Antra Boyd has served in the Navy, been an OR nurse, advocated for patients, and survived cancer. She has so many great tips and tricks that I can't wait to have her back on the show. ChatGPT for help asking questions at the doctor!! www.connectedcarepatientadvocates.com
Antra Boyd has served in the Navy, been an OR nurse, advocated for patients, and survived cancer. She has so many great tips and tricks that I can't wait to have her back on the show. ChatGPT for help asking questions at the doctor!! www.connectedcarepatientadvocates.com
Brandy (00:01.706)
Hi, this is Brandy Schantz and you're listening to Living Chronic. Today I'm speaking with Antra Boyd, RN, and patient advocates. So welcome, Antra.
Antra (00:12.15)
Thank you, it's really great to be here.
Brandy (00:14.638)
I should mention also another veteran you served in the Navy.
Antra (00:19.466)
I did for six years. Yeah. Wow, you too.
Brandy (00:23.41)
Six years, thank you for your service.
Brandy (00:29.602)
So I'm so excited to have you on today because you are a patient advocate which is something, you know, in hindsight I wish I had always had a patient advocate with me. It would have done so much to help me through so many difficult times. And you know, you're out there doing this. Of course, anybody who has had to deal with the medical system with a chronic illness will tell you.
We need patient advocates. And you're not just a registered nurse, you also are a three times cancer survivor. So you really understand the struggle better than probably most people.
Antra (01:11.594)
I do, I do. It was fascinating to be, I was an operating room nurse for 25 years, well, 20 years. And from the medical side, I constantly saw the struggle, right? And it was simple. It was that people didn't even know what we were doing to them five minutes before we were going to roll them into surgery. How is that informed? How is that...
Okay, what are we doing for you today? And the patient says, something coldly, like I think something in my abdomen, my gallbladder maybe, right? Like five minutes before we're ready to roll into an operating room and cut them open.
Brandy (01:49.848)
Oh, goodness.
Brandy (01:56.147)
Yeah.
Antra (01:57.886)
And then on the patient side, what was so startling was how much I didn't hear what anybody was saying to me because I was so in my own, you know, my own chronic, well, I was so in the fear and uncertainty that goes with a chronic illness. And so the advocacy piece for me was, I wonder if I can help people better one-on-one navigate the healthcare system, especially when they have chronic illness.
than trying to inform somebody or pull a doctor in five minutes before I roll them into surgery. And that's when I spit myself out of the system to become a patient advocate.
Brandy (02:37.414)
and we thank you for it. You know, one of the things that I noticed is I've been going through my own journey is no matter how intelligent you are, no matter how much research you've done, no matter how well-informed you are, there is that fear when you go into a doctor's office. And even if you think you know exactly what needs to be done and exactly what questions need to be asked.
Antra (02:39.107)
Thank you.
Brandy (03:04.274)
You're so overwhelmed with emotion because at the end of the day we're humans and we're just doing the best we can with the moment. And the moment is always a very stressful moment. You're trying to get through all the lists of things that you need to tell this doctor. And this doctor may only have nine or ten minutes with you and is rushing you. And then you forget 80 percent of what he just said. And you're now thinking just about the questions you didn't ask.
Antra (03:32.315)
Oh my gosh.
Brandy (03:32.854)
And you were telling me that there was, there's actually a recommendation that every single patient should have an advocate in the room with them.
Antra (03:41.514)
Yep, doesn't matter if it's a friend, a loved one, a hired advocate like myself, the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Hospitals few years ago, issued that statement that every patient, every time has an advocate with them. Now this is even for like a physical, right? So, I mean that...
Brandy (04:04.426)
Yes. Well, you know, I bug my husband all the time about going to his physicals because I know I'm gonna say the things and ask the questions that I'm worried about and he'll forget them as soon as he gets into the doctor's office. And there are more.
Antra (04:18.11)
Right. And so if that's true in a physical, then somebody who has chronic autoimmune condition or cancer or any of the chronic illnesses, you just get lost immediately. And I was shocked after being a nurse for 20 years and then becoming a patient. I was shocked when I walked out of that first oncology appointment when I was first diagnosed with cancer because I had an advocate with me and I walked out of there.
I mean, I walked in there thinking I got this. I don't really need an advocate. Like I'm a nurse. I know the lingo. I know that, you know, I can navigate the healthcare system probably better than most people. And I walked out of there. And the first thing I said to her was, I forgot to ask these five questions. And she's like, no, you didn't. And I'm like, what do you mean? She's like, you asked them and I have them down. I took notes and I was shocked that I couldn't even remember right when I walked out of the appointment that I had asked those questions. So,
having an advocate was by far the best thing that I could have done for myself, especially with that initial diagnosis.
Brandy (05:25.162)
Absolutely. So, what would you recommend for most people? Let's say you're in a situation where you're diagnosed with a chronic illness or you're trying to get a diagnosis. And you know how hard that can be, how many years it can take sometimes, particularly for autoimmune disorders and things of that nature to get an actual diagnosis. What would you recommend people do for their first step? Where do they even start?
Antra (05:54.178)
Where do they even start? Well, for me, because I was diagnosed with cancer, not once, not twice, but three times, it was definitely a process. During cancer number one, it was all about the advocacy, right? Because I had just started my business. I was really engaged in asking the right questions and coordinating the care. I was just in it. And so I put my head down and I figured out what my options were. I had my advocate help me. But what I saw...
throughout the three diagnoses was that engagement in your care is paramount. And what that means, at least from my perspective, is that you get curious. We can empower ourselves by not being afraid to talk to the doctor. Gone are the days where we had the family doctor who really knew our health history, right? And so you get...
10 minutes in an appointment most times, depending on what the appointment's for. So get curious and ask questions. Actually the care providers want you to, and it alerts them that you care, that you know, that you want good care. So the engagement piece is really important. And I have seen in my own practice where I had a client once who he was hard of hearing.
When we went to that first appointment with, it was a cancer diagnosis, in the very first appointment, he was too afraid even to ask the doctor to speak up because his hearing aids weren't working. And he couldn't hear a thing. He would have walked out of that appointment and he wouldn't have heard a single thing the doctor said because he was just too afraid to say, hey, can you speak up because my hearing aids are a little wonky. So, but by the time we were finished, which was a couple of years later,
Brandy (07:44.131)
Mm-hmm.
Antra (07:48.638)
I got a call from him, he's like, I got this. I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, I don't need you anymore, I love you, but I don't need you anymore. I'm not afraid to talk to the doctor. So he got curious and he got confident and he felt empowered to ask questions and to really own his healthcare.
Brandy (08:03.942)
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's very difficult for many people learning how to own their own healthcare. It's very intimidating. Yeah. Sometimes you just don't know how to ask the right questions nor do you speak the right language. You know, I've talked about this quite a few times on the show when I was going through my reaction to Humira.
Antra (08:11.169)
It is. It's very intimidating. It is.
Brandy (08:28.458)
I was describing what I was feeling in the only way I knew how to. And I kept saying to the doctors, I feel like I'm in overtraining syndrome, but I'm clearly not because I'm not getting better with rest. And then the doctor would reply with, well, what is overtraining syndrome? So we kept speaking past each other. And I think for a lot of people who are not in the medical field, we just don't know how to speak to a doctor. Maybe we can't even really describe our own pain very well.
Antra (08:55.795)
Right.
Brandy (08:55.978)
And I thought that I would be able to, but honestly, I couldn't. I just kept saying tight muscles and I can't exercise. And they weren't understanding me and it just didn't come across.
Antra (08:58.531)
Ready.
Antra (09:04.515)
this.
Antra (09:07.822)
Yeah.
which is why having an advocate and someone like a nurse advocate is really helpful because that translation piece is they know the lingo and they can bridge that gap and I've seen that happen many, many times. But it is, it is. It's like learning a different language and it is really super challenging. But the thing is, is that we are CEOs of our health.
Brandy (09:38.512)
Mm-hmm.
Antra (09:38.514)
Right? We own ourselves and you know, medicine in the conventional world, in the alternative and integrative world, they're tools, right? And they can help us. But ultimately, healing doesn't even come from that stuff. It comes so far, they're upstream, you know, inside of ourselves. And that feeling of empowerment that even if you can't speak the language, but you know you can,
Communicate even if it isn't perfect That feeling of empowerment is what's that's healing right? That's that feeling that of I can do this that's healing right? So getting brave and just trying your best right like ultimately your story you did you ultimately communicated what you needed to? Like your wisdom ultimately got you to where you are now
Brandy (10:29.107)
Yes.
Brandy (10:33.618)
Yes, and you know what? You're right. There was so much I learned over those years, over 10 years, honestly. This has been a journey that I started when I was first diagnosed with Crohn's disease and I've learned how to take control of my own life. I love what you just said. Be the CEO of your own health care. Be the CEO of your health. It did take me a while to learn that though, and it can be a struggle.
And I still learn something new every day. I've said it a million times. I'm so thankful for this podcast that I decided to do this podcast because I get to meet people like you. And when we spoke earlier this week, you talked about a few different doctors. You talked about different ways to manage pain, different ways to heal. And you let me know.
Antra (11:06.034)
Totally.
Antra (11:11.446)
Yeah, cool.
Brandy (11:31.974)
No, this isn't, you know, hokey like it might sound. This is real science. And I've already started reading one of the books you recommended, The Divided Mind. I'm almost finished with it. I absolutely love it. And it really is fascinating. And even as a, I'll tell you what, even as a non-medical person, I'm sure that healthcare providers like yourself can get in there and get into a real deep conversation about this. And I know that there are people
Antra (11:42.01)
Oh cool! Isn't it fascinating?
Antra (11:57.895)
Yeah.
Brandy (12:01.458)
people who agree with Dr. Sarno. But just from a layman's perspective, immediately I thought I've learned so much about how powerful your mind is. And just understanding that there is even such a thing as a placebo effect. The fact that even exists just says to me that there is a lot that your mind controls. And you said something that was just very meaningful to me. And I've been thinking about it as I'm reading this book and thinking about it.
Antra (12:21.641)
Yeah.
Brandy (12:29.23)
in terms of my recovery is that I'm still going through. And you said, be your own hero. There's nobody coming in to save you. You have to save yourself. Be your own hero. Be the CEO. It's two good things. Be the CEO of your own healthcare. Be your own hero. So you learned that yourself while you were, you know, going through your cancer diagnosis. So tell me what that meant to you and how you learned to incorporate that into your own healing.
Antra (12:39.604)
Mm-hmm.
Antra (12:45.538)
Mm-hmm.
Antra (12:58.494)
Yeah, that's such a great question. So, I was very, cancer diagnosis number one brought me to my knees. I wasn't expecting it. I didn't think that could ever happen to me. And like I said, after I had surgery, it was all about the advocacy. What are my options? And I really only thought that, I only thought that treatment was in the conventional world. I didn't think anything outside of that box, which is fine. I went and I had a big surgery and then,
I recovered and I went right back to what it was like to be me, which was a very clouded, ruminating, overthinking mind. Busy, busy, busy. I had kids, I had school activities, I had a job, blah, blah. And that kind of... I'd been disassociated from my body my whole life, which is probably why I got cancer in the first place. And that busyness is... It's comparable to...
being strung out on heroin or gambling or whatever, but in our society that looks normal, right? So I look like a very high functioning adult, but I was using busyness to stay very far from myself, to just not know myself, right? So I dove right into the naturopathic world because I was so afraid of cancer. Again, that busy mind. I recovered from the surgery and then I spent thousands of out-of-pocket dollars
to make sure cancer never came back. But I was doing it because I was so driven by this overthinking, freaked out, afraid mind, right? So I'm chained to 40 supplements every day, a pill box that was like the size of a suitcase, I'm getting IV infusions, I'm doing energy work, all of it. Like I think I feel like I've tried everything. And I got diagnosed a second time and I was like, WTF? How in the world?
Brandy (14:54.051)
Mm-hmm.
Antra (14:55.298)
can I have cancer again when I've just done all of this stuff to make me healthy? Right? And again, it was because I was living in fear. My whole life I was living in fear. I had lots of trauma growing up, which I didn't even know I had because I was so disassociated. So cancer diagnosis too came and I was like, all right, it's not all the treatments, clearly. There's got to be something else. And that was when I started to...
Brandy (14:59.838)
Mm-hmm.
Brandy (15:14.954)
Right.
Antra (15:23.346)
sort of dive into what is it like to be on intra, what's going on in my mind. I hired a mindset coach, I hired a practitioner that really helped me to start to see my story and make connections between what was going on in me physically and what had happened to me in the past. So that was really eye opening and it helped to start to put the puzzle pieces together for me. But what really changed for me was my head surgery again.
Brandy (15:41.362)
Yes.
Antra (15:50.974)
I didn't quite think I could do it without the second time, but I was already healing. I'd taken that dive into who I was. I'd taken that dive into knowing myself. I didn't know myself at all. I was healing. By the time I got to the second surgery, my tumor markers had dropped eight points and the fluid in my belly, which is not usually a very good sign of cancer, was gone. The doctors couldn't explain how that happened. I was healing. I was on my way.
There was a small piece of me that said, you still can't do it without conventional medicine. So I had another surgery, big, huge surgery. They spread my ribs. It was big. And I recovered and I started. So it's important to know that like knowing yourself, there are a million portals into knowing yourself. So for me, my portals were, I kind of divinely was divinely inspired to try breath work.
And the vibration I got from breath work was so curious. I was like, what the heck is going on here? So I kept doing it. And what happened for me, and again, this is just a portal, breath work might not be somebody's cup of tea and that's okay, because there's a million different portals. But for me, it brought up all this repressed emotion. It brought up, I mean, things in my childhood that I had totally repressed started to come up and then make sense.
of what it was like to be me as a teenager, as a young adult, as an adult. It was insane, the connections I started to make. And I started to really see how, I started to watch my mind. My mind was just so clouded and so, so like crazy. I called them monkey mind. I couldn't imagine gremlins in my mind, just, you know? And so,
I spent a whole year healing from cancer number two, and it was the most harrowing and most deep and most intense experience I've ever had to know myself. And right alongside the cancer was like, we're not done with you yet. So then I got diagnosed a third time. And it was that experience, the last experience of cancer was
Antra (18:10.926)
So different like there was just so much love for myself and so much compassion for myself and so much Wisdom like I was tuning in to me and when I went and had surgery It wasn't because I didn't believe I could do it without it or with it It was because my wisdom was like this is what you're doing Like I just followed my sense my felt sense about what to do and it's kind of funny because I'm five months post-op I had a major abdominal
surgery with a bowel resection and I still can't poop very well. And I think it's kind of funny. Like most people, you know, with the kind of clouded mind I'm describing would be like trying to find the answer and fix it. And I'm just like, I'm like, whatever, give me the medication and let's just, you know, let's just laugh about it. Like literally, I just don't have, I don't have a lot of thinking about it. And that's the beauty of like where healing comes from. Because
Brandy (18:52.798)
Yes. How about salt?
Antra (19:08.926)
I think all we're ever called to do is to learn how to love ourselves. And I think that cancer honestly has been my greatest teacher because at the end of the day, that's what I found out.
Brandy (19:20.942)
Yeah, you know, and I think, you know, it's these insights that really makes me think long and hard, not just about myself, but about all of us as a society. You and I had a conversation, and I think women across America can really relate to this, you know.
It was really difficult for me. You know, I, number one, first, when people were telling me things like you hold trauma in your tissues, I thought, I don't want to hear whatever hippie stuff this is that sounds ridiculous, stupid, you know, but as it turns out, you can hold trauma in your tissues and it's forcing me to be a person that I'm very uncomfortable being. And I think many women are like this. You and I both served in the military. That is a very male dominated field.
Antra (19:54.374)
I know, me too. Me too.
Antra (19:59.278)
I know.
Antra (20:04.494)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Antra (20:10.758)
Yeah. No.
Brandy (20:11.102)
You don't show emotion. I don't have time for tiered. There's a problem in the military. Come on, y'all. You know, I have no emotion that I know about. Stiff upper lip, you know, always problem solving. No problems here. I'm just gonna keep going. Solve these problems. I did that when I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. My whole life was just going to hell. And I'm like, no problems here, nothing to see. Don't anybody worry about this. Got it.
Antra (20:15.426)
positive self affirmations.
Antra (20:27.542)
Yeah. Um.
Antra (20:32.981)
My knees.
Antra (20:38.476)
Right? Thank you.
Brandy (20:41.254)
Because we just hold the world on our shoulders. And we don't want to ask for help. Because asking for help is a sign of weakness. And weakness and vulnerability is bad in our eyes. But why is it? I look back on it and I think, you little Miss Problem Solver, if you really wanted to solve problems, you would have started solving the problems of all your trauma and then sitting back and saying, you know what guys, I need help. I need help. I have a...
terrible disease, it's ruining my life, I can't get out of the house. Help.
Antra (21:15.631)
And what is the help? The help is helping you discover what those portals are for yourself, right? Like that's what the help is. It's not, you know, standing in front of a mirror and the whole self-affirmation thing used to drive me crazy. Like that's the dumbest thing ever. That's, you know, Stuart Smiley from, you know, Saturday Night Live. But actually, when you feel love for yourself, saying, I love and I'm proving myself actually means something.
Right? But to your point, like same way, skeptical, like, oh, that's so dumb, like do, and stiff upper lip and, you know, be efficient. I totally get it. Totally get it. But that's not the path to love yourself.
Brandy (21:43.623)
It really does.
Brandy (22:01.35)
And you know what it is? It's that path. It's the right path, but it's difficult. How easy would it be if somebody could just give us a pill and everything's better, right?
Antra (22:06.432)
Mm-hmm.
Antra (22:13.647)
But then you wouldn't learn anything about yourself. I know. I know, me too. Darn it. You know.
Brandy (22:17.215)
I just want a beer, right? It's hard. It's really difficult. I tell people every time, you know, when I talk to somebody who knows me really well, and they'll ask me, well, how is your recovery going? How are you doing? I'll say, well, I really hate it all. I hate everything, but I'm doing better because I'm learning to deal with trauma. But I hate it. I don't like it.
Antra (22:38.056)
Hey, can't take a poop, but okay.
Brandy (22:40.442)
Here we are, you know, just dive into it. I cry, I have emotion, all the things. I'm even getting better at asking for help. I'm sure, I mean, you know what I mean, you know, that saying those words, I need help, it's so difficult, but I'm really getting good at it now. And that is the path to healing because there is no magic pill that's gonna come in and save me.
Antra (22:45.207)
Yeah.
Antra (22:58.019)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Antra (23:07.018)
And that is the ultimate truth for all of it, right? Like think about the 12, $15,000 I spent on all those supplements and, you know, all of that, and then all of the money. I mean, if you talk about the conventional, you know, cost of my treatment over the three cancer diagnoses, we're talking in the millions of dollars, right? And where really is that healing? And the other thing is that when you find who you are, like,
I'm not cancer. So does this guarantee I'm never going to get cancer again? No. But it doesn't matter because it's not who I am. I am so much more than cancer. I am so much more than Crohn's disease. I am so much more than... I will still be even if there's cancer, even if there's... And that's so beautiful because that is like...
Brandy (23:55.015)
Yes.
Antra (24:04.194)
Who is Entra? Who is Brandy? Like what is that? What is that, you know, that makes you you? And I can like look at myself in the mirror now and be like, there's nobody else like me. Nobody, right? How cool is that?
Brandy (24:16.808)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, absolutely. And it's the true path to healing. You're not going to get better until you can do that.
Antra (24:24.81)
Yeah, I mean, yeah, I do think it's the way I was Brandy. I swear it so resonates with me when you're like, oh, I just thought that was so dumb and this is stupid. I was the same exact way. I just did not buy it at all. But that just kept me disassociated from myself.
Brandy (24:40.146)
Yes.
Well, you know...
Brandy (24:48.502)
And it's so easy to be disassociated. Number one, it's an easier way, right? If I don't have to take a deep look inside, I can just keep patching things up. I call myself a problem solver, but I'm just putting patches on things. Still moving, running, going on, right? And I think that's how so many people are. We think we're problem solving, we're just putting bandages on things. Moving forward, moving forward, nothing to see here, nothing to see here. And it was, you know, you know,
Antra (24:50.815)
It is.
Antra (25:02.262)
Mm-hmm. Okay. Yep. Totally. Mm-hmm.
Antra (25:13.663)
Totally. That's how I went.
Brandy (25:17.018)
You said it well. This is real science, Brandy. You know, so often we hear these things and we think, oh, the hippies, they probably have a.
Antra (25:25.93)
The woo-woos and the witches and the...
Brandy (25:28.706)
some sort of pill, you know, like herbal pill to take and, you know, but there's just so much to there's there really is science to it. And, you know, one of these days, I'd love for, you know, us to go through some of these books and just talk about just book discussion on this podcast. Because it's just so fascinating when you learn that there really is a science to this. And, you know, you really can heal yourself. Bye.
Antra (25:37.902)
There is.
Antra (25:44.038)
Oh, let's do it. Yeah, I'm totally gay.
Antra (25:52.194)
Mm-hmm.
Antra (25:59.552)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. And is healing yourself more a freedom with whatever's happening in the moment or a freedom from? And I say healing is freedom with whatever's present in the moment. So a death in the family, a new baby, cancer diagnosis. It's freedom with.
Brandy (26:08.612)
Mm-hmm.
Brandy (26:14.124)
Mm-hmm. Yes.
Antra (26:26.535)
not freedom from.
Brandy (26:28.946)
That is the truth.
Antra (26:30.559)
Yeah.
Brandy (26:32.442)
I'm so appreciative of you coming on. You know, we have so much more to learn. I think we need to do some more episodes.
Antra (26:34.126)
I'm gonna go to bed.
Antra (26:39.827)
I Love to I totally like he I think you get me I get you like I think it's so funny You cracked me up when we were talking before when you were saying like how skeptical you were of all that stuff because I was Like oh, yeah, me too
Brandy (26:54.642)
yeah but i know there's people listening right now who are thinking to themselves right trauma in my tissues sure ladies okay you know it's true it's not we're the two military veterans who are skeptical of everything you know it's
Antra (27:01.902)
I'm sorry.
Antra (27:15.374)
But if you think about it, if the moon changes the tide in the ocean and the sun gives plants the ability to photosynthesize, that's freaking magic. That's powerful magic. How is that any different than going inside and finding out what that magical soup is of you, right? Like it's so, and it sounds so woo woo, but it's
It's actually, it's science.
Brandy (27:47.594)
You know, and I'll tell you what, I remember the, my neurologist, he was the first one, he told me I needed to deal with my trauma. And I just looked at him like, what is wrong with you? Am I, where about to have a fight? Are you trying to tell me this is all in my head? And he's, you know, and he's trying to say, there's a hit, you know, some of it's in your mind. And my immediate reaction was, don't you think if I could control my body with my mind, I'd be right back to being a competitive runner? Well, you know.
Antra (27:58.378)
What trauma? What are you talking about?
Antra (28:16.042)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was for me, the breathwork portal for me brought up a lot of trauma that I didn't even remember. And it was so interesting because it was like, there were things that happened in my past that I couldn't make sense of, things that I did when I was really young that no 12-year-old would ever know how to do. And I had this kind of blurry,
Brandy (28:16.97)
as it turns out, you know, it's...
Antra (28:44.534)
vision of some sexual abuse and it made so awesome I was like, oh my gosh like That like makes so much sense for why I did these things after that happened and like to me that was just so it just it shined a light on all of
Brandy (28:56.563)
Okay.
Antra (29:07.746)
what it was like to be who I was when I was young. I just couldn't make sense of it ever. It just never, the pieces never fit. But that dive in just totally illuminated my whole, like my whole life. And now, like, honestly, I feel so light and free and so like, I don't live in any of that. Like it's the past, it's that, you know, that scene in the Lion King one, you know,
Simba over the head and he says, ow, that hurts. And Rafiki goes, why worry? It's in the past, right? Like it does feel like that now. Like it does really feel like, eh, whatever. Like, you know, but it's trauma, right? And it lived in my body, obviously, for a very long time. If I just now recalled it about what, a year ago? So, you know, it's just a fascinating journey. And it's just one that I would like.
Brandy (29:51.238)
Yeah, no, absolutely.
Antra (30:05.926)
I do think that all we're ever called to do is to learn how to love ourselves. Even in the Bible, what love thy neighbor as thyself, that presupposes that you love yourself first before you love your neighbor. Right? It is. I will say it was the hardest thing I've ever done.
Brandy (30:21.446)
Yeah, and sometimes it's very difficult.
Brandy (30:29.574)
Yeah, I will concur. I'm going through it right now, trying to dig through the layers and get down. And it is so hard. It is so hard to have to dig deep. Yeah. You know, once you get to the other end, that's, so the next time we do this, I want to really dig deep into some of these, some of the science, you know, I'm learning this new reading these books and it's just, you know,
Antra (30:34.666)
Yeah, it's the hardest thing I've ever done.
Antra (30:39.546)
It's so, so worth it. It's so worth it. I love racing. It's so worth it. Yeah.
Antra (30:58.37)
So, see.
Brandy (30:58.97)
I mean, just as soon as I didn't even finish chapter one and I was like, oh my gosh, I had to run up and get a highlighter to start going through. So I'm like, oh my goodness, whiplash and countries don't get it. I'm like, oh my gosh, what is this? So I would love if we could really dig deep and talk about some of the science and some of the techniques that we use to get to the hard stuff, right?
Antra (31:05.836)
I know.
Antra (31:11.266)
See you then.
Antra (31:18.509)
Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, I think that's the coolest thing is that nobody's journey looks the same. And that also, you know, everybody has their own portals. And also, that I thought healing was linear. You do A and then you get to B and it's not. It's a jagged crooked path. And it, you know, sometimes you take five steps back and one baby step forward. And that having that like realizing that it was like, oh, this is probably...
You know, why are we here? We're here to learn, right? And that path will always be in front of us. Like it's, you know, it's never ending. I'm not suddenly like cared of anything. Well, there's nothing to care in the first place, right? It's this journey of knowing ourselves, whichever way that looks, right?
Brandy (32:12.954)
Yeah. And journey, and you said it best. Just learn to love yourself.
Antra (32:17.77)
Yeah, and there's lots of things, look, as an advocate, there's lots of tips and tricks and things you can do to advocate for yourself in the healthcare system, right? I mean, practical things, you know, just right off the bat, knowing what questions to ask. Let me just tell you, chat chibi tea, if you're not on it, and you don't know what questions to ask, you just get on there and they'll ask us some for you. I mean, it's, there's, right, like there's just really good.
Brandy (32:40.446)
Good tip.
Antra (32:43.654)
good tools out there and there are practical things to do in the medical system so you get good care. And I will tell you one other tip and I learned this. Not that I was, I'm a nurse, so not that I was ever really rude or disrespectful to my healthcare team, but I can tell you what, when I just, when I asked those nurses late at night when they were walking me around the nurse's station with my abdominal brace and you know, and I had this one nurse, she was a hummer, she'd come in and she'd start humming and I'm like.
like, do you like him? And she was like, yeah, she's like, does it bother you? I'm like, no, she's like, some people really like it. Some people really hate it. And because I was curious and engaged in her. Oh, my god, she would have moved mountains for me. And so you know, I think people get really frustrated when they don't get answers and when it's hard and challenging. But I can tell you, healthcare providers are out there.
Max capacity and your simple kindness as you're advocating for yourself goes so far to give you good care. People will move mountains for you. So.
Brandy (33:50.43)
Those are some great tips. So until next time, I'll say, because we have so much more to talk about and dig into. So thank you for being, yes, why not? I mean, my goodness, how much we learned. So thank you. I will be sure to include your information in the show notes. I'm Treboyd, greatly appreciate it. Can't wait to have you back on the show.
Antra (33:59.27)
Good club!
Antra (34:06.067)
Yeah. Thank you.
Antra (34:11.622)
Okay, that'll be great.
Antra (34:18.324)
Oh thanks Brandi, so fun!