All In Your Bizz w/ Reka & Los
Welcome to a bold, no-holds-barred couples podcast where we dive into life, love, and everything in between-uncensored and unfiltered. As a Generation X couple, we're bringing our real-life experiences, raw honesty, and sharp wit to the table as we explore serious issues, controversial opinions, and laugh-out-loud moments that matter. No topic is off limits-from relationships and social issues to pop culture and personal growth-we're getting all up in your business and saying what others won't. Our goal? To spark thought, share truths, and connect with listeners through honest, heartfelt, and hilarious conversation.
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All In Your Bizz w/ Reka & Los
Love, Scars, And The Village That Heals
🎙️ Support “All in Your Bizz Show with Reka and Los”!
Welcome to the show where real talk meets real life — unfiltered, unapologetic, and always full of truth. Reka and Los bring you honest, down-to-earth conversations that hit home. On All in Your Bizz, no topic is off limits. From love, family, relationships, and business to personal growth, trending issues, and community matters — we keep it raw, relevant, and relatable.
💬 This is a no-judgment zone, where you can laugh, learn, and reflect without fear of being misunderstood. Reka and Los create a space where voices are heard, stories are shared, and everyone’s perspective matters.
🔥 Expect powerful discussions, special guests, and moments that make you think, laugh, and sometimes even tear up — because life isn’t always perfect, but it’s always real.
🎧 So tune in, turn it up, and be part of the conversation! Whether you’re driving, working, or just chilling — All in Your Bizz is the show that keeps it 100 every time.
👉 Follow, share, and support the movement — because when it comes to life, we’re all in each other’s bizz!
This is Tina Darae's no-filter, high-heart journey through breast cancer—and the village that carried her to the other side.
We talk about the parts many skip: how dating changes when someone decides you won’t be “cute” anymore, why wigs stayed on at night to mute the mirror’s sting, and what reconstruction actually involves—from expanders and drains to 3D areola tattoos and the choice to go flat or pursue symmetry. Tina shares how she turned scars into a story, humor into armor, and a constant chorus of prayer and practical help into fuel for the fight.
The episode doubles as a playbook for self-advocacy. Tina fired two oncologists, challenged a mis-staging due to calcifications, and pushed for speed on ports, chemo, and trials. She shows how to ask precise questions, demand plain English, and switch teams when competence or respect goes missing. We also unpack the money: choosing the right insurance tier, insisting providers bill insurance before taking your cash, checking CPT codes against negotiated rates, and applying early for financial assistance before funds run out.
From there, we explore the soul work—how to stop revisiting the past, why 13 seconds of care can change a day, and what it means to let people love you loud. Tina’s book, “Texi: Perfectly and Wonderfully Made,” gives families language for empathy when a child shows up to school with a new look
🎙️ Support “All in Your Bizz Show with Reka and Los”!
Welcome to the show where real talk meets real life — unfiltered, unapologetic, and always full of truth. Reka and Los bring you honest, down-to-earth conversations that hit home. On All in Your Bizz, no topic is off limits. From love, family, relationships, and business to personal growth, trending issues, and community matters — we keep it raw, relevant, and relatable.
💬 This is a no-judgment zone, where you can laugh, learn, and reflect without fear of being misunderstood. Reka and Los create a space where voices are heard, stories are shared, and everyone’s perspective matters.
🔥 Expect powerful discussions, special guests, and moments that make you think, laugh, and sometimes even tear up — because life isn’t always perfect, but it’s always real.
🎧 So tune in, turn it up, and be part of the conversation! Whether you’re driving, working, or just chilling — All in Your Bizz is the show that keeps it 100 every time.
👉 Follow, share, and support the movement — because when it comes to life, we’re all in each other’s bizz!
Welcome to the Welcome to the Lost Rita Show.
SPEAKER_00:Have a special guest in the house, Tina Duray. Hey Tina. Hello. Hello. How are you? I am well, thank you. Good, good. So Tina and I have been talking for a while, and she is a master storyteller. We were just talking before the podcast started, and so we were in here laughing. And she has some great stories to tell. One of the stories that I think is most near and dear, would you say, Tina? Most near and dear? Yes. Is what you've gone through. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. Okay. So this is October, which is recognized as breast cancer awareness month. And we know that many people have gone through breast cancer. Um, we see the pink everywhere. We see the awareness, but we also don't know, or I don't think I know, like what people go through like during the process or post-process or with relationships, whether it's family, personal work. So we're not going to get into like the sob, the sad, because I'm sure you've talked about that absolutely. And, you know, we're we're on the other end of the battle. We're moving up, we're moving forward. So we want to talk about maybe things that you've encountered, things that you've gone through while going through your battle. And I do want to say if there's anything that you don't want to talk about, just say skip and we can skip because I respect your privacy and your feelings. And so we'll just go from that. So if you can tell us, let me look, let me look through my handy dandy nooks here what I wanted to ask you. So Tina. Um okay, so you've been you're would you say you are a strong person?
SPEAKER_01:Honestly, I am probably I didn't realize how strong I was until I went in the valley.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:I had no clue that I was as resilient as I am. Other sorry, saw it that I didn't. I didn't I didn't see it in myself.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. That's a different layer of you. I mean, because that's something that you probably never had to go through, never had to think about until you got your diagnosis. And then now, boom, I have to deal with this situation, right? So tell us a little bit about that.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I mean, so it so having breast cancer is just not an illness. It's not one singular thing that impacts you when you get breast cancer.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:It impacts you financially, it impacts your your your personal life from a relationship standpoint, your familial relationships. It impacts every single aspect, your your career. It's totally life-altering. So you have to learn how to how to date during the process, after the process. I mean, people might, you know, they get on the internet and they read all the hard stories like chemotherapy, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Let's talk about that. Okay, so you got a friend at one time, real nice person, but he just did some stuff. And tell us about what he looked, how he looked at your situation, how he examined your battle from his lens, and what he decided to say or do.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I was dating a guy on October 31st, 2024, 2023. Dad went to the surgical oncologist and she gave me my official diagnosis. And I saw him, and he basically, in so many words, said, Hey, I don't want to date you no more because you're not gonna be as fine and as cute as you are now. You're gonna look like my daddy who was skin and bones when he died, and you're gonna be so sickly and frail when he just like my daddy when he died. And I'm not gonna take it away from him, yeah. Successful man. Yeah, but he was an asshole. Yeah, yeah. He was truly an asshole. He has a pathological lie. I think he's programmed in my phone as I cannot, I don't know if he was B A and if he's a band or if he's something or he's something. Well, let me see what he is in my phone. I've been seeing. Let me see. Let me see. Okay. So I was like, who one day I ran across a number and I got confused. And I was like, oh, is Ben? He's oh no, he's literally programmed as pathological liar and braggart. That's his name in my phone.
SPEAKER_00:Wow, and you wrote all that out as as the contact. Absolutely. Wow. So then after you all had that conversation, that was it.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, he's he still some flowers or something, but it was just like the con the lies just it was just the lies for no reason were just kept coming.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And because it was a hard period for me to swallow too, that someone would basically dismiss me because something that you had. Something I had no control over, something that if you know me, you know I'm going to do whatever I need to do to try to at least maintain some level of being attractive in spite of. I mean, I mean, I think I was pretty dope. Look pretty dope. When I was still pretty nice. You know, I rocked my whole hand. I I made sure I went to any appointment. I felt like you you look you feel better when you look better. So I always try to just pour into myself. And, you know, I think I came out post-cancer. Okay. I think I'm decent looking, you know. God did not allow me to. I have, of course, I have scars. Yes. But those scars are a testament to my journey. And I don't look at them as being an impediment. I look at them as actually being a they tell a story.
SPEAKER_00:I agree with that.
SPEAKER_01:They tell a story.
SPEAKER_00:Because I would I think when we first talked about your diagnosis and you had your tribe of people that you had Tina. Your people, I'm telling you, I was on the call. You had some prayer, some prayer calls. I was in, I think I was in North Carolina. I was in North Carolina two years ago on that call, and they prayed you, baby, they prayed you damn. When I tell you, oh my, your village is phenomenal. Like I could not even imagine everybody that came far, wide, local, every everybody came for you, Tina. I don't know what it is about this magnetic personality that you have, but people love you down.
SPEAKER_01:And I love them.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:I do.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:I try to be a good, I try, I think it's because my village, honestly, I think is a reflection of who I am. I really try to be a good person. I really do try to be, I mean, I have my flaws. I mean, I can be attitudinal, I am loud, I am extra, I can be over. I'm all I have this personality that's big. But that's what makes you you. I have a huge personality.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. But with that, don't ever, and I'm sure you don't, but I'm just gonna put it out there. Don't ever allow someone to say those things about you and turn it into a bad thing. Because while those people are cheating, stealing, lying, being disrespectful, and they maybe do it quietly, it doesn't change who you are as a person. So don't ever allow someone to make you feel as if you should tone down or you should not be yourself. Because I'm sure you're you you have been you your whole life.
SPEAKER_01:The core fundamental who I am is is is problematic to someone when I'm I'm not, I come from a good place. I come from my energy is positive, my energy is good. Puts things into perspective about who you are, what you are, and what you want, and the day world, you know? I agree. It takes 13 seconds to let someone know you're thinking of them.
SPEAKER_00:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01:13 seconds.
SPEAKER_00:That's it.
SPEAKER_01:So them WIDs y'all hear that?
SPEAKER_00:13 seconds. Do not WID females or men, don't do it. 13 seconds. So what Tina, how what have you taken away from just the relationship perspective on going through your journey? Do you feel the need to try, even if someone pushes away? Do you feel the need to try to say, hey, I'm gonna be okay, or you just let it go? Like what have you learned? Or does it depend on the person, or where are you with that?
SPEAKER_01:It kind of depends on the person. So there are a lot of factors at play, right? It depends on the investment, you know, the time investment. It depends on their personality, who they are, who who shows up, right? If they're consistent. All of those things play a factor in if I just walk away. I feel like where I am now, honestly, I'm gonna do every, and this is just who I am, period. I'm gonna do everything I possibly can to ensure that that when I do walk away, there's no guilt on my end and there's no remorse. That I try everything I possibly could have. So when I do leave, close that door, the door shut. It's so easy to try to make to revisit the past. And and I actually wrote something today that's actually, you know, because I always think of different I jot down different thoughts, right? So where is it? Where is it? Where is it? This is my mantra in life when it comes to closing the door.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, let me hear it.
SPEAKER_01:You want your blessing in the present, but you're still living in the past, digging through old hurt, trying to prove a point, and in that chase, you devalue yourself.
SPEAKER_00:Let's talk about that. What does that mean to you?
SPEAKER_01:That means when you're constantly living in the past and trying to right the wrongs, even when someone hurts you knowingly, because you know when you're hurting.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:If you keep opening that door and closing the door, you're you're devaluing yourself. You you are making yourself cheaper. Right? Yeah. You know, if you think about something that has constant wear, constant use, the price tag, you know, like in a garage, you're gonna price something a little bit less expensive, you know, compared to a Louis Vuitton that might be still be in pristine condition. That's just what you're doing. You you are literally cheapening yourself.
SPEAKER_00:Why do you think people do that? Why do you think we why do we as people choose to go back to the past or revisit the past or try to fix something from our past when we know it wasn't good when we were there during that time? Why do we go back? What do you what do you think about that? Is it because I know a lot of times with women, we don't want to start over. We're familiar with that person. You trying to rewrite the past. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It's ultimately we want to fix things. You want to fix, yeah. We're fixers, we're nurturers, and you just want to rewrite the past. You feel like if I could have said this differently or done this differently, it's it's that one final thought because you're so infatuated with what could be. You're not accepting what what is, you're not accepting what is. Yeah. So, and I'm guilty of that. I think I think we all are as humans, right? I I love love. I am a I love love. Black love to me is the most beautiful theme ever. And and when we when I want to go back to talk about my village, like Pastor Craig Brown, and then you have past his wife, Tony Brown. They were instrumental in my village. They were pillars, they stood up front and and they were welcoming and they were loving, and they they did the prayer call. They they came to my when I first got diagnosed, they came to my home and prayed for me and with me. They are amazing people. And and for anyone that wants to know, they are they it's Victory Station Ministries in Los Angeles, Texas. Go here, go speak to them and tell them I sent you because they are amazing people.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, shout out to the Brown family.
SPEAKER_01:The Brown family.
SPEAKER_00:Shout out to them when you need some prayer, huh? I'm telling you, Tina. My I'll tell you, we were driving. I was at some biscuit place in North Carolina. When I'll tell you, I was choking on that biscuit, trying to keep them tears away. They prayed, baby, they prayed you down. I loved it. I absolutely loved it and the support that you have currently and had during this whole time is over, it's just over the top. It is over the top. Talk about the people that supported you, the things that not that they had to, but what did people pour into you while you were going through this?
SPEAKER_01:My village was like because I'm proud of this.
SPEAKER_00:And it wasn't even me. I'm proud.
SPEAKER_01:Go ahead. My village was like, okay, so who's cleaning for you? So they would come clean, they would hire, take turns paying for me to have a mate. My mortgage was paid for a couple of months. Gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts. I mean, it was like every day it was something in the mail. There was one young lady who even paid for my first doctor's appointment. There was, I mean, I I can't even begin to even thank the the people that poured into me. And it didn't even have to be anything of monetary value. It was the spiritual love. It was the the the the even the thoughts. You know, everything was appreciated, everything was welcomed, and I am so grateful and loving and just happy to have so many people that stand by me.
SPEAKER_00:Do you remember your last chemo treatment, right? Girl, there's so many people in that chemo room. Wanted to tell you we did not, and somebody was looking, the somebody was sitting in the the lobby and they were like, What's going on? What's that? I mean, all they see there's a whole bunch of people. You have people from Chicago fly in, you have people from everywhere, people that you've met along this journey, people that you were in different support groups, and people just showed up for you, and it was a massive amount of people. We were in there deep, and people were just like, What's going on? And when you came out, it was just an eruption of just happiness, just every emotion I think a person can go through. Like it was just, and I'm sure it was a lot for you because it was just you were just saturated in love and support and just all the things. And I remember that, and I'm just like, wow, that was amazing. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:I am loved, I am thankful and I am appreciative of everyone that shows up and shows out for me. It was funny because I was telling somebody that when I had my double massectomy, there were so many people on the floor that the nurses were asking what was going on and who was on the floor. Yeah. Because it was it's it's it's humbling. Yeah. But you know, I I love them just as much. I do. I do. And and I I I hope they know it. And I every chance I get, every opportunity, every forum, I do express my appreciation and how grateful I am for the love.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Cause you need that. Like that's part of that's part of the battle. Like the mental part, I think you explained to me, like the mental part that you go through, it's not always just the physical part. I mean, that's hard as well, I'm sure. But just the mental battle. Am I gonna do this? Or am this person gonna be here from me? Am I gonna be here next week? You know, all of those things, like there's so many different layers to going through this process. And then having the support and then losing support, you know, that's that can be hard.
SPEAKER_01:It's it's difficult. And I'm gonna touch on the physical part, right? So I can remember when I was like really, really sick and I would walk by the bathroom. I used to sleep in my wigs, right? Because the one thing, because I did what's called neo-oshabonic therapy, near neo-ashimmic treatment. So neo-ashumanic means they give you chemotherapy before they give you surgery.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:So I had my breasts the whole time. Um, I was going through chemo, but I didn't have hair. So when you walk by the mirror and you're going to the bathroom, you're waking up the first thing you see in the morning, it's it's that constant reminder that something is growing inside of you that can possibly kill you. Yeah. So I was sleeping my legs.
SPEAKER_00:Did you people? I'm gonna make them funny. Did they slide off at night? Or girl, I would tie them down. I would have it, I have them latched, baby.
SPEAKER_01:I have you gonna bolted down. What? What? Because it was that that was my constant reminder. And I was like, I I don't want to be reminded of what I'm going through every chance, every time I turn around. Yeah. So people would say, it's just your hair, it's just hair, but they don't understand. That's that's when the reality hits that this is my life for the next two years, year and a half, two years.
SPEAKER_00:And I'm like, oh, it's just wait. That's part of being a woman, like your hair, your breasts, your eyelashes, your eyebrows, you know, those things like that.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, talk about the breasts. Let's talk about the breasts. Okay, let's talk about it. When I got my so I was always like, you know, God, I play jokes. I was like, I'm gonna go to Mexico and get me some new breasts.
SPEAKER_00:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01:And when I first got cut off, I was like, I did a double massectomy. When I first got the I was gonna have was caught, my friend said, Let's have a breast bye party. Like best bye, but breast by the way. And my friend was like, No, you shouldn't crack a joke. And I'm like, but I gotta laugh at something. Yeah. And I can remember when I first got my double mastectomy. And I looked in the mirror and then I took a picture of myself. Because they leave the the basically was a double massectomy with reconstruction. So inside they put the expander already, but it was still wrinkly because the skin was wrinkled because and they take all breast tissue and basically make you a newbrush so out of the skin.
SPEAKER_00:So it was just like my booze look like bottled up homework. I'm about to I can't look at you. What? What did I they look like balled up homework?
SPEAKER_04:I was like, Lord, you knew I wanted some new TV. I was like, is this real?
SPEAKER_01:So I would not take, I would wear a sports bra, wouldn't take it off. Wouldn't take it off. And I kept the expanders. I was going like every week to get them filled.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Then once so when they first start off, help us understand. When they first, when you first have the double mastectomy, they put the expanders in at the same time.
SPEAKER_01:It's double mastectomy with ring constructors. So it's an eight-hour surgery.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. So then the expanders are inside, but they look like bald at all.
SPEAKER_01:They're not, they have no food in them. There's no saline in the expander yet.
SPEAKER_00:So they have so it's just sagbad.
SPEAKER_01:So it's just it's it's like a football that ain't been a little bit like a big balloon that just doesn't it's a and imagine just you know those dogs that are wrinkly? Uh-huh. Pugs. Uh-huh. Okay, so that's what the tick, my titties look like. Pug titties.
SPEAKER_00:So you had pump t's. I had pulties. So then when you would go back and they so they would just inflate a little bit more.
SPEAKER_01:They put the take a magnet and then they inject them with saline. And what happened is is they actually removed my drains too soon. So I had ambiotic fluid basically build up in the breasts with the implant. So I had to do another procedure to to go under to take the fluid out of each breast because it was so full of fluid.
SPEAKER_00:So I don't think people know about that either. Like when you go through this reconstructive surgery, if if people, because you can choose not to, right? You can choose to go flat. You can choose to go flat. But if you go through, I guess the procedure, whether it's the double mastectomy or not, there's times that you have to go back and have more surgeries to correct some things or to make things look better, or like you said, the drainage tubes were removed. And that's a lot too.
SPEAKER_01:It was a lot. So I kept having, so my left breast was the the was the uh breast that had cancer. My right breast did not.
SPEAKER_00:So you chose to do both.
SPEAKER_01:I did both. Okay. Because I I just I after going through this, chemo's hard.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So I was bedridden for six weeks. I mean, it's hard. Like, girl, it's hard. I read a story on Facebook. Like, those drones are so strong that one lady was saying, because I was in all those cancer groups, that she had to like ask her husband to stop at a neighbor's house to see if she could use their bathroom.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Cause like, you just gotta go. You gotta go. You gotta go.
SPEAKER_01:It is that serious. It is everything. Your skin changes. My nails have started getting black, chemo nails. I had chemo brain fog. Uh it's called chemo brain. I had towards the end, it was like my girlfriend was taking me to the emergency room. She was popping wheelies with me in the wheelchair because we was just like, I mean, because you gotta laugh, laugh to stop from crying. Yeah. So I had issues with my pore. I had, so then they gave me chemo in my arm. So then I got a chemo burn. I had, child. If it was an ailment or the neuropathy was a whole nother.
SPEAKER_00:Remember that, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So that was what put me on my back for six weeks. It was just a whole host of things. Now, what was the original question?
SPEAKER_00:I don't even know. We just got we were talking about physical. We were talking about the breasts. Um, let me see. I don't even remember.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, all the performance should go back. So my right breast kept giving me problems. It kept dropping. It it would literally, it was uneven. And at one point, my right breast was probably an inch and a half lower than the left.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:And then at one point, I had to go back and they had to do an office procedure because the implant actually came out the bottom. What the implant was hanging out the bottom of my boot. And I took a picture and I showed somebody and they said, Why? They said, It's like a little green. So we had to go in and take care of that immediately to make sure I didn't get sepsis.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And that was another situation.
SPEAKER_00:It was just like how many appointments did you have in total? Do you remember?
SPEAKER_01:I'm on my hundred and ninety-fifth appointment. Wow. And I have more, and then I have another surgery schedule. Hopefully, my last one because we're gonna, so we're gonna do my nipples. Okay. You're gonna make me some nipples. I was cartier.
SPEAKER_00:I don't know. I just you told me you didn't have no nipples, and then you showed, no, no, no, no, ma'am, ma'am. Y'all, she got ma'am. It looks like, okay, a mannequin, you know, in the department store. You know how the mannequin just has just two. It's like two elbows. Yeah, no, just no nipples. So, yeah. So, I mean, that could be a good thing if you don't want to be nipply, but how does that look? Yeah, you want to look normal, I guess. You know, you want the normal look of your breast. Do you have sensation in your breasts?
SPEAKER_01:You lose so there's a new procedure that is called they can do where they can spare your nerve earnings and a robot would do that. But that would have been required me to go see another plastic surgeon and a different surgical oncologist. And my surgical oncologist is the department is a department chair for the hospital that I went to. And I wanted her expertise and I wanted her to work on me. And I knew she was gonna be aggressive with removing the tissue, and she was, which was one of the reasons why I the skin kept tearing. She was very aggressive. So that left the plastic surgeon very little to work with.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:But I do want they're gonna they make the nipples out of that scar tissue because they remove lymph nodes from under my arm. So I have the scissors from under each arm. So they'll make this the nipple from that, and then you go get a 3D areola tattoo. So my surgeon did an amazing job. I think I'm on my reconstruction-wise, outside of the other surgery. I don't even know, but it'll be like my 16 surgery.
SPEAKER_00:So, how do you go like mentally? How do you prepare to go to another surgery? Like, oh, 16. Most people have maybe one or two, but in their whole life. Like, how do you mentally prepare for that? Is it just like, I just are you numb or are you just I just gotta go do it? Like, what do you think?
SPEAKER_01:Honestly, it gets me one step closer to the finish line.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:And I'm glad we got over the hump of so they're trying right now, now the concern is finding some fat to put in the breasts because I don't have much body fat. So that is the conversation now. Because what happens is that they we want the fat to your body, you don't want your body to absorb the fat.
SPEAKER_05:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:So that's what happened, kept happening in the right breasts as well. So whenever they say whenever I show animation, or while whenever I used to show animation or be animated, it would crease or pucker.
SPEAKER_04:Oh.
SPEAKER_01:So because I have no tissue, so all you have is an implant. Usually, so you can see that that fat would act as a buffer to kind of give it some more volume.
SPEAKER_03:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01:But I don't have that. So we're hoping this last time is gonna be a success. I know it is. I claim it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And we're gonna make it do it a do. And I'm gonna have them breasts that I was supposed to go to Mexico and get by three years ago. Them tickets is coming. About three years ago, I was supposed to go to Mexico and get them, and I'm just gonna I'm a little delayed.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Delayed, but not denied. But not denied. Let's talk about your book. Yes, let's talk about Texas. Let's talk about Texi and what motivated you to write Texy. And what did you gain from that?
SPEAKER_01:So one day I was like, let me do something, right? Let me let me channel all this energy I have. Because what happens is honestly, when you're going through the valley, you get so used to all those doctors appointments that you kind of lose yourself afterwards. You don't know where you what to do with yourself. Yeah. You kind of just there, like, because every day you're at the doctor's office.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So I was like, let me channel all this energy into something constructive because I wasn't at the point that because I was, I'm I I was I'm used to always work out. So I wasn't at the point where I could work out as much as I used to because all the surgeries and I start and I have to stop. I start and I stop. So that kind of shouldn't have, but it kind of you know delayed me to get it going. But Taxi was birthed from a place of pain. She was birthed from heart. Okay, and a period of transformation for me in recognizing that even though the young man ended things with me because he was shallow in a moment of transparency, it ended my own shallowness. The shallow, the shallow traits that I had about myself as well. Because you learn that life is more than things, you're going to definitely age, you're going to go through the valley, and looks don't matter. Right. None of that matters. So the book, it's a children's book, Taxi Perfectly and Wonderfully Made. Absolutely. And it's on Amazon. Taxi Perfectly and Wonderfully Made by Teenager Wake.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:It is I can only think of just based off all the things that I went through when I was sick and the comments and the ignorance that I was faced with. I can only imagine what someone a child would go through and being bullied at school.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Because you think about an adult has some restraint, right? They have some restraint. Because they've been taught to, they've been trying, you know, a little bit of home training, right? Not to say and speak everything they feel. A little bit. And I have met some adults that have not. But can you imagine a child who goes to school and that they have no restraint? They don't know necessarily some don't know right from wrong, and they don't know a person's limits.
SPEAKER_00:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01:They're not they're not aware.
SPEAKER_00:And they may not be able to interpret or understand exactly the transformation. With a child coming to school, one day they have hair, the next day they may not, or they may look, their skin may look gray, or you know, they may be in a wheelchair. They don't, they, they can't comprehend that. So that's it. They just, you know, kids say the darnest thing. So sometimes it could be the worst things as well.
SPEAKER_01:They do. And that was my, I just felt like there's a lot of books on adults with cancer.
SPEAKER_03:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01:I was a kid and adults on adults. So let's have Texi. Let's talk about Taxi. Let's talk about that. Let's talk about the name Texi. Texi was the name that my mom was going to originally give me at bird. She had Tina and she had Taxi. She chose Tina. I kind of know if you know hey, she didn't choose Taxi because that looked flair. Yeah. But do you know there is a Taxi, a little girl named Texi in Houston, Texas?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, really? Shout out to Texi in Houston. It is. Oh, that's so cute.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I think she was gifted a copy of the book. Okay. So it's done really well. I looked at some numbers and some averages, and they said, you know, some children's books throughout the course of a lifetime only sell about a thousand copies. And mine has, in the, you know, since came was released date of August the 8th, it's done tech pretty well. I mean very little advertising.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But I hope that it blesses someone. I hope that it inspires someone. And I hope that it even inspires some adults, right? Because you're still beautiful in spite of.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_01:You're still amazing. You're still dope. You're still like the kids say, you're still teeth. You're sitting on your hand like this. You're still T. Yes. You know, I I feel like everyone needs to realize and recognize the power that they have within. And it took me going through the valley to really understand the strength that I possess. It took me understanding that, you know, I don't need the newest pair of red bottoms or the the the biggest bag. I had to buckle down and say, hey, life is more than things. Life is more than then, you know, thinking that the world revolves around you. You you gotta coming out on the other side, you you're a totally different person.
SPEAKER_00:That's true. And when you mention like material things, let's just be honest. Cancer costs. Cancer costs. It does. So you kind of understand, in a sense, why or how some people just don't go through the process because it is so expensive. It's so taxing whether you choose to pay your mortgage or pay for your chemo sessions, right? Do you pay for food or do you buy medication?
SPEAKER_01:You know, do you pay for you paying the deductible for your surgery? Yes. Do you pay for, I mean, because it's not just chemo, right? Right. It's not chemo, right? It's there are other meds.
SPEAKER_00:There are there's post-chemo. There's post-chemo. There's your doctor's appointment.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. And you're not going to see just Jim Jane. Right. And I'll never forget that was the year I called my friend who's in HR, and she was like, I said, hey, I think I'm going to choose like a cheaper policy. And she was like, girl, do it. You're never sick.
SPEAKER_03:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01:What did I do? That cheaper health insurance.
SPEAKER_00:I was like, But you don't know. You don't know what you don't know.
SPEAKER_01:But baby, when you get older, you better choose that highest plan.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And that's my if if the listeners, if you got a choice in insurance, you better choose that highest plan. Because you're gonna go through the bell and you just don't know when. And you're gonna wish you had. I mean, because I was in that situation. You will wish you had.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And trust me, you will need it. Because and it matters.
SPEAKER_00:The type of health care you have matters.
SPEAKER_01:It matters a great deal. And also to be mindful and to put things into perspective, one in eight women will be have breast cancer. So if you are of an age that is sadly 40, get that stop trying to save$50,$20 and get that highest, that highest package because it's it's gonna be worth it. And again, you know, no disrespect. You don't know when you but every single person will go through the valley in some way, shape, or form. It may not be you, it may be your spouse. And if you all share, you know, have the same same plan. Think about that. It may be your kids, but that valley is coming one way or another. But the key is you can't stop and take pictures.
SPEAKER_00:You can't stop and take pictures. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You better keep walking. And when you can't walk, you better have your your friends carry you through the valley. And your friends can't carry you. Honestly, everybody, when you're going through the valley, God is carrying everybody. He's carrying you and your friends on his back to make sure he ticks you on up that heel.
SPEAKER_00:That's a lot because it's you as an individual going through it. You have your support group, and they have to be strong to because that's all you talk about. That's my life. I don't go to the club. I can't go out to eat. Yeah, because I everybody makes you sick.
SPEAKER_01:Everybody will be around people. Well, honestly, they changed that now. So one of the drugs that they give you is I actually would go home with a pack on my hip. It was be up, it would be, it built, it would build white blood cells. Okay. And I had to constantly take claritin the entire time because you feel your bones producing more white blood cells. What did that feel like? It is the worst pain you ever can feel. So I would take claritin starting two days before chemo. So it could be in my system. I would pop two that morning, two that night. I would take clariton the like the heavy, but that first time I didn't know.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:So it's a pain that'll put you on your back. It's a pain. It's so it it helps you be around and be around other people. But I did get sick. I did get acute bronchitis when I was sick. And I think that lasted because your immune system is so weak, it probably lasted about two, three, about three or four months. Months. Yeah. Yeah. And then I remember burning myself before chemo started on my arm. Before chemo started. It didn't heal until after chemo was over, which would have been that was uh chemo started in November. November 16th. It ended February 29th of the next year. And the sore was still, the burn was still there. It didn't end, it didn't heal maybe until like March.
SPEAKER_03:Really?
SPEAKER_00:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:And then after the chemo ended, I still was on immunotherapy, targeted, not the immunotherapy, targeted therapy, her septin and projetta, which targeted the type of cancer I had. I was on that until November. I can't remember the exact date of November I finished the last targeted therapy, but it was November 2024 as well. So it was when I went that day, I never forget that lady said she got three options. She said you can do a lumpectomy. Meaning they just remove the mass and the lymph nodes. And then we can do a lymphatic lympectomy with reconstruction. New studies indicate that cancer, breast cancer won't necessarily, if it metastasizes, it's not because you decided to leave your breasts, because uh the type I have can travel microscopically. It can travel uh from my understanding in particles and not even a cell. So I was initially signed up for lympectomy. That would have given me the ability to maintain feeling of sensation in my breasts. Then there was the option of doing the single lasectomy, I think it's unilateral lasectomy. And I didn't couldn't imagine like being light sided. Yeah, I just didn't know what that was gonna look like. Yeah, like one sitting up out high, like a 10, and that was gonna look like a 60.
SPEAKER_00:You know what I mean? They want a shabar. You just oh sorry, Shabar. Don't try to say Shabar. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Like, I was like, nah. You want to be symmetrical. I wanted to be symmetrical, and I'm like, you know, we're gonna do this. Let's do it. Give me some yellow ones. Let's give me some sit up there. Yeah. I'll say hey. I'll walk in the room, I want to say hi to my toy. Yeah. They say, Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:They say, please, girl, go ahead. No, but so then they said the double massectomy, and you don't have to go, you don't have to get a memory anymore. But at the time I didn't really register. So I talked to one girl, one of my girlfriends. Her wife said, I'm gonna say this. She said, everybody I know who's ever had breast cancer in one breast and decided to leave the other, it came back in the other breast. And that kind of solidified my decision. So then I I wanted to, because this is huge, right? So then I called my, go to see my oncologist and said, What I said, I know off the record you cannot recommend or tell me what to do. I said, What would you do? She said, Cut them off.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Talked to another young lady, the physician's assistant. And I said, What would you do? She said, cut them off. And it was like, okay, it's a trade-off here, right? Yeah. Like you still want to feel like a woman and have sensation in your breast. You still want to be whole. But you also want to make sure you take the best, you choose the best preventing measure. Yeah. So you don't go through this again.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So you're sitting here and you're like, okay. Because my friend always gets fancy. She's like, why do you call them titties? And I'm like, baby, they tried to kill me. That is no longer a breast. That is a titties. That's not a breast. That's a titty. At this point, you try to take my life. Yeah. You do not get the right name. Yeah. No, but but it was, it's it was hard.
SPEAKER_00:And it's still hard. How long did you have how long did you have before you had to make a decision?
SPEAKER_01:So I'm I from October until probably the middle of March.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. So sometime. Sometime, but you were going through chemo.
SPEAKER_01:I was going through chemo until February 20. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:So you had to deal with chemo.
SPEAKER_01:And then March 29th was the double hand.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:So I had to make an informed decision. I think they said that it increased the chances of recurrence by 6%. And I said, okay, I'll take that 6%. And then they came back because initially I was going to do 30 rounds of radiation. And then they said, because I chose double massectomy, and I had, after surgery, they realized I had a pathological complete response, PCR, to chemotherapy, that radiation would only probably give me a 1% advantage. And it's sad that you think like this. And it's sad that you have to, but my personality, and I'll I'll say more about that in a second, or you can talk about my personality more. That I you can only do radiation once. So I said, let me put radiation in my back pocket. If I'm not gonna take that into existence, but let me put radiation back in. And and and that is, and you know my personality. And what's my personality for your listeners?
SPEAKER_00:I mean you are how can I describe you? How can you describe me? Just bold. Thinker. You are a high thinker, planner. You exhaust all possibilities. You want the best option for yourself. You talk about it. You you are not one to shy away from being in your physician's face and saying, listen, I need to know what I need to know. You ask questions so that you can make the best informed decisions. And you have helped other people who were going through this process along their journey. You showed up with them at their appointments and you asked them to ask certain questions because sometimes people just don't know. So, based off of that personality trait and that skill that you have, not only did you help yourself, but you helped other people as well. So that's what I do for a living. That's my job.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So to dig in and find to dig into the facts. I mean, that personality flaw is probably carries over to my relationship issues, you know, because I'm gonna keep digging and I'm gonna keep asking questions, but I gotta, that's a whole nother topic. I gotta remember not to Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I gotta remember not to talk about, you know, take my personality to my personal. Yeah. Because I'm just gonna act like I'm Sherlock Holmes, right? Inspector Gadget. Look at okay.
SPEAKER_00:But but that I wouldn't look at it as a flaw because it can be a flaw. It can, but when it comes to your health. When it comes to your health, it is not. Yes. And sometimes physicians, I'm sure, may, you know, push back or they're like, why is she asking all these questions? Or I'm I'm the specialist, you're the patient. But no, you have to be informed. And that's important. You want to be informed.
SPEAKER_01:You need to questions irritate. So so sadly, a lot of physicians have a God complex, right? And questions irritate them. And sadly, I don't care.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Right? Yeah. Um, so it's my wife. My messaging to them is always this. If I feel like if I'm leaving my appointment or coming out of a conversation with you and I feel a certain way and I still have questions, I can only imagine what senior citizens can.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I can only empathize with them because you are you failed me and I am much younger, and I have the word and thawed on the internet and Google and figure out what I need to. And there's they're older and they may not.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That's when we start the conversation shift. Let's let's talk about what went wrong and let's talk about how we can course-correct in real time. Because my care team has to care more about me. They have to care just as much about me living as I do. I am not a. So I can remember very vividly having, I had three oncologists. And the first oncologist, I can remember very vividly having a conversation with them. They were moving too slow. That's another thing about my personality. Have no patients. When they told me I had can't, I found the lump on October 17th. I had a doctor's appointment with my primary care on October 18th. And by 2 p.m. that evening, I was at a mammography center, anywhere in the Metroplex. That's why I told that girl to put me on the counter so I can get my ultrasound and see and get my and and speak to someone. That's how fast acting I am. November 13th, they had already scheduled my port placement. And November 16th, I was in chemo. My goal was you will not sit around and wait and come up with a treatment plan that has already been defined, already been documented, because it's the same treatment plan for everybody to have the same kind of treatment.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You know, all you're doing, you're going to review it with your treatment board and they review daily. But but to say you need 10 days to come up with something that's alright, you you didn't. Yeah. You were being, I I walk by you, your desk, and you're on the internet. I walk by your desk and you're paying your fingernails. I walk by you, you just did not want to do it. So my conversation with you is now going to be a little different. My conversation with you is now going to be, hey, what's going on? Why am I why is this not on the books? Why has this not been scheduled? Why is one doctor scheduling me as being not urgent, you know, getting my scan for the calendar urgently for urgent? And then you over here saying it's not urgent on another scan. Clearly, my surgical oncologist really sees something and she wants to make sure it is addressed quickly.
SPEAKER_00:Did you have to get rid of any of your oncology team? Did you have to replace anyone? Yeah, so I'm on third oncologist. Okay. Okay. So that's a thing. That's a real thing. Yeah. So if people, if if you're not, yeah, if if the oncologist or your medical team is not doing what they need to do, then you find someone else. Absolutely, yes. Okay. You absolutely so don't be afraid. No, don't be afraid.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, of course they defend it. They had to code it like because I was in the same network. So they had to code it like not available, no, live too far. Okay. I don't care how they coded.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But what you're not gonna do is put me on pause. Yeah, you're late. Yeah. I mean, because you can schedule the port placement. Why, why is it taking this long? Either way, either way, regardless of the outcome, I still don't need chemo and I need a port. Yeah. Why do you need 10 days to schedule? Mm-hmm. Just schedule it. I just didn't like the lax of basical attitude. I didn't like it, and that's partly me. That's partly part of who my being inpatient. It was just a lot of things were just crazy. I remember calling the hospital or talking to the second oncologist about a clinical trial because there's actually a vaccine for the type of cancer I have. Since been in clinical trials for about 20 years. And it's shown to, it's shown great promise. And I remember asking about that trial, and I said, it's at the Washington, it's in Washington right now. And the nurse wrote me back and said, Well, you're gonna have to go to Washington. She was very rude. She was so rude. Oh, God, she was awful. She was always rude. And I remember the next day, because I because I'm always in a research frame. I was annoying more about what was going on than the doctor.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Because they go to a supposed once a year. I'm on there every day figuring out what's happening. Yeah. What's going on, you know, what's what the F what F what the FDA is saying. And she was like, the next day she wrote me back. She said, there is a clinical trial. Check back at the first of the year. And my third oncologist, who's amazing. Amazing. And I owe a Soror a huge. I never met this lady in my life. I mean a lot of my village I never met in my life. That's what's crazy. A lot of my village, my Soror, Sora Diane Smith, Soror, I mean, I Loretta Baines. I mean Toya Johnson.
SPEAKER_03:You.
SPEAKER_01:It was Loretta. I mean, I can go on and on and on. I can go on about my village. They that Sora Natasha that day, I never know this lady in my life. Sorrow Toya called me and she said, talk to this late. Talk to uh Natasha. And I talked to Natasha, and Natasha said, Hey, if you say what that current oncologist you have, you're gonna die.
SPEAKER_00:Really?
SPEAKER_01:That's my second one.
SPEAKER_00:That's the second one. Okay. And I said, Really?
SPEAKER_01:She said, You're gonna die. She said, her bedside manner, she lead alone. So basically I said, Well, I would love to go see. She said, You need to see my doctor. And I said, I heard your doctor because my friend who was instrumental in my care had just taken an Uber, and the girl in the Uber had cancer and was telling her about her amazing oncologist. And it would, and my friend said, Well, can my friend, do you think my friend can get in? And she said, No, she's backed up for months. Backed up for months. Natasha called me and said, Hey, I'm gonna put you in an appointment for Monday.
SPEAKER_00:Just like that.
SPEAKER_01:With the doctor that was backed up for months.
SPEAKER_00:Just like that.
SPEAKER_01:Just like that. And then everything changed. She listened to me. She heard my concerns. She she was it, she she just basically, she actually uh applauded me for being so stern and being so diligent about my healthcare. She she applauded me. She asked me to actually, you know, she was like, she wanted me to reach out to other patients and tell them to do the same thing because it can be so disheartening and to stay the course and to just speak up for yourself and be humble and to read and to understand. Because I would go in there and I'd be like, what this means? Yeah. And they're like, hey, break this down for me. Because she had that they had diagnosed me at stage two. And I was like, what? I read it. I read it. And I said, Y'all are cancle that mass, you're making my mass be bigger than it is. I said, it's calcification. Part of that is calcification. You're right.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Second doctor. So why do you think that was? The calcification puts you in a different stage. It should not have. Right. But we see that how things are worded in class puts you in a different stage. So you probably have a different treatment plan, more money, more costs. Why do you think that was? Do you think it was because it's just easier to say, okay, this is what it looks like. It's this size. Not taking into consideration that part of it could be or is calcification. Why do you think that they just said, okay, stage two, as opposed to maybe stage one? Because they didn't read. She said they didn't look at the next line. Okay. The next line. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So it wound up being stage one B. I still say I'm stage two. I mean, there's not much difference in stage one B and stage two. I still just say I'm stage two. Just a matter of fact, I know it didn't make it tall enough. So I I am cognizant of that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, it does give me a slightly better chance to say one B, but I'm just gonna be, I'm the type of person, just give me the word so I can expect the best. And I went. It was, I can't even remember telling them. She told me the nurse was like, Well, you have this psycho cancer, blah, blah, blah. I said, No, I don't. She said, What do you mean? I sent her a screenshot.
SPEAKER_00:She said, Oh, you're right. So they're not even paying attention to your medical records. No, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:No.
SPEAKER_00:So this is the second one. This is your second ones. Still the second one, yes.
SPEAKER_01:We have an incident after incident after incident.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You know, we got the clinical trial. You're not knowing about it. You shoot me down, then you gotta come back and eat that up. Then you're not knowing what type of cancer I have. Then you you just it's like just take what I've done. Then on the first day of going to the appointment, she's like, Do you want to sign up for a clinical trial where you don't even do chemo? Wait, what?
SPEAKER_00:Why would I want that?
SPEAKER_01:Well, you do something else. I was like, baby, I'm if hella hot water, we're gonna put that needle in this vein come tomorrow morning. Yeah. Two days from now, that needle going in this vein. All those toxins are gonna flow through real. And she just, I was like, well, this is odd. I don't know. It was just, and I asked her, what was the statistics? Could she give me this? Could she give me that? And she couldn't. So I just was like, I'm gonna go just continue down the road that I don't work.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But I wonder how many people she got with that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And that's the sad part because sometimes people just by nature don't question their doctor. They just take, okay, this is what I have, okay, this is what I'll do, or I don't have to do chemo, I'll do this clinical trial, and who's to say what happened?
SPEAKER_01:When I saw a doctor sitting in the office and Google, when I asked him for the answer. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Wait, as a specialist, I need you to know these things. If you Google the answer, yeah, I can Google the answer.
SPEAKER_01:So I'm going to question you about what you read. And if we understood the same, if we took away the same thing, that's what I'm going to do. And it does create some defensiveness. Yeah. It creates a defensiveness with a lot of people. I think my questions probably, again, irritate a lot of me. Because I'm a I ask questions. I want to know. I mean, I just feel like, you know, why have a great area if you just really want to know something? Yeah. All you got to do is explain it and it goes away. It's not somebody's being accusatory, not somebody trying to drill, you know, any of that. I'm not trying to debunk what you're saying. I just want to know, because I'm probably because I'm just numsy.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And go from there. But this is your life. This is my life. This is the first time they've ever dealt with ever dealt with something like this. So I mean, I think there should be an opportunity for you to ask as many questions as you need.
SPEAKER_01:And if you you have to tell them to speak in lameness terms. Yeah. Okay, so what does that mean? What are you saying? Why did you say that? What are the so so this is what's crazy. One time I went to the doctor and I said I asked him, what was the reoccurrence rate for massectomy? And he said that was a different question. The recurrence rate meant something different than I can't remember what he said, because he was giving me the answer for what he thought I wanted to hear. And I said, No, I'm asking you what this means. He said, I'm not gonna answer because you're gonna repeat verbatim what I said.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, really?
SPEAKER_01:And I said, probably. Mm-hmm. You are the specialist paying you, so I need you to tell me what's up. Yeah. But you know, it's um, but my team now is amazing. I mean, my plastic server, everybody's I love my team. I do. I love my care team. They're patient with me and they understand me and they're yeah, that's important. They know when a lab and something comes up on my chart. You're gonna call them and ask me. Baby, what's going on? They'll be like, look, look, she'll call you in a minute when she takes a break.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Like, thank you.
SPEAKER_01:I'll call that. She didn't call.
SPEAKER_00:And I'm like, she's gonna call you.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So, so I have a great team.
SPEAKER_00:I love that. And I think it's important, and I'm glad that you mentioned if if the team does not work for you, get another one. Ask questions, don't be afraid. And if they're bothered by your questions, that may not be the right team for you.
SPEAKER_01:And I also want to highlight this too, from a financial standpoint. When you go to the doctor, the first thing they're going to want is a payment. They want that money up front. But in situations like this, and you have health insurance, you need to make sure you tell them to run that through health insurance first because they need to know what rates have been negotiated. They don't know what rates have been negotiated when they create that estimate and they tell you to pay for it. They don't know, they don't have, they don't know have that contract in front of them. So they have no clue. So what you're nine times out of doing, they don't even know if you omit your deductible or not. Nine times out of ten, what you're doing is you're overpaying in the beginning and you're gonna have to hattle with them in the end to get your money back.
SPEAKER_00:You probably won't. Yeah, they'll probably add some other stuff on it. And then we'll ask and they will eat it up.
SPEAKER_01:Ask, do not tell them bill my insurance first. Because they will tear, they will eat you alive in telling you to pay a bill. Yeah, and you have you're like, they don't even know what I'm like, ma'am, that's not the negotiator, right? I was so into it that I would even like look up the bill code and see what they billed me on the S. And I would be like, because it's public, a lot of them are public. And if I had to like an old, old charging from the insurer, I would be like, okay, that bill code is matched as this. Okay, so that's written in two in 2023. This was what they were supposed to charge. It ain't went up by that much. That no, I'm like, this rate is gonna go, this is gonna go down when they run this to insurance. And I was like, no, y'all gonna no, no, yeah. So I that's my only advice on that. Don't don't rush to pay immediately. Let them reel your insurance because they're gonna get paid.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. They'll they'll always get paid. You're gonna get a bill in the end. I used to be free. Yeah, but you're gonna get a bill. Yeah, and then also see if your oncology clinic or facility has financial assistance. Absolutely. Because a lot of people donate to to help those who are going through financial burden because it's very expensive. So always ask questions, look into that as well.
SPEAKER_01:That's I would have loved to take advantage of that, but there's a time, a period to where if you don't seize that moment in the very the beginning of the year or something, they'd run out of funds.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, but that is great advice. That's excellent advice.
SPEAKER_00:That's important. Uh, let's see. What else, what else, what else do you want to say? What what do you want to share? Anything.
SPEAKER_01:Man, nothing. I'm grateful to be here. I've had a year, a stellar year. Yeah. 2025 was 2024, 2025. Things just keep on being amazing. I would have never thought that I would have written a book. I wrote an I've written an app that I need to go do some more work on, but put it in the app stores. I mean, in spite of it all, I always say life life be life and but God be God, man.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And I'm blessed and I'm thankful and I am am appreciative of every and any the good and the bad. You know what I mean? Because the good keeps on making me better. I'm sorry, the bad keeps making me better. And I I I welcome that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's a learning experience. That's a learning experience.
SPEAKER_01:Especially as I'm mature.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I've gotten older, I do, like I said, my emphasis and my focus on certain things has changed. And one thing I do now, one thing I make sure I do.
SPEAKER_03:What?
SPEAKER_01:Is I'm gonna tell you I love you. And I'm gonna apologize. Those two things are very important to me. Telling someone in that moment that I love them because you may not get tomorrow to say I love you.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So I make that. And I'm gonna cry when I say that because that is so important. Everybody can't receive that. Everybody might say it's overwhelming or it's too much.
SPEAKER_00:But it's important for you.
SPEAKER_01:It's important for me.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And that's enough.
SPEAKER_01:It's important for me to tell you how I feel.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And those are that's it. That's it in closely.
SPEAKER_00:I appreciate you. And I appreciate and I love you. I thank you. Oh Mother Cry. Super resilient. Thank you. Super strong. Knowledgeable. And even when you went through this process, you helped other people. Who was the Sora that we met? Courtney? Courtney Shorts. Yes. I remember her. And I remember some other people. But Tina, you weren't selfish with your journey at all. Like you were on your own journey, but you took people with you. And you helped people. And I think that's why people are drawn to you. Even the lady that you met from Chicago that came to. Hi, Shauna. And the cute jacket. And the people that was just sending you stuff. And it was just like, wow, people that you've never met, people that you've talked to. And it's just like, it does take a village. It takes so many people to go through this thing with you. And I it just hurts my heart to think that there's people that don't have that.
SPEAKER_01:I could not imagine what my life would have been like without my village.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I could never ever in my life imagine what it would be like to go through what I went through without my village. Yeah. In totality, I think I probably had a very few family members that showed up. But I am thankful for the I have to I can't I don't look at those that don't. I am for appreciate because I'm so appreciative of those that did.
SPEAKER_00:That's right. And you have to put your energy.
SPEAKER_01:You have to shift your energy into those that show show you who they are.
SPEAKER_00:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:And that it is not representative.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So my my heart, if if I could do anything, it would be to one thing that I struggle with, and if it, you know, is is when you're going all those surgeries, you need you need people to take you.
SPEAKER_03:You know, they gotta stay with them because they put you under.
SPEAKER_01:I wish there was some way to your point about helping those that don't have the ability to they don't have a network. Like who takes them to their surgeries? Yeah. Who takes them to their to when they're gonna be put under? I mean, something as simple as a colonoscopy should not be that difficult to schedule because someone is a loner or and they don't have an introvert and they don't have a network. Yeah, they're worried about scheduling their colonoscopy.
unknown:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Sad. That is sad. It's very sad. That's sad.
SPEAKER_01:So something a routine checkup now becomes burdensome and you have to forego it. And let's just think about all the people that that was a concern for, and and then they don't.
SPEAKER_00:We just say, I don't have, I don't have anyone to take me.
SPEAKER_01:That's amazing.
SPEAKER_00:That's sad. That hurts me. So I think the takeaway with this, whether you're going through anything in life, whether it's health, whether it's jobs, whether it's even food stamps at this point, like just be grateful for what you do have. Because not to compare that there's other people that are worse, but just being grateful in that moment. And sometimes I have to remind myself in that as well. Like, you know, it could be worse, it could be worse, but then it's like, it could be. And would I be able to deal with that? So I think just shifting the mindset is how you deal with things. It's not always going through it, like, um, yeah, we're all gonna go through stuff, but how are we dealing with it? How are we going through it? Are we making this woe is me and shifting our energy to where it's like, oh, I'm never, I'm never gonna get through this, I'm never gonna get past this. Or this is a challenge. It's not supposed to be easy, but I'm gonna get through it, you know? And then I'm gonna bring people along with me and I'm gonna encourage other people along the way, even though I may not have what I used to have, but I'm not gonna make negative out of it because it could be so much worse. And I think that's important. So shout out to our warriors, our women warriors, and our men warriors, because men do get breast cancer. Absolutely. Absolutely. Shout out to them, shout out to again, our federal workers. Times are hard, but the support is there. Do you want to shout out anybody or anything?
SPEAKER_01:No, I think I'm good.
SPEAKER_00:You're good. Okay, okay. So, our listeners, send us an email if you've gone through or just what you thought about this interview. And Tina, I really appreciate you taking the time to be here to share and know that we're here to support you and and buy the book. Tell us about the book again.
SPEAKER_01:Texi perfectly and wonderfully made can be found on Amazon. It's Tina Dere. It's a great book. It's not just for children. It's not, it's for adults. It's for you if you're facing an ailment or illness or any types of sort of anything. It's just about self-love and remembering who you are.
SPEAKER_00:T E X I Tex. Yep. And email us at all in your biz, B I Z twenty five at gmail dot com. Thank you, and we are out of the way.