try not to have sugar, Okay, things like that.

727
00:38:44,080 --> 00:38:46,480
Speaker 2: Because also they wanted to put you on. They wanted

728
00:38:46,520 --> 00:38:50,799
Speaker 2: to put me on a hormonal drug called tamoxifin that

729
00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:53,520
Speaker 2: I opted out of. So that was like what that

730
00:38:53,880 --> 00:38:58,080
Speaker 2: was done. So tamoxifen is is commonly used for women

731
00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:01,760
Speaker 2: with hormonal cancer, you know, with estrogen, a strong level

732
00:39:01,880 --> 00:39:06,640
Speaker 2: of estrogen feeding the cancer, and that would have caused

733
00:39:06,840 --> 00:39:09,800
Speaker 2: hip it could it could, it could be. It's different

734
00:39:09,840 --> 00:39:14,360
Speaker 2: for everyone. Some women have no reaction to it. My

735
00:39:14,640 --> 00:39:18,960
Speaker 2: friends all said hell no. So three I did my

736
00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:21,879
Speaker 2: own research, right, since I have thirteen friends, I could

737
00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:24,319
Speaker 2: do my own studies. So I was like, how many

738
00:39:24,360 --> 00:39:27,279
Speaker 2: of my friends were okay with it? And like three

739
00:39:27,360 --> 00:39:30,400
Speaker 2: of them were like, hell no. And they told me

740
00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:32,280
Speaker 2: how long it took to get out of their system

741
00:39:32,360 --> 00:39:36,799
Speaker 2: a year even in trying it. And then I had

742
00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:38,640
Speaker 2: one of the nurses told me she had to get

743
00:39:38,640 --> 00:39:42,680
Speaker 2: a hip replacement because of it. So it's intense. It

744
00:39:42,719 --> 00:39:45,800
Speaker 2: can be intense. And then one another friend of mine,

745
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:48,319
Speaker 2: out of you know, three of them said no. One

746
00:39:48,320 --> 00:39:50,840
Speaker 2: of them said she had no problems, she had nothing.

747
00:39:50,880 --> 00:39:54,000
Speaker 2: She had one night of sweats and then she was fine.

748
00:39:54,200 --> 00:39:56,319
Speaker 1: I have so many questions now because my neighbor Lynn

749
00:39:56,400 --> 00:39:59,240
Speaker 1: had a hip replacement not long ago. Ooh, I'm wondering.

750
00:39:59,320 --> 00:40:01,279
Speaker 1: And she was also a answer survivor. Lyn's going to

751
00:40:01,360 --> 00:40:03,600
Speaker 1: be like, stop talking to me about this, man.

752
00:40:04,440 --> 00:40:08,000
Speaker 2: Oh. I mean there's books about it. There's called Estrogen Matters.

753
00:40:08,800 --> 00:40:10,760
Speaker 2: I haven't read that book. There's so many cancer books

754
00:40:10,760 --> 00:40:12,240
Speaker 2: I have, but I need to still read.

755
00:40:12,800 --> 00:40:15,360
Speaker 1: I mean, it's the well, it's the diagnosis and the treatment,

756
00:40:15,400 --> 00:40:19,240
Speaker 1: but it's also I mean the I know in your case.

757
00:40:19,560 --> 00:40:21,600
Speaker 1: I mean, actually I didn't ask this, but you didn't

758
00:40:21,640 --> 00:40:26,360
Speaker 1: have to have any reconstructive breast surgery or anything like that, right.

759
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:30,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, lumpectomy is just an entury taking it out. Then

760
00:40:30,760 --> 00:40:34,840
Speaker 2: they they do the testing, and that's what you know.

761
00:40:34,880 --> 00:40:37,400
Speaker 2: When they actually take the cancer out, they look at

762
00:40:37,440 --> 00:40:41,280
Speaker 2: it and that causes the difference of staging. Oh gotcha, okay,

763
00:40:41,480 --> 00:40:44,400
Speaker 2: and that. Yeah, and then it's just they just sew

764
00:40:44,480 --> 00:40:48,640
Speaker 2: everything back up. They take the lymph nodes out. Yeah,

765
00:40:48,680 --> 00:40:52,000
Speaker 2: they take your lymph nodes. They take a they'll tell

766
00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:55,440
Speaker 2: you how many they take out. And for about a

767
00:40:55,480 --> 00:40:59,399
Speaker 2: salad month, I couldn't lift above my I couldn't do this,

768
00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:03,560
Speaker 2: even that wall behind me. I used to do finger

769
00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:06,160
Speaker 2: crawls just to get my arms. I couldn't do this.

770
00:41:07,239 --> 00:41:09,359
Speaker 2: I couldn't lift a suitcase. I had to travel as

771
00:41:09,360 --> 00:41:11,759
Speaker 2: a stand up. I couldn't carry things. I had to

772
00:41:11,840 --> 00:41:15,480
Speaker 2: like decide which stuff I was going to take to

773
00:41:15,520 --> 00:41:17,040
Speaker 2: the gig.

774
00:41:17,440 --> 00:41:21,480
Speaker 1: And you've incorporated your your story into your stand up

775
00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:27,719
Speaker 1: what is funny about breast cancer? And also a lot

776
00:41:27,920 --> 00:41:31,160
Speaker 1: that you have turned well, actually I've laughed a lot

777
00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:35,680
Speaker 1: just from the story that you told. No I imagine that,

778
00:41:35,719 --> 00:41:41,759
Speaker 1: but I guess I'm just asking Irish accent. I wasn't

779
00:41:41,800 --> 00:41:44,200
Speaker 1: sure if you had said Irish. I was like, maybe

780
00:41:44,280 --> 00:41:45,560
Speaker 1: she didn't say that. I was waiting.

781
00:41:45,600 --> 00:41:49,040
Speaker 2: Sometimes it could sound Jamaica. Do you have a Macon

782
00:41:49,120 --> 00:41:51,600
Speaker 2: and Irish? But yeah, that was my Irish friend.

783
00:41:52,239 --> 00:41:53,880
Speaker 1: Well I love that. You know you going back to

784
00:41:53,880 --> 00:41:55,879
Speaker 1: what you said earlier about being a black comic, there's

785
00:41:55,920 --> 00:41:58,120
Speaker 1: more of you now out there, black female comics, and

786
00:41:58,200 --> 00:42:01,279
Speaker 1: you do have you know, you storytelling in general. You know,

787
00:42:01,320 --> 00:42:03,319
Speaker 1: I'm a writer. I always just try to if it's

788
00:42:03,360 --> 00:42:07,000
Speaker 1: my story, I know it's unique. But incorporating into your

789
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:08,520
Speaker 1: stand up, what was that like for you? When were

790
00:42:08,560 --> 00:42:11,040
Speaker 1: you ready to to tell that story and to laugh

791
00:42:11,080 --> 00:42:15,440
Speaker 1: about you know, this really serious issue that was terrifying.

792
00:42:17,080 --> 00:42:19,880
Speaker 2: I told it right well, not right away, but I

793
00:42:19,960 --> 00:42:23,319
Speaker 2: did have a mentor who told me who had also

794
00:42:23,360 --> 00:42:27,400
Speaker 2: gone through his own struggles. He had a stroke, so

795
00:42:28,400 --> 00:42:30,359
Speaker 2: he was like, you know, if you don't talk about

796
00:42:30,400 --> 00:42:34,040
Speaker 2: it now, you're going to forget it. So you need

797
00:42:34,440 --> 00:42:37,920
Speaker 2: to do it right away while it's still fresh. And

798
00:42:37,960 --> 00:42:42,680
Speaker 2: he was right, because it's an It's an amazing thing.

799
00:42:42,880 --> 00:42:46,239
Speaker 2: How even as I'm talking to you, some of the

800
00:42:46,280 --> 00:42:50,279
Speaker 2: things I've I've forgotten because I don't I don't I'm

801
00:42:50,280 --> 00:42:53,120
Speaker 2: not still dealing with it. Well, I don't talk about those,

802
00:42:53,520 --> 00:42:58,560
Speaker 2: you know, those specific moments, you know, and some of

803
00:42:58,600 --> 00:43:00,759
Speaker 2: the pain starts to fade a little bit, you know.

804
00:43:01,280 --> 00:43:05,279
Speaker 2: But I think in talking about it while I was

805
00:43:05,400 --> 00:43:09,239
Speaker 2: raw was very therapeutic for me. You know, I didn't

806
00:43:09,239 --> 00:43:12,000
Speaker 2: know what I was doing. You know, I've been a

807
00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:13,680
Speaker 2: comic for a long time, so I kind of had

808
00:43:13,719 --> 00:43:18,000
Speaker 2: the tools to know how to explore that material on

809
00:43:18,080 --> 00:43:21,479
Speaker 2: stage without feeling like horrible. But a lot of times

810
00:43:21,560 --> 00:43:23,960
Speaker 2: I would, you know, I was scared, you know, I

811
00:43:24,040 --> 00:43:27,200
Speaker 2: was vulnerable up there and not sure if people were

812
00:43:27,200 --> 00:43:31,880
Speaker 2: going to laugh, and sometimes they didn't sometimes because you know,

813
00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:36,279
Speaker 2: no matter what, the audience can read you. So if

814
00:43:36,280 --> 00:43:38,600
Speaker 2: you're not sure, they're not sure. And I could tell

815
00:43:38,640 --> 00:43:40,600
Speaker 2: they were like, oh my god, she's really going through

816
00:43:40,600 --> 00:43:43,400
Speaker 2: this right now, so you could they felt everything I

817
00:43:43,480 --> 00:43:46,480
Speaker 2: was feeling. And now when I talk about it, it's

818
00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:51,080
Speaker 2: just nothing but laughter, you know. Because that material, over time,

819
00:43:51,120 --> 00:43:53,359
Speaker 2: it got better. I started to chisel away at it,

820
00:43:53,880 --> 00:43:56,680
Speaker 2: you know, and I also made it, you know, more

821
00:43:56,680 --> 00:44:00,279
Speaker 2: of a show, and it was prepared material but also

822
00:44:00,440 --> 00:44:04,319
Speaker 2: it's not as raw, so I would say, you know

823
00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:06,480
Speaker 2: now that I do it. The one thing I do

824
00:44:07,080 --> 00:44:11,760
Speaker 2: try to remember is that this is not These aren't

825
00:44:11,800 --> 00:44:16,440
Speaker 2: just jokes. These are jokes that are possibly saving someone's

826
00:44:16,480 --> 00:44:19,439
Speaker 2: life in the audience. And that's why I always say,

827
00:44:19,640 --> 00:44:23,439
Speaker 2: you know, early detection is your best protection. It really is.

828
00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:29,120
Speaker 2: You know a lot of women, you know, I did

829
00:44:29,200 --> 00:44:33,560
Speaker 2: Radio City Music Hall and a doctor actually said to

830
00:44:34,239 --> 00:44:38,040
Speaker 2: Jim Gaffigan's wife, you know what, Marina mentioned something about

831
00:44:38,080 --> 00:44:40,520
Speaker 2: when was the last time you've been in for your checkup?

832
00:44:42,360 --> 00:44:45,920
Speaker 2: So you know, those conversations hopefully it sparked something in

833
00:44:45,960 --> 00:44:49,480
Speaker 2: that room. And Radio City Music Hall.

834
00:44:50,440 --> 00:44:53,120
Speaker 1: Well, the pandemic. I'm not even gonna lie. I did

835
00:44:53,200 --> 00:44:56,160
Speaker 1: manage to go to the gynecologist this year, but I

836
00:44:56,280 --> 00:45:00,520
Speaker 1: had I had a human child, maybe not or a

837
00:45:00,560 --> 00:45:02,839
Speaker 1: couple of years ago, and it had been I mean,

838
00:45:02,880 --> 00:45:05,239
Speaker 1: I hadn't been seen by a doctor since I had

839
00:45:05,320 --> 00:45:07,120
Speaker 1: I gave birth. I was like, that's it, I'm good.

840
00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:10,080
Speaker 1: Just no one touched me ever again for a very

841
00:45:10,120 --> 00:45:12,400
Speaker 1: long time. And you know, I got my check up.

842
00:45:12,480 --> 00:45:15,319
Speaker 1: But you mentioned earlier, and it's so true. It was

843
00:45:15,320 --> 00:45:17,839
Speaker 1: one of those appointments that was very easy to cancel

844
00:45:18,160 --> 00:45:24,040
Speaker 1: when the pandemic was raging, pre vaccine. In all of that,

845
00:45:24,040 --> 00:45:26,799
Speaker 1: that worries me. How do you what would you stay

846
00:45:26,800 --> 00:45:30,319
Speaker 1: to women at home who are I don't know, I mean,

847
00:45:30,320 --> 00:45:31,640
Speaker 1: and I for you, it wasn't even about going to

848
00:45:31,680 --> 00:45:34,719
Speaker 1: the doctor. It was just doing a self examination.

849
00:45:34,880 --> 00:45:37,520
Speaker 2: But it can be the difference of one year. I

850
00:45:37,520 --> 00:45:41,120
Speaker 2: had a friend who one year was had no stage

851
00:45:41,400 --> 00:45:45,960
Speaker 2: of cancer to the next year being staged four. So

852
00:45:46,160 --> 00:45:49,600
Speaker 2: you don't want to put it off, you can, you know.

853
00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:53,440
Speaker 2: It really is the difference of early detection, you know,

854
00:45:54,880 --> 00:45:57,480
Speaker 2: And that means you know, it's every six months. I

855
00:45:57,520 --> 00:46:00,920
Speaker 2: believe maybe that's just for me because I just came

856
00:46:00,960 --> 00:46:04,920
Speaker 2: out of radiation, But so after radiation you go in

857
00:46:04,960 --> 00:46:08,000
Speaker 2: every six months for a mammogram, just you know, after

858
00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:09,880
Speaker 2: you do the surgery. But I think you're supposed to

859
00:46:09,880 --> 00:46:13,000
Speaker 2: go in for you know, mammograms like once a year.

860
00:46:13,080 --> 00:46:14,239
Speaker 2: I believe I got it.

861
00:46:14,320 --> 00:46:16,840
Speaker 1: So we're going to put that. Don't worry, no pressure,

862
00:46:16,880 --> 00:46:19,160
Speaker 1: I know you are you were Marina Franklin. You are

863
00:46:19,200 --> 00:46:23,120
Speaker 1: not here to represent all medical professionals, but I have

864
00:46:24,040 --> 00:46:25,880
Speaker 1: no but for listeners, we're going to put in the

865
00:46:25,880 --> 00:46:28,960
Speaker 1: show notes I've got it the guidelines for your age.

866
00:46:29,520 --> 00:46:31,719
Speaker 1: I'm thirty four. My co host Tiffany is in her

867
00:46:31,760 --> 00:46:35,680
Speaker 1: early forties, and I know I'm just now. I'm like, Tiffany,

868
00:46:35,680 --> 00:46:37,200
Speaker 1: you get your mamogram. I don't know if she's done

869
00:46:37,200 --> 00:46:38,600
Speaker 1: it yet, but she's like, yeah, I need to do that,

870
00:46:38,640 --> 00:46:42,280
Speaker 1: because once you turn forty, it's it's it's definitely encouraged.

871
00:46:42,480 --> 00:46:44,839
Speaker 2: It's getting younger and younger. That's the thing. The woman

872
00:46:44,880 --> 00:46:49,200
Speaker 2: had just wrote me was thirty eight, I have young woman.

873
00:46:50,719 --> 00:46:55,680
Speaker 2: It's getting younger and younger, you know. And so you know,

874
00:46:55,760 --> 00:46:58,719
Speaker 2: I tell women you got to advocate for yourself. At

875
00:46:58,760 --> 00:47:04,239
Speaker 2: any point you feel something, go in and don't let

876
00:47:04,320 --> 00:47:07,920
Speaker 2: them tell you otherwise you are your best advocate.

877
00:47:08,920 --> 00:47:14,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's also free and your Irish friend it's

878
00:47:14,239 --> 00:47:16,880
Speaker 1: also I mean on this it's and I was, you know,

879
00:47:16,920 --> 00:47:20,440
Speaker 1: you wonder you mentioned younger women especially are getting it

880
00:47:20,480 --> 00:47:22,799
Speaker 1: at a higher rate Black women. Among younger Black women

881
00:47:22,840 --> 00:47:26,680
Speaker 1: getting breast cancer have double double the mortality rate of

882
00:47:26,719 --> 00:47:30,759
Speaker 1: white women. Like that is astounding to me. And part

883
00:47:30,800 --> 00:47:34,000
Speaker 1: of the reason is, like you said, access to quality healthcare.

884
00:47:34,480 --> 00:47:37,000
Speaker 1: Maybe you're going to the clinic in your area, but

885
00:47:37,120 --> 00:47:41,000
Speaker 1: is it you know, are they so overwhelmed with other

886
00:47:41,080 --> 00:47:45,560
Speaker 1: patients with seemingly more important or bigger and more emergent conditions,

887
00:47:46,520 --> 00:47:49,440
Speaker 1: And will you advocate for yourself or will you you know,

888
00:47:49,840 --> 00:47:53,319
Speaker 1: will you trust that that hairy doctor who's working on you?

889
00:47:53,360 --> 00:47:55,840
Speaker 1: And black women are just not as likely to have

890
00:47:55,920 --> 00:47:58,840
Speaker 1: that proper healthcare or to have the actual insurance to

891
00:47:58,880 --> 00:48:02,480
Speaker 1: pay for things like preventative care. And I a piece

892
00:48:02,520 --> 00:48:05,200
Speaker 1: of research that I was reading that really just blew

893
00:48:05,239 --> 00:48:07,520
Speaker 1: my mind because we talked about the self examination, right.

894
00:48:07,560 --> 00:48:09,520
Speaker 1: I went to the gynecologists earlier this year and she

895
00:48:09,560 --> 00:48:11,360
Speaker 1: felt me up and I always hate that part. I

896
00:48:11,360 --> 00:48:13,680
Speaker 1: feel like she's judging my my boob shape and things

897
00:48:13,760 --> 00:48:19,080
Speaker 1: like that. But like actual there, whether it's a clinical

898
00:48:19,239 --> 00:48:21,880
Speaker 1: physical exam or your own you know, clinical physic, your

899
00:48:21,880 --> 00:48:25,239
Speaker 1: own exam physically, you know that they you learn like

900
00:48:25,320 --> 00:48:27,799
Speaker 1: what to feel for and how to do a self examination.

901
00:48:28,000 --> 00:48:31,480
Speaker 1: But it's actually not that good at detecting breast cancer.

902
00:48:31,520 --> 00:48:33,880
Speaker 1: And the best way is to get that imaging, to

903
00:48:33,920 --> 00:48:37,279
Speaker 1: get that MRI. And now we know ultrasound based on

904
00:48:37,320 --> 00:48:40,479
Speaker 1: your experience, so I don't I just wanted to say

905
00:48:40,520 --> 00:48:42,319
Speaker 1: that in case people are like, Okay, I'm gonna feel

906
00:48:42,320 --> 00:48:44,080
Speaker 1: a little bit here and there. But it's like, go

907
00:48:44,160 --> 00:48:47,279
Speaker 1: to the doctor, especially if you're over forty and ask

908
00:48:47,360 --> 00:48:51,440
Speaker 1: for that, Mammograham, because especially in your case, like you've

909
00:48:51,480 --> 00:48:54,600
Speaker 1: shown that even if you and you felt something and

910
00:48:54,600 --> 00:48:58,720
Speaker 1: they still were like, nah.

911
00:48:57,400 --> 00:48:58,359
Speaker 2: Not really a deal.

912
00:48:58,600 --> 00:48:59,720
Speaker 1: You know, that's wild.

913
00:49:00,040 --> 00:49:02,880
Speaker 2: Imagine if I had said, no, I actually want a

914
00:49:02,880 --> 00:49:06,279
Speaker 2: biopsy on this, which you can do so in that year,

915
00:49:06,320 --> 00:49:09,799
Speaker 2: when they said, oh, let's you know, we'll just it's

916
00:49:10,000 --> 00:49:11,680
Speaker 2: not I could have said I still would like a

917
00:49:11,680 --> 00:49:13,560
Speaker 2: biopsy and they would say they would have had to

918
00:49:13,600 --> 00:49:14,040
Speaker 2: have done it.

919
00:49:14,640 --> 00:49:17,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's great. Is that malpractice? I don't know, how

920
00:49:17,640 --> 00:49:18,120
Speaker 1: could you do?

921
00:49:18,400 --> 00:49:20,799
Speaker 2: No, it's not. That's the thing. As you go through this,

922
00:49:21,280 --> 00:49:23,799
Speaker 2: you're thinking about mail practice the whole time. If you

923
00:49:23,840 --> 00:49:27,080
Speaker 2: see all the stuff I've seen, I mean, the stuff

924
00:49:27,080 --> 00:49:31,920
Speaker 2: that I went through was like insane, you know, from

925
00:49:32,080 --> 00:49:38,080
Speaker 2: them reading my my chart wrong, you know, from one

926
00:49:38,200 --> 00:49:42,560
Speaker 2: A to two, you know, possibly a full year of

927
00:49:42,640 --> 00:49:45,920
Speaker 2: chemo had I Let's let's say I didn't speak English

928
00:49:46,080 --> 00:49:48,839
Speaker 2: very well. Let's say I didn't understand English very well,

929
00:49:48,840 --> 00:49:51,280
Speaker 2: and I'm just going in there and I'm here by myself,

930
00:49:51,320 --> 00:49:53,080
Speaker 2: and I don't have a family member in the room,

931
00:49:53,520 --> 00:49:55,440
Speaker 2: and they told me that I was I had cancer

932
00:49:55,440 --> 00:49:56,439
Speaker 2: and I was staged.

933
00:49:56,120 --> 00:49:57,920
Speaker 1: To be or whatever.

934
00:49:58,760 --> 00:50:01,640
Speaker 2: I would have gone through the chemo and I didn't

935
00:50:01,640 --> 00:50:07,160
Speaker 2: have to. So that is why it's it's super important

936
00:50:07,320 --> 00:50:10,839
Speaker 2: to pay attention. You know. It's like, there's no such

937
00:50:10,880 --> 00:50:13,840
Speaker 2: thing as paranoia when it comes to cancer. All of

938
00:50:13,880 --> 00:50:16,480
Speaker 2: it is is valid and legitimate. And when you go

939
00:50:16,560 --> 00:50:20,040
Speaker 2: in there and you have these concerns, you know, what's

940
00:50:20,160 --> 00:50:22,120
Speaker 2: what's going to help you from the fears. Bring a

941
00:50:22,160 --> 00:50:24,520
Speaker 2: friend in to calm you down, you know, but you

942
00:50:24,600 --> 00:50:26,360
Speaker 2: need to go in there and be like, this is

943
00:50:26,400 --> 00:50:28,279
Speaker 2: a life and death matter. Absolutely.

944
00:50:29,120 --> 00:50:31,400
Speaker 1: Yeah. I love that you said friend too, because sometimes

945
00:50:31,440 --> 00:50:33,399
Speaker 1: moms are not the best option if you have a mom,

946
00:50:33,440 --> 00:50:35,760
Speaker 1: like they don't exactly de escalate.

947
00:50:37,280 --> 00:50:42,360
Speaker 2: Mace. That was her gift to me, Okay, which we

948
00:50:42,440 --> 00:50:44,480
Speaker 2: had more time to talk about that whole other story.

949
00:50:44,560 --> 00:50:47,120
Speaker 1: It's been a couple of years. You mentioned the medical bills.

950
00:50:47,160 --> 00:50:49,440
Speaker 1: How are things now, I mean, how are they covered?

951
00:50:49,440 --> 00:50:52,040
Speaker 1: Were you able to fight for you know, the coverage

952
00:50:52,080 --> 00:50:53,960
Speaker 1: that you needed to get those bills taken care of?

953
00:50:54,080 --> 00:50:55,400
Speaker 1: What's the financial impact?

954
00:50:56,200 --> 00:50:59,120
Speaker 2: I mean, I mean now it's fine because I you

955
00:50:59,160 --> 00:51:01,120
Speaker 2: know I was able to get the insurance I needed

956
00:51:01,200 --> 00:51:05,400
Speaker 2: for it, and yeah, fine, you know I'm still paying

957
00:51:05,440 --> 00:51:06,839
Speaker 2: for some of it. You know, some of it you

958
00:51:06,840 --> 00:51:09,480
Speaker 2: pay off monthly. You can always talk to them about

959
00:51:09,520 --> 00:51:12,680
Speaker 2: lowering your bill. That's another thing. You know, a lot

960
00:51:12,719 --> 00:51:17,200
Speaker 2: of times you don't realize the conversations you have with

961
00:51:17,360 --> 00:51:20,120
Speaker 2: the in financial departments with all of this. It's just

962
00:51:20,120 --> 00:51:23,520
Speaker 2: it's just a conversation, you know. And they will knock

963
00:51:23,600 --> 00:51:24,800
Speaker 2: some off of your bill.

964
00:51:25,080 --> 00:51:32,040
Speaker 1: They'll do that for you, absolutely, and negotiations so hard. Yes,

965
00:51:32,160 --> 00:51:34,759
Speaker 1: be nice. My sister is an insurance claims adjuster and

966
00:51:35,280 --> 00:51:38,040
Speaker 1: she's she's the person I'm like, you're too nice for that.

967
00:51:38,040 --> 00:51:40,000
Speaker 1: She's probably not. She's probably like, yeah, you got it,

968
00:51:40,000 --> 00:51:44,839
Speaker 1: you're free, We got you. But well, Marina, it has been,

969
00:51:45,560 --> 00:51:47,520
Speaker 1: you know, such a pleasure to have you on the show,

970
00:51:47,719 --> 00:51:51,080
Speaker 1: and oh awesome and honor, thank you for thank you

971
00:51:51,120 --> 00:51:53,640
Speaker 1: for coming, and thank you for sharing and opening up.

972
00:51:53,680 --> 00:51:56,399
Speaker 1: I want everyone to check out Marina's work. We're gonna

973
00:51:56,480 --> 00:52:01,240
Speaker 1: link to your social handles. Go check out the documentary

974
00:52:01,360 --> 00:52:05,160
Speaker 1: on FX Hysterical, which has Marina and a bunch of

975
00:52:05,200 --> 00:52:08,719
Speaker 1: other amazing no it's literally called Hysterical that's a documentary

976
00:52:09,960 --> 00:52:14,000
Speaker 1: and oh what else You're special on Amazon? Single Black Female,

977
00:52:14,520 --> 00:52:17,239
Speaker 1: which I love? What what else is there?

978
00:52:17,280 --> 00:52:17,480
Speaker 2: Oldre?

979
00:52:17,480 --> 00:52:18,880
Speaker 1: I don't want to miss anything? What else you want?

980
00:52:18,880 --> 00:52:19,600
Speaker 2: Have podcast that?

981
00:52:19,680 --> 00:52:22,600
Speaker 1: I say, Yes, it's your podcast, Friends Like Us, Friends

982
00:52:22,600 --> 00:52:24,400
Speaker 1: Like Us. I love the tank.

983
00:52:24,680 --> 00:52:27,280
Speaker 2: This is my tanks chop. Friends Like This is my logo.

984
00:52:28,160 --> 00:52:30,520
Speaker 2: Friends Like Us is a podcast that features women of

985
00:52:30,560 --> 00:52:34,359
Speaker 2: color talking about hot topics and it's it's mostly comedians,

986
00:52:35,320 --> 00:52:38,080
Speaker 2: but we do have guests on that know more so,

987
00:52:38,120 --> 00:52:40,440
Speaker 2: we often have doctors on, and hopefully this month we'll

988
00:52:40,480 --> 00:52:42,480
Speaker 2: have my surgeon. I would love to have my surgeon on.

989
00:52:43,080 --> 00:52:46,640
Speaker 2: My surgeon. By the way, just a tag that story

990
00:52:46,640 --> 00:52:48,520
Speaker 2: about going to the City Hospital. The reason I went

991
00:52:48,560 --> 00:52:51,040
Speaker 2: to the City Hospital is because she was a black

992
00:52:51,080 --> 00:52:55,040
Speaker 2: surgeon and I wanted her, so I suffered.

993
00:52:55,000 --> 00:52:56,520
Speaker 1: There that I could have her.

994
00:52:56,600 --> 00:53:00,359
Speaker 2: And she's amazing. She's like one of the few in

995
00:53:00,400 --> 00:53:01,080
Speaker 2: New York City.

996
00:53:01,760 --> 00:53:05,400
Speaker 1: I finally did my research to find a black guynecologist

997
00:53:05,440 --> 00:53:07,560
Speaker 1: and it was I cried in her office and I

998
00:53:07,560 --> 00:53:09,239
Speaker 1: did not know that I was going. I did not

999
00:53:09,400 --> 00:53:13,200
Speaker 1: know that it meant something to me until I felt

1000
00:53:13,239 --> 00:53:16,000
Speaker 1: the difference. I felt it in I get the.

1001
00:53:15,920 --> 00:53:18,759
Speaker 2: Right black guy in a collegist. Not all black guy

1002
00:53:18,840 --> 00:53:21,480
Speaker 2: know collegists as are the same. Because I had one

1003
00:53:21,560 --> 00:53:24,080
Speaker 2: that I was like, I will not be going back to.

1004
00:53:24,160 --> 00:53:25,120
Speaker 1: I've only the one.

1005
00:53:25,200 --> 00:53:32,360
Speaker 2: Oh no, sounds like, but no, so get the right one.

1006
00:53:32,600 --> 00:53:35,080
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely do your and it's such a pain in

1007
00:53:35,120 --> 00:53:38,080
Speaker 1: the ass to shop doctors, but it is important, especially

1008
00:53:38,120 --> 00:53:38,840
Speaker 1: when it's your health.

1009
00:53:39,400 --> 00:53:39,680
Speaker 2: Well.

1010
00:53:39,760 --> 00:53:43,719
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you so much again, Marina, y'all, thanks for listening.

1011
00:53:44,680 --> 00:53:48,319
Speaker 1: Back to our regular Brown Ambition next week. Marina, I

1012
00:53:48,360 --> 00:53:50,920
Speaker 1: can't wait to see more of what you accomplished and

1013
00:53:50,920 --> 00:53:52,799
Speaker 1: I'm definitely going to be following you and thank you

1014
00:53:52,800 --> 00:53:54,120
Speaker 1: again for joining Brown Ambition.

1015
00:53:54,960 --> 00:53:56,239
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me