IMMEDIATE Actions After DIAGNOSIS | Breast Cancer

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Soon as I saw it, I went, my brain. I didn't change the expression at all, but my brain went, this is not going to be good. My life at this moment, and it could change, but at this moment is BC and ad before cancer, after diagnosis. That's where I'm at. Sometimes there are moments in our life, events happen, and our world stops. And sometimes it just feels like the world just literally stops turning. Today we're going to have a conversation with someone very special about one of those moments. [00:00:36] Speaker B: Welcome to the Duster Mud podcast, and we are very excited to welcome my mom to the podcast room and to meet you guys today. So I would like you all to meet Mrs. Linda McGlamory. [00:00:50] Speaker A: Hi. Hi, you guys. Thank you so much for inviting me. I've been looking forward to this, honestly, before you even mentioned it, that you would see if I would be willing to join you. I had already thought through many of the things that I would say if I was given the opportunity. So thank you guys. Thank you. Before we go any further, I have a bit of laryngitis. I'm going to talk less than I normally do. People might be happy. [00:01:20] Speaker B: What? [00:01:21] Speaker A: Okay, off you go. Hey, that's okay. Because I'm a talker. If it takes 100 words, I will probably use 1000. So I can make up for this. We got this. Off I go. [00:01:36] Speaker B: So I thought maybe we would start just with a little bit of, who are you? Some kind of background. I definitely want you to touch on your professional life and professional background. If you would just take a moment to introduce yourself, maybe. [00:01:53] Speaker A: Okay. All right. Well, Linda McGlamry. Right? I decided some time in you guys life after you were already up and going in school, that I would want to pursue a bachelor's degree. And so I completed a bachelor's degree in education in 1987. Now, I was born in 53. I attribute that to a principal that I had at the time who encouraged me to get my teaching degree. And I said, gosh, I'd be 30 something years old by the time I got my degree. And he said, and how old will you be if you don't? [00:02:36] Speaker B: Right? [00:02:37] Speaker A: So, bachelor's degree in education. I am one of those crazy folks that love middle schoolers. Sorry. I love you guys. So I spent the first half of my career, about 15 years in the classroom teaching math to middle school students. And so then I really have always enjoyed counseling, and I'm trying to think how old I was. But I can tell you that I finished a 60 hours master's degree in 2005. So I was, what, 52, 53. 52 years old. And so you're never too old to continue your education. And so I spent the second half of my career in school counseling and loved it. Retired about ten years ago and love being retired also. So that's a little bit about my professional background. [00:03:39] Speaker B: Talk a little bit about interests, hobbies, like, a little more of, who are you? What do you do? [00:03:47] Speaker A: Oh, goodness. Well, I know she's a gardener extraordinaire. I do. [00:03:50] Speaker B: Right. [00:03:51] Speaker A: I've always loved gardening. I'm, like, the uncurable optimist when it comes to gardening. It doesn't matter if it failed last year. We're going to try again next spring. And, in fact, this past summer, we had so many tomatoes, we could not give them all away, as my pantry and your pantry would testify to. And so we've decided we're doing two tomato plants this year. We'll see how that really turns out. So I love gardening. We have an rv. We have enjoyed rving, and, gosh, throughout y'all's career. My goodness, the things we have seen and the places we have been, and so we have a lot of great memories of travels and experiences and, oh, my, the stories we could tell. Stories we could tell. Let's say I enjoy knitting and crocheting, because now it's wintertime and we're not gardening, and there's only so much planning of gardening you can do. So I enjoy doing some sewing and knitting and crocheting, things like that. I love being with my family. I love being with my granddaughters. And so, to me, that's like joy. That's the joy of my life. [00:05:14] Speaker B: That's cool. [00:05:15] Speaker A: And farming. And farming. Oh, I love writing down to the pigs. The pigs are my favorite. I just love the pigs. They grow so quickly, and I'm like, dad, come. I was only here two weeks ago, and I think they've doubled in size. I love going and throwing some lettuce scraps out to the chickens and watch know, do chicken things. So, yeah, we love the farming as well. [00:05:40] Speaker B: Very cool. So Shelley mentioned in the opening that sometimes it feels like your world stops turning. There are people who will watch and listen, and they've heard the word cancer come out of a doctor's mouth before. And then there are people who hope they never hear that. [00:06:06] Speaker A: People hope they never hear. [00:06:07] Speaker B: The thing that keeps. It just kept reverberating in my mind was, where were you when the world stopped turning? And I don't want to put words into your mouth, but being empathetic, it felt to me like that would be what the feeling is. Could you talk to us a little bit about that moment in time when you heard the word cancer? [00:06:44] Speaker A: Yeah. I actually meant to bring the purse with me, and I forgot it, but I had a biopsy, a needle biopsy. And then I got the phone call from the doctor's office, the nurse who said, your doctor, she would like to meet with you to go over your pathology report. And I'm like, okay, I'm not sick, right? I'm well, I'm healthy. I don't get sick. My mantra, the doctor, the whole time, when I was a kid and my mom would take us kids for our yearly checkup, would declare me healthy as a horse. She's healthy as a horse, and that's my entire mindset of life. And so for them to say, she would like to meet with you to discuss your pathology reports. I'm thinking, okay, they're not going to probably discuss things like that over the phone. [00:07:41] Speaker B: Right. [00:07:41] Speaker A: Makes sense. [00:07:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:42] Speaker A: I'm not concerned. I'm good. And so your dad and I are sitting there, and she walked in, and it's a really cool bag. It's like a tote, I guess you would call it. And it's kind of a black mesh with some pink woven through it, and a pink ribbon thing that's embroidered on it. And she's got it in this nice little bag, clear bag that's tied with a pink bow. And he never saw it. He never noticed it. Didn't have a clue. As soon as I saw it, I went, my brain. I didn't change the expression at all, but my brain went, this is not going to be good. Seriously. I mean, that was my exact thought. And so, for me, in my thinking, my life at this moment, and it could change, but at this moment is Bc and ad before cancer, after diagnosis. That's where I'm at. Wow. So everything you knew and thought and believed prior to that is still truth. It's still what it was. It's just not what it is from here forward. And so that was the dividing line for me, was, this is not going to be good. Right now what? Yeah, now what? Now what? [00:09:14] Speaker B: Any thoughts or feelings about early screenings and those types of things? Like, was this a. You went for your first mammogram ever, or was this a. I'm a proponent of early detection and early screenings. What are your feelings on that? [00:09:37] Speaker A: Well, thankfully, I have really good health care, and I have a really good health professional, and she's wonderful. I love her. To pieces, and she's insistent that you go for your yearly mammograms. And again, I'm healthy. Okay, what's it going to hurt? I go for my yearly screening, and I didn't say this before, and I'll go ahead and do a little bit of an aside. The words that she used were invasive lobular carcinoma. You could have said chinese. I mean, it was that foreign of a phrase. I have a fairly decent command of the english language, and so invasive. Okay, got that. Carcinoma. Definitely know what that means. But I hadn't ever heard of it before. It happens to be. It makes up about 10% of breast cancers, 90% is ductal carcinoma, and ductal carcinomas have y'all. I'm not a medical professional. I've just done a lot of research. But anyway, they have a cohesiveness or like a glue that causes them to stick together, and they generally form lumps, which is why they tell you to check yourself regularly for lumps. This particular carcinoma does not have that cohesiveness. It doesn't have that glue, and it doesn't form lumps. It forms in a linear fashion in the lobules of the breast and is much more difficult to detect and nearly impossible to detect yourself until it's much further along. And so I'm just so thankful that I went for that mammogram. They're nearly impossible to see on a mammogram. I had a radiologist that actually saw something that caused concern, and then that health facility referred me to the next one and said, we'd like to get a 3d mammogram. We see something we don't like, and we'd like to look at it further. And so, of course, I went for the 3d mammogram. Again, I was expecting, okay, there's probably a spec on their x ray thing, right? And the technician who performed the mammogram went next door to the radiologist, and he looked at it and said, I'm not liking what I'm seeing. I would like an ultrasound. He took me immediately right next door. Get the ultrasound. You know how ultrasounds are. They do all the exploring around, taking all the pictures and measurements and all this and that. Still, I'm like, okay. The radiologist then said, I'm still not liking what I'm seeing. I would like to do a live ultrasound. In other words, is it okay if I come in and I want to look at what I'm looking at? And he then said, I'd really like a needle biopsy. And the technician checked her calendar and said, well, I have an opening tomorrow at eleven. Would that be all right? I'm like, sure, I'm retired. I mean, every day Saturday in my world. And so that's when they performed the needle biopsy. And it was about a week or ten days later that I got the pathology report and fast forward diagnosis. So that's a long way around to answer the question you asked. And the answer is absolutely. Even if you are 70 years old like I am, and healthy as a horse your whole life. Go get the screenings done. Go get them done. Absolutely. [00:13:51] Speaker B: Step us through the next few moments, if you will, and then continue it until you're tired of talking about it. But from the time that you saw that bag, talk to us not as much about the medical things, but more about the feelings, what was happening. [00:14:20] Speaker A: Well, having a master's degree in know, of course one of the classes know grief and dying and Elizabeth Kubler Ross and the stages of grief. And of course they're not concrete and absolute, but I would say that of course the first thing is shock because you're just like, okay, wait, I'm the healthy one. Your dad has the heart issues. Yakity. I'm never sick. Well, I mean, I might have a sore throat, stuffy nose or poison ivy, but I mean, that's it. We don't do sick. [00:15:00] Speaker B: Right? [00:15:00] Speaker A: And so shock, it's like. But like I said, it was just so obvious to me as soon as she walked in, it was just obvious. My brain went, this is not going to be good. And so I called you guys because I had told you that I would let you know what I found out. And I think I'm not generally paralyzed in a situation. That's not generally my reaction to a situation. Even when your dad had the issues that he's had with his heart, you know this. You've seen me in action and I'm an action person. We're going to find out what we can do about this, if there is anything we can do about this, right? So I'm more prone to. Okay, this is what it is. We can't do one thing iota of anything to change what happened 1 second ago. We can only move forward from here. What are we going to do now? Well, for me, I'm an information gatherer. I am going to go home. Well, I actually went to my sister's house because I wanted to be able to tell her in person. And then I went home. And then thankfully, I don't have dial up that takes an hour and a half to download one research article. And I get on the phone, on my phone and I just start looking at, first of all, what is invasive lobular carcinoma referred to as ILC, which I can say that if it's okay, and I want to know what it is, what does it look like? Where did it come from? Whatever. What's the prognosis? What's the outcome, what sorts of treatments are recommended, how much research has been done on this? And thankfully, I've been referred to, if I'm allowed to say where. Oklahoma cancer specialists and Research institute in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And you know the part I really love research institute. You know, I do because I love information. I want to know things. And these folks do research and they participate in clinical studies and they're going to have the most cutting edge information. So first thing I'm doing is I want to find out what's going on and what is it and what can I expect, right? [00:17:50] Speaker B: Sure. [00:17:51] Speaker A: So that was the first thing I did. And to be honest with you, I'm not saying I'm out of the stage of shock. I'm probably still somewhat there. I'm probably still somewhat in the stage of denial. Like, pretty sure one of these days I'm going to wake up and go, holy cow, that was a bad nightmare. And I'm so happy it's over with. But I'm energized by looking for information. Is there anything I can do? I do not like the feeling of being helpless. And if there's anything at all I can do at all from this second forward, I want to know what it is, and I'm going to do my best to try to find it and do it. [00:18:41] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. [00:18:41] Speaker A: I'm an action person. [00:18:46] Speaker B: So anything immediate that you changed in your life other than now really diving into the research? [00:18:57] Speaker A: Right. Did it? [00:18:58] Speaker B: Cause once you gathered information, now you have some information, what next? Was it a sit on the couch and be upset? What happened? What was next then? [00:19:12] Speaker A: Okay, well, I'm prone to obsessive thinking anyway. I'm a headspace person, so I know me well enough to know that to just sit on the couch and be upset is not my saying is when you find yourself in a deep hole, quit digging. So I'm generally not going to dig myself into a hole. And if I do, I'm hoping I recognize it and get out of there because it's not helpful for me. So I would say for me, life decision number one was get information. I'm sure that there are people perhaps that are watching or listening to this that are, like, not me. I don't want to know anything. And that's cool. That's. You sure you do. You. Well, as a result of the research that I was doing, for lack of a better word, the studying, I found out. Okay, y'all, I'm not just consulting Dr. Google Pants, okay? I'm listening to medical specialists in the field of ILC. I'm watching their TED talks. I watched the 2023 breast cancer symposium at Cleveland clinic. Okay? I am listening to these folks and watching them. Well, there happened to be an oncologist, a pathologist speaking, and she's using terminology that I'm not familiar with. I don't have a medical background, but I can look things up. And so she's using this about this pathology. And I thought, well, I got my pathology report right here. I'm going to go look at it, see if I can figure something out. And what I figured out was something that the enemy I have been evaded with, I hate calling it my cancer. It's my enemy, is what they call hormone receptor positive, okay? And since I've been on hormone therapy supplements for a long time, and my cancer seems to have receptors on the cell membranes that, like, it's kind of like, I don't know, steak and baked potato to them. They like it. They're like, oh, hormones just went by. Estrogen went by. Here, give us some of that. Right? So life decision number two. Done. [00:22:00] Speaker B: Got it. [00:22:02] Speaker A: Done. See? No more hormones. Because I see this cancer as an enemy invasion. You are not invited. I did not provoke you. And yet you have done this thing to me, and I refuse to continue to do anything that might help you to continue to exist in my system. And if hormones are one of those things, then that's information is number one. Number two is done with the estrogen. Stop it. I won't give you any more strength. And so then, speaking about ketogenic lifestyle for a second, if we could maybe, of course, morph into that. So you guys have been doing this for about five years. And if you, the viewer, have not had an opportunity to watch and listen to the things that I talk, I talk with my hands. If you guys have not had the opportunity to watch and listen to many of their previous podcasts, I encourage you to do so. But anyway, as you said, to use your words, I'm not going to harp on it. And you know me well enough to know that harping on it would just the more one pushes, the more I'm going to resist anyway. But I've seen it. I've heard about it. We come here and we eat with you guys. We love it. Your food is wonderful. But we go home and we go back to not what I would call standard american diet. We try to be healthy. Right. I eat my oatmeal with my sugar free syrup for breakfast. For lunch, I'm going to have my vegetable soup with a half of a grilled cheese sandwich. And it's made with the super duper homemade ancient grains bread that I made. I mean, we healthy. Yes. And supper is going to see you smiling. Supper is going to consist of that which we grew up on and we're familiar with, which is you've got a meat and a starch. It's potatoes or rice or pasta or something. And a vegetable. Absolutely. And in my world, growing up, vegetables also included corn and peas and things like that. All the vegetables. And so we would go back to that. And I know I haven't even shared this with you guys. Why have I in the past, been resistant to adhering to a ketogenic lifestyle? I'll call it that. Or a diet, whatever you want to call it. Well, I'm 70 years old and I know me. And what you probably don't remember is something back, way back when used to be called the cottage cheese and grapefruit diet. And you were going to lose weight, actually grapefruit, because it was sour, it would melt fat cells. And I didn't like grapefruits, and they were pretty sour. And it made perfect sense to me. I'm like, dude, it's going to melt the fat cells. I mean, if nothing else was going to melt fat cells, it ought to be grapefruit. [00:25:27] Speaker B: That's right. [00:25:30] Speaker A: I didn't stick with it. Okay. [00:25:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:25:34] Speaker A: I don't still live off cottage cheese and grapefruit. And so then there was also, because I've always obsessed over my weight, whether I was actually overweight or not, I believed I was, and I needed to do something about it. So then there was the calorie counting stage of my life. And you probably can remember some of that. Stay under 1200 calories a day. Stay under 1000 calories a day. And we didn't have the Internet, of course, but you had the book that had the calories for a cup of whatever or a tablespoon of whatever. I was appalled when I discovered that ketchup had calories. [00:26:12] Speaker B: Right? [00:26:13] Speaker A: Who knew? Not only can I not eat the french fries, I can't even have the ketchup. So calorie counting went by the wayside with grapefruits and cottage cheese. Right. Which I still like cottage cheese. Well, so I know you remember this. I went through many years, many, many years of walking. I walked before work, after work, on the weekends, never less than 3 miles a day, upward of 10 miles a day. In the summertime when I didn't have to work or I wasn't working, I was on school schedule. I mean, walk 10 miles a day, hundreds and hundreds of miles to try to control any weight gain, lose weight. Well, a couple of years ago, I went for an MRI on my left hip. Was told by the surgeon, the orthopedic surgeon, you need a complete hip replacement and your hip is shot. I do get to walk from the kitchen to the table to sit down and eat. And the word abhor is the strongest word I can think of. But there are many more stronger words, I'm sure, to tell you how much I abhor the idea of surgery, and we're just not doing it. So, no, we're not doing a hip replacement. It is elective, and I elect not to do it. [00:27:44] Speaker B: Right. [00:27:45] Speaker A: Okay. So I no longer walk. Not for distance. I try to walk as much as I can stay active. So, ketogenic diet. Why am I resistant? Because I'm not going to stick with it, y'all. I know I'm not. So why am I even going to start, right? Why am I going to empty the pantry of all my black beans and rice and my stovetop stuffing and my whole wheat pastas? Because they're healthy. That's right. When I know it's only a matter of time, we're just going to go buy some more. Don't throw it away. Yeah, just don't even bother to throw it away. [00:28:28] Speaker B: That's right. [00:28:30] Speaker A: So life decision number three, because remember, I'm still researching and studying and don't, because of my background in education and because of the master's degree that I was compelled. I wasn't compelled to get a degree. I was just compelled by Florida Atlantic University to do a lot of research. And you don't have an opinion. Your opinion counts for zero. These people who have studied things and have the data to support it, because I say this to you guys, even about choice of chickens. Data driven decisions. Right? So I want to know, what are the cancer research people saying about this possible connection between carbohydrates, sugars, glucose, insulin? Just kind of lump that all together. What are they saying about a possible connection between that and cancer. And hard and fast rule. If you're doing research, correlation does not equal causation. So let me say that to start with, but one of the podcasts that I was able to watch, and I know I forwarded you guys the link, and I believe you might want to put it at the end of this. I think it was called target cancer. But anyway, it was a doctor, Sanjay, and his last name, J-U-N-E-J-A. He's a medical oncologist. And the guest that he had that day was Dr. Christy Kesslering, and she's a radiology. Okay. Oncologist, radiologist, some sort of ist. [00:30:28] Speaker B: Right, got it. [00:30:30] Speaker A: Some sort of ologist. But just to, if you don't mind, I want to read a couple of her quotes. Absolutely. And for those of you who are viewing, please don't take my word for anything. Please watch that podcast or any others that you like, but watch something from a medical background. Yes. Anyway, she says, one of her quotes, cancer cells up regulate the number of insulin receptors they have on their surface, and they upregulate. All one word, upregulate their glucose transporters. And so I said, regulate. [00:31:21] Speaker B: I can envision you pausing the podcast. [00:31:23] Speaker A: Of course I did, because I went up regulate. I mean, english word, I can read it, but it sounds like it might have a medical connotation. Maybe I should see what this means. And so I look it up, and there are more medical mumbo jumbo words. And I keep looking until I find something that sounds. Oh, okay, I can get this. So, upregulate, to increase the responsiveness of a cell to a stimulus. Number two, to increase the number of receptors on a cell membrane. Then I go back to her quote. Cancer cells upregulate the number of insulin receptors they have on their surface, and they up regulate their glucose transporters. [00:32:15] Speaker B: And we've talked about it in the past, and you obviously have listened about insulin being that mechanism that opens the cells to the glucose. And so that obviously had some spoke to you. And then. [00:32:29] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:32:30] Speaker B: It also saying that it increases the number of, or the ability to then take in the glucose. So not only does it take more, the insulin receptors say it allows it to happen, and then it makes more. [00:32:48] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like these voracious little critters. I think of hungry hungry hippos. I mean, it's like an insulin. Whatever an insulin looks like, it goes by and a glucose goes by, and maybe even some estrogen goes by, and the hungry hungry hippos go gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble gobble. Again, I'm not a doctor. I'm just doing my best here. But the cell membrane, and she shows it on this podcast, kind of like a cartoonish, it's not cartoon, but it's like a graphic that shows regular cells, and they kind of looked like little volcanoes, and they had a little opening and they could take in glucose. Well, she shows, like, a cancerous cell, and the opening is larger, and there's a key, and it turns the key, and it just allows or takes in the glucose, it takes in the insulin. It uses it for energy. That's just my summary. Right. Side note. To say that you can starve cancer is a fallacy. Do not believe that. Okay? If we could starve cancer cells, we wouldn't need anything else that's going on in cancer world and research. We would just figure out how to starve them. That'd be the end of it. But according to Dr. Kesslering, a couple of her quotes, and I'm just jumping in the middle, she says, actually, let me wait a second. Our healthy cells, of which I have a whole lot more of those than I do, the enemy, they love to operate off glucose. They get energy off of the carbohydrates and the glucose that we eat, they can't use all of it. Sometimes if folks like me, baked potato, y'all, comfort food, love me a baked potato. And so they don't use it all glucose goes floating by. They send it to the liver. Liver says, what am I supposed to do with this? All right, I'll store it as fat, no worries. The cells are happy with that. My good cells are happy with that. My cancer cells are happy with that. Everybody's happy. But to deprive, let's say, to reduce the amount of carbohydrates that I'm taking in to a level at which I could probably eat grass and there'd probably be some light carbs in it. Broccoli has carbohydrates. But to reduce the number of carbs that I'm taking in, my healthy cells use it up. And the cancer cells are sitting there going, where's the good stuff? And from the research that you guys have mentioned and that I have done, it's not a problem. Your body is really just as happy. Your cells are just as happy with ketones. The liver says, what? No excess glucose, no worries. We'll produce ketones. And this is, in my belief, I suppose I would say, the result of zillions of years of humans on earth, right? This is a survival tactic that our bodies have developed because there was a time when you had to forage for everything. My ancestors, for example. Your ancestors, we had to forage for what we could eat. And in the summertime, maybe we had berries and roots of some sort, and they contained carbohydrates, but in winter, we might have only had some dried buffalo meat or something, right? Right. And so if that human lived to procreate, their body had to be pretty efficient at producing ketones so they could continue to live through the winter and grow up and make more people. [00:37:10] Speaker B: Right? [00:37:11] Speaker A: So knowing all of that, and again, I'm really oversimplifying you all, but knowing all of that, it's like, okay, wait, let me get this straight. Cancer cells are energized by glucose, but they're not particularly adapted or adept at taking in ketones seriously. So ketones will do fine for my healthy cells. And the cancer cells are like, no, where's the good stuff? Where's those little white dough notes? Right? Where's the baked potatoes? Where's the pasta? And so, having said that, let me jump to what I'm just right in the middle of her entire conversation. I encourage anyone to watch the whole thing. But anyway, she says, these are her words. Ketones make cancer cells somewhat malnourished. Remember, I said we can't starve them, but we can deprive them of some of the nourishment that they really enjoy, which is insulin and glucose. And she also says, in conjunction with medication and treatments, the result is weakened cancer cells. So what do you think my life decision number three was? We are going to weaken these suckers and we're going to malnourish them and we're going to. For me, this is a war that has been declared upon my tent that I live in, and I'm going to do what it takes to everything, to my abilities and all the weapons in all of the arsenals, including medical everythings, to try to destroy this enemy before it can destroy me. And if this is one little grain of sand of something I can do, then that's my little grain of sand, and I'm hanging on to it, and I'm going to do it. And like I have said, I'm going into this battle with my peace shooter. But by golly, I'm going to shoot something. I'm going to shoot something. It helps me to lessen the feeling of powerlessness. I guess I could say I feel less powerless. I won't say I feel more powerful, because that would be for me that would seem foolish, but I feel less powerless if I have a pea shooter. And to go back to what I originally said, why not switch to ketogenic lifestyle that includes beverages and foods and all? Well, because I wasn't going to stick with it. Right. Well, how long do you. I think I'm going to stick with this one. Like you said, motivations. I don't know. How long do you plan to brush your teeth? Yes. I used to say to the granddaughters, because there might have been one or two of them that wasn't a big toothbrusher person. Only brush the ones you intend to keep. [00:40:44] Speaker B: Right? That's right. [00:40:45] Speaker A: Only do this as long as. And so how long am I planning to do this? Committed to doing this? Well, because this ILC cancer, this invasive lobular carcinoma, is prone to metastasizing. That means it is prone to moving to other parts of the body, like gastrointestinal and reproductive. Well, I don't have any reproductive left, but I got some gastrointestinal left, not just soon. It didn't go there. Right. It's also very prone to recurring or coming back. And so how long am I going to continue to try to malnourish it and weaken it? As long as I'm on this side of the grass, I guess. Yeah. [00:41:38] Speaker B: Right. [00:41:41] Speaker A: The ods are very good. In fact, the oncologist mentioned this as well, that they will probably be prescribing a medication that I would take orally. How long? Every day. For how long? The rest of your life. The rest of the time that you want this to maybe not recur. Right. Well, that would be the rest of my life. Right. And as with all medications, it is not without negative side effects. Yeah. And so if I'm going to do that to my body, if I'm going to cause possible negative side effects to occur, why in the world would I sabotage it by feeding any potential cancer cells the things that they like to use to be nourished? Was she referencing any cancer cells or that one specific. This one was cancer cells. She was not specific to ILC. Okay. She was simply saying after the research that they have, how do you even see a cancer cell? [00:42:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Right. [00:42:48] Speaker A: I mean, how do you even see a cell membrane on a cancer cell and a mitochondria and a gene and a dna and she. I don't know, how do you even see these things? But what they've been able to see as a result of laboratory studies, because obviously they can't give humans cancer and then see how they react to things. But anyway, what they have seen is apparently on this cell membrane. It has. I don't know the word adapted, developed, I don't know. It has receptors on it that love, glucose, insulin, glucose. [00:43:31] Speaker B: So in the past, what is it now? Three weeks. [00:43:34] Speaker A: Three weeks. Three weeks ago yesterday, January the 19th. [00:43:38] Speaker B: What has been your response to keto lifestyle? Like, has it been terrible? And where's my potatoes? [00:43:47] Speaker A: What's it been adverse? Have you seen any adverse reactions? I really think that it is because of. It's a result of your mindset. For me, I can't say you, but for me, it's a result of my mindset. Once I have, you all know me, if I've made a decision, it's hard and fast. I'm an all or nothing person. And there's no gray area here. There's no maybe once in a while. No, it's just. No, we're going with this. If they told me, I guess, to eat tree bark, I'd eat tree bark and I'd be the damn end of it. Sorry. That would be the end of it. Yeah. So you can tell. I mean, I feel energized, right? I'm not sitting here going, oh, man, I didn't have my oatmeal this morning. No, I'm good. I'm fine. And I like food. I like meat. I like vegetables. I hate green peas, canned green peas, anyway. And I'm not a big fan of corn, but I love green beans and cabbage and broccoli and cauliflower and squash. Real food. Real food. And I like growing those things, so I like eating those things. And we buy our meat from you guys. So I know. I mean, I've been down there to feed the pigs each day. I know what they eat. I know what they do. I know what your chickens and lambs and all. So I know this is good, clean food. I see the bags in your barn that say non gmo, right? I have no hesitation and no qualms whatsoever of eating good, healthy, real clean, whatever words you want to use, food do. I feel whatever. Occasional cheeks start to flush right. As a result of coming off of the estrogen supplements the daily. I mean, y'all, it was the size of a small watermelon seed cut in half. But anyway, no more of that. And of just severely. Well, not that the word is too much, just restricting the carb intake that I have. I don't have cravings. I don't get up from supper and go sit on the couch and watch tv while my brain is going, what else do I want to eat? Right? What's in the pantry? What sounds good to you? Ooh, I love dark chocolate. I think I have a couple of little dark chocolate things. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say brand names, but you could say what you want. Yeah, I probably have some little dove dark chocolates in there. One or two? One or two is not going to hurt. I don't do that. Right. I eat between noon and six. So you're intermittent fasting as well? Absolutely. First of all, after watching your video, what's that thing called? Podcast. After watching your podcast, and again, we're kind of tying this back into insulin receptors and reuptakes, right. And wanting to just keep that insulin level more stable. Right. And if my mother were alive today, could confirm this. Hated breakfast my whole life. Anyway, that's easy. I'm perfectly happy to cut out breakfast. And so eat at noon, eat at six, no cravings. I'm not getting the shakes. I don't sleep anyway. I never have since he was I. As we always said, I could hear a mouse fart. I mean it. Wake me up. A cockroach goes carpet and I am awake. Ben Elizabeth's hamster gets out and climbs the curtains behind the bed. Middle of done. I'm not sleeping. You know, I don't think it has affected my sleep one way or the other. [00:48:14] Speaker B: But I would expect after the number of years that you were on a hormone replacement therapy, that your body's reaction to even titrating off. [00:48:25] Speaker A: Right. [00:48:26] Speaker B: Your body's reaction, in my mind, would have been extreme. It would have been hot flashes, it would have been flushed face, it would have been extreme sweating, moodiness and crankiness. [00:48:38] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:48:39] Speaker B: Like all of these things. Are you saying you haven't experienced that? [00:48:43] Speaker A: No. Like I said, you can probably see I've got on a jacket. My cheeks will tend to flush, but they were doing that on the medication. You all know that. You would see me and my moodiness more tends toward. I'm not sure if the word depression might be a little too much, but it'll tend on that spectrum more so than just being cranky or whatever. I'm cranky to start with. I'm cray cray and I'm cranky, but it tends more toward I'll just sit there and stare at the wall. And myself will tell myself, you really should get up and drink some water. And myself will answer, I don't care. Right, you need to get up and eat something. I don't care. So I tend more that direction. [00:49:44] Speaker B: Okay. [00:49:47] Speaker A: You guys have been around me and talked with me and seen me for this past, I mean, three weeks. But you could probably attest to the fact that I am seeming. Maybe I'm on an adrenaline high here, you all. But I'm not feeling overwhelmed, because I feel as if I've made moves in the right direction. I'm not just sitting here in my mud puddle while it rains with no raincoat, no umbrella. Right. [00:50:17] Speaker B: The one thing that we discussed was, without talking to you about it at all, was that it appeared to us that you had a lot more mental clarity. We laugh about old timers, and it wasn't that. Right, but it was getting to that. Things were seeming a little foggy, and it would not be uncommon to hear something twice in the same visit or maybe even a third time, and we would sort of chuckle and be like, well, it's a little foggy. And I think the most obvious thing to us of the change was that seems to be, like, gone. I mean, you are, like, gone. [00:51:09] Speaker A: We're firing on all eight cylinders around here. [00:51:11] Speaker B: You are, as evidenced in this discussion. Right. Are we looking into things, or would you attest to the same. [00:51:22] Speaker A: Well, I don't have to tell you guys. My face is like a neon sign. I mean, if I'm thinking it, it's probably coming. I try to use my inside voice face, but sometimes it gets away from me. [00:51:33] Speaker B: I think I got that. [00:51:36] Speaker A: Can't imagine why. So, no, you're not seeing anything that is false. You're not seeing. Oh, I'm just putting on a good face for you guys. I'm just like, this is me. Like I said a minute ago, once in a while, I still have to search for a word, but like I said, maybe it's an adrenaline high. Maybe I'm whatever, but I'm good, y'all. I'm good. I have an MRI coming up this week. Week after that, I'll meet with the breast surgeon, and from there, I don't know. There are a whole lot of things I don't know. But whatever it is, I need to know, tell it to me, because I want to have information, and I will do anything I can to rid myself of this invader. [00:52:32] Speaker B: Right. So, in these past couple of weeks, few weeks, has there been any support that you have found helpful or that you could recommend if someone else is dealing with an issue similar, at least? Is there something that you would say, hey, this has really helped me, or I've looked into, or. That was not helpful? Are there any things along those lines? [00:52:59] Speaker A: Well, I anticipated that question. And so what I thought to myself was, there's a man that I love very much and miss him very much. His name is Mickey Evans, and he used to say, I'm just ned in the first reader. So I'm really early on in this deal, y'all, and don't think I'm crying because I stopped taking my estrogen. I do this, you know, I can't give advice to anyone who's further down the road than I am because I'm not there yet and you guys are. But if you're where I am and you're only a couple, three weeks into the journey that you have been put upon, because this is a marathon, not a sprint, right. It's a lifelong. I would say, sorry, I bumped the microphone. If gaining information is helpful for you, do it. If changing something in your lifestyle is helpful for you, do it. If you are not an all or nothing person like me, and you say, I can't do all that at once, then I used to teach my students the japanese kaizen, and it says, little by little, bit by bit, I'm improving every day. Do one small thing, just one thing today, and then pat yourself on the back for having done it right. Tell yourself, good job. You. You got this. So what I would say to anyone who's where I am at the three week mark ad is, you do. You do what works for you. But for me, because I'm a talker, I tell anybody and everybody, right? I put it on my social media. I'm putting it out here with you guys. Like I said, first place I went, I went to my sister's house and talked to her face to face. That was on Friday. On Saturday, the fam family got together. My nieces and nephews and my brother and other folks in the, I told them, I've told my aunts and friends on social media have reached out, and it's overwhelming, really, the number of people who say, I'm praying for you, and if you're a praying person, then encourage others to pray for you. If you think about me and you don't even know what to say, just say, help. Because I definitely feel the results of that. And I don't know if you will be able to include this or not or if you want to include this, but because I live in my head and because I obsess and I have, like, what I call circular obsessive thinking, I recycle it, and we think it all again. So for those first few days, man, stomach is just churning like flip flops. And just the anxiety because, remember, I hate surgery a lot. I don't do needles. I don't do scalpels. I have a trauma in my past surgery that we do not do surgery, people. So the whole idea of, I'm going to have to be in this world called medical, short of some antibiotics for a sore throat or some steroids for some poison ivy, new, I don't like that kind of stuff. And so, man, my stomach was just flipping and flopping. And one morning, I'm making my coffee. I drink it black, by the way, making my coffee. And I didn't have that feeling, that stomach churning, you know, obsessive thought circling around, and I. And I. I mean, it was that noticeable that I. I saw it, I felt it, I experienced it, and I was like, dude, where'd it go? Are we still here? I think this is my coffee. I'm not in my dream world. And again, agree, don't agree, whatever. As clearly as this right here, I heard in that still calm voice, it's the prayers. People are praying for you, and I believe that if that's part of your support and it's helpful to you, to whatever extent people pray and to whomever they choose to pray, encourage that. Sure. If you are like me, and I'm not trying to be so private that it's like, oh, my goodness, this is my news, and I'm not sharing it with anyone, you feel like you can share it with others, and that helps you share it with others. You'd be surprised the support you can receive from that. People want to care, right? And they can't do anything, but maybe they can pray, and they want to care about you, but they can't care about what they don't know about. [00:58:54] Speaker B: That's true. [00:58:54] Speaker A: So if you feel like that is something that helps you, then allow other people to know what's going on. [00:59:04] Speaker B: Sure. [00:59:06] Speaker A: Sounds good. I do my morning little Bible app, and boy, oh, boy, have they just been boom, boom, boom. At least to me. Every morning, my brain's like, whoa, that was interesting timing right there. But one morning recently, it was, I believe it's deuteronomy 31 four. But I don't have, like, word for word. But it was, the Lord goes ahead of me. And do not fear. Do not be afraid. You will not fail, and you will not falter. And I'm like, I got it. Okay. I'm good. I could do that, right? I encourage anyone who might have. I feel like you've given us the privilege of joining you today. If you're being persistent enough to see this all the way to the end, you go, you. And I encourage you to reach out. These guys, I've seen them in action. They love comments. They love interacting with the folks that see their podcasts and comment or ask questions or even offer up opinions or whatever. So I encourage the viewers to reach out to these guys, ask questions, send comments. If it spoke to you and you know someone or you're related to someone you work with, someone who might be going through something, you know, and you feel like this would maybe encourage them or. Or make them ad, I don't know, share it with them, but that's really it. Okay. If you got questions, ask them. If we know the answer, we'll tell you. [01:01:06] Speaker B: That's right. Well, awesome. Well, thank you. [01:01:10] Speaker A: Thank you. This has been great. [01:01:11] Speaker B: This has been amazing. I really do appreciate you doing this. [01:01:15] Speaker A: Yeah, well, you're very welcome. And thank you for giving me the platform to join you guys. And maybe, like I said, put a word of encouragement out there to just one other person, then it was worth it. It's all cool. [01:01:30] Speaker B: That's exactly how we feel. [01:01:32] Speaker A: Yeah, we do, too. Yeah, I definitely do. For sure. Good. Well, thank you. You're welcome. And until next time. [01:01:38] Speaker B: Bye bye. [01:01:40] Speaker A: Go. Bye, y'all. Bye.