July 15, 2025 • 45 mins
Jenn had to amputate her right leg due to sarcoma cancer. She committed to helping patients like herself and she soon found her cause in the tragedy of insurance companies not paying for prosthetics for running, swimming, or any other athletic activity. The Move for Jenn Foundation has since paid for 63 activewear prosthetics!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
All I could think about was, oh my gosh, I'm
going to lose a limb, Like what does life even
look like? And he said to me, if you and
I want to cry talking about this, He was like,
if you want to watch your kids, because my kids
are three and four now, and he was like, if
you want to be here to watch them, you know,
go to prom, graduate high school, if you want to
dance at their weddings, you're going to do this, and
(00:23):
you're going to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
And after that, all right, there was It was an
easy decision.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.
I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father,
I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach in
inner city Memphis. And somehow that last part led to
an oscar with a film about our team. That movie
is called Undefeated. I believe our country's problems are never
going to be solved by a bunch of fancy beeple
(01:00):
and ice clothes using big words that nobody ever uses
on CNN and Fox, but rather by an army of
normal folks. That's us, just you and me deciding, Hey,
you know what, maybe I can help. That's what Jen Andrews,
the voice you just heard, has done. Jen was blindsided
by the awful news that she had a rare cancer
(01:22):
called sarcoma, and it ultimately led to her right foot
being amputated at thirty three years old, But rather than
viewing herself as a victim, Jim founded Moved for Jen Foundation,
which has since provided sixty three active wear prosthetics to
individuals so that they can run, swim, snowboard, and any
(01:48):
and every other kind of activity that they're looking to
do that's not covered by insurance. I can't wait for
you to meet Jim right after these brief messages from
our general responsors, Jen Andrews, welcome to Memphis.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Thank you for having me. You just got in yeah,
about an hour ago.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
About an hour ago, just straight in and straight out.
Not not even gonna hang out in our town. Huh.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
I mean I wasn't really invited for hangout. I was
invited for a talk you.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Oh, I got it. I got Memphis. Cool place. You
should come back one time and check it out. So,
Jin Andrews, everybody is from Charlotte. I guess she took
an American flight directly in here. You, and she is
the founder of Move for Gin Foundation, which obviously is
why you're here discussed. So we'll get into that. But
(02:44):
tell us about you. Where are you from.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
I'm originally from northern New Jersey.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
But it is northern New Jersey.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Well, okay, so now your Jersey.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
First of all, I grew up with the from Jersey.
I'm from Jersey thing. You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I do.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
But there's like there's like the Philly side of Jersey,
which is like one side. Then there's like the Shore,
which is like South Jersey, and then like to me,
North Jersey, where I'm from Bergen County is like the
New York City side. So I'm from like twenty to
twenty five minutes outside of Manhattan.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
So you're like cross the water.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Yes, what is that the Hudson The Hudson.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yeah, yeah, you're just like right there, well.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Suburbs, but yeah, a little into it.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
So do people from North Jersey kind of claim New
York or is it like? No, I'm a Jersey person.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
I feel like you get a mix of both a day. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Yeah, So did you grow up there?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
So I lived there for my early childhood and then
we moved to North Carolina when I was thirteen, going
to seventh grade, and then I moved to Charlotte for college.
So I've been in Charlotte like twenty one twenty two years.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Wo'd your parents to moving around? Who leaves Manhattan for Carolina?
Speaker 1 (03:50):
So my mom's husband was a general surgeon, and he
had an offer to come down and work for a
hospital in North Carolina, and that's what brought us down here.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
I got it. Yeah, but even as a kid, that
means you got to spend some time in the city.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
I guess, oh yeah, all my family's up there, and
so we would go multiple times a year. And then
even when I was younger, I remember my mom was
always part of these theater groups.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
I mean it's not like what it is now, but.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Where she would get all these discount tickets and we
would go to shows like every week.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
I mean, it's the best.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Yeah, what's your favorite show that you've ever done? Broadway show?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I don't know, and Juliette fairly recently was probably like
within the last few years, a pretty good one.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
But I don't know, there's so many goods.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
There are so many good ones. Now. Alex just took
his kids to see the new Harry Potter one.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Oh, I have not seen that.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
I had neither. Lisa and I are going up soon.
I think I'm gonna get some tickets for it. Not
that I'm a Harry Potter grah, because I'm really not,
but I think Harry Potter Musical might be pretty.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
Cool for sure. I feel like my daughter check it out.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
What's favorite restaurant in town?
Speaker 1 (04:47):
In the city so hard, I don't know, there's so
many good ones.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
I don't know that I have.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
A Do you like steak? Do you like Italian?
Speaker 1 (04:54):
I like, if I'm up there, I'm definitely like I'm
not a steak person.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
I'm not like a big meat person.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
But if I'm up there, it's definitely gonna be Italian
or Chinese, because I mean, we have good places in Charlotte,
but not like up there.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
I mean, it's just so good.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Angelo's was the name of the place in little Italy
that bounces up against I guess it's Chinatown was on
Bulberry Street that burned down. Okay, it was there for
eighty something years. Yeah, they had the best, I mean,
the best old school Italian food on face points, but
it's I think it's been rebuilt in Jersey. Oh, I'm
(05:31):
pretty sure of it. Okay, all right, anyway, that's a
little you're kind of a Jersey Manhattan girl gets absconded
to North Carolina, which had to have been culture shocked
for you.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
I think I cried every day for a year. Yeah,
it was a lot. But then I met my people
and it was fine. So it just took me a minute.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
But like I said, my family was all from there,
so we would go up a couple times a year,
and I would still get my fix of northern nests.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Got it? And then you went to college at oh
you and c Charlotte. Yeah, got it? So there it is,
and you're going about life and you've been in I
guess you're a Carolina girl now, I mean you've been
there twenty years.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I mean at this point, I've lived in Charlotte longer
than I lived anywhere. So I feel like Charlotte is
home at this point.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Charlotte is home at this point. Got it? So I
guess you graduate college and start having kids and have
a life and get a job.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Yeah kind of what happens the.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Business and kids? How many?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I have two kids?
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Two kids?
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
And all that's cool, and you're I think insurance or something.
I don't remember. Yeah, so I was read something about that.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yeah, I was in group insurance, so employee that means
like employee benefits. So I would do like ancillary lines
like dental, short term disability, long term disability.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
It actually is like plays a role in what I
do now. But I would do like those lines of
coverage for businesses.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
So if you worked for a company that needed benefits,
we could provide those benefits to all the employees.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
There.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Does that make sense?
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Yeah, okay, that did you get a degree and insurance
benefit sometime?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I had a degree in communications and journalism, and I
guess the communications part I use because I'm constantly dealing
with people. But yeah, no, I just kind of fell
into insurance. I feel like nobody in insurance goes to
school for insurance. Like you just kind of fall into
it and then you either love it or you don't.
I loved it, but I got to a point where
I just was ready to do something else and there
(07:29):
just wasn't the room for growth where I was, and
so I ended up taking a different path. So I
don't know, I might go back to insurance.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
One day you never you never know.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
It was a good experience though.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
So you've got you You just living life, I mean
a good life. But yeah, not anything overly remarkable, just
a normal person having a great life.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
I mean I was happy.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
I was working, I had a good job, my kids
were healthy, I was fine, like everything like.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
It was fine.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
It was good. Everything's fun until that does it. But
that didn't really explain why you had found a thing
called move for Gin Foundation. So I think, and now
I'm going to screw this up. Okay, okay, But as
far as I know, everything was good and you found
you went to get a pedicure and there's a bump
(08:18):
on your toe.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Or something on top of my foot.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Well I was close, right, very close. Yeah, all right,
so what happened? You want to get a pedicure?
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Yeah, so I was pressure.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Yes, it's a grace thing on earth.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
I have to a pedicure, right, gosh.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
So it's one of the guilty pleasures, Lisa allows me.
I love that there's this place not ten blocks from
my house. I live in town, not ten blocks from
my house, and I get the I think it's called
the seventy, which means fifty five minutes where they clip
your toenails and clean it up, and then I just
sit there in that hot water while they put oil
(08:55):
and lotion and stuff on your feet. Alex, have you
ever done it? No?
Speaker 5 (08:59):
You just lost your man car.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
No I did not. In fact, I think I heard
a greater man card for having the security to go
sit there with all these women and all right, cashies.
She ever had a pedicure? That a boy? That a boy?
Is it not one of the greatest experiences on earth?
You just sit there and you relax everything else.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
You told all you told all the guys this in
your yard, that you do this.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
I'll tell anybody. I'm telling the whole country right now
that I love a pedicure.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Why are we not recording there? I didn't get invited
for a petticare.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
It's a really really good point. Ye, my bad. It's
poor production on Alexi's park.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
I agree.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
I actually didn't know this about Bill. This is a revelation.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Well here's the thing. So we were in Los Angeles, Yeah,
and Lisa wanted a pedicure, and this is ten years
ago or so, and I'm like, well, what am I
going to do while you get a pedderga. I'm just
sit there. I guess I'll read the news on my
phone or something. She says, no, you're getting a pedicure
because your feet suck. And I'm like, what are you
talking about. She said, you you coach football, You're in
a lumber yard all the time, and your feet are
(10:03):
always just disgusting looking. We're getting your pedicure and I'm like, no,
I'm not getting a pedicure because that's not what men
do right box at masculinity stuff.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
No one wants that.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
No, So she makes me sit down and fifteen minutes
into this experience, I've totally so I'm getting one every
week for the rest of my life.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Do you actually go every week every week? It's not
you're bougier than me. I'm like, every three weeks.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Well, but here's my thing. My toes, my toenails grow
so fast it's weird, Like I have these fast grown toenails.
And even if I did, I'd still get every week
because it's just excuse to go sit there for forty
five minutes and be in my own place.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
I understand that.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
So that's what you're doing.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Yeah, that's what I Yeah, and so big.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Deal, there's a pimple on the top of your foot
or something.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Well, not a pimple.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
So I well, I was pregnant with my daughter and
my mom and I I was.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
A second or first first Okay.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yep, so we were I was visiting my mom, which
is in Winston, Salem, It's like an hour and a
half away from where I live. And we were getting
pedicures and the woman, yeah, girls say out like, I.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Was just visiting.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
You're pregnant, so you're allowed to have someone rub your
feet and fix it.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, she was like, let's go get pedicures. I said, great,
let's do it. And her place is great because I
feel like you would probably like it. But they like
just part of the basic pedicure they do like the
hot stones. Oh, it is like next level. So if
you're ever in Winston, you're gonna have to hit that
place up.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
I'm gonna have to get the name of this place
in Winston Silent.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
It's so good.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
But essentially a pedicure saved my life, which is crazy.
So the woman was massaging my feet and you couldn't
see the bump, but if you pressed down really hard,
you could see like a peace sized nodule on top
of my right foot.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
And did you fail it?
Speaker 4 (11:42):
No, well, when you pressed down, you could feel like
I didn't know it was there.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I didn't have any pain, I didn't have any symptoms
like I had absolutely nothing. So she pointed out to
me and said, did you know this was here? I said, no,
I've never noticed it. So we went home.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Would you think it's like a nod on your foot?
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah, well they thought it might have been like a
gangly insist, which is the benign cys. Nothing to worry about.
It's pretty common in hands and feet.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
And so I see, I'm going to pedicure for foot health.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
There you go, Okay, go ahead, Yeah, safety all the way,
cancer prevention, that's it.
Speaker 5 (12:12):
Don't ever complain. Don't know her complain to me that
you don't have enough time. If time for pedicures, I
do it.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
At lunch break. Go ahead, there you go. Oh on weekdays?
Still go on weekends. It's too crowded, agreed, Yes.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
Most of us can do that during the workday.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
It's the greatest thing of the world.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Hey, carbon some healthcare.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Look, he can sit over there.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
He just doesn't know toxic.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Yeah, and talk about how you lose your man card
for getting a pedicure, or or you can get a
pedicure and have all the ladies look at your feet
and say, now that is a well taken care.
Speaker 6 (12:45):
Of You're a taking man's through cares. Keep going, guys, sorry,
you just sit over. There's your funky feet which you
turned his mic off. Please go ahead, and now a
few messages from our general sponsors.
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(13:19):
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Speaker 4 (14:21):
Okay. So, yeah, so she found the nod on my foot.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
I didn't notice it. I didn't have any pain symptoms, nothing.
And my mom's husband was a general surgeon. We went
back to her house.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Yeah, so I mean your mom she's a really I mean,
you got a surgeon in your house, so I mean
you got doctors around.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
You, right. So we went home and I said, hey, like,
will you look at this? And he was like, oh, it's.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Nothing, it's just gangly insists those are really common, like
nothing to worry about. And then my kids are fourteen
months apart, and I had them back to back obviously,
and so during my second pregnancy, oh so nothing.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
So we have a baby, we move all.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Yeah, we move on. It's a system in my foot,
like nothing changes. Who cares, I'll get it.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
So there's a lot of time a little bit. Yeah, yeah, okay,
so how you're pregnant again.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Yeah, hindsight, I'm pretty lucky.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
So now I'm pregnant with my son, and that pea
sized nodule grew to be a golf ball on top
of my right foot. So from an esthetic standpoint, bad
had to her it actually didn't. I didn't have any pain.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
That was what was.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
So hard about this whole process is that it's easy
to correlate like disease with pain, but when you don't
have the pain, sometimes it's hard to process that something's
actually wrong that would.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Have saw off because there's no more buying nice shoes
when you have a golf ball come out at the top.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Of well right So that aesthetically it was hard, like
I couldn't wear certain shoes and they wouldn't operate on
me pregnant, so I.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Just had to kind of wait it out.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Well hold, so did they still say, well, it was
just assist.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
So I went to I was pregnant still, I think
I was like seven months pregnant probably at that point,
and I went to a dermatologist who sent me for
an MRI. No, yes, an MRI, and I went to
the hospital to do the MRI because at the time
they were sending you to the hospital, not an imaging
center like they do out and I walk in and
the text like, Hey, I'm not supposed to say anything,
(16:03):
but if I were you you're pregnant, I wouldn't get
the scan pregnant and I would wait and they're not
going to operate on you.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
They're not going to do anything for you while you're pregnant.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
You should just because the baby.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
But actually, hindsight like that skin would have never affected
my baby. But that's what That's what she was trying
to insinuate. It also wasn't her place or her job
or her knowledge base to say anything, which I understand
if you are educated in that to say something, but
the fact and I know enough now at the time,
I had never had an MRI. So I walked out
(16:33):
of the scan and I was like, I'm not going
to risk my baby when they're not going to operate
on me, and I'm gonna it's.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
A pain in the butt, but it's well, I'm not.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
In pain, and everyone said it was fine.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
So I had pregnant, so who cares about my shoes?
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Well, yeah, so I had the baby, and then I
went back to the doctor, went to the MRI went
back to the dermatologist for results, and he was like,
this is inconclusive, so I'm going to send you to
an orthopedic onco was inconclusive. We don't know what this is, Okay,
So I said, okay, so you should get scared them.
I got scared when he said the word oncologist. So
(17:09):
inconclusive didn't scare me. Cancer didn't even cross my mind.
But when he said orthopedic oncologist, I was by myself
and I walked down to the lobby and I started sobbing,
and I called my mom and I was like, I
have two kids under two. Why am I being sent
to an oncologist? And she was like, we don't know
anything yet. Let's just you know, one step at a time.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
So I met with an orthopedic oncologist that I literally
found through Google.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
And when I tell you, I hit the Google jackpot
with this man.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
He is the best physician in the entire world, like
knowledge based bedside manner. And I didn't even know that's
who I was choose, Like I just said, oh, this
guy looks good, his reviews are good. But like when
I tell you, this man saved my life and show
it up in so many amazing ways and now sits
on my board of directors.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
I've never had a doctor who.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Can be so educated but also be such a people person,
and that changed the whole process.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
There's so too few of those. That's a sad note.
I'm so sick of doctors that you feel like they
are doing you a favor but by doctoring you right,
you know what I mean. Yeah, I'm the patient, I e.
The customer. Won't you treat me with a little dignity?
But this guy did.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Oh my gosh, this guy is I think the world
of him and his family. So I met with him.
He biopsied my foot fifteen different times. Everything came back.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Why why why fifteen?
Speaker 4 (18:31):
Well because it was inconclusive, so you know.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
I have even for an oncologist. The first fourteen domes
was inconclusive.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Well, the scan was inconclusive.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
So they did a punch biopsy, which is almost like
a like a whole punch situation, that they did fifteen
times all over my foot and then took taking something
at once.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Yes, Oh I'm sorry, I thought you made.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
You went back fifty no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
So he did fifteen different biopsies at one time, yes
on your foot, because the dermatologist said it was in correct.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
I'm sure, he wanted I'm tracking. Oh no, you're good.
It's confusing.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
So he wanted to make sure that we tested all
the different areas. Everything came back negative. So he was like,
this is a benign cyst, but due to the location,
we should probably operate and remove it. So, obviously, being
the vain person who liked high heels, at one point
I wanted to get rid of this. I could wear
my cute shoes and be comfortable. And again I didn't
have pain, so I.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Had How old were you?
Speaker 4 (19:28):
I was thirty.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Thirty yep, two kids, two kids, living life. Yep, everything's fine. Yep,
thanks mom. You're right. I shouldn't borrow trouble. This is
just a banign, golf ball size pain in the butt
on top of my foot. We're getting it gone. Yeah,
because I want to wear my cute.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
Shoes pretty much.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Yeah, okay, that makes sense. I think that's exactly how
everybody would react.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Yeah, I think so. So I was calm, it was fine.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
I went for the surgery, they removed the mass, and
then ten days post off, I was asked to come
back in that they were going to be checking my incision,
making sure my foot was healing properly. So I went
in with my seventeen month old daughter and my three
month old son, and thank god, my mom was.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
There that day.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
And he actually called to have me come in to
tell me that I had a rare form of sarcoma,
which is a rare cancer without a care, and they
didn't without a care, without a care, sarcoma does not
have a cure.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
So and you've got your kid with you.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
I have two kids with me, my seventeen month old
and my three month old. So he said, well, we
didn't know we were doing a cancer surgery because all
of your biopsies came back benign. So the whole mass
was benign except for the thin layer at the bottom
that adhered to the top of my foot. So I
was sitting here processing and when he said zarcoma, I
didn't even know sarcoma meant cancer. So I said, okay,
(20:47):
well what is sarcoma? He says, well, it's a rare cancer,
and I said okay. And with sarcoma, I now know
I didn't know then. There's like eighty something subtypes of
sarcoma and they all react differently, and so I had
a low grade to mix awaight sarcoma, so mine was
kind of between two subtypes. So they gave me more
of a general diagnosis. And so I'm sitting there and
(21:07):
now I have two babies and I'm being told I
had cancer. And I said, okay, well, what if I
don't want to have to deal with this again? What
are my options? And in my mind, I'm thinking, okay, great,
now I'm gonna have another surgery. This isn't really what
I want, but we'll carve out a clean margin. This
kind of sucks, but here we are. So he said,
if you don't want to worry about this again, you're
gonna lose your right foot, and everything, like my whole
(21:29):
body went numb, like I couldn't even wrap my head
around the idea of being an amputee and losing a limp,
like I didn't know anyone who was an amputee.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
I didn't know anyone who had sarcoma.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Like I'm listening to everything and then all of a sudden,
everything like I couldn't hear anything, and I see his
mouth moving and I'm trying to process what's happening.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
My mom, thank God is listening, and.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
I, oh, your mom is with you.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
My mom's with me. And it was a lot to process.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
And so.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Sorry you said something a couple of months ago. That's
germane the story. Yeah, he said, we didn't know we
were doing a cancer surgery because it all came back behind.
Does that mean they didn't scoop this layer that was
attached to your foot when they got this golf ball off, right?
Speaker 1 (22:17):
No? Well, okay, so yes, So when when they did
the punch biopsies, the fifteen biopsies at once, all of
those came back behind. So if you think about, like
if I had this mass and they did fifteen different spots,
all of that came back clear, no problem. But the
thin layer at the bottom of this that they didn't
punch with any of the biopsies, I guess they just
(22:38):
didn't grab it deep enough. I don't know, or the
angle or whatever that was all cancers.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
So in the first surgery, could they have gone deep
enough to get it and then thuslee have saved you
from any of the next step.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
So that's kind of where the conversation diverted after that,
because I said well, let's do another surgery if that's.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Not quite so. If so, why not go do it
other surgery and get that crap.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Well, then he explained to me, and we were sitting
in the room obviously, and he was like, feel the
top of your hand. It's just like the top of
your foot. He's like, all that's there is skin and bone. Intendants,
if this was in a muscle or a thigh or
your arm, we could go in and carve out more.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
He's like, there's nothing really left for us to take.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
He was like, but the kind of sarcoma that you had,
he said, we may have gotten all of it, but
we don't know. And he was like, this is a
slow growing it's low grade, and if it's going to
come back, it's going to come back the same way
it's started.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
And we can monitor.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
You and and go in and do another surgery another not.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
So we felt that that was the best plan because
taking my foot off the bat would have been like
really aggressive, and I had a chance of it not
coming back, so I chose to be monitored. So with sarcoma,
it's tricky. All sarcoma's really If a lot of them
start in other areas, and if they're going to metastasize,
they'll go to your lungs. So for me, I was
(23:58):
scanned every three months my foot at the time not
residual limp, and every six months my lungs were scanned.
So I would do MRIs and see teased to make
sure that it wasn't spreading.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
My grandmother not of cancer, but that was my grandmother's
shoes in her eighties, right. And we have Saint Jude
here in Memphis, right, so cancer is not that far
and me because of Saint Jude's and all Saint Jude
and all of that. But I've all when I was
(24:33):
reading your story, I wondered, you know, okay, good, we
might have got it. I'm a mother of two, I'm
thirty thirty one years old. I'm just going to get
scanned and make sure it doesn't come back or be
in my lungs. But that's a that's an interesting way
(24:53):
to live. Was there always a little sense of dread
and fear in the back of your mind constantly? I mean,
how do you live worried that something. I'm a need freak,
I'm an organization freak, and I love finishing tasks. Because
when I finish a task, I move on and I
forget about it. Yeah, that is not something you can
(25:15):
ever move on. Say do you understand my question?
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (25:19):
I do.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Cancer taught me that you can't always control everything, but
you can control your response. And that was a really
hard lesson for me to learn. So, yes, it was
hard to live worried. And anybody who has had cancer
who goes through like not even sarcoma, but any kind
of cancer, who goes through the process that I went through,
we call it scanxiety. And every time you gear up
(25:41):
for a scan, I mean you get anxious, you get scared,
you get you know, sometimes there's depression, there's worried, there's sadness,
there's the what ifs. I mean it's terrifying. And obviously
I was this young mom with two kids and my
whole future ahead of me, and the idea of losing
a limb or having cancer and of that.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
I mean, just it's not.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Going to your lungs that could kill you.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
And what's crazy is like, once I was diagnosed, I
was in well. So I was scanned every three months
the first year, then every six months the second year,
and I was clear. So the third year, I had
gotten to go a full year without scans, and that's
when life started to feel like a smidge more normal.
I'd come over, not no, no, no, not I'm over
it were good by any means.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
I still lived with the drugs.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Oh, one hundred percent, and I honestly lived with the
dread until I would say this year when I was released,
but we'll get there. But I feel like for me,
every time my scans would come, I would be I
learned my patterns of behavior, Like I learned when I
would get quiet, and I learned when I would become reclusive,
and I learned that that was like my coping mechanism
to dealing with the time and getting through scans. And
(26:47):
I would always get like that. My friends knew. My
friends knew, like as soon as I got scheduled, like
they would mark their calendars and I would be like,
I mean, the support that I had was unreal, and
I know that I am so less beyond measure with
my circle, and not everybody has support like I had.
And all my friends are ten twenty thirty years plus.
(27:08):
And when I say their chosen family, I'll cry talking
about them because the support that I had and continue
to have is just beyond anything I could have ever
expected or felt like I deserved. But I'm thankful because
they've gotten me through. But yeah, it's scary. But unfortunately
for me at my three year scans it was December second.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
And you're only having to do a year now, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
I want a whole year.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
She got to be filmed.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
Yes, I'm definitely feeling more confident.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
So like, walk in, I'm talking to my doctor, I'm
talking to the PA who I love, and we're like
she pretty much was my age and we hit it
off in the office and she was almost like my
friend in the office at this point. And so we
were just talking catching up on life and she leaves
the room and I guess my doctor was outside and
the SAME's doctor Pat and he you know, told her
name's Lenna. He told her, you know, she has a recurrence.
(27:55):
We have to go in and tell her. And she's like,
I just had this great conversation with her, like we're
joking around, having like how am I going to go
in there?
Speaker 4 (28:01):
And he was like, we have to do it.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
So they went in and I was very blindsided to
hear that my sarcoma came back. But not only did
it come back, it didn't come back as a peace
size nodule. It came back as a three millimeter layer
over my entire right foot, And so that was a
really the whole top of my foot.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
And so I knew when.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
He said that what was happening, Like he didn't even
have to tell me, and my whole body got hot
and my I remember hyperventilating. I couldn't breathe. I felt
like there was like an elephant on my chest. It
was definitely one of like the worst moments of my life.
Definitely like top top three, top worst moment ever. I
(28:42):
mean it was horrible, and I was by myself because
I thought it was fine. I was like, oh, you're three,
like we're good. And I was like a psychopath, like
I would check my foot daily, like if you knew me, No,
I was a psychopath, like think about like every day.
I was like in the morning, after I get out
of the shower, like I would press down on my
foot and I was like looking for things and.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Exactly how I would have been, Yeah, I mean that's
exactly I would have I would have always checked it
and just said Okay, no, nodule, Let's.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Go have a day, right exactly. And that's that's kind
of how I lived. And so I was crying in
the office with him, and we were just kind of
talking about things, and he reframed it for me, and
I think this goes to show the kind of person
that he is. And all I could think about was,
oh my gosh, I'm going to lose a limb, Like
what does life even look like? And he said to me,
(29:33):
if you and I want to cry talking about this,
he was like, if you want to watch your kids,
because my kids were three and four now, and he
was like, if you want to be here to watch them,
you know, go to prom, graduate high school, if you
want to dance at their weddings, you're going to do this,
and you're going to be here.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
And after that, sorry, there was it was an easy decision.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
I guess when you frame it that way.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Yeah, But then I I said to him, am I
going to walk again? Because I didn't know any amputees.
I didn't even know what that looked like. I didn't
know what prosthetics look like. I mean, I knew what
a prosthetics looked like, but I didn't know, like, oh,
there's different ones with different.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
Activities and all the things. I was not planning getting emotional.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Day and so it's an emotional thing.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
It is an emotional thing. And I said to him,
am I going to walk again? And he said walk again?
Speaker 1 (30:22):
I hope you run, and this light bulb went off
in my head.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
So then I was majorly anxiety ridden leading up to
the surgery.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
How much time between that conversation or surgery?
Speaker 1 (30:51):
So he said, what you have is low grade and
slow growing, so you have a little time to pick
your date. We need to pick it soon, but it
doesn't have to be tomorrow. And so that was in December. No,
I'm sorry, January. Yeah, January second was when I was diagnosed,
not December second.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
January second, and then my surgery was March twelve.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Okay, this may sound I do not mean this insensitively. Yeah.
I like to try to put myself in the time
between that conversation and when'd you say March one twelve?
I mean were you looking down at your foot thinking
you're going to be gone? Yeah, and the loss of
(31:33):
your foot. I know that sounds weird, and I don't
mean it to sound.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
That way about it. No, I know you don't.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
And I actually have a funny story of a weirdo
doctor that I.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Saw a weirdo doctor. Yes, oh I want to hear it.
Speaker 4 (31:43):
I will share. So, Yeah, it was hard.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
It was one of those things where like I needed
time to process. Talking about it was gut wrenching.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
So I took to.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Blogging and I would like blog out what was going
on so all my friends and family could read it
and I didn't have to repeat myself because I was
literally in survi mode.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
You don't want to tell that story und times, No, it's.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Horrible, and then everyone obviously cares and wants to check
in with you. But I just didn't have the mental
capacity because I was trying to show up as a mom.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
I'm trying to handle myself.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
I'm very transparent that at that time obviously, like I
needed anti anxiety and antidepressants to get through the day.
And I don't think there's any shame in that for
people who need that, And I always share that because
I think there's so much negative connotation with many Yeah
there is, and that that is exactly what that stuffs
for one hundred percent. And my I obviously knew going
(32:32):
into it that my depression and my situation was it
was situational anxiety and situational depression. But I wasn't gonna
survive without being able to have something to get me through,
and that that's kind of that time in my life.
And I'm not embarrassed about that.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Two or three. You're young, yeah, I.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
Was thirty three. I'm young.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Yeah, you're young.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
Yeah. And I was super active and and all the things.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
You know. It took me a little bit to wrap
my head around, like processing that this was happening to me.
Then I had to go through additional testing and like
do some other stuff and prepare myself for the surgery.
And then choosing a date was really hard because he
was like text me the date, like, here are the
dates that are available for my surgeries.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
Let me know which one you want. And that was
so hard.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
I remember I was at one of my girlfriend's houses
and our kids were playing, and I was so anxiety
ridden and I felt like nause just thinking about it,
and I was so scared and even just sending this text,
like I remember, my hands were just like it was horrible.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
And so finally I was like you know what.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
One of my friends had sent me, like this message
of encouragement and I don't know what about what he sent,
just like hit me in the right place in my heart.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
And I was like, you know what, I'm gonna do this.
I can do this. And so I texted in March
twelfth and I threw the phone down and I was like,
I'm done.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
So leading up to my surgery, I obviously knew I
was going to be on crutches, so I was like
a very active person. I took a lot of classes
like Orange Theory and things, and so I ended up
getting a personal trainer who at the time was one
of the trainers at Orange Theory, and told him like, Okay,
I really want to focus on upper body. I'm gonna
have to carry myself around. I don't know what my
life's going to look like. So me and one of
my best friends switched and we started doing all these
(34:07):
different kinds of workouts to prep me for things. I
started trying to figure out how can I prep my
home for this, And then the week before my surgery,
I felt compelled to do this Facebook live. It was
kind of before social media was what it is now.
I mean it just obviously like things travel quicker now
than they did seven years ago. And so I did
this Facebook live. I don't know why I felt the
(34:27):
need to do this, but I did. And I asked
my friends and family to get out and move because
they could move.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
Because you can.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Is like just something that stuck with me ever since
my first surgery. So like after my first surgery, every
year on that date, I would go for a run
because I would think about how I was on an
operating table and the idea of losing my foot and
losing mobility was just gut wrenching, and I wanted to
like honor myself and honor everybody who wanted to move.
(34:55):
I couldn't, so I would always go out and run
that day. And so take foot for granted, Oh seriously, and.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Which sounds so stupid, almost say, but talking to you,
I'm pretty happy I got both my feet right now.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
Absolutely it should be.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
And so yeah, I don't know, So I did this
Facebook live video. It's pretty much me just crying and
asking people to get out and move because you can't.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
Pretty much me just bawling and saying, hey, don't take
your feet for granted. Move.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Well, yeah, and I talked about how mobility can be
taken away in the blink of an eye and your
whole life can change. And my life was going to
change forever, and I didn't know what it was going
to look like, and that was really scary. And one
of my girlfriends, who lives in Atlanta, was like, we
need a hashtag hashtag move for Gen. She had commented
that in the sight. So anyways, then I like go
about my life, and my story starts to get like
(35:46):
picked up a little bit, and I think I had
like a news interview before maybe one or two.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
And then I had my surgery.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
I get to the hospital and my nurse, a nesstist
who does like the anesthesia, walks in in a move
for Gen shirt and from the hashtag moved for Gen
that my friend wrote in the thing. He came in
in a tank top that said I moved for Gen.
And the night before my surgery, my girlfriends all sent
me a group text with this collage picture and they
were all in these shirts. I'd say, I move for Gen,
(36:14):
and I was like, okay, Like I remember like sobbing,
and so I got to a hospital.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
Did that feel just like support? That feel like to you?
Speaker 4 (36:26):
Like the highest form of love and support, I guess.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
So yeah, yeah, and you didn't know your nurse at
this list.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
So actually he I didn't know him well at the time,
but he lived next door to a friend of mine, so.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
We had met.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
It was a loose connection, but it is. Yes, dude
shows up wearing that T shirt.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Yeah, and there's a picture of us and People Magazine
together with him wearing it, so it's kind of funny.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
That's very cool.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
So when I woke up from surgery, Dari said, I
don't know, I want to say six hours, but don't
quote me on that.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
And dread, Oh my gosh, unreal. Yeah, unreal, the dread
of that day. I remember walking.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Into the hospital thinking like, well, maybe I shouldn't do this,
maybe I'm just gonna leave, And then I was like, no,
I'm here.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
I have to do this, like there's no choice.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
I was gonna ask this, and then I decided no,
you're a shallow jerk for asking, and then I decided
it was and then I wasn't. But now that I've
met you, I am okay. Obviously your mom you were
into working out and whatever, and so you're thinking about
(37:36):
your mobility you're thinking about living your life. You're thinking
about walking, You're thinking about being able to go to
your kids games and dance and travel normally and whatever
drive a car, I mean anything that requires a foot.
I was actually thinking about this driving here. Yeah, and
this is not specifically just about you, but so that
(37:57):
our audience members, most of whom have all ten fingers,
toes and lumbs, just for perspective and so that we
can empathize to better understand the importance of the work.
Were you also concerned about people looking at you weird
(38:19):
without a foot going through Target? Were you also thinking about,
you know, am I going to be as attractive as
I once was? Were you also thinking about, you know,
are people going to approach mely differently because I don't
look as whole as I once did. And I really
(38:39):
don't mean that sounds sensitive, but again I would feel
that way.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Yeah, No, absolutely, I would say, you're looking at me weird.
Speaker 4 (38:50):
I'm not looking at you weird. I'm looking at me.
I promise I'm not.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
I actually have like a really good response to this,
which is why I'm looking at you the way I'm
looking at you.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
Go for it.
Speaker 4 (38:58):
Yes, all of.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
These things were were of concern for me. But I
think what I realized so the I would say, two
weeks leading up to my surgery, I think I ordered
like fifteen or twenty different Maxi dresses so I would
be able to like have myself covered and nobody would
know what dresses.
Speaker 4 (39:13):
MAXI dress like a long dress to the floor.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
Was that because you were?
Speaker 4 (39:18):
Because I wanted to be able to hide it. Yeah,
But then my story went viral, and.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
I think when that happened, it was almost a blessing
in disguise because it was like not like the attention
part because I didn't care about that, but the fact
that people knew and I like so many people in
our town or area like knew what was happening to me,
so I didn't have to go out and explain myself
to every person on the street. Obviously you're going to
(39:46):
get people like the one offs who like have no
filter and say stupid things.
Speaker 4 (39:50):
But like I ordered all these dresses, and I was
like so.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
Content on like hiding and trying to be this version
of who I was, who I was losing, I mean
because literally like I was mourning the old version of me.
But then when I woke up from surgery. The first
thing I was told was get your phone. And I
was like, I haven't even looked down yet. Like I
was still medicated, yes, but it was also highly medicated
(40:14):
from the surgery, so like I wasn't you know, all
there yet, And I said, I just woke up and
I was told, look, get your phone please. So I
got my phone and my video had been viewed. I think, like,
I don't know, nineteen thousand times or twenty something.
Speaker 4 (40:29):
That I can't even remember.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
And I had like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
messages from people all over the world who.
Speaker 4 (40:37):
Watched my video, maybe even thousands of message. I mean,
it was just.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Beyond who watched my video, heard my message, felt my message,
and got out and moved the day of my surgery,
and it was anything from like classes of little girls
like in Tutuo's in a dance class holding signs that
said moved for Jen to moms and orange theory classes
or Purebard classes, or you know, a bunch of guys
(41:01):
going out on a run with a run group.
Speaker 4 (41:03):
It was all formed.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
There were kids outside playing tag and writing scooters. It
was all forms of activity. And I said in my
video like go out in your favorite form of movement,
like it doesn't have to be one way, and just
be grateful that you can do it.
Speaker 4 (41:16):
And even if.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
It's raining, like and you go on a run in
the rain that day, you should do it. And my
old office from insurance at Link Financial Group, like they
got out and walked in the rain that day. And
the impact of that, I mean the messages I got.
I got messages from people who dealt with severe depression
who said, I live in Europe and I watched your
video and I've dealt with severe depression. I haven't gotten
(41:38):
off the couch in two years. And I walked my
dog today and it's the best I felt. And so
the impact of my message just hit people in a
way that I never was prepared for.
Speaker 4 (41:52):
But such a positive out of such a negative and.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
Just no know, not organic, which makes it much more real.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
Yeah, And so all of a sudden, like there was
this redirection of focus. And for me, I think that
really helped in my healing. And so when I got home,
I was like, well, everybody knows. And then all of
a sudden, like people magazines picking up my story and
Today and daily Mail and all these like insane publications,
(42:22):
and it's like, what am I hiding? At this point,
like everybody, my story is worldwide now, so like everybody knows.
Speaker 4 (42:27):
What am I hiding?
Speaker 1 (42:28):
Like I need to learn how to own this version
of me. And so that's why I did. I mailed
back all fifteen of those Maxi dresses. My mom was like,
you're crazy. I got my money back and I was like,
I'm going to figure this out. And you know, did
I have times that were hard?
Speaker 4 (42:44):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Did I cry in like many dressing rooms trying on
clothes to make myself feel good and fit, and nothing did.
Speaker 4 (42:51):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
For like a year, it was really hard for me
to find clothes that I felt good in. But I
slowly learned to recognize and love this new version of me.
But I think what really helped with that was after
my initial like surgery, I started to meet with a
prothetist to have prosthetics made and I said, okay, well
(43:13):
let's talk running blades because I want to get back.
Speaker 3 (43:15):
What does lose your foot mean? I mean I can
envision anything from above your knee down to just above
your ankle. You know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (43:25):
So good question?
Speaker 3 (43:29):
What does what does lose your foot mean, so see
what I'm.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
Saying I do, and it's different for everybody. So and
this was something that kind of took me a minute
to wrap my head around. So for me, the cancer
was only in my foot, but my amputation is about
halfway up my shin.
Speaker 4 (43:43):
The reason for that is my doctor knew I wanted
to be active.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
I wanted to be able to have like so they
rate you K one through K four depending on how
accurate K K one.
Speaker 3 (43:55):
What does K stand for?
Speaker 4 (43:56):
You know, I don't really know what K stands for. Ok.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
K one is like pretty much like a geriatric patient
who's trying to get from the bed to the bathroom,
to the kitchen to the couch. K four is someone
who wants to like get out, run long distances, maybe
a paralympic athlete, someone who's highly active and wants to
live as close to the lifestyle that you previously had.
Got it, And obviously there's some in between.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
But you were K four.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
I was K four. I want to do everything like
I was so determined. I was like, I'm going to
learn how to do everything I did before.
Speaker 4 (44:24):
I'm just going to learn a new way to do it.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
I do the amputation planning on prosthetics to allow you the.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
K for well, not necessarily to allow you the K four.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
I was already like based on the questionnaire I filled out,
I was already deep like rated that us. And so
my doctor chose the placement based on knowing the activities
I wanted to do because there are people that I've
met through MU for Jen who have had a lower
amputation where they have more of their limb, but they're
not able to utilize all the different types of prosthetics
(44:54):
because they don't have the space.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
That's weird. So the more you take, the more athletic
you can.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
Be kind of think the deposite, right, And I thought
that too, But now it totally makes sense to me,
because otherwise your hips wouldn't be.
Speaker 4 (45:06):
Aligned because you would need the space to fit the
prosthetic under you. That makes sense.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
Yeah, that absolutely does make sense.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
Right.
Speaker 4 (45:13):
It took me a minute too.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
Yeah, And that concludes part one of my conversation with
Jen Andrews, and you don't want to miss part two
that's now available to listen to. Together, guys, we can
change this country, but it starts with you. I'll see
in part two
All I could think about was, oh my gosh, I'm
going to lose a limb, Like what does life even
look like? And he said to me, if you and
I want to cry talking about this, He was like,
if you want to watch your kids, because my kids
are three and four now, and he was like, if
you want to be here to watch them, you know,
go to prom, graduate high school, if you want to
dance at their weddings, you're going to do this, and
(00:23):
you're going to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
And after that, all right, there was It was an
easy decision.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.
I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father,
I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach in
inner city Memphis. And somehow that last part led to
an oscar with a film about our team. That movie
is called Undefeated. I believe our country's problems are never
going to be solved by a bunch of fancy beeple
(01:00):
and ice clothes using big words that nobody ever uses
on CNN and Fox, but rather by an army of
normal folks. That's us, just you and me deciding, Hey,
you know what, maybe I can help. That's what Jen Andrews,
the voice you just heard, has done. Jen was blindsided
by the awful news that she had a rare cancer
(01:22):
called sarcoma, and it ultimately led to her right foot
being amputated at thirty three years old, But rather than
viewing herself as a victim, Jim founded Moved for Jen Foundation,
which has since provided sixty three active wear prosthetics to
individuals so that they can run, swim, snowboard, and any
(01:48):
and every other kind of activity that they're looking to
do that's not covered by insurance. I can't wait for
you to meet Jim right after these brief messages from
our general responsors, Jen Andrews, welcome to Memphis.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Thank you for having me. You just got in yeah,
about an hour ago.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
About an hour ago, just straight in and straight out.
Not not even gonna hang out in our town. Huh.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
I mean I wasn't really invited for hangout. I was
invited for a talk you.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Oh, I got it. I got Memphis. Cool place. You
should come back one time and check it out. So,
Jin Andrews, everybody is from Charlotte. I guess she took
an American flight directly in here. You, and she is
the founder of Move for Gin Foundation, which obviously is
why you're here discussed. So we'll get into that. But
(02:44):
tell us about you. Where are you from.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
I'm originally from northern New Jersey.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
But it is northern New Jersey.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Well, okay, so now your Jersey.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
First of all, I grew up with the from Jersey.
I'm from Jersey thing. You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I do.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
But there's like there's like the Philly side of Jersey,
which is like one side. Then there's like the Shore,
which is like South Jersey, and then like to me,
North Jersey, where I'm from Bergen County is like the
New York City side. So I'm from like twenty to
twenty five minutes outside of Manhattan.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
So you're like cross the water.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Yes, what is that the Hudson The Hudson.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yeah, yeah, you're just like right there, well.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Suburbs, but yeah, a little into it.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
So do people from North Jersey kind of claim New
York or is it like? No, I'm a Jersey person.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
I feel like you get a mix of both a day. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Yeah, So did you grow up there?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
So I lived there for my early childhood and then
we moved to North Carolina when I was thirteen, going
to seventh grade, and then I moved to Charlotte for college.
So I've been in Charlotte like twenty one twenty two years.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Wo'd your parents to moving around? Who leaves Manhattan for Carolina?
Speaker 1 (03:50):
So my mom's husband was a general surgeon, and he
had an offer to come down and work for a
hospital in North Carolina, and that's what brought us down here.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
I got it. Yeah, but even as a kid, that
means you got to spend some time in the city.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
I guess, oh yeah, all my family's up there, and
so we would go multiple times a year. And then
even when I was younger, I remember my mom was
always part of these theater groups.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
I mean it's not like what it is now, but.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Where she would get all these discount tickets and we
would go to shows like every week.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
I mean, it's the best.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Yeah, what's your favorite show that you've ever done? Broadway show?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I don't know, and Juliette fairly recently was probably like
within the last few years, a pretty good one.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
But I don't know, there's so many goods.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
There are so many good ones. Now. Alex just took
his kids to see the new Harry Potter one.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Oh, I have not seen that.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
I had neither. Lisa and I are going up soon.
I think I'm gonna get some tickets for it. Not
that I'm a Harry Potter grah, because I'm really not,
but I think Harry Potter Musical might be pretty.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
Cool for sure. I feel like my daughter check it out.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
What's favorite restaurant in town?
Speaker 1 (04:47):
In the city so hard, I don't know, there's so
many good ones.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
I don't know that I have.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
A Do you like steak? Do you like Italian?
Speaker 1 (04:54):
I like, if I'm up there, I'm definitely like I'm
not a steak person.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
I'm not like a big meat person.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
But if I'm up there, it's definitely gonna be Italian
or Chinese, because I mean, we have good places in Charlotte,
but not like up there.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
I mean, it's just so good.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Angelo's was the name of the place in little Italy
that bounces up against I guess it's Chinatown was on
Bulberry Street that burned down. Okay, it was there for
eighty something years. Yeah, they had the best, I mean,
the best old school Italian food on face points, but
it's I think it's been rebuilt in Jersey. Oh, I'm
(05:31):
pretty sure of it. Okay, all right, anyway, that's a
little you're kind of a Jersey Manhattan girl gets absconded
to North Carolina, which had to have been culture shocked
for you.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
I think I cried every day for a year. Yeah,
it was a lot. But then I met my people
and it was fine. So it just took me a minute.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
But like I said, my family was all from there,
so we would go up a couple times a year,
and I would still get my fix of northern nests.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Got it? And then you went to college at oh
you and c Charlotte. Yeah, got it? So there it is,
and you're going about life and you've been in I
guess you're a Carolina girl now, I mean you've been
there twenty years.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I mean at this point, I've lived in Charlotte longer
than I lived anywhere. So I feel like Charlotte is
home at this point.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Charlotte is home at this point. Got it? So I
guess you graduate college and start having kids and have
a life and get a job.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Yeah kind of what happens the.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Business and kids? How many?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I have two kids?
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Two kids?
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
And all that's cool, and you're I think insurance or something.
I don't remember. Yeah, so I was read something about that.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yeah, I was in group insurance, so employee that means
like employee benefits. So I would do like ancillary lines
like dental, short term disability, long term disability.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
It actually is like plays a role in what I
do now. But I would do like those lines of
coverage for businesses.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
So if you worked for a company that needed benefits,
we could provide those benefits to all the employees.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
There.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Does that make sense?
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Yeah, okay, that did you get a degree and insurance
benefit sometime?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I had a degree in communications and journalism, and I
guess the communications part I use because I'm constantly dealing
with people. But yeah, no, I just kind of fell
into insurance. I feel like nobody in insurance goes to
school for insurance. Like you just kind of fall into
it and then you either love it or you don't.
I loved it, but I got to a point where
I just was ready to do something else and there
(07:29):
just wasn't the room for growth where I was, and
so I ended up taking a different path. So I
don't know, I might go back to insurance.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
One day you never you never know.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
It was a good experience though.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
So you've got you You just living life, I mean
a good life. But yeah, not anything overly remarkable, just
a normal person having a great life.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
I mean I was happy.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
I was working, I had a good job, my kids
were healthy, I was fine, like everything like.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
It was fine.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
It was good. Everything's fun until that does it. But
that didn't really explain why you had found a thing
called move for Gin Foundation. So I think, and now
I'm going to screw this up. Okay, okay, But as
far as I know, everything was good and you found
you went to get a pedicure and there's a bump
(08:18):
on your toe.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Or something on top of my foot.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Well I was close, right, very close. Yeah, all right,
so what happened? You want to get a pedicure?
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Yeah, so I was pressure.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Yes, it's a grace thing on earth.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
I have to a pedicure, right, gosh.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
So it's one of the guilty pleasures, Lisa allows me.
I love that there's this place not ten blocks from
my house. I live in town, not ten blocks from
my house, and I get the I think it's called
the seventy, which means fifty five minutes where they clip
your toenails and clean it up, and then I just
sit there in that hot water while they put oil
(08:55):
and lotion and stuff on your feet. Alex, have you
ever done it? No?
Speaker 5 (08:59):
You just lost your man car.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
No I did not. In fact, I think I heard
a greater man card for having the security to go
sit there with all these women and all right, cashies.
She ever had a pedicure? That a boy? That a boy?
Is it not one of the greatest experiences on earth?
You just sit there and you relax everything else.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
You told all you told all the guys this in
your yard, that you do this.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
I'll tell anybody. I'm telling the whole country right now
that I love a pedicure.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Why are we not recording there? I didn't get invited
for a petticare.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
It's a really really good point. Ye, my bad. It's
poor production on Alexi's park.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
I agree.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
I actually didn't know this about Bill. This is a revelation.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Well here's the thing. So we were in Los Angeles, Yeah,
and Lisa wanted a pedicure, and this is ten years
ago or so, and I'm like, well, what am I
going to do while you get a pedderga. I'm just
sit there. I guess I'll read the news on my
phone or something. She says, no, you're getting a pedicure
because your feet suck. And I'm like, what are you
talking about. She said, you you coach football, You're in
a lumber yard all the time, and your feet are
(10:03):
always just disgusting looking. We're getting your pedicure and I'm like, no,
I'm not getting a pedicure because that's not what men
do right box at masculinity stuff.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
No one wants that.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
No, So she makes me sit down and fifteen minutes
into this experience, I've totally so I'm getting one every
week for the rest of my life.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Do you actually go every week every week? It's not
you're bougier than me. I'm like, every three weeks.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Well, but here's my thing. My toes, my toenails grow
so fast it's weird, Like I have these fast grown toenails.
And even if I did, I'd still get every week
because it's just excuse to go sit there for forty
five minutes and be in my own place.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
I understand that.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
So that's what you're doing.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Yeah, that's what I Yeah, and so big.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Deal, there's a pimple on the top of your foot
or something.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Well, not a pimple.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
So I well, I was pregnant with my daughter and
my mom and I I was.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
A second or first first Okay.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yep, so we were I was visiting my mom, which
is in Winston, Salem, It's like an hour and a
half away from where I live. And we were getting
pedicures and the woman, yeah, girls say out like, I.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Was just visiting.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
You're pregnant, so you're allowed to have someone rub your
feet and fix it.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, she was like, let's go get pedicures. I said, great,
let's do it. And her place is great because I
feel like you would probably like it. But they like
just part of the basic pedicure they do like the
hot stones. Oh, it is like next level. So if
you're ever in Winston, you're gonna have to hit that
place up.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
I'm gonna have to get the name of this place
in Winston Silent.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
It's so good.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
But essentially a pedicure saved my life, which is crazy.
So the woman was massaging my feet and you couldn't
see the bump, but if you pressed down really hard,
you could see like a peace sized nodule on top
of my right foot.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
And did you fail it?
Speaker 4 (11:42):
No, well, when you pressed down, you could feel like
I didn't know it was there.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I didn't have any pain, I didn't have any symptoms
like I had absolutely nothing. So she pointed out to
me and said, did you know this was here? I said, no,
I've never noticed it. So we went home.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Would you think it's like a nod on your foot?
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah, well they thought it might have been like a
gangly insist, which is the benign cys. Nothing to worry about.
It's pretty common in hands and feet.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
And so I see, I'm going to pedicure for foot health.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
There you go, Okay, go ahead, Yeah, safety all the way,
cancer prevention, that's it.
Speaker 5 (12:12):
Don't ever complain. Don't know her complain to me that
you don't have enough time. If time for pedicures, I
do it.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
At lunch break. Go ahead, there you go. Oh on weekdays?
Still go on weekends. It's too crowded, agreed, Yes.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
Most of us can do that during the workday.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
It's the greatest thing of the world.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Hey, carbon some healthcare.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Look, he can sit over there.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
He just doesn't know toxic.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Yeah, and talk about how you lose your man card
for getting a pedicure, or or you can get a
pedicure and have all the ladies look at your feet
and say, now that is a well taken care.
Speaker 6 (12:45):
Of You're a taking man's through cares. Keep going, guys, sorry,
you just sit over. There's your funky feet which you
turned his mic off. Please go ahead, and now a
few messages from our general sponsors.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
But first I'll go and ask of you. We have
a couple hundred reviews of the podcast on Apple and Spotify,
but we've got way more listeners than that, and you, guys,
rating and reviewing us actually is a huge help. It
helps new folks discover us and ultimately helps us build
(13:19):
this army in normal folks that we hope can change
the country. We just got a new one from Carol
Roper said with five stars. Thank you. I look forward
to every Army of Normal Folks episode. The stories of
those who set step up to meet a need, and
the shop talk episodes always inspire me to do better.
(13:42):
Thanks for all you do to bring us the stories
that encourage us to do more than status quo from
Carol Roper. That must have taken all of a minute,
and we really appreciate it and it helps us grow.
So those of you listening please take the time when
we say it then to beach show, rate and review us.
(14:02):
We're actually serious. And so now in the middle of
a show, I'm saying, hey, maybe take a minute and
help us out. We'll be right back.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Okay. So, yeah, so she found the nod on my foot.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
I didn't notice it. I didn't have any pain symptoms, nothing.
And my mom's husband was a general surgeon. We went
back to her house.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Yeah, so I mean your mom she's a really I mean,
you got a surgeon in your house, so I mean
you got doctors around.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
You, right. So we went home and I said, hey, like,
will you look at this? And he was like, oh, it's.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Nothing, it's just gangly insists those are really common, like
nothing to worry about. And then my kids are fourteen
months apart, and I had them back to back obviously,
and so during my second pregnancy, oh so nothing.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
So we have a baby, we move all.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Yeah, we move on. It's a system in my foot,
like nothing changes. Who cares, I'll get it.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
So there's a lot of time a little bit. Yeah, yeah, okay,
so how you're pregnant again.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Yeah, hindsight, I'm pretty lucky.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
So now I'm pregnant with my son, and that pea
sized nodule grew to be a golf ball on top
of my right foot. So from an esthetic standpoint, bad
had to her it actually didn't. I didn't have any pain.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
That was what was.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
So hard about this whole process is that it's easy
to correlate like disease with pain, but when you don't
have the pain, sometimes it's hard to process that something's
actually wrong that would.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Have saw off because there's no more buying nice shoes
when you have a golf ball come out at the top.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Of well right So that aesthetically it was hard, like
I couldn't wear certain shoes and they wouldn't operate on
me pregnant, so I.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Just had to kind of wait it out.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Well hold, so did they still say, well, it was
just assist.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
So I went to I was pregnant still, I think
I was like seven months pregnant probably at that point,
and I went to a dermatologist who sent me for
an MRI. No, yes, an MRI, and I went to
the hospital to do the MRI because at the time
they were sending you to the hospital, not an imaging
center like they do out and I walk in and
the text like, Hey, I'm not supposed to say anything,
(16:03):
but if I were you you're pregnant, I wouldn't get
the scan pregnant and I would wait and they're not
going to operate on you.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
They're not going to do anything for you while you're pregnant.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
You should just because the baby.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
But actually, hindsight like that skin would have never affected
my baby. But that's what That's what she was trying
to insinuate. It also wasn't her place or her job
or her knowledge base to say anything, which I understand
if you are educated in that to say something, but
the fact and I know enough now at the time,
I had never had an MRI. So I walked out
(16:33):
of the scan and I was like, I'm not going
to risk my baby when they're not going to operate
on me, and I'm gonna it's.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
A pain in the butt, but it's well, I'm not.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
In pain, and everyone said it was fine.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
So I had pregnant, so who cares about my shoes?
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Well, yeah, so I had the baby, and then I
went back to the doctor, went to the MRI went
back to the dermatologist for results, and he was like,
this is inconclusive, so I'm going to send you to
an orthopedic onco was inconclusive. We don't know what this is, Okay,
So I said, okay, so you should get scared them.
I got scared when he said the word oncologist. So
(17:09):
inconclusive didn't scare me. Cancer didn't even cross my mind.
But when he said orthopedic oncologist, I was by myself
and I walked down to the lobby and I started sobbing,
and I called my mom and I was like, I
have two kids under two. Why am I being sent
to an oncologist? And she was like, we don't know
anything yet. Let's just you know, one step at a time.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
So I met with an orthopedic oncologist that I literally
found through Google.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
And when I tell you, I hit the Google jackpot
with this man.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
He is the best physician in the entire world, like
knowledge based bedside manner. And I didn't even know that's
who I was choose, Like I just said, oh, this
guy looks good, his reviews are good. But like when
I tell you, this man saved my life and show
it up in so many amazing ways and now sits
on my board of directors.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
I've never had a doctor who.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Can be so educated but also be such a people person,
and that changed the whole process.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
There's so too few of those. That's a sad note.
I'm so sick of doctors that you feel like they
are doing you a favor but by doctoring you right,
you know what I mean. Yeah, I'm the patient, I e.
The customer. Won't you treat me with a little dignity?
But this guy did.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Oh my gosh, this guy is I think the world
of him and his family. So I met with him.
He biopsied my foot fifteen different times. Everything came back.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Why why why fifteen?
Speaker 4 (18:31):
Well because it was inconclusive, so you know.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
I have even for an oncologist. The first fourteen domes
was inconclusive.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Well, the scan was inconclusive.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
So they did a punch biopsy, which is almost like
a like a whole punch situation, that they did fifteen
times all over my foot and then took taking something
at once.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Yes, Oh I'm sorry, I thought you made.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
You went back fifty no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
So he did fifteen different biopsies at one time, yes
on your foot, because the dermatologist said it was in correct.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
I'm sure, he wanted I'm tracking. Oh no, you're good.
It's confusing.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
So he wanted to make sure that we tested all
the different areas. Everything came back negative. So he was like,
this is a benign cyst, but due to the location,
we should probably operate and remove it. So, obviously, being
the vain person who liked high heels, at one point
I wanted to get rid of this. I could wear
my cute shoes and be comfortable. And again I didn't
have pain, so I.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Had How old were you?
Speaker 4 (19:28):
I was thirty.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Thirty yep, two kids, two kids, living life. Yep, everything's fine. Yep,
thanks mom. You're right. I shouldn't borrow trouble. This is
just a banign, golf ball size pain in the butt
on top of my foot. We're getting it gone. Yeah,
because I want to wear my cute.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
Shoes pretty much.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Yeah, okay, that makes sense. I think that's exactly how
everybody would react.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Yeah, I think so. So I was calm, it was fine.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
I went for the surgery, they removed the mass, and
then ten days post off, I was asked to come
back in that they were going to be checking my incision,
making sure my foot was healing properly. So I went
in with my seventeen month old daughter and my three
month old son, and thank god, my mom was.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
There that day.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
And he actually called to have me come in to
tell me that I had a rare form of sarcoma,
which is a rare cancer without a care, and they
didn't without a care, without a care, sarcoma does not
have a cure.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
So and you've got your kid with you.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
I have two kids with me, my seventeen month old
and my three month old. So he said, well, we
didn't know we were doing a cancer surgery because all
of your biopsies came back benign. So the whole mass
was benign except for the thin layer at the bottom
that adhered to the top of my foot. So I
was sitting here processing and when he said zarcoma, I
didn't even know sarcoma meant cancer. So I said, okay,
(20:47):
well what is sarcoma? He says, well, it's a rare cancer,
and I said okay. And with sarcoma, I now know
I didn't know then. There's like eighty something subtypes of
sarcoma and they all react differently, and so I had
a low grade to mix awaight sarcoma, so mine was
kind of between two subtypes. So they gave me more
of a general diagnosis. And so I'm sitting there and
(21:07):
now I have two babies and I'm being told I
had cancer. And I said, okay, well, what if I
don't want to have to deal with this again? What
are my options? And in my mind, I'm thinking, okay, great,
now I'm gonna have another surgery. This isn't really what
I want, but we'll carve out a clean margin. This
kind of sucks, but here we are. So he said,
if you don't want to worry about this again, you're
gonna lose your right foot, and everything, like my whole
(21:29):
body went numb, like I couldn't even wrap my head
around the idea of being an amputee and losing a limp,
like I didn't know anyone who was an amputee.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
I didn't know anyone who had sarcoma.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Like I'm listening to everything and then all of a sudden,
everything like I couldn't hear anything, and I see his
mouth moving and I'm trying to process what's happening.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
My mom, thank God is listening, and.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
I, oh, your mom is with you.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
My mom's with me. And it was a lot to process.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
And so.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Sorry you said something a couple of months ago. That's
germane the story. Yeah, he said, we didn't know we
were doing a cancer surgery because it all came back behind.
Does that mean they didn't scoop this layer that was
attached to your foot when they got this golf ball off, right?
Speaker 1 (22:17):
No? Well, okay, so yes, So when when they did
the punch biopsies, the fifteen biopsies at once, all of
those came back behind. So if you think about, like
if I had this mass and they did fifteen different spots,
all of that came back clear, no problem. But the
thin layer at the bottom of this that they didn't
punch with any of the biopsies, I guess they just
(22:38):
didn't grab it deep enough. I don't know, or the
angle or whatever that was all cancers.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
So in the first surgery, could they have gone deep
enough to get it and then thuslee have saved you
from any of the next step.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
So that's kind of where the conversation diverted after that,
because I said well, let's do another surgery if that's.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Not quite so. If so, why not go do it
other surgery and get that crap.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Well, then he explained to me, and we were sitting
in the room obviously, and he was like, feel the
top of your hand. It's just like the top of
your foot. He's like, all that's there is skin and bone. Intendants,
if this was in a muscle or a thigh or
your arm, we could go in and carve out more.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
He's like, there's nothing really left for us to take.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
He was like, but the kind of sarcoma that you had,
he said, we may have gotten all of it, but
we don't know. And he was like, this is a
slow growing it's low grade, and if it's going to
come back, it's going to come back the same way
it's started.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
And we can monitor.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
You and and go in and do another surgery another not.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
So we felt that that was the best plan because
taking my foot off the bat would have been like
really aggressive, and I had a chance of it not
coming back, so I chose to be monitored. So with sarcoma,
it's tricky. All sarcoma's really If a lot of them
start in other areas, and if they're going to metastasize,
they'll go to your lungs. So for me, I was
(23:58):
scanned every three months my foot at the time not
residual limp, and every six months my lungs were scanned.
So I would do MRIs and see teased to make
sure that it wasn't spreading.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
My grandmother not of cancer, but that was my grandmother's
shoes in her eighties, right. And we have Saint Jude
here in Memphis, right, so cancer is not that far
and me because of Saint Jude's and all Saint Jude
and all of that. But I've all when I was
(24:33):
reading your story, I wondered, you know, okay, good, we
might have got it. I'm a mother of two, I'm
thirty thirty one years old. I'm just going to get
scanned and make sure it doesn't come back or be
in my lungs. But that's a that's an interesting way
(24:53):
to live. Was there always a little sense of dread
and fear in the back of your mind constantly? I mean,
how do you live worried that something. I'm a need freak,
I'm an organization freak, and I love finishing tasks. Because
when I finish a task, I move on and I
forget about it. Yeah, that is not something you can
(25:15):
ever move on. Say do you understand my question?
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (25:19):
I do.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Cancer taught me that you can't always control everything, but
you can control your response. And that was a really
hard lesson for me to learn. So, yes, it was
hard to live worried. And anybody who has had cancer
who goes through like not even sarcoma, but any kind
of cancer, who goes through the process that I went through,
we call it scanxiety. And every time you gear up
(25:41):
for a scan, I mean you get anxious, you get scared,
you get you know, sometimes there's depression, there's worried, there's sadness,
there's the what ifs. I mean it's terrifying. And obviously
I was this young mom with two kids and my
whole future ahead of me, and the idea of losing
a limb or having cancer and of that.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
I mean, just it's not.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Going to your lungs that could kill you.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
And what's crazy is like, once I was diagnosed, I
was in well. So I was scanned every three months
the first year, then every six months the second year,
and I was clear. So the third year, I had
gotten to go a full year without scans, and that's
when life started to feel like a smidge more normal.
I'd come over, not no, no, no, not I'm over
it were good by any means.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
I still lived with the drugs.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Oh, one hundred percent, and I honestly lived with the
dread until I would say this year when I was released,
but we'll get there. But I feel like for me,
every time my scans would come, I would be I
learned my patterns of behavior, Like I learned when I
would get quiet, and I learned when I would become reclusive,
and I learned that that was like my coping mechanism
to dealing with the time and getting through scans. And
(26:47):
I would always get like that. My friends knew. My
friends knew, like as soon as I got scheduled, like
they would mark their calendars and I would be like,
I mean, the support that I had was unreal, and
I know that I am so less beyond measure with
my circle, and not everybody has support like I had.
And all my friends are ten twenty thirty years plus.
(27:08):
And when I say their chosen family, I'll cry talking
about them because the support that I had and continue
to have is just beyond anything I could have ever
expected or felt like I deserved. But I'm thankful because
they've gotten me through. But yeah, it's scary. But unfortunately
for me at my three year scans it was December second.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
And you're only having to do a year now, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
I want a whole year.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
She got to be filmed.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
Yes, I'm definitely feeling more confident.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
So like, walk in, I'm talking to my doctor, I'm
talking to the PA who I love, and we're like
she pretty much was my age and we hit it
off in the office and she was almost like my
friend in the office at this point. And so we
were just talking catching up on life and she leaves
the room and I guess my doctor was outside and
the SAME's doctor Pat and he you know, told her
name's Lenna. He told her, you know, she has a recurrence.
(27:55):
We have to go in and tell her. And she's like,
I just had this great conversation with her, like we're
joking around, having like how am I going to go
in there?
Speaker 4 (28:01):
And he was like, we have to do it.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
So they went in and I was very blindsided to
hear that my sarcoma came back. But not only did
it come back, it didn't come back as a peace
size nodule. It came back as a three millimeter layer
over my entire right foot, And so that was a
really the whole top of my foot.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
And so I knew when.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
He said that what was happening, Like he didn't even
have to tell me, and my whole body got hot
and my I remember hyperventilating. I couldn't breathe. I felt
like there was like an elephant on my chest. It
was definitely one of like the worst moments of my life.
Definitely like top top three, top worst moment ever. I
(28:42):
mean it was horrible, and I was by myself because
I thought it was fine. I was like, oh, you're three,
like we're good. And I was like a psychopath, like
I would check my foot daily, like if you knew me, No,
I was a psychopath, like think about like every day.
I was like in the morning, after I get out
of the shower, like I would press down on my
foot and I was like looking for things and.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Exactly how I would have been, Yeah, I mean that's
exactly I would have I would have always checked it
and just said Okay, no, nodule, Let's.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Go have a day, right exactly. And that's that's kind
of how I lived. And so I was crying in
the office with him, and we were just kind of
talking about things, and he reframed it for me, and
I think this goes to show the kind of person
that he is. And all I could think about was,
oh my gosh, I'm going to lose a limb, Like
what does life even look like? And he said to me,
(29:33):
if you and I want to cry talking about this,
he was like, if you want to watch your kids,
because my kids were three and four now, and he
was like, if you want to be here to watch them,
you know, go to prom, graduate high school, if you
want to dance at their weddings, you're going to do this,
and you're going to be here.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
And after that, sorry, there was it was an easy decision.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
I guess when you frame it that way.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Yeah, But then I I said to him, am I
going to walk again? Because I didn't know any amputees.
I didn't even know what that looked like. I didn't
know what prosthetics look like. I mean, I knew what
a prosthetics looked like, but I didn't know, like, oh,
there's different ones with different.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
Activities and all the things. I was not planning getting emotional.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Day and so it's an emotional thing.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
It is an emotional thing. And I said to him,
am I going to walk again? And he said walk again?
Speaker 1 (30:22):
I hope you run, and this light bulb went off
in my head.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
So then I was majorly anxiety ridden leading up to
the surgery.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
How much time between that conversation or surgery?
Speaker 1 (30:51):
So he said, what you have is low grade and
slow growing, so you have a little time to pick
your date. We need to pick it soon, but it
doesn't have to be tomorrow. And so that was in December. No,
I'm sorry, January. Yeah, January second was when I was diagnosed,
not December second.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
January second, and then my surgery was March twelve.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Okay, this may sound I do not mean this insensitively. Yeah.
I like to try to put myself in the time
between that conversation and when'd you say March one twelve?
I mean were you looking down at your foot thinking
you're going to be gone? Yeah, and the loss of
(31:33):
your foot. I know that sounds weird, and I don't
mean it to sound.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
That way about it. No, I know you don't.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
And I actually have a funny story of a weirdo
doctor that I.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Saw a weirdo doctor. Yes, oh I want to hear it.
Speaker 4 (31:43):
I will share. So, Yeah, it was hard.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
It was one of those things where like I needed
time to process. Talking about it was gut wrenching.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
So I took to.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Blogging and I would like blog out what was going
on so all my friends and family could read it
and I didn't have to repeat myself because I was
literally in survi mode.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
You don't want to tell that story und times, No, it's.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Horrible, and then everyone obviously cares and wants to check
in with you. But I just didn't have the mental
capacity because I was trying to show up as a mom.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
I'm trying to handle myself.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
I'm very transparent that at that time obviously, like I
needed anti anxiety and antidepressants to get through the day.
And I don't think there's any shame in that for
people who need that, And I always share that because
I think there's so much negative connotation with many Yeah
there is, and that that is exactly what that stuffs
for one hundred percent. And my I obviously knew going
(32:32):
into it that my depression and my situation was it
was situational anxiety and situational depression. But I wasn't gonna
survive without being able to have something to get me through,
and that that's kind of that time in my life.
And I'm not embarrassed about that.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Two or three. You're young, yeah, I.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
Was thirty three. I'm young.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Yeah, you're young.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
Yeah. And I was super active and and all the things.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
You know. It took me a little bit to wrap
my head around, like processing that this was happening to me.
Then I had to go through additional testing and like
do some other stuff and prepare myself for the surgery.
And then choosing a date was really hard because he
was like text me the date, like, here are the
dates that are available for my surgeries.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
Let me know which one you want. And that was
so hard.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
I remember I was at one of my girlfriend's houses
and our kids were playing, and I was so anxiety
ridden and I felt like nause just thinking about it,
and I was so scared and even just sending this text,
like I remember, my hands were just like it was horrible.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
And so finally I was like you know what.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
One of my friends had sent me, like this message
of encouragement and I don't know what about what he sent,
just like hit me in the right place in my heart.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
And I was like, you know what, I'm gonna do this.
I can do this. And so I texted in March
twelfth and I threw the phone down and I was like,
I'm done.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
So leading up to my surgery, I obviously knew I
was going to be on crutches, so I was like
a very active person. I took a lot of classes
like Orange Theory and things, and so I ended up
getting a personal trainer who at the time was one
of the trainers at Orange Theory, and told him like, Okay,
I really want to focus on upper body. I'm gonna
have to carry myself around. I don't know what my
life's going to look like. So me and one of
my best friends switched and we started doing all these
(34:07):
different kinds of workouts to prep me for things. I
started trying to figure out how can I prep my
home for this, And then the week before my surgery,
I felt compelled to do this Facebook live. It was
kind of before social media was what it is now.
I mean it just obviously like things travel quicker now
than they did seven years ago. And so I did
this Facebook live. I don't know why I felt the
(34:27):
need to do this, but I did. And I asked
my friends and family to get out and move because
they could move.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
Because you can.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Is like just something that stuck with me ever since
my first surgery. So like after my first surgery, every
year on that date, I would go for a run
because I would think about how I was on an
operating table and the idea of losing my foot and
losing mobility was just gut wrenching, and I wanted to
like honor myself and honor everybody who wanted to move.
(34:55):
I couldn't, so I would always go out and run
that day. And so take foot for granted, Oh seriously, and.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Which sounds so stupid, almost say, but talking to you,
I'm pretty happy I got both my feet right now.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
Absolutely it should be.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
And so yeah, I don't know, So I did this
Facebook live video. It's pretty much me just crying and
asking people to get out and move because you can't.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
Pretty much me just bawling and saying, hey, don't take
your feet for granted. Move.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Well, yeah, and I talked about how mobility can be
taken away in the blink of an eye and your
whole life can change. And my life was going to
change forever, and I didn't know what it was going
to look like, and that was really scary. And one
of my girlfriends, who lives in Atlanta, was like, we
need a hashtag hashtag move for Gen. She had commented
that in the sight. So anyways, then I like go
about my life, and my story starts to get like
(35:46):
picked up a little bit, and I think I had
like a news interview before maybe one or two.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
And then I had my surgery.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
I get to the hospital and my nurse, a nesstist
who does like the anesthesia, walks in in a move
for Gen shirt and from the hashtag moved for Gen
that my friend wrote in the thing. He came in
in a tank top that said I moved for Gen.
And the night before my surgery, my girlfriends all sent
me a group text with this collage picture and they
were all in these shirts. I'd say, I move for Gen,
(36:14):
and I was like, okay, Like I remember like sobbing,
and so I got to a hospital.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
Did that feel just like support? That feel like to you?
Speaker 4 (36:26):
Like the highest form of love and support, I guess.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
So yeah, yeah, and you didn't know your nurse at
this list.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
So actually he I didn't know him well at the time,
but he lived next door to a friend of mine, so.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
We had met.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
It was a loose connection, but it is. Yes, dude
shows up wearing that T shirt.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Yeah, and there's a picture of us and People Magazine
together with him wearing it, so it's kind of funny.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
That's very cool.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
So when I woke up from surgery, Dari said, I
don't know, I want to say six hours, but don't
quote me on that.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
And dread, Oh my gosh, unreal. Yeah, unreal, the dread
of that day. I remember walking.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Into the hospital thinking like, well, maybe I shouldn't do this,
maybe I'm just gonna leave, And then I was like, no,
I'm here.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
I have to do this, like there's no choice.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
I was gonna ask this, and then I decided no,
you're a shallow jerk for asking, and then I decided
it was and then I wasn't. But now that I've
met you, I am okay. Obviously your mom you were
into working out and whatever, and so you're thinking about
(37:36):
your mobility you're thinking about living your life. You're thinking
about walking, You're thinking about being able to go to
your kids games and dance and travel normally and whatever
drive a car, I mean anything that requires a foot.
I was actually thinking about this driving here. Yeah, and
this is not specifically just about you, but so that
(37:57):
our audience members, most of whom have all ten fingers,
toes and lumbs, just for perspective and so that we
can empathize to better understand the importance of the work.
Were you also concerned about people looking at you weird
(38:19):
without a foot going through Target? Were you also thinking about,
you know, am I going to be as attractive as
I once was? Were you also thinking about, you know,
are people going to approach mely differently because I don't
look as whole as I once did. And I really
(38:39):
don't mean that sounds sensitive, but again I would feel
that way.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Yeah, No, absolutely, I would say, you're looking at me weird.
Speaker 4 (38:50):
I'm not looking at you weird. I'm looking at me.
I promise I'm not.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
I actually have like a really good response to this,
which is why I'm looking at you the way I'm
looking at you.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
Go for it.
Speaker 4 (38:58):
Yes, all of.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
These things were were of concern for me. But I
think what I realized so the I would say, two
weeks leading up to my surgery, I think I ordered
like fifteen or twenty different Maxi dresses so I would
be able to like have myself covered and nobody would
know what dresses.
Speaker 4 (39:13):
MAXI dress like a long dress to the floor.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
Was that because you were?
Speaker 4 (39:18):
Because I wanted to be able to hide it. Yeah,
But then my story went viral, and.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
I think when that happened, it was almost a blessing
in disguise because it was like not like the attention
part because I didn't care about that, but the fact
that people knew and I like so many people in
our town or area like knew what was happening to me,
so I didn't have to go out and explain myself
to every person on the street. Obviously you're going to
(39:46):
get people like the one offs who like have no
filter and say stupid things.
Speaker 4 (39:50):
But like I ordered all these dresses, and I was
like so.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
Content on like hiding and trying to be this version
of who I was, who I was losing, I mean
because literally like I was mourning the old version of me.
But then when I woke up from surgery. The first
thing I was told was get your phone. And I
was like, I haven't even looked down yet. Like I
was still medicated, yes, but it was also highly medicated
(40:14):
from the surgery, so like I wasn't you know, all
there yet, And I said, I just woke up and
I was told, look, get your phone please. So I
got my phone and my video had been viewed. I think, like,
I don't know, nineteen thousand times or twenty something.
Speaker 4 (40:29):
That I can't even remember.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
And I had like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
messages from people all over the world who.
Speaker 4 (40:37):
Watched my video, maybe even thousands of message. I mean,
it was just.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Beyond who watched my video, heard my message, felt my message,
and got out and moved the day of my surgery,
and it was anything from like classes of little girls
like in Tutuo's in a dance class holding signs that
said moved for Jen to moms and orange theory classes
or Purebard classes, or you know, a bunch of guys
(41:01):
going out on a run with a run group.
Speaker 4 (41:03):
It was all formed.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
There were kids outside playing tag and writing scooters. It
was all forms of activity. And I said in my
video like go out in your favorite form of movement,
like it doesn't have to be one way, and just
be grateful that you can do it.
Speaker 4 (41:16):
And even if.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
It's raining, like and you go on a run in
the rain that day, you should do it. And my
old office from insurance at Link Financial Group, like they
got out and walked in the rain that day. And
the impact of that, I mean the messages I got.
I got messages from people who dealt with severe depression
who said, I live in Europe and I watched your
video and I've dealt with severe depression. I haven't gotten
(41:38):
off the couch in two years. And I walked my
dog today and it's the best I felt. And so
the impact of my message just hit people in a
way that I never was prepared for.
Speaker 4 (41:52):
But such a positive out of such a negative and.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
Just no know, not organic, which makes it much more real.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
Yeah, And so all of a sudden, like there was
this redirection of focus. And for me, I think that
really helped in my healing. And so when I got home,
I was like, well, everybody knows. And then all of
a sudden, like people magazines picking up my story and
Today and daily Mail and all these like insane publications,
(42:22):
and it's like, what am I hiding? At this point,
like everybody, my story is worldwide now, so like everybody knows.
Speaker 4 (42:27):
What am I hiding?
Speaker 1 (42:28):
Like I need to learn how to own this version
of me. And so that's why I did. I mailed
back all fifteen of those Maxi dresses. My mom was like,
you're crazy. I got my money back and I was like,
I'm going to figure this out. And you know, did
I have times that were hard?
Speaker 4 (42:44):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Did I cry in like many dressing rooms trying on
clothes to make myself feel good and fit, and nothing did.
Speaker 4 (42:51):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
For like a year, it was really hard for me
to find clothes that I felt good in. But I
slowly learned to recognize and love this new version of me.
But I think what really helped with that was after
my initial like surgery, I started to meet with a
prothetist to have prosthetics made and I said, okay, well
(43:13):
let's talk running blades because I want to get back.
Speaker 3 (43:15):
What does lose your foot mean? I mean I can
envision anything from above your knee down to just above
your ankle. You know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (43:25):
So good question?
Speaker 3 (43:29):
What does what does lose your foot mean, so see
what I'm.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
Saying I do, and it's different for everybody. So and
this was something that kind of took me a minute
to wrap my head around. So for me, the cancer
was only in my foot, but my amputation is about
halfway up my shin.
Speaker 4 (43:43):
The reason for that is my doctor knew I wanted
to be active.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
I wanted to be able to have like so they
rate you K one through K four depending on how
accurate K K one.
Speaker 3 (43:55):
What does K stand for?
Speaker 4 (43:56):
You know, I don't really know what K stands for. Ok.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
K one is like pretty much like a geriatric patient
who's trying to get from the bed to the bathroom,
to the kitchen to the couch. K four is someone
who wants to like get out, run long distances, maybe
a paralympic athlete, someone who's highly active and wants to
live as close to the lifestyle that you previously had.
Got it, And obviously there's some in between.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
But you were K four.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
I was K four. I want to do everything like
I was so determined. I was like, I'm going to
learn how to do everything I did before.
Speaker 4 (44:24):
I'm just going to learn a new way to do it.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
I do the amputation planning on prosthetics to allow you the.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
K for well, not necessarily to allow you the K four.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
I was already like based on the questionnaire I filled out,
I was already deep like rated that us. And so
my doctor chose the placement based on knowing the activities
I wanted to do because there are people that I've
met through MU for Jen who have had a lower
amputation where they have more of their limb, but they're
not able to utilize all the different types of prosthetics
(44:54):
because they don't have the space.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
That's weird. So the more you take, the more athletic
you can.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
Be kind of think the deposite, right, And I thought
that too, But now it totally makes sense to me,
because otherwise your hips wouldn't be.
Speaker 4 (45:06):
Aligned because you would need the space to fit the
prosthetic under you. That makes sense.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
Yeah, that absolutely does make sense.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
Right.
Speaker 4 (45:13):
It took me a minute too.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
Yeah, And that concludes part one of my conversation with
Jen Andrews, and you don't want to miss part two
that's now available to listen to. Together, guys, we can
change this country, but it starts with you. I'll see
in part two
Host
Bill Courtney
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