In honor of National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, I'm sharing my cancer journey to remind everyone to put your health first. Bringing awareness to colon cancer is of the utmost importance to me. As some of you may already know, I was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer in 2015. I want both men and women to be aware of colon cancer in hopes that it will save or prevent someone from going through what I had to.
In this episode, I give you the backstory and context as to why I let my symptoms go for so long, why I was misdiagnosed, and how I ultimately was presented with the diagnosis. As a busy mom, I was very quick to self-diagnose things as my health started to deteriorate. Even though I was tired all the time and had brain fog, I figured it was just the rigors of being a mom and balancing three kids. In 2009, my stomach pains had gotten intolerable to the point I passed out in front of my children. One of the most important things I have learned through my cancer journey is, putting yourself last is not putting anybody first. Please take care of your health, schedule that doctor visit, and if you have a history of colon cancer in your family like I do, you need that screening much sooner. We don't come out of a battle the same person as we went in, but I'm a much better person for it, and I'm grateful. This episode is the grit behind the glamour.
In This Episode:
[00:31] March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month & I am a cancer survivor
[8:35] I visited many doctors telling them that there was colon cancer in my family, yet a colonoscopy was never written up. We’re so encouraged as women to get mammograms but never are advised to check for colon cancer.
[12:30] Many of you are putting your needs on the backburner. You’re making excuses for not exercising, working out, not getting those critical tests. Remember, you're taking care of others by taking care of yourself first.
[14:34] With the combination of health problems and sudden divorce, I went to a naturopathic doctor who is that one who prescribed my colonoscopy
[21:29] My cancer diagnosis and surgery begins
[22:45] My chemo treatments were torture, I thought the chemo would break me
[27:14] Through the pain of the chemo, my brother gave me a sense of purpose. It was never me helping Stephen as much as it was always Stephen helping me.
[32:29] I am putting myself on every medium humanly possible to not only share my cancer story but also implore people to look at their own lives and their own set of challenging circumstances. And how do they use it to serve others?