[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: My name is Nancy Farrow, also known as Mama Lu, and I'm the founder of Epic Experience.
[00:00:15] Speaker A: Epic Experience mission is to empower adult
[00:00:19] Speaker B: cancer survivors and thrivers to live beyond cancer.
I hope that as you listen to campfires of Hope living beyond cancer, you find hope, healing, and empowerment.
Through stories and education, we aim to guide those impacted by cancer and more importantly, offer love and support to anyone out there who needs it.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: This is beyond Cancer.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: Hello, everyone. This is Gail, AKA Sunshine.
Today we have Yvonne Raleigh joining us around the campfire. June is Uterine Cancer Awareness Month, and we're honored to have Yvonne join us and share her story and perspective as a uterine cancer survivor. So, Yvonne, thank you so much for joining us.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: What I'd like to start with is just for you to tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, where you're from, things like that.
[00:01:43] Speaker A: Born and raised in Maryland, 63 years old.
My dream was to own a horse and have it in my backyard.
I used to be a food safety consultant for 25 years. I had a business doing that, and now I do have my hobby farm with three horses and three goats.
[00:02:10] Speaker B: Oh, my.
[00:02:12] Speaker A: And so I had my. My dream come true, where most people are retiring and say, I'm spending my husband's money now.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: Well, I was going to ask you for one fun fact. You've just given me several.
Can you give me a fun fact on top of all those fun things?
[00:02:29] Speaker A: You know, I really don't. I think I probably gave you my fun facts in the.
In the introduction.
[00:02:39] Speaker B: Well, the fact that you have horses and you're living your dream, that's fun. That's amazing.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: I didn't. Well, I guess a fun fact is I was afraid of horses, and that is why I wanted to go get lessons. I was 44, and I went to get lessons and wound up buying a horse that day.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: Oh, gosh.
All right.
I love it. Embracing your fear and moving through it rather quickly. Yeah.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: So the reason we're here, obviously, is it's Uterine Cancer Awareness Month, and you're a survivor. So I'd like to hear a little bit about your diagnosis story, when you were diagnosed, how you found out, you know, briefly, like treatment, surgery, that kind of stuff.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: Okay, so for the uterine cancer.
[00:03:26] Speaker B: Yes. Well, your whole story, but uterine cancer
[00:03:29] Speaker A: as well in particular. So I'll start. In 2009, I was diagnosed with stage 3B breast cancer.
And the.
I had a. What you call it, mass double mastectomy. And then I had chemotherapy, and then Radiation and lots of reconstructive surgeries.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:55] Speaker A: And then in 2019, I had to write some of this down.
In 2019, I was diagnosed with uterine cancer.
[00:04:07] Speaker B: So 10 years. That's a 10 year gap.
[00:04:09] Speaker A: Yes. Yes.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: And it was a surprise, as you can imagine, but I didn't ignore a symptom that I'm so glad I didn't. I have so many friends that do.
I had been put in menopause by the chemotherapy for breast cancer at 46.
So one day in that fall, I had a little tiny spot. Pinkish. That's it.
And already having one cancer. I was very cautious, so I called my doctor. He got me right in.
He was sure it was not cancer.
And he's like, well, actually, even door. And he did a biopsy, and during the biopsy, he said it didn't look like cancer.
So when the biopsy came back, he called me one day when I was working and said, it's cancer. It's uterine cancer. Now, uterine cancer is kind of an umbrella for multiple different kinds of gynecological cancers.
So mine was the most rare, the sarcoma.
[00:05:23] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: But because I did that, we call it at stage one, which is very.
Not normal. And it was the most aggressive. So I had the radical hysterectomy, no lymph nodes involved.
I did the robotic for the hysterectomy. Robotic surgery.
[00:05:43] Speaker B: Crazy that they can do that.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: I know. When I read about it afterwards, I didn't look into it. Yeah. Before, I kind of wish I had done the open. That's just for myself.
Because they did find cancer on my fallopian tubes and my ovaries.
But it was the uterine cancer.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: It had already spread.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: Well, it hadn't spread. What they determined was when the robot was pointing it through, it picked up the cancer from the uterine cancer. So it took a while to get that answer.
[00:06:21] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: Yeah. So now you know why I would. Yeah. That makes always, you know, 20.
[00:06:27] Speaker B: Makes sense. Did you end up having to do treatment for the uterine cancer, or did they get it all through surgery?
[00:06:33] Speaker A: Well, I had to do radiation.
[00:06:35] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: Because the type of the sarcoma that I have is only like 5 to 10% percent of uterine cancer.
[00:06:44] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:06:45] Speaker A: And he didn't want to take any chances, but they didn't want me to have to go through chemo yet again.
[00:06:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:53] Speaker A: So that makes sense. Yep.
[00:06:55] Speaker B: Wow.
And now.
[00:06:58] Speaker A: Now I have not had any reoccurrences.
[00:07:01] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:07:02] Speaker A: Of the uterine cancer, none.
[00:07:04] Speaker B: And none from the breast cancer either.
[00:07:06] Speaker A: None from the breast cancer. Now the next cancer I had.
Your bingo card is full, unfortunately, is cholangiocarcinoma. That was in 2020.
[00:07:17] Speaker B: And what is it?
[00:07:18] Speaker A: 1.
It's bile duct cancer, but it's commonly known and affects your bile duct, skull, bladder, liver, and pancreas.
[00:07:26] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:07:27] Speaker A: It's rare. A rare cancer I seem to get in a small percentage, it sounds like.
Yeah.
So what happened was they couldn't determine what kind of cancer it was, so I had to go through a lot.
I.
My horse, one of my horses saved me. They threw me, and I wound up on the driveway, and I was in ICU for a week.
But that's when my cancer was found. Wow. However, I do want, and you'll see later on, my biggest thing is advocate for yourself. Because when they sent me home, they didn't tell me about the lesions they found.
They never said a word. Not one doctor in icu, but it was clearly on the scan.
[00:08:17] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh.
[00:08:18] Speaker A: Because I had so much internal damage from the horse throwing me, I took my care over.
So I went to a doctor and my husband and I, a nephrologist, because my kidney was lacerated.
And as we're putting our coats on to leave, he just happens to mention, what have they told. What have they said about these lesions? Do they know what they are? And we both looked at each other and like, what are you talking about? We. Nobody ever told us. Yeah.
So.
Wow.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: So did you. So when was this? And did you do treatment for that?
[00:08:54] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I'm actually, I. That was September 26, 2019.
[00:09:01] Speaker B: Oh, so quickly after.
[00:09:04] Speaker A: Yes, December 26, 2019.
So I had been in the hospital and went through several months where they told me, let's follow it, because it just wasn't clear to them what type of cancer. And they couldn't find the original tumor.
[00:09:22] Speaker B: Oh, gosh.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: So I had.
I went in and they did a biopsy. I was asleep for that. You know, completely under for that one.
[00:09:34] Speaker B: And
[00:09:37] Speaker A: they still didn't know what it was. It was quite an adventure.
But what happened was I found the surgery. I don't know, some people might be familiar with it.
I had four opinions, by the way. Went for four opinions. And the same thing with breast cancer. I wasn't gonna just go with the first and the last opinion. And that's a long story. In such a miracle, he. That surgeon does high pack surgery. I don't know if you're aware of what that is. HIPAC is where they go in and do Debulking, it's called. Or crs.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:15] Speaker A: And remove everything they can. And then after that, while you're still under it, they.
With two pumps. And I'm also. This can be for uterine cancer also. If anyone has.
[00:10:30] Speaker B: Oh, this procedure. This procedure.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: That's why I'm bringing it up.
[00:10:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:35] Speaker A: It's not popular.
It's not popular among some doctors. A lot of hospitals don't do it. But the surgeon that I had is one of the original people that learned from the person that came up with it. So they pump hot chemo in you.
[00:10:52] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:10:53] Speaker A: And you're open from your sternum down to your private parts.
Obviously under a lot of.
[00:11:00] Speaker B: A lot of anesthesia.
[00:11:01] Speaker A: Yeah. And for 90 minutes, they pump the hot in and out, in and out. And what it does is it goes after microscopic cancer cells that might have escaped or that they couldn't see and your organs. And it's pretty much just for abdominal cancers. Ovarian cancer now is becoming very popular with it. And now uterus cancer, they're starting to use it for that.
[00:11:28] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: That surgery was.
They call it moas, Mother of all surgeries.
One of the worst.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: That makes sense.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: I got through it.
He got 19 tumors out. In my accident, I lost quite a bit of insides.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:47] Speaker A: But then I did chemotherapy after that surgery, like, regular in the chair, called faux fox. It's just a regimen that. That they used different. It's like four different chemos.
Wow.
[00:12:03] Speaker B: So when did you finish all of this? So has it been.
You're still not finished?
[00:12:09] Speaker A: It was stage four, so I went for 18 months without any reoccurrence. And the doctors were thrilled, and I was thrilled.
[00:12:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:22] Speaker A: And then I was surprised this November when they did my.
[00:12:27] Speaker B: Just a few months. Like, just a few months ago.
[00:12:29] Speaker A: When they called me about the scan, I was shocked because I thought for sure I had made it out. But I'm so blessed. I'm so blessed because the first reoccurrence was easy to get to. It was a lymph node under my armpit and one in my groin.
Very easy to surgically remove. So then I. So then I got another 18 months, which takes us to November. Just.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: Okay. Okay.
[00:12:58] Speaker A: And it was. Again, I'm so blessed because it was. It's right in my groin, and they could get to it very easily. And I had radiation.
So right now we're just waiting for the next scan to see if the radiation worked.
[00:13:11] Speaker B: Wow. And these have been reoccurrences not of the uterine, but of the.
[00:13:14] Speaker A: The last. Right now, the doctors.
Well, some of the doctors will not agree with that, but they sent my.
Once they took the tumors out, they sent them to MD Anderson for the molecular testing, and that's when we found out it was not uterine. It was clampedinoma. None of my cancers are genetic. I've been genetically tested multiple times. None of them are related, so it's. It's.
[00:13:41] Speaker B: That's crazy.
[00:13:42] Speaker A: Luck of the draw, I guess.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: Yeah. Wow. Well, you have a great attitude. I mean, to. To. To see that despite all of this, that you can see the blessing in it is. Is something.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: I've had miracles. I'm telling you. It's amazing. God has put miracles in my life.
[00:13:58] Speaker B: That's.
Well, that's amazing. I want to go a little bit deeper into the uterine cancer just because.
[00:14:05] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: The month. So what physical, emotional, mental challenges came out of that particular diagnosis and treatment? Kind of everything that went with that. And I'm curious if you can specify, like, how was it different from. Since you have two to compare it to, from the breast cancer or for the later one.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: So the breast cancer. I had symptoms and ignored them. I didn't think it was anything.
It was. My nipple was being pulled in. Just a dimple. Just a dimple.
So I finally made an appointment, and it had gone to stage three. Big.
[00:14:48] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:14:49] Speaker A: Yeah. So. And it's also.
I seem to be a person that lives in the low percentages because it was lobular breast cancer, and that only accounts for 14% of breast cancers.
So when the uterine came, I went to the radiologist because they were going to do radiation. And we were talking, and he was not very optimistic because uterine carcinoma. I'm sorry, sarcoma, is, again, very rare.
[00:15:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:22] Speaker A: And the prognosis is usually extremely poor, but because I went in for that one day of the tiny pink on my panties.
[00:15:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:34] Speaker A: They found.
[00:15:35] Speaker B: You're still here. Yeah, I'm here.
[00:15:37] Speaker A: And it was stage one, but it was.
The aggressiveness was the most aggressive it could be.
So we really got it early.
[00:15:48] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:15:49] Speaker A: Emotionally, I could not believe it.
[00:15:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:53] Speaker A: Like, how many people do I know that had two cancers? Very few. Very few.
So physically, it was not very hard to get over the surgery. The radiation was very trying.
There was 28. 28 days of radiation.
But emotionally, I just.
I was a mess. I mean, I just couldn't imagine because the radiologist was telling me the odds.
[00:16:26] Speaker B: Okay. So that was what it was.
It wasn't so much that you had had a second Kind of cancer. It was the odds they were giving you.
[00:16:35] Speaker A: Right, right. And the prognosis.
[00:16:37] Speaker B: And the prognosis. Right.
[00:16:39] Speaker A: So that was scary. Very scary. I went into a deep depression and went on an antidepressant. I had to because I couldn't function emotionally. It was just too much to handle.
And my children, who are now grown adults, their whole life, since the youngest was five, has been a mom with cancer. Or is it going to come back? Right. Mom wondering, is it going to come back?
So I did a lot of research, and that's when I found the most common uterine cancer, which most people will have, is the endometrial.
That's if I remember. Statistically, it's like 80%. And there are different endometrial cancers that can. They all fall under the umbrella of uterine cancer.
[00:17:28] Speaker B: Right.
[00:17:29] Speaker A: So when people say they had endometrial cancer, they've actually had a uterine cancer.
Mine did not look anything like it. It didn't. And that's why the. The gynecologist didn't think it was anything.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:44] Speaker A: And it was very scary.
[00:17:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I imagine.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:17:49] Speaker B: So, I mean, you had another kind of cancer after this.
[00:17:52] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:17:53] Speaker B: Did you find that as emotionally trying or was it worse with the uterine cancer because of the prognosis they were giving you?
[00:17:59] Speaker A: Well, when they did, when I talked. So, you know, you get a lot of different doctors when you have had any cancer. And when I went back and talked with the actual uterine oncology gentleman that did the robotic surgery, he seemed to think that.
That they would be able to take care of it because he saw and felt it was very early and it was stage one, no lymph nodes involved or anything.
So a lot of uterine cancers and endometrial are just so aggressive and move so quickly. The lymph nodes can be involved.
[00:18:42] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:18:43] Speaker A: And mine were not. Mine were not. So is so blind.
[00:18:46] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, definitely.
[00:18:48] Speaker A: Wow. Yeah.
[00:18:50] Speaker B: How did you cope with each new diagnosis? I mean, we've talked about it a little, but I'm wondering if you can one talk about coping and how your coping process evolved over time since you've unfortunately had the opportunity to practice. Right. Coping.
[00:19:07] Speaker A: So for me, and I hope it is okay if I mention my spiritual life.
[00:19:12] Speaker B: Oh, sure.
[00:19:13] Speaker A: Some people. Yes. You know, we want you to.
[00:19:16] Speaker B: But we want to know exactly how
[00:19:18] Speaker A: you did for the breast cancer. My kids were so young, and I.
I had.
They gave me. Because I was so young, they gave me eight months of chemo in four months.
And it was really hard But I got through it just fine. I mean, they're like, you flew through this. This is amazing that it's worked so well.
So I was scared, but I. I just would pray and hang on to that hope that I could be healed or that God had more plans for me to be here, especially because my kids were so young. They were five, eight, and ten.
So two boys and then a little girl.
And I'll never forget the day that we sat down on the bed as a family so we could tell the kids. And each one's reaction was so different. My oldest son at the time was 10. He knew what cancer meant. He was very upset. My middle son didn't want to be bothered. He said, I said to him, I'm. I said to them, I'm going to survive this. And he said, he said, to this day, when I, he said, when I said that, he. He took it as that's how it was going to be, so he didn't worry. My little girl was a different story. She was devastated.
And that took a while to. To get her to be over it. Yeah.
[00:20:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:43] Speaker A: So the uterine cancer, when I, I'll never forget when I picked her up at that time. She was a senior in high school.
[00:20:50] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:20:51] Speaker A: Yeah. And I started my radiation for uterine cancer the day that basically the country shut down for Covid.
[00:21:00] Speaker B: Oh, gosh.
[00:21:02] Speaker A: So they were home, and I had so much time to spend with them, and again, I was just so blessed. Covid was not a blessing, but to be able to be at home with your exact.
[00:21:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:16] Speaker A: So by that time, I had started an antidepressant because I needed one.
[00:21:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:23] Speaker A: And. But then by the time it was over and they were doing some scans and it was always coming back clean, I just believed that I was going to survive it, and I fought it, and I'm going to be okay now. That doesn't mean I was. Every day I, I, I have friends that, like, I can't believe how positive you are. I'm like, oh, believe me, there were days that I just lost it. But I would do it with, you know, in the privacy with my husband or a friend or something. Yeah. So it's emotionally a roller coaster. It is up and down, up and down. One doctor telling you this, another doctor telling you that, another one saying, no, you should have chemo.
[00:22:02] Speaker B: And, and it's so hard to, to know who to trust, because if you go to Dr. Google, you, you're going to get, you know, you can't trust that either.
[00:22:10] Speaker A: I did, and that was Not a good idea. Not a good idea. It did not have promises in there or wasn't positive at all. Because the reality is, endometrial uterine cancer tends to have no symptoms and it spreads.
[00:22:28] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's exactly the problem.
[00:22:31] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's a big problem.
So my message for that would be, oh, my goodness. Don't ever ignore any weird thing that happens to your body.
[00:22:41] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, that's true of any cancer, but I. But for uterine. Being that this is Uterine Cancer Awareness Month.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:22:49] Speaker B: If you have a spot, if you have any weird things, please get them checked out.
[00:22:54] Speaker A: Right, right. So when my third cancer came, I was sure it was uterine cancer metastasis
[00:23:00] Speaker B: that had come back. Yeah.
[00:23:01] Speaker A: I could not even imagine that. We didn't know from September 2019 until March 2020 what cancer it was.
[00:23:14] Speaker B: That's crazy.
[00:23:14] Speaker A: The third one.
[00:23:15] Speaker B: The third one, right.
[00:23:16] Speaker A: The bile duct cancer is the common name for it.
Until they went in, did that high peg procedure and the crs. The debulking, and they sent the tumors to MD Anderson. I think I said that. And not the ones that came back. And it was a different answer.
Yeah.
[00:23:36] Speaker B: So you have had a lot of practice.
[00:23:38] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:23:38] Speaker B: And you've already alluded to the biggest lesson you've learned, which is advocating for yourself. I wonder if you can talk a little bit more about that.
[00:23:46] Speaker A: Okay. I would love to.
The reason that I say that is. Well, during breast cancer, it was amazing. Like, the hospital that I went to, you were there for one day, and every doctor would come in. The oncologist, the surgeon, the radiologist, the plastic surgeon. And it was like a day of all the appointments. So everything was compact, and it was really felt good to be able to do that. Now they have. I think they call them tumor boards, and the people are not present. I was not present for my tumor board. For uterine cancer.
[00:24:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:25] Speaker A: And the doctor. And again, I'm not bashing doctors by any means, but this gentleman told me he didn't take any lymph nodes because I requested not to have lymph nodes taken.
And that was not factual at all.
And he actually hung up on me. When I pushed back, he actually hung up on me. So the director of the department called me the next day and said, well, we're going to look. He's now saying he thinks he took one.
And they said that they found a lymph node in the lab that was mine.
You can imagine that I was a little like, is that.
[00:25:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Really?
That's A little.
[00:25:14] Speaker A: Right. It was a little suspect.
So that was my first big teaching and I switched uterine doctors right away. Oncologists or surgical oncologists or GY for uterine cancer. The new gentleman was in the same department and the same hospital, but he was much more explained things and. And you know, I felt comfortable with him. It was. To me, it was already too late to go get my four. I didn't do as many different doctor visits or opinions as I had done with the breast cancer.
And I just kind of went with my. What my gym said.
And the thing that's kind of crazy is this is a doctor that in our state has been voted many times top doc for the robotic cancer.
So I didn't question it. I thought, well, I'm getting. He's in the magazines, he's in the newspapers, he must be good. And for me it didn't work out.
[00:26:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: Because well, I'm not thrilled.
[00:26:22] Speaker B: Good for you to still advocate for yourself even though he came with all these credentials. Because that's part of it is you have to find the right doctor for you. Right. And only.
[00:26:31] Speaker A: Yes. And be comfortable with that doctor.
[00:26:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:34] Speaker A: Be comfortable.
[00:26:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:37] Speaker B: So did you learn. So in terms of advocacy, was there another big moment at any point where you think there was.
[00:26:44] Speaker A: Is it. But it was the. With the bile dog.
[00:26:46] Speaker B: That's okay. Yeah. I think advocacy is an important point.
[00:26:51] Speaker A: So the uterine oncologist who was doing my uterine. I was going back regularly to see him.
He thought it was uterine and he was going to go in and do this. Do the crs, which is basically, I'm think. I think the letters are right. Debulking is another name for it.
And he was going to go in and do the debauching and something just. It just wasn't sitting well with me. And I can't tell you why, except by this time I had really increased my spiritual life. I mean really. And praying was a thing and please guide me. And yeah, like I said, another miracle.
My breast cancer surge oncologist just fell in love with me and she.
She was calling me and she said because she was at a different hospital, she's like, I want to be your cheerleader.
So I'm like, I'll take any cheerleading I can do. I know we get together occasionally and talk about what's going on.
Well, one Sunday night I was supposed to have the surgery for the bile duct cancer. I mean, for what they thought was uterine cancer. That Tuesday, the debulking and my, the woman that had started going to therapy because after cancer I needed therapy, as one does.
[00:28:10] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:28:11] Speaker A: Nothing to keep me grounded. And I, and I just love this woman. Again, we just clicked. And she called me and she said, you know, I have a patient that has stage four cancer, which we knew it was because it was the PET scan lit up all over my abdomen.
And she said, would you be willing to talk to her if I gave you her number? And I said, absolutely.
And I called her that night and I was telling her my story. She had a different cancer that is not a lot of treatment for melanoma.
Melanoma is a really tough cancer because it doesn't react to chemo at all.
So we were talking and as we're getting ready to hang up and again she said, well, why aren't they doing hot chemo on you? And I'm like, I perked up because hot chemo, I didn't find anything about that after this.
And so the next morning I called my breast cancer oncologist and I said, doctor, what is this?
She said, well, it's not real popular. We don't do it here.
But I taught a gentleman, she was the professor for the doctor when he was in medical school.
And I know he left our hospital to go to a hospital that would invest in what they needed to do the hot chemo or hypec H I P E C And so of course I called my uterine doctor and he was pretty mad.
He's like, well, if you want to go that route, it's going to be two or three months. And that really deflated me. But, but I called the doctor that my breast cancer. I found him. She didn't even know where he was. So I found him and I called and I called on Wednesday and his surgical scheduler is like, I'm so sorry. He's leaving for his home country of Colombia for two weeks. He, he can't see you.
So I hung up and I just started melting down and the phone rang again. Well, that doctor heard her and they said if. And he said, if you can be in 7 o' clock, Friday morning before my flight, I will see you.
[00:30:31] Speaker B: Oh my gosh.
[00:30:32] Speaker A: And I'm telling you, the miracles that have happened, that is so blast. And then within two weeks I was in surgery. That wasn't a two or three month weight.
[00:30:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:42] Speaker A: Like the other doctor.
So I, I don't see him anymore either. Yeah, because it wasn't accurate.
[00:30:49] Speaker B: I mean, and this is all because you took charge.
[00:30:53] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:30:54] Speaker B: You took the Responsibility of finding the name of this doctor, of then calling him and all of that. Yes.
[00:30:59] Speaker A: And when we went in, he had already gotten my information from the other hospital, which I was shocked because they always tell you, oh, it's going to take us out like two or three weeks to get your scans. What was two days later he had everything.
[00:31:14] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: He said, you're the perfect candidate. He said, the only thing is I don't know which chemo to give you because we don't know which.
[00:31:21] Speaker B: Oh. Because we don't know what kind. Oh, gosh.
[00:31:23] Speaker A: I don't think he was convinced we were talking uterine cancer. I'm pretty sure from it wasn't said, but I got that feeling.
So he just used the strongest there is. And I. I'm sure you've heard of the Red Devil.
[00:31:39] Speaker B: I have heard of the Red Devil.
[00:31:41] Speaker A: I had the Red devil for breast cancer, and that's what he used for me side, which basically would pretty much cover a lot of cancers.
[00:31:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:49] Speaker A: And so that's what he did.
Yeah.
[00:31:53] Speaker B: Wow. That is an excellent story of advocating for yourself. I mean, that's. That is amazing.
[00:32:02] Speaker A: I have another story, but we're probably don't have enough time.
[00:32:05] Speaker B: Yeah. What I'm. What I'd like to ask is if there's anything else that I haven't specifically asked you about that you would like to share with someone listening, whether it has to do any part of your journey. I'm wondering if. If you have anything.
[00:32:19] Speaker A: Yes. So when I found my doctor, I had already had three opinions. I went to Johns Hopkins, I went to George Washington, I think it's called in D.C.
and then two other hospitals. And. And I won't mention them because that's the doc where the doctors work.
[00:32:34] Speaker B: Right.
[00:32:35] Speaker A: And they all were of the same opinion, except for the one doctor that did the high back.
And if I hadn't done that.
[00:32:44] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:32:45] Speaker A: And I actually had the breast cancer oncologist, whom I loved, tell me I needed to stop getting opinions because I'm mucking up the waters. And I'm like, no, no, I'll muck up the waters until I find out.
[00:32:58] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[00:33:00] Speaker A: And it's just so important.
A lot of people.
And again, I'm not bashing doctors. They're amazing doctors. They're keeping us alive.
[00:33:09] Speaker B: Right.
[00:33:09] Speaker A: Some doctors, you know, they.
They don't want to hear your. They. Everybody says how great it is to get a second opinion, and if a doctor is a good doctor, they'll understand.
That's hard to find.
[00:33:22] Speaker B: Yeah, it's Hard to find. Well, and I. It sounds like your message is, don't be afraid to muck up the waters.
[00:33:28] Speaker A: Be afraid to muck the waters. And just because the doctor says it, it's not Bible, you know, it's not 100 and you need an even to. Today you could probably go to 1000 doctors and 700 of them will tell you, don't do HIPEC. It doesn't work.
But it does because I'm more than four years out. The prognosis for the bile duct cancer was three to six months.
[00:33:54] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:33:54] Speaker A: And here I am over four years later.
[00:33:57] Speaker B: That's incredible.
Good for you for listening to yourself and from mucking up the waters and
[00:34:03] Speaker A: listen to your gut. I mean, don't be afraid to stop. Speak up. So many people are afraid to speak up to doctors. Like I. I had an aunt that had a lump and she wasn't going to get another opinion. I dragged her for a second opinion and.
And she stayed with the initial. But that's okay. They found what they needed to and.
[00:34:24] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah, exactly.
Well, the way I always end is a very important question about marshmallows.
[00:34:30] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:34:31] Speaker B: Marshmallows over a campfire.
Slow and steady or flame and crispy?
[00:34:37] Speaker A: I don't think anybody will be surprised to hear me say flame and crispy.
[00:34:41] Speaker B: Crispy.
That's awesome. Yes, you get that nice crisp outside.
Well, Yvonne, thank you so much. This has been a pleasure. I'm so glad we were able to have you on for Uterine Cancer Awareness Month because you provided a lot of insight through your whole cancer journey, all the different aspects of it. So thank you.
[00:35:01] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:35:02] Speaker B: And to those of you who are listening, until the next time we gather around the campfire, keep living beyond cancer.
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