Breast Cancer, Survival

They do great on the radio.

So in 2003, I was touring a book which I was very excited about, called Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos.

And interestingly enough, I had written this book before the events of September 11.

So here I am all excited on a mission touring this book. And suddenly I start getting really tired.

And it was at that time that I would find a lump in my left breast.

And going through the traditional system of finding out, is this a problem or not?

I would then be diagnosed with stage three infiltrating ductal carcinoma.

Now, what's interesting is both my grandmothers had breast cancer.

I never lived in fear of it.

I never thought about cancer.

It was just not on my radar screen. I was into health.

And by the way, for all the speakers and presenters at this conference, there are fabulous guides to our bios and our backgrounds.

And so really, hold on to these after the conference. I want to just recommend that to you.

So here I am, two grandmothers with a history of breast cancer.

And it's my turn in 2003. And guess what happens?

The doctor offers me. Well, it went like this as he looked at my chart. Well, this is advanced stage cancer. You have no option but a complete mastectomy with full courses of chemotherapy and radiation. And at that, there is no guarantees.

So here's the thing I realized wait. You're offering me the same treatment you'd given my grandmother's back in the disco age.

Stayin alive, stayin alive. Whether that is due to pop pooh-pooh stay in.

So what happened for me was I thought, you know, first of all, I don't believe that fear and cancer belong together. And we're starting a relationship here based in fear. That was the first thing and all we have to do as patients and also as advocates for patient be patients, because you'll actually hear me speak later today with Dr. Geronimo Rubio, who I very fortunate. Lee was led to by the power of the word no, no thank you.

To a mastectomy. Does that mean. Thank you. Go ahead. No, thank you. No, thank you.

Does that mean that they're bad? No. I believe strongly that patients need to do what they feel led and strongly about. But in my case, it was like questioning. You mean we haven't gotten any farther in 30 years?

And of course, now working in the field, I know it's way more than 30 years that we haven't had some of these advancing treatments move us along. So. All that said. You've got