November 18, 2024 • 13 mins
How do you confront the fear of a potentially life-altering diagnosis when the world seems to be on pause? Join me, Sherry, on "Sylvr Tea" as I share the deeply personal story of my battle with breast cancer, from the hesitation that delayed my mammogram during the pandemic to the sobering moment of receiving my diagnosis. I take you through the emotional and physical challenges of planning for surgery, the intricacies of coordinating with surgical and reconstruction doctors, and the vital importance of staying vigilant with regular check-ups. This episode is a heartfelt recount of my journey and a testament to my determination to embrace life post-cancer.
As we shift into the latter part of the episode, I focus on the complexities of adjusting to a "new normal." I explore the financial challenges that come with short-term disability, the stress it brings, and how it affects day-to-day life. With Women's Health Month as our backdrop, I invite you to reflect on your own experiences and join our supportive community. Stay tuned for more episodes released a few times a week, where we’ll continue to share candid conversations and updates over a comforting cup of tea.
https://youtube.com/@sylvrtea?si=e-XJdxEobRS0fuZl
https://www.instagram.com/semereuwa/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557707021989
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, welcome to my podcast, silver Tea.
My name is Sherry and mypodcast is about living my new
norm after surviving breastcancer.
And the second reason I'mactually making this podcast is
because I am working on facingsome of my fears and I am a very
(00:20):
shy person, but if you know myfriends and stuff, they would
probably disagree.
They'd laugh and say but theyknow, I'm a very non-social
person, I'm shy, I don't go, Idon't do a lot of things.
So after having breast cancer,after having going through that
(00:41):
process, I now want to live mylife to the fullest.
I want to talk about today howI got to where I am right now.
It was back in March 2022.
We were deep into the pandemicand we were sheltering in place
(01:12):
and I had missed my mammogramscreening for two years because
we were going through this wholepandemic part, and so I didn't
want to be in the hospital.
No, I did not want to be in thehospital.
Girl hospital no, I did notwant to be in the hospital girl.
So I had decided 2022 is it wasa good year to try to go, but
(01:33):
then I was kind of hesitant.
I was again the nerd.
I didn't want to be in thehospital because we were still
wearing the mask and it was.
I was a little nervous, so Iwas trying to trying to wait a
little bit.
So what happened was I hadpains in my breast and with
those pains, one was worse thanthe other, I said, well, let me
go ahead and schedule mymammogram screening.
(01:57):
And so I did.
I scheduled my screening and Iwent to the hospital and it was
a long process because, first ofall, my breasts were tender.
And I went to the hospital andit was a long process because I,
first of all, my breasts weretender and I had to tell that
nurse, please don't put me in amachine where you squeeze my
breasts up because it hurts,don't do it.
So she said, okay, we won't usethat.
(02:18):
When your breasts are tender,we try to use something else.
I forgot what the machine.
I don't know if it's called a3d machine, I don't, I really
can't remember.
But, um, there was two differenttype of machines.
I actually was in both of them,the one that we're mostly used
to, where we have to stand andhold the bar and then they smash
it.
So, um, so I went through onefirst and something I wasn't
(02:44):
familiar with.
And then I went through thesecond one.
And then the second one was theone that we all know where they
smash your breasts in themachine and it's very painful.
But I found out that that isdone because they're trying to
even the thickness of yourbreasts so they can see into
your breasts better with themachine, can see into your
(03:08):
breast better with the machine.
So I just learned that justlast week because I was in there
for my, I think, six monthcheckup, because it's been, uh,
yeah, so now six every sixmonths, every six months I I go
for, um, my mammoth, my checkup.
So I think actually this is my,I have one more six, six month
checkup and then I can actuallygo once a year again.
(03:29):
So I'm excited about that.
But anyway, so moving on, don'twant to get all over the place,
so, um, so I had, they had me inthe machine, and then they,
they saw something and theyasked me to go sit down in the
waiting room and wait a littlebit because the doctor wanted to
review the screening and sothey were going back and forth,
they were calling me to come domore pictures and I was like I
(03:52):
don't know what's going on, butthey're scaring me.
Well, what are you doing?
So finally they said, well, wesee something.
We looked, we looked at itseveral times.
It hasn't moved its position,it's just kind of staying there.
So we, we really want to getmore, we want to see it, we want
to do a biopsy.
I'm like, what a biopsy?
(04:12):
I said, okay, all right.
So they scheduled a biopsy.
They also scheduled anappointment with the, the doctor
that was going to be doing thelumpectomy surgery on my breasts
.
At the time I just thought hewas a doctor, that was just.
I was scheduling my, my umappointment with, just in case
something went wrong.
And so I, I went, I went to thedoctor, me and my sister jumped
(04:35):
in the car and we drove over tothe doctor.
But let me tell you, when hecalled me to tell me I had
cancer, I was on the phone likeum, I, I, I really that's how I
was on the phone and he was likehe was just sitting there
quietly, as if he's used, as ifhe's used to delivering bad news
(04:57):
and he knows how people take it, because some people actually
get mad at the messenger fordelivering his news.
So I'm not that person, I wasjust like sitting there.
So, anyway, we get to thedoctor's office and he, he tells
me that I can bring, I canrecord the the appointment
because there's a lot to absorb.
And I must say there was a lotto absorb.
(05:18):
He was talking about her twopositive breast cancer stage 1a,
and this is what happened.
I'm like there's this a inthere, I mean because I know
there's stage one through four,but I didn't know there was now
subcategories, which is for thesubcategories.
So after we talked and gotthrough all that, we had to
(05:40):
schedule my appointment for thesurgery, because now my surgery
I was opting to have the breastreconstruction as well, so I had
to have both doctors in theoperating room at the same time.
So I had to have the breastreconstruction doctor and the
(06:01):
surgical breast cancer removerdoctor in the operating room at
the same time.
So their schedules needed tomeet up.
So I ended up getting mysurgery like in June.
Now, mind you, I found out May4th that I had cancer, but like
I waited to June, I had to gountil June to get my surgery.
(06:26):
But I mean, it just seemed likeeverything just moved so fast
after that doctor's appointmentwhen that surgery came up.
There was short-term disability,there was the surgery, there
was chemotherapy, there washospitalization from infection
from the port that the doctorput the port in.
He was a little rough, he waskind of shoving it in there and
(06:48):
I end up with being septic onday one with an infection.
Mostly I don't think it was aninfection, I don't think it was.
I don't know, I don't know howthat works.
All I know is I end up beingseptic or having sepsis and I
was hospitalized for five daysand I was hospitalized for five
(07:11):
days.
So anyway, I had the surgery,the port installation infection.
They removed the port and thenthey installed a PICC line in my
arm and when they did that,they also sent me home with a
PICC line antibiotic to continueto help fight the battle of
(07:34):
being septic.
Because they, they sent thehome alcohol.
Only give it to myselfintravenously.
There's no taking by mouth.
You couldn't do that.
You had to three.
Three times a day.
Okay, three times a day.
Thank god for my mom, becauseshe was spending the night for
about a week dealing with metrying to get this in there and
(07:57):
I had to get the specialdelivery.
The nurse was coming but then Ididn't have a wound specialist.
So then I had to take care ofmy own wound from the, from the
port, because they couldn't geta wound specialist out, a wound
specialist out to see about me.
So it it was a lot of stuffgoing on and let me tell you, it
messes with you mentally.
So I have to say my family wasthe best and without that great
(08:22):
support system in my mind was mymind was in.
I was a cheerleader for myselfas well as the great support
system of cheerleaders that Ihad.
I had my two sisters who playednurse while I was healing from
the poor installation, theinfection that I had.
(08:45):
My two sisters were theremaking sure my wound was taken
care of two times a day.
They was packing it, they wascovering it with new gauze,
galls, new everything.
They were doing a whole thing.
I mean they did such awonderful job.
We couldn't even find anybodyto see about my wound.
I mean this is like all thisstuff that went on, but I still
(09:06):
came out on the other side witha good attitude.
So this is the reason for mypodcast I.
I want to talk about my newnorm.
I want to talk about my eating.
I want to talk about my newlifestyle.
I want to talk about things Iused to do that I don't do no
more, or things that I never diddone doing now.
So it's a lot of stuff.
(09:29):
So in my podcast, I wouldreally like to share with you my
new norm, and I also would liketo hear from you what your new
norm is after having breastcancer.
What are you doing different?
What are you doing now that youdidn't do before?
Can you drink a nice glass ofcold water?
I can't.
(09:52):
I did before, I can't do it now.
So these are the things thatthat that's not.
That's out of my norm.
I, I don't.
I can't pick up a glass of coldwater and just drink it.
I get sick, I get, I getnauseous.
There's so many things.
It was.
There was weight loss issues.
There was I didn't, I didn'tlose weight during chemo.
(10:15):
I gained weight.
So they were saying that wasgood.
Well, good for who?
That's the real question.
I don't want to be gaining noweight.
So people were losing weight,but I was the opposite.
I, I was gaining weight.
Um, I was putting weight on.
But my sisters, my son, theywere running me back and forth
to the chemotherapy.
(10:38):
I just can't tell you howsupportive they were and what a
great support system is needed,because cancer does not just
affect you.
Cancer also affects your family, it affects your friends.
It even affects your co-workers, because your co-workers are
(11:00):
worried about you.
Some of my co-workers I didn'teven share that I had cancer
until like almost a year laterand after that, the ones that I
used to always call and talk tothey was, they were so were so
upset about the fact that I hadcancer and they were sorry about
it.
They were just expressing howmuch they cared for me.
(11:23):
My co-workers, the ones that Italked to my boss he was great
the IT people that I worked withall the time they were all it
was.
It was a great community.
Uh, I did I definitely have tosay that without them, how will
my mental health have been?
(11:44):
So I I will again.
Please don't forget to go andget your mammogram screening.
Get your annual mammogramscreening.
Get your annual mammogramscreening because it's crucial,
because early detection is thebest detection.
So please try to get out thereand get your annual mammogram
(12:08):
screening as soon as possible,and if you have any loved ones,
you know that needs to go andget their mammogram screenings,
annual mammogram screenings.
Please remind them because youwant to.
You just want to be there forthem, and one of the ways of
being there for them is tryingto make sure the prevention care
is in their plan.
So this month this is may, Ibelieve may is coming up then,
(12:32):
and I want to say happy women'shealth month and and we need to
keep taking care of ourselves.
Self-care is important.
Early detection is the bestdetection.
It's also very crucial becauseI, like I said, I don't know
where I would have been had Inot go gone when I did, because
(12:54):
I was actually going to wait alittle bit.
So if you like my podcast,please hit that notification
button, subscribe, let me knowhow you you like the channel.
If you like what you hear, comeback for the new podcast that's
going to be coming I don't knowsometime next week or this week
or tomorrow.
I will be making podcasts acouple times a week and
(13:15):
releasing them and we're goingto talk.
We're going to talk about whatyour new norm is and and I'll
talk about my new norms.
I'll talk about everything andI also can touch more on how
short-term disability was astress factor, a bigger stress
factor than anything else that Iwas dealing with.
The financial part of it wastough it so, yeah, and this,
(13:38):
this is I.
We'll talk, we'll talk.
So what I want you to do is hitthat subscribe button.
Come back, let's have a chatagain over some tea.
Enjoy some nice tea.
I'll talk to you later.
You have a good day and happywomen's health month.
Hi, welcome to my podcast, silver Tea.
My name is Sherry and mypodcast is about living my new
norm after surviving breastcancer.
And the second reason I'mactually making this podcast is
because I am working on facingsome of my fears and I am a very
(00:20):
shy person, but if you know myfriends and stuff, they would
probably disagree.
They'd laugh and say but theyknow, I'm a very non-social
person, I'm shy, I don't go, Idon't do a lot of things.
So after having breast cancer,after having going through that
(00:41):
process, I now want to live mylife to the fullest.
I want to talk about today howI got to where I am right now.
It was back in March 2022.
We were deep into the pandemicand we were sheltering in place
(01:12):
and I had missed my mammogramscreening for two years because
we were going through this wholepandemic part, and so I didn't
want to be in the hospital.
No, I did not want to be in thehospital.
Girl hospital no, I did notwant to be in the hospital girl.
So I had decided 2022 is it wasa good year to try to go, but
(01:33):
then I was kind of hesitant.
I was again the nerd.
I didn't want to be in thehospital because we were still
wearing the mask and it was.
I was a little nervous, so Iwas trying to trying to wait a
little bit.
So what happened was I hadpains in my breast and with
those pains, one was worse thanthe other, I said, well, let me
go ahead and schedule mymammogram screening.
(01:57):
And so I did.
I scheduled my screening and Iwent to the hospital and it was
a long process because, first ofall, my breasts were tender.
And I went to the hospital andit was a long process because I,
first of all, my breasts weretender and I had to tell that
nurse, please don't put me in amachine where you squeeze my
breasts up because it hurts,don't do it.
So she said, okay, we won't usethat.
(02:18):
When your breasts are tender,we try to use something else.
I forgot what the machine.
I don't know if it's called a3d machine, I don't, I really
can't remember.
But, um, there was two differenttype of machines.
I actually was in both of them,the one that we're mostly used
to, where we have to stand andhold the bar and then they smash
it.
So, um, so I went through onefirst and something I wasn't
(02:44):
familiar with.
And then I went through thesecond one.
And then the second one was theone that we all know where they
smash your breasts in themachine and it's very painful.
But I found out that that isdone because they're trying to
even the thickness of yourbreasts so they can see into
your breasts better with themachine, can see into your
(03:08):
breast better with the machine.
So I just learned that justlast week because I was in there
for my, I think, six monthcheckup, because it's been, uh,
yeah, so now six every sixmonths, every six months I I go
for, um, my mammoth, my checkup.
So I think actually this is my,I have one more six, six month
checkup and then I can actuallygo once a year again.
(03:29):
So I'm excited about that.
But anyway, so moving on, don'twant to get all over the place,
so, um, so I had, they had me inthe machine, and then they,
they saw something and theyasked me to go sit down in the
waiting room and wait a littlebit because the doctor wanted to
review the screening and sothey were going back and forth,
they were calling me to come domore pictures and I was like I
(03:52):
don't know what's going on, butthey're scaring me.
Well, what are you doing?
So finally they said, well, wesee something.
We looked, we looked at itseveral times.
It hasn't moved its position,it's just kind of staying there.
So we, we really want to getmore, we want to see it, we want
to do a biopsy.
I'm like, what a biopsy?
(04:12):
I said, okay, all right.
So they scheduled a biopsy.
They also scheduled anappointment with the, the doctor
that was going to be doing thelumpectomy surgery on my breasts
.
At the time I just thought hewas a doctor, that was just.
I was scheduling my, my umappointment with, just in case
something went wrong.
And so I, I went, I went to thedoctor, me and my sister jumped
(04:35):
in the car and we drove over tothe doctor.
But let me tell you, when hecalled me to tell me I had
cancer, I was on the phone likeum, I, I, I really that's how I
was on the phone and he was likehe was just sitting there
quietly, as if he's used, as ifhe's used to delivering bad news
(04:57):
and he knows how people take it, because some people actually
get mad at the messenger fordelivering his news.
So I'm not that person, I wasjust like sitting there.
So, anyway, we get to thedoctor's office and he, he tells
me that I can bring, I canrecord the the appointment
because there's a lot to absorb.
And I must say there was a lotto absorb.
(05:18):
He was talking about her twopositive breast cancer stage 1a,
and this is what happened.
I'm like there's this a inthere, I mean because I know
there's stage one through four,but I didn't know there was now
subcategories, which is for thesubcategories.
So after we talked and gotthrough all that, we had to
(05:40):
schedule my appointment for thesurgery, because now my surgery
I was opting to have the breastreconstruction as well, so I had
to have both doctors in theoperating room at the same time.
So I had to have the breastreconstruction doctor and the
(06:01):
surgical breast cancer removerdoctor in the operating room at
the same time.
So their schedules needed tomeet up.
So I ended up getting mysurgery like in June.
Now, mind you, I found out May4th that I had cancer, but like
I waited to June, I had to gountil June to get my surgery.
(06:26):
But I mean, it just seemed likeeverything just moved so fast
after that doctor's appointmentwhen that surgery came up.
There was short-term disability,there was the surgery, there
was chemotherapy, there washospitalization from infection
from the port that the doctorput the port in.
He was a little rough, he waskind of shoving it in there and
(06:48):
I end up with being septic onday one with an infection.
Mostly I don't think it was aninfection, I don't think it was.
I don't know, I don't know howthat works.
All I know is I end up beingseptic or having sepsis and I
was hospitalized for five daysand I was hospitalized for five
(07:11):
days.
So anyway, I had the surgery,the port installation infection.
They removed the port and thenthey installed a PICC line in my
arm and when they did that,they also sent me home with a
PICC line antibiotic to continueto help fight the battle of
(07:34):
being septic.
Because they, they sent thehome alcohol.
Only give it to myselfintravenously.
There's no taking by mouth.
You couldn't do that.
You had to three.
Three times a day.
Okay, three times a day.
Thank god for my mom, becauseshe was spending the night for
about a week dealing with metrying to get this in there and
(07:57):
I had to get the specialdelivery.
The nurse was coming but then Ididn't have a wound specialist.
So then I had to take care ofmy own wound from the, from the
port, because they couldn't geta wound specialist out, a wound
specialist out to see about me.
So it it was a lot of stuffgoing on and let me tell you, it
messes with you mentally.
So I have to say my family wasthe best and without that great
(08:22):
support system in my mind was mymind was in.
I was a cheerleader for myselfas well as the great support
system of cheerleaders that Ihad.
I had my two sisters who playednurse while I was healing from
the poor installation, theinfection that I had.
(08:45):
My two sisters were theremaking sure my wound was taken
care of two times a day.
They was packing it, they wascovering it with new gauze,
galls, new everything.
They were doing a whole thing.
I mean they did such awonderful job.
We couldn't even find anybodyto see about my wound.
I mean this is like all thisstuff that went on, but I still
(09:06):
came out on the other side witha good attitude.
So this is the reason for mypodcast I.
I want to talk about my newnorm.
I want to talk about my eating.
I want to talk about my newlifestyle.
I want to talk about things Iused to do that I don't do no
more, or things that I never diddone doing now.
So it's a lot of stuff.
(09:29):
So in my podcast, I wouldreally like to share with you my
new norm, and I also would liketo hear from you what your new
norm is after having breastcancer.
What are you doing different?
What are you doing now that youdidn't do before?
Can you drink a nice glass ofcold water?
I can't.
(09:52):
I did before, I can't do it now.
So these are the things thatthat that's not.
That's out of my norm.
I, I don't.
I can't pick up a glass of coldwater and just drink it.
I get sick, I get, I getnauseous.
There's so many things.
It was.
There was weight loss issues.
There was I didn't, I didn'tlose weight during chemo.
(10:15):
I gained weight.
So they were saying that wasgood.
Well, good for who?
That's the real question.
I don't want to be gaining noweight.
So people were losing weight,but I was the opposite.
I, I was gaining weight.
Um, I was putting weight on.
But my sisters, my son, theywere running me back and forth
to the chemotherapy.
(10:38):
I just can't tell you howsupportive they were and what a
great support system is needed,because cancer does not just
affect you.
Cancer also affects your family, it affects your friends.
It even affects your co-workers, because your co-workers are
(11:00):
worried about you.
Some of my co-workers I didn'teven share that I had cancer
until like almost a year laterand after that, the ones that I
used to always call and talk tothey was, they were so were so
upset about the fact that I hadcancer and they were sorry about
it.
They were just expressing howmuch they cared for me.
(11:23):
My co-workers, the ones that Italked to my boss he was great
the IT people that I worked withall the time they were all it
was.
It was a great community.
Uh, I did I definitely have tosay that without them, how will
my mental health have been?
(11:44):
So I I will again.
Please don't forget to go andget your mammogram screening.
Get your annual mammogramscreening.
Get your annual mammogramscreening because it's crucial,
because early detection is thebest detection.
So please try to get out thereand get your annual mammogram
(12:08):
screening as soon as possible,and if you have any loved ones,
you know that needs to go andget their mammogram screenings,
annual mammogram screenings.
Please remind them because youwant to.
You just want to be there forthem, and one of the ways of
being there for them is tryingto make sure the prevention care
is in their plan.
So this month this is may, Ibelieve may is coming up then,
(12:32):
and I want to say happy women'shealth month and and we need to
keep taking care of ourselves.
Self-care is important.
Early detection is the bestdetection.
It's also very crucial becauseI, like I said, I don't know
where I would have been had Inot go gone when I did, because
(12:54):
I was actually going to wait alittle bit.
So if you like my podcast,please hit that notification
button, subscribe, let me knowhow you you like the channel.
If you like what you hear, comeback for the new podcast that's
going to be coming I don't knowsometime next week or this week
or tomorrow.
I will be making podcasts acouple times a week and
(13:15):
releasing them and we're goingto talk.
We're going to talk about whatyour new norm is and and I'll
talk about my new norms.
I'll talk about everything andI also can touch more on how
short-term disability was astress factor, a bigger stress
factor than anything else that Iwas dealing with.
The financial part of it wastough it so, yeah, and this,
(13:38):
this is I.
We'll talk, we'll talk.
So what I want you to do is hitthat subscribe button.
Come back, let's have a chatagain over some tea.
Enjoy some nice tea.
I'll talk to you later.
You have a good day and happywomen's health month.
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