Episode 45: Katrina Swartz's Resilience: From HER2 Battles to Mental Health Advocacy & Personal Growth

When Katrina Swartz faced the formidable foe of HER2 positive inflammatory breast cancer, she didn't just mount a defense; she launched a counterattack. Brace yourself for a profound journey as Katrina opens up about the grueling path from symptom onset to diagnosis and the formidable treatments that followed. But her story transcends the personal—her experience gave rise to a crusade for awareness, culminating in the inception of a nonprofit aimed at cancer research and education, shining a light on the oft-overlooked mental health challenges accompanying such battles.

Katrina's narrative is not simply one of medical procedures; it's deeply interwoven with the fabric of human connection and the power of support systems. From the compassionate care that valued her psychological well-being to the unexpected camaraderie with her surgical oncologist, this episode is a testament to the relationships that buoy us through our toughest trials. Experience the resilience and growth that emerge from adversity, and find out how Katrina's encounter with cancer reshaped her world, freed her from a controlling religious group, and fueled her mission to educate others about the realities of breast cancer.

Contact Katrina:

Katrina Swartz on Instagram 

Resources:
Imerman Angels Website

Learn Look Locate Website

NERLYNX: Take A Stand Against HER2+ Breast Cancer Recurrence

Are you loving the Test Those Breasts! Podcast? You can show your support by donating to the Test Those Breasts Nonprofit @ https://testthosebreasts.org/donate/

Where to find Jamie:
Instagram LinkedIn TikTok Test Those Breasts Facebook Group LinkTree
Jamie Vaughn in the News!

Thanks for listening!
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I am not a doctor and not all information in this podcast comes from qualified healthcare providers, therefore may not constitute medical advice. For personalized medical advice, you should reach out to one of the qualified healthcare providers interviewed on this podcast and/or seek medical advice from your own providers .

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to season two of Test those Breasts podcast. I am your host, jamie Vaughan. I am really excited to continue this journey and mission into 2024 to help shorten the overwhelming learning curve for those who are newly diagnosed, or yet to be diagnosed, with breast cancer. It has been such an honor and a privilege to be able to connect and interview many survivors, caregivers, oncologists, surgeons, nurses, therapists, advocates and more, in order to provide much needed holistic guidance for our breast cancer community. Breast cancer has become such an epidemic, so the more empowered we are, the better. By listening, rating, reviewing and sharing this podcast, it truly does help bring in more listeners from all over the world. I appreciate your help in spreading this knowledge. My episodes are released weekly on Apple, spotify and other platforms. Now let's listen to this next episode of Test those Breasts. Hey, well, welcome back everyone to this episode of Test those Breasts. I am your host, jamie Vaughan, and today I am super excited to have my new friend, katrina Schwartz, on my show. Katrina and I actually met on Instagram and we are always looking at each other's content, messaging each other. We've actually had a conversation on the phone as well to get to know each other.

Speaker 1: 1:30

Katrina was diagnosed with her two positive inflammatory breast cancer at the age of 42 in October of 2020. She is almost three years cancer-free. She had chemotherapy, immunotherapy, oral small molecule targeted therapy, radiation and reconstructive surgery. She currently lives in North Carolina. Katrina's goal is to raise awareness and education, not only for inflammatory breast cancer, but also for mental health issues that impact cancer patients and survivors. She's working on writing a book about her breast cancer experience, highlighting the effects it had on her mental health along the way. She is also in the process of starting a nonprofit to raise money for cancer research.

Speaker 1: 2:10

Well, hello, katrina, welcome to the show. Hi, it's so good to see you and hear you and I see you're sitting in your paracelon and it looks super inviting and everything. Thanks, katrina and I. We both have situations at our homes that make a lot of noise. She has a parrot. I have a 11-week-old puppy who makes noises. Right now she is in her crate being a very good little girl.

Speaker 1: 2:37

Yeah, yeah, so welcome, you know. I just want to let everybody know. We all know that all of our stories are incredibly important to get out there and you have some real uniquenesses to your story and I think it's really important for people to know, especially for people who have never even been diagnosed. As we know, one in eight women are diagnosed with breast cancer sometime in their life, and so it's not totally inconceivable that people are going to get breast cancer. I mean, I remember before my diagnosis one of my friends told me that her doctor said it's not a matter of if it's going to happen, it's when right, and it also matters how soon you find out. So the earliest possible is the best case scenario. So how do we?

Speaker 2: 3:26

deal with it.

Speaker 1: 3:27

But there are a lot of cascading things that happen with breast cancer journeys, and so we're going to talk about that today. So can you share with our audience a bit about your diagnosis, your treatments? You know I talked about it in the introduction, but I'd like you to go a little bit more into detail about that.

Speaker 2: 3:46

Okay, absolutely Well. First of all, thanks for having me on here. Any opportunity I can to share my story, I go full swing because inflammatory breast cancer is so rare but it is very aggressive and it's deadly. In the past has had very poor survival rates, but there's a lot being done now and women are surviving much longer. So my story starts actually, before I had breast cancer, I had seen a video about inflammatory breast cancer on YouTube one night.

Speaker 2: 4:18

I was watching it and I was like, oh, I got so freaked out by it. I turned it off. I didn't watch the rest of it because I mean it was scary and I remember thinking, boy, if I ever get breast cancer, I don't want that kind. So years later, here I am in the shower and I was washing off my chest and my neck and I rubbed the soap across the tail of my breast, where it comes up into your armpit. There, and that area was so hard the soap like popped out of my hand. So I didn't really think much of it immediately because we have a swimming pool. I thought maybe I got hurt in the pool. It was late summer so I figured it could have been something like that that I pulled a muscle.

Speaker 2: 4:58

I looked at myself and I got out of the shower. Everything looked okay, but it was getting more sore each day and it was becoming more red each day. My breast was becoming heavier. My bra wasn't fitting the same way on that side. I had looked at my schedule because I was going to call my gynecologist to go and have a mammogram done here.

Speaker 2: 5:18

I already had one scheduled in two weeks, so I thought, all right, I'm just going to ask them when I go. This is no big deal, we'll see. If this is anything could be an infection or something. So I went to get that mammogram done and the technician looked at me and she said I don't think I can do this today. She said something's going on there. I need to have the doctor look at it first. And so I got dressed again, went and got into another room, got undressed again, the doctor came in and she took a look and she said yeah, I think we're going to hold off on the mammogram here today. I would like for you to get an ultrasound and a 3D mammogram. Next door there's a big medical complex where I could go for radiation or have the radiologist look at it. So I went there and tried to do the 3D mammogram.

Speaker 2: 6:04

My breast, by this time, was so hard that the machine could not compress the tissue enough to get a reading. So they kept trying and trying and trying, and it was so painful, it hurt so bad. I had never experienced anything like that with a mammogram. Now, granted, this was my third mammogram. I was 42. Anyway, then the lady finally got an image. She said I'm going to have the radiologist look at it and if he sees anything he's concerned about, we'll do an ultrasound. So here she comes he needs to have an ultrasound done.

Speaker 2: 6:35

So I went to have this ultrasound done and the technician, I remember, was just really looking around so much with the wand and she kept saying where is it that you feel this? Where is the pain? And I kept saying it hurts right here. And she said I just don't see anything there. I'm going to have the doctor come and look. So the doctor came and look and he said I'm not going to be around the bush, I think you have inflammatory breast cancer. That's what it was like, what I could not believe it because I had heard of that and it was like Shocked. But this is where the mental health aspect comes in for me. What my mind did, what my brain did that at that time, what my body did, how I responded to that was Something that I did not expect. I looked at him and I was like oh, awesome. And he was like you know, he looked at me so funny. I don't think my brain knew how to process that in that moment, because it was so fast and so quick. It wasn't like I had a biopsy and I was being tested and being, you know, waiting to be called back to see my doctor and they're sitting at this big desk and I'm gonna get the results. It was like I think this is what you have and we need to get a jump on this. So he said you'll need to have an MRI and a biopsy and we'll get those scheduled for you right away.

Speaker 2: 7:48

Few days later, I was at the surgical oncologist's office thinking I was going in for a biopsy, and and she took one look at me and said I'm not doing this biopsy in the office, I need to do a surgical biopsy first of all. There's no lump, so I don't know what to biopsy. She said I need to get more tissue so that I can we can look at this closer. So okay. So by then I'm really starting to think something's going on with this. This isn't just an infection. They really do think this is cancer.

Speaker 2: 8:18

I went for my surgical biopsy. The MRI was scheduled. We ended up canceling that because I had the biopsy ahead of time and that gave us the results Then in there that it was cancer, right there in the hospital. I mean, I was coming out of anesthesia, waking up, and my surgeon was standing over me saying well, it is cancer. My response then was I almost felt a sense of relief, because over the past week it was like a whirlwind and then it was like alright, this is here, let's get this done. All right, what's next? Just tell me so I can mentally prepare for what's ahead. And so I looked up at her and I said well, god is gonna take care of me. My faith is very important to me. And she said that's right, we will all take care of you. She said you will be in the best hands. We will find out what kind of cancer this is and we will kill it. So that's my story. Wow, the beginning of my story at least.

Speaker 1: 9:11

I mean, that is just overwhelming. Yes, that is a whirlwind of a week and just shocking. That is one of the yeah questions I had for you. What did you find shocking? Well, that's pretty shocking and you're awesome. It's exactly answer that I literally said I hope I never get right. Yes, right, wow. I really think that your medical team they jumped right on it and they seem to care about you and your mental health from the very, very beginning. She actually really, or what she said we're gonna kill it.

Speaker 2: 9:47

Yeah, she did she did that lady. Well, I said God's gonna take care of me, and she said absolutely, and we will all take care of you. We're gonna find out what this cancer is and we're gonna kill it. I said what do I tell my daughter? Because my daughter's six years old, right? And she said you will tell her what she needs to know when she needs to know it, and we will help you with that too. I said well, my hair fall out. And she said if you need chemotherapy, it will. She said you can go back to sleep. We'll wake you up in a little bit and you don't have to worry about those details yet, because I mean this is right after this surgery?

Speaker 1: 10:21

Yeah, so usually you're waiting for a while.

Speaker 2: 10:24

I was very very blessed, very lucky, so thankful to have doctors that Knew what they were doing and they recognize this, because a lot of times with inflammatory breast cancer, women will go to a doctor and they will think that they have an infection and so they continue to try these antibiotics and it's not clearing up and meanwhile this is spreading. Yeah, because it is very aggressive. They're generally it is not a solid tumor. Sometimes it can show up as a solid tumor, but they describe it as like a plastic type cancer or like a webbing type cancer, and what it does is it infiltrates the dermal lymphatic system under your skin. So that's how it travels it's fast. So after that week or so later I went to meet my oncologist and I remember them saying we got a note here from the lab at the hospital saying you need to get on this. This cancer is wild, so that the technicians in the lab, whenever they looked at it, describing it as wild. I mean so yeah, wild cancer.

Speaker 1: 11:26

Yeah, maybe that's what your instagram handle should have been called Wild and inflamed. Yes, that's right. What were your treatments then?

Speaker 2: 11:38

So I started out first with chemotherapy and immunotherapy together. So I had the normal chemotherapy. I had Taxotere. I started with that one and then I had another one called Carboplatin. I had an allergic reaction to Taxotere and went to Anaphylaxis, so we stopped that immediately. Then I had to start another one and that one worked really well. I had a very quick response to the chemotherapy.

Speaker 2: 12:06

The doctors were just like we don't normally see this. This is great, because picture me with this red boob that looks like a tomato and as hard as a rock, and all of a sudden it's melting away and going back to normal right before my eyes. Wow, that's one of the things about inflammatory breast cancer. I was like I could actually see it dying, dying. I was kind of trying to look at it that way. Yeah, I know, I was like die. I know you hate this Die.

Speaker 2: 12:31

So the year of immunotherapy was up. I had to write this down, so I say it properly the oral small molecule targeted therapy. It's called Neuralynx. Not a lot of people are familiar with that, so that was pills that I took every day for a full year. So I started out with like two pills and then three pills and worked my way up to six pills a day. That basically was like another targeted therapy, but the beauty of that one is it can actually protect your brain against recurrence and that's huge because of the blood brain barrier. This medicine is pretty awesome. They said in the latest studies that they did it reduced the risk of recurrence by 34% at two years.

Speaker 2: 13:11

Oh, wow so yeah, and I'm going on. I had my scans in March. That'll be three years. Hopefully everything's good. I feel great, so I'm assuming everything's still good. Yeah, that was it for that treatment. I had mastectomy on my left side, on the cancer side, and then radiation, of course, and then reconstruction. I had the right breast, all of the breast tissue, taken out. They spared the skin on that side and that came back with atypical hyperplasia. So it probably would have come back pretty quickly on that side had they not removed that. So I went to New Orleans for my reconstruction with Dr Kabley. We left Dr Kabley, I know, and that center down there is amazing. It's like Disney World for breast cancer patients.

Speaker 1: 13:58

It's insane. My husband calls it the boutique hospital. I know it while it is, I mean, really good snacks and really good care and great chef on in the hospital.

Speaker 2: 14:10

Yeah, very, and I know I'm not- necessarily here to talk about that, but one of the best things for me was that I woke up on with a fairly normal bra on, you know, because it wasn't like you're just wrapped up in all these bandages. I looked down and I was like I have boobs again. I know, it was such a great, great feeling.

Speaker 1: 14:28

Did you? Yeah, it's the black lace bra.

Speaker 2: 14:31

Yes, yeah, it's just so pretty and sexy, yeah, and you're like, oh, and then I was like there they are.

Speaker 1: 14:40

Oh, I'm so glad you got good care there. Yeah, dr Kabley is amazing and my audience knows that I do have an episode that I interviewed Dr Kabley and he just was so great.

Speaker 2: 14:50

Yeah, he is, he's great.

Speaker 1: 14:52

Did you get your mastectomy there as well?

Speaker 2: 14:54

No, I had that done here with my surgical oncologist. She's amazing. We are friends now. We're actually going out to lunch in a couple of weeks. She's wonderful, Absolutely wonderful. I mean I couldn't have asked for a better doctor to take care of me.

Speaker 1: 15:08

I would like to know from her at some point because I want to interview someone to talk about what kind of things you do with your breasts after deep flap. Yeah, there's a lot of misunderstandings out there that doctors have actually told their patients oh, you need to get your mammograms. Well, you don't have mammograms after deep flap, right? And so I'm curious what her thoughts are on that. Maybe we can talk about that later. One of the questions I like to ask people because you focus a lot on mental health and helping people educate people about mental health and the breast cancer experience. We change. I know that I'm Jamie Vaughan at the core. I remember that girl before breast cancer, but I was also a bit different. Who was Katrina before breast cancer?

Speaker 2: 15:55

There's a lot of Katrina that is not with us anymore. I changed a lot going through this. I was very much a people pleaser before I was involved with a religious organization that I consider it to be very cult like, very controlling, and I was told you have to do all the right things, act a certain way, dress a certain way, speak a certain way, listen to certain things, watch certain things in order to find favor with God. And I thankfully woke up to that before cancer hit. But when cancer hit a year or so later, a lot of that came back because, you know, I was also taught that God will punish you if you leave. And I had to deal with that thought, thinking did I bring this on myself? But thankfully, no, I know I did not bring that on myself. There's nothing I could do about that. This was not God punishing me. If anything, this was making me grow and become a better person.

Speaker 2: 16:59

At the time, of course, I didn't realize this is where I was going to be now, writing a book and trying to start a nonprofit and really having this fire within me to help so many other people. But yeah, I don't really want to say I was shy. I mean, I was an outgoing person but I would have never just walked up to somebody and started to talk to them about the weather or whatever. But that's how I am now and I always try to find an opportunity to share my story about inflammatory breast cancer so that women know about this type of cancer, and men too, because it obviously affects men as well. So I'm a lot more independent now.

Speaker 2: 17:36

I'm a lot more fun to be around, I'm a lot less judgmental now. I'm not as scared of a lot of the things as I once was. My faith is still very important to me. I mean, that is played a huge part in my recovery and I certainly prayed a lot and trusted in God to help me get through all of this. But I knew that the doctors were there for me and they were giving me the medicine that these people have found through research. And you know, I was thankful for all of those things all along the way. Looking back on that person, I just think, man, it really took cancer to snap me out of being that person and I'm so glad I am where I'm at now.

Speaker 1: 18:17

Yeah, as sucky as it all is, there's a lot of silver linings. Yes, I look back and think to myself who I was before. For me, I had a million things going on. I was always thinking of other people. I mean, I still think of other people, but I took care of other people more than I took care of myself, I would say. And yes, me too. I always listened to my body, but I was so busy doing a million different things and I'm very, very conscious about how much I take on now in my retirement Right, that story is really interesting and I feel like you can be in two different worlds of your faith can be important to you. Yes, you could also have evolved from what you thought before and to bring out the better you.

Speaker 1: 19:02

You seem like a really, really warm and wonderful person I try to be. You didn't think that you would be writing a book, probably be on podcasts, yeah Right. So, speaking of going through the journey and mental health and finding a new you, how did people actually show up for you during this time?

Speaker 2: 19:28

It's funny because you know we were going through COVID at the time. So I have family in New York and my sister really wanted to be here, but I just kept saying do not come down, because I don't want you to bring anything, I don't want you to get anything in your travels. I was pretty isolated during that time I went from oncology to home. I did have a lot of support from my oldest sister. My mom, of course, was here. She lived with us. She had dementia. My dad passed away a while ago and so my mom had been living with us ever since. We have an apartment above our garage and so that's where my mom was living, so she was supportive. Of course. We just put a chair in my bedroom and she would just come in and sit and just be there with me, just like a mom, of course, would do. In fact, the other day I have to share this a little side note here I was having a really hard day and I was just very emotional and I was cleaning out my nightstand in my bedroom and I found this little piece of cardboard that said I love you on it and my mom wrote that. I don't know where it came from. I don't know when she put it in there it may have been during treatment, I don't know but it showed up at just the right time when I needed it.

Speaker 2: 20:35

But as far as when I was going through treatment, I mean, I think the person that impacted me the most was a lady from my daughter's school. I never met her. I knew who she was, but I never met her. She was a breast cancer survivor. She was dealing with recurrence at the time. She reached out to me and just gave me all kinds of tips and different things to get through chemo and radiation, all these things and she showed up at the house and said I'm not going to come in, I'm just going to leave a package at your door. I opened the door up and there are all of these bags with homemade chicken soup and blankets and her favorite things. That helped her through. And she ended up passing away not too long ago and I never had the chance to meet her.

Speaker 2: 21:17

So she did touch a lot of people. She was just that kind of a person and I think she really showed up for me in a way that the people closest to me didn't. I don't necessarily fault them for that. I think that a lot of times we don't know how to respond when somebody's going through something like that or like cancer. And, you know, there's all those words that we always hear well, keep fighting, you're so brave, you're so tough, you're so strong, you'll get through it. And while those things are true, I mean I just wanted to survive, and anybody that was willing to come beside me and help me do that, I mean I was really thankful for them. But she made the biggest impact on me, so she really, really showed up for me. She said she did that because somebody else did that for her, and so I promised her, when we were messaging, that I would do that for someone else, and I did. That person has now done that for someone else, so it just continues to keep going.

Speaker 1: 22:13

Yeah, it's amazing how certain people are placed in our lives during this kind of a time. That's right. I actually had some people who reached out to me that I've never even met and I still haven't met in person, but we've talked on the phone or they would drop things off and it was just always so, so nice. And I did have a group of girlfriends during COVID. That would have been really, really hard, obviously. People probably would have dropped things off and supported the best way. But you're right, people don't really know what to say and sometimes they don't say anything at all.

Speaker 1: 22:47

One of the things I like to kind of help out with as far as having this podcast is to sort of give some things that are helpful to people who have never had cancer and they're dealing. They have a friend who has cancer or whatever. Sometimes, just saying something like I am so sorry you're going through this, this really sucks. I wish so much I could do something for you. That speaks volumes. It gives the person the opportunity to let people know like I'm going to hold space for you and I'm not going to tell you. I'm not going to sugarcoat it.

Speaker 2: 23:22

A lot of people from my past sent cards and this is like people I'm talking about when I was younger high school friends and teachers, people like that from my past growing up, reached out and sent cards to me, fruit baskets, just different little things. That that stuff meant to the world to me and I still have those cards in my nightstand right where they were all along. That meant a lot. I mean, I know it's just a simple little thing, but just to know that somebody's thinking about you when you're going through something like that really helps.

Speaker 1: 23:52

Yeah, and holding on to those things and being reminded of who did show up for you and who said things. That's really nice that they did that. We talked a little bit about your faith before breast cancer, so this next question obviously may have helped. Thank you, you went through a journey of change. People handle breast cancer very differently and I want to talk a little bit about what influenced you to handle yours the way that you did.

Speaker 1: 24:20

I think when we had a conversation on the phone a while back we talked about some people are very out there about it Like I went live on Facebook. I did a private Facebook group, invited people and I went live and I kept them up to date and everything like that. And what influenced me was that I've just always been a very, very open person. Like I tell the good, the bad, the ugly. Sometimes I shock people about some of the things that I say, but that's just always who I've been and it just became more amplified. So how did you handle it in a way, like might have been different from others and what might have influenced that?

Speaker 2: 24:57

Well, I did post videos on Facebook at the time, just you know, with updates and how I was feeling. My hair came out and all that stuff. I think having strong faith, like I did, definitely helped me get through the really hard times and it helped with my daughter to be able to say look, I believe that God gave me these great doctors and the medicines that we have, the treatments that we have, and this happened at this point in time because I could get the best care and still be here for you, because she was only six at the time. But my mental health took a pretty big hit with it because I had already been, I had anxiety and I had depression and, of course, I went through that change spiritually. Like I said before, I was trying to not let myself go down that rabbit hole of like what

Speaker 2: 25:48

if God is punishing me? What if I shouldn't have left? And I go to therapy regularly, so I was able to work through that pretty quickly, so I'm really thankful for that. Music helped me get through and discovering the world of music has been huge for me Because, remember, I was taught that certain music is bad and only this kind of music is good. And so when I discovered this world of other uplifting songs that were helping me through and music you know I've talked to privately about this. I love rock music and people think you know it's all about anger and whatever.

Speaker 2: 26:26

When I listened to those songs and I'm sitting there in the infusion chair some of those really resonated with me because I was really mad that I had to be sitting there going through this. But as I continued listening to a lot of them, they end in a positive note. Like you know, no matter how sucky this is, we're going to get through it. And there's, like you say, there's silver linings and if I didn't see any silver linings, I was going to make my own. You know I was determined to come out of this better than I went into it, stronger than I went into it and knowing what it did to me and my relationships with my family, my the dynamic at home, how it has changed things.

Speaker 2: 27:07

You know, I really really just wanted to be able to say OK, this is the impact it has on our mental health. This is OK and there are plenty of ways to deal with this. I got connected with another nonprofit called Imerman Angels and they train you to be a mentor. Yes, they will partner you up with somebody who can help you through, and it's not necessarily for mental health counseling, it's just somebody that's been there and they can just sort of guide you along, and I think that that's huge and that's an easy place for me. It was an easy place for me to start to get connected with them with my background, spiritually, and my own mental health. I was very aware of what was going on. I just had to know how to manage it throughout the journey.

Speaker 1: 27:52

I'm curious how did you find out about Imerman Angels Through Learn Look?

Speaker 2: 27:56

Locate.

Speaker 1: 27:58

Yes.

Speaker 2: 27:59

Send in, learn, look, locate. She's wonderful and her mission is she's just about as like excited about it as we are, you know, to help people, to reach out and help people. So, yeah, I found out about them through her. I saw her on Instagram and just started following her and I think she reached out to me. I can't remember. You know about sharing my story on her page. I did, and then recently she just asked me to be her inflammatory breast cancer spokesperson, so I will have a page on her website. I'm really excited about that because, again, this type of cancer is just so rare. She really wanted to highlight that so people are aware of it.

Speaker 2: 28:34

And so women know what to ask their doctors when they go.

Speaker 1: 28:37

Yeah, she's awesome. I had a conversation with her on the phone the other day and I told her that I was interviewing you. Yeah, she is just so passionate about bringing awareness and helping people with resources and everything and I just adore her. Yeah, I got to get her on the podcast as well. My story is actually on Learn Look Locate as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So sharing these stories is so important because you, when you do plug yourself into the community because we know that breast cancer is the sisterhood of all sisterhoods, it just is. I mean, so many people get breast cancer and but also we can connect with other people with other kinds of cancers to help them with mental health and imermen angels and things like that. But, plugging yourself in, you do find the resources, and I started this podcast just to be yet another avenue for people to listen to stories like yours or stories from surgeons that I've interviewed to educate them, because I just thought I knew a lot before breast cancer. But oh my gosh.

Speaker 1: 29:41

I was just so surprised how much. I didn't know. Obviously I didn't have it. So I would like to end with a couple of questions. One can you think of just one or two big pieces of advice you might give to someone who either has just been diagnosed and is probably just out of their mind right now, freaking out really, really overwhelmed and going through all of the emotions? Or even to someone who has yet to even be diagnosed?

Speaker 2: 30:12

to people who have yet to be diagnosed. I just can't stress enough how important it is to do that self breast exam. I was not doing them regularly. Once in a while I would check myself just to make sure, but it was not like feel it on the first. You know I didn't do that.

Speaker 2: 30:28

Not only do I really encourage people and I say people, men, women need to check not only just a self breast exam by. You're not physically examining yourself, but look at yourselves in the mirror, see if there are any changes, notice how your clothes fit. I mean because, like with mine, my breast almost did not fit in my bra on that side. It was changing so rapidly. So that, to me, is key for people who have yet to be diagnosed, for people who are newly diagnosed. It's hard to just pick one or two little things.

Speaker 2: 31:03

But I guess the first thing I would say is to let people know you're not alone. This community is huge and is strong and close, and it is a club you never wanted to be in, but now that you're in it it's like the best group of people that you will ever meet in your life, and also to know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. I mean, breast cancer is not like an automatic death sentence anymore. You know, there are so many treatment options and women are living, being cured, they're living longer and it's just an amazing, amazing time that we live in right now to be going through something like this. So I encourage people who are newly diagnosed to just hang on for the ride. I mean, it's rough, it is not an easy thing to go through and there's a lot of things that can change along the way. As I've said before, I change so much as a person, but there is light at the end of that tunnel. There will be positive things that come your way at the end of this.

Speaker 1: 32:11

Yeah, the silver linings, like I was talking about before gosh meeting friends like you and having a really good relationship, friendship from afar. We see each other on Instagram all the time and someday maybe we'll meet each other in person. I know I did talk to you on our phone call last time. Was that a few of the girlfriends that I've met in the last year? People who have gone to the center for their surgery and people who were involved in the CMS coding crisis for deep flap surgery. I've known these people and I talk to them and text them every day. I've never met several of them in person, but we're super good friends. I did finally meet one of the girls that I've known for at least a year, but we're all going to San Antonio next July to get our 3D nipple tattoos from the perky girls, Courtney and Crystal.

Speaker 1: 33:08

Right. And so to look forward to a girl's trip with these friends because of breast cancer to go get nipple tattoos is kind of cool. I mean, it is a silver lining and I can't wait to meet them. Coming to the end of this episode, what are you working on? In your survivorship, you've got some exciting things going on, not just only being the spokesperson for inflammatory breast cancer. For learn, locate. What else are you working on?

Speaker 2: 33:41

So I mentioned I'm writing a book and that has been taken a while. I started writing a while ago and then my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. I said she was living with us and she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had triple negative, stage 4 breast cancer and she passed away in December of 2022. So, wow, that was tough. So my book kind of took a backseat. I went from survivor to caregiver immediately. Wow, there was no transition. Yeah, I've seen cancer from within me and in my house and watching it take my mom from me. The book I've started writing again and it's been really, really great. I have just really it's been a really big help for my mental health to revisit all of this and I'm using humor in the book. I'm hoping that when people read it they will understand my dark humor.

Speaker 1: 34:38

I'm sure they will.

Speaker 2: 34:40

I'm talking about music and how important that was to me throughout this time, that place.

Speaker 2: 34:44

I have music in the book as like a character, and so it's all throughout the book, and how it changes and how music as my friend, shows up for me in the ways that I need it and I can always count on it.

Speaker 2: 34:55

Looking into starting a nonprofit I just met with an attorney last week about that, so I'm hoping to do that and that will be something through the music community, through live music, to raise money for cancer research and also to help people who are cancer patients, who perhaps are terminal. I haven't really, you know, I'm trying to fine tune all of this, we're working on it, but to be able to go to events music events that they want to be able to go to. I'm doing an LLC with a little brand. I've got little designs and stuff that I've come up with for merch and let's see what else am I doing. I've headed up just recently. My daughter's school every year participates in coaches versus cancer with the American Cancer Society, and so I was able to head up the board for that this year and we raised $10,500 for a little school.

Speaker 2: 35:49

So that was amazing, just to be able to give back to research. I mean, research saved my life, so to be able to do all of these things to give back to research is huge for me.

Speaker 1: 36:01

Yeah, you can't just be under a little rock and just kind of call it good and you're all good. It's like we get this fire in our belly to share, to help, support and everything, and so what you're doing is so incredible. Katrina, I am so sorry to hear about your mom. That must have been really rough because having stage four I mean, did it start at stage four, so something was happening during the time that she was taking care of you.

Speaker 2: 36:29

Yeah, yeah, it was. And it was really sad because when I told her I had cancer, she wept, I mean just cried out, and she said oh, I just want to take it from you, I want to live. If I could take it from you so you can live, Then that's what I'll do. And of course we don't know how things work like that. But she had dementia and so she knew that the treatments were going to be very difficult for her.

Speaker 2: 37:01

She was aware enough to know that it was pretty bad in her brain. They did a scan of her brain and they said you know, this dementia is just at any time you're going to really start going downhill. So she said I don't want treatment, I'm just going to do this my way and I'm going to go out with grace. She said I don't want to be kept alive to not know anybody and she said I'm at the point where I feel comfortable saying I can go. The doctor told her she would live about four months and she lived almost 10 months. If death could be beautiful, it was the most beautiful thing I think I've ever seen. She passed away here at home on hospice care and I was with her every step of the way, and it was just. You know, I was so angry at cancer because it took her from me, but she did it her way, yeah.

Speaker 1: 37:50

Yeah, I feel like that's fair enough for her to say I'm going to do this my way and I don't want to come back not knowing anyone. I wouldn't want to either. I just. It just seems that she had her faculties enough to understand that.

Speaker 2: 38:01

Yeah, it did.

Speaker 1: 38:02

Absolutely, I'm really glad that you were there for her. Our mothers are so important to us. Mine died four and a half years ago and I would give anything to have her back. She was sharp as a whip and she just had heart failure. You know, I kind of did little things along my breast cancer journey to incorporate her into my healing. So like I don't know if you can see it, but I actually have her earn right there. Aw, yeah, and that's actually her high chair from when she was a little baby. Her grandfather made that for her. Yeah, but she was in my healing room the whole time. I have a healing room and I would put my turbans and hats and beanies on her and say, oh, this looks so good.

Speaker 2: 38:42

Yeah, she used a little humor that way. Yeah, yeah, and that's what we have to do to get through it. I mean, like I said, she was with me every step of the way for me and I mean, and my daughter too is six, and we'd all be sitting around. I'm bald and drawn my eyebrows on and my eyelashes, I look like a lizard, and there's my mom sitting with a beanie on and my daughter with a beanie on, so we were able to laugh at it and going through it the way I did. Of course it was difficult, but I was so glad that she was here, and then I was so glad too that I was able to understand it a little bit more when she went through it Now, not having treatment or anything, of course it was different, but hospice is amazing. They're just absolutely amazing people, and so everything that she wanted is what happened with her.

Speaker 1: 39:35

If people can get hospice care and palliative care even in their home, that is just a huge plus. Well, I really appreciate your joining me on this episode. It has been such an enlightening story and you have such a gift for really helping other people. You have come through this journey with such grace and dignity and you have such a better awareness of all of that now, and I just appreciate you're sharing this with us. I do have in the show notes Emmerman Angels, the resource, which I think is great, and also Learn Look Locate. Can I also give people your Instagram handle on there as well? Absolutely yes, and then nearliklinkscom. What is that? That is?

Speaker 2: 40:22

the website for the oral targeted therapy that I took. Oh, yes, okay. So people, if they want to check that out, it's for women who have had her too positive breast cancer. Okay, I believe well, I'm not going to say because I don't know for sure. People can look that up and see if they qualify to take it. Talk to their doctors. I think they're currently in studies with women who are her too positive and hormone receptor positive as well.

Speaker 1: 40:46

I had her too positive, so that I'd be really interested to look at that, because that is very, very common. Okay, well, I appreciate again your being with us and it was such a great conversation with you, and would you like to say anything before we end our episode?

Speaker 2: 41:01

No, I mean, I think I said everything that I was hoping to say. Okay, good, and.

Speaker 1: 41:06

I enjoyed it Well good. I hope you have this platform to tell your stories into my audience. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of Test those Breasts and we will see you next time. Bye for now, friends. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Test those Breasts. I hope you got some great much needed information that will help you with your journey. As always, I am open to guests to add value to my show, and I'm also open to being a guest on other podcasts where I can add value, so please reach out if you'd like to collaborate. My contact information is in the show notes and, as a reminder, rating, reviewing and sharing this podcast will truly help build a bigger audience all over the world. I thank you for your efforts. I look forward to sharing my next episode of Test those Breasts.