01 - Living My New Norm After Surviving Breast Cancer
Walking is something many of us do without thinking, how walking can promote and even lower our risk of breast cancer so, get out there and walk and take of advantage of walking and the health benefits it offers.
01 - Living My New Norm After Surviving Breast Cancer
From Diagnosis to Determination
How do you confront the fear of a potentially life-altering diagnosis when the world seems to be on pause? Join me, Sherry, on "Sylvr Tea" as I share the deeply personal story of my battle with breast cancer, from the hesitation that delayed my mammogram during the pandemic to the sobering moment of receiving my diagnosis. I take you through the emotional and physical challenges of planning for surgery, the intricacies of coordinating with surgical and reconstruction doctors, and the vital importance of staying vigilant with regular check-ups. This episode is a heartfelt recount of my journey and a testament to my determination to embrace life post-cancer.
As we shift into the latter part of the episode, I focus on the complexities of adjusting to a "new normal." I explore the financial challenges that come with short-term disability, the stress it brings, and how it affects day-to-day life. With Women's Health Month as our backdrop, I invite you to reflect on your own experiences and join our supportive community. Stay tuned for more episodes released a few times a week, where we’ll continue to share candid conversations and updates over a comforting cup of tea.
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Hi, welcome to my podcast, silver Tea. My name is Sherry and my podcast is about living my new norm after surviving breast cancer. And the second reason I'm actually making this podcast is because I am working on facing some of my fears and I am a very shy person, but if you know my friends and stuff, they would probably disagree. They'd laugh and say but they know, I'm a very non-social person, I'm shy, I don't go, I don't do a lot of things. So after having breast cancer, after having going through that process, I now want to live my life to the fullest. I want to talk about today how I got to where I am right now.
Speaker 1:It was back in March 2022. We were deep into the pandemic and we were sheltering in place and I had missed my mammogram screening for two years because we were going through this whole pandemic part, and so I didn't want to be in the hospital. No, I did not want to be in the hospital. Girl hospital no, I did not want to be in the hospital girl. So I had decided 2022 is it was a good year to try to go, but then I was kind of hesitant. I was again the nerd. I didn't want to be in the hospital because we were still wearing the mask and it was. I was a little nervous, so I was trying to trying to wait a little bit. So what happened was I had pains in my breast and with those pains, one was worse than the other, I said, well, let me go ahead and schedule my mammogram screening. And so I did.
Speaker 1:I scheduled my screening and I went to the hospital and it was a long process because, first of all, my breasts were tender. And I went to the hospital and it was a long process because I, first of all, my breasts were tender and I had to tell that nurse, please don't put me in a machine where you squeeze my breasts up because it hurts, don't do it. So she said, okay, we won't use that. When your breasts are tender, we try to use something else. I forgot what the machine. I don't know if it's called a 3d machine, I don't, I really can't remember.
Speaker 1:But, um, there was two different type of machines. I actually was in both of them, the one that we're mostly used to, where we have to stand and hold the bar and then they smash it. So, um, so I went through one first and something I wasn't familiar with. And then I went through the second one. And then the second one was the one that we all know where they smash your breasts in the machine and it's very painful. But I found out that that is done because they're trying to even the thickness of your breasts so they can see into your breasts better with the machine, can see into your breast better with the machine. So I just learned that just last week because I was in there for my, I think, six month checkup, because it's been, uh, yeah, so now six every six months, every six months I I go for, um, my mammoth, my checkup. So I think actually this is my, I have one more six, six month checkup and then I can actually go once a year again. So I'm excited about that.
Speaker 1:But anyway, so moving on, don't want to get all over the place, so, um, so I had, they had me in the machine, and then they, they saw something and they asked me to go sit down in the waiting room and wait a little bit because the doctor wanted to review the screening and so they were going back and forth, they were calling me to come do more pictures and I was like I don't know what's going on, but they're scaring me. Well, what are you doing? So finally they said, well, we see something. We looked, we looked at it several times. It hasn't moved its position, it's just kind of staying there. So we, we really want to get more, we want to see it, we want to do a biopsy. I'm like, what a biopsy? I said, okay, all right. So they scheduled a biopsy.
Speaker 1:They also scheduled an appointment with the, the doctor that was going to be doing the lumpectomy surgery on my breasts. At the time I just thought he was a doctor, that was just. I was scheduling my, my um appointment with, just in case something went wrong. And so I, I went, I went to the doctor, me and my sister jumped in the car and we drove over to the doctor. But let me tell you, when he called me to tell me I had cancer, I was on the phone like um, I, I, I really that's how I was on the phone and he was like he was just sitting there quietly, as if he's used, as if he's used to delivering bad news and he knows how people take it, because some people actually get mad at the messenger for delivering his news. So I'm not that person, I was just like sitting there.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, we get to the doctor's office and he, he tells me that I can bring, I can record the the appointment because there's a lot to absorb. And I must say there was a lot to absorb. He was talking about her two positive breast cancer stage 1a, and this is what happened. I'm like there's this a in there, I mean because I know there's stage one through four, but I didn't know there was now subcategories, which is for the subcategories. So after we talked and got through all that, we had to schedule my appointment for the surgery, because now my surgery I was opting to have the breast reconstruction as well, so I had to have both doctors in the operating room at the same time. So I had to have the breast reconstruction doctor and the surgical breast cancer remover doctor in the operating room at the same time. So their schedules needed to meet up. So I ended up getting my surgery like in June. Now, mind you, I found out May 4th that I had cancer, but like I waited to June, I had to go until June to get my surgery. But I mean, it just seemed like everything just moved so fast after that doctor's appointment when that surgery came up.
Speaker 1:There was short-term disability, there was the surgery, there was chemotherapy, there was hospitalization from infection from the port that the doctor put the port in. He was a little rough, he was kind of shoving it in there and I end up with being septic on day one with an infection. Mostly I don't think it was an infection, I don't think it was. I don't know, I don't know how that works. All I know is I end up being septic or having sepsis and I was hospitalized for five days and I was hospitalized for five days. So anyway, I had the surgery, the port installation infection.
Speaker 1:They removed the port and then they installed a PICC line in my arm and when they did that, they also sent me home with a PICC line antibiotic to continue to help fight the battle of being septic. Because they, they sent the home alcohol. Only give it to myself intravenously. There's no taking by mouth. You couldn't do that. You had to three. Three times a day. Okay, three times a day. Thank god for my mom, because she was spending the night for about a week dealing with me trying to get this in there and I had to get the special delivery. The nurse was coming but then I didn't have a wound specialist. So then I had to take care of my own wound from the, from the port, because they couldn't get a wound specialist out, a wound specialist out to see about me.
Speaker 1:So it it was a lot of stuff going on and let me tell you, it messes with you mentally. So I have to say my family was the best and without that great support system in my mind was my mind was in. I was a cheerleader for myself as well as the great support system of cheerleaders that I had. I had my two sisters who played nurse while I was healing from the poor installation, the infection that I had. My two sisters were there making sure my wound was taken care of two times a day. They was packing it, they was covering it with new gauze, galls, new everything. They were doing a whole thing. I mean they did such a wonderful job. We couldn't even find anybody to see about my wound. I mean this is like all this stuff that went on, but I still came out on the other side with a good attitude.
Speaker 1:So this is the reason for my podcast I. I want to talk about my new norm. I want to talk about my eating. I want to talk about my new lifestyle. I want to talk about things I used to do that I don't do no more, or things that I never did done doing now. So it's a lot of stuff. So in my podcast, I would really like to share with you my new norm, and I also would like to hear from you what your new norm is after having breast cancer. What are you doing different? What are you doing now that you didn't do before? Can you drink a nice glass of cold water? I can't. I did before, I can't do it now. So these are the things that that that's not. That's out of my norm. I, I don't. I can't pick up a glass of cold water and just drink it. I get sick, I get, I get nauseous. There's so many things.
Speaker 1:It was. There was weight loss issues. There was I didn't, I didn't lose weight during chemo. I gained weight. So they were saying that was good. Well, good for who? That's the real question. I don't want to be gaining no weight. So people were losing weight, but I was the opposite. I, I was gaining weight. Um, I was putting weight on. But my sisters, my son, they were running me back and forth to the chemotherapy.
Speaker 1:I just can't tell you how supportive they were and what a great support system is needed, because cancer does not just affect you. Cancer also affects your family, it affects your friends. It even affects your co-workers, because your co-workers are worried about you. Some of my co-workers I didn't even share that I had cancer until like almost a year later and after that, the ones that I used to always call and talk to they was, they were so were so upset about the fact that I had cancer and they were sorry about it. They were just expressing how much they cared for me. My co-workers, the ones that I talked to my boss he was great the IT people that I worked with all the time they were all it was. It was a great community. Uh, I did I definitely have to say that without them, how will my mental health have been? So I I will again.
Speaker 1:Please don't forget to go and get your mammogram screening. Get your annual mammogram screening. Get your annual mammogram screening because it's crucial, because early detection is the best detection. So please try to get out there and get your annual mammogram screening as soon as possible, and if you have any loved ones, you know that needs to go and get their mammogram screenings, annual mammogram screenings. Please remind them because you want to. You just want to be there for them, and one of the ways of being there for them is trying to make sure the prevention care is in their plan. So this month this is may, I believe may is coming up then, and I want to say happy women's health month and and we need to keep taking care of ourselves. Self-care is important. Early detection is the best detection. It's also very crucial because I, like I said, I don't know where I would have been had I not go gone when I did, because I was actually going to wait a little bit.
Speaker 1:So if you like my podcast, please hit that notification button, subscribe, let me know how you you like the channel. If you like what you hear, come back for the new podcast that's going to be coming I don't know sometime next week or this week or tomorrow. I will be making podcasts a couple times a week and releasing them and we're going to talk. We're going to talk about what your new norm is and and I'll talk about my new norms. I'll talk about everything and I also can touch more on how short-term disability was a stress factor, a bigger stress factor than anything else that I was dealing with. The financial part of it was tough it so, yeah, and this, this is I. We'll talk, we'll talk. So what I want you to do is hit that subscribe button. Come back, let's have a chat again over some tea. Enjoy some nice tea. I'll talk to you later. You have a good day and happy women's health month.