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Speaker 1: Welcome one and all to the Professional Homegirl Podcast. Before

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Speaker 1: we begin today's episode, we want to remind you that

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Speaker 1: the views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those

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Speaker 1: of the hosts and guests and are intended for educational

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Speaker 1: and entertaining purposes. In this safe space, no question is

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Speaker 1: off limits because you never know how someone's storyline can

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Speaker 1: be your lifeline. The Professional Homegirl Podcast is here to

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Speaker 1: celebrate the diverse voices, stories and experiences of women of color,

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Speaker 1: providing a platform for authentic and empowering conversations. There will

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Speaker 1: be some key king, some tears, but most importantly a

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Speaker 1: reminder that tough times don't last, but professional homegirls do

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Speaker 1: enjoy the show.

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Speaker 2: Hey, professional Homegirls, Welcome back to this week's episode of

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Speaker 2: the Professional Homegirl Podcast. Ish yougirl, ebine here and I

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Speaker 2: hope all is cute. Now, before we jump into this

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Speaker 2: week's episode, let's do a little housekeeping. I have been

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Speaker 2: receiving a lot of love on the spooky series and

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Speaker 2: I must say I am really enjoying it this year.

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Speaker 2: And baby, let me tell you the way I prepped

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Speaker 2: for last week's episode and my guests who shared his

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Speaker 2: journey with his Grandfather's Ghosts. Listen. He is a world

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Speaker 2: renowned SEE and N journalist with mutual friends with Madam

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Speaker 2: VP Kamala Harris. Okay, so I was not about to

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Speaker 2: play myself. Plus he shared the episode with those mutual friends.

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Speaker 2: He shared it on his platform, and I am just

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Speaker 2: so thankful for him because he has definitely gave me

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Speaker 2: some advice off the air on house to proceed with

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Speaker 2: my memoile that I'm working on, and just other goals

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Speaker 2: that I shared with him. So I'm super thankful for

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Speaker 2: him and his advice and just our new friendship. And Plus, listen,

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Speaker 2: don't be surprised if y'all see Madam VP in a

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Speaker 2: professional homegirl hoodie. Okay, So let me know your thoughts

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Speaker 2: on the Spooky series and email me hello at the

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Speaker 2: pasgpodcast dot com. And also if you are interested in

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Speaker 2: their books or any one of my guest books, please

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Speaker 2: make sure to send me an email and I would

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Speaker 2: definitely share the link with you and make sure you

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Speaker 2: use this link. Okay, because this is from my Amazon

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Speaker 2: storefront and the final episode would drop during the Halloween week.

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Speaker 2: We're gonna rezuon back to the Spooky series and I

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Speaker 2: cannot wait for you all to hear that episode, because

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Speaker 2: that conversation was so good and y'all, you'll definitely hear

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Speaker 2: the excitement in my voice because I can't tell y'all

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Speaker 2: how many times throughout the conversation I have with my guests,

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Speaker 2: like I literally just geeked out, and I geeked out

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Speaker 2: a lot. Now we're taking a brief break from the

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Speaker 2: spooky series because October is Breast cancer Awareness month. In

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Speaker 2: this special episode, I'll be talking to two incredible women

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Speaker 2: with very different journeys through breast cancer. I wanted to

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Speaker 2: showcase my two guest stories to show that breast cancer

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Speaker 2: can't affect anyone, regardless of age or background. My first

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Speaker 2: guest share is how she initially dismissed the thinking it

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Speaker 2: was nothing serious, only to receive a diagnosis during the

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Speaker 2: beginning of the pandemic. Listen, I cannot imagine how that

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Speaker 2: felt to now only discover that you have breast counsel,

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Speaker 2: but to also discovery during the height of the pandemic

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Speaker 2: and we didn't know what was going to happen. Plus,

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Speaker 2: I'll be sharing details about my own scare to encourage

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Speaker 2: everyone to get checked out. And this goes for men

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Speaker 2: too early detection can save lives, y'all. So make sure

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Speaker 2: you are staying on top of your health. So while

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Speaker 2: you are getting your tatas checked out, get comfortable and

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Speaker 2: get ready for these powerful conversations because I'm a breast

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Speaker 2: counsel survivor. Starts now. All right, to my guests, thank

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Speaker 2: you so much for being on a show. How you doing,

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Speaker 2: how you feeling feeling great?

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Speaker 3: How are you?

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Speaker 2: I'm good, I'm good. I'm really excited to have you

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Speaker 2: on the show.

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Speaker 3: Thank you.

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Speaker 2: So I met my guest during a breast cancer awareness event,

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Speaker 2: and what really made me want to have her on

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Speaker 2: the show to share her story is she was just

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Speaker 2: so optimistic an upbeat about her entire journey. And one

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Speaker 2: of the benefits that you said of having breast cancer

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Speaker 2: is now that you have perky breast now.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: And I was like, I never heard nobody say this,

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Speaker 2: So I was like, let me get her on the show.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, of course. And also I told you this

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Speaker 2: off the air, but my listeners know this. But I've

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Speaker 2: been doing this for six years now my podcast, and

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Speaker 2: I never had a thank you. I never did an

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Speaker 2: episode about breast cancer wording. And so I think This

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Speaker 2: is very important for us to have this conversation, especially

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Speaker 2: since breast cancer don't discriminate because when we have our

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Speaker 2: second guest join us later on, she was diagnosed at

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Speaker 2: twenty six, So I was just like, yeah, it's time

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Speaker 2: to do an episode on this. So thank you so much.

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Speaker 3: You're welcome my pleasure.

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Speaker 2: Now, do you think there's a stigma around breast cancer

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Speaker 2: and the black community, and if so, how does this

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Speaker 2: affect conversations around health and dignosis.

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Speaker 4: Absolutely, I think black as a whole, we've been traumatized

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Speaker 4: from slavery, PTSD to henriettea lapsed yeah experiments. So we're

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Speaker 4: not put to volunteer, we're you know, told to be things,

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Speaker 4: you know, keep it in the family, don't put your

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Speaker 4: personal business out in the streets. So yeah, becomes a problem.

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Speaker 4: And a lot of times we're not passing down the

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Speaker 4: information that Big Mama had diabetes, where you know, you

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Speaker 4: should know change eating habits and also to be vigilant

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Speaker 4: about you know, Auntie so and so had the sea word.

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Speaker 3: What is the sea work?

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Speaker 4: We've made it sometimes where it's a taboo topic and

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Speaker 4: knowing your history can save your life. With early prevention testing, diagnoses,

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Speaker 4: which a lot of times we just don't.

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Speaker 3: Know what we don't know.

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Speaker 4: So I think that when I was diagnosed, my father,

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Speaker 4: I think, was more of the person which my parents

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Speaker 4: are at the event. My dad was more like, we're

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Speaker 4: going to talk about it once you knew that I

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Speaker 4: was going to survive, even jumped into that. My mom

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Speaker 4: surprisingly was more quiet. She was more private and you

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Speaker 4: wouldn't think so my mother's a retired he or I

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Speaker 4: see nurse, but my mom is more keep it at

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Speaker 4: your chest, right. And then it was like, you know,

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Speaker 4: my baby has this, and I guess it was very

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Speaker 4: hard for her, like my baby has yea and tell her.

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Speaker 4: I said, no, you know, I don't want you to think.

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Speaker 4: I don't want you to look at it. It's something dirty.

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Speaker 4: It's not like I was out in these streets.

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Speaker 3: And I and I was like, I'm not very alow,

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Speaker 3: but I.

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Speaker 4: Was like, so, I was like, you know, this is

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Speaker 4: something that if God is gracing me with life, then

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Speaker 4: I'm going to pass it on to others. And she

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Speaker 4: thought I was lost my mind. When I said, look,

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Speaker 4: I want to do an advocacy. I want to talk

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Speaker 4: about it. She was like, are you going through treatment.

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Speaker 4: My parents are very well stinied. Yeah, I kind of

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Speaker 4: push this is that. I was like, no, no, no,

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Speaker 4: I'm going to do it. And so it started with

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Speaker 4: me just recording things and I started doing YouTube and

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Speaker 4: recording that. Then eventually interviewing friends who were in medicine,

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Speaker 4: oncology colleagues, a psychologists, which is important for your mental health.

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Speaker 4: And I, you know, was afforded the privileges to start

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Speaker 4: speaking with women's groups.

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Speaker 2: To divine nine and if I'm not mistaken because I

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Speaker 2: read this somewhere which I didn't know, but that breast

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Speaker 2: cancer screening rates are often lower in the black community.

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Speaker 3: Part of it is access, you know, like where to

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Speaker 3: be goble to get them.

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Speaker 4: Number two, I have insurance, insurance, and there's so many

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Speaker 4: grants and so many free mimographies that go around.

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Speaker 3: Number three, the fear of not knowing enough about.

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Speaker 4: Breast cancers and you don't want to know to right

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Speaker 4: you know, or that you might have had someone who

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Speaker 4: got who was treated and didn't survive for whatever the

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Speaker 4: reasons may be. As that terrifies you, which you don't

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Speaker 4: want to know because you figure out, no, we're protecting.

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Speaker 3: It, right, And so for those reasons.

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Speaker 4: It's great when somebody looks like us that we can

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Speaker 4: talk to, whether it be.

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Speaker 3: A woman or a black person.

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Speaker 4: But at the end of the day, once a provider

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Speaker 4: on't care of the providers think that can identify, respect

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Speaker 4: you as a person and listen to what your symptoms

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Speaker 4: are and be vigilant in terms of your the workup

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Speaker 4: and diagnoses. That's all you need, that ason in your

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Speaker 4: corner to make sure that you're getting the appropriate care.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and I's segues into my next question on how

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Speaker 2: important is it for black women to see stories like

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Speaker 2: yourself represented in the media or public health campaigns.

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Speaker 4: I think it's very important. I think the gift that

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Speaker 4: I was given my best friend. I have a male

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Speaker 4: best friend, and I remember told me he said, if

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Speaker 4: anybody was saying cancer with you, I was mad for yours. Okay,

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Speaker 4: because I was tight, because I took it as why me,

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Speaker 4: like why you know, I was my own business. But

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Speaker 4: what he meant, now that I can process what he

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Speaker 4: said was anybody who's going to make something ugly to

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Speaker 4: turn into something beautiful.

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Speaker 3: And I get it now what he's trying to say.

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Speaker 4: I think that you know, me getting cancer and surviving.

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Speaker 4: It is a blessing, yeahestly the survival, but also that

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Speaker 4: I'm in medicine. So medicine a lot of times look

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Speaker 4: at it looks at things as us versus them. Us

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Speaker 4: got cancer us. You know, I had colleagues who didn't

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Speaker 4: even talk.

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Speaker 3: To me during tears.

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Speaker 4: I mean you they you know where I'd call somebody

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Speaker 4: back because they couldn't. I felt like I was holding

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Speaker 4: a lot.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, if you know.

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Speaker 4: I have people like yourselves, and people are like, oh,

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Speaker 4: you're so cool to talk to.

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Speaker 3: You're a doctor. I'm a human first, I'm a woman.

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Speaker 5: Second, I'm a black person all dayde I enjoy life.

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Speaker 4: Life is short of talking about There are people that

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Speaker 4: I started with a long year Christia Donaldson, former CEO

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Speaker 4: G I a n no longer here. You know, got

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Speaker 4: a big boseman from a long I you know, to

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Speaker 4: be hitting my five years this December. You know, that's

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Speaker 4: a milestone in the council world. That means to beat it.

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Speaker 4: And I just want to celebrate the time that God

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Speaker 4: has given me to the very very end. So I'm

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Speaker 4: I try to be up to beat. I try to

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Speaker 4: talk to me. I just got the phone during an interview.

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Speaker 4: I just got the phone earlier with the sister who

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Speaker 4: needs care for he.

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Speaker 3: Has a tumor in her uterus.

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Speaker 4: That's a big deal, connecting her with doctor Nicola Pepperton,

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Speaker 4: one of the baddest women, yeah, from statutology. So if

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Speaker 4: that's the purpose that God wanted me to do, then

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Speaker 4: I'm going to do it. And I'm gonna make sisters laugh.

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Speaker 4: Like we talked about, you know, no waxing humid care,

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Speaker 4: and you saved that money right right, And they're crying

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Speaker 4: after because I can say it. Sometimes other people who

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Speaker 4: are not going through this are not sure, like, yeah,

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Speaker 4: appropriate the best comedians. A lot of the things come

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Speaker 4: out of pain. You know, who knows what happened for me.

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Speaker 4: But if we can make some light out of it,

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Speaker 4: it makes it a less a dark, lonely, scary place.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I will say you definitely made a heavy topic

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Speaker 2: very light, Like y'all, she had this dress on, she

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Speaker 2: was hopping around telling jokes and stuff. Yeah, very classy,

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Speaker 2: very demure. But it was also very insightful because I

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Speaker 2: do feel like, since this topic is so heavy and

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Speaker 2: it affects all of us, I think you did a

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Speaker 2: really good job with you know, putting the medicine in

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Speaker 2: the candy, because you definitely had my attention. It was

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Speaker 2: a lot of young girls that was in the building

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Speaker 2: and they was alert like they was key key, like

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Speaker 2: asking questions and stuff. So I was like, yeah, it's

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Speaker 2: time for me to get her on the show.

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Speaker 4: I'd love to see women and men, but I mean

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Speaker 4: men are affected one to two percent, with African Americans

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Speaker 4: having a higher rate. But I will say that it's

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Speaker 4: beautiful to see young women because you know what we

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Speaker 4: could be your mother's your aunties. You know these big

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Speaker 4: big sisters. You should be asking your mother's your aunties.

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Speaker 4: You have the answer, and if so, then that that

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Speaker 4: young woman needs to be tested ten years earlier. So

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Speaker 4: if your mother was diagnosed in forty four at thirty,

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Speaker 4: to be making sure that you were getting mammograms and ultrasounds,

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Speaker 4: mamma grams and ultrasounds. Why because the mamma Graham you

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Speaker 4: can only see so much. The ultrasound, as I said,

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Speaker 4: now opens it up where I can see you through

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Speaker 4: my hand. Andy be like I see this, I see this,

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Speaker 4: I see this. Those important. These are conversations that are

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Speaker 4: not sexy, you know. Gen Z and younger millennials. You know,

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Speaker 4: we may be a little boring, but you know your

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Speaker 4: aunties and your mama's a keeping up.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, then what would you say are some common misconceptions

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Speaker 2: that you encounter about breast cancer?

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Speaker 4: Oh, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna lose both breasts. What

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Speaker 4: you mean, my mamma never had it. Drop some pearls.

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Speaker 4: Eighty percent of cancer is not genetic, So that means,

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Speaker 4: you know, have not having a child by the time

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Speaker 4: you're in your dirties, being overweight, stress that many of

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Speaker 4: us carry.

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Speaker 3: You know, a lot of times you want.

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Speaker 4: To think gen X things it's only them, But millennials

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Speaker 4: and gen Z have stress. You know, some of the

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Speaker 4: people eating. You know, we could go into conversations about

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Speaker 4: organic food versus non organic, versus farm fresh, for GMO modified.

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Speaker 3: I mean all those things.

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Speaker 4: Exposure to radiation, I you know, take X rayse you know,

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Speaker 4: when I'm in the operating room, things of that nature.

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Speaker 3: There's so many things.

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Speaker 2: I feel like you can't win for losing.

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Speaker 3: You know, whin for losing you have to put your

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Speaker 3: best foot forward. Yeah, work out, I.

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Speaker 4: Know, you know sometimes a background, but work out, you know, walk,

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Speaker 4: eat better, you know, get that cheese take if you

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Speaker 4: need to on a week can but also you know

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Speaker 4: that that's solid.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: A lot of times I tell people I'm in to

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Speaker 4: work for a fritterly qualified health center. It is a

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Speaker 4: privilege and it shouldn't be considered that, but it is

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Speaker 4: a privilege that we have insurance.

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Speaker 1: Use it.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, go see your doctor, do the preventative care. But

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Speaker 4: I tell my patients I'd rather you laugh with me

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Speaker 4: about girl, you think you have something to be cracking

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Speaker 4: up in your office versus be holding your hand later. Yeah,

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Speaker 4: and so do that and find doctors. You know, if

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Speaker 4: you can't get an answer from your doctor flat perfect.

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Speaker 4: There's probably there's times I fall short. You should be

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Speaker 4: able to leave your doctor knowing God needs and it's

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Speaker 4: not an insurance face for a second and a third opinion.

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Speaker 4: And then there's advocacy like mine, which we're here to

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Speaker 4: answer questions. I just felt this in his hand earlier

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Speaker 4: on the phone, like, girl, we're gonna get through this.

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Speaker 4: She's set up in five minutes. Seeb do li in Friday, okay,

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Speaker 4: which you can't normally get. Watch things like the Touch

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Speaker 4: Black Breast Cancer Liance, which does clinical trial trials and

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Speaker 4: has a show on Black Doctor or every Wednesday at

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Speaker 4: six pm.

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Speaker 3: You learn a lot of information. So there's resources. And

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Speaker 3: as much as.

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Speaker 4: We're on our phones constantly looking at Facebook and TikTok,

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Speaker 4: we can get on our phones looking at information that

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Speaker 4: can save our life, my sister's life, for our brothers.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely. And you spoke about how you are approaching five

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Speaker 2: years of being cancer free, So how does that journey

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Speaker 2: approaching that? Mouse don't feel.

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Speaker 4: So many things open up to you in terms of

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Speaker 4: health insurance. I mean I have health insurance, but even

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Speaker 4: visibility insurance. When you work for companies sometimes you know

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Speaker 4: famous apples and these, they look at that where you're

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Speaker 4: not ensurable, you know, you risk. So you hit that

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Speaker 4: five year mark. So to me, that's amazing. I like

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Speaker 4: to celebrate everything. My parents celebrate you got it, you

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Speaker 4: get it? You know, well you got to drivers, let's

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Speaker 4: go out to eat. We are that type of family.

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Speaker 4: And so I plan to turn up, you know, for

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Speaker 4: my birthday.

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Speaker 3: I'm like why not?

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Speaker 4: You know, I was blessed to have DJ John Quinn

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Speaker 4: and one of my rissa that's as Furn, who helped

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Speaker 4: go my virtual forty fifth birthday party my sorty sister

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Speaker 4: is dropping off gifts and people logging on. I celebrated

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Speaker 4: my ancer versaries. It's like called with touch back breast

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Speaker 4: and my family on friends on. You know, life is short.

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Speaker 4: I think you should so well agree the way you

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Speaker 4: see fit. And for me, I love people and to

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Speaker 4: have friends around and family to say, hey.

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Speaker 3: Girl, we're here with you on this journey. Did it

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Speaker 3: with God's grace? Isn't it? So? You turned up and.

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna be right there, like, come on now can

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Speaker 2: she be bouncing around? I'm like, yo, where is she energy?

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Speaker 3: You know?

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Speaker 4: People ask me where does this energy come from? And

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Speaker 4: I said, it's the grace of God.

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Speaker 3: You know, I'm a Christian. A lot of us go

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Speaker 3: to church. It's God.

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Speaker 4: You know.

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Speaker 3: I've always been an extrovert.

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Speaker 4: I think I've always had that personable personality, even though,

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Speaker 4: as I said, well help all short.

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Speaker 3: Some days get me on the wrong time. It may

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Speaker 3: not be your luck. But I like people. I like

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Speaker 3: hearing people's stories. I like hearing people's me too. I

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Speaker 3: like people.

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Speaker 4: That excites me, makes me happy when I see people win.

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Speaker 4: I'm that person that will hold your hand to the

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Speaker 4: ugly times as well. Because you know, life is they

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Speaker 4: say life be lifing, you know. For me, I think

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Speaker 4: the energy comes out of that joy.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. But I also think that people need to see

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Speaker 2: a physical manifestation of hope, and I think you embody that.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, I think that you do a really good

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Speaker 2: job with just being yourself and just having that infectious

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Speaker 2: energy and just like you know, people need that sometimes

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Speaker 2: because you never know what people going through.

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Speaker 4: You don't, you know, And I tell people, you know

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Speaker 4: that famous saying check on your strong friends.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, strong friends because someone's smiling. You have no idea

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Speaker 3: what's going behind the facts.

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Speaker 4: So that people have the bad days because all hell

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Speaker 4: is breaking me, so check off them.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 4: Sometimes we jump to girl, I don't know why she

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Speaker 4: had an attitude and me.

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Speaker 3: Check on them first before anything.

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Speaker 4: I need you to be like girl, cut out and

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Speaker 4: talk to me, or you know, put your arms around me.

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Speaker 4: You know, friend, have you let that person be I

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Speaker 4: think those are the moments where you see your friendship

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Speaker 4: and someone could just be like, I'm here just to

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Speaker 4: listen and sit with you.

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Speaker 2: Now, can you take us back to the moment when

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Speaker 2: you first received the news and what does I already know?

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Speaker 2: Because I did research on you, and I was like, wait,

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Speaker 2: she got this during the pandemic because it was like

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Speaker 2: the early stages of it in twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 4: Listen when I tell you this was a test. You

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Speaker 4: know they talk about walking through the t fire.

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Speaker 3: It was a test.

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Speaker 4: So history I had, as they said, women of color

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Speaker 4: have that spress. I had something called a fiber at

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Speaker 4: in noma, which is a non cancerous mass.

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Speaker 3: At sixteen, I had it removed.

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Speaker 4: It came back again when I was in residency, had

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Speaker 4: it removed and I was great.

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Speaker 3: Seventeen hits.

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Speaker 4: I'm a full fledged attending working in Jersey and it

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Speaker 4: came back and I was like, this must be a

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Speaker 4: fiber at in noma. Iobigiana, I said, is doctor Nicola

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Speaker 4: Pemberton from Artemis of g I m it was amazing

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Speaker 4: and connected me with my surch in, doctor Margaret Sacho.

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Speaker 3: You know, examined ultrasyle mammogram.

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Speaker 4: I was already in my gosh, this is forty so

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Speaker 4: I mean, this was okay, no no problem. Then to

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00:18:16,280 --> 00:18:19,639
Speaker 4: eighteen it became painful. I had a fine utile aspiration

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Speaker 4: or biopsy negative. So I was like, I'm not going

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Speaker 4: to worry about this.

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Speaker 3: I'm busy. I'm taking care of patients. I used to

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Speaker 3: practice in my city. You know.

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Speaker 4: Then I'm acting in Jersey, so you know a lot

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Speaker 4: of people have been my patient. Nineteen, I delayed doing it,

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Speaker 4: which I blame myself partly, but hindsights.

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Speaker 3: Twenty twenty, I was going to the venue, so.

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Speaker 4: I was, and so when I came back, I had

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Speaker 4: it done and it was positive. The first thing, I thought,

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Speaker 4: it's not cancer. So I spoke to my mother who

400
00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:51,840
Speaker 4: said I had a positive mammogram ultrasoyle, but my biopsy

401
00:18:51,880 --> 00:18:52,359
Speaker 4: was negative.

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Speaker 3: Will be fine.

403
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Speaker 4: So I delayed it yet again. And because I figured, okay,

404
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Speaker 4: I'm so busy, I'm in the oh, I'm doing this.

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Speaker 4: I was in my very crazy busy mode. I did

406
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Speaker 4: it the day after Thanksgiving. Figure i'd have time to recover,

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Speaker 4: go back.

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Speaker 3: To a coutry, right, And then Tuesday I got the

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Speaker 3: phone call.

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Speaker 4: Many people don't get that call. They get a call

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Speaker 4: to come in my surgeon.

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Speaker 3: Again. I'm privileged.

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Speaker 4: I'm the US and doctor Sacho called me and then

414
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Speaker 4: said I told her, yeah, I know it's a prior

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Speaker 4: animal noma. You want me to take it, I'm gona

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Speaker 4: take it. On Januy recuse. I got a time and

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Speaker 4: she said, sit down. Anytime my doctor tells me.

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Speaker 3: To sit down. Yeah, and I was like, sit down

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Speaker 3: for what we were sitting for, you know, you know?

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Speaker 3: And she told me. She was like, you have you

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Speaker 3: know estrogen p R which is estragen for gesture and positive.

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Speaker 4: But I was her too positive estrogen for conjester owe

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Speaker 4: slowly positive. And I was like, okay, in the big scheme,

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Speaker 4: everybody's listening is like what but it's the type of that.

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Speaker 4: I understood it intellectually, but locked it and I started

426
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Speaker 4: to ball, and she said, I know you're not going

427
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Speaker 4: to go to sleep.

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Speaker 3: I'm not going home even tofore. I'll be waiting. I

429
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Speaker 3: started crying.

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Speaker 4: My colleague, who spoke five languages, spoke to me three

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Speaker 4: of all English, French, Spanish. I speak English and Spanish.

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Speaker 4: I think something clicked. And he went onto the medical side.

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Speaker 4: That to Dakota was her diagnosis, and I told him

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Speaker 4: I had patients and I said I'm still going to

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Speaker 4: see these patients. He thought I was lost my mind,

436
00:20:16,960 --> 00:20:20,159
Speaker 4: and I said it's not their fault, right. I had

437
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Speaker 4: a Muslim sister and a Christian brother who said I

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Speaker 4: don't know what happened, but each one of them prayed

439
00:20:24,320 --> 00:20:27,800
Speaker 4: over me, and that's a blessing. I called my sister

440
00:20:28,200 --> 00:20:30,480
Speaker 4: who was up for she's an attorney, was up for

441
00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:32,159
Speaker 4: a job, and I was like, you know, this is

442
00:20:32,160 --> 00:20:33,400
Speaker 4: what happened, and she was like I'm leaving.

443
00:20:33,440 --> 00:20:35,760
Speaker 3: I'm like, no, you're not, and she was like, I'm coming.

444
00:20:36,080 --> 00:20:38,399
Speaker 4: I told doctor Pemberton, who literally closed her office and

445
00:20:38,480 --> 00:20:41,239
Speaker 4: had the nurse practitioner to take over and was like

446
00:20:41,359 --> 00:20:43,480
Speaker 4: in her you know, physician assistance would have you and

447
00:20:43,560 --> 00:20:46,639
Speaker 4: was like, I'm going to go see the doctor. So

448
00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:49,200
Speaker 4: who gets an attorney and their obed ryan to sit

449
00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:53,879
Speaker 4: with their surgeon back and forth. So even after that,

450
00:20:54,040 --> 00:20:56,080
Speaker 4: deciding if I should have children, would it make me

451
00:20:56,160 --> 00:20:59,119
Speaker 4: probably throw me in for advanced cancer because of stimulating

452
00:20:59,160 --> 00:21:00,040
Speaker 4: my eggs.

453
00:21:00,160 --> 00:21:04,680
Speaker 3: Was a lot. I collapsed outside. I couldn't handle it.

454
00:21:04,720 --> 00:21:07,520
Speaker 4: And so then the hardest part was telling my parents

455
00:21:07,560 --> 00:21:10,679
Speaker 4: and you met my My parents are very going and

456
00:21:10,800 --> 00:21:13,679
Speaker 4: my dad's like bring everybody over. There were always that people,

457
00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:17,200
Speaker 4: so you know, we first my my sarn and asked

458
00:21:17,200 --> 00:21:19,520
Speaker 4: me who was my medicalhone house and she was just like,

459
00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:22,600
Speaker 4: you have a reward winning team. I suggest you, so

460
00:21:22,840 --> 00:21:25,560
Speaker 4: doctor Pot, Doctor Pemperton, myself and my sister will go

461
00:21:25,600 --> 00:21:26,160
Speaker 4: out to eat.

462
00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:26,800
Speaker 3: None of us eat.

463
00:21:26,840 --> 00:21:29,159
Speaker 4: We said, everybody's about what was broken off my body,

464
00:21:29,640 --> 00:21:33,840
Speaker 4: and then we go to my parents' house. My father thought, great,

465
00:21:33,960 --> 00:21:34,720
Speaker 4: the girls are here.

466
00:21:34,760 --> 00:21:36,879
Speaker 3: You know we're you know. My mother said me like

467
00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:39,320
Speaker 3: m so they my mother knew.

468
00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:42,679
Speaker 4: Something wrong, and you know, all kinds of conclusions. And

469
00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:45,320
Speaker 4: then when I told them she lost it, she really

470
00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:48,160
Speaker 4: did not handle it well. My father looked like him

471
00:21:48,160 --> 00:21:50,840
Speaker 4: in the sucker punch. So my sister went with doctor

472
00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:53,040
Speaker 4: Pemperton to take my mom and stairs to calm her down.

473
00:21:53,080 --> 00:21:55,800
Speaker 4: My mom, I'm down, prayed and only wanted to hear

474
00:21:55,840 --> 00:21:58,439
Speaker 4: it from doctor Pepperton. Docter Pont stayed with me and

475
00:21:58,480 --> 00:22:00,000
Speaker 4: my dad, and my dad goes, I know she's gonna lie.

476
00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:01,600
Speaker 4: Didn't need to protect me. I don't want to hear

477
00:22:01,640 --> 00:22:01,879
Speaker 4: it from you.

478
00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:03,520
Speaker 3: I want to hear you because we all could be

479
00:22:03,520 --> 00:22:05,200
Speaker 3: as kids. We all know each other and friends for

480
00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:05,560
Speaker 3: you here.

481
00:22:06,040 --> 00:22:08,080
Speaker 4: So when everybody was on the same page, we came

482
00:22:08,119 --> 00:22:11,640
Speaker 4: together collectively prayed, and my parents, who are great West Indians,

483
00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:16,919
Speaker 4: offered us sweet breads. We're like, yes, that is your nadium.

484
00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:19,600
Speaker 4: My Mom's true and so it was amazing from that,

485
00:22:19,720 --> 00:22:21,919
Speaker 4: and then you know, it was a matter of getting

486
00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:25,880
Speaker 4: the family, you know, on point it was. I'll never

487
00:22:25,920 --> 00:22:28,280
Speaker 4: forget it. A lot of people, will you know what

488
00:22:28,359 --> 00:22:30,920
Speaker 4: you considered by your march. For me, for the time

489
00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:33,879
Speaker 4: I was started the time period where I was like,

490
00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:37,520
Speaker 4: let's go. I literally went through every test in the

491
00:22:37,560 --> 00:22:40,480
Speaker 4: world and I began chemotherapy three weeks after.

492
00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:43,639
Speaker 2: I feel like when you received the news, like you

493
00:22:43,640 --> 00:22:45,480
Speaker 2: weren't playing no games, like you was like.

494
00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:48,360
Speaker 4: This, you know again, I'm an unswer. I'm not out

495
00:22:48,359 --> 00:22:51,680
Speaker 4: of them. And so my colleagues were like what and

496
00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:55,800
Speaker 4: so you know, we were on even having the access

497
00:22:55,840 --> 00:22:58,240
Speaker 4: for chemoly had it in for seventy two hours.

498
00:22:58,280 --> 00:23:00,320
Speaker 3: So when they accessed it, it hurt like bloody help,

499
00:23:00,720 --> 00:23:00,919
Speaker 3: you know.

500
00:23:01,119 --> 00:23:04,960
Speaker 4: But I understood the medicine replicating our cells that are

501
00:23:05,200 --> 00:23:08,040
Speaker 4: turning over or cells cancer, and that was in my mind, right,

502
00:23:08,080 --> 00:23:09,679
Speaker 4: we gotta go, we gotta go, we gotta do this.

503
00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:12,880
Speaker 4: I want this out of me. So I had neo

504
00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:15,719
Speaker 4: adjutant therapy, which I mentioned to you guys, which is

505
00:23:15,760 --> 00:23:18,919
Speaker 4: EMO first, because my tumor was the size of a

506
00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:22,040
Speaker 4: golf wall. So We did six back breaking rounds of that,

507
00:23:22,160 --> 00:23:25,200
Speaker 4: which I almost thought it was. Didn't eat well, never

508
00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:28,359
Speaker 4: threw up, had you know, diarrhea, the whole you know,

509
00:23:28,480 --> 00:23:31,520
Speaker 4: craziness had to get GI involved. I even thought about

510
00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:34,520
Speaker 4: quitting Keno. I was just you know, distressed, went through

511
00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:36,840
Speaker 4: a breakup. It's just craziness was going on.

512
00:23:37,119 --> 00:23:38,679
Speaker 2: Wait, you was in a relationship and you went through

513
00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:39,200
Speaker 2: a breakup.

514
00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:43,520
Speaker 3: Yes, whoa, But that's okay, that's god. You know. You know,

515
00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:46,720
Speaker 3: rejection is not you know, rejection protection. And it was

516
00:23:46,720 --> 00:23:47,760
Speaker 3: the best thing that ever happened.

517
00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:50,000
Speaker 2: So you know, you gotta be you gotta be a

518
00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:52,920
Speaker 2: special type of person to leave somebody life.

519
00:23:53,520 --> 00:23:55,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, you don't. At the end of the day. Everybody

520
00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:58,160
Speaker 3: deals differently, you know. So it is what it is.

521
00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:02,680
Speaker 3: But ill of that, you know, six rounds and then

522
00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:03,439
Speaker 3: my tomor was shrunk.

523
00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:05,240
Speaker 4: And I remember getting the news like my doc was

524
00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:08,240
Speaker 4: feeling on me and I'm like this and she's like,

525
00:24:08,240 --> 00:24:10,399
Speaker 4: do you feel that? And that got me crazy. I

526
00:24:10,440 --> 00:24:11,960
Speaker 4: was like feel what, Oh my god, what took me?

527
00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:14,200
Speaker 4: She's like, no, I feel nothing. I feel nothing, And

528
00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:15,959
Speaker 4: so I was Then I went for surgery and it

529
00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:18,960
Speaker 4: was so small. I literally went the day before my breath.

530
00:24:19,359 --> 00:24:22,720
Speaker 4: Day after I had my online birthday party, I left

531
00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:25,720
Speaker 4: my online birthday party, went to get injected around my nipple,

532
00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:28,560
Speaker 4: which is all of sentinel note biopsy. Next day, went

533
00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:32,479
Speaker 4: in for a wire guided mammogram which you can imagine

534
00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:34,480
Speaker 4: a wire in your boob and they're switching your book.

535
00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:37,720
Speaker 3: And then the surgeon and then my margins came back negative.

536
00:24:38,119 --> 00:24:38,680
Speaker 3: Had a break.

537
00:24:38,800 --> 00:24:40,919
Speaker 4: I was like, yay, I'm feeling good, and then started

538
00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:45,320
Speaker 4: twenty two rounds of radiation with coach Mo, who you met,

539
00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:47,240
Speaker 4: got me through working out daily to keep.

540
00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:48,720
Speaker 3: My immune system up right.

541
00:24:48,920 --> 00:24:50,880
Speaker 4: And then I found a lump in the other breast

542
00:24:51,040 --> 00:24:53,560
Speaker 4: negative for cancer, but I had it removed.

543
00:24:54,080 --> 00:24:55,960
Speaker 2: And what was how long? How long was this like?

544
00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:56,920
Speaker 2: What was the time frame?

545
00:24:57,240 --> 00:24:57,600
Speaker 3: A year?

546
00:24:57,640 --> 00:25:02,560
Speaker 4: I started twelve three to nineteen, had my last treatment

547
00:25:03,800 --> 00:25:04,480
Speaker 4: I think.

548
00:25:04,520 --> 00:25:09,040
Speaker 6: Twelve the first week of December twelve twenty and my

549
00:25:09,359 --> 00:25:12,000
Speaker 6: final surgery or the other breast that had did not

550
00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:15,280
Speaker 6: have the had a tumor which was not cancerous.

551
00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:18,160
Speaker 3: So it was a year during that time you're talking

552
00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:18,760
Speaker 3: about COVID.

553
00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:23,240
Speaker 4: So I took myself out of the r because I

554
00:25:23,240 --> 00:25:26,920
Speaker 4: do surgery to do I took by the nursing homes

555
00:25:27,160 --> 00:25:29,480
Speaker 4: because God taking care of that, because I didn't really

556
00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:32,000
Speaker 4: know about COVID. And then I remember my story sisters

557
00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:35,159
Speaker 4: came back from a conference saying somebody got sick from

558
00:25:35,240 --> 00:25:37,600
Speaker 4: COVID instead of worrying about it. And then I was like,

559
00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:40,320
Speaker 4: oh my God, and we all know what COVID was,

560
00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:42,960
Speaker 4: and no one could tell me what do I do

561
00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:44,320
Speaker 4: now that COVID's happening?

562
00:25:44,440 --> 00:25:46,320
Speaker 2: How did you stay hopeful during that time?

563
00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:49,399
Speaker 4: I tell everybody I have one of the best disability policy,

564
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:52,040
Speaker 4: expensive and myths makes me mad every month, but it

565
00:25:52,080 --> 00:25:53,920
Speaker 4: was the best where I can relax and it covered

566
00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:57,520
Speaker 4: me to be able to stay home, have my expenses paid, relaxed,

567
00:25:57,600 --> 00:25:58,880
Speaker 4: good the trees, and meditate.

568
00:25:59,280 --> 00:26:01,480
Speaker 3: So I did that in March through July when COVID

569
00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:03,639
Speaker 3: was that it's height, and it perfected me.

570
00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:06,200
Speaker 4: I say cancer kind of saved me from COVID because

571
00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:09,000
Speaker 4: a lot of doctors were in working in the hospitals,

572
00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:11,879
Speaker 4: coming out of their specialties to do er whatever the

573
00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:14,919
Speaker 4: case may be, or in practice that I wasn't exposed to.

574
00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:18,080
Speaker 3: That I didn't work up until March. I did back.

575
00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:22,119
Speaker 4: Everything was always around my chemo schedule, part time and

576
00:26:22,560 --> 00:26:24,760
Speaker 4: you know, my staff, you know where I used to

577
00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:28,200
Speaker 4: work protected me. I was being perfected by that god

578
00:26:28,840 --> 00:26:31,120
Speaker 4: that that book's gonna con that book will come.

579
00:26:31,320 --> 00:26:33,760
Speaker 2: Oh, I already know. But I'm happy you did bring

580
00:26:33,840 --> 00:26:35,960
Speaker 2: up the health insurance because that was one of my

581
00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:38,840
Speaker 2: questions on did you have any financial challenges? But you

582
00:26:38,880 --> 00:26:41,840
Speaker 2: had great health insurance. And the reason why I asked

583
00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:45,040
Speaker 2: is because sometimes the economic realities of many black women,

584
00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:48,080
Speaker 2: they don't have access to proper care exactly.

585
00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:48,800
Speaker 3: So what do you do?

586
00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:51,680
Speaker 4: And one of the things I'll use the Touch Black

587
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:54,840
Speaker 4: Breast Cancer Line. They have an American Cancer Society, but

588
00:26:54,880 --> 00:26:58,080
Speaker 4: definitely between the two. They list resources. You know, there's

589
00:26:58,119 --> 00:27:01,280
Speaker 4: grants that they give for women. You know, there's you know, people.

590
00:27:01,040 --> 00:27:01,640
Speaker 3: Who need rides.

591
00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:03,679
Speaker 4: Some people have nobody in the lives, so somebody to

592
00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:05,720
Speaker 4: take you, you know, somebody will let you know my

593
00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:08,320
Speaker 4: medical bill is twenty five hundred and there's a grant

594
00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:10,520
Speaker 4: would be like quite for clean. So there's so many

595
00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:16,240
Speaker 4: resources that exist. There's free mimography, there's free ultrasounds. Sometimes

596
00:27:16,240 --> 00:27:19,000
Speaker 4: you can get different states have different regulations. There's so

597
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:21,240
Speaker 4: many organizations like that will pay for.

598
00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:23,760
Speaker 3: You just you know, give you fresh ens.

599
00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:25,600
Speaker 4: While you're going through this treatment or even a free

600
00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:27,000
Speaker 4: trip somewhere where you're just like, I need to get

601
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:27,560
Speaker 4: the hell out of here.

602
00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:28,000
Speaker 3: Is about to.

603
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:31,080
Speaker 4: Lose my mind and I just need something different in

604
00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:33,600
Speaker 4: front of me. So these organizations that are doing that

605
00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:38,240
Speaker 4: are amazing because it makes some more poltiple. The hospital

606
00:27:38,280 --> 00:27:42,240
Speaker 4: gives complimentary therapy. Unfortunately got like I think the first

607
00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:44,720
Speaker 4: treatment because COVID, I got reflexology on my feet.

608
00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:47,479
Speaker 3: Bet made me sleep, but breaking.

609
00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:51,960
Speaker 4: But there's you know, therapy that's free for patients. I

610
00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:55,040
Speaker 4: would tell people again the advocacies are the heart of

611
00:27:55,119 --> 00:27:58,040
Speaker 4: an information and if you do work for company or

612
00:27:58,119 --> 00:28:01,119
Speaker 4: what have you get that. Don't don't dumb down that

613
00:28:01,160 --> 00:28:02,480
Speaker 4: disability to offer.

614
00:28:03,119 --> 00:28:04,840
Speaker 3: Get the best. Don't know what you don't know, but

615
00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:06,520
Speaker 3: when it comes, yes, such a blessing.

616
00:28:06,800 --> 00:28:08,639
Speaker 2: You know you also made good points because I have

617
00:28:08,680 --> 00:28:11,760
Speaker 2: a partnership with Saint Jude. So last year they flew

618
00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:13,840
Speaker 2: me out to go back home to Memphis and to

619
00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:15,680
Speaker 2: learn more about what they do. And I'm like, damn,

620
00:28:15,720 --> 00:28:17,280
Speaker 2: I didn't know they do all this stuff like make

621
00:28:17,320 --> 00:28:19,280
Speaker 2: sure the parents have a home that's day and food

622
00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:22,119
Speaker 2: that's provided. Yeah, Like I'm like, let me go and

623
00:28:22,119 --> 00:28:23,919
Speaker 2: give them a couple of dollars because they really do

624
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:26,359
Speaker 2: a lot to make sure that these companies families are

625
00:28:26,359 --> 00:28:28,359
Speaker 2: not interrupted on a day to day basis, but also

626
00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:30,480
Speaker 2: making sure the child is receiving a proper care.

627
00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:34,360
Speaker 4: Did you imagine having to worry about where it's staying. Yeah,

628
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:37,440
Speaker 4: and your baby is going to cancer. I mean I'm

629
00:28:37,440 --> 00:28:41,160
Speaker 4: an adult and I'm still somebody's baby. But a baby baby.

630
00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:42,880
Speaker 3: I mean, that's the last thing that any parents should

631
00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:43,480
Speaker 3: have to worry about.

632
00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:45,720
Speaker 4: They need to focus on, you know, giving their loving

633
00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:48,160
Speaker 4: to their child, you know, and versus worrying about it.

634
00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:51,200
Speaker 4: So that's a blessing that that was started so many

635
00:28:51,280 --> 00:28:53,880
Speaker 4: years ago, and thank God for that.

636
00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:57,160
Speaker 2: Did you ever feel isolated due to the social distancing

637
00:28:57,360 --> 00:28:58,840
Speaker 2: that was going on within the pandemic.

638
00:28:59,440 --> 00:29:01,080
Speaker 4: Somebody just asked me that, and I said, one of

639
00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:04,239
Speaker 4: the things the blessing that God gave me was that

640
00:29:04,280 --> 00:29:07,560
Speaker 4: I think if I had to go through cancer non pandemic,

641
00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:08,120
Speaker 4: I would.

642
00:29:07,880 --> 00:29:08,720
Speaker 3: Have lost my mind.

643
00:29:08,960 --> 00:29:13,320
Speaker 4: Yeah, because I'm so social that not to be social

644
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:16,600
Speaker 4: in the world. The world was happening regardless, Yeah, you know,

645
00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:18,800
Speaker 4: and people are out in your home, but the world

646
00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:22,360
Speaker 4: wasn't happening. Everybody was home. I'm home too, So you know,

647
00:29:22,560 --> 00:29:25,560
Speaker 4: Zoom became our best friends. Hey, girl, and I probably

648
00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:28,920
Speaker 4: connected with folks that I probably didn't connect with as

649
00:29:29,040 --> 00:29:31,560
Speaker 4: much as I should have, just because life was life

650
00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:34,160
Speaker 4: and where it was so great to see this and girl,

651
00:29:34,200 --> 00:29:36,600
Speaker 4: what's going on and talk and catch up. I think

652
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:38,280
Speaker 4: it did it for a lot of us. In spite

653
00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:40,520
Speaker 4: of the despair, in spite of the loss, in spite

654
00:29:40,520 --> 00:29:43,680
Speaker 4: of the pain, in spite of the tragedy, the connections.

655
00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:43,920
Speaker 3: Were being made.

656
00:29:44,760 --> 00:29:45,040
Speaker 1: For me.

657
00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:48,760
Speaker 4: I was grateful that people, friends and you know, Caurd

658
00:29:49,200 --> 00:29:50,600
Speaker 4: took the time to reach out to.

659
00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:52,640
Speaker 3: Me via zoom face.

660
00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:55,440
Speaker 4: But whatever media that we were using, just to say

661
00:29:55,480 --> 00:29:58,640
Speaker 4: I'm thinking about you, it meant the world to me.

662
00:29:57,880 --> 00:30:02,120
Speaker 3: And you know, be able to just talk, you know.

663
00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:04,920
Speaker 4: So that's why I started the advocacies and started talking

664
00:30:05,280 --> 00:30:06,520
Speaker 4: on Zoom because I'm a talker.

665
00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:08,240
Speaker 3: I need to get out of me.

666
00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:12,000
Speaker 2: And were there any unexpected lessons about self love or

667
00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:14,760
Speaker 2: body image that came along with your experience with breast cancer?

668
00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:18,760
Speaker 3: So again, the commediany one was I was.

669
00:30:18,880 --> 00:30:23,000
Speaker 4: I told my plastic surgeon, listen, you're my new boob,

670
00:30:23,440 --> 00:30:25,240
Speaker 4: You're my boyfriend, and I was like, I ne should

671
00:30:25,280 --> 00:30:28,600
Speaker 4: make me look good because I'm dating and I want

672
00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:30,760
Speaker 4: to know that, you know, I don't look like Frankenstein.

673
00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:33,440
Speaker 3: Let's let's let's use those surgeons, because I mean.

674
00:30:33,520 --> 00:30:35,720
Speaker 4: Even to the point that they wanted to put not

675
00:30:35,840 --> 00:30:38,080
Speaker 4: the regular implant that most people know, but this type

676
00:30:38,120 --> 00:30:40,960
Speaker 4: of in me, and I absolutely refuse because we use

677
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:42,600
Speaker 4: the type of material in the foot and I'm like,

678
00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:43,400
Speaker 4: that's not gonna song.

679
00:30:43,480 --> 00:30:45,440
Speaker 3: I don't care what you said. So advocating for.

680
00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:50,080
Speaker 4: Myself was important, feeling trying to feel.

681
00:30:50,080 --> 00:30:51,200
Speaker 3: I would always wear make up.

682
00:30:51,240 --> 00:30:54,040
Speaker 4: When I did Chemo, my face was beaked because I

683
00:30:54,080 --> 00:30:57,040
Speaker 4: was like and I had my African wrap on and people.

684
00:30:56,760 --> 00:30:59,000
Speaker 3: Were like, it made me feel beautiful.

685
00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:03,760
Speaker 4: My lashes reduced fifty percent, and with in length, my eyebrows,

686
00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:06,560
Speaker 4: which were very thin, reduced even more. So all I

687
00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:10,240
Speaker 4: saw was bauntaness and that I made fun that it

688
00:31:10,280 --> 00:31:11,400
Speaker 4: was a great way to lose weight.

689
00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:12,840
Speaker 3: I think on a video it.

690
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:15,400
Speaker 4: Full looked at me like and I was like, listen,

691
00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:17,200
Speaker 4: I'm gonna make fun of myself because.

692
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:19,440
Speaker 3: If I can't laugh at me, what can I laugh at?

693
00:31:20,040 --> 00:31:22,480
Speaker 3: And for me, that was important.

694
00:31:23,560 --> 00:31:27,000
Speaker 4: So body image just you know, especially my hair started

695
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:29,000
Speaker 4: going back and seeing it back and right now it's

696
00:31:29,040 --> 00:31:31,240
Speaker 4: blown out. But I keep my hair natural, but you know,

697
00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:35,600
Speaker 4: different texture. My hair grew in silvery gray. I was like, oh,

698
00:31:35,640 --> 00:31:38,480
Speaker 4: I don't right, you know, and my friends were like

699
00:31:39,200 --> 00:31:43,440
Speaker 4: I started kind to cover them up, and just different

700
00:31:43,480 --> 00:31:45,880
Speaker 4: experiences that challenged me each time, and I was like,

701
00:31:45,960 --> 00:31:48,040
Speaker 4: am I going to rise to this? And when I

702
00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:51,760
Speaker 4: didn't having somebody to fall back on, my family, my friends,

703
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:54,120
Speaker 4: when I was in tears and I was crying.

704
00:31:53,840 --> 00:31:54,760
Speaker 3: I was emotional.

705
00:31:54,840 --> 00:31:57,040
Speaker 4: I was angry at the world, and I didn't want

706
00:31:57,040 --> 00:31:58,560
Speaker 4: to talk to people, and I wanted to be like

707
00:31:58,840 --> 00:32:00,560
Speaker 4: to help with everybody around me because.

708
00:32:00,320 --> 00:32:02,240
Speaker 3: You're not going and going through or the decisions I

709
00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:03,760
Speaker 3: had to make. That's hard.

710
00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:07,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, did you have to forgive yourself for not listening

711
00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:09,400
Speaker 2: to yourself the first time? Or like because you pushed

712
00:32:09,400 --> 00:32:09,760
Speaker 2: it back?

713
00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:10,080
Speaker 3: I did?

714
00:32:10,320 --> 00:32:12,160
Speaker 2: What did that look like? Yeah?

715
00:32:12,600 --> 00:32:15,040
Speaker 4: Crying, there's many I think that more than people know.

716
00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:16,720
Speaker 4: As they say, you only see a lot of this

717
00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:19,800
Speaker 4: many times. There's times I stayed in bed and just

718
00:32:19,880 --> 00:32:22,440
Speaker 4: cried right all evening, right the next day, did a

719
00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:24,080
Speaker 4: lot of prayer, got closer to God.

720
00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:25,920
Speaker 3: One of my sores pretty sisters.

721
00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:28,320
Speaker 4: Dana Plumbing and I have been doing the Bible app

722
00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:28,800
Speaker 4: since then.

723
00:32:28,960 --> 00:32:32,880
Speaker 3: That encourged me. She right, I write, read it right, right,

724
00:32:32,960 --> 00:32:33,400
Speaker 3: right right.

725
00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:35,720
Speaker 4: I got a book, a gratitude book, where I have

726
00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:38,120
Speaker 4: to write something I was thankful for, and it'd be stunfold.

727
00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:40,360
Speaker 3: During COVID. You know what I didn't I would have.

728
00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:41,880
Speaker 3: I know everybody says.

729
00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:43,480
Speaker 4: Maybe I was going kokoo Luca at the time, but

730
00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:46,040
Speaker 4: I believe that God for me, gives signs. I am

731
00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:49,720
Speaker 4: a signed person and I used to have red belly

732
00:32:49,840 --> 00:32:53,240
Speaker 4: Robbins in New Jersey, but during COVID really came out

733
00:32:53,640 --> 00:32:55,480
Speaker 4: and one would always sit on my death and I'd

734
00:32:55,560 --> 00:32:58,600
Speaker 4: look and be like, and you're supposed to represent that

735
00:32:58,640 --> 00:32:59,640
Speaker 4: the best is yet to happen.

736
00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:00,960
Speaker 3: If you were about something, let it go.

737
00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:04,680
Speaker 4: And Native American culture says it's an ancestor looking over you,

738
00:33:04,680 --> 00:33:05,560
Speaker 4: which for me would be.

739
00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:06,960
Speaker 3: My maternal grandfather.

740
00:33:07,320 --> 00:33:09,840
Speaker 4: So I would go into my surgeon or my medical

741
00:33:09,960 --> 00:33:12,720
Speaker 4: cologist's office and know, yeah, the test is negative, and

742
00:33:12,760 --> 00:33:14,520
Speaker 4: I'm like, I'm telling you, and I would tell them why,

743
00:33:14,560 --> 00:33:16,760
Speaker 4: and I know sometimes they were like okay, but I

744
00:33:16,880 --> 00:33:18,240
Speaker 4: was right each and every time.

745
00:33:18,400 --> 00:33:20,760
Speaker 3: I said, it's God giving me the sign I need

746
00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:21,840
Speaker 3: that giving it.

747
00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:28,280
Speaker 4: So having that was for me life alter because I

748
00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:30,720
Speaker 4: would be looking for it, you know, anytime I would

749
00:33:30,720 --> 00:33:34,720
Speaker 4: go for testing, testing anxieties really yeah, pressure because I'm like,

750
00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:36,600
Speaker 4: here I go talking to God in me and Maria

751
00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:39,760
Speaker 4: Machine like, Lord, is your will keep me alive? You're not,

752
00:33:39,960 --> 00:33:42,720
Speaker 4: it's not your will. Please let me go peacefully. And

753
00:33:42,760 --> 00:33:45,040
Speaker 4: that's what I always prayed for. If it's your will,

754
00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:46,840
Speaker 4: I'm gonna keep, you know, rocking to the end.

755
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:49,720
Speaker 3: Yeah, shold me purpose And here we are. Yeah.

756
00:33:49,720 --> 00:33:51,400
Speaker 2: I wanted to go get a test and I think

757
00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:55,600
Speaker 2: like last year and they found a lump in my breast,

758
00:33:55,720 --> 00:33:57,360
Speaker 2: so I have to go back and get additional tests.

759
00:33:57,360 --> 00:34:00,200
Speaker 2: And it was like very uncomfortable, and I just I'm

760
00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:02,280
Speaker 2: talking to God. I'm like, come all God, like I said,

761
00:34:02,320 --> 00:34:05,760
Speaker 2: we're not doing this. I was like, I'm like, please

762
00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:08,279
Speaker 2: hold it down because it was it's very scary.

763
00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:11,160
Speaker 4: It is scary. And that's the times that your faith

764
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:13,400
Speaker 4: becomes your your blanket.

765
00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:14,560
Speaker 3: Yeah.

766
00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:18,239
Speaker 4: But I don't care if you're a Jewish, Muslim, Judas,

767
00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:21,719
Speaker 4: I don't care. Whatever you want. Your faith plows you down.

768
00:34:21,960 --> 00:34:24,920
Speaker 4: I know science can only do so much. Faith is

769
00:34:24,920 --> 00:34:27,080
Speaker 4: the other part of it for me, and I had

770
00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:29,320
Speaker 4: to have both, you know, I had to have both.

771
00:34:29,719 --> 00:34:32,560
Speaker 3: I believe God does for those who do for themselves.

772
00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:35,640
Speaker 4: So ifect you know, if he was willing to take

773
00:34:35,680 --> 00:34:38,400
Speaker 4: me there, and you know it was his will that

774
00:34:38,520 --> 00:34:40,279
Speaker 4: he did. If it wasn't his will, I was. I

775
00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:42,799
Speaker 4: actually had made peace with that as well. But if

776
00:34:42,800 --> 00:34:46,120
Speaker 4: it wasn't his will once I wasn't in excruciating pain,

777
00:34:46,600 --> 00:34:48,120
Speaker 4: that I would be okay with that if.

778
00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:49,200
Speaker 3: It was really exact.

779
00:34:49,640 --> 00:34:51,239
Speaker 4: And I think a lot of people are shocked when

780
00:34:51,239 --> 00:34:53,120
Speaker 4: they hear that. And I'm like, because I didn't know.

781
00:34:53,160 --> 00:34:56,240
Speaker 4: Even though I knew that yes, it was a cancer,

782
00:34:56,280 --> 00:34:59,439
Speaker 4: I could survive. COVID changed the game. And that's when

783
00:34:59,520 --> 00:35:02,040
Speaker 4: I was like real conversations that I had to really

784
00:35:02,040 --> 00:35:02,520
Speaker 4: think about.

785
00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:05,719
Speaker 2: You know, looking back before you receive the news, do

786
00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:08,879
Speaker 2: you think you live your life fully?

787
00:35:09,160 --> 00:35:12,799
Speaker 3: Not enough? You know, people may have thought. So.

788
00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:16,600
Speaker 4: I think in certain areas that I'll keep to myself,

789
00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:19,080
Speaker 4: that I might be a little bit more intimidated or

790
00:35:19,120 --> 00:35:24,239
Speaker 4: shy about yeah, you know. And because people see this

791
00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:27,920
Speaker 4: me and I say, you know, doctor tries to be

792
00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:32,000
Speaker 4: bold and brave as their own insecurities like, yeah, you know,

793
00:35:32,160 --> 00:35:34,799
Speaker 4: and any other person you know, and sometimes you know,

794
00:35:35,280 --> 00:35:37,879
Speaker 4: you don't feel so pretty, you know, sometimes you don't

795
00:35:37,880 --> 00:35:40,839
Speaker 4: feel like you know, you underestimate your work or your

796
00:35:40,840 --> 00:35:44,239
Speaker 4: ability to do so sometimes you make decisions based on

797
00:35:45,480 --> 00:35:48,359
Speaker 4: where your self esteem isn't at that moment where you're like, oh, no,

798
00:35:48,440 --> 00:35:50,279
Speaker 4: well I guess I have to accept this and you yeah,

799
00:35:51,520 --> 00:35:55,080
Speaker 4: So I think that it tested me to look at

800
00:35:55,080 --> 00:35:55,960
Speaker 4: myself differently.

801
00:35:56,640 --> 00:35:59,680
Speaker 3: And you know, I'm still a work in progress. I'm

802
00:35:59,680 --> 00:36:00,640
Speaker 3: I like that, you know.

803
00:36:01,200 --> 00:36:06,040
Speaker 4: You know, I'm an incomplete and incomplete and complete working

804
00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:08,759
Speaker 4: progress and I'm good, you know, and every day it's

805
00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:09,360
Speaker 4: a new day.

806
00:36:09,200 --> 00:36:09,760
Speaker 3: A new lesson.

807
00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:11,160
Speaker 1: You know.

808
00:36:11,239 --> 00:36:14,240
Speaker 2: That was a real, a real answer. I really appreciate

809
00:36:14,239 --> 00:36:15,720
Speaker 2: that because I think a lot of times when people

810
00:36:15,719 --> 00:36:17,440
Speaker 2: see us and we be all lively.

811
00:36:17,360 --> 00:36:19,160
Speaker 3: They think, oh they're great, they're doing it.

812
00:36:20,719 --> 00:36:24,759
Speaker 4: Fastest, you know, you know, like life is life right

813
00:36:24,800 --> 00:36:25,960
Speaker 4: and doing nothing.

814
00:36:26,040 --> 00:36:28,600
Speaker 3: But you know what, I plug on or you know

815
00:36:28,640 --> 00:36:29,040
Speaker 3: what for.

816
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:31,759
Speaker 4: Women who are many very middle pazzle, mental pazzle, you

817
00:36:31,800 --> 00:36:33,920
Speaker 4: know what, Oh, get in a hot flash.

818
00:36:33,640 --> 00:36:35,520
Speaker 3: And don't talk to me. I'll put that fan on.

819
00:36:35,520 --> 00:36:38,360
Speaker 4: Me, because that's real, it's real, and I feel like

820
00:36:38,520 --> 00:36:41,520
Speaker 4: we shouldn't you know, Yes, I might make breast cancer

821
00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:44,479
Speaker 4: look sexy in a way, but I don't, you know,

822
00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:48,120
Speaker 4: make it less than it is. It's real hard and

823
00:36:48,680 --> 00:36:50,480
Speaker 4: it's a journey, and some of us are on the

824
00:36:50,520 --> 00:36:54,239
Speaker 4: journey for for lifetime, you know. And you know, just

825
00:36:54,239 --> 00:36:56,640
Speaker 4: because five years comes, you know, there's always the chance

826
00:36:56,760 --> 00:36:57,319
Speaker 4: to be current.

827
00:36:58,200 --> 00:36:59,560
Speaker 3: There's some things I got to lead to God and

828
00:36:59,600 --> 00:37:00,439
Speaker 3: live as life.

829
00:37:00,600 --> 00:37:02,960
Speaker 2: And with that being said, how has your perspective on

830
00:37:03,080 --> 00:37:06,080
Speaker 2: health and wellness change? Because y'all she had us working

831
00:37:06,120 --> 00:37:08,719
Speaker 2: out at this event. I was like, nah.

832
00:37:09,080 --> 00:37:12,000
Speaker 4: So at the event, I took off my heel and

833
00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:14,040
Speaker 4: I said, we're gonna do you know? Coach Mo was like,

834
00:37:14,239 --> 00:37:16,120
Speaker 4: we're gonna do squats and I was stretching, I was

835
00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:18,839
Speaker 4: squatting and I was yes, And I think people think

836
00:37:18,840 --> 00:37:19,719
Speaker 4: that I wouldn't do that, and.

837
00:37:19,719 --> 00:37:22,880
Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, but this cute little pink dress on y'all,

838
00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:23,799
Speaker 2: I was like nah.

839
00:37:25,239 --> 00:37:27,040
Speaker 4: I was like, So I took him off. I knew

840
00:37:27,040 --> 00:37:28,600
Speaker 4: he was coming off. I was like, I'm ready, let's go.

841
00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:32,560
Speaker 4: We squatting be luncheon. You know, I am working out.

842
00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:34,040
Speaker 3: I try.

843
00:37:34,520 --> 00:37:37,919
Speaker 4: I had some health challenges again where my hemoglobin ape

844
00:37:37,960 --> 00:37:40,920
Speaker 4: and C, which is testing for diabetes, was fluctuating and

845
00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:43,719
Speaker 4: I had lost ten pounds. It was still fluctuating. So

846
00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:46,919
Speaker 4: you know, my endoprenologist has me on medication that's helped

847
00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:49,400
Speaker 4: me lose weight in addition to you know, doing the

848
00:37:49,440 --> 00:37:50,279
Speaker 4: things I need to do.

849
00:37:50,640 --> 00:37:51,640
Speaker 3: And you know, we fall off.

850
00:37:51,640 --> 00:37:55,080
Speaker 4: I'm huge like anybody else. You're like, but you know,

851
00:37:55,120 --> 00:37:57,759
Speaker 4: we get back on and it's a struggle every day.

852
00:37:57,800 --> 00:37:59,080
Speaker 4: But you know, I'm trying to be in it to

853
00:37:59,120 --> 00:37:59,440
Speaker 4: win it.

854
00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:02,839
Speaker 2: Yeah. You know, I watched your zoom when you had

855
00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:04,719
Speaker 2: the one year anniversary, and I was like, oh, this

856
00:38:04,800 --> 00:38:06,480
Speaker 2: is a party. Yeah.

857
00:38:06,760 --> 00:38:10,120
Speaker 3: I was like, many of my friends watched this. They

858
00:38:10,120 --> 00:38:11,719
Speaker 3: complain and I'm gonna make fun of them.

859
00:38:12,120 --> 00:38:14,640
Speaker 4: I couldn't get First of all, I didn't even think

860
00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:16,399
Speaker 4: we would have that many people walk.

861
00:38:16,719 --> 00:38:19,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, she had like at least what over fifty people,

862
00:38:19,680 --> 00:38:23,000
Speaker 2: one hundred people. I was like, nah, this is lit.

863
00:38:23,600 --> 00:38:26,640
Speaker 4: Not knowing I didn't think we get fifty people had

864
00:38:26,680 --> 00:38:28,759
Speaker 4: an attitude with me, like texting.

865
00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:30,000
Speaker 3: Me, how come I can't get down this like go

866
00:38:30,040 --> 00:38:31,840
Speaker 3: into the club. I was shocked.

867
00:38:32,239 --> 00:38:33,319
Speaker 2: Now, I was shocked too.

868
00:38:34,040 --> 00:38:36,040
Speaker 4: I was so shocked that we had some people still

869
00:38:36,040 --> 00:38:37,839
Speaker 4: wanted to log on. I wasn't in charge of it.

870
00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:40,319
Speaker 4: Have a group called the Soroposita that we talked about.

871
00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:44,080
Speaker 4: If you ever watched Girls Trip, Yeah, three sisters and

872
00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:46,440
Speaker 4: I doctor Monique Gary, who spoke.

873
00:38:46,200 --> 00:38:47,399
Speaker 3: One of the top rest.

874
00:38:47,560 --> 00:38:48,640
Speaker 2: Oh, she was so good.

875
00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:52,000
Speaker 4: My other good girlfriend, doctor Kelly Drew Lockhart, who was

876
00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:56,160
Speaker 4: a psychologist amazing. And my other dear friends Sora Posse,

877
00:38:56,680 --> 00:39:01,480
Speaker 4: Emily Nicholas Mitchell who's a consultant comprisis as group. So

878
00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:04,680
Speaker 4: they threw me the party. So for once, I'm a

879
00:39:04,719 --> 00:39:07,480
Speaker 4: tight thing and like to be. They were like, fall

880
00:39:07,560 --> 00:39:09,719
Speaker 4: back to this, you got this, So people texting me.

881
00:39:09,719 --> 00:39:11,239
Speaker 4: I'm like, I'm not in control of this. I'm just

882
00:39:11,320 --> 00:39:15,919
Speaker 4: here too, you know, party box music, and saw the comedians,

883
00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:18,000
Speaker 4: We saw the advocacy speak.

884
00:39:19,239 --> 00:39:20,120
Speaker 3: Had get in tears.

885
00:39:20,480 --> 00:39:23,680
Speaker 4: You know, you saw my parents, you saw ex boyfriends

886
00:39:23,680 --> 00:39:27,440
Speaker 4: in college, people from all walks of my life that

887
00:39:28,040 --> 00:39:32,399
Speaker 4: touched me beyond my wildest dream or that. Nothing can

888
00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:35,719
Speaker 4: beat that because it was through COVID and I was

889
00:39:35,719 --> 00:39:37,759
Speaker 4: alone in the house and I'm so emotional about it.

890
00:39:37,760 --> 00:39:39,160
Speaker 3: But it was amazing.

891
00:39:39,200 --> 00:39:41,040
Speaker 2: No, it was beautiful. I mean I just met my

892
00:39:41,080 --> 00:39:43,560
Speaker 2: guest recently and I was watching and I was like,

893
00:39:43,719 --> 00:39:45,760
Speaker 2: that's what I'm talking about, Like, I was so happy

894
00:39:45,760 --> 00:39:49,359
Speaker 2: for you because sometimes you never know how your your

895
00:39:49,400 --> 00:39:51,680
Speaker 2: life can impact other people. So to see you get

896
00:39:51,680 --> 00:39:54,239
Speaker 2: that much love and you know, people wanted to show

897
00:39:54,320 --> 00:39:56,000
Speaker 2: up for you and just pour into you, like seeing

898
00:39:56,000 --> 00:39:58,759
Speaker 2: your grandmother, I was like, oh my goodness, Like it

899
00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:00,480
Speaker 2: was a beautiful thing to to see.

900
00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:04,280
Speaker 3: Thank you. I was amazed, you know, I was amazed.

901
00:40:05,239 --> 00:40:07,080
Speaker 2: So for those who are supporting and loved one with

902
00:40:07,120 --> 00:40:09,200
Speaker 2: breast cancer, what would be your advice to give to them?

903
00:40:09,760 --> 00:40:12,640
Speaker 4: Sometimes there are gonna be people gonna want to talk me,

904
00:40:12,920 --> 00:40:17,000
Speaker 4: and then because they don't, you need to don't ask

905
00:40:17,040 --> 00:40:18,680
Speaker 4: them what they need. Certain if you're a type A,

906
00:40:18,840 --> 00:40:20,640
Speaker 4: you're never First of all, you don't know what you

907
00:40:20,680 --> 00:40:21,280
Speaker 4: need until.

908
00:40:21,080 --> 00:40:22,840
Speaker 3: You're going through it. So I can't tell you I

909
00:40:22,880 --> 00:40:25,880
Speaker 3: need this. You don't know. It comes as it goes.

910
00:40:26,480 --> 00:40:29,319
Speaker 4: Number two sometimes to show up, you know, when I

911
00:40:29,440 --> 00:40:32,279
Speaker 4: when my girlfriend's passion and Jennifer showed up, you know,

912
00:40:32,320 --> 00:40:33,920
Speaker 4: I was mad as hell because I was just like

913
00:40:34,160 --> 00:40:36,880
Speaker 4: I felt like I was losing control. But that for

914
00:40:37,040 --> 00:40:41,120
Speaker 4: me showed their love and their empathy, you know, great,

915
00:40:41,280 --> 00:40:44,479
Speaker 4: Like I said church members from Abyssinian Baptist very love,

916
00:40:44,600 --> 00:40:46,000
Speaker 4: you know, showing up and dropping.

917
00:40:45,760 --> 00:40:48,760
Speaker 3: Off food for my parents and I you know, coffee.

918
00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:49,400
Speaker 3: I love coffee.

919
00:40:49,400 --> 00:40:51,920
Speaker 4: If I knows that decay somebody bringing me that, you know,

920
00:40:52,160 --> 00:40:53,239
Speaker 4: Duncan or Starbucks.

921
00:40:53,239 --> 00:40:59,520
Speaker 3: I was like, God, bless you like that, like thank you.

922
00:41:00,040 --> 00:41:00,840
Speaker 2: I love coffee.

923
00:41:01,120 --> 00:41:01,480
Speaker 3: Girl.

924
00:41:02,120 --> 00:41:04,920
Speaker 4: So you know, you don't know what they need to

925
00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:07,600
Speaker 4: show up and be like I'm here, even sometimes it's

926
00:41:07,600 --> 00:41:08,120
Speaker 4: sitting there.

927
00:41:08,760 --> 00:41:11,520
Speaker 3: I remember Doctor Pemberton again, one of my dearest friends.

928
00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:15,160
Speaker 4: You know, we did just on the phone watching some

929
00:41:15,400 --> 00:41:18,840
Speaker 4: crazy you know, I used to watch a lot of comedy.

930
00:41:18,840 --> 00:41:21,000
Speaker 4: This comedy would make me laugh. I mean from ship

931
00:41:21,560 --> 00:41:25,480
Speaker 4: to decoy. I mean just cracking up. And I think

932
00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:29,200
Speaker 4: comedians to understand how much joy they bring people.

933
00:41:29,600 --> 00:41:32,040
Speaker 3: Sometimes you know, the content can be you know, a bitten,

934
00:41:32,880 --> 00:41:38,400
Speaker 3: but it makes you laugh overall. Chris Rock Williams, you know,

935
00:41:38,920 --> 00:41:44,040
Speaker 3: yeah Williams, I'm like, Lord, but I needed that.

936
00:41:44,160 --> 00:41:45,919
Speaker 4: And I mean, and I don't know if they'll ever

937
00:41:45,960 --> 00:41:48,000
Speaker 4: see that, but I say thank you because I would

938
00:41:48,040 --> 00:41:50,919
Speaker 4: sit back and just dial laugh and I'm like, ou

939
00:41:51,120 --> 00:41:52,120
Speaker 4: would bring out.

940
00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:52,719
Speaker 3: The pain out of it.

941
00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:57,320
Speaker 4: Yeah, joy, So and all the movies that were released

942
00:41:57,320 --> 00:41:59,680
Speaker 4: the Netflix, because I was like, thank you, that was

943
00:41:59,719 --> 00:42:05,560
Speaker 4: a good tiger, thank you, thank you, thank you Amazon.

944
00:42:06,160 --> 00:42:09,400
Speaker 3: So it got it got me through. You know, I'm

945
00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:10,960
Speaker 3: reading great books.

946
00:42:11,080 --> 00:42:13,839
Speaker 4: I'm an avid reader, a voracious reader, and sit on

947
00:42:13,880 --> 00:42:16,560
Speaker 4: my couch or my deck was warm and just read

948
00:42:16,760 --> 00:42:19,520
Speaker 4: and enjoy you know nature.

949
00:42:20,000 --> 00:42:23,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, and last, but not least, based on your own journey,

950
00:42:23,640 --> 00:42:25,640
Speaker 2: what advice would you offer to someone who had just

951
00:42:25,640 --> 00:42:27,280
Speaker 2: been diagnosed with breast cancer?

952
00:42:28,360 --> 00:42:31,239
Speaker 3: Yeah, a second thing. I ain't care nothing about these

953
00:42:31,280 --> 00:42:32,880
Speaker 3: folks who are my medical colleagues.

954
00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:33,360
Speaker 1: Zero.

955
00:42:33,520 --> 00:42:35,640
Speaker 4: I told them, I said, I'm getting a second thing

956
00:42:35,640 --> 00:42:38,759
Speaker 4: from a slow can and if it doesn't match, we

957
00:42:38,840 --> 00:42:40,640
Speaker 4: have a problem. And I know people look at it,

958
00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:44,239
Speaker 4: probably like, yes, this is my life, it's your life,

959
00:42:44,280 --> 00:42:46,719
Speaker 4: and this is the time to be shy. But I

960
00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:50,160
Speaker 4: didn't care whose feelings were hurt during that period, and

961
00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:51,000
Speaker 4: I wasn't.

962
00:42:50,800 --> 00:42:52,600
Speaker 3: Trying to be rude or hurt. But I needed to

963
00:42:52,640 --> 00:42:53,360
Speaker 3: live and.

964
00:42:53,360 --> 00:42:55,480
Speaker 4: I needed to make sure that I was getting the

965
00:42:55,520 --> 00:42:57,800
Speaker 4: best care. As I said, I have a million allergies,

966
00:42:57,840 --> 00:42:59,919
Speaker 4: which we talked about when you came to my event.

967
00:43:00,120 --> 00:43:03,440
Speaker 4: So my doctors didn't know if I would tolerate I

968
00:43:03,440 --> 00:43:05,759
Speaker 4: could have had anaple axis and died from it. Having

969
00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:09,840
Speaker 4: the blessings of doctor and Maitland contacting for one of

970
00:43:09,840 --> 00:43:12,960
Speaker 4: the top universities. I'm in the Northeast and coming up

971
00:43:12,960 --> 00:43:16,000
Speaker 4: with a protocol that my doctor used to make sure

972
00:43:16,120 --> 00:43:19,879
Speaker 4: my chemo was all day. As a result doing cool cat,

973
00:43:19,960 --> 00:43:22,400
Speaker 4: which is a type of type of cat that you

974
00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:25,960
Speaker 4: wear that gives hyperbaric oxygen, super super cold oxygen.

975
00:43:26,160 --> 00:43:29,240
Speaker 3: Preserve my hair policles because I love my mediva.

976
00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:31,440
Speaker 4: I'm a black waman and I wanted my hair back

977
00:43:31,680 --> 00:43:33,440
Speaker 4: and it preserved a lot of my hair. Being a

978
00:43:33,480 --> 00:43:35,000
Speaker 4: test money for that because there's not a lot of

979
00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:39,240
Speaker 4: great studies a woman of color knowing about that, asking

980
00:43:39,360 --> 00:43:41,719
Speaker 4: questions why do I have to do this type of

981
00:43:41,719 --> 00:43:44,560
Speaker 4: treatment versus that percentages? If I don't want to do

982
00:43:44,680 --> 00:43:47,200
Speaker 4: is mastectomy, how much longer would I live if I

983
00:43:47,200 --> 00:43:50,919
Speaker 4: do a lompectomy, and asking that having your somebody who

984
00:43:51,239 --> 00:43:57,439
Speaker 4: can write down everything, because I mean, my fan, you're

985
00:43:57,480 --> 00:43:59,480
Speaker 4: going to be the same way. You need somebody who

986
00:43:59,480 --> 00:44:02,279
Speaker 4: can be I've got this to write down everything. I

987
00:44:02,320 --> 00:44:05,719
Speaker 4: almost like did I'm so sorry I cursed her out

988
00:44:05,719 --> 00:44:08,319
Speaker 4: when she told me I had five more sessions of

989
00:44:08,400 --> 00:44:12,279
Speaker 4: fromono chemo. I saw she liked, I'm mad as my

990
00:44:12,320 --> 00:44:14,320
Speaker 4: girlfriend who purs is out another doctor.

991
00:44:15,280 --> 00:44:17,960
Speaker 3: You are my sister telling her? You know what she

992
00:44:18,040 --> 00:44:18,360
Speaker 3: told me?

993
00:44:18,440 --> 00:44:21,839
Speaker 4: My sister was like sis, she did say that. If

994
00:44:21,840 --> 00:44:23,600
Speaker 4: my sister didn't tell me that, I would have said

995
00:44:23,640 --> 00:44:25,600
Speaker 4: that was a lie. That just shows how I blacked

996
00:44:25,600 --> 00:44:27,799
Speaker 4: it out. I couldn't handle it at the time. My

997
00:44:27,840 --> 00:44:29,680
Speaker 4: body protected me, like didn't want to hear about No.

998
00:44:29,719 --> 00:44:33,120
Speaker 4: Five additional chemos. So you need that, you need to

999
00:44:33,640 --> 00:44:36,359
Speaker 4: you know something's not right. Don't just brush it off.

1000
00:44:36,920 --> 00:44:38,360
Speaker 4: Go and see your doctor. And if your doctor's not

1001
00:44:38,400 --> 00:44:41,560
Speaker 4: giving you, go see another doctor. You know, don't especially

1002
00:44:41,920 --> 00:44:44,680
Speaker 4: full of color sometimes, you know, we don't always get

1003
00:44:44,680 --> 00:44:47,880
Speaker 4: the best care. Not rush it well. Make sure that

1004
00:44:47,960 --> 00:44:51,759
Speaker 4: your concern is addressed. Something doesn't feel right, probably not right.

1005
00:44:52,400 --> 00:44:54,799
Speaker 4: Make sure that you're getting that and you know what,

1006
00:44:55,760 --> 00:44:58,719
Speaker 4: talking to people. You don't have to tell the world.

1007
00:44:58,840 --> 00:45:01,640
Speaker 4: That's your private right. But you know what, then if

1008
00:45:01,640 --> 00:45:03,320
Speaker 4: it's an advocacy where you let me tune into this

1009
00:45:04,280 --> 00:45:06,759
Speaker 4: like you're doing now, you know, maybe this will make

1010
00:45:06,760 --> 00:45:08,680
Speaker 4: the next woman who maybe didn't want to go to

1011
00:45:08,719 --> 00:45:11,440
Speaker 4: get tested, get tested. Maybe it'll make somebody go you know,

1012
00:45:11,560 --> 00:45:14,239
Speaker 4: I did not feel comfortable enough with the answer that

1013
00:45:14,320 --> 00:45:17,000
Speaker 4: I got. Maybe I need some more information and if

1014
00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:19,239
Speaker 4: this is what the journey is for me, you know,

1015
00:45:19,360 --> 00:45:20,120
Speaker 4: thank God for it.

1016
00:45:20,520 --> 00:45:23,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we should be going to get tested every year, right.

1017
00:45:23,880 --> 00:45:28,799
Speaker 4: So usually Again, unfortunately, in my opinion, I think that

1018
00:45:29,200 --> 00:45:32,720
Speaker 4: mastected excuse me, mammograms and started the age of forty.

1019
00:45:33,040 --> 00:45:35,800
Speaker 4: If your high risk, like I was, I did mammograms earlier.

1020
00:45:35,840 --> 00:45:38,480
Speaker 4: I think I started at thirty five. If you have

1021
00:45:38,520 --> 00:45:40,800
Speaker 4: a history of breast cancer in your family ten years

1022
00:45:40,840 --> 00:45:45,200
Speaker 4: from the time that your mother or sister'ould have your

1023
00:45:45,200 --> 00:45:48,960
Speaker 4: grandmother was diagnosed, so it's different. But the standard is

1024
00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:53,680
Speaker 4: a mammogram at forty the man as a woman of color, ultrasound, right,

1025
00:45:54,600 --> 00:45:57,960
Speaker 4: you need both to truly termine that cancer or not

1026
00:45:58,560 --> 00:46:00,600
Speaker 4: doing a biopsy is obviously the most standard, but we

1027
00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:02,040
Speaker 4: don't know the biopsy said anything.

1028
00:46:02,160 --> 00:46:04,920
Speaker 3: You can't see it, right, that definitely you want to

1029
00:46:04,920 --> 00:46:05,520
Speaker 3: push for that.

1030
00:46:05,719 --> 00:46:08,760
Speaker 4: And young women, you know, there's new technology out bexa

1031
00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:13,440
Speaker 4: doctor Gary's affiliated with type of similar to an ultrasound,

1032
00:46:13,480 --> 00:46:16,839
Speaker 4: but it's the lastography. Having these newer technologies coming in

1033
00:46:16,920 --> 00:46:20,680
Speaker 4: that hopefully insurances will start covering that can have, you know,

1034
00:46:21,160 --> 00:46:24,200
Speaker 4: better techniques for younger women to get scances, you know,

1035
00:46:24,320 --> 00:46:27,120
Speaker 4: and doing a self exam, check your breast feel like,

1036
00:46:27,480 --> 00:46:29,960
Speaker 4: so something doesn't feel right, so your doctor be like,

1037
00:46:30,680 --> 00:46:34,040
Speaker 4: I have this here last month, now feel this, what

1038
00:46:34,080 --> 00:46:34,600
Speaker 4: do you think?

1039
00:46:35,320 --> 00:46:38,040
Speaker 3: Knowing and men checking your pets.

1040
00:46:37,920 --> 00:46:40,440
Speaker 4: You know, knowing what your own chest feels like, especially

1041
00:46:40,520 --> 00:46:43,520
Speaker 4: men who had women in their family with breast cancer,

1042
00:46:43,600 --> 00:46:45,480
Speaker 4: your d risk check your pets.

1043
00:46:45,640 --> 00:46:48,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm so happy we was able to do this.

1044
00:46:48,360 --> 00:46:51,200
Speaker 2: I'm really excited for everyone to hear this because I

1045
00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:53,640
Speaker 2: don't think that we have enough awareness around this, and

1046
00:46:53,680 --> 00:46:56,000
Speaker 2: I think that you do such a beautiful job for

1047
00:46:56,120 --> 00:46:58,760
Speaker 2: sharing your story. So thank you so much. No, thank

1048
00:46:58,800 --> 00:46:59,279
Speaker 2: you so.

1049
00:46:59,239 --> 00:47:01,919
Speaker 3: Much Shade having the opportunity, and.

1050
00:47:01,800 --> 00:47:03,320
Speaker 2: Then we got to get this book out, y'all.

1051
00:47:03,920 --> 00:47:06,279
Speaker 3: The book will come. I can't wait. If I listening,

1052
00:47:06,320 --> 00:47:07,520
Speaker 3: he wants to help it thep let me know.

1053
00:47:07,760 --> 00:47:10,680
Speaker 4: They also have Sisters on the Vineyard, which is our

1054
00:47:10,960 --> 00:47:15,080
Speaker 4: philanthropic arm retreat for health and wellness and financial literacy.

1055
00:47:15,560 --> 00:47:17,960
Speaker 4: Last year we had this year that just happened, we

1056
00:47:18,040 --> 00:47:21,799
Speaker 4: had Sunny Hastin's our keynote speaker. Milik Yoba is our

1057
00:47:21,800 --> 00:47:26,280
Speaker 4: guest speaker sponsored by ad pfisor Eli Lilly JP Morgan.

1058
00:47:26,320 --> 00:47:28,640
Speaker 4: It was an amazing Marthur's vineyard. We're going into for

1059
00:47:28,760 --> 00:47:31,960
Speaker 4: three and then stepping forward. My but I treat by

1060
00:47:32,040 --> 00:47:32,560
Speaker 4: black job.

1061
00:47:32,800 --> 00:47:34,120
Speaker 2: Yes, your black job.

1062
00:47:34,200 --> 00:47:38,360
Speaker 4: At Black doctor or monthly from seven to eight o'clock

1063
00:47:38,680 --> 00:47:41,879
Speaker 4: the first Wednesday of the month, so you know, can't

1064
00:47:41,880 --> 00:47:42,680
Speaker 4: stop phone stuff.

1065
00:47:42,840 --> 00:47:45,759
Speaker 2: Okay, two things, I definitely need to be invited to

1066
00:47:45,840 --> 00:47:48,879
Speaker 2: sisters in the vineyard. And then also, I think you're

1067
00:47:48,920 --> 00:47:50,839
Speaker 2: approaching the mouth zone, right, do you.

1068
00:47:50,800 --> 00:47:52,840
Speaker 3: Want to put me out there right there?

1069
00:47:53,440 --> 00:47:56,560
Speaker 2: Listen y'all? She looked good. Don't let the age for you. Okay.

1070
00:47:56,600 --> 00:47:58,960
Speaker 2: Everything she just discussed, she do not look her age,

1071
00:47:58,960 --> 00:47:59,960
Speaker 2: and she looked even better than part.

1072
00:48:00,200 --> 00:48:01,880
Speaker 3: Yes, I'll be fifty year.

1073
00:48:01,960 --> 00:48:03,439
Speaker 2: So I need to come to this birthday party because

1074
00:48:03,440 --> 00:48:08,240
Speaker 2: I know it's gonna be popping. I know it's gonna

1075
00:48:08,280 --> 00:48:08,840
Speaker 2: be lit.

1076
00:48:09,360 --> 00:48:11,719
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you very much.

1077
00:48:11,680 --> 00:48:16,520
Speaker 2: No, thank you? All right, professional homegirls, tell me what

1078
00:48:16,640 --> 00:48:18,919
Speaker 2: you think of the first story. You know, I felt

1079
00:48:19,000 --> 00:48:22,400
Speaker 2: like it was very clear on how her determination carried

1080
00:48:22,440 --> 00:48:25,160
Speaker 2: her through one of the most challenging times of her life,

1081
00:48:25,719 --> 00:48:29,400
Speaker 2: despite initially dismissing the signs and receiving her diagnosis during

1082
00:48:29,400 --> 00:48:32,840
Speaker 2: the height of the pandemic. My guest stays strong and

1083
00:48:32,880 --> 00:48:35,840
Speaker 2: she focused on her health. So I hope her story

1084
00:48:35,920 --> 00:48:40,320
Speaker 2: encouraged you to go get an exam. But if it doesn't,

1085
00:48:40,719 --> 00:48:43,640
Speaker 2: my second guest was diagnosed with breast cancer. It's just

1086
00:48:43,680 --> 00:48:47,200
Speaker 2: twenty eight years old. Her journey is unique and eye open.

1087
00:48:47,280 --> 00:48:50,120
Speaker 2: It as she was initially told by doctors that it

1088
00:48:50,200 --> 00:48:54,080
Speaker 2: wasn't anything serious, she had to advocate for herself, pushing

1089
00:48:54,120 --> 00:48:58,279
Speaker 2: for answers until she finally received the correct diagnosis. Her

1090
00:48:58,320 --> 00:49:02,240
Speaker 2: story highlights the importance of trusting your instincts and speaking

1091
00:49:02,320 --> 00:49:04,439
Speaker 2: up when it comes to your health, no matter what

1092
00:49:04,520 --> 00:49:08,840
Speaker 2: the age. So don't wait, schedule your exam, encourage your

1093
00:49:08,880 --> 00:49:12,799
Speaker 2: loved ones to do the same, and remember professional homegirls

1094
00:49:13,080 --> 00:49:17,359
Speaker 2: and men, early detection can save lives. So let's keep

1095
00:49:17,360 --> 00:49:21,280
Speaker 2: spreading awareness, supporting each other, and taking care of our health.

1096
00:49:31,680 --> 00:49:33,560
Speaker 2: All right, to my guests, thank you so much for

1097
00:49:33,600 --> 00:49:35,760
Speaker 2: being on a show. How you doing, How you feeling.

1098
00:49:36,920 --> 00:49:39,120
Speaker 3: I'm doing good, I'm feeling a great.

1099
00:49:39,440 --> 00:49:42,319
Speaker 2: Okay, looking good, brown skin for the win?

1100
00:49:43,080 --> 00:49:45,720
Speaker 3: Yes that's right, Okay.

1101
00:49:45,520 --> 00:49:47,520
Speaker 2: Well, I'm super excited to have you in a show.

1102
00:49:47,760 --> 00:49:50,800
Speaker 2: We actually met at the same Breast Counsel awareness event

1103
00:49:51,080 --> 00:49:53,960
Speaker 2: that my last guest was on and when you when

1104
00:49:54,000 --> 00:49:56,040
Speaker 2: I heard your story, I was just so shocked because

1105
00:49:56,120 --> 00:49:59,000
Speaker 2: I never knew of a woman, especially a black woman,

1106
00:49:59,320 --> 00:50:01,680
Speaker 2: as such a young age that was diagnosed with breast cancer.

1107
00:50:02,000 --> 00:50:03,919
Speaker 2: So I really appreciate you for coming on the show

1108
00:50:03,920 --> 00:50:05,440
Speaker 2: and sharing your story.

1109
00:50:05,520 --> 00:50:05,719
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1110
00:50:05,800 --> 00:50:09,920
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, I think it's important for people to know

1111
00:50:10,000 --> 00:50:14,600
Speaker 4: that breast cancer could affect people at any age. I mean,

1112
00:50:14,719 --> 00:50:17,440
Speaker 4: I was shocked when I was diagnosed that at twenty

1113
00:50:17,480 --> 00:50:20,359
Speaker 4: eight years old, so I definitely think it's important to

1114
00:50:20,400 --> 00:50:21,439
Speaker 4: spread awareness.

1115
00:50:21,880 --> 00:50:24,360
Speaker 2: Do you often find that people are surprised when they

1116
00:50:24,440 --> 00:50:26,640
Speaker 2: hear about your diagnosis at such a young age.

1117
00:50:27,120 --> 00:50:31,960
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, absolutely, and not only just like family, friends, coworkers.

1118
00:50:32,080 --> 00:50:35,880
Speaker 4: Even when I go to the doctor and you know,

1119
00:50:35,920 --> 00:50:38,000
Speaker 4: when you're checking off like do you have like history

1120
00:50:38,000 --> 00:50:40,319
Speaker 4: of cancer, and it's like yes, and then the doctors.

1121
00:50:39,960 --> 00:50:40,760
Speaker 3: Are always shocked.

1122
00:50:41,200 --> 00:50:45,120
Speaker 4: Yeah, any that, even my breast surgeon and my oncologists,

1123
00:50:45,600 --> 00:50:48,080
Speaker 4: even though they do see younger patients, they just find

1124
00:50:48,120 --> 00:50:50,400
Speaker 4: it shocking.

1125
00:50:50,200 --> 00:50:54,640
Speaker 3: To see somebody so young and help healthy that has

1126
00:50:54,680 --> 00:50:55,360
Speaker 3: had cancer.

1127
00:50:56,040 --> 00:50:57,799
Speaker 2: I feel like when you went to the stage, because

1128
00:50:57,800 --> 00:51:00,279
Speaker 2: it was a part of the of the program when

1129
00:51:01,480 --> 00:51:04,000
Speaker 2: survivors were coming up to the stage and sharing a story,

1130
00:51:04,280 --> 00:51:06,720
Speaker 2: and when you spoke, I feel like everybody was like wow,

1131
00:51:06,800 --> 00:51:08,640
Speaker 2: Like I feel like it really hit everybody. Did you

1132
00:51:08,640 --> 00:51:11,640
Speaker 2: feel like that too, yes, yes, yeah, right.

1133
00:51:12,040 --> 00:51:14,760
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you feel like wow.

1134
00:51:14,920 --> 00:51:17,680
Speaker 2: Right, it was like it was so surreal.

1135
00:51:19,440 --> 00:51:21,320
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.

1136
00:51:21,440 --> 00:51:24,080
Speaker 2: Now do you think the conversation around breast cancer and

1137
00:51:24,120 --> 00:51:26,520
Speaker 2: the Black community changes when it's about younger women?

1138
00:51:27,160 --> 00:51:31,680
Speaker 4: I think so, just because nobody really thinks about it

1139
00:51:31,719 --> 00:51:37,080
Speaker 4: happening to younger women, especially under under the age of forty.

1140
00:51:37,840 --> 00:51:42,280
Speaker 4: And I think we don't really talk about the different

1141
00:51:42,480 --> 00:51:47,800
Speaker 4: signs and symptoms of breast cancer at a younger, younger age.

1142
00:51:48,800 --> 00:51:55,040
Speaker 4: And yeah yeah, And I think it's important to have

1143
00:51:55,120 --> 00:52:00,560
Speaker 4: those conversations because my breast surgeon even told me is

1144
00:52:00,600 --> 00:52:05,560
Speaker 4: that her patients are getting younger and younger, so it's

1145
00:52:05,600 --> 00:52:07,960
Speaker 4: important to spread.

1146
00:52:07,719 --> 00:52:11,279
Speaker 2: Awareness about So what would you like for younger women

1147
00:52:11,320 --> 00:52:13,160
Speaker 2: to know about risk and early detection?

1148
00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:19,360
Speaker 3: Mm hmmm, Well it's important to well to first recognize

1149
00:52:19,400 --> 00:52:20,800
Speaker 3: the different signs and symptoms.

1150
00:52:20,840 --> 00:52:27,600
Speaker 4: So everybody knows a lump, but another symptom is bloody

1151
00:52:27,600 --> 00:52:35,400
Speaker 4: discharge coming from from the nipple, change in size, tenderness,

1152
00:52:35,520 --> 00:52:39,640
Speaker 4: as well as dimpling, and there are there are several

1153
00:52:39,680 --> 00:52:44,919
Speaker 4: other signs and symptoms. Sometimes you don't have any signs.

1154
00:52:45,520 --> 00:52:50,480
Speaker 4: So I think even in in schools or even just

1155
00:52:50,560 --> 00:52:55,240
Speaker 4: through social media, it's important to make younger women aware

1156
00:52:55,719 --> 00:52:57,680
Speaker 4: of those different symptoms.

1157
00:52:58,719 --> 00:53:00,480
Speaker 2: Now, how long has it been since you in breast

1158
00:53:00,480 --> 00:53:02,240
Speaker 2: cancer free?

1159
00:53:02,719 --> 00:53:07,799
Speaker 3: It has been two and a half years. Yay, good?

1160
00:53:07,960 --> 00:53:08,160
Speaker 1: Good?

1161
00:53:08,239 --> 00:53:08,600
Speaker 3: Yes?

1162
00:53:08,760 --> 00:53:09,399
Speaker 2: How do you feel?

1163
00:53:10,600 --> 00:53:16,160
Speaker 3: I feel good. I feel like the first year was

1164
00:53:17,040 --> 00:53:17,600
Speaker 3: the hardest.

1165
00:53:18,440 --> 00:53:23,279
Speaker 4: I was dealing with a lot of anxiety medical PTSD,

1166
00:53:24,160 --> 00:53:29,239
Speaker 4: and after getting the diagnosis and having the surgeries, it's

1167
00:53:29,239 --> 00:53:32,480
Speaker 4: almost like when things start to cool down, it's like

1168
00:53:32,520 --> 00:53:35,759
Speaker 4: what just happened, just didn't really have a chance, like

1169
00:53:35,840 --> 00:53:40,600
Speaker 4: going through everything to process what was going on, and

1170
00:53:40,640 --> 00:53:43,279
Speaker 4: then after its kind of like whoa, Like I went

1171
00:53:43,320 --> 00:53:48,120
Speaker 4: through through all that. But now I'm in a better

1172
00:53:48,160 --> 00:53:50,440
Speaker 4: place and I'm able to move forward.

1173
00:53:51,680 --> 00:53:52,280
Speaker 3: With life.

1174
00:53:52,320 --> 00:53:56,680
Speaker 4: And I've been through a lot of counseling and now

1175
00:53:56,719 --> 00:53:59,600
Speaker 4: I feel like I'm in a space where I could

1176
00:54:00,120 --> 00:54:02,680
Speaker 4: I could help other people, like other joint groups, and

1177
00:54:02,719 --> 00:54:06,000
Speaker 4: help other survivors and share my story like I am.

1178
00:54:06,280 --> 00:54:09,120
Speaker 2: Yeah were you Are you ever hesitant to share your story?

1179
00:54:11,400 --> 00:54:11,840
Speaker 1: No?

1180
00:54:11,840 --> 00:54:14,880
Speaker 3: No, I'm not. I guess.

1181
00:54:16,680 --> 00:54:19,200
Speaker 4: The only situations where I'm like hesitant to talk about

1182
00:54:19,239 --> 00:54:23,720
Speaker 4: it is, for example, with work, a lot of drinking

1183
00:54:23,800 --> 00:54:26,520
Speaker 4: is involved, like a lot of a lot of happy

1184
00:54:26,520 --> 00:54:30,719
Speaker 4: hours events and stuff. And I don't drink alcohol because

1185
00:54:32,160 --> 00:54:35,799
Speaker 4: I'm on a few medications that are already hard on

1186
00:54:35,840 --> 00:54:39,880
Speaker 4: my kidneys that I don't want to consume alcohol. And

1187
00:54:40,040 --> 00:54:45,120
Speaker 4: also there are links between alcohol and and breast cancer.

1188
00:54:45,239 --> 00:54:48,640
Speaker 4: That's when I was by my doctors, so I stay

1189
00:54:48,640 --> 00:54:51,719
Speaker 4: away from it. So sometimes I'm at events, I'm being

1190
00:54:51,760 --> 00:54:58,160
Speaker 4: asked like, well, why aren't you drinking, And I hate

1191
00:54:58,320 --> 00:54:59,040
Speaker 4: I'm not drinking.

1192
00:54:59,160 --> 00:55:00,840
Speaker 2: That's why exactly.

1193
00:55:00,920 --> 00:55:03,239
Speaker 3: And there's a lot of different reasons why people don't trick.

1194
00:55:03,320 --> 00:55:05,680
Speaker 4: It's like it could be like a recovering alcoholic or

1195
00:55:05,760 --> 00:55:11,480
Speaker 4: you know, you just don't like the taste. So sometimes

1196
00:55:11,520 --> 00:55:13,279
Speaker 4: I just say I don't I don't feel like it.

1197
00:55:13,320 --> 00:55:14,759
Speaker 3: But if I'm like really.

1198
00:55:16,640 --> 00:55:18,600
Speaker 4: Like, if somebody's portly being a tested about it, then

1199
00:55:18,600 --> 00:55:19,879
Speaker 4: I'll be like, because I'm a.

1200
00:55:19,800 --> 00:55:22,480
Speaker 2: Breast cancer survivor, and then they feel like a dick.

1201
00:55:22,360 --> 00:55:25,920
Speaker 4: You know, I don't want to right exactly, And then

1202
00:55:25,920 --> 00:55:29,600
Speaker 4: now the situation is offered. So that's really like the

1203
00:55:29,640 --> 00:55:35,600
Speaker 4: only situation where I don't feel comfortable talking about it,

1204
00:55:36,239 --> 00:55:37,600
Speaker 4: but for the most part, I'm.

1205
00:55:37,840 --> 00:55:42,279
Speaker 3: I'm very open. I don't feel ashamed about my diagnosis.

1206
00:55:42,320 --> 00:55:45,400
Speaker 2: Sorry good, Now, looking back, did you ever have a

1207
00:55:45,440 --> 00:55:48,040
Speaker 2: gut feeling or a physical sign that made you think

1208
00:55:48,080 --> 00:55:51,319
Speaker 2: something was wrong before you receive the news.

1209
00:55:52,040 --> 00:55:52,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, So.

1210
00:55:54,680 --> 00:55:57,960
Speaker 4: In early twenty twenty one, I remember I was I

1211
00:55:57,960 --> 00:56:00,200
Speaker 4: went shopping and I was trying on clothes and I

1212
00:56:00,360 --> 00:56:04,680
Speaker 4: remember feeling the lump. And at first I didn't think

1213
00:56:04,800 --> 00:56:06,640
Speaker 4: anything of it because I was just kind of like,

1214
00:56:06,719 --> 00:56:07,680
Speaker 4: was that always there?

1215
00:56:09,320 --> 00:56:10,200
Speaker 3: And then I did.

1216
00:56:10,239 --> 00:56:13,879
Speaker 4: I just kind of ignored it, but then something told

1217
00:56:13,920 --> 00:56:17,560
Speaker 4: me to just go online and look up like what

1218
00:56:17,719 --> 00:56:21,320
Speaker 4: does a like a breast cancer.

1219
00:56:21,000 --> 00:56:22,000
Speaker 3: Tumor feel like?

1220
00:56:22,800 --> 00:56:33,200
Speaker 4: And it said that it would be irregular, irregularly.

1221
00:56:32,000 --> 00:56:38,360
Speaker 3: Regular sheet and.

1222
00:56:35,960 --> 00:56:40,840
Speaker 7: And it would just feel rubbery, like yeah, rubbery and lumpy,

1223
00:56:41,000 --> 00:56:43,160
Speaker 7: like it wouldn't be like just one lump that it

1224
00:56:43,200 --> 00:56:45,920
Speaker 7: would feel like multiple lumps and in grooves, and that's

1225
00:56:46,000 --> 00:56:47,080
Speaker 7: kind of what it felt like.

1226
00:56:48,080 --> 00:56:50,640
Speaker 4: And I was just kind of like, well, maybe I

1227
00:56:50,640 --> 00:56:54,479
Speaker 4: should get this checked out. I didn't physically feel bad,

1228
00:56:55,040 --> 00:56:57,439
Speaker 4: but it was just that lump that made me feel like, oh,

1229
00:56:57,480 --> 00:56:58,439
Speaker 4: there's something.

1230
00:56:58,719 --> 00:57:02,440
Speaker 2: Off about this m Yeah, and take us back to

1231
00:57:02,480 --> 00:57:04,320
Speaker 2: how you first found out that you had breast canceling.

1232
00:57:04,480 --> 00:57:06,239
Speaker 2: Where were you when you received the news and would

1233
00:57:06,360 --> 00:57:09,160
Speaker 2: prompt you to go to a doctor after realizing that

1234
00:57:09,200 --> 00:57:10,720
Speaker 2: you had a lump and doing your own research?

1235
00:57:11,560 --> 00:57:11,880
Speaker 3: Sure?

1236
00:57:12,239 --> 00:57:16,360
Speaker 4: Sure, So when I went to the doctor about the lump,

1237
00:57:17,560 --> 00:57:20,720
Speaker 4: she just ordered an ultrasound. She was asking me about

1238
00:57:20,720 --> 00:57:26,640
Speaker 4: any family history and my life, my lifestyle, and she

1239
00:57:26,760 --> 00:57:28,640
Speaker 4: was just like, Oh, it's probably nothing, but we'll just

1240
00:57:28,640 --> 00:57:28,960
Speaker 4: get it.

1241
00:57:28,920 --> 00:57:29,760
Speaker 3: Checked out anyway.

1242
00:57:30,520 --> 00:57:34,160
Speaker 4: And after doing the ultrasound, it came back that it

1243
00:57:34,200 --> 00:57:36,280
Speaker 4: wasn't anything to really be worried about. It was a

1244
00:57:36,280 --> 00:57:39,600
Speaker 4: benign to fiber edinoma, which is common in young women,

1245
00:57:41,240 --> 00:57:44,480
Speaker 4: and to just follow up in three months. So I

1246
00:57:44,920 --> 00:57:50,320
Speaker 4: followed up and they said there was no change. Follow

1247
00:57:50,400 --> 00:57:52,160
Speaker 4: up in six months. And that was when I was

1248
00:57:52,200 --> 00:57:55,360
Speaker 4: living in Florida, and then I moved back to New

1249
00:57:55,440 --> 00:58:02,720
Speaker 4: Jersey and it was around it's probably like two months

1250
00:58:02,920 --> 00:58:05,480
Speaker 4: after my last check up in Florida where I realized

1251
00:58:05,520 --> 00:58:08,040
Speaker 4: they had bloody discharge and that's when I was like, Okay,

1252
00:58:08,080 --> 00:58:11,800
Speaker 4: this is not normal, right, And that's when I decided

1253
00:58:11,840 --> 00:58:15,560
Speaker 4: to go to the doctor again. But now in New Jersey,

1254
00:58:15,600 --> 00:58:16,960
Speaker 4: this was a different primary.

1255
00:58:17,800 --> 00:58:20,400
Speaker 2: What were your thoughts when the first doctor in Florida

1256
00:58:20,400 --> 00:58:22,320
Speaker 2: told you it was nothing, Because when you said that

1257
00:58:22,400 --> 00:58:26,040
Speaker 2: during the event, I was like, wow, like these doctors

1258
00:58:26,240 --> 00:58:29,040
Speaker 2: are like I just feel like they just don't They

1259
00:58:29,160 --> 00:58:30,959
Speaker 2: not all them, obviously, but I just feel like certain

1260
00:58:31,000 --> 00:58:35,040
Speaker 2: doctors just don't care, especially when you are in certain states.

1261
00:58:35,320 --> 00:58:37,800
Speaker 2: So like, what were your thoughts about that, like to

1262
00:58:37,800 --> 00:58:40,200
Speaker 2: talk about that, because when you said they're doing the event,

1263
00:58:40,560 --> 00:58:42,760
Speaker 2: everybody was just so shocked. But this is like a

1264
00:58:42,760 --> 00:58:45,000
Speaker 2: reality for many women, especially women of color.

1265
00:58:46,200 --> 00:58:46,600
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1266
00:58:46,760 --> 00:58:50,000
Speaker 4: Yeah, So when the when the doctor first told me like, oh,

1267
00:58:50,040 --> 00:58:52,040
Speaker 4: you don't have anything to be worried about. I mean

1268
00:58:52,080 --> 00:58:54,720
Speaker 4: I just I just trusted them. I was just like, Okay,

1269
00:58:54,800 --> 00:58:56,080
Speaker 4: they know what they're talking about.

1270
00:58:56,200 --> 00:58:58,480
Speaker 3: And you were young, yep, yep.

1271
00:58:58,520 --> 00:59:03,480
Speaker 4: I was young, and I I looked up vibraetonomas and

1272
00:59:04,000 --> 00:59:06,000
Speaker 4: there were some friends I read about it and how

1273
00:59:06,000 --> 00:59:07,920
Speaker 4: people were like, oh, I thought I had breast cancer,

1274
00:59:08,000 --> 00:59:10,440
Speaker 4: but it was really just a benign mass. I'm thinking like, okay,

1275
00:59:10,440 --> 00:59:13,240
Speaker 4: like this is a common thing. And I was going

1276
00:59:13,280 --> 00:59:14,760
Speaker 4: back to the fact that, yeah, I don't have a

1277
00:59:14,800 --> 00:59:19,280
Speaker 4: family history of breast cancer. I had been a vegetarian

1278
00:59:19,320 --> 00:59:21,479
Speaker 4: most of my life. I work out all the time.

1279
00:59:21,560 --> 00:59:25,600
Speaker 4: I had a very very healthy lifestyle, so I didn't

1280
00:59:25,640 --> 00:59:27,560
Speaker 4: think that it would have been cancer.

1281
00:59:27,600 --> 00:59:28,640
Speaker 3: So I just trusted them.

1282
00:59:28,680 --> 00:59:30,320
Speaker 4: I was like, Okay, this is something that you know,

1283
00:59:31,880 --> 00:59:33,040
Speaker 4: I don't have to be worried about.

1284
00:59:33,280 --> 00:59:36,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, did they ever find out what causes? Since you

1285
00:59:36,320 --> 00:59:38,800
Speaker 2: don't have a history, you're very healthy, Like, did they

1286
00:59:38,800 --> 00:59:41,200
Speaker 2: ever find out what was this? Where's them from?

1287
00:59:42,200 --> 00:59:42,600
Speaker 3: Yeah?

1288
00:59:42,640 --> 00:59:46,480
Speaker 4: So they don't know for sure because I even did

1289
00:59:46,560 --> 00:59:48,920
Speaker 4: all the different genetic testings to see if there was

1290
00:59:48,960 --> 00:59:53,480
Speaker 4: any mutation, and I tested negative for all of them.

1291
00:59:54,880 --> 01:00:01,160
Speaker 4: But after talking to my breast surgeon, we really think

1292
01:00:01,200 --> 01:00:04,880
Speaker 4: it could be stress because when I was living in Florida,

1293
01:00:05,280 --> 01:00:09,680
Speaker 4: I was really stressed out. I wasn't happy. I moved

1294
01:00:09,720 --> 01:00:13,800
Speaker 4: to Florida from Jersey for college. I went to family

1295
01:00:13,920 --> 01:00:17,080
Speaker 4: in Tallahassee, so I was there for four years and

1296
01:00:17,360 --> 01:00:20,280
Speaker 4: I loved it when I was at FAMU, But after

1297
01:00:20,320 --> 01:00:23,840
Speaker 4: I graduated, I moved to Sarasota, Florida, where I was

1298
01:00:23,880 --> 01:00:29,000
Speaker 4: living for six years. And it was good for work,

1299
01:00:29,640 --> 01:00:34,360
Speaker 4: but it wasn't good for my personal like my personal

1300
01:00:34,400 --> 01:00:38,280
Speaker 4: life at all. And I was in a couple of

1301
01:00:38,360 --> 01:00:43,520
Speaker 4: relationships that weren't healthy for me. So I just know

1302
01:00:43,720 --> 01:00:47,000
Speaker 4: that the stress was really wearing on my body.

1303
01:00:47,160 --> 01:00:49,000
Speaker 2: Did you have girlfriends, Like, did you have friends that

1304
01:00:49,080 --> 01:00:52,280
Speaker 2: you can like talk to and stuff not locally?

1305
01:00:52,880 --> 01:00:56,439
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean that that could have played a role.

1306
01:00:57,240 --> 01:00:59,960
Speaker 4: I mean, it's it's hard for some people to believe

1307
01:01:00,040 --> 01:01:01,360
Speaker 4: that because it's just kind of like, oh, well.

1308
01:01:01,240 --> 01:01:04,640
Speaker 3: It's just stress, but no stress, that's play. It could

1309
01:01:04,640 --> 01:01:05,720
Speaker 3: take a toll on your body.

1310
01:01:05,800 --> 01:01:09,640
Speaker 2: So yeah, wow, Dan, that makes me kind of like

1311
01:01:10,120 --> 01:01:13,160
Speaker 2: because I don't think people understand the value of having community.

1312
01:01:13,360 --> 01:01:15,440
Speaker 2: And we were just talking about that before we got

1313
01:01:15,480 --> 01:01:16,960
Speaker 2: on yep.

1314
01:01:16,840 --> 01:01:17,600
Speaker 3: Yep, yeah.

1315
01:01:17,680 --> 01:01:19,640
Speaker 4: Yeah, So when you said that, I was just like, Okay, yeah,

1316
01:01:19,640 --> 01:01:21,160
Speaker 4: we definitely have to.

1317
01:01:22,320 --> 01:01:24,720
Speaker 3: Yeah, because being.

1318
01:01:26,000 --> 01:01:30,000
Speaker 4: Being lonely and just not having that support system around

1319
01:01:30,040 --> 01:01:36,080
Speaker 4: you is it's it's hard and and I'm just thankful

1320
01:01:36,200 --> 01:01:39,240
Speaker 4: that you know that I moved back and I just

1321
01:01:39,280 --> 01:01:42,040
Speaker 4: feel like I'm in a much better headspace.

1322
01:01:42,760 --> 01:01:46,080
Speaker 2: Yeah. And I can't even imagine how overwhelmed you felt

1323
01:01:46,120 --> 01:01:49,280
Speaker 2: with just all the medical information mm hmmm.

1324
01:01:49,640 --> 01:01:54,520
Speaker 4: Yes, Yes, It's almost just like when when the doctors

1325
01:01:54,520 --> 01:01:56,400
Speaker 4: were talking to me about like all the different things

1326
01:01:56,400 --> 01:01:57,120
Speaker 4: I have to do.

1327
01:01:57,520 --> 01:02:00,960
Speaker 3: I I just couldn't even them. I was just like,

1328
01:02:01,040 --> 01:02:02,120
Speaker 3: you know, just how could you?

1329
01:02:02,800 --> 01:02:03,120
Speaker 4: Yeah?

1330
01:02:03,200 --> 01:02:03,959
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I didn't.

1331
01:02:04,040 --> 01:02:06,200
Speaker 4: I need to take it one step at a time

1332
01:02:06,600 --> 01:02:09,919
Speaker 4: because I don't know what you're saying. You're talking about

1333
01:02:09,960 --> 01:02:13,120
Speaker 4: all these different options. When they would ask if you

1334
01:02:13,160 --> 01:02:15,880
Speaker 4: have any questions, I would just be like, I don't

1335
01:02:15,880 --> 01:02:16,720
Speaker 4: even know what to ask.

1336
01:02:17,000 --> 01:02:22,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know where to begin, right, right, right? So

1337
01:02:22,240 --> 01:02:24,120
Speaker 2: what kind of treatments did you go through and how

1338
01:02:24,160 --> 01:02:26,720
Speaker 2: did you handle the process, both physically and emotionally.

1339
01:02:27,920 --> 01:02:28,200
Speaker 3: Yes.

1340
01:02:28,600 --> 01:02:32,720
Speaker 4: So the first thing I did was I had a

1341
01:02:32,720 --> 01:02:37,880
Speaker 4: biladder on the sectomy, So even though I only had

1342
01:02:38,120 --> 01:02:42,680
Speaker 4: cancer in my left breast, I decided to do the

1343
01:02:42,720 --> 01:02:47,120
Speaker 4: other side just because I didn't want to worry about

1344
01:02:47,360 --> 01:02:53,280
Speaker 4: cancer developing on the other side, and also I wanted

1345
01:02:54,040 --> 01:02:58,120
Speaker 4: my breast to be to be even and even the doctor,

1346
01:02:59,560 --> 01:03:03,400
Speaker 4: the doctor were saying that, you know, if you do

1347
01:03:03,440 --> 01:03:05,840
Speaker 4: the other side, you won't have to worry about like

1348
01:03:05,840 --> 01:03:07,880
Speaker 4: ever doing AMMO grammar or anything like that.

1349
01:03:08,120 --> 01:03:10,480
Speaker 2: And can you explain what that is just for certain people,

1350
01:03:10,480 --> 01:03:12,080
Speaker 2: certain listeners who may not understand.

1351
01:03:12,880 --> 01:03:17,640
Speaker 4: Yes, So that's the removal of the breast tissue. Okay,

1352
01:03:17,720 --> 01:03:20,760
Speaker 4: So they take out the tumor as well as all

1353
01:03:20,800 --> 01:03:26,120
Speaker 4: of the breast tissue. So I actually had that surgery

1354
01:03:26,200 --> 01:03:27,960
Speaker 4: the day before my twenty ninth birthday.

1355
01:03:29,360 --> 01:03:30,440
Speaker 3: Wow, that's crazy.

1356
01:03:30,600 --> 01:03:35,280
Speaker 4: So I spent my twenty ninth birthday recovering and it

1357
01:03:35,480 --> 01:03:42,080
Speaker 4: was a five hour operation and I had four drains

1358
01:03:43,400 --> 01:03:49,760
Speaker 4: because I had immediate reconstruction. So that's when so the

1359
01:03:49,800 --> 01:03:53,720
Speaker 4: breast surgeon is her partners, so she took out the

1360
01:03:53,760 --> 01:03:56,640
Speaker 4: tumor and the breast tissue, and then the plastic surgeon

1361
01:03:56,680 --> 01:04:00,880
Speaker 4: went in there and put tissue expanders, which are technically

1362
01:04:01,080 --> 01:04:07,480
Speaker 4: like temporary breast implants, and I had those for three months,

1363
01:04:07,640 --> 01:04:12,600
Speaker 4: and after three months then I got the permanent breast

1364
01:04:12,640 --> 01:04:13,600
Speaker 4: in plants.

1365
01:04:14,160 --> 01:04:17,960
Speaker 3: And that it is a lot.

1366
01:04:18,040 --> 01:04:20,520
Speaker 2: It reminds you'll she's very like, you're very Britique, like

1367
01:04:20,560 --> 01:04:23,680
Speaker 2: you're small, so I can just only imagine how that

1368
01:04:23,760 --> 01:04:24,800
Speaker 2: was a lot for your body.

1369
01:04:25,480 --> 01:04:29,240
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, it was definitely a lot. And luckily I

1370
01:04:29,280 --> 01:04:33,040
Speaker 4: didn't have to do radiation. They were talking about me

1371
01:04:33,240 --> 01:04:37,360
Speaker 4: doing radiation and that would have caused a whole other

1372
01:04:37,480 --> 01:04:40,920
Speaker 4: issue because you can't put a breast implant in a

1373
01:04:41,040 --> 01:04:45,760
Speaker 4: radiated breast because it like burns and shrinks the skin.

1374
01:04:46,560 --> 01:04:49,120
Speaker 4: So a lot of times what women do if they

1375
01:04:49,160 --> 01:04:53,920
Speaker 4: have radiation is they get fat transferred from another area

1376
01:04:54,080 --> 01:04:57,920
Speaker 4: of their body and put into the breast. But when

1377
01:04:57,960 --> 01:05:01,920
Speaker 4: they were talking about me having mediation, the plastic surgeon

1378
01:05:02,040 --> 01:05:06,520
Speaker 4: was like, well, like, there's no fat for us to take.

1379
01:05:06,680 --> 01:05:08,840
Speaker 4: So it was almost like, you know, I would just

1380
01:05:08,920 --> 01:05:12,800
Speaker 4: have one flat breast and then one with the implant,

1381
01:05:13,440 --> 01:05:15,880
Speaker 4: and then they were talking about local maybe you could

1382
01:05:16,200 --> 01:05:18,320
Speaker 4: try to gain weight and then we could take the

1383
01:05:18,360 --> 01:05:20,160
Speaker 4: fat and put it into the breast. It was like

1384
01:05:20,480 --> 01:05:23,400
Speaker 4: a whole thing, but then it ended up being that, Okay,

1385
01:05:23,400 --> 01:05:23,840
Speaker 4: you don't.

1386
01:05:23,640 --> 01:05:24,280
Speaker 3: Have to radiation.

1387
01:05:24,680 --> 01:05:26,760
Speaker 2: Good. So are you on medication now for it?

1388
01:05:27,560 --> 01:05:27,840
Speaker 1: Yes?

1389
01:05:28,040 --> 01:05:33,160
Speaker 4: Yes, So I am on a medication called a nastrozole,

1390
01:05:35,000 --> 01:05:40,600
Speaker 4: but that medication is designed for postmenopausal women. So in

1391
01:05:40,720 --> 01:05:44,520
Speaker 4: order for the medication to work, I'm in a chemically

1392
01:05:44,640 --> 01:05:50,720
Speaker 4: induced menopause through a medication called lupron. So that's a

1393
01:05:50,760 --> 01:05:54,760
Speaker 4: shot that I get into my glute muscle every four weeks,

1394
01:05:55,200 --> 01:05:58,080
Speaker 4: so it could shut down my ovaries and essentially put

1395
01:05:58,080 --> 01:05:59,040
Speaker 4: me into metopause.

1396
01:05:59,720 --> 01:06:01,800
Speaker 3: The medication that I take can work.

1397
01:06:02,520 --> 01:06:07,360
Speaker 2: Wow, yes, listen, I know you just like I can't.

1398
01:06:09,000 --> 01:06:13,680
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a lot and yeah, there are side effects

1399
01:06:13,680 --> 01:06:17,440
Speaker 4: that that come with it, like I get hot flashes

1400
01:06:17,720 --> 01:06:22,240
Speaker 4: and body aches. For some people, it causes weaking, it

1401
01:06:22,280 --> 01:06:23,560
Speaker 4: can cause weight loss.

1402
01:06:24,080 --> 01:06:24,320
Speaker 3: There.

1403
01:06:24,360 --> 01:06:26,480
Speaker 4: There are just a lot of different side effects. And

1404
01:06:26,520 --> 01:06:30,240
Speaker 4: it's also very expensive. That's like a whole a whole

1405
01:06:30,320 --> 01:06:35,880
Speaker 4: nother thing between the surgeries and the medications. It's like

1406
01:06:35,960 --> 01:06:39,960
Speaker 4: I've spent so much money. Like of course insurance covers

1407
01:06:40,520 --> 01:06:42,200
Speaker 4: covers it, but then there's still a lot of out

1408
01:06:42,200 --> 01:06:49,800
Speaker 4: of pocket expenses, like just the the reconstruction alone, I

1409
01:06:49,840 --> 01:06:52,840
Speaker 4: think like it's like a three hundred thousand dollars.

1410
01:06:54,360 --> 01:06:56,320
Speaker 3: Omiation. Yeah.

1411
01:06:56,480 --> 01:07:01,480
Speaker 4: Yeah, so like I have a hide reductible with my insurance,

1412
01:07:01,520 --> 01:07:03,960
Speaker 4: so that was like done, and then even like my

1413
01:07:04,000 --> 01:07:06,480
Speaker 4: out of pocket maximum, like just from surgery alone I

1414
01:07:06,520 --> 01:07:07,720
Speaker 4: got Luckily I didn't have.

1415
01:07:07,720 --> 01:07:12,760
Speaker 3: To have to pay after that, but it was just yeah,

1416
01:07:12,880 --> 01:07:14,360
Speaker 3: very very expensive.

1417
01:07:14,600 --> 01:07:17,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's my next question because with the first guest,

1418
01:07:18,280 --> 01:07:21,960
Speaker 2: she's a very successful professional and obviously she worked in

1419
01:07:22,000 --> 01:07:24,520
Speaker 2: the medical field, so she had a lot more luxuries

1420
01:07:24,520 --> 01:07:27,720
Speaker 2: when it came to access, and also she had great insurance.

1421
01:07:28,080 --> 01:07:29,720
Speaker 2: So when I wanted to talk to you about it,

1422
01:07:29,720 --> 01:07:32,240
Speaker 2: because being that you were younger and you know when

1423
01:07:32,240 --> 01:07:34,520
Speaker 2: you're young, You're trying to figure it out. So I

1424
01:07:34,560 --> 01:07:37,080
Speaker 2: was just curious to know, like, what did the financial

1425
01:07:37,080 --> 01:07:38,920
Speaker 2: stress look like for you, and what were some of

1426
01:07:39,000 --> 01:07:41,720
Speaker 2: the challenges you ever came because I can only imagine

1427
01:07:41,720 --> 01:07:43,240
Speaker 2: how much I mean, three hundred dollars for a loan.

1428
01:07:43,320 --> 01:07:44,360
Speaker 2: It's crazy.

1429
01:07:45,760 --> 01:07:49,880
Speaker 3: Yeah it was, Yeah, it was. It was very stressful.

1430
01:07:50,280 --> 01:07:51,280
Speaker 2: I can imagine.

1431
01:07:52,160 --> 01:07:58,240
Speaker 4: At that point, I didn't really know much about the HSA,

1432
01:07:58,280 --> 01:08:00,919
Speaker 4: Like I knew that I had it through my through

1433
01:08:00,920 --> 01:08:04,680
Speaker 4: my company, but I never I never really looked into it.

1434
01:08:05,040 --> 01:08:06,959
Speaker 3: So when the bills started rolling in.

1435
01:08:06,920 --> 01:08:09,680
Speaker 4: I'm just like, oh my gosh, like, you know, how

1436
01:08:10,240 --> 01:08:13,160
Speaker 4: how am I supposed to pay for this? And luckily

1437
01:08:14,080 --> 01:08:17,479
Speaker 4: I had just moved back from Florida and I was

1438
01:08:17,560 --> 01:08:19,600
Speaker 4: staying with my parents, so I was like saving a

1439
01:08:19,640 --> 01:08:23,400
Speaker 4: lot of money by not having to to pay rent,

1440
01:08:23,439 --> 01:08:24,400
Speaker 4: So that was helpful.

1441
01:08:24,520 --> 01:08:26,200
Speaker 2: But thank god you had that.

1442
01:08:27,280 --> 01:08:27,679
Speaker 4: Yeah.

1443
01:08:27,800 --> 01:08:28,879
Speaker 3: Yeah, and.

1444
01:08:30,160 --> 01:08:34,240
Speaker 4: Luckily, like with with medical bills, I don't think it

1445
01:08:34,439 --> 01:08:38,320
Speaker 4: really impacts your your credit, Like it's it's like do

1446
01:08:38,520 --> 01:08:42,599
Speaker 4: like when received or whatever. You pay when you can

1447
01:08:42,720 --> 01:08:47,680
Speaker 4: and think they could work with you. But it was

1448
01:08:47,680 --> 01:08:51,400
Speaker 4: definitely a lot, and even dealing with the insurance company

1449
01:08:51,479 --> 01:08:57,400
Speaker 4: was really frustrating because like breast surgeons and plastic surgeons

1450
01:08:57,439 --> 01:09:00,640
Speaker 4: tend to have like a partnership, like they they like

1451
01:09:00,720 --> 01:09:05,360
Speaker 4: to work with with with their network, but the insurance

1452
01:09:05,400 --> 01:09:12,080
Speaker 4: company wants you to work with who they choose, right, so,

1453
01:09:12,080 --> 01:09:16,519
Speaker 4: so like they'll they'll call you and I guess scare

1454
01:09:16,560 --> 01:09:18,759
Speaker 4: you in a way saying like, oh, well, this plastic

1455
01:09:18,800 --> 01:09:22,559
Speaker 4: surgeon isn't in our network, and you know, you could

1456
01:09:22,640 --> 01:09:24,800
Speaker 4: end up being stuck with the three hundred thousand dollars

1457
01:09:24,880 --> 01:09:27,720
Speaker 4: bill like we've seen it happen before. But the but

1458
01:09:27,840 --> 01:09:30,479
Speaker 4: my plastic surgeon told me, he was like, even though

1459
01:09:31,080 --> 01:09:33,400
Speaker 4: I'm not in your insurance network.

1460
01:09:33,400 --> 01:09:36,439
Speaker 3: Like you won't get built. We will.

1461
01:09:36,560 --> 01:09:40,920
Speaker 4: We will accept what the insurance company pays us. So

1462
01:09:41,280 --> 01:09:43,439
Speaker 4: and I just didn't know like what to believe. Like

1463
01:09:43,479 --> 01:09:47,479
Speaker 4: it was just it was just a lot. It's like

1464
01:09:47,520 --> 01:09:49,960
Speaker 4: you don't learn this stuff in school about people with

1465
01:09:50,000 --> 01:09:53,320
Speaker 4: their insurance company and medical professional, right right.

1466
01:09:54,200 --> 01:09:57,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, were there any surprising lessons you learn about self

1467
01:09:57,200 --> 01:09:59,320
Speaker 2: love and body confidence throughout your journey?

1468
01:09:59,800 --> 01:10:04,880
Speaker 4: Yeah, yes, yes there was. Well definitely like with self love,

1469
01:10:05,600 --> 01:10:09,000
Speaker 4: like not letting anything stress me out, Like I don't

1470
01:10:09,040 --> 01:10:11,360
Speaker 4: really sweat the little stuff anymore.

1471
01:10:11,640 --> 01:10:17,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's so cool, y'all. Like we saw each other

1472
01:10:17,360 --> 01:10:19,920
Speaker 2: event and she'd just be so laid back and chill,

1473
01:10:20,080 --> 01:10:24,799
Speaker 2: and I'm like me, I'm all bouncing around, exciting and shit, oh.

1474
01:10:24,200 --> 01:10:28,680
Speaker 3: Oh thank you, thank you, thanks. But yeah, I just

1475
01:10:28,760 --> 01:10:31,640
Speaker 3: don't I don't know. I just feel.

1476
01:10:33,400 --> 01:10:35,679
Speaker 4: I don't want to say like nonchalant, because that could

1477
01:10:35,960 --> 01:10:40,280
Speaker 4: be taken in a negative way. But I guess that's

1478
01:10:40,400 --> 01:10:43,160
Speaker 4: just kind of how I am. I mean, there's pros

1479
01:10:43,200 --> 01:10:46,120
Speaker 4: and cons to it, because sometimes it might feel like, oh,

1480
01:10:46,439 --> 01:10:48,280
Speaker 4: like let's say a friend is complaining to me about

1481
01:10:48,280 --> 01:10:51,599
Speaker 4: something and I'm just like not super reactive about it.

1482
01:10:51,600 --> 01:10:53,800
Speaker 4: It's not that I don't care, it's just that I

1483
01:10:53,880 --> 01:10:58,439
Speaker 4: just can't or like a bunch of energy and something

1484
01:10:58,560 --> 01:11:00,280
Speaker 4: that that really is small all.

1485
01:11:01,080 --> 01:11:03,240
Speaker 2: It's like you know what I've been through, Like, girl,

1486
01:11:03,360 --> 01:11:05,439
Speaker 2: you'll be fine, I know.

1487
01:11:05,600 --> 01:11:07,880
Speaker 4: And it's like I understand that I'm like be stressful,

1488
01:11:08,040 --> 01:11:10,120
Speaker 4: like I don't know, like you know, the nail tech

1489
01:11:10,160 --> 01:11:12,160
Speaker 4: mess up your nails. It's like, okay, yeah that is

1490
01:11:12,200 --> 01:11:15,120
Speaker 4: really annoying, but I just can't force a lot of

1491
01:11:15,240 --> 01:11:22,400
Speaker 4: energy into it. I never really had like body dysmorphia,

1492
01:11:24,200 --> 01:11:27,840
Speaker 4: like even with my with my counselors, like they would

1493
01:11:27,920 --> 01:11:30,240
Speaker 4: always ask me about that, and now I just say,

1494
01:11:30,400 --> 01:11:35,599
Speaker 4: you know, I'm not really concerned. I mean, it's like

1495
01:11:35,800 --> 01:11:38,360
Speaker 4: my plastic surgeon did a great job. It's like I

1496
01:11:38,400 --> 01:11:42,720
Speaker 4: got breast and plants covered by insurance. So it's just

1497
01:11:42,800 --> 01:11:48,160
Speaker 4: kind of like I have scars. But I mean I'm

1498
01:11:48,479 --> 01:11:53,960
Speaker 4: I'm comfortable with my body. So yeah, that's a good

1499
01:11:54,120 --> 01:11:54,599
Speaker 4: good thing.

1500
01:11:55,160 --> 01:11:57,439
Speaker 2: And how does this journey affect your mental health?

1501
01:11:58,479 --> 01:12:05,280
Speaker 4: Oh, my goodness, is just so so stressful. I dealt

1502
01:12:05,320 --> 01:12:12,200
Speaker 4: with a lot of anxiety, more so with with food

1503
01:12:12,920 --> 01:12:18,000
Speaker 4: as well as the environment, because because I don't know

1504
01:12:18,040 --> 01:12:20,599
Speaker 4: how how I got cancer, so I'm thinking like, well

1505
01:12:20,680 --> 01:12:25,800
Speaker 4: was it in the food? So like everything all like

1506
01:12:25,880 --> 01:12:29,519
Speaker 4: veggies that I eat now are organic, even though it's

1507
01:12:29,520 --> 01:12:30,280
Speaker 4: more expensive.

1508
01:12:31,200 --> 01:12:32,880
Speaker 2: Like when you start to know the thing you try

1509
01:12:32,880 --> 01:12:34,920
Speaker 2: to eat healthy and the ship be causing the arm.

1510
01:12:34,840 --> 01:12:39,320
Speaker 3: And the lick exactly exactly, so expensive, you can't you

1511
01:12:39,400 --> 01:12:42,200
Speaker 3: can't win for losing mm hmm.

1512
01:12:43,400 --> 01:12:46,080
Speaker 4: But yeah, I was really anxious about the type of

1513
01:12:46,080 --> 01:12:49,599
Speaker 4: food I was eating. I still get anxious about it.

1514
01:12:50,840 --> 01:12:51,120
Speaker 3: Water.

1515
01:12:52,800 --> 01:12:57,160
Speaker 4: I'm not wanting to drink anything in plastic, Like everything

1516
01:12:57,200 --> 01:13:02,719
Speaker 4: has to be like glass. I get worried about even soap,

1517
01:13:03,720 --> 01:13:06,559
Speaker 4: Like I even like when I bathed, I just use

1518
01:13:06,680 --> 01:13:10,400
Speaker 4: like African black silk, like no more dub or anything

1519
01:13:10,400 --> 01:13:12,760
Speaker 4: that has like a bunch of chemicals in there. Like

1520
01:13:12,800 --> 01:13:17,120
Speaker 4: I just I just try to be as natural as possible,

1521
01:13:17,800 --> 01:13:21,680
Speaker 4: and even like just you cleaning products, I just it's

1522
01:13:21,720 --> 01:13:24,960
Speaker 4: a life. It's yeah, it's a whole lifestyle. I mean,

1523
01:13:25,000 --> 01:13:28,040
Speaker 4: I'm not as crazy about it as I was before,

1524
01:13:28,080 --> 01:13:30,880
Speaker 4: but that's definitely something that that took a tole on me.

1525
01:13:32,040 --> 01:13:35,879
Speaker 4: After like my surgery and everything. I was just easily

1526
01:13:36,040 --> 01:13:39,360
Speaker 4: like triggered by by things like even just hearing about cancer,

1527
01:13:39,400 --> 01:13:40,519
Speaker 4: Like I just didn't want.

1528
01:13:40,320 --> 01:13:44,439
Speaker 3: To like could consume it.

1529
01:13:44,800 --> 01:13:49,240
Speaker 4: Yeah, And sometimes when people would hear that like oh,

1530
01:13:49,360 --> 01:13:53,599
Speaker 4: like you had cancers, like oh like my my aunt

1531
01:13:53,680 --> 01:13:57,120
Speaker 4: had breast cancer and passed away, or like this person

1532
01:13:57,200 --> 01:13:59,360
Speaker 4: had cancer and passed away in my life, and I'm

1533
01:13:59,400 --> 01:14:00,360
Speaker 4: thinking like that, that's not.

1534
01:14:01,240 --> 01:14:03,240
Speaker 2: Like like why do I want to hear that right now?

1535
01:14:03,439 --> 01:14:03,639
Speaker 3: Yeah?

1536
01:14:03,720 --> 01:14:06,120
Speaker 4: Yeah, like that's a good connection, but I don't want

1537
01:14:06,160 --> 01:14:08,880
Speaker 4: to Like that would just make me feel like like

1538
01:14:09,520 --> 01:14:14,120
Speaker 4: you know, it's it made me feel what do they

1539
01:14:14,200 --> 01:14:16,040
Speaker 4: call it, survivors remorse.

1540
01:14:16,120 --> 01:14:19,439
Speaker 2: In a way, talk about that more because I think

1541
01:14:19,479 --> 01:14:23,080
Speaker 2: that's a I think that's very profound that you've said that,

1542
01:14:23,080 --> 01:14:25,280
Speaker 2: because I think a lot of people who are survivors

1543
01:14:26,160 --> 01:14:29,680
Speaker 2: can relate to that, because I feel like sometimes when

1544
01:14:29,680 --> 01:14:31,479
Speaker 2: I have these conversations with people and they survive like

1545
01:14:31,479 --> 01:14:34,080
Speaker 2: breast cancer, or like I even had a conversation with

1546
01:14:34,160 --> 01:14:36,439
Speaker 2: a girl she survived a plane crash out of one

1547
01:14:36,479 --> 01:14:39,040
Speaker 2: hundred people of her one of her classmates, and she

1548
01:14:39,200 --> 01:14:41,960
Speaker 2: was saying, how like she felt guilty for surviving.

1549
01:14:42,600 --> 01:14:45,760
Speaker 4: Mm hmm, Yeah, I know that's it's a it's a

1550
01:14:45,800 --> 01:14:51,280
Speaker 4: real thing because a lot of times when we hear

1551
01:14:51,320 --> 01:14:56,719
Speaker 4: about cancer, breast cancer society, you think about people people

1552
01:14:56,760 --> 01:15:01,559
Speaker 4: passing away. Yeah, and so many people have passed away

1553
01:15:01,560 --> 01:15:04,519
Speaker 4: from cancer, but also a lot of people have have

1554
01:15:04,720 --> 01:15:09,880
Speaker 4: survived it, and you know what I hear about people

1555
01:15:09,960 --> 01:15:10,719
Speaker 4: not making it.

1556
01:15:10,720 --> 01:15:15,439
Speaker 3: It's just like wow, like why why did I survive?

1557
01:15:15,520 --> 01:15:19,000
Speaker 3: And why did they lose that battle?

1558
01:15:21,720 --> 01:15:25,240
Speaker 4: And I even think about the like my I had

1559
01:15:25,280 --> 01:15:28,840
Speaker 4: early stage breast cancer. It was stage zero and stage one.

1560
01:15:29,400 --> 01:15:33,759
Speaker 4: So sometimes when I say that, I feel like, well

1561
01:15:34,720 --> 01:15:38,360
Speaker 4: doesn't really count because I didn't have to go through

1562
01:15:38,439 --> 01:15:41,240
Speaker 4: chemotherapy and they didn't give me like, oh, you only

1563
01:15:41,479 --> 01:15:45,160
Speaker 4: it's amount of you know, months or years to live.

1564
01:15:45,240 --> 01:15:46,360
Speaker 3: Like It's like sometimes I.

1565
01:15:46,280 --> 01:15:50,679
Speaker 4: Feel I feel guilty about that, right because there happens

1566
01:15:50,680 --> 01:15:52,400
Speaker 4: that people when I said, oh, it was stage zero

1567
01:15:52,400 --> 01:15:55,479
Speaker 4: and stage one, they were like, oh, but so now

1568
01:15:55,479 --> 01:15:57,840
Speaker 4: I'm kind of like, did I really go through runny?

1569
01:15:57,960 --> 01:15:58,160
Speaker 5: Right?

1570
01:16:00,000 --> 01:16:02,680
Speaker 2: I feel like no, kind of little my journey with

1571
01:16:02,800 --> 01:16:04,280
Speaker 2: breast cancer, like I still had it.

1572
01:16:04,720 --> 01:16:07,599
Speaker 4: I yeah, right, like I still I still lost my breast.

1573
01:16:07,760 --> 01:16:09,280
Speaker 4: It's like I'm still going through.

1574
01:16:09,080 --> 01:16:11,840
Speaker 3: This five year, five year treatment plan.

1575
01:16:12,520 --> 01:16:16,519
Speaker 4: So and then I even have a I have a

1576
01:16:16,560 --> 01:16:22,280
Speaker 4: friend from high school that had ovarian cancer and like

1577
01:16:22,400 --> 01:16:27,400
Speaker 4: her recurrence rate is something like seventy five percent mm,

1578
01:16:28,360 --> 01:16:31,680
Speaker 4: so it's just kind of like WHOA like for for me,

1579
01:16:32,200 --> 01:16:36,080
Speaker 4: my recurrence rate is it's very low, something like it's

1580
01:16:36,080 --> 01:16:37,200
Speaker 4: like an eight percent.

1581
01:16:36,960 --> 01:16:39,559
Speaker 3: Chance set wow that it would come back.

1582
01:16:39,960 --> 01:16:46,680
Speaker 4: But I feel like, oh, like almost like okay, my

1583
01:16:47,439 --> 01:16:50,880
Speaker 4: cancer isn't is it valid? Like that's how how I

1584
01:16:50,880 --> 01:16:53,559
Speaker 4: feel sometimes even though that's not true. It's not true

1585
01:16:53,760 --> 01:16:57,840
Speaker 4: at all, but that's something that that I deal with.

1586
01:16:58,760 --> 01:17:01,120
Speaker 2: I'm so happy that we could because I really do

1587
01:17:01,160 --> 01:17:04,600
Speaker 2: feel like your story is like it's so needed, Like

1588
01:17:04,680 --> 01:17:07,160
Speaker 2: I think it's so important, and I knew that I

1589
01:17:07,200 --> 01:17:09,800
Speaker 2: wanted to have you on just by how everybody was

1590
01:17:09,840 --> 01:17:11,919
Speaker 2: just like really like they was listening necess to everybody,

1591
01:17:11,920 --> 01:17:15,080
Speaker 2: but they was really like being attentive when you was talking.

1592
01:17:15,880 --> 01:17:16,400
Speaker 3: Wow.

1593
01:17:16,920 --> 01:17:19,400
Speaker 2: And also it was a lot of young girls. Yeah,

1594
01:17:19,960 --> 01:17:21,719
Speaker 2: it was a lot of young girls in the place too,

1595
01:17:21,800 --> 01:17:24,200
Speaker 2: So like, I think that your story is so important.

1596
01:17:24,200 --> 01:17:26,440
Speaker 2: So I'm really proud of you, sis.

1597
01:17:26,439 --> 01:17:27,840
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you, thank you.

1598
01:17:28,439 --> 01:17:32,400
Speaker 4: Yes, And I'm glad that you know that the audience

1599
01:17:33,200 --> 01:17:36,320
Speaker 4: took something from it, because even you know, like including

1600
01:17:36,360 --> 01:17:38,360
Speaker 4: you or other people came up to me afterwards and

1601
01:17:38,360 --> 01:17:39,840
Speaker 4: now it was just like oh wow, like.

1602
01:17:40,240 --> 01:17:43,599
Speaker 2: I know, I'm let me get her information because everybody

1603
01:17:43,680 --> 01:17:48,559
Speaker 2: was around you. Yeah yeah, Now how did your friends

1604
01:17:48,560 --> 01:17:51,559
Speaker 2: and family support you? And did you ever feel isolated

1605
01:17:51,640 --> 01:17:54,439
Speaker 2: due to being younger than the typical breast cancerpation and

1606
01:17:54,479 --> 01:17:58,960
Speaker 2: your friends probably you know, we're young outside haven't enjoyed themselves,

1607
01:17:59,000 --> 01:18:00,559
Speaker 2: Like yeah.

1608
01:18:00,439 --> 01:18:06,800
Speaker 4: Yeah, it definitely was a lonely experience because nobody my

1609
01:18:06,960 --> 01:18:08,960
Speaker 4: age could really relate to it.

1610
01:18:09,400 --> 01:18:10,560
Speaker 3: They could just relate.

1611
01:18:10,280 --> 01:18:15,400
Speaker 4: To being like maybe a caregiver to their mother, grandmother,

1612
01:18:16,080 --> 01:18:21,479
Speaker 4: et cetera. But no one really understood what it's like

1613
01:18:21,800 --> 01:18:24,880
Speaker 4: just going to the different appointments and like getting the

1614
01:18:24,960 --> 01:18:31,720
Speaker 4: news is just And even with my immediate family, I

1615
01:18:31,760 --> 01:18:32,400
Speaker 4: was living.

1616
01:18:32,200 --> 01:18:34,160
Speaker 3: At home with my mom and dad.

1617
01:18:34,840 --> 01:18:38,000
Speaker 4: I met my sister and my brother, and like they

1618
01:18:38,000 --> 01:18:41,160
Speaker 4: were very supportive, like they were there for me, but

1619
01:18:43,800 --> 01:18:46,320
Speaker 4: they just didn't know how to really, I guess, be

1620
01:18:46,479 --> 01:18:48,679
Speaker 4: there for me because this is so new.

1621
01:18:50,439 --> 01:18:50,920
Speaker 3: It's like.

1622
01:18:52,880 --> 01:18:55,920
Speaker 4: Having a family member with cancer is just like how

1623
01:18:55,960 --> 01:18:58,280
Speaker 4: could I how can I support them? It's like, of course,

1624
01:18:58,600 --> 01:18:59,920
Speaker 4: it's like a whole thing for them too.

1625
01:19:00,360 --> 01:19:04,640
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like I mean even at the event.

1626
01:19:04,479 --> 01:19:08,960
Speaker 4: Like talking or the panelists that were caregivers of people

1627
01:19:08,960 --> 01:19:11,920
Speaker 4: with cancer, It's like that was an important conversation to

1628
01:19:11,960 --> 01:19:17,040
Speaker 4: have as well. But my mom like she would she

1629
01:19:17,080 --> 01:19:21,679
Speaker 4: would cook for me. My sister would, Like my sister

1630
01:19:21,760 --> 01:19:27,040
Speaker 4: made this whole of of notes for me like I

1631
01:19:27,080 --> 01:19:30,160
Speaker 4: am strong or like I don't know, like just little

1632
01:19:30,240 --> 01:19:32,880
Speaker 4: like positive affirmations and like she wrote them on little

1633
01:19:32,880 --> 01:19:34,559
Speaker 4: pieces of paper and like put them in a bowl.

1634
01:19:34,640 --> 01:19:36,960
Speaker 4: So it's like whatever I'm feeling anxious, I would just like,

1635
01:19:37,120 --> 01:19:40,160
Speaker 4: you know, take one out and read it. Like she

1636
01:19:40,200 --> 01:19:42,760
Speaker 4: would just do like little things like like that for me,

1637
01:19:44,280 --> 01:19:46,479
Speaker 4: and always remind They would always remind me how much

1638
01:19:46,560 --> 01:19:49,760
Speaker 4: they care for me and everything like that, so I

1639
01:19:49,800 --> 01:19:54,479
Speaker 4: definitely had great family support. After my surgery, I received

1640
01:19:54,479 --> 01:19:57,519
Speaker 4: a lot of flowers and edible arrangements and like in

1641
01:19:57,640 --> 01:19:58,400
Speaker 4: gifts and stuff.

1642
01:19:58,520 --> 01:19:59,760
Speaker 2: So black people love edible.

1643
01:20:00,560 --> 01:20:01,519
Speaker 3: Oh that's that's right.

1644
01:20:01,560 --> 01:20:05,360
Speaker 4: And I loved it and.

1645
01:20:05,439 --> 01:20:06,559
Speaker 3: I really felt like.

1646
01:20:08,040 --> 01:20:10,360
Speaker 4: I remember I had like a table of all the

1647
01:20:10,400 --> 01:20:13,240
Speaker 4: flowers and gifts and I was like, Wow, people really

1648
01:20:13,840 --> 01:20:17,200
Speaker 4: really care about me because I was just coming back

1649
01:20:17,200 --> 01:20:21,080
Speaker 4: from I'm living in Florida and I felt so isolated

1650
01:20:21,120 --> 01:20:27,160
Speaker 4: and sometimes forgotten about. So the fact that so many

1651
01:20:27,200 --> 01:20:30,519
Speaker 4: people reached out to me and sent me stuff like

1652
01:20:30,600 --> 01:20:34,679
Speaker 4: during during my time of recovery, I felt like, wow,

1653
01:20:34,720 --> 01:20:37,679
Speaker 4: like I really do have a amazing support system.

1654
01:20:37,920 --> 01:20:40,960
Speaker 2: And how has your perspective on life change.

1655
01:20:42,040 --> 01:20:44,920
Speaker 4: My perspective of life? I know it sounds cliche, but

1656
01:20:46,080 --> 01:20:49,360
Speaker 4: every day is really a blessing. And it's such a

1657
01:20:49,400 --> 01:20:52,439
Speaker 4: blessing to be able to say that that I'm healthy

1658
01:20:53,280 --> 01:20:57,760
Speaker 4: because people deal with all sorts of things. Yeah, yeah,

1659
01:20:57,880 --> 01:21:01,320
Speaker 4: like that, not just just cancer, because it's like because

1660
01:21:01,360 --> 01:21:05,960
Speaker 4: cancer is like the only medical issue that I've ever

1661
01:21:06,040 --> 01:21:10,280
Speaker 4: dealt with, so so even just being able to say

1662
01:21:10,320 --> 01:21:17,280
Speaker 4: that I'm just I'm just really really grateful and trying

1663
01:21:17,280 --> 01:21:18,920
Speaker 4: to think of what else like with my with my

1664
01:21:19,000 --> 01:21:25,040
Speaker 4: perspective online. That's going back to don't let anything stress

1665
01:21:25,080 --> 01:21:28,960
Speaker 4: you out, Yeah, because it's just not worth it.

1666
01:21:30,040 --> 01:21:33,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, facts, facts, And I know you mentioned earlier that

1667
01:21:33,240 --> 01:21:36,599
Speaker 2: you have a five year treatment plan. So once you're

1668
01:21:36,600 --> 01:21:38,640
Speaker 2: done with that treatment plan, like what's next, Like is

1669
01:21:38,640 --> 01:21:40,839
Speaker 2: there any other things that you have to consider besides

1670
01:21:40,880 --> 01:21:43,719
Speaker 2: obviously maintaining your lifestyle? But and what does that plan

1671
01:21:43,760 --> 01:21:45,439
Speaker 2: consist of besides the medication?

1672
01:21:46,720 --> 01:21:51,599
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I see my oncologists every six months, so

1673
01:21:52,840 --> 01:21:56,519
Speaker 4: I just do a bunch of blood work. They're they're

1674
01:21:56,600 --> 01:21:59,519
Speaker 4: checking my kidneys to make sure that the medication isn't

1675
01:21:59,520 --> 01:22:02,800
Speaker 4: too hard on it. They checked my blood to make

1676
01:22:02,840 --> 01:22:05,959
Speaker 4: sure that there is I guess no, there's no cancer.

1677
01:22:06,320 --> 01:22:08,719
Speaker 4: And they just checked like a bunch of other things.

1678
01:22:09,360 --> 01:22:14,280
Speaker 4: And I don't have to do any nmmograms because when

1679
01:22:14,320 --> 01:22:16,320
Speaker 4: you have a bilad on mi sentom, you don't have

1680
01:22:16,360 --> 01:22:16,760
Speaker 4: to do that.

1681
01:22:17,840 --> 01:22:23,599
Speaker 3: I don't know if I'm gonna have to do MRIs maybe.

1682
01:22:23,880 --> 01:22:26,519
Speaker 4: And I see my breast surgeon once a year, so

1683
01:22:26,640 --> 01:22:33,000
Speaker 4: there is definitely a lot of monitoring involved. And after

1684
01:22:33,479 --> 01:22:37,760
Speaker 4: the five year treatment is over. We haven't talked a

1685
01:22:37,800 --> 01:22:41,880
Speaker 4: lot about what that monitoring will look like, but I'm

1686
01:22:41,920 --> 01:22:44,519
Speaker 4: sure I'll continue to still see my breast surgeon and

1687
01:22:44,600 --> 01:22:48,439
Speaker 4: my my oncologists at least once or twice a year,

1688
01:22:48,640 --> 01:22:49,479
Speaker 4: just to make.

1689
01:22:49,360 --> 01:22:52,320
Speaker 2: Sure that i'm and I'm not. I don't know if

1690
01:22:52,360 --> 01:22:54,160
Speaker 2: you want to have kids or if you have kids

1691
01:22:54,240 --> 01:22:58,280
Speaker 2: or that, but if someone was in your similar journey,

1692
01:22:58,320 --> 01:23:00,360
Speaker 2: does this affect them having kids in the future.

1693
01:23:01,320 --> 01:23:03,960
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, So I don't have kids, I have it

1694
01:23:04,040 --> 01:23:04,639
Speaker 3: for a baby.

1695
01:23:04,840 --> 01:23:09,360
Speaker 4: So my dog, I have a chocolate laugh like she

1696
01:23:09,360 --> 01:23:12,160
Speaker 4: she was there with me in Florida, and even when

1697
01:23:12,200 --> 01:23:15,200
Speaker 4: I came home from from the hospital, like she just

1698
01:23:15,560 --> 01:23:17,479
Speaker 4: laid down on the couch right next to me and

1699
01:23:17,479 --> 01:23:18,479
Speaker 4: dist didn't leave my side.

1700
01:23:18,520 --> 01:23:22,040
Speaker 3: So she's like she was a big, big support through

1701
01:23:22,040 --> 01:23:22,280
Speaker 3: all this.

1702
01:23:22,479 --> 01:23:31,400
Speaker 4: But yes, So before I started the treatment, I was

1703
01:23:31,439 --> 01:23:35,280
Speaker 4: asked if I wanted to freeze my eggs because because

1704
01:23:35,280 --> 01:23:39,360
Speaker 4: I'm going to be in menopause, I want to be

1705
01:23:39,439 --> 01:23:45,240
Speaker 4: able to have kids. But I said no, And the

1706
01:23:45,320 --> 01:23:49,880
Speaker 4: reason for that was because I was so done with

1707
01:23:50,000 --> 01:23:52,840
Speaker 4: going through procedures and going to the doctor that I

1708
01:23:52,960 --> 01:23:56,439
Speaker 4: was just like no. And also the expense part of it,

1709
01:23:56,760 --> 01:23:59,600
Speaker 4: like I was already spending like so much money, and

1710
01:24:00,479 --> 01:24:03,960
Speaker 4: like insurance would only cover a certain portion of it,

1711
01:24:04,000 --> 01:24:05,680
Speaker 4: and then you have to pay for the storage of

1712
01:24:05,720 --> 01:24:09,759
Speaker 4: the eggs. So so that it was just my decision

1713
01:24:09,760 --> 01:24:10,960
Speaker 4: to to say no to that.

1714
01:24:11,760 --> 01:24:14,320
Speaker 2: What advice would you give to young women about advocating

1715
01:24:14,360 --> 01:24:18,000
Speaker 2: for themselves in medical spaces, especially when doctors might not

1716
01:24:18,120 --> 01:24:19,559
Speaker 2: take their concerns seriously.

1717
01:24:20,280 --> 01:24:24,519
Speaker 4: Mum hmm, Just advocate for yourself and if something doesn't

1718
01:24:24,680 --> 01:24:29,760
Speaker 4: doesn't feel right, it's okay to to get a second opinion. Yeah,

1719
01:24:29,760 --> 01:24:32,960
Speaker 4: because I got a second opinion with with the lump,

1720
01:24:32,960 --> 01:24:36,920
Speaker 4: and I also got a second opinion when I I

1721
01:24:36,960 --> 01:24:39,880
Speaker 4: saw a breast surgeon because the first breast surgeon I

1722
01:24:39,920 --> 01:24:43,639
Speaker 4: saw was not the one that performed performed my surgery.

1723
01:24:43,960 --> 01:24:46,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, my first breast surgeon.

1724
01:24:46,560 --> 01:24:52,080
Speaker 4: Made me feel uncomfortable and I decided let me go

1725
01:24:52,240 --> 01:24:54,880
Speaker 4: buy someone else. And my my breast surgeon that I

1726
01:24:54,920 --> 01:24:58,639
Speaker 4: went with was a was a black female and she

1727
01:24:58,800 --> 01:24:59,759
Speaker 4: was she was amazing.

1728
01:25:00,439 --> 01:25:03,320
Speaker 3: So so yeah.

1729
01:25:03,640 --> 01:25:08,280
Speaker 4: Just just advocate for yourself whenever you're in at a

1730
01:25:08,479 --> 01:25:11,120
Speaker 4: doctor's office and something doesn't feel right.

1731
01:25:11,400 --> 01:25:13,080
Speaker 3: There are a lot of medical professions out.

1732
01:25:13,000 --> 01:25:16,320
Speaker 2: There you know, having somebody that look like you is

1733
01:25:16,360 --> 01:25:18,960
Speaker 2: so important. I spoke about this briefly with the first guests,

1734
01:25:19,040 --> 01:25:22,360
Speaker 2: but I had to breast cancer scare maybe like a year,

1735
01:25:22,600 --> 01:25:24,360
Speaker 2: not a year, maybe like two or three years ago.

1736
01:25:24,960 --> 01:25:27,320
Speaker 2: And the first I went for a mammogram and then

1737
01:25:27,600 --> 01:25:30,160
Speaker 2: I went for an ultrasound, and the nurse, I think

1738
01:25:30,160 --> 01:25:32,280
Speaker 2: she can tell that I was just so nervous because

1739
01:25:32,280 --> 01:25:33,920
Speaker 2: I was just by myself and I didn't want to

1740
01:25:33,920 --> 01:25:35,960
Speaker 2: tell everybody because I didn't want to scare my loved ones.

1741
01:25:36,600 --> 01:25:38,439
Speaker 2: And a way she took care of me and like

1742
01:25:38,520 --> 01:25:41,719
Speaker 2: made me feel so comfortable. And I don't think people

1743
01:25:41,760 --> 01:25:44,040
Speaker 2: really understand the value of having people that look like

1744
01:25:44,080 --> 01:25:46,599
Speaker 2: you and those type of spaces, because I was calling

1745
01:25:46,640 --> 01:25:50,160
Speaker 2: her untie and shit, like I just couldn't imagine those

1746
01:25:50,479 --> 01:25:52,880
Speaker 2: individuals who go through this by themselves, because it's a

1747
01:25:52,920 --> 01:25:56,160
Speaker 2: really scary prices, especially when you don't know the correct terminology,

1748
01:25:56,240 --> 01:25:58,840
Speaker 2: you don't know what's going on. Like you said earlier,

1749
01:25:58,840 --> 01:26:01,160
Speaker 2: you're thinking, was this lump always there? Or whatever the

1750
01:26:01,240 --> 01:26:04,400
Speaker 2: case may be. So yeah, I totally agree with you

1751
01:26:04,479 --> 01:26:04,880
Speaker 2: on them.

1752
01:26:05,760 --> 01:26:11,720
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, absolutely, Like there were some nurses that were

1753
01:26:11,800 --> 01:26:15,160
Speaker 4: just so they were just so comforting. Yeah, and they

1754
01:26:15,280 --> 01:26:18,639
Speaker 4: just understood that, you know, this is a really stressful

1755
01:26:18,680 --> 01:26:22,559
Speaker 4: time for you. Because sometimes I felt like like they

1756
01:26:23,280 --> 01:26:26,719
Speaker 4: they deal with this all day, like what makes me special?

1757
01:26:27,280 --> 01:26:32,960
Speaker 4: But some of those nurses and doctors, they they just

1758
01:26:33,040 --> 01:26:35,559
Speaker 4: made me feel feel seen and that I wasn't just

1759
01:26:35,800 --> 01:26:37,160
Speaker 4: a number.

1760
01:26:37,520 --> 01:26:42,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm thinking about my cousin, my cousin from

1761
01:26:42,120 --> 01:26:44,679
Speaker 2: the hood. So I didn't want to like stress him out,

1762
01:26:45,000 --> 01:26:47,160
Speaker 2: but I told him about everything. So when I got

1763
01:26:47,160 --> 01:26:48,639
Speaker 2: down in my doctor office, he was like, y'all good,

1764
01:26:48,720 --> 01:26:50,840
Speaker 2: y'all good, And I'm like, nigga, who is y'all? And

1765
01:26:50,840 --> 01:26:52,400
Speaker 2: he was like, you know you and your girls. I'm

1766
01:26:52,439 --> 01:26:53,040
Speaker 2: like child.

1767
01:26:55,720 --> 01:26:56,599
Speaker 3: I was like, yo.

1768
01:26:59,240 --> 01:27:01,720
Speaker 2: But last when I what advice would you offer to

1769
01:27:01,760 --> 01:27:04,040
Speaker 2: someone in their twenties or thirties who had just been

1770
01:27:04,120 --> 01:27:05,400
Speaker 2: diagnosed with breast cancer.

1771
01:27:06,600 --> 01:27:12,200
Speaker 3: M I would say, take everything just one step out of.

1772
01:27:12,160 --> 01:27:14,439
Speaker 2: Time, yeah, and.

1773
01:27:15,920 --> 01:27:21,400
Speaker 3: Just know that one day this will be a distant memory. Yeah.

1774
01:27:21,479 --> 01:27:25,879
Speaker 4: That's something that I told myself going through the process

1775
01:27:25,960 --> 01:27:28,880
Speaker 4: and that and anytime I I would get anxious or

1776
01:27:28,920 --> 01:27:30,439
Speaker 4: worked up, I would just say, one night, this will

1777
01:27:30,439 --> 01:27:32,720
Speaker 4: be a discant memory, and that would always help me.

1778
01:27:35,479 --> 01:27:40,200
Speaker 4: Counseling definitely helped. I didn't know if it was gonna

1779
01:27:41,000 --> 01:27:43,280
Speaker 4: gonna help me. I wasn't opposed to doing it, but

1780
01:27:43,320 --> 01:27:47,400
Speaker 4: I wasn't. I didn't think it was gonna really do much,

1781
01:27:47,479 --> 01:27:52,679
Speaker 4: but it. But it did take take time off of work, Yeah,

1782
01:27:52,760 --> 01:27:56,240
Speaker 4: because because I I didn't take a lot of time

1783
01:27:56,280 --> 01:28:00,600
Speaker 4: off because I had just started my job. I was

1784
01:28:00,640 --> 01:28:04,320
Speaker 4: diagnosed like one month after starting a new job. And

1785
01:28:04,400 --> 01:28:07,800
Speaker 4: even after my surgery, I was supposed to take six

1786
01:28:07,880 --> 01:28:09,080
Speaker 4: weeks and I only took two.

1787
01:28:09,920 --> 01:28:12,439
Speaker 2: You two into six weeks.

1788
01:28:13,040 --> 01:28:19,679
Speaker 4: That wow, And damn I felt it later.

1789
01:28:20,600 --> 01:28:28,519
Speaker 3: So prioritize yourself because this is a really serious thing.

1790
01:28:30,280 --> 01:28:31,840
Speaker 2: Damn, that's a whole other conversation.

1791
01:28:32,560 --> 01:28:34,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, yes it is. It is.

1792
01:28:35,920 --> 01:28:44,080
Speaker 4: And just don't let anybody make you feel feel guilty, ashamed,

1793
01:28:44,800 --> 01:28:48,960
Speaker 4: or stressed because it's not your fault. Yeah, and also

1794
01:28:49,000 --> 01:28:54,040
Speaker 4: that they're not alone in this unfortunately. Yeah.

1795
01:28:54,200 --> 01:28:56,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I am so excited that we met.

1796
01:28:57,000 --> 01:28:57,200
Speaker 3: Y'all.

1797
01:28:57,240 --> 01:29:00,760
Speaker 2: We live in the same state. I don't know how.

1798
01:29:00,840 --> 01:29:02,240
Speaker 2: I think we're pretty close to each other, and I'm

1799
01:29:02,280 --> 01:29:06,120
Speaker 2: just really yeah, there you go. So I'm really looking

1800
01:29:06,120 --> 01:29:08,240
Speaker 2: forward to building this friendship with you because I feel

1801
01:29:08,320 --> 01:29:10,439
Speaker 2: like when we first met and even having this conversation

1802
01:29:10,520 --> 01:29:13,599
Speaker 2: with you, like, I'm really excited to have to know

1803
01:29:13,640 --> 01:29:15,400
Speaker 2: you and also just be a part of your journey.

1804
01:29:15,560 --> 01:29:17,479
Speaker 2: And then also I was telling the first guest, I

1805
01:29:17,560 --> 01:29:19,559
Speaker 2: was like, I've been doing my show for almost six

1806
01:29:19,640 --> 01:29:21,639
Speaker 2: years and this is the first time that i had

1807
01:29:21,640 --> 01:29:25,639
Speaker 2: an episode on breast cancer awareness. So I'm really excited. Yeah,

1808
01:29:26,400 --> 01:29:29,120
Speaker 2: I pick two really amazing women to have this discussion with,

1809
01:29:29,280 --> 01:29:30,280
Speaker 2: So thank you so much.

1810
01:29:30,920 --> 01:29:32,320
Speaker 3: Oh no, thank you.

1811
01:29:32,560 --> 01:29:37,760
Speaker 4: And it is really therapeutic for me to be able

1812
01:29:37,800 --> 01:29:41,040
Speaker 4: to actually talk about it because I've never really openly

1813
01:29:41,920 --> 01:29:43,240
Speaker 4: shared my story like this.

1814
01:29:43,320 --> 01:29:49,360
Speaker 3: So so yeah.

1815
01:29:49,439 --> 01:29:51,719
Speaker 2: And to the listeners, if you have any questions, comments,

1816
01:29:51,760 --> 01:29:53,760
Speaker 2: or concerns, please make sure to email me a hello

1817
01:29:53,880 --> 01:29:57,200
Speaker 2: at the pagpodcast dot com. And like I always say,

1818
01:29:57,280 --> 01:29:59,360
Speaker 2: make sure you share your storyline because you never know

1819
01:29:59,400 --> 01:30:05,719
Speaker 2: how it can be somebody else's lifeline. So until next time, everyone.

1820
01:30:05,080 --> 01:30:07,040
Speaker 3: Later, Thank you so much.

1821
01:30:13,800 --> 01:30:16,920
Speaker 2: The Professional Homegirl podcast is a production of the Black

1822
01:30:16,920 --> 01:30:20,920
Speaker 2: Effect podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the

1823
01:30:20,960 --> 01:30:24,160
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

1824
01:30:24,160 --> 01:30:27,240
Speaker 2: favorite shows. Don't forget to subscribe and rate the show,

1825
01:30:27,560 --> 01:30:30,000
Speaker 2: and you can connect with me on social media at

1826
01:30:30,000 --> 01:30:31,320
Speaker 2: the PHG Podcast