Interview 594 - Interview with Krisdee Clark!

Interview 594 - Interview with Krisdee Clark! by Ken Walls

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, good morning, and welcome to break Through Walls. I
am Ken Wallason. I'm your host, and today I was
going to have and then I wasn't going to have,
and now I'm having the amazing Christy Clark on the
show today. She is incredible, y'all. I'm telling you, you

(00:24):
want to share this out. Let's get as many people
on here as we can. Christy's going to come in
and tell us her story and how she rose to
I mean, this lady is the former MISSUS America. She's amazing,
beautiful on the outside and the inside. So do me
a favor. Share this out with everybody that you know,

(00:47):
and stay with us. We will be right back with
the one and only Christy Clark. Okay, let me bring

(01:27):
Christy on. Christy, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
I'm glad I finally got to do it. I mean
it was put to go there, but I'm here.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Oh my gosh. You know what though, that's that's what
makes it keeps life interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, we'll goo with that. We'll go with that. That
power out of just keep life interesting. Can you believe it?

Speaker 1 (01:51):
I Like, I was so looking forward to having you
on the show that I literally thought it because you said,
I'm I can do it from my phone in my car,
and I'm like, I almost said yes, and then I'm like, no,
it's never worked out. So I'm glad that I'm glad
that you're here. I'm glad you're here and your powers

(02:12):
on and everything is golden. So so Christy, I started
this show about six years ago and have interviewed over
six hundred celebrities and entrepreneurs. And joke my buddy Joe Ingram,
it's missus America. Oh he's He's saying he's a former

(02:36):
Miss America. Leave it up. Leave it up to a Californian.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
I like it. I like it. I like it.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
So so you know, this was really to help people
have a breakthrough in life. And I think that when
we hear other people's stories about overcoming hard times and
how they got through it, it's just it's good for everybody.
So let's start with you. You telling everybody where you
were born and raised.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah. So, actually I am a Carolina girl. I'm from
South Carolina. I was actually born in Ohio though so
lived there for a very very short time in my life,
don't remember it at all. So I consider myself a
Carolina girl or raised here in South Carolina, which the
University of South Carolina, and have pretty much lived here

(03:26):
my whole life, with the exception of just traveling all
over the United States.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Wow. So what part of Ohio do you know?

Speaker 2 (03:35):
A little town called Finley?

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Shut the front door. That's where I'm from that area. Stop,
I swear to God. Well, I'm not from Finley, but
I just south maybe forty five minutes. Yeah, that's Hancock County.
I know exactly where you're from.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah. I was born there and I think I was
about two. So that's why OA my home.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
That's awesome. So so you so you went to Did
you grow up in a small town in South Carolina?

Speaker 2 (04:14):
I grew up right outside of Columbia, which is a
state capital, and so I was about fifteen minutes outside
of Columbia. So the town was small, but I had
Columbia right there, you know, capital being down there, all
the big university everything, So so I kind of had
the best of both worlds.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Okay, what was it like for you growing up there?
Like as a kid, did you Here's here's why I
asked that. I think that normally there's a person, an event,
maybe a combination of events or people that kind of
push us in the direction we go as adults. What

(04:52):
what do you think of when? When I mean what,
what do you think? Kind of pushed you in the
direction you you win as an adult?

Speaker 2 (04:59):
Great questions. So growing up, I always been an extrovert
and loved the kind of doing the fun stuff in
the spotlight. I played fast pitch softball. I was a
first baseman all through school. Absolutely loved it. Loved doing
that kind of stuff. And then I knew I wanted
When I went to the University of South Carolina, I thought,
I'm gonna work in sports. I wanted to actually be

(05:20):
a general manager of a Major League baseball game. That
was my dream. That was my goal. I wanted to
run the whole show. Wow, yeah, it's all like, that's
what I want to do. A big New York Mets fan.
Don't ask, we're good this year, but don't ask how
I got to be. I just love the Mets. So
I'm a huge Dasall fan. And so I really thought

(05:41):
that's the direction my life would go. And you know,
when you know, when you think you know, God laughed
and said, yeah, it's not the direction you're going. To go,
and so I actually got a job right out of
college working for a hockey team. We had the ECCHL here,
and I liked it. I was in sales, and I
you know, I liked being around the sport thing. But

(06:01):
then I got this incredible job working for Centers for
Medicare Medicaid services. Nothing I ever want to do, like, no,
except for I traveled all around the country and I
was doing public speaking, and I was speaking to doctors
and administrators and nurses and it was just incredible And
looking back, you can actually see how my life went

(06:24):
why I started there, and it was complete preparation from
what I'm doing now.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Wow. So what do you think That's a huge shift.
I mean, that's like you couldn't even guess that it
would be. You'd be better at guessing the lottery numbers
than that. So why that? Why did you go into that?

Speaker 2 (06:51):
So honestly because it's where I got a job somebody,
my sister worked for the company, and she was like, Hey,
there's this great job. You'd be good at it. You're young,
you're single, you could go on and travel. It would
be great for you. And I was like, okay, thinking
I would do it for a little bit. Thirteen years later,
I was still there and so don't work for them anymore.
But that's how it happened, and I was, I mean,

(07:15):
it was just unbelievable. But it gave me such a
great background in healthcare and clinical type things without having
gone to school for that, but really knowing thing from
policy and legislative changes, being on the actual end of
where those policies are made all the way now to
what I do now and working for one of the

(07:35):
largest hospices in the United States and being their policy
and legislative person. But then my real story of breast
cancer and what I do as a women's health advocate.
So it all was just I mean, I feel it
was divinely just meant to be where I had to
be there and understand that aspect of things in order

(07:56):
to be where I am now.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
So okay, so you talk about okay, you did that
for thirteen years and then what happened? What was the
next shift for you after? And that was Medicare Medicaid.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
Worked for the CMS, which is now who doctor Oz
is over and Human Services, so I was working for
them in policy and legislation. I actually worked for a
contractor of them and loved it. I mean it was great.
I was I was traveling everywhere and talking and really
talking about policies and listening to people talk about the

(08:34):
importance of policy changes and really seeing those things happen
to taking a break from that type of work because
I became a mom and I stayed at home for
a little bit, which was absolutely epic, and loved it. Yeah,
all of a sudden coming back into the workforce, but
deciding that I was going to be on the opposite end.

(08:55):
I was going to be on the provider side of
things and then fight for those policy and legislations. So
I really have gotten to wear both hats and see
it from both sides, which which makes it a very
unique perspective. And then that really catapulted me into my
advocacy work.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
So so talk about when so you will just go there,
I mean, so you you're a breast cancer survivor. I
almost don't even like the word survivor. There's got to
be a better word, like achiever, kick asser, or something

(09:34):
like that.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
Driver I'm a thriver, that's the driver.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
There you go. I love that. But so, so you
talk about the day that you found out that you
that you had that.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
Was during COVID. Of course, doesn't everything happen during COVID.
I feel like so twenty twenty, I'm at home, my
husband is deployed to the Middle East. I'm here with
my two children. They are eight and five at the time,
so you know, a lot going on. Were just starting
to wear the mask, just starting to lock down for

(10:13):
the two weeks. And I went to get my mammogram
and when I did, it was they saw something. And
the doctor came in and said, listen, I see something,
probably nothing to worry about, but want you to come
in and do a diagnostic. And so came back and
then I did the biopsy and I got a call

(10:34):
that was on a Friday, so I had to wait
over the weekend, which was absolutely horrible. And then on Monday,
I got the call that I had invasive lobular carcinoma,
so I had breast cancer on a second mammogram. I
probably had breast cancer the first mammogram I had. But
mammograms are so outdated. It's a terrible way to find cancer.

(10:56):
That is not at all by saying you shouldn't get
your mammograms because it's the only thing that women have
right now for it to be paid for, so at
least you're doing something. But yeah, it was a slow
growing cancer, but it was already in two of my
lymph nodes, which I found out later in the story.
But that was the day that I was diagnosed, and
I thought, Okay, so we're doing it. We're going to

(11:19):
survive this, and we're going to figure out what we're
going to do on the other side.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
Oh my goodness. So I mean, wow, what happened with
your your mindset? You seem like a really I don't
know you very well. We've had a couple of conversations,
but you seem like a very positive, upbeat, that the

(11:47):
glass is half full kind of of person when you
get news like that, though, I would imagine it's tough
to hang on to that, at least for the moment
it is.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
But I will tell you, I thank you for saying that,
and I am that kind of a person. But I
was also extremely naive. And what I mean by that
is I really had in my head I didn't know
anything about breath cancer. I didn't have any any of
my family that have breath cancer. I did not have
the brackagen nothing so this was all new to me,

(12:22):
and I really thought in my head that I was
going to, Okay, you know what, if they tell me this, okay,
we'll just go in, we'll do what we need to do,
and guess what, I will have a MAMMI makeover and
have implants and all will be well. I mean, that's
honestly what I thought. So I thought, Wow, we're gonna
handle this. And then when I heard the words you
have cancer, no matter how, you sort of think okay,

(12:46):
they're gonna call me today and tell me you don't.
You cannot prepare yourself, and it really did hit me.
And I thought the only thing I could think of
is I have two children at home. I'm home by myself.
I have to handle this with grace. And grace became
my word. It was the word that I used the
entire year of going through chemo and radiation. I just said,

(13:07):
I have to handle this with grace. I had to
show my daughter what women do when we are told
we have to fight. And I had my son how
strong women can be. And those were two really really
good reasons and I and and that's what I did.
I mean, I just thought, there's nothing I can do.
So we're gonna do it. We're gonna we're gonna, you know,
dig down and we're gonna do it.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
Wow, that's that's that's incredible. So and your husband was
still deployed.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
Yeah, he was deployed and he came back. The Army
allowed him to come back for my double mastectomy, which
I ended up having. He was on the last plane
out of Kuwait before they shut down all the air
traffic because if you can recall, I mean it's crazy
to remember that time, but like roads were closed, airlines

(13:59):
were closed, so all airline traffic. He was able to
come over two weeks. He was not able to come
to the hospital with me because of COVID. He was
not able to stay with me or advocate for me
in the hospital. I was there by myself for those
day and a half and it was crazy. So life
was very different. I had to do my keynotes on

(14:19):
my own, I had to do radiation on my own
because of COVID. But it was very weird. But I
also didn't know any different. It's not like I had
gone through this, so it's not right different.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
You're your attitude, Holy crap, people need more of that.
Like I'm serious. Oh my gosh. So so you know,
because I sit here going okay, knowing what we know
now about COVID and like, uh but I guess you
can get get into that that resentment and stay there

(14:54):
and that's not a fun place to be. But so
so talk about you know what happened after that. I
can't believe your husband was only able to come back
for two weeks.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
So it was tough. So when I was diagnosed, I
was diagnosed with invasive popular carcinoma. They told me it
was very small. The doctor, the surgeon that I went
to here locally, did not have a great bedside manner.
I knew instantly he was not the surgical oncologist for me.

(15:28):
I just knew it. And that's really where this advocacy
comes in about not only women's health, which we'll talk about,
but advocating for yourself. That's the first and foremost thing.
I was there by myself, and I knew I needed
to advocate for myself. And I didn't feel comfortable with him.
You know, he was telling me I went in after
doing very little research, but enough that I knew and

(15:50):
I know myself that if I had had a lumpectomy.
No matter what kind of cancer I had, I would
always be very concerned that the cancer would come back.
So I came back knowing, hey, listen, I definitely want
to double mess ectomy and he was like, that's radical.
Let's pause, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Then I

(16:10):
went for my MRI and it came back that it
was much larger, which is where the mimography thing comes in.
So mammograms are great. They can kind of detect that
you have something going on, sometimes not always. Then you
go in for your MRI resolve well before that, you
have your biopsy, but then you go in for an MRI,
which is really where women need to be at with

(16:31):
their healthcare and rest health, and that is where it
really tells you. And we're talking like where he thought
it was a spec to where it turned out to
be more like a golf ball, which is in one week,
you know that it's just that's the discrepancy between mammograms
and MRIs.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
Yeah, And he said, yeah, it's bigger, so you probably
want to have at least one, you know, the bilateral
mass ex or the single mess deect to me and
I was like, no, I want them both gone, I'll
have reconstruction, and he was like, okay. By the time
I had my surgery, so one month from diagnosis to surgery,
it was actually seven point seven centimeters, so it was

(17:12):
quite large, and it was in two of my limp
modes going into a third one, so it was already
in my letatic system. So you can see already where
health here it starts for women will say in this
instance all the way to where in one month. I mean,
that's a massive difference. You can see where people are
not detecting what they have or unable to detect what

(17:34):
they have because we're just so far behind in.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
That right, Wow, so I have.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
So yeah, so I'm diagnosed, I go through all that
and decide on the double mastectomy. But before that, I
was like, I'm not I'm not doing it, and this
guy is not the one for me. And I really
really strongly suggest to women to always advocate for yourself.
I went up to Charlotte. That was that was an
and a half for me in North Carolina. Found an

(18:02):
incredible plastic surgeon, an incredible surgical oncologist who were absolutely
wonderful and who I felt comfortable with. I didn't want
to be a widget in the system. I didn't want
to be Hey, I don't really like this guy, but
he's telling me this. I mean, he sent me you
a reconstruction doctor, and the reconstruction plastic surgeon looked at
me and said, well, you'll look reconstructed and but that's

(18:25):
okay because the cancer will be gone.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
Oh my god, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
What like, there can't be real life. I mean, you know,
we all watched the box shows. We all watched that
there's no way that we don't have better classic surgeons,
and we do. But the difference is is they send you.
They actually send you to people that do regular augmentations,
where reconstruction doctors are not covered by insurance. But the

(18:53):
augmentation ones are wo and the reconstruction ones actually know
how to do a reconstruy truction for a patient. It's
much much different than an augmentation.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
Wow wow wow wow. So so Savvi is on here
saying every woman needs to hear this. My wife is
on here watching and listening, and hopefully all of them
are sharing this out because I will guilt you into
it if you don't. But you know, I think that

(19:28):
and I'm I'm like that. I'm like, I've I when
I had COVID. I went into a hospital because my
oxygen dropped to seventy and this little Indian doctor comes
walking in literally wearing a space suit and an oxygen
tank and all this creer. I'm like, what is going on, dude?

(19:49):
What are you doing? Like he's like, we will treat
you with retten dizzy via, and I'm like, and you
will get punched in your face. You're not treating me
with that? Are you out of your friend in mind?
And then he's like, and we will give you the vaccine.
I said, no, no, no, no, I need oxygen and fluids.
That's what I need. I have double pneumonia. And he's
and so we got in and I checked. I walked

(20:11):
out of that hospital. I said, I'm not doing this
because he was trying to guilt me into letting the
Musram Dezevere and give me the jab and I said, no,
I'm not doing it. I'm not doing either one of those.
And I think that a lot of people like, you're
saying Christy and is it am I saying your name? Right?
Is it Chris d or Christy just Christie? So but

(20:36):
what you're saying is people don't advocate for their own
health care. They go blindly into any whatever a doctor says, right,
it's the white coat syndrome. And and I'm like, I
don't give a crap if you're a doctor, If you're
giving me advice that I feel I feel in my gut,
isn't right. I'm out, dude.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yeah, And you know you know your body. I mean,
we all really do. We just don't trust it when
you go in in a doctor. Listen, that surgical oncologist
maybe amazing for somebody else, but he was not amazing
for me. And that was where when you go through
something that you don't know if you're going to survive
or no matter what it is in life, if you

(21:18):
do not feel comfortable, do not stay with that doctor
there are. You have the ability to go anywhere you want,
so absolutely shop around, go and get a second opinion.
In fact, that doctor. The last straw for me with
that surgical oncologist was when I found so I had
just gotten my MRI and I was getting the results

(21:39):
and I had already called up to North Carolina to
get a second opinion with doctor Turk, and I called
over there and said, Hi, I'm getting a second opinion.
I need my MRI results though he can review it.
And he She went and talked to the doctor and
came back, and the doctors had told her to tell
her that then I'm not getting my MRI results and

(21:59):
then new doctor can just do an MRI and that's
how they set it to me on the phone.

Speaker 1 (22:03):
What so I had.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
To say, okay, never mind, I won't go to another
doctor so I could get my m RI results. And
then I went to the other doctor. But that because
you become a widget in these systems of healthcare, and
they just it's great that we have a healthcare system
that you know wants to you know, sends us, does

(22:25):
this whatever. They and you don't have to think about
where you're going. But we're not even thinking anymore for
ourselves on what is the best the best route for us.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
So so wait a minute, you're saying that this doctor
tried to strong arm you into staying with him.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
Yeah, told me I couldn't have my m RI results
if I didn't if I went to get a second opinion.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
And your husband, your husband's military, right, Yeah, he.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
Wasn't in town though, because he wasn't he wasn't back yet.
This was I had to do all this on my own.
Nobody could go with me anywhere.

Speaker 1 (22:58):
Did he go talk to that doctor when he got back.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
Because we were so happy to be somewhere else and
the new daughter was so fantastic. In fact, I kind
of tested the new dog when I sat there. I
was like, Okay, I think I'm gonna get another opinion.
And he was like, absolutely, you go to MD Anderson,
go wherever you want. Wow, here so you know where
how I feel and what you should do. Go do

(23:22):
what you need. And I looked right at him, I'll like,
never mind, let's schedule the surgery and ready to go.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
I wow.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
He was that confident. That was my guy. Like it
just it's.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
Crazy, Wow, that's that's insane that if a doctor treated
my wife. She's on here. She'll tell you if a
doctor treated her like that, Yeah, he will. He would.
He would rue the day that he was born. Like
I'm serious, I'm like that just like so so God,

(23:56):
I don't even know where to go from there. So okay,
so you had the surgery. Obviously your husband was he
there when you had the surgery?

Speaker 2 (24:06):
He got here, he blew in the day before them
Double messax to me on that last plane out and
he flew into Baltimore from overseas. So he ended up
renting a car and driving because he was so worried
he wasn't gonna be able to make that connection. And
we were really concerned because at the time, you know,
we're all buying the COVID stuff. So we're like, okay, well,
I hate for you to be on any more airplanes

(24:27):
than I have cancer. And so he drove from Baltimore.
He said nobody was on the road. They rented him
a Dodge Charger or Challenge or whatever. I'm pretty sure
he knows exactly how fast they go. Now, Nope, he
was on the road and he had to drive to Baltimore,
so he was out of the last But yeah, in
time for that, and I went in. I drove up

(24:49):
to Charlotte. I had to carry a piece of paper
with me that said that I was having surgery. And
the police officer pulled us over in North Carolina. What
you were supposed to be on the roads.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
Yet, Oh god, he miss that.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
We went through and had my double mass extiny and
he was able to calm in the hospital to see
me in like a whole way. I was just I'm
so groggy, basically, it's like pruful life. And then they
set me upstairs by myself. So they put me in
the bed and no kidding, I'm like this in the bed, okay,

(25:22):
they said. I'm like, I'm laying like this. Oh my god,
I have a double mess segamy. You're literally bonded, like
you know, you're you can't move, your arms, can't move nothing.
They'd cut my limp notes, so like, I have no
like mobility. So I'm laying there in the Finally, about
an hour later, a nurse comes in and shooks me
and she goes, did they put you with that? And

(25:43):
I was like yeah, And so she gonna get somebody
to help lift me up so that I was straight
in the bed and not like God God. Then they
brought my food and they left it up here, which
I can't reach me.

Speaker 1 (25:54):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (25:56):
But I'll tell you why that happened, and that's because
during COVID, nurses are so used to having family advocates
with them. So your husband's with you, your wife's with you, right,
we don't have anybody. They just leave this stuff wherever
and they're they're not thinking. Oh, I've literally called my
husband on a cell phone who was at a hotel
down the street, and I was like, I can't reach

(26:18):
my food.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
So it was this like hayas with all of it.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
I you know, wow, I'm just sitting here blown away.
I'm just so blown away. So so how did your
so was your husband there through your recovery or did
he have to leave fairly let.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
Weeks he did get to go to the chemo, uh
discussion like how the chemo would go and whatnot. So
I ended up needing four rounds of chemo twenty five
rounds of radiation. So I would go to these eight
hour confusions once every three weeks. And I got to
chemo number three, got home, and I was on a

(27:11):
chemo that can cause anaphylactic shock, so they really they
give you better drill and they're really kind of watching
you during it. So I get home and I go
to sleep, and the next day I'm feeling kind of
it and that this is this is around three of chemo.
And I go to the next day and I called
my husband in the middle of that night because we're
eight hours difference, and I was like, something's wrong. I
just don't feel right. And I started having this like

(27:31):
weird like guttural sound in my throat and all of it. Well,
little did I know. I put myself in the car
with my Golden Doodle in the bag. My kids are
not home. I put that in the bag. It's two
o'clock in the morning. I'm going over where the on
call doctor told me to go get some friend of
zone at a twenty four hour pharmacy. And I decide
last minute, I'm going to take myself to the hospital.

(27:54):
And I did, and I was going into anaphylactic shock.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
It was literally a fork in the road of going
to the twenty four hour pharmacy or the er, and
I chose the er, and thank god they did because
I'm here to tell about it. Because the doctor said,
that's it. No more chemo. The next one will absolutely
kill you because you're already I wanted. I went into
anel flax instruct twice. They gave me the ebnephrine, went

(28:23):
to bed, woke up the next day, happened again. So
that was it. Wow, Yeah, I ended my chemo, finished
up the twenty five rounds of radiation. After that, and
then went in for my complete reconstruction surgery, which is
what I was puting. My fun surgery put me back together,
and that's where my story really started to develop into

(28:43):
That's where that's where I thought, Hey, you know, I've
got a double mass sect to me. I've lost my hair.
I looked crazy because I'm sick. So let's do a pageant.
That sounds great. Let's stand on stage and this one
suit because.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
Oh my god, So I want you to meet this
lady here, Kelly Spies Williams. She has the Kelly Williams Show.
She's very, very heavily involved here in Texas with the
teen pageants, and she has her own show, the Kelly
Williams Show, that you need to be on. Y'all would

(29:23):
love each other, I promise you, so remind me. I
want to connect you and Kelly because you guys are like,
you're going to be like instant sisters. She's amazing. Yeah,
so you cracked me up. Okay, So here you are.
You said you lost your hair, You've been through all

(29:45):
this stuff and you decided, you know, now would be
the perfect time to be in a beauty pageant.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
Right.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
Sounds sounds logical exactly.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
It's so, am I still showing up in my thing?

Speaker 1 (30:03):
Yeah, you're frozen. At least you're frozen with a pretty
smile on your face.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
Go turn it here, I'll keep talking. I'll put that
up for a minute.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
So yeah, so crazy enough, I am. I'm not really
a pageant girl. I know that's absolutely crazy since I
grew grew up in South Carolina and we are the
land of pageants down here. But you know, I played
softball and all that kind of stuff, and and so
I ended up deciding to start a blog during all this,

(30:36):
and it was really just for me and some women
that I knew that were kind of going through a
very similar thing, because what I noticed in going through
all of this is that I didn't have people that
were able to tell me things that I needed to know.
And what I mean by that is what is chemo? Like?

Speaker 1 (30:59):
What is the Hey, let me let me interrupt you
real fast, because it's going to be a lot better
if your video's on. Just all you have to do
and you'll it'll you'll have to re enter the studio
and all that, but just refresh the page, Just refresh
the browser, and you'll come right back. So Christy will

(31:20):
be right back. She's she Honestly, what happened this morning
is oh look she's already back. There she is. You're moded, though,
I think, oh, there you are, You're back, You're back.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
I thought I would never do a pageant, but I
started this funny blog called The Blonde Bombshell and that
was a cute name that my husband always called me,
and it was it was an iron name at the
time because it was the last thing I felt like
was a bombshell. So I thought, I'll name it this
cute little name that he always calls me, and so
that's what I named it, not knowing that it would
go viral and people from all over the world will

(31:54):
contact me about my journey and about questions, Hey, what
was this like? Or can you help with this? And
so I thought, how I really have this platform. And
that's when platform and pageant kind of went together and
I thought, Okay, well I'm going to do a pageant.
So it was a year after I had not even
a year after I'd had my double mass actomy and

(32:15):
my reconstruction and all. That was just a few months
after my reconstruction that I decided that I was going
to do the Missus South Carolina pageant, and I did,
and I was crowned Missus America or crown Missus South Carolina,
and then went on to the national pageant where I
shared my story there and was able to be crown
MISSUS American there, which was absolutely phenomenal. And it was

(32:38):
really about thriving after life storms, and that's really what
it was about. It was your journey and how you
are not a product of cancer. That cancers a portion
of your story. It's just a small chapter of your story,
and that there is truly a pre cancer you and
a pose cancer you. And that was a really hard
thing for me to navigate. Yes, I was a totally

(32:59):
different person in some ways and it was good, but
I needed to know who that person was. My husband
needed to know who that person was. And so there
there was all these different different things going on, and
that's where I became this as an American and I was
really able to do some incredible things. I was able
to lay the reef at the hum of the Unknown
on Easter Well. I was able to go up to

(33:23):
Walter Read and go to the Cancer Ward and talk
to all the incredible soldiers who have cancer. Yeah, there were.
And then I was able to speak at mar A
Lago and share my journey with President Trump and all
those that were there, and that's where it really catapulted
me into sharing my story on Capitol Hill with Susan Coleman.
He note, I've spoken with legislature and Senate congressman, all

(33:48):
of them about changing the bills that we need changed.
And now I travel all over share my story and
MC events and so it's really become a really amazing thing.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
Wow, turning tragedy into triumph. And I think one of
the most impressive things to me is how you it
doesn't seem like you ever let it get you down.
Did you have moments though, where you were like, I
gotta cry and I'll be right back.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
Yeah, mainly after. So I have my moments like during
surgery where you know, something hurt or I'd go, oh
my gosh, this hurts. But but it was really it
was really after, and it was it was really more
of the mental side of it. So, you know, I
woke up on my own after having a double mess

(34:45):
back to me in a hospital room on my own,
bandaged completely up, and they come in and They're like, okay,
well you can leave today because they don't want you
to stay because with COVID. And so I had literally
one night in the hospital.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
Yeah, and my bag is sitting there and my husband
can't come in, and I'm sitting here going okay. And
I walked in front of the mirror and though I
was bandaged up, I look like I had been beaten
with a baseball bat.

Speaker 1 (35:13):
I mean, that's what.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
That surgery does. There's just bruises everywhere. And so there
were moments like that where life was hard, but it
was really the mental toll and that I talk a
lot about that about that. You know, this is a
mental journey too. I mean there really is a pre
cancer you and a post cancer you, and and it's
it's getting to know that person and it's but but
there's so many great things about it. I honestly, I

(35:37):
know it sounds absolutely crazy, but I wouldn't change a thing.
I feel like I've been able to help so many
people and I found my purpose. And who gets to
say that, you know that they know that that's their purpose,
and so I'm I'm blessed. I mean that's that's really
what it boils down to I am a blessed person
that has been able to find their purpose and share

(35:59):
my journey, which I couldn't ask for anything more.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
So talk about President Trump like you so you like
hung out with President Trump at mar A Lago like
what I've been.

Speaker 2 (36:14):
To mar Alago several times. I have shared my journey
there several times MC, several events going down on May
thirty first to MC, the United Doctors of America event
at Trump International. I just was at Trump draw. I
love Trump, I mean, you know, but I do. I

(36:35):
just He's incredible, absolutely one of the kindest human beings
I've ever had the opportunity to meet. I just can't
say enough good things about him. I was a fan
of his before, but when I met him and he
really he listened, and I felt like I was the
only person in the room, and it was He's just very,

(36:56):
very incredible and so and he and he listens about
the orning that we're on. You know, we are decades
behind in women's health care nineteen ninety three, nineteen ninety three,
so you can think back about where you were in
nineteen ninety three. It was not that long ago. That
is the first year that women were allowed to be
in clinical trials for medications.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
So what that means is men were given medications and
they were like, right, it works on him, it will
work on her. And we know that our bodies are
completely different, and so we have a long way to go.
And that was one of the things that I talked
about with him, and then being able to talk about
and hopefully be able to talk with Robert F. Kennedy
Junior in the Home Health AJHS side of things. Yeah,

(37:42):
really about women's health and about the fact that things
are not covered for women. I mean I had to
pay out of pocket for my reconstruction. It was not
covered because it's considered vanity. It's not wow necessity. We
have a couple of bills that are currently in legislation
right now that need to be passed for people to
have difference if the economic sides to them. So it's hard.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
I mean, unless you're an illegal and you want to
have a sex change.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
You want to have a sex change, people get all ever.
But I get my breast removed because cancer and I
have to pay a pocket for.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
That is so absolutely just I'm gonna swear I better stop.
I'm gonna, oh my god, what is wrong with this country?
So well, you know, hopefully we've got we've got the
leader in place that's that's changing it, for sure.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
He's we do and I think RFK is going to
do some good things too, and doctor Oz over at CMS.
There's just some things that really need to change in
healthcare as a whole, but certainly for women's health care.
I mean, you know, cancer is the second leading cause
of death for women. Really, heart disease is the first.

(39:11):
And there you go with another thing with heart disease,
so with men and women, so the model has always
been the man. So hey, men, you get pressure in
your chest, you have tingling your arm, whatever that, and
we're all told these symptoms. Women have none of those
symptoms when they have a heart attack. None. It's a
totally different symptom for women. But yeah, it's not told
any of that. Yeah, we're not told any of that.

(39:33):
And and that is the number one killer of women,
second being cancer, with breast cancer being one of the
top along with poll and cancer and a few of those.
So so women are very behind in health care. I
have number one. How it's paid. Mental health is another
huge one for women. We are not. That's hardly covered.
Very little things are covered. Basically, it's funny, but it's true.

(39:57):
Women are more expensive to ensure because we have more
to our bodies to have happened. We have the children,
we need, the hysterectomies, we get all of these things
that happen. So women are harder to ensure. We're more
expensive for the long haul. Men usually don't have issues
until later. But that's truly what it is, and it's
just never been changed. And the one thing that is

(40:19):
the most irritating is the only thing that we discuss
as it pertains to women's health, especially in the political realm,
are abortions. And I am so sick of hearing women's
health and abortion in the same sentence. That is not
women's health. We are far more than that, and we
need to be standing up for that and really having
our voices be amplified.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
I can see how passionate you are. We have right
now twelve hundred and thirty some odd people watching live.
So so when when you so you're an advocate, which
I think you know when you say I'm an advocate
for women's health, I guess I didn't realize how broad

(41:05):
of a statement that is, I mean, that's a that's
a big broad statement to say. It covers a lot
of areas. What are the what are your primary focuses,
what are your primary concerns when it comes to advocating
for women's health.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
Well, I started out really sharing my journey with breast cancer,
and that's where I noticed that that was my story,
but it's not everybody's story, and that we had it
wasn't just that we had a long way to go
with breast cancer. I truly believe that we have a
lot more information than we're told. Big Pharma plays a
huge role in all of this. Chemo cost about forty

(41:45):
to eighty thousand dollars a treatment if you're not insured.
So you can imagine that if we if we found
a cure for cancer. Think about one person, I did
four rounds of that. Many people do eight rounds of chema.
So if you can think about how much that would
cost per person and what Big Tarma would be missing
out on, absolutely that comes into play. So it became

(42:09):
it started as that, and then I started realizing that
there's it's far more than that. When I found out
about the clinical trials, when I did my research on
mental health with women and and how that is treated
in the United States, as well as even maternal mortality.
I mean, it's insane that we live in the country
we live in, with the healthcare we live in, and
we still have one of the highest maternal mortality rates

(42:30):
among developed nations. I mean, it's crazy. So it started
as that, and it has become just just encompassing all
of women's health and wanting us to be better and
more advanced and have the answers that we need as
women and not be left out of the discussions and
of the treatments and of what really works with our bodies.

Speaker 1 (42:53):
Wow. So okay, let's say that we have I mean,
we have a lot of people watching thirteen hundred now,
so let's say that there are women watching going through
some of the stuff that you're talking about. I mean,

(43:13):
you've talked about the the first doctor that you you saw.
For those that have arrived later, you know, Christy survived
breast cancer. She kicked its asses what she did, but
she she But the first doctor was was not he

(43:34):
was he was a I won't say it. He was
not a good guy. He didn't work for you. Right,
You're so you're so PC and the way you say it, meanwhile,
I want to go like punch him in the face.
But so so for for people that are going through

(43:57):
this stuff. You're saying, hey, stand up for your what
your guts telling you about your medical care? Do you
talk about that from stage? And do you so?

Speaker 2 (44:10):
First and foremost you're your own advocate. I always bring
advocates with you. Number one, Never go to something alone,
especially if it is something big like cancer or heart disease,
anything like that, because you retain so little of what
is actually being told to you about those doctor's appointments.
Make nodes, bring someone with you all those things, but

(44:31):
be comfortable with who you're with and seek the second opinion.
I knew that the second opinion was not going to
tell me I didn't have cancer. I just knew that
I wasn't feeling comfortable with the doctor that I was with,
and I didn't want to just be in this system
where I was like a herd of cattle following behind everybody,
and so I came back here to do my oncology.

(44:53):
I really like the oncologist here for the chemo and radiation,
I was great with that, but it was the surgery
that I and I wanted that second opinion because he
was telling me, you can have a lumpectomy, and then
he was like, well maybe you should have just one
mestectomy and I was like, yeah, yeah, I knew for
me in order for the peace of mind, I knew
that I needed to have a double mass up to

(45:15):
me and I'm very glad that I did. It is
a radical decision, but it was the right decision for me.
And you know, you need to be an advocate with that.
If you don't feel comfortable, you have every right to
go to somebody else, and you should. You should seek
out as many opinions as you need before you feel comfortable.
Cancer moves very fast the treatment of it, so once

(45:36):
you're diagnosed, you're you're kind of in the system and
they want boom boom boom. So you feel the pressure.
You know, they're like, well you can get one, but
you know, we got to do this and you have
to have this. So you feel the pressure, but you
have time. You really have time. Slow down, take a breath,
meet with the doctors that you need to meet with,
travel some more like MD Anderson. I mean, this is

(45:57):
your life, this is your health. Yeah, feel comfortable with it.

Speaker 1 (46:02):
Wow, did you consider alternative treatments at all?

Speaker 2 (46:08):
I wish I had so. When I was going through
all this before COVID and before my opening to everything,
I was like, Okay, I have cancer, we have double
mass dectamies, we have chemo, we have radiation. I'm so
glad I had the double mass dectomy. Chemo, it's poison

(46:28):
in your veins. There are I wanted to live. I
wanted to live for my children. But you know we
laughed earlier. You know, I wear my readers. My eyesight
is shot, and they were like, well, it's probably not
from the chemo. Yes it is, because fine, before that,
I have lots of things that I've noticed that have
changed a lot with me, all because of that, and

(46:50):
nothing that doctors tell you about. These are things. That's
why I started the blog. That's why I started speaking
about it, because like we're all sitting here like, Okay,
does what's happened to you? Because it happens to me,
and then you feel like, oh, thank god, it happens
to you too, So we need these these communities. We're
talking about this stuff, and I wish I would have

(47:11):
sought at least some more treatments that could have been
different where I wouldn't have. I mean, I had gamma
rays going to me. I'd joke with my husband that
I'm the incredible holds now after I went there, because
I literally had gamma rays going through me exiting out
the back. I had liked it wasn't a whole, but
you know, it was like a bruised type thing where
the where I come out. So I was like, all right,
you know this is what's this is what's going on

(47:33):
in our bodies. I mean, it's yea. So I wish
I had sought other treatments and I and I do
think women are great for doing that.

Speaker 1 (47:42):
My yeah, my wife is chiming in her brother. Her
younger brother diagnosed with leukemia at six years old and
lived with it till he was fifty. And you know,
I just I do wonder sometimes if that that, you know,
the vaccine exacerbated it, and I just you just never,

(48:07):
you don't know, you don't know.

Speaker 2 (48:09):
Probably won't know. And with big pharma bit the way
it is and the money that they make, But you
can't tell me, you can't tell me that we don't
have more answers than.

Speaker 1 (48:19):
We're told we do.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
Wee for lots of things, and we have we we
we really need those answers. Cancer is is awful. And
can you imagine when we find out that we actually
have had a cure for a long time and all
the people that have lost loved ones to cancer.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
I mean, I mean, think about think about you. I'm
sure you do, of course, but Fauci and and the
the you know, somebody somebody posted on AX the other day.
You know, let me remind you that your grandparents died alone,
you know, and we all we all want to be

(48:55):
so anyway, I better, I better be careful or I'll
go away off the Yeah. Yeah, and Trump's probably watching
because he loves you. So President Trump, good job. But
you know, I think that you're a thousand percent right.

(49:16):
And I was one of those people, Christy that I
wouldn't wear a mask. The only mask I ever wore
was when I had to go to the hospital because
I was dying of COVID. The irony and and by
the way, most of the time in the hospital I
had it down. I was like, this is ridiculous. Yell
are crazy. And some of the nurses and doctors agreed

(49:39):
with me by the way in the hospital. But you know,
I think though that when we start standing up for
ourselves and what's right, life becomes better. And there's too
many people you were just saying it, I don't want
to be one of the cattle, one of the sheep
following the herd into the freaking off the cliff. So

(50:01):
to speak, What other advice, what other insights would you
give people? Because I'm sure when you speak you have
a planned speech, and I kind of I do this
so it's not planned and we just kind of roll.
And I love I love doing it that way because
oftentimes you'll hear things that, like, you know, a lot

(50:24):
of people go, I've never talked about this, but what
what other advice would you give everybody watching if they,
you know, really need to stay And maybe it's not
even about their health. It could be just a regular
old life situation, like their power went off at seven
am and.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
It only happens here in South Carolina. So that's a
great question, you know. I life advice that that I
really have come to cherish the most is so clearly
I'm a Christian, I'm by faith, I'm rooted even my faith,
and everybody talks about the for such a time as this,

(51:05):
But that really was a verse that was so important
to me, and it was the reason it is is
that I truly believe, just like Queen Esther and I laugh,
I'm like, I don't know if you can see it's
back here my crown and sacks and everything I said.
You know, I had this like alcohol, a faux crown,
where Queen Ester actually had a real crown. You know,
she was a queen and she was she was put
somewhere for such a time as this to change her nation.

(51:27):
And I feel like that I don't know how many
people I will change, or you don't know how many
people you will change, But even if you change one,
that's why God has you here. And so whatever your journey,
whatever your story, if you still have breath in your lungs,
you are still here for a purpose, and that is

(51:50):
that's your purpose. Tell your story, be authentic. You know
you mentioned about having a speech. I don't have a speech.
I actually love speaking public. I have definite points that
I like to touch on, But just like you, I
love to feed off the audience and I love to
get those questions from them because I believe authenticity is

(52:13):
truly what should be the what should speakers should all
be about. If you are not authentic, don't listen. You
know you you need that authenticity. And to me, when
you have a story that's real, when you have a
platform and you have that authenticity, that is what stands
you apart from everyone. And you have a journey. Everyone does.

(52:34):
And so my advice would be, find your journey, use
your voice, amplify it as big as you can. That
could be writing. Some people aren't speakers so right, it
could be helping a neighbor. It doesn't have to be millions.
But no matter what you do, in my amplify it
and do it, do it true to yourself and true

(52:55):
to the word, because that that will get you exactly
where you want to be.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
Absolutely love that. I'm I'm putting your website address if
I can get this thing to work right, because I
do you, I mean, do you offer any anything on
your website for people to apparent?

Speaker 2 (53:15):
People can message me on there. I love to answer
questions about my journey or about the journey there on.
I'm not a doctor, but I will give you the
advice from from my perspective of having gone through this.
I'm also happy to help you with products that have
helped and been helpful for me, and you know, and
then you can go on there if you're looking for

(53:37):
a speaker, or you're looking for an MC for an event,
anything like that. I love to come out and do
those types of things. So would absolutely be honored to
be on more podcasts or shows or up on stages.

Speaker 1 (53:48):
So yeah, absolutely, I'm gonna get you on a bunch
of podcasts, young lady.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
Up until then, you can see me May thirty first
at Trumpeternet for the United Doctors of America. You can
see me at the National Veterans Parade in Washington, d C.
I'm en seeing that with General Flynn. So I'm so
excited about that. So got lots of upcoming things that
we're excited about.

Speaker 1 (54:12):
You're amazing, and listen, we can't end this without giving
Lindsey Graham, not the worthless senator, but Lindsey Graham, the
amazing patriot Barbie, that's.

Speaker 2 (54:25):
My senator right the way South Carolina.

Speaker 1 (54:28):
Oh god, I'm sorry, sorry for you. Yeah, but I actually,
oh Lindsay a calls she texted me a little bit ago.
But you know, the patriot Barbie on Instagram and on
X which is where most people. We have over almost

(54:48):
sixteen hundred people watching us live on X right now.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
Absolutely incredible And if we see him through this at
the Moms for America Summit, the twentieth anniversary summit, she's
credible and we just like instantly hit it off and I.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
Just I love her there. You know, there are a
handful of women that I would I would classify as
just absolute badasses, my wife being one of them. Lindsey
definitely is you are you? You're you just made that
list for me, you know, I think that that and

(55:26):
and and what you're doing and what Lindsey's doing standing
up for women. And we're not talking about the radical
crazy left kind of burn your brawl women. We're talking
about standing up for being treated as a human and
given the same rights as everybody else. It blows me

(55:50):
away that we have given over the last four years
illegal invaders more rights in the health sector. At least
then then women get here in our country, citizens of
this country. It's crazy.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
It is, It is crazy, but we're going to change it.
We are changing it.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
So what's the best where's the best place for everybody
to follow you, Christy follow.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
Me on Instagram at Christy Clark. That would be the best.
And then I'm on parlor. I need to be on
ex because Ken, you've already gotten on me about that.
I never post on it, but I do have an account,
but I want to start.

Speaker 1 (56:28):
I'mnna start getting back on which is Christy C. I
think at at at k R, I S D E
E is Christy and it's C. I believe Christy C
is your handle on X. Yeah, oh my god, we've

(56:48):
got to oh my lord, until they decide to listen, I.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
Gotta get back on X. I'm a big Elon fan,
so you know I need to get right.

Speaker 1 (57:00):
Not to mention, you know, the day may may come
again when when Zuckerberg's no longer afraid of going to
prison starts anyway, listen, you are absolutely phenomenal. I'm so
grateful that and since you're already scheduled for June the

(57:21):
third again, anyway, we should have you. I'm kidding round two.
You're amazing and I am so grateful that this worked
out and we got to have you on today. So
everybody go to Christy Clark dot com, which for those
of you listening on the podcast networks. It's it's k

(57:43):
R I S D E E C l A r
K dot com. All of her links and everything will
be in the show notes. So, Christy, is there anything else?
Pretend for a moment that that all eight billion people
are listening right now planet Earth. To you, what is
a you know you got to say something to really

(58:07):
impact everybody on the planet in a positive way. What
would that be to everybody listening right now?

Speaker 2 (58:14):
Nothing like put me on the spot with this one.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
Wow, Let's see how good of a speaker you really are.

Speaker 2 (58:23):
Be your best advocate. Don't let somebody tell you where
you need to be or what your decisions should be.
You know your body, you know your health, You know
what is best for you. Be your best advocate. Be
your most authentic self. More importantly, be brave and be
bold and go to someone else if you do not

(58:43):
feel comfortable where you are. This is your body, your health.
Let's change the narrative with that. With your body, your health,
no longer abortion. We're flipping it, ladies, to only women's health.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
Amen and amen and amen. Thank you so much for
being a guest today. You are amazing. Everybody. Please share
this out and follow Christy. Only follow her on X though,
don't worry about anywhere else. I'm gonna get her on

(59:17):
X I'm telling you. But anyway, so I'm kidding, follow
her everywhere. She's amazing. So Christy, thank you. You're freaking awesome.
I'm so grateful. Thank you. Yeah, this has been fun.
So all right, everybody, I'm going to end the live stream. Christy.
Stay with me if you would, and make sure you're

(59:39):
following Christy. Go over to her website Christie Clark dot com,
and have an absolutely amazing day and we will see
you all later. Thanks so much