Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Breast cancer affects one in eight women, and today we have one with us. Hi, I'm Shelly. Welcome to the Duster Mud podcast, episode number 54.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: My name is Rich, and this is my mom, Linda. In mid January of this year, 2024, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. Mid February, she had a consult with a doctor and came up with a plan of surgery. And by the beginning of March, she had had surgery. We've had her on the podcast now. This will be her third time. I'll leave the other two podcasts at the end of this episode so that you can go back and see those if you happen to have missed them. So welcome back for the third time to the Duster Mud podcast. And we really wanted to do this one as a. Hey, what's going on? Give an update. We've had a few people comment and ask for an update of how things are going, so we wanted to give you the opportunity to chat with everybody and give us an update.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: So you're still alive?
[00:01:03] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Thank you very much. Yeah, I'm excited to be here, actually, and I'm really doing good for, let's see, tomorrow is five weeks out from surgery, and I'm super excited to not be staring out the same window that I stared out of for the previous, the four weeks after surgery. And I was excited to get to come over and hang out and visit, look out a different window for a little while.
Earlier this week, had three appointments in Tulsa, beginning with the surgeon who came in.
She's your typical surgeon specialist, the serious perfectionist type. So it's a little bit rare to see her with almost giddy as she walked into the room and holds this paper up just like, yay, look at this. And it's where, it's called an oncotype, where they send a sample of the cancer cell that they took from your body to a lab in California, and they do all kinds of crazy tests. They test 21 different genes, and the outcome is a. It's a predictor, it's just a breast recurrence score of what they. A predictor based on thousands of input of data regarding what is the possibility of recurrence. And the 18 is very, very low because it's a zero to 100.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: Okay, before we go into any more, somebody might be new to this. And what was the, what was the, what was the flavor of breast cancer? And then what was the surgery that you had?
[00:02:55] Speaker C: Right. It was diagnosed as invasive lobular carcinoma. It affects about 10% of breast cancer patients, the most common being ductal carcinoma. It happens. It occurs in the lobules of the breast. And invasive means that it left where it started, it left the lobule, and it went out into surrounding tissue.
And so really, before surgery, it looks like it's quite a large tumor. Based on the MRI, it does.
Absolutely. Recommends a complete mastectomy, not a lumpectomy, and removal of the sentinel nodes. She removed the left breast and four of the lymph nodes that are. They call them sentinel nodes because they're the first drainage system out of the breast and would be the first of the lymph nodes they would expect if they were going to find cancer had spread past the breast tissue itself.
[00:04:07] Speaker A: So that was the surgery that you had to go for the complete.
[00:04:11] Speaker C: Yeah. And so we did the complete mastectomy march 4. Four lymph nodes removed.
She had all positive margin. I mean, sorry, negative margins or clean margins? Meaning of all of the tissue that was removed, she had at least, I think I remember the pathology report, at least 3, that tissue that was clear, that did not have cancer in it.
[00:04:42] Speaker A: That is a wonderful thing.
[00:04:44] Speaker C: It was so close to the pectoralis muscle. She actually removed the fascia of the muscle because she wanted to make sure that she didn't leave anything behind, which is really good. And the lymph nodes were negative, so it had not spread past the tissue itself.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: Amazing.
[00:05:04] Speaker C: So that was excellent.
And so I had they grade the cancer. It was grade one. It's based on three different criteria, and it's a score of one to five for each of them.
Estrogen receptor positive was a three. I'm sorry, it's a score of one to three.
It came out as three, which is the highest. It was 100%. Progesterone receptor positive was 10%. So it was a one and something called her two. Her two, which is just a human growth hormone that indicates how quickly the cancer cells are able to replicate, was also a one. So when you do three plus one plus one is how they report. It's called a Nottingham score. It was a total of five, which is considered grade one. So they called it early stage.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: Cool.
[00:06:06] Speaker C: Okay. Okay. So it's a low grade.
I meant. Sorry, they called. Yeah, they called it early stage. It's a low grade. It's a grade one staging. It is stage two. And really, they kind of break that down into a or b two, because of the size and the fact that it was invasive, but a, because it didn't go into the lymph nodes.
[00:06:32] Speaker A: Okay, cool.
[00:06:33] Speaker C: So, you know, when you hear stage three cancer or stage four. That's. That's a lot more. I'm not saying it's not serious. I'm just saying I'm good. Whoa. Stage two, we're better than three or four.
[00:06:44] Speaker A: I'll take it.
[00:06:46] Speaker C: There is.
[00:06:46] Speaker A: There is worse, right?
[00:06:48] Speaker C: Oh, absolutely.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: So you were getting into some of the scores. So you've staged, you've been graded, and then now you have more information.
[00:06:55] Speaker C: I now have more information, more decision, treatment, more decisions, because this score of 18. And then there's a distance. Sorry, my bifocals. Distance. Recurrence risk at nine years with what we'll talk about in a little bit. Aromatase inhibitor at AI, not the other AI.
It's a drug treatment. And we'll talk about a minute.
At nine years is 5% chance of recurrence without chemotherapy. And the.
[00:07:34] Speaker B: So not recommending chemo, not recommending radiation. So as far as treatment, like the massive cancer treatments that everybody is very, very concerned with, you're pretty much done with that?
[00:07:48] Speaker C: Oh, yes.
[00:07:48] Speaker B: Right.
[00:07:49] Speaker C: Yes. Because, see, your absolute score of chemotherapy benefiting me is less than 1%. So that was very good news. My age and the stage and grade says chemotherapy, statistically speaking, is not going to be helpful. And radiation is not going to be helpful.
[00:08:13] Speaker B: But not only is it not going to be helpful, the chance of recurrence is so low.
[00:08:19] Speaker C: Very low.
[00:08:19] Speaker B: Right. It's not like it's a lost cause. It's not helpful.
[00:08:22] Speaker C: Oh, right, right.
[00:08:24] Speaker A: It is, like, necessary.
[00:08:26] Speaker C: It is not necessary.
[00:08:28] Speaker B: Completely not necessary.
[00:08:29] Speaker C: It is not necessary.
[00:08:29] Speaker A: It's just amazing because it's so hard on your body.
[00:08:32] Speaker C: Oh, my goodness. Yes. It's.
[00:08:35] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, no sense in it.
[00:08:37] Speaker C: So, good news. My first appointment.
[00:08:40] Speaker B: That's great.
[00:08:41] Speaker C: This week was. I feel like. Was like, okay, okay, this is good. This is good. We can, you know, I had crocheted myself a hat because I was already ready, because I gotta be ready for everything. So I'm gonna go have chemotherapy, and I'm gonna be cold, probably, and, yeah, so. And you know how much I hate needles. I was like, oh, okay. So, yay. None of that necessary. Well, my next appointment, which was amazing, the people at the Oklahoma Cancer specialist and Research institute OCSRI in tulsa are just amazing and wonderful. Well, the, the surgeon prescribed or ordered, I guess you would say, physical therapy, but she wanted her physical therapist, who is certified in physical therapy for breast surgery patients.
[00:09:39] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:09:39] Speaker C: And so awesome. And she was so sweet. She met with me during her lunch hour so I could keep my next appointment with the oncologist. And she spent an entire hour going over some.
I call them exercises. So, because anything you tell me I have to do twice a day, besides eat, is not something I want to really call. Oh, yay. I get to do this twice a day. It's like, ah, shoot, I gotta go do my exercises. But they're designed not only to bring back range of motion, because my surgeon said for four weeks, you will do three things. You will eat, sleep, and. And hygiene. And hygiene meant you can hold your toothbrush with your left hand and put some toothpaste on there and use your right hand brush, because I don't want you moving that left arm for any reason.
So for one month, I did not move my arm. I wore my binder, which she. Yay. Released me from this week as well. But I was astonished when I started doing my little exercises and realized how much range of motion one can lose in a month real quick. Mmm.
And so. But the best part was, the majority of what she talked about was the intricacies of our lymphatic system. And, y'all, our bodies are just amazing. And it's a circular system.
And, of course, we all know we got these lymph nodes up here in our neck, but most people don't know you. I mean, they're all throughout your whole body, everywhere, but you have them all the way down to the back of your knees. And so the. These exercises she gave me to do are actually, we have disrupted the lymphatic system a little.
Well, kind of a little.
It would be like if your electrical system was a closed circuit and you just decided to chop a wire off to the kitchen and everything doesn't really work very good anymore. So they're mostly designed to open up all of the. The other plate lymph areas that maybe weren't being used as much with that arm being immobile. And she said the lymphatic fluid is generally about the viscosity or the thickness of water. And by you being so immobile for a month, I mean, couch. This is me. Like, just, you know, it becomes about, like syrup. It becomes thick. And so what she's doing what she has recommended, we're thinning that lymphatic fluid down. We're getting it moving where it needs to be, because, y'all, we do not want what they call lymph edema. Edema meaning swelling as a result of lymph. And my surgeon, her statistics are less than 0.1%. I mean, she. Her patients just don't get lymphedema, and a lot of that is, of course, her skill. But also the fact that she insists that you see, you know, her physical.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: Therapist and insisted that you keep that arm still.
[00:12:53] Speaker C: And insisted that you wear that binder and keep that arm still.
[00:12:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:58] Speaker C: Because the more you move that arm, the more fluid is produced, the more movement you do and that. And sit still and don't move. Because at the end of two weeks, they removed two weeks, you know, post surgery, they removed the drain. And so now if you decide, whoa, I'm better and everything's all good and you get to moving around, then you can develop. Well, they call it a seroma, but it's not a good thing. Lymph fluid builds and can't go anywhere.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: Right.
[00:13:32] Speaker C: But anyway, so perfect. Great meeting with her.
You know, I'll see her again in a couple of weeks.
[00:13:40] Speaker A: So you mentioned the going forward medication.
[00:13:44] Speaker C: All right, so the next meeting was the oncologist. And he's great, you know, as doctors go, you know, he's fine. He spent all of probably five minutes, right? He listened to my back, breathe deep. He listened to my heart. Okay, you're good.
And he already knew because all of their computers talked to one another. With your health records these days, y'all, I've kind of been out of medical world for 30 years, okay? So this is all brand new to me.
My identity is I am always, well, this is what we do. We don't do doctors. So all this stuff about, you know, patient portal and you finally get to find out what that doctor said about you after you left. I'm just like, dude, teeny tiny swelling. It was bigger than teeny tiny. She put teeny tiny on there this time.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: That's good.
Whatever your perception is, hi.
[00:14:43] Speaker C: It's not your underarm, that's all poofed out and not feeling eyes. Mine.
[00:14:47] Speaker A: The doctor said it was teeny tiny.
[00:14:49] Speaker C: She did. I was like, oh, my gosh. So I loved it. Well, anyway, he has prescribed what I knew he was going to do. They're called aromatase inhibitors. I am postmenopausal, so it is not tamoxifen.
Apparently your body produces something called aromatase. Your body's so cool. It has all of these systems all worked out and it very efficiently turns whatever that is into. And it's also part of the endocrine system into things that are beneficial for your body, like estrogen and progesterone and that her two protein, because it helps your cells replicate, your healthy cells replicate and the estrogen helps your bones and your heart start to stay healthy. Of course, as we age, females especially, I already have osteopenia, meaning thinning in my bones.
This medication does something within your body that says no, because the cancer cells that they took out had what they call receptors on the surface that gobble up estrogen as it goes by and use it for energy to help themselves replicate.
And so medication says, this one actually is not even called preventative. It's called curative. I mean, they.
[00:16:21] Speaker A: It works.
[00:16:22] Speaker C: Yeah, the research says, you know, at the end, you take this every day for five to ten years, and you won't have any more cancer cells in your body.
[00:16:32] Speaker A: Right?
[00:16:33] Speaker C: So, okay, well, they removed all of them. Well, you know, I look at it like, because y'all know, if you watched the first one, this is war. Okay? This is war. We were invaded by a foreign invader. And I look at it kind of like there could be a rogue cell, you know, hiding somewhere, because this ILC, invasive lobular carcinoma tends to, if it's going to spread or recur brain, digestive system, bones. And so it's like, yeah, we don't want any of that. So, okay, there could be a rogue cell hanging out somewhere. And this medication has been known, you know, with lots and lots of research to kill those cancer cells. But, you know, I'd already done a ton of research because I remember sitting there for a month doing nothing but looking up things and watching videos of surgeons and oncologists. And so I did respect him very much when I told him that I wasn't entirely convinced yet that I plan to take it. And he said, you know, if you decide not to, that's your decision. It's a pill. You take it every day. If you decide not to take it anymore, then stop taking it, you know? And so it is my choice.
I've read the side effects, obviously listened to the oncologist, read lots of comments from folks who have used it. They range everywhere from, it was so bad, I will never do it again. And I would take my chances to. I've been on it for five years. I've had no side effects. And in the middle mostly was, you know, yes, there are side effects, but I have found them to be manageable.
[00:18:31] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:18:32] Speaker C: Okay. So, so saying that, you know, brain has just remember I told you I have this circular obsessive thinking. So it's gone round and round with us. And so this morning, when or yesterday when you had mentioned doing this, when I went to sleep last night, I had said, you know, to the Lord. Well, if you want me to mention any verses or anything this time, you know, let me know. And so at 430 this morning, because he cannot wait until 530 or 630 to wake me up, he reminded me of something I'd seen recently in my morning, you know, Bible app. And so, if you don't mind, I'm going to read it. It's proverbs three, and I'm just going to jump into verse five, where he says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. Y'all all know this verse. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.
And so I said, okay, so let me break that down a little bit about what that says to me. First of all, trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Either you're going to trust in him, or you can trust in yourself. And, you know, I already spun the roulette wheel and it landed on cancer, so I'm probably not the person to trust.
And do not lean on your own understanding. So all your statistics and all your research and all your everything, it's kind of like a toothbrush pick, and you're leaning over the precipice over here, and you, you know, it's like you really think you're going to lean on that and you're going to be secure in a decision, right?
And it says, in all your ways, acknowledge him. So I'll digress for a second, but I'll come back if you remind me.
I love the book of Job. If you haven't read job, you should. I love that book. It spends, like, days and days talking about all the bad things that are happening to job and how his friends all tell him, you know, it's all because you did something wrong. God is punishing you. Even his wife is like, just curse God and die. And job keeps saying, I'm telling you, I haven't done anything. I mean, I'm telling you. Well, I guess sort of like, I'm paraphrasing y'all, so please read it for yourself. Near the end, I guess he kind of does start to sort of question God, like we all do with the big why question, like the why me? Question.
And my favorite part of that book is God says paraphrasing.
He says, gird up your loins, because I got some. I got some questions for you. We gonna go to battle here. And in that day, gird up your loins meant something really serious, like, cause if you went into battle, that was one of the first things they were probably going to try to whack off. But just saying. Anyway, God wasn't kidding. He said, gird up your loins because this is probably going to. There could be problems. And I love his first question. He says, where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
[00:22:10] Speaker A: Right.
[00:22:12] Speaker C: Tell me if you know so much.
And then he goes on and on and on with questions. And of course, job is like, shut my mouth. I will never ask again.
So to me, when he says, in all your ways, acknowledge him.
In all of my ways, I have to say, sir, I was not there when you laid the foundations of the earth, right. And I know nothing.
But do I have to like, all your ways? Like, does that include decisions about taking a medication? Because that could be outside of my ways.
[00:22:56] Speaker A: Right.
[00:22:56] Speaker C: I mean, all is kind of inclusive. Yeah.
And he will make your paths straight or he will direct your paths.
[00:23:07] Speaker A: Right.
[00:23:08] Speaker C: So the decision whether to take this medication or not or for how long to take it, it isn't mine to make right now.
I went from adamantly, absolutely isn't going to happen to. I remember the day that I read this, I told your dad, okay, I've moved the scale over just a little to I might try it. I said emphasis on might try. And that's what I told the doctor as well.
But honestly, I feel as if I will go ahead and try it and see.
It's like God has just paved the way completely for me to be able to have this medication at no cost.
[00:24:01] Speaker A: Right.
[00:24:02] Speaker C: You know, and I have good doctors and I have a good outcome. And so I haven't. I don't have it in my hand right this second. I haven't put it in my mouth yet, but I feel more strongly that, okay, we'll give it a try, right? We'll give it a try. See what happens.
[00:24:25] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:24:25] Speaker B: And no, should you decide, okay, I don't like this. You just quit taking it. There's not like something's going to happen when you quit taking it. It's just whatever the side effects were will stop being the side effects.
[00:24:38] Speaker C: And apparently, I mean, you may keep some of them, I don't, you know, because bone loss being one, but, you know, they're going to keep doing bone density scans on a regular basis. So, you know, joint pain, well, goodness, my joints already hurt, you know, I already need a hip replacement.
But anyway, you know, can't get her to do that. No. Then that's not gonna happen, y'all. I didn't even reschedule that appointment. I canceled it. Cause I'm like, dude, no, we had good, good surgery this time. But ain't no sense taking pushing your luck here.
But that kind of summarizes that. But a quick review from the first time I was there and weighed in, and six weeks later, which would be this week, I had lost twelve pounds.
And there's zero sugar. Like, if it's got sugar, even that, what you call it, beef jerky stuff. So what's like, no, it's got sugar in it. I'm not eating it.
[00:25:43] Speaker A: Yeah. So one of the things, if you're new, that she learned pretty early on was sugar is not helpful whenever you have cancer, it feeds cancer. And so she immediately cut sugar, immediately cut carbs, processed foods.
[00:25:58] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:25:58] Speaker A: Namely, absolutely no processed foods, all whole foods, high, high fat, ketogenic style diets. And got yourself into ketosis.
[00:26:07] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:26:07] Speaker A: In order to go ahead and start.
[00:26:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:26:11] Speaker A: Attacking or there is quite a bit.
[00:26:13] Speaker B: Of research there says ketosis is a good way to keep cancer from happening in the first place or to slow it down once it happens.
[00:26:24] Speaker A: And a bonus is you lose twelve pounds.
[00:26:26] Speaker C: Yes. Well, cancer cells upregulate glucose, so if I eat a carb, it's in my cottage cheese. I mean, you know, if it's something healthy for me. But other than that, I mean, like I told you, y'all, this sounds weird, but radishes, oh, I did some research and they also help fight cancer cells. And so I bought some of those pretty big round, and if you slice those up and use them to dip your guacamole with, it's all good, it's all good. It's a good deal. But point being, my weight loss adipose tissue, in other words, fat cells, estrogen gets stored in there. And I have several of those little cells, those little fat cells. We do, and we do, and I have more than I really need. And so if we're trying to, let's just, you know, empty out estrogen and not feed cancer any glucose and no estrogen, the weight loss is really about that. You know, not that it wouldn't hurt for me to lose some weight, obviously, but it's about knowing that it's healthier for me to begin maybe walking some more or doing my little exercises, building a little bit more muscle tissue and losing a little more fat.
[00:27:53] Speaker B: A comment and a question. Yes, two pounds a week is a really healthy, sustainable amount of weight loss. So I know 12 may not sound like much because you hear these sensational stories about the amount of weight that people lose, but one to two pounds a week is a very, very healthy and not, you'll put it right back on immediately type of weight loss. So I think that, yeah, that is an amazing pace. That's awesome.
The question is, how have your healthcare professionals reacted to a comment or even a discussion about the ketogenic diet lifestyle ketosis?
[00:28:39] Speaker C: Well, let me back up just a second to the weight loss. Keep in mind that four of those weeks I was sitting on a couch doing nothing.
[00:28:46] Speaker B: True.
[00:28:47] Speaker C: So there's that any. And I've mentioned it to each of everywhere I've been, just in passing, you know, I'm doing a ketogenic lifestyle, like not just my eating, but my beverages and things like that. Or I might be in ketosis, I'll say to them, or. And they're like, okay. And when I mentioned it even to the surgeon, as she was walking out the door, she goes, oh, that's good for you. And out the door she went, so they are very, very fine.
[00:29:18] Speaker B: So nobody has given you the stink eye about not every ketogenic diet.
[00:29:23] Speaker C: And maybe they did internally, I don't know. But I mean, they were very much like, oh, okay, awesome. That's great news. And I was going to say one of the reasons they did labs this week, that I still have a boo boo blood work. I hate needles.
And the cool thing about the patient portal is you read all of the everythings about it, although you dont understand 99% of those words. But one of them said my glucose was 110. And I mentioned that to you, and.
[00:29:55] Speaker A: I said that was a fasting glucose.
[00:29:57] Speaker C: Well, fasted blood work I had. It was 02:00 in the afternoon we had between appointments, because we had to cross town in Tulsa to get to the last one, we had stopped in wendy's. I ordered a cobb salad. Of course, I'd already looked up the nutrition information, and the salad was 4 grams of carb and the dressing was two. And because it had a whole lot of lettuce, as you know, and boiled egg and cheese and a little bit of bacon and grilled chicken and the tiniest little bit of like gelatinized tomatoes on it, you know, and I didn't even eat half of it because, you know, I'm trying to hurry. So I might have had out of the, what, six carbs? Three. That whole day. That's it. That's all I've had to eat or drink and I told you, I was like, but it was at 110. Now, that's not bad. I mean, you know, between 90 to 110 is pretty cool. But why. Why would my glucose be in the normal range when. When you would think I was probably very close to fasting? And so your response was, yeah.
[00:31:05] Speaker B: Gluconeogenesis, it's the process through which your body converts protein into glucose. So there is zero requirement for you to eat carbohydrates. Your body can make the glucose that it needs from excess proteins.
[00:31:23] Speaker C: Very cool.
[00:31:24] Speaker B: So that I had a very similar result. I had eaten a. A carnivore diet for over a year. I had had probably, I don't know, ten or 15 carbs in a year. And on my blood work, I believe my glucose was 85 or 90 some. Somewhere in there. And with. With having had zero carbs, basically, for over a year. So your body works, as you said, really cool. And one of the really cool things is you don't have to have any carbs at all. You don't have to. There are cells in your body that require glucose, but you don't have to eat sugar or carbohydrates for your body to get those cells glucose, your body will convert protein into glucose and feed those cells that need it. So, really, really cool.
[00:32:14] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, apparently, you know, liver function. Apparently, everything else was fine, you know, if you understood all of the words, they actually do a little, like, a little bar graph and put a dot on it, and most of mine were right where they needed to be. So it's like, I guess everything was good if I understood all those words.
[00:32:32] Speaker A: So did you have any other tidbits of information to that you found out?
[00:32:38] Speaker C: Well, I. That's the information.
I was just gonna say that, like, next time. Right. I do have a follow up with the physical therapist in a couple of weeks. I have a follow up with the surgeon, the breast surgeon in a couple of months, follow up with the oncologist office in a couple of months, and labs again, they'll do more blood work. But what I was gonna mention to you to tune in, if I'm back, I'll try to be back in another couple of months and fill you in.
Is that so? We leave the oncologist office and go to the scheduling desk, and the ladies are all like, oh, okay, well, we're gonna go ahead and schedule you for him in December, because he fills up really fast. And I was like, bang. He said, like, two months. Oh, yeah. In two months, he's got you meeting with Libby for survivorship.
See, same face. I went, okay, okay.
Seriously? And y'all know as soon as I got home, I had to look that up. What in the world does this mean? And I didn't even have to type in the word cancer. I didn't even have to ask Doctor Google what it's like. I just typed in survivorship. It's a thing. It's a thing, y'all, for, like, cancer patients or cancer survivors or whatever. Survivor, right.
So tune in next time. I'm not even gonna give any hints about what I found out about it.
Awesome. Look it up. I guess I think if I were going to, it might sound a little like a little on the cuckoo side, which is I am not, although I am taking radish extract. Just telling you because there was research.
But this cancer center really has a more holistic approach so that besides just surgeries and treatments, they offer art therapy and music therapy and acupuncture and other massage therapy and mental health and family support. And I have a real funny feeling that she's kind of your overall overview of the thing.
[00:35:00] Speaker A: Right.
[00:35:01] Speaker B: Cool.
[00:35:01] Speaker C: And so I was like, oh, look at the dirt.
[00:35:04] Speaker A: Do we say that emergency is over?
[00:35:07] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
I will tell you, you've probably seen my face doing its neon thing because of course, I am off my estrogen and having, you know, multiple hot flashes.
And one of the reasons I insisted on continuing to take the estrogen, and I hate to use the word depression because it's a little too strong, but I can tend to just, man, I can get into that funk without my estrogen. And so that was one of the biggest concerns that my women's health. She's a nurse practitioner, but I call her my doctor had when I was diagnosed and said, that's it, we're not taking any more estrogen. And so she did go ahead and prescribe me Zoloft. And I still have the full prescription. I haven't started taking it.
All the cancer people I talked to said, I'll just hang on, wait, and just let's see what all medications or treatments might be coming along.
But to be honest with you guys, and you see it, I know Friday evening when I. When you saw me and I was just exhausted and I hadn't eaten well, and I had done a lot. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I drove road here after not doing anything for a month. So Friday wasn't a good snapshot. But you've seen me yesterday and today, and I'm not. I mean, I probably shouldn't even speak the words, but I'm not having that. You know, just. And I sat there for a month and looked out the window and couldn't do anything, and I didn't get into that deep funk. And so if I don't have to take any other sorts of medications other.
[00:36:56] Speaker A: Than my rat, but there's relief there in the requirement.
[00:36:59] Speaker C: Oh, if I need it, y'all know that. You know it's there.
[00:37:03] Speaker A: Good.
[00:37:03] Speaker C: But if I don't need it, it's just one less chemical I have to add to my body. Awesome. So that's where I'm at with.
[00:37:10] Speaker B: Well, cool.
[00:37:11] Speaker C: Well, thank you for the update.
[00:37:12] Speaker B: This is really good news.
[00:37:14] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:37:14] Speaker A: It's amazing news.
[00:37:15] Speaker C: Yeah, we're good. You know, we're. I mean, you know, they give you, like, all these things about, you know, the 15 year prognosis. I'm like, dude, I'm gonna be 85 and a half years old in 15 years.
I mean, seriously.
[00:37:30] Speaker B: And 15 years after that, you'll be 100.
[00:37:32] Speaker C: I'll be 100. And my family lives for this. I mean, my family lives to be in their nineties and hundreds, so y'all are stuck with me for a long time.
[00:37:42] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:37:42] Speaker A: Well, now you can go tend to your garden, and.
[00:37:45] Speaker C: Yes, I shall.
[00:37:46] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:37:47] Speaker C: I already planted my radishes. Y'all do the research.
[00:37:49] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:37:50] Speaker C: They fight cancer.
[00:37:51] Speaker A: Well, thank you so much for hanging out with us again today.
[00:37:53] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure.
[00:37:54] Speaker C: Thank you for having me, and I love y'all, and I love all of your questions and comments. It really means a lot to me. It really, really does.
[00:38:03] Speaker B: It does.
[00:38:04] Speaker A: And until next time. Bye.
