MasterStroke with Monica Enand & Sejal Pietrzak

Navigating the Unexpected

• Georgianna Moreland • Season 1 • Episode 28

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What would you do if you were next in line to scan your boarding pass for a work trip, expected at an important board meeting the next day—but your gut was telling you to not get on the flight?

In this powerful episode of MasterStroke, Executive Producer Georgianna Moreland and Host Monica Enand welcome back co-host Sejal Pietrzak, who recently returned from a leave of absence. Sejal shares a deeply personal story about the life-changing decision she made at that very moment. As she stood at the gate, just about to board her flight, a powerful sense of urgency took hold, prompting her to step aside, and go home. That choice led her to uncover the reason behind unexplained, subtle changes in her husband’s behavior—a discovery that ultimately revealed a brain tumor. Sejal’s journey illustrates the profound importance of listening to one’s inner voice, especially when it comes to health and family.

The episode also explores what it means to support a team member during a time of crisis. Georgianna, Monica, and Sejal discuss the importance of empathetic protocols, flexibility, and compassionate communication when someone needs to take leave to care for a loved one. They share strategies for creating a supportive work culture where team members feel secure stepping away and confident  they’ll be met with understanding.

Beyond the immediate family dynamic, Sejal speaks to the critical role of community, friends, and family, who became her support system through her husband’s diagnosis and treatment. 
 Her story underscores the importance of being prepared as a partner for life’s unexpected turns! 

Sejal’s experience offers a candid look at the courage, resilience and positive mindset required to manage personal challenges while balancing professional responsibilities. This episode reminds us that trusting our intuition, leaning on those around us, and fostering a culture of empathy at work can help us face life’s most difficult moments.



Georgianna Moreland - Executive Producer | Managing Editor;
Matt Stoker - Editor


Sejal Pietrzak:

I wanted to just be optimistic and for me knowledge reduced the fear and anxiety, because the fear of the unknown is the scariest thing. We found out in July early July that my husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Georgianna Moreland:

Welcome to Masterstroke with Monica Enid and Sejal Patrzak Music.

Monica Enand:

Welcome to another episode of Masterstroke. We have an incredibly special episode. We have all three of the Masterstroke sisters back and in front of the camera and online. I'm so glad that my co-host, sejal, is back. Welcome back, sejal, hello Glad to be here yes, me too, and in front of the camera, not just behind the scenes. Today we have joining us Georgiana Moreland.

Georgianna Moreland:

Yes, welcome, welcome, welcome you guys. And for those of you that don't know me, you hear me in the announcement I'm executive producer, all of that stuff. Sejal and Monica we started talking about potentially doing a podcast a year ago September of 2023. And in that time, we've also welcomed a guest co-host, ned Renzi, and Ned has stepped in. Sejal's had to step away for a little bit and we would love for her to tell us a little bit about that today.

Monica Enand:

As I reflect back on the year, I think about all the things we've tried to share in terms of the infrastructure that we, sejal and I, have had to learn over the years and accumulate over the years in terms of making us productive and able to balance all of the demands of our lives, and we've shared with you our tips and tricks, our calendar planning, the ways we delegate, the way we work and how we plan and how we plan and you know, I really love the quote that Mike Tyson said.

Sejal Pietrzak:

You know, everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face and I don't know if.

Monica Enand:

Mike Tyson really said that, but he did, and it's actually punched in the mouth. Oh, punched in the mouth, Okay, All right. So Mike Tyson did say it, you heard it here. I always wondered if it was a thing but but people always say you know, it's nice to have a plan until you get punched in the mouth, and you know. I think that's an important topic because life happens to everyone. We want to talk about that. What happens to your plan and how do you function when you get punched in the mouth? Sejal, do you want to share with us what's happened recently in your family.

Sejal Pietrzak:

You know we found out in July, early July, that my husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor and you know, luckily it was not cancer, but it has been a crazy couple of months. You know we were just talking last night that it's been nine, a little over nine weeks since his surgery and I'll tell you it feels like nine months, or maybe even longer than nine months, even though it's only been nine weeks.

Monica Enand:

Yeah, tell us a little bit about how you learned that this happened.

Sejal Pietrzak:

You know it's so interesting.

Sejal Pietrzak:

I definitely noticed, you know, change in personality, more lethargy, just a different person in terms of lack of emotional connection compared to what my husband used to be, and it was gradual over years. And so when it's so gradual, it's so hard to notice truly and you think, oh well, it's so hard to notice truly. And you think, oh well, we're getting older, maybe that's just the way we are now. Or, oh, you know, things are different in our relationship with his relationship with his family, with his friends, with everybody around work, colleagues, and maybe it's just that you know things are changing but you don't realize that sometimes that change can actually be something that's quite a big underlying issue, and so it's really important to keep checking. And even though you know we went to our doctor and had annual blood work, had the regular physicals and everything would turn out perfect, but you got to still follow your gut instinct and say, well, maybe it's not, and then try to figure out what it is if you feel that something is not right. And so that's what happened.

Monica Enand:

Yeah, no, and I think I hear you on the gradual thing, because there is this tumor and it is growing gradually right Over how many years?

Sejal Pietrzak:

They don't know. They said it could be anywhere from a handful of years to 20 years. You don't know and it doesn't. You know it doesn't really affect you necessarily, because the body is so resilient. And so when the tumor was growing and growing, growing it's such a small and it's pushing the brain and you know there were small little changes that I noticed. And then you know, little by little it got worse and you could notice things even more. And so I would just say for anybody if you see changes in your family member, start asking what could be.

Georgianna Moreland:

Sejal, tell us about how you actually found it, because you were intuitive, you knew he was just off, something was different, but what action did you take to actually find it? Tell us about you getting on that flight, because that to me has just really stuck in my mind.

Sejal Pietrzak:

There's a quote in the Ernest Hemingway book the Sun Also Rises where somebody's talking about how did something happen in the book and one of the characters says slowly at first and then all of a sudden, for him it was so gradual at first and then all of a sudden things were different. And when we were going through that, all of a sudden, my gut instinct was telling me that something was wrong. I had to fly to a board meeting, actually, and I was, you know, I packed up and it just it felt like some. It just felt like today was not a great day to be out of state and I was going up to the Northeast and I live in Texas. And I got to the airport and I was about to board the flight and the next thing I knew I was walking towards the gate agent to give my boarding pass on my phone, and I literally just turned around, walked out of the airport, got into an Uber and all of a sudden I was on my way home and I canceled my flight, you know.

Sejal Pietrzak:

And and that day, when I got home, I started making calls and that all led to the next steps over the next two weeks, which then led to us finding the tumor. And then you know the surgery, and you know again it's being proactive. And even though everything seemed fine, I said there's got to be something wrong. And we scheduled for a full body MRI and again it was being persistent. For a full body MRI, and again it was being persistent. They told us it might be a few weeks before we would get the um, get the MRI done. And I just kept saying, can any any chance we can do it sooner? And we were able to get an appointment, um, through a cancellation or whatever, the very next day.

Monica Enand:

So you went to this full body MRI, which, thank goodness, you have the privilege to do. This is not covered by insurance. Is that correct? It was not. I mean, we're all thankful for our privilege that we have access to things in the medical system that not everybody does, and I always remember that because I think our medical system is really hard to navigate. But, thank goodness, you have the skills and the resources and so you got this full-body MRI. Tell us about what that day was like. You went there, you know you said blood tests were fine. All of the other medical exams diagnostic exams come back fine, clean, full of health. What were you thinking when you went and got the MRI and how did?

Sejal Pietrzak:

it go. What were you thinking when you went and got the MRI? And how did it go? Well, I wasn't there.

Sejal Pietrzak:

My husband went on his own and it was a Saturday and you know they had told me, hey, it'll be, you know, 15 business days, up to 15 business days before you'd get any results. So I wasn't thinking anything and I said to my husband hey, it's like 20 minute drive away when you're on your way home. Let's go, let's meet up for lunch. And? And he said, great, and I had actually offered to take him, but he said, no, I can go by myself, and he calls me on his way back. And I said, oh, great, I said you want to meet for lunch? And he said actually, you know, as I was leaving the MRI, the doctor came in and said we found a brain mass and we need you to go directly to the emergency room and there is a trauma.

Sejal Pietrzak:

One hospital, you know, five minutes from our house, and the doctor at the MRI place had literally called ahead. And so my husband came home, I, we literally got straight into the car, went straight over to the emergency room at the hospital and in 10 minutes he was already in a bed. Um, you know, doctors had already come and seen him and all of a sudden you're starting to think, wow, this is not, this is so serious and thank goodness we found it when we did. You know who knows right what could have happened.

Georgianna Moreland:

Sato, I mean, life was happening at the same time. Your freshman daughter was on her way home from college, from freshman year. You have a son that just finished his junior year, so the preparation for going to college, I mean just you were in the middle of all of that and you know, I have to also applaud John for listening to you and going for the scan, because the person who's sick doesn't really see what's happening, right, that's right. Because the person who's sick doesn't really see what's happening, right, that's right. So, and a lot of times they think you're nagging, or I mean, you know I'm not throwing any shade on men, but sometimes they're not the easiest to get to the doctor, right?

Monica Enand:

Yeah, I think everyone's that way when they're talking about their own, because what you're talking largely the symptoms, as I understand what you've said is mostly like personality changes, right, it's not like someone's puking blood or something Like.

Sejal Pietrzak:

It's not some obvious symptom, right, it's a, and it's so gradual over how many years, you know, you don't know, and so you know I think. I think the it is. It goes back to the thing you started with Monica to answer your question, georgiana which is you've got life happening and sometimes, with so much happening in your life, people might say I don't have time for this medical procedure right now or I don't have time, I'm sure it's fine, we'll get through it. Oh, we've got vacation coming up, we've got something. Get through it. Oh, we've got vacation coming up, we've got something. But you've got to take the time.

Sejal Pietrzak:

I mean, my advice and my learning on this whole thing is you know, I sometimes wish, wow, I wish I had done this sooner when I started seeing some of the changes Even earlier. You can't second guess, you can't go back and ultimately it's all worked out great and the surgery was successful. So you go back and you say I wouldn't change a thing now, but the sooner you can do it the better, because you never know, and you know I think the biggest thing is we all kind of take health for granted. There's always something.

Sejal Pietrzak:

Yeah, there's always going to be something, but you got it the most important thing in our lives is health, the whole.

Georgianna Moreland:

Thing it happens so quickly in our lives is health the whole thing. It happens so quickly. I mean he goes to the appointment you're planning to go to lunch. They send him straight to the emergency room. They started him on medication and started the procedure to get him ready for surgery so quickly, were you? How do I ask this? Were you organized? Did you know where? Who handled the finances in the house? Who handled all of the details of everything? I mean because we hear horror stories of you know husband goes to play basketball, falls down of a heart attack and the wife is like, oh my God, he handled everything. I have no idea where you know our bank is or any of those details.

Sejal Pietrzak:

Yeah, it's interesting because you know, my husband is in finance, a former CPA, both in the house and out of the house, and, and you know, managing the finances was one that he did. I mean, I didn't even, I didn't even look at my paychecks. He handled all of that I didn't look at. You know, I didn't do any of that stuff.

Monica Enand:

It's important to share, because you and I are in the same boat. We have both. I mean, we've sold companies for billions of dollars, we've managed massive budgets, we've managed massive P&Ls, we've raised money. We've done all these things. We both have a division of labor in our marriage, just like everyone does. My husband also handles all of our personal finances. He always did, and, and he's better at it Now. We periodically sit down and review it, um, and we have done that since the marriage began, but, but really it's been his department.

Monica Enand:

Now, of course, if I were to go, he wouldn't even know how to wash his clothes, but but that's like the lesson. He really wouldn't. He would have no idea how to operate the laundry, cause I don't want him to touch the laundry. But here's the thing like that's a very real. Like Georgiana went right to the like, very real. Like, okay, something very real could happen. And now you have two children that are dependent on you. You have parents his parents, you have your dad, you have all kinds of people that potentially dependent on you. Um, how do you? How did you?

Sejal Pietrzak:

think about that. What did you do? It's a lesson, another lesson learned, which is you know, make sure you've got access to everything, um, and that you know, uh, you know if you're the spouse, that you know where your finances are. You know how to access your bank accounts, that your name is on every bank account. I started making a list. Here are all the things I just literally wrote it down on a piece of paper that I want to make sure I talked to John about before. You know he goes into surgery, and one of those was okay, let's talk about where all of our finances are. What are all the passwords? You know he goes into surgery and one of those was okay, let's talk about where all of our finances are. What are all the passwords? You know there's all this multi-factor authentication. Now you know there's passwords that you need. Luckily, we have a password manager, so you can. You know there's online. You know apps that you can use for that kind of stuff, but I needed to make sure I knew exactly where all that stuff was, and you need to know the nitty gritty and you need to be on every account. You need to have access to everything, and so when he started. I asked him the question. I was like look, you're going into surgery tomorrow. I assume everything will be great, but I need to know. And I literally video recorded him talking Because I knew I wouldn't remember it all, especially when you've got so much else going on. And that's actually a really valuable thing. We all have phones, we all have video on our phones and even though he was just sitting on the couch, he wasn't behind a desk, he wasn't behind a computer, he wasn't going to do any of that stuff, but he just talked. Any spouse that's out there, if you don't have all of that understanding specifically on the finances, I would I definitely roll up your sleeves and and get in there and understand what's happening. You know what?

Georgianna Moreland:

and that's a wake-up call for everyone. And I'm glad that you say any spouse, because it's not a male female thing, it's not that the male is handling. I mean, that could happen to anyone at any time. So it's a wake-up call, right To just be more aware because life happens, life gets busy and we really need to take the time to understand the nitty-gritty.

Monica Enand:

Given that we just talked about all those things going on in your life, sejal, I want you to share with us emotionally, like were you just in survival mode and like, okay, I gotta get this done. Like everybody has a different stress response. Tell us about your stress response, like from the moment that you, like somebody calls you and says your husband calls you and says I have a brain mass and I've got to go to the hospital immediately, I don't even know. I can't even have enough empathy to put myself in that position to know how I would function. I can't imagine functioning.

Sejal Pietrzak:

You can't imagine it until you're doing it, and when you're doing it, you just get into the mode of okay. In some ways it was great to know why. You know the personality changes, the you know you're like okay, it was almost validating, to say, my gut instinct. I'm so thankful and grateful that we found out what it was after a bunch of different tests and blood tests and everything, and nothing was coming back. But now you know what it is. So, number one, there's a little bit of a sense of relief that and it's not relief in a great way because it's still oh, my God, what's going to happen, but it's at least okay. Now this and we double checked with the doctor were these personality did, all of these things? That is it because of the brain tumor? And he said actually, yes, frontal lobe brain tumor, all of those things you experienced and you are experiencing is because of the tumor. So you have an answer. But now you've got to get through the part of how do you actually manage it all? You should ask for help.

Sejal Pietrzak:

So I immediately texted a very close friend of mine and she's a doctor, and I said here's what's happening. What are some of the things we should do. Um, I connected with our doctor, um, our primary care doctor, and and she also gave us a lot of great information, uh, on on suggesting you know things, things to think about and do. And then, um, uh, my husband's brother and his wife, um, they're scientists and doctor, and so we're lucky that we've got these people around us and and they did a bunch of research on what is this. Oh, this is a brain tumor, it's meningioma. Okay, what, what are the different diagnoses?

Sejal Pietrzak:

Having that support network and even if it's not doctors, just talk to people that you're closest with. Sometimes, you know, it's interesting because my husband, you know, is, you know, initially was like, oh, we're not, let's not tell anybody. And I'm like, well, I've already told people, you know. I mean, because you have to tell, you have to realize that you have a community, you have people, they want to support you, they want to be there for you, and that's not something I normally have never experienced before, in the sense that I've always thought you kind of, I don't know, I'm not one who, you know, says I want everyone in the community to help, but they do want to help and they are there for you and you would do it for them.

Georgianna Moreland:

I love you saying that, sejal, because you have a tremendous network of friends, right, like tremendous, but, on the same token, you're always doing for everyone. I mean, you're a doer, you're an action person, right, you take care of a lot of things, people and everything. So, in order to tap into infrastructure, which we spoke about in an earlier episode, to call and I'll say her name Dr Mary Yang, to say Mary, this is what's going on. I need help. I can't understand this. Can you help me navigate this right To tap into your infrastructure, your network, and to know that you are loved and people do want to come alongside you and support you, your family, the kids, during that time of crisis, right?

Sejal Pietrzak:

Yeah, and you won't believe it. Like she was literally getting on a plane, as I called her on that Saturday afternoon and she's like okay, I'm getting on the plane, I'll get Wi-Fi on the plane and we will text back and forth, like she didn't waste a minute, as Georgiana said you're a doer and your stress response is to, honestly, I think some people become overproductive, honestly, become incredibly productive as a stress response.

Monica Enand:

Because I mean you said you felt so much relief at knowing a diagnosis because it actually felt like something you could do something about, and I think that's a common. I mean, to be honest, that's you and I have very similar stress responses, like when I hear of it anything I go immediately into okay, what can we do? Let's make a list, take one thing off the list at a time, only one thing. Don't get overwhelmed by the list, don't get overwhelmed by the future, don't get other people freeze, other people shut down and and and you know, honestly I'm not I've used to think, oh, my stress response is better than their stress response. You know, blah, blah, blah, like I, and honestly, as I've gotten older I've learned that there's downsides to any stress response.

Monica Enand:

And the downside to our stress response is the emotional processing of what is actually going on. You can get so bogged down in the doing that you're not actually processing what is happening. And I imagine when John said, hey, let's not tell anyone, I mean I don't know, but I'm guessing that he had not processed it himself, and so he couldn't really know how to deal with anyone who might have their own worries. He's got his own worries. He's got kids. He's got a wife. He's got a mom dad. He's got his own worries, his own worries. He's got kids. He's got a wife. He's got a mom dad like he's.

Sejal Pietrzak:

He's got his own worries, his own, and the person, and the person who's sick isn't the one truly, in whatever situation it is, who is going to necessarily be able to know the best thing at that moment, because, and and and. If you ask john now, like you know, when did you really know and understand that you were not, that you had a tumor, that you were sick, that you needed surgery, that this was a bad thing and that you weren't doing well, and he will tell you not until after the surgery yeah really I don't even understand what was happening, truly.

Sejal Pietrzak:

And he says that now and he's like yeah, I didn't even. He said I thought I was fine Because it was so gradual so how did you take care of yourself during this time?

Georgianna Moreland:

how did you feel cared for and supported? Because people receive that differently also. You know, as we know, anyone in our community that goes sick. The first thing they send through is a meal train right and people are dropping off food and stuff because people want to help. But how did you receive the love and feel comforted during this?

Sejal Pietrzak:

time. I mean it's incredible, right? I mean you know the community gets together and the next thing you know, you know your closest friends are. You don't even ask for it and there's groceries waiting at your front door. But can I tell you how nice it was to have home cooked meals dropped off. Even when somebody doesn't ask, just drop it off anyway.

Monica Enand:

I think it's the not having to think Because, yes, you can order takeout and you probably have Instacart and you could get groceries and you could go to the grocery store. But all that thinking and deciding and like.

Sejal Pietrzak:

Yep, yep. It is so incredibly valued for the people receiving it.

Georgianna Moreland:

Well, people care. The feeling is helplessness. Right. How do we support her? What can we do? You know, so small token now, you would never want anything that I cook. So you know, I picked up fruit and dropped off fruit. That was easy, because who wouldn't want fruit? But just the simplest way to know hey, we care about you, we're thinking about you, we're praying for you, we're worried about you, we're here if you need anything.

Sejal Pietrzak:

The day of the surgery. You know, I think that was probably the third time I teared up a little bit. The first time was right when John told me I could feel a bit of emotion. I was on the phone and he told me that there was this brain mass and he was driving, and then all of a sudden I was like after 30 seconds I was like, okay, we got to figure out the next steps, right and, and then I was done. And then then one time when I actually said it out loud was to the two of you, monica and Georgiana, and we were on um a zoom call and and I shared with you.

Sejal Pietrzak:

It was a couple days later and I don't, I think I I't even know. I just teared up a little bit, but it was, but it was. Why was that? The first time? Like I guess the whole couple of days prior in the hospital, I was just like boom, boom, boom, getting stuff done, and then I suddenly had a moment to be able to sit back and get perspective. And then the third time was when I walked out of the pre-operating area where John had just been wheeled into surgery. I walk out and I suddenly got tears because five close friends were just sitting there waiting for me in the waiting room even though the waiting room.

Sejal Pietrzak:

People had told us we only allow. They were there.

Georgianna Moreland:

It meant so much to me to walk out and then have them surrounding me, the age of being the self-sufficient person that she has told us, because we texted, we have a group text and she said, no, please don't come to the hospital, I'll be fine, you know. And we all texted each other offline and we're like, okay, it's nice. She said that, but you know, when a friend's in need, you show up.

Monica Enand:

I imagine that time passes so much faster with them there than it would have. Imagine what five hours would have felt like without them there. I don't, I just can't.

Sejal Pietrzak:

Yeah, it was. I can't even imagine. I'll tell you that.

Monica Enand:

I really struggled and I really struggled with how to interact with you because I was thinking to myself, oh my gosh, you've got so many people pulling on you for information and so many things to do. The last thing you want to do is respond to a million people Talk to us about, like, managing the work part of it, and not just the work part of it, but all the people Like you know, we were a team and we were working together. How do you deal with teammates? And, yeah, how did you balance?

Sejal Pietrzak:

that, you know, I think everybody's different and so it's really important to communicate around. How do you want to connect? You know, for me I like to be kept involved. And then I will say you know, because there's a lot of downtime, right? I mean, even in the post-recovery the first day, you know John mainly slept, and so you're sitting in the hospital room and you know doctors and nurses come in and out and you're talking to them, but you want to be there in his presence. You know, be there for him, be there for the person, the patient, you know, your family member or friend, but it's also good to have things to do.

Sejal Pietrzak:

You know, I think it's best to just communicate as much as possible and if you're a team member, don't make assumptions, I think, on how different people want to be interacted with. I think it's much better to be able to just say because everybody processes it differently. Some people will say I just I want to be, not involved at all, don't copy me on anything, don't invite me to anything, because I will feel overwhelmed if I see that on my calendar, right? Whereas for me I want to be copied on everything so that I can stay engaged and involved when I want to be when I can right, and then that's my choice.

Georgianna Moreland:

Now, and this was a learning curve for us and for our little team on Masterstroke right Now, and this was a learning curve for us and for our little team on Masterstroke right Because Monica and I in caring for you right decided okay we're going to leave her off of emails, because we're going to give her and her family the time and respect that they need.

Monica Enand:

Because, in light of what you were going through as a family, and your husband having major brain surgery, what we were doing seemed unimportant, exactly.

Sejal Pietrzak:

It seemed almost offensive to talk to you about podcast stuff. And what's so interesting is, you know, post-recovery. For weeks I thought, oh, they're taking the summer off, they're not, you know. And then, all of a sudden, I saw that we were post, that there were episodes that were launching, and I thought, oh, things are happening without me, but you were doing it based on you know. Hey, we want to. You know, make sure we give Sejal space to be able to emotionally handle the recovery, whereas my perspective was keep me copied. You know, I want to be communicated with and to, because that's my choice. I want to have the choice or not, and so different people will handle it different ways, and I think that's one thing that teams can all maybe take as a takeaway, which is just communicate, ask.

Georgianna Moreland:

Now, and I'm going to take it one step further. Right, at what point in the process do we ask? Because everything happens so quickly, right, and I think right now more than ever, people are taking leave of absences from work, family leave based on, you know, mental health, for various different reasons. Right, so people are leaving the workforce in order to take care of themselves. So what point and how do you ask that, especially in a situation like this? That came fast and furious.

Sejal Pietrzak:

It's a good question. I don't know the answer. You can't do it preemptively, because you never know how you're going to handle a situation, so that's actually I don't know. For me, in this situation, this is what I wanted and needed, which is I wanted to be engaged. After a week or so, like I felt like at least you know what I'd be laying in bed sometimes, instead of just thinking and swirling, which sometimes can happen when you have fear of the unknown. What could happen? What will recovery be like, even post-surgery? What will the next month be? What will the next year be like? You start spinning, but instead of doing that, having for me daily life happening, having friends to connect with, having you know things to do so that you feel a little bit normal.

Monica Enand:

I have to applaud you and I think we have to acknowledge that the amount of mental toughness and strength that you have to be able to say that and to be able to say I know that I will spin, because, by the way, for most people and I think you are in the rare space of being able to have that kind of mental toughness, because most people will start to spin and then they can't unspin because honestly and I do honestly think in the bell curve distribution of responses, that's a normal response to spin and to be obsessed with. I think you're on the sort of outlier of like mental toughness, of saying like I can't spin. That's actually not productive. I've gotten beyond.

Monica Enand:

I did the research, I delegated some of the research, I've got information coming in, I watched some videos. Like I talked to some doctors. You know I did the work but I'm not over doing the work because that's not healthy. There's a point at which there's diminishing returns and negative not just diminishing returns but negative returns and that I actually need escapism, I need to distract my brain and like I just think you're an incredibly mentally tough human being and I'm so proud that you're my friend and I you know, it, it, it it's interesting.

Sejal Pietrzak:

Um, you know, I, I it it's interesting. You know I give this advice I think I may have even talked about it on a previous podcast more about, you know, having kids and working and being a mom and things like that, but it was one of them was control what you can control. Right, and that doesn't mean I don't worry. I worry a lot, but I always try to keep coming back to that. So if I was starting, if I ever try to spin or whatever, like what will post-surgery be? Like, what will the long-term prognosis be? You can start spinning on that kind of stuff. Will he recover 100%? But if I would start ever thinking that way, I would say to myself I would hear in my voice, in my head control what you can control.

Georgianna Moreland:

But I think one thing you've pointed out is that the thing you had control over you didn't have control over the situation, but you had control over. You didn't have control over the situation, but you had control over your mindset around the situation.

Monica Enand:

A great thing to point out the optimism, the focus.

Sejal Pietrzak:

So control what you can control. And what I could control was how I handled it, how I chose to spend my, you know, mind, space and time, and for me it was trying to get as much normalcy as possible.

Monica Enand:

And you know, there's the saying, you know that between the stimuli and the response there's a space in there and that inside that space you can choose, you can make choices, you don't just have to respond to stimuli. I think that's a muscle.

Sejal Pietrzak:

By the way, too, I mean talking to friends, really valuable. You know, I've talked to a therapist really, really valuable, and I would recommend that too.

Georgianna Moreland:

I really thank you for talking to us today about all of this, because it's incredibly private and you know, just processing through everything that you've gone through with us and we've missed you and we're so happy that you're back in every way. And I think the main thing coming out of a conversation like this is knowing that life is coming fast and furious at everyone. You live long enough. You're going to get punched in the face a couple times, right, just to offer each other grace. Right, according to however you need to process, and that it's okay if people throw up their hands and they're like look, I can't handle this enough, I need to go take care of myself. Right, that there is zero criticism, but just to honor the space and how everyone processes through what they need to process through that's right, that's right, and that you, you will get through it.

Sejal Pietrzak:

And I said to myself so many times it's darkest before the dawn Right myself so many times it's darkest before the dawn right. So even when things were really, really tough and I was like, gosh, this is so tough, literally a day or two later I'd be like things are better for one thing or another and, and you know, the dawn comes. It's just how quickly it comes and and and how sunny it is when it comes. It just depends on how you handle the mindset of the darkest parts.

Monica Enand:

Well, thank you for sharing your wisdom and your experiences and your incredibly positive, optimistic attitude. Your practicing of gratitude, I'm sure, helps everyone around you, so we are very blessed to have you as part of our lives and I'm super grateful for you, as Georgiana I know is, and we appreciate you sharing this with the audience.

Georgianna Moreland:

Thank you for listening today. We would love for you to follow and subscribe. Monica and Sejo would love to hear from you. You can text us directly from the link in the show notes of this episode. You can also find us on the LinkedIn page at Masterstroke Podcast with Monica Enid and Sejo Petrzak. Until next time.