Gentry's Journey

From Stage One to Strength: Joyce Brooks on Surviving, Growing, and Choosing Yourself

• Various • Season 6 • Episode 2

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A routine mammogram. No symptoms. And then everything changed—twice. Joyce E. Brooks returns to share how a stage-one breast cancer diagnosis in 2008 and a recurrence in 2019 pushed her to trade the superwoman sprint for a life built on faith, family, and fun. Her story is not about perfection or platitudes; it’s about early detection, honest grief, and everyday habits that rebuild strength from the inside out.

We walk through the shock of a “silent” diagnosis, thirty rounds of radiation, and the decision to undergo a double mastectomy when radiation was no longer an option. Joyce opens up about grieving body changes and lost certainty, and how she reframed suffering as a shift—a season to be carried through rather than a finish line. Along the way, she offers practical, evidence-based choices: keep your annual screenings, cut back on sugar, read labels you can pronounce, move your body daily, and protect your sleep. She leans on an 80/20 approach to nutrition and exercise, proving consistency beats perfection every time.

The conversation also tackles mindset and boundaries. Not everyone will know how to hold your diagnosis, and not every suggestion is wise—discernment matters. Joyce explains how faith and medicine work together, why privacy can be healthy, and how community encouragement lands differently when you’re ready to receive it. We also share a real-world health scare that underscores the cost of chronic stress and the necessity of putting yourself first without guilt, because a strong you serves everyone better.

If you need a nudge to book your mammogram, reset your routines, or release the pressure to control what you can’t, this story will meet you where you are. Listen, share it with someone who needs courage today, and if the conversation resonates, follow the show, leave a review, and tell us the one habit you’ll change this week.

SPEAKER_02:

Hello everyone, welcome to Gentry's Journey. Um this is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. So we have um a special guest and she has she's no she's no stranger to Gentry's Journey. Uh she has been on before. We met at a health fair. So uh she is also an author and a retiree who has not retired. So I'm going to let uh Miss Brooks introduce herself and tell us about her journey.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Well, thank you again, Miss Carolyn Coleman, for having me on Gentry's Journey. And I always appreciate an opportunity to share my story, testimony. So hopefully it'll encourage and help someone else.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

Let's see, Joyce E. Brooks, originally from Pritchard, Alabama, been residing in Birmingham since what, 1991? So I guess we can call that home too. Um but when it comes to, let me just get to the breast cancer thing. It was 2008, living my best life, working for Alabama Power, married, got two small boys, um, active in my church, in the community. I'm just a busy big. I'm superwoman and found out I didn't have superpowers, went to my annual checkup and they um saw something on my mammogram. Next thing you know, they had diagnosed me with stage one breast cancer. I was 42. Totally blindsided me. Um and I end up having 30 rounds of radiation. But what really opened my eyes during anytime someone is diagnosed with any illness, okay, but in my case with breast cancer, I didn't see it coming because I had no signs or symptoms. But I will encourage everybody, and even males need to get it now, get checked every year because had I not been committed to making sure I was getting my checkups, it could have been stage something else. So we're gonna thank God that it was stage one.

SPEAKER_01:

Amen.

unknown:

Amen.

SPEAKER_00:

Spiritual growth, personal growth in me because it allowed me an opportunity to step back and really assess what's important. And that's faith, family, and fun, because life is short. That's true. Faith, family, and fun. Um, I did make some changes health-wise following that diagnosis. I end up losing almost 20 pounds, um, start reading labels, um, start getting slick, and I think above all, um, because I end up writing self-inflicted overload during this time because journaling and writing was therapeutic to me. I realized maybe I'm in this condition because I'm doing too much. I'm taking care of everybody and everything, but I'm not doing a good job of taking care of myself. So we made it through. And I I took medication, uh, a drug called tamoxifen for five years, and it was supposed to help decrease your chances for reoccurrence. Well, I guess it did for five years, but in 2019, I was diagnosed with breast cancer again and was blindsided because once again there was no signs or symptoms, but I continued to every year have my checkup.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

This time it was in the same breast, and they said radiation wasn't an option. Um, so they recommended uh a mastectomy. But I can say when people say they're grieving, it's not always because a loved one has died. Sometimes you grieve when a part of your body got a change or what you expected to happen didn't happen. It could, you could be grieving a job promotion. You thought you were gonna get a promotion, you didn't get it. Now for the next six months, you got an attitude. Well, I was grieving the loss of my sense of security that cancer was gone, and I and I didn't have to deal with this anymore. But once again, um made it through. I ended up having a double mastectomy and um diagnosed in February um 2019 and had surgery in April 2019, and then I did reconstruction. But once again, I learned, I learned from these experiences. It's an opportunity to grow spiritually and personally. This time, it made me realize that in life you're going to have shifts. S-H-I-F-T. It may not always look like it's a shift where things occur, but if you look back over your life, you'll see that the Lord brings you through seasons for different reasons and at different times. But I always say the key thing, he's bringing you through.

SPEAKER_01:

Amen.

SPEAKER_00:

So he brought me through the diagnosis in 08. He brought me through the diagnosis in 2019. And um, in all the other ups and downs that life offers us, it's just another opportunity to see his hand at work. Just trust and believe that he's gonna bring you through this one too, so that you can tell somebody how good he is.

SPEAKER_01:

Amen. Amen. Yep.

SPEAKER_00:

But if um I was talking to the younger version of myself, the 42 cancer diagnosis um person, I would tell her slow down. Put yourself first on your to-do list, take care of yourself spiritually, physically, mentally, because I think a lot of the battle is in the mind. True. You know, um, I do believe that there's power in our thoughts, and if you if you think it's over, it's over. But but I live by the motto, it ain't over. It still ain't over.

SPEAKER_01:

I agree.

SPEAKER_00:

It won't be over until he says it's over, and even then, I'm gonna be sitting in my mansion. So uh Amen. I agree, I agree. But yes, I would emphasize to the 42-year-old version that um set your priorities and make sure you take care of yourself. Um, and then if I was speaking to my 52-year-old version, when I was diagnosed again, I would remind myself that's what life does. Life, that's just part of life. And don't worry about what hasn't happened. You when it does occur, you pull on all your resources, all your strength, all your prayer, and you get ready to go through it. You know, life is going to happen. We assume that um when you say you you believe in God, nothing's never gonna go wrong. Things, things do happen, but you have to decide how are you gonna respond to it. I can't control perfect example who's on Pennsylvania Avenue right now, just mess it up stuff. Um that's my opinion, just in case somebody else likes. Um but at the end of the day, I can only control what is in my zip code and my my address. Sure. And worrying about things that have not occurred can contribute to affecting your health. So that's what I would tell my 52-year-old self. You know, you can you don't control nothing, just deal with it when it occurs and know that you got a history of the Lord showing you he'll bring you through.

SPEAKER_02:

That is so on point. Um, I you know, when you say that, I say that a lot. We control nothing. We can try, we can think, we can feel as though we got it going on, things are going our way, but it doesn't take but one slip, and I mean a physical slip. You might slip on uh a floor, you walk that floor all the time, you slip on that floor, you know, then you have start having hip pain, you start having leg pain, you start having knee pain, you know, and then you can't walk the way you want to for a while, or things change, and then you're like, Well, what happened? It doesn't take but a minute. And I often tell people, we don't know what we're walking around here with. We're just going through the motions, and it's okay to have a um, it's okay to think that things are going well, but until you bite that bitter pill or swallow that bitter pill, or find out that you ate something you shouldn't, then you have a whole change of heart and of mind. And so I often tell people, don't get too haughty, you know, don't get too up on yourself because I've seen a lot of sick people in my 40 years of nursing that were doing just fine, and then life happened. Uh, some are, I mean, like you say, when we go through something, we're not really expecting it, and we're going to why me? I've heard a lot of patients, why me? I did this, I did this, I did all the right things, why me? And I was like, You can be a testament to someone else. We don't know why you're in this position, but we know that if you fight through it, you can be a testament to someone else. It might not be just about you, it may be about other people around you. And they were like, Oh, I didn't think about it that way. And I said, You got too much on your mind, you know. Let's get let's get this through, let's get over this. You know, you it's okay to have your pity party. I'm not gonna tell you not to, because that's not even fair. Because, like you talk about this, you know, grief, the stages of grief, you know, it doesn't have to be the loss of a loved one, you know, it can be the loss of anything, and um, you know, and I gotta go through this. Never in my life do it. I think I would have to go through this. And I was like, I don't think anybody paints the picture of their future of having an illness. I just don't think anyone does that. So, you know, now that it's here, let's deal with it. And you know, after a while, like the next day, they will start to come around, they'll start to receive what I have to say, and uh not that I'm I'm preachy, I just want to encourage people because if you have, like you say, it begins in your mind, you can't have a negative attitude and expect positive results.

SPEAKER_04:

You can't say it, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

You've got to want to heal, and I have a huge problem with people. Oh, yeah, they said they found this, but I'm just gonna go and do what I gotta do. I'm like, okay, then all right, all right, all right. You you know, you know best, you know, but don't expect everybody to come because some people don't know how to receive your information, everybody didn't know how to see receive your diagnosis, they hate it, but they don't know how to approach you. Now, did you find that situation happened with one or both of your um of your uh diagnoses?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, the first time, like I said, I was so blindsided, I didn't even talk about it. Even when I was going through radiation, you know, you I could have taken short-term disability um during those six weeks, but I continued to go to work because I'm I'm thinking I'm super woman and I don't want nobody to know my business. And I don't know why I approached it like it was something to be embarrassed about, like, oh, I got cancer, what did I do? And all so I was real, real quiet about it. And then, I mean, I didn't even share it with my church family until after everything was over with, but in the back of my mind, I was thinking, you know, everybody who say they praying for you don't spell it the same way. Isn't that the truth?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, they do not. I've seen it and heard it, and I've been shocked by it.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. So the first go round, I was off the grid. I was in my own little world. It was just me and my family, my sisters, you know, um giving me support and encouragement. I I didn't make it public at all until after everything was over with. Now, second go round, I'm I'm mature, I'm grown, I'm bolder, and I know God got a reason for this, and I and I need to make sure folks know um I got this, but I also got God got me. So we're gonna be all right, you know. Um, and when it came to how people approach me or share with me, I hope to have a spirit of discernment. You usually can tell in the first few minutes of coming into an encounter with someone if this is God sent or not. Um and um you can and you can gracefully, you know, make a person aware because everybody don't even believe in God, you know. Even for me to take that uh that approach, because you know, I was told, well, why don't you just um go holistically, you know, drink your green juices and all that, because I heard this and I heard that. And I'm like, yeah, I I can drink some green juice, but these people have gone and done research and everything, and I don't want to play with that. God has not, God did not tell me, don't get, you know, normal treatment. He didn't tell me to drink green juice, so I'm not gonna listen to you. Um, but you meet all kinds of individuals. But isn't that it's funny that you cross paths with people um after this journey? I was at Sprout Saturday and I saw this lady who had a breast cancer wearing this shirt off in the parking lot, and I engaged her. Um, I said, excuse me, um, are you a survivor? And she said, No, no, my cousin is, and she's a three time. I'm like, what? Three time, three. Don't say three. I'm like, Lord, I done did too. You know, but even in that conversation, that was a perfect example that she testified about how her cousin has come through each time and the different things, and it was an encouragement to me.

SPEAKER_02:

True, you know, true, you know, it it and I find it best if you don't know what to say, don't say anything at all. Um, because I I wear my um breast cancer hat all the time, and every now and then people will ask me, Are you are you a survivor? I said, No, I'm wearing this and aware of this for other survivors. I mean, but I wear mine year-round. I said, because you never know. Um I can usually look and tell an individual that is going through something. I don't intrude. Um, someone was saying, You see her? She got her mask on, she got the hat pulled down over her ear. I said, I see someone who probably got a diagnosis and they just probably had their first or second round of chemo. And so she has her hat on, she has it down toward her ears because she doesn't want it to come off, and she has a mask on to protect her and you, okay? And they were like, I never saw it like that. I said, when you've been on when you've been a nurse for a while, you pick up on clues that people have. I see, she doesn't owe any of us an explanation, but she wants to come out, she wants to just shop to get her mind off of what's going on, and but she wants to protect herself at the same time, and so we need to be kind of cognizant of certain things and people's mannerism about different things, so um and be respectful, just be respectful because just like you, a lot of people don't tell until they're either in the middle or that they've they're finished with with their treatment, and that's because they have to rationalize it in their own mind that I'm going through something I never thought I'd go through before. You know, so you know, um, so it's okay to be private, you know, but most people want once you're there, love a living testimony, you know, they won't they they they need to hear that, but that has still has to be on that individual's time frame. Everyone is different, you know. I often tell people don't push people beyond where they're ready to go, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Because it is a grieving process, it's just like grieving because you be in denial, then you negotiating with God. I mean, you go through all anger, yes, you know, why me, Lord, you know, all that, but then eventually you you come to terms with the reality that this is my life right now in this season, and it's and mentally it's gonna be okay.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't know how, I don't know when, but I know it will. Well, that's a faith journey right there. All I know is what's the I trust in God, you know. I true, I trust in God. I don't know how, I don't know where, I don't know when, but I know I trust Him. Right now, earlier you spoke about nutrition. Now, um, did you change your diet? Did you start exercising? Did you do any of those types of things to help build you up once you got the energy for that?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, I did. I mean, you know, whether it's true or not, some studies say sugar is a big deal. I know I was a sugar addict. I love my every meal, every time you go out, I'm looking at the dessert menu and everything. So that was one of the first things that I I cut back on, you know, is my sweets because having sugar in terms of exercising. I actually got a trainer that's working with a trainer um because I had read something about all this visceral fat and how you eat has a bit bearing on the cells in your body. So um, and now uh I'm fully committed to my little exercise regimen. Every morning I walk at a minimum two miles before I get up at 5:30. Me and my neighbor leave at 6:30. So I'm still on that. Keep moving, keep exercising. Um beverages have are zero interest. You're not gonna see a coke sprite, none of that in my hand. Now I still got my fits on my, I'm a southerner. I gotta have my sweet tea, but that's a reward on the weekend. It's not every day. I used to make a big picture of sweet tea daily, you know, but now I do my one day. Um, sleep is important too. I mean, I put all that, I got the dark out curtains, I put the temperature in the right place. I I do everything that was suggested that would make you um better physically, I try it. And it's not, and it's not a let me be clear. This is not a I'm perfect at this. Uh, it's the 80-20 rule thing. If I can do it 80% of the time, I I'm way ahead of the game and I'm gonna celebrate that because we all fall off the wagon, you know. Um it's just like I'm getting ready to go on vacation, and you know, when you're on vacation, you're not trying to exercise.

SPEAKER_02:

No, no, you're not trying to deviate from the norm.

SPEAKER_00:

Right, exactly. But yeah, your nutrition and your mobility, you know. I even I even broke down and joined the senior center because I said I'm in a season that I want to make sure if if I'm in the third lap of life, I always consider life as 25 years per lap. I want to make it to 100. Well, I'm I'm on the far end of the lap three. I want to make sure when I get in the fourth lap, I can still move. I'm I'm still active and energized, and the main thing that helps you have that feel is what you put in your body. I read labels. If I can't pronounce it, I don't want it. Mono, whatever. What is what's that? Mono, I don't know what that is. You know um the young my niece, who's a trainer, she said, look on the back of the label. Everything that you see on the label, go find it in the grocery store. I said, What? She said, You're not gonna find mono saturate this or bio, I can't pronounce this stuff. She said it's not in the grocery store, it's a preservative, it's a man-made chemical. You don't know how it affects you, but an apple is an apple, yeah. Celery is celery, it's so artificial, but yes, I I definitely encourage that, and not and the exercising part is not just physical, it's mental too. It helps clear the mind. Just walking, fresh air, just walk.

SPEAKER_02:

It really is, it really does help if you're just walking, as you say. Um a lot of times if I'm stressed at work, and that's when I was working on site, when I left, wherever I saw the first track is where I pulled over. I just needed to walk it off basically, because stress is not a healer, you know, it will take you down, you know, and a lot of things you can't express when you are working, you can't express yourself or you can't express yourself in a healthy form, you know, keep that synergy at work, you know. You better turn everybody off, you know. So I keep a pair of gym shoes in the in the backseat, and uh, I will, you know, if the weather's okay, I will the first track I find, I will pull over and I will walk, but I haven't been as diligent uh since COVID. Uh I was in the gym. You might as well have called me a gym bunny. I was in the gym five, six days a week doing something and was uh addicted to it, loved it, did it for several years. Uh, I started doing weights when I was in college and I just loved it, but you know, life, you fall off. Um, I'm trying trying at this point in time to get back on track. So I'm doing whatever I can to get back on track because I really do enjoy it. You know, like I said, it's a good stress buster. You feel better once you finish. Um, you know, you just you're just up, you're just up and staying up. I try to eat right, but I'm like, yeah, I'm a sugar person. I am, I am, I am. I'm trying to cut back because I had a little scare a couple of weeks ago. Um my tongue got real thick and went to the right side. I was like, wait a minute, now you know, so here come the nursing me. I was like, Oh Lord, I don't want to have no stroke, but I called 911 because and my blood pressure was over 200 in both arms, and I was like, wow, you know, so where'd that come from? And that's what I want to know. I know I was having some issues with vertigo, uh, but that was toning down. But I just walked away to go to the kitchen, probably get some sweet tea, and uh I was on the phone with a friend of mine, and I went, Oh, my tongue was so thick, and it went to the right. And I said, Girl, let me get off this phone. I said, Look like I'm trying to have a stroke up in here, and I ain't trying to have one, and so she started praying right then and there. And uh, my husband was downstairs, and so I had my bobby pins in, so I'm thinking like a nurse, they're gonna want to do a CT scan, they're gonna do this, they're like as you know, I had already planned out my plan of care, so I pulled all my bobby pins out, combed my hair down, got dressed appropriately, and I told my husband, I need to go to the hospital because I think I'm having a stroke, and so we called 9-1. He said, How are we going? I said 9-1-1, and because I've never had these type of issues, so when you say seasons in life, that you know, I'm the one to help you when you're having one, I'm not the one that's having one, but it turned out everything turned out fine. But I spent a day and a half in the hospital, but they ran every test that I had in mind that they should run. Okay, I did. I'm just I didn't tell them, you know, I don't go in flashing my badge or anything like that or giving it my credentials because I am the patient, but uh I they ran every test and I needed them to run to ensure that this was going to that things were going to be clear. Uh, but since and I before all that happened, oh man. You okay? I am, I I did something, but before all that happened, I was just stressed about this, that, and the other, this person, that person, just a lot going on, and I was praying for them. And so when I was riding in the ambulance, I was like, Lord, I'm praying for everybody but myself. So it's time for me to put myself first, and you know, uh, I still need to do some things, uh, but you know, I can't have all this weight on me because it is too much. You know, you're carrying weight that you really don't need to carry, you know. But when you love your family members and your friends, and they're going through some not just hiccups, they're going through some things that are pretty tough. You know, you can't but help but to reach out to them and try to support them and encourage them. And I was like, wait a minute now, somebody got to be strong and well around here. So let it be me. Let it be me. So I am um I'm better. Uh, my pressure is better. They wanted it to come down naturally, and that's what we have done. They allowed it to do when I was uh in the hospital. Um, didn't really start me on anything heavy, uh, just something for my cholesterol, but they never gave me the number, but I think they did it as a prevention uh because my last blood work was okay, but I'm just saying, we just don't know. We don't know who, what, where, where, and how. And I was intermittently working out three days a week. Now I went from five to six days a week down to three days a week, so you know that doesn't match. So now I'm trying to get back to four days a week, okay, and I'm I'm doing something every day, and I'm trying to do at least 30 minutes, and when I was doing the six days a week. I was exercising because I was in the pool with the water aerobic. So I was doing at least two hours a day. So you go from two hours to 30 minutes, you're going backwards. I don't, you know, I was just going backwards and not forward. And um wasn't drinking my water like I used to. Uh, I used to keep water at my desk, and so I'm like, I got to change some stuff, and so I have made those changes and just trying to stick with them. So because when you become ill, that's a wake-up call, in my humble opinion. It's a wake-up call, and you know, I I don't play about my health. I don't, I don't even like patients who pretend to be sick when they're not, and you know them. You know, you have that spirit of discernment. I'd be like, You got this kind of time, you ought to be ashamed. That's what I'd be saying to myself, you know, and people who don't take their illnesses seriously, they bother me too, because you're wasting time uh of people who really want to care for you and get you better, and you're playing around with yourself because I'm just gonna walk up out of here. Well, sir, you're free to do that, you are absolutely free to do that, you know. But I just don't advise it, you know. So I said, but we're more serious about your health than you are. Now that that's just let's flip the coin around. They don't appreciate the gift they've been given, they don't, they really, really don't, until they come in and truly have had a full-fledged stroke, and you'll be like, Okay, yeah, you kept on, you kept on, and now you've had a big one, and you can't do what you were doing when you weren't. And it's not that these particular people that I have in mind weren't able, they just didn't want to, they didn't want to modify their lifestyle, they didn't want to rest, they didn't want to change. Um, but then you're forced to because now you have a stroke where you have right sided weakness. Um he enjoyed being a he was a dresser. You could tell when he came in, when he left out, he leave out on his phone. Yeah, I'm at the hospital now. I'll be right there to see you. Like, you need to go somewhere and sit down, you know. Yeah, sit out. That would she she needs to be coming to you, you know. But it's just people, I'd rather people take their health seriously. That's when you really have um a change. You can talk about, oh, I've changed, I've done this, I've done you know, it needs to be manifested, and we need to see it somewhere. That's what we need to do. So um, so that that's what I have in mind when I talk about change. Uh Carolyn, you remember what I said about it? Uh-huh. Okay, so okay, they have arrived, and that's fine. Um, so we I think we've covered everything. What do you think? You gave your testimony.

SPEAKER_00:

I can close it out by saying I encourage every individual to always put themselves first on the um priority to-do list and do not be um, what's the word, embarrassed, ashamed, or feel guilty about taking care of yourself. When you take care of yourself, you'll be able to take care of everybody else who you love. And that's what it's about. Breast cancer, that is not a death sentence, it's just an opportunity for you to be reminded to take care of yourself.

SPEAKER_02:

That's great. Thank you so much. Go ahead and handle that, and I appreciate you being a returned guest, okay? You take care. All right, US Wales waiting. All right, bye. Bye bye.