Good News--No Recurrence! and a New Substack

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Transcript:

Hello friends and happy Spring. I do not have a guest today, and that might be shocking to some of you who've just started listening to this podcast because for the last five episodes I've had guests and that is really unusual. From the very beginning in season one, I always did one podcast episode with a guest and then followed it up with some commentary and reflection on what we talked about.

But for many reasons, this last month and a half has been different. And I've just done guest after guest after guest, uh, mostly because some of the guests had messages that were very time sensitive and I wanted to get their messages out. So, um. For example, Lori, who was the coach for the Dragon Boat team, uh, she wanted to tell her story because Dragon boat season has just begun, and I wanted folks to be able to learn about dragon boating in time to join them for the beginning of the season.

At least here in the northwest, the season starts after daylight savings changes. So, um, wanted to get that out. And then this last interview with Christine Handy was extremely time, time sensitive because she wanted to get all of the breast cancer survivors and flatties and. Their caregivers and loved ones into the theater on April 1st, uh, for her screening.

And at the moment that screening is sold out, she is trying to get a bigger theater. So if you've tried to get tickets recently and were turned away, you might try again in a week because they may secure a bigger theater within, uh, the man's Chinese theater. Kind of complex of theaters, so, uh, that's something you might keep trying if you really wanna join us there in person.

And I have to say that if you're watching on YouTube today, you'll notice that I look very tired, and that's been true for the weeks since I got back from Las Vegas. Those of you who have subscribed to my newsletter and followed me on Substack, uh, you will know that I had a trip to Las Vegas.

Usually lasts around five days around my husband's archery tournament there. It's a worldwide gathering of archers, huge tournament that we go to just about every year. And I think the number of anesthesias that I've been through at this point, combined with all the smoke and just general anxiety that is present for me in Las Vegas, especially when I'm staying on the strip, which we did this time, which just extremely tiring and.

Reminds me that I do have a small amount of chronic fatigue syndrome, that I do have to, uh, work to get past some of these barriers with fatigue and, and energy loss. So I'm still fighting my way out of that hole. But I'm here because I have so many things to talk to you about. Uh, first off, I want to tell everyone that I did get an ultrasound this last week and it came back clear.

So I'd been waiting , post-surgery to get my. Final ultrasound to make sure that there was not still a suspicious lymph node the way that they thought there was. In my last ultrasound, uh, I had a excisional biopsy surgery in January, so I guess it's just been two months. Anyway, I. So I had all the inflammation from surgery.

They couldn't go in into an ultrasound until that inflammation calmed down and I just had that ultrasound this last week and it came back clear indicating that it really was never a lymph node. Um, it was probably a complex cyst that ruptured sometime just before my surgery, and that's why there's no evidence of it in any of my, um, my excisional biopsy tissue.

So that's good news. I don't have to worry about having a recurrence, uh, which I was pretty sure was the case, but I just had this final step that I needed to wait for and see myself through, and very reassuringly. My radiologist did not even come into the room to talk to me this time, which never happens. That's the first time I've ever not had her come in the room to talk to me after an ultrasound. So that was very reassuring. Uh, so I just wanted to share that news off the bat.

And then I just wanted to go back and reflect on all of these lovely interviews that I've had over the last five weeks. Um, the first couple were, as I had told you, they would be, were with a couple of pretty good friends of mine, folks that I see every couple of weeks on average.

Um. Brenda is just a local super close buddy of mine that, um, has had a lot of struggles and we've grown close through her struggles. Um, and through our connection through the breast cancer journey, we both went through breast cancer right about the same time, and she had a much longer treatment plan than I did.

So she's just come out of her treatment not that long ago. And, um. Brenda is someone who, unlike a lot of folks that I. Tend to shine the spotlight on in my Instagram and other community posts, I find there are some people that are not celebrating their new body after breast cancer. You know, shockingly, of course.

No. I think the assumption is that we wouldn't be too happy with our bodies after breast cancer, but. Most of my friends are, and there are a few friends that are still coming out of the trauma of breast cancer, including Brenda, who are not so thrilled with their body. And I wanted to feature someone like that.

Um, and I wanted it to be someone I knew well, and that was true in Brenda's case. I know her well. She trusts me, I trust her, and I had her here in person in my home for that interview. And, uh, Brenda and I talked about the contrast of the two breast cancer events here locally that we both went to together, and I wanted to talk a little bit, reflect a little bit more on that and the contrast there.

So the first breast cancer walk that I ever went to was also Brenda's first one. It was in 2023 and it was at the zoo here in Portland, uh, Oregon, where near where I live. And Brenda was one person, maybe out of three or four people that I had found for that event online on Facebook, I think. And. Someone I hadn't met before that event.

And then there were at least a dozen women that I had met and gotten to know really well at the retreat that I'd gone to about six months prior. And so, but Brenda was a brand new friend that I'd been interacting with online. I hadn't met her in person. I. And she came into that event with a, a sense of exhilaration, seeing all of the energy that the dozen or so of us who were very celebratory of our bodies in that context, it kind of caught her, you know, like a virus that kind of caught on and she caught the, the energy from us.

And kind of jumped in with some, some hesitation and a little bit of timidness, but jumped into the, the party basically is what it was. It was a Susan G Komen walk, and Susan G Komen is bringing the party these days. Um, they're much less focused on walking than kind of. Jumping up and down, singing, dancing, being silly together in a lot of their events across the country.

Although, you know, in different chapters, they're a little different, uh, from one territory to the next. But here in the northwest, we tend to have a little party. When we go to Susan G Komen walks. And so Brenda jumped in with a lot of energy and we just kind of danced around a lot and had a, a friend of mine was actually up on the stage leading Zumba, and that was such a great memory.

There was probably 20. Or so of us Flatties who, um, had gathered in advance and knew that we were gonna be there. And, and I actually choreographed a little video. I was the technically the leader that time, and I did a little video that you can still find on my YouTube channel and on my Instagram. Uh, I, I brought little signs that people could hold saying positive things about their body that went along with a, a song called I Am Woman.

That's a pretty recent pop song. And so we did a little choreographed deal and video. That was really fun. But, um, then we had others that joined us who were flatties who could see us. 'cause there was such a big group of us and many of us with our shirts off and, um, some of the, the other flatties and the crowd just were attracted to that and joined us and, and we all walked together in the very short kind of span that Komen allowed for us to walk on that event.

It wasn't a 5K or anything, it was pretty short. Allowing for people with disabilities, which we really appreciated 'cause we had a number of those. So, um. In the end, we gathered together, did a little dance and celebrated with the song. And, uh, it was so much energy and there was even like a, a political figure there.

I think it was like a state representative that had spoken from the stage and some of us went and talked to her afterward. So it felt like a really significant event in my life. It was a very strong memory. Lots of photos taken there. And I share that with Brenda, who happens to be now the closest flattie to where I live.

She lives really close about five minutes away in a small college town near where I live. And uh, so we get together and reminisce about that. But the following year in 2024, Brenda and I got together at the same walk. All of our Flattie friends, the ones that are, that bring the energy, that bring the party, um, had gone to Bend for a flotilla event and were floating down the river that day.

And so I just had a bunch of new flatties that were just joining the community, one of which was Avena, who, um, I went to Burning Man with and shared that story. Earlier in the podcast, and