Life, Cancer, Etc.
Life, Cancer, Etc.
Taking a Leap of Faith (Make that Multiple Leaps)
Here's where my head -- and heart -- are these days. Getting through cancer is not a one-shot deal; you've got to deal with the aftermath, too, and figure out what you want the future to look like.
Also, we're adding video interviews to our YouTube Channel starting in June! I think I was a little afraid to announce this because it meant I had to commit and I'm so out of my depth -- it's exhilarating and terrifying, all at the same time. But taking those leaps are how we grow, right? So I'm heading into the unknown and excited to see where this path leads.
NOTE: I am not a medical professional. Everyone on the "Life, Cancer, Etc." podcast is sharing their own experiences, not giving medical advice.
Photo and content © 2022 Heidi Bragg and Life, Cancer, Etc.
You can also find some episodes on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/LifeCancerEtc
I'm Heidi Bragg, and this is Life, Cancer, Etc. My goal with this podcast is to connect you with stories and resources that help you feel happier, more resilient, and less stressed, especially when you're going through hard times. Great to be back talking with you. While talking as much as I can, my allergies are a mess and my voice as a result is a mess. But life's been good. I've been doing a lot of great work on improving my health. And I actually have something, which at least to me is very exciting, with some encouragement. we are going to be doing video interviews and YouTube videos. So now, instead of just being able to get our audio on YouTube, we're gonna have actual videos for you to look at, and you'll get to see the interviewees as we're talking, and I think it's gonna be great. I've had some friends and some people who are YouTubers encouraging me to start this, so I'm taking the leap. Again, just like when I started the podcast a year and a half ago. Do I know what I'm doing? Absolutely not. Will I make mistakes? Guaranteed. But I'm really, really excited to start the process. So beginning in June, I think it's going to be by June 10th, we will have our first video up on YouTube. And I would love it if you guys would like it and subscribe. We will have two videos a month. One will be more of an interview. And the other will probably be more of like just general life stuff, like what we're doing, things I've learned, new, I don't know, supplements or dietary or exercise things I've found that have been helping me in my process of healing, just kind of general interest stuff. I'm also going to do at least one blog post a month. So again, total novice stuff. learning on the fly, but I'm really excited to start this process. Also, over the last few weeks, I can't tell you how many people I've talked to who have been diagnosed with cancer, have a family member who's been diagnosed with cancer, are dealing with the after effects of cancer, etc. And I mean, I know we all know this intellectually, but it just hit me again emotionally, how prevalent cancer is, how many lives it touches, and how kind of universal this struggle is. So I was talking with a friend who had been diagnosed and talking about just their process and my process. And I mentioned that my goal is just to stay healthy enough to say I have a recurrence, to stay healthy enough so I can make it till the next treatment is developed. Because if you look at the pace of cancer research these days, it's moving really, I know it feels slowly, but they're making new discoveries and developments all the time. And all we have to do is work hard to keep it together until the next treatment comes out. And as you know, if you know any of my story, that hasn't That hasn't always worked for people in my family. I lost my sister to cancer 30 years ago. I lost my father to cancer. I believe it's been six years ago. I lost a dear friend of mine to cancer right around that same time. And I lost someone I view as a nephew not that long ago. Anyway, it doesn't always work the way we want it to. But I think if we can move forward with the goal of... keeping ourselves as healthy as we can, doing the lifestyle changes we need to to have a better shot at making it longer. I don't know. That at least gives me hope, and it makes me feel like I'm being productive and doing something to help contribute to a long life and a healthy life. If you guys have any questions you'd like answered... or if you have people you think we should interview, please send a message to me in the contact form on our website. The website is www.lifecanceretc.com. And there's a contact form there. All the podcasts are there in audio form. And... Yeah, I guess we'll put the new ones up in video too. My son Mateo is helping me with a lot of the, he helped with the podcast website and he's helped me get the audio up on YouTube. So I'm sure he'll help me with this one as well. But it's just a resource if you want to connect. And there are some show notes for each of the podcast episodes. So if you're interested in links to learn more about the people we've talked with or some of the resources they've mentioned, you can find that information there. We'll be doing that same sort of notes section in the YouTube channel. Man, my voice is hashed. I hope you can still understand me. Anyway, I just, I want to just offer my love and my support, even if I don't know you, to anybody who Who's out there fighting this? Because it sucks. And it felt like a visceral kick in the teeth or punch in the guts every time I got diagnosed. But I want to assure you that even in the midst of the fight, there will still be great moments of kindness and perspective and joy. And that if or when you get through it, life can still be good. It's different now. But it can be really good. My husband and I have started hiking every Saturday morning. And when we first got here, I had a really hard time with the altitude and the incline. And today, I powered through the first half of the hike. It was like a speed run. And then I hit some more incline and I got a little fatigued and I had to slow down. But it was still a really beautiful day. in a beautiful place with the person I love most in the world. And is it a lot different than it would have been eight or nine years ago before I'd ever had cancer? Sure it is. I could go farther. I could go for longer. I didn't have to worry about whether or not I'd eaten because since colon cancer, if I want to go on a hike in the morning, I can't really eat food. I have to, once I've eaten food, I have to kind of be near a restroom. And so I have to be careful about getting enough calories in that I can do the hike, but not so many that my digestive system starts to work. So there are a lot of different parameters to take into account, but it was still really good. Sorry. One of our goals used to be, once the kids were all launched, to go do this hut-to-hut hike in Switzerland, right? We talked about it a lot and we're really excited about it. Recently, I just had to accept the fact that that's probably not going to be possible. It's not like they have porta-potties along the way or that I could do as long of a hike as we were planning because I don't have that kind of endurance at this point. I keep working and I keep hoping that I'm going to get better. But I also want to have realistic expectations of I was listening to Brene Brown's Atlas of the Heart book on Audible. And she was talking about how having realistic expectations helps a lot with having hope. Because then you're hoping for something that you can realistically achieve. And so I'm trying to work on that. I'm actually starting, I just started therapy this week. I got in with a therapist and I'm trying to figure out What are realistic expectations? And I was a mom for so long and a working parent for so long and then fighting, doing those things and also fighting cancer for so long that now that things have leveled out a little bit, I kind of don't know what I want to do with the rest of my life. I'm trying to figure out what are my hobbies? What do I enjoy? What makes me happy? I mean, I know some of the basics. I love spending time with Kev. I love our kids and spending time with them. I love traveling. I love good food and making food for people. Those are some of the things I enjoy, but I'm having to, oh yeah, gardening too and reading good books, but I'm having to figure all this out again. And so if you don't mind, I'll kind of take you guys along as I go through this process because coming out the other side of it there's still a lot of work to do. And there's a lot of stress and trauma that maybe doesn't get processed in the moment because you're so busy trying to stay alive that you do have to deal with at some point. And I feel like I've gone through some layers of that, but there's more that needs to be taken care of. And so that's why I started back into therapy is to have somebody help me along, help me figure out who I want to be when I grow up. I just want you all to know how much I appreciate your support, how much I appreciate when you let me know if something has helped you or touched your soul in a way that was needed or that at least made you feel like you weren't alone because you're not. There are a lot of us out there and there are a lot of good people in this world. And I figure as long as we speak up and stand up Thank you for listening.