May 24, 2023 • 48 mins
Hello, friend,
In this Quick Bytes episode of Time for bRUNch we are joined by a fellow member of the bRUNch bunch Niki Kozak, a survivor of metastatic melanoma cancer.
Niki shares her inspiring journey of resilience, hope, and witty humor as she recounts her battle with melanoma.
She discusses her initial reaction to the diagnosis and its emotional impact on her. Niki shares the treatment options she pursued, the physical and emotional challenges she faced, and the role of her support system in her healing process. She also talks about how her cancer diagnosis affected her running routine and how she adjusted her mindset to continue pursuing her passion.
Niki highlights the importance of skin cancer awareness, sun protection for runners, and early detection through regular skin checks. She shares her experiences as an advocate for skin cancer awareness and provides information on resources and support networks available to those affected. Head over to Niki's website and blog to learn more about her story and the phenomenal resources she makes available to others.
Throughout the episode, Niki's story inspires listeners to find strength in their journeys and support one another within their community.
Thank you for listening!
Have questions or want to chat? Send me a text!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Shelby Schmidt (00:02):
Hey friends, Coach Shelby and coach Christine
welcoming you in and letting youknow it's time for brunch quick
bites edition, where you cangrab your miles with the sight
of smiles. Take them on the runmidday in the afternoon or a
late night snack attack. Solet's have some fun, whatever
your activity of choice istoday, or maybe you're just
(00:23):
driving along, we're happy tohave you. And we have, as always
a very special guest here at thebrunch table welcoming a fellow
brunch, brunch member. And well,you're gonna hear a really
incredible story today. Sowithout further ado, we are
introducing Nikki co Zak, ametastatic melanoma cancer
(00:45):
survivor who is here to shareher story about overcoming the
odds and providing skin cancerprevention tips for runners as
we prepare to go into those hotsummer training, even though
these are great practical tipsfor all your RAM. So without
further ado, Nikki, we are soexcited to have you here today.
Well, thank you for having me,especially it's melanoma
(01:07):
Awareness Month and it's braintumor Awareness Month. So it all
kind of go gray and may or wearyour black in May. Because
that's bringing attention to itall. And wear your sunscreen all
the time. 365 right. 365 all thetime. I mean, I'm sure the
(01:27):
damage was done when I was achild. So if you have children
put sunscreen on your children.
Niki Kozak (01:33):
I I agree. We were Oh yeah. squirming in all hotel
pieces. Don't you just spraythem no matter how much they
scream just take it away fromtheir eyes.
Christine Hetzel (01:43):
Oh no, I'd take the if there was a big
debate of it was suntan cream orsuntan lotion. I call it suntan
lotion. So yeah, we we lather upand we're greased up pigs at the
end of the day. Yes, thatexactly is the way I say it. So
you're welcome listeners willlet the layers a little bit
here. And while we are superprepared to get all the tips,
(02:06):
and we wish we could turn backthe hands of time and maybe I
would not have gone into thoseindoor tanning booths. But I'm
gonna I'm gonna say that thedamage may have been done in
that regards, but we want tomake sure that we are prepared
moving forward. Let us knowNikki a little bit about your
story if you could, if you couldbring us up to date on it.
Unknown (02:25):
Oh, well as short and dirty since this is a quick bite
is I was heavy into running andcycling best shape of my life. I
have 42 years old. I think I wasat the time. I had I had run a
marathon, my first marathon andI was injured during that time.
(02:47):
So I got into cycling and I wasriding my bike every single day.
I drove into work as a radio DJin the morning during the
morning shift live, brought mybike with me figured nothing was
wrong. I had no idea anythingwas going on. It was spring was
April. So I thought maybe I washaving some allergies because I
was having a little troublebreathing when I was writing the
(03:08):
hills. And at 815 on a Fridaymorning. I went catatonic and my
morning show partnercalled my husband and he said
has Nikki ever been so angrywith you that she just stopped
talking to you. And then I fellout of my chair and he goes,
nevermind, I have to call 911.
(03:30):
And I just thought I didn't knowanything. I mean, I didn't know
anything was wrong with me. Ihad just gotten up and gone to
the bathroom, and come back tomy chair. So as far as I knew
the world was totally normal.
And I woke up, I looked up and Iwas looking at a first responder
who was trying to put a neckbrace on me and I just kept
(03:50):
insisting I did not want to wearthat neck brace. I didn't know
what the problem was. And it's astrange thing. I don't know if
it was the location in my brainthat the tumors were happening
in. But I really gave zero.
Let's keep this PG crap.
(04:13):
About what what was happening. Ihad just no idea I
kind of feel sorry for the guythat had to ride with me in the
back of the ambulance because Iwas asking all kinds of
questions. I was supertalkative. So I've never been in
an ambulance before. Do they allhave that stuff on the ceiling?
What is that? What is this? Whatis that? And he was trying to
(04:33):
get my name my age. You know,all my emergency contacts and I
just was just a babel beast atthe time. So but yeah, I got
like That's funny. Not funnybecause I'd be I know I was just
like super talkative. I waslike, people pay me to talk. I'm
the DJ, this is what I do. Sobut I yeah, I got to the
(04:57):
emergency room. I was gonna sayplus this your stress response
likeI probably was, yeah. I mean, I
had never been in an ambulance Iwas super curious to so.
But yeah, they they did a CT ofmy brain and saw something in
there. Then they dragged me downthe hall for an MRI, which I was
so out of it that I don't reallyrecall either of those things
(05:21):
happening.
My husband and my son werethere, they remember more about
it. Apparently, I had anotherseizure at the ER when they told
me I had brain tumors.
Again, might have been a stressresponse, but I wasn't I was
kind ofand but yeah, come to find out I
went down to USC because theneuro surgeon up here. First of
(05:43):
all, he's like 75 years old. SoI was not going to have them
cutting into my brain. Nooffense to 75 year old men, but
I don't want sharp objects in myskull. If they're in your hands.
Somebody's a little younger.
Yeah, who that'sfunny. All right. So yeah. So my
husband said, no, no, we'regoing to LA and I actually had
(06:06):
my first brain surgery, whichyou to get the vision at the
denture in my head thatlisteners won't get that but
I had that 11 days after endingup in the emergency room. And
the the biopsy of that showedthat it was melanoma. Now I had
had a previous one removed frommy right shoulder in 2006. It
(06:30):
was a very early stage melanoma.
And I was told, quote, it's allgone, you're cured, you don't
need to worry about thisanymore, you have about a two to
4% chance that this is evergoing to come back.
The story didn't really endthere.
knew it was that was 2007 when Ihad it, take it off my shoulder.
(06:52):
And it was 2013 when I had aseizure and fell out of my
chair. So really,you shouldn't be seeing a
dermatologist. I mean, my myfamily doctor said, Oh, no, you
know, we can do the skin checksand the physicals and all of
that, but you have to advocatefor yourself. Because I mean, I
thought I was going to be okaywith that. And every six months,
(07:14):
I saw my family doctor. Andapparently it was not, it was
not enough. And I was either themost unlucky person in the two
to 4% odds that it would comeback or something got missed and
overlooked that really shouldhave been further looked into.
(07:36):
So I want to point out Nikkithat we are going to be pointing
people towards your blog so thatfolks can see that the photos
that maybe they're not, they'renot able to see here on the
podcast, because you've got,you've got quite a few different
images. I think also in yourblog, what sticks out to me is
the fact that you just hit onit, that you don't necessarily
(07:57):
100% cure this type of cancer,it is something that you need to
be more aware of, you need to,as you mentioned, be able to
advocate for yourself, get thoseregular checkups with the
specialists that know best. Soat this point, that sounds like
something that if folks arerolling through here, or maybe
they want to add it to their todo list, take a quick moment to
(08:20):
make that specialist appointmentwith a dermatologist just for a
check in and then make it alittle bit more of a regular
date. I mean, I think seeing thedermatologist is probably the
the least painful way of baringit all. I mean, we go to the
OBGYN and we might as well go tothe dermatologist. Right? Right.
I would rather go dermatologistsany day of the week. Oh, me too.
(08:42):
Yeah, I mean, they call it atoga party now in the melanoma
world that's like, Hey, I got mytoga party today and you're
putting on yourhumiliating gown, but I was
like, hey, at least it's not thescooch scooch Doc, I don't I
did. I call it this scourge.
Could you scooch down a littlefurther. Could you scooch down a
little further. Could you scootit down? It's like
(09:03):
it's good. Scooch appointmentsare far less comfortable than
the daily I'm never referring toa GYN ever again.
That said my Scrooge Scroogediary checks that zone where my
dermatologist does not hedoesn't look in that area. He
leaves that to gynecology. Sothat actually is a really good
(09:24):
point though, because especiallydepending on your exposure, you
know, there's different parts toget exposure. So as you can see
or look for the high the hightraffic areas. I don't know that
we can talk about the scoochconstructor and high traffic
areas my friend, it might be ahigh traffic area, it's just not
exposure.
(09:48):
It might be that I'm trying togive people all the information
might be more traffic than anyarea let's
we're gonna reel this back wherethis was part of it.
Okay, as falling into thegutter,
we're gonna bring it back, we'regonna bring it back, we're gonna
bring it back to the cycling. Soyou are an avid cyclist or an
(10:11):
avid runner, I was just gonnasay real quick, there are areas
of your body under yourfingernails, the bottom of your
feet, places that don'ttypically suntan or get sun
exposure that can get melanoma,particularly if you have had one
anywhere on your body. Any lowerlevel one anywhere, it means
your body has a propensity toput this forth so it can happen.
(10:34):
So have your hairdresser checkthrough your hair on your scalp.
Look at the bottom of your feet,you know your body better than
anyone else. If something ischanging, growing, getting
darker, looks different. Justmake note of it and pointed out
to someone. Oh my gosh, thankyou for saying that Nikki. Last
year, I had my first bout with alittle with a skin cancer and I
(10:55):
would have been that person whowould have swore to you that
never ever, ever would I have itbecause I'm Hispanic heritage.
Nobody in my family has ever hadit. And while I'm pale because I
have weighed the sun. Now I havea brother natural olive
complexion. So I just assumedthat it wouldn't be something
that I would necessarily have toworry about. And exactly as you
said it ended up popping up inan area that doesn't necessarily
(11:18):
have as much sun exposure, itwas in my lower extremity. And I
was kind of floored by it. And Ithink another really good reason
to think about it friends andgetting in with those
dermatologists is that if youwait until you have an area of
concern, it can take a long timeto get on with those
dermatologists versus havingthat regular checkup and having
that regular relationship withthem.
(11:40):
Yeah, yeah. I mean, sometimesit's, I mean, it's up to a year
around here, because we have sofew we're just not I'm in a
rural area, and it's hard tocome by them. So I mean, if you
pointed out to your family care,doctor, whoever you have, I mean
they could do something aboutit. They can at least send it
off for pathology. And thenyeah, if it's something a
dermatologist needs to takefurther care of or
(12:03):
dermatological surgeon, thenyou're in the door with
dermatology and then it's justfollow up appointments that are
a lot easier to track. But yeah,I mean, it can it can happen
anywhere on your body to anyone.
So you definitely need tosunscreen up and and take care
of it. Oh, and there's no suchthing is safe tan by the way.
(12:23):
There are people I know thereare rumors out there that say,
Well, you should get a base tan,it's protective. No, if there is
any color to your skin that isnot the same color as your
booty, or the palms of yourhands is the wrong color. It
should be you should be auniform color. That said I do do
guilty I have some shorts linesfrom my running shorts. Because
(12:50):
I just I just yeah, there's acertain amount of time where at
some point the sunscreen isgonna get beat. I mean, it's 50
SPF, but if you're out oftenenough, so but my dermatologist
said he would rather I have avery light tan line because of
running than to be sitting onthe couch and being pasty white.
And you know, not getting in thethe effort and the exercise that
(13:15):
builds a strong body and keepsyour immune system on edge.
Or we can always faux tan liketan and a bottle has come a long
way from what it used to be it'soh my gosh, then your palms will
be orange. You use the rightyes. Well, you wear those gloves
or something. Yeah, that's anAin't nobody got time for that
latex glow I justlearned to live with everything.
(13:47):
Well, I want to I want to reelit back for a second because I
think a reallypoignant portion of the story.
So you went and you got some ofthe melanoma removed in 2007.
And then it doesn't seem likethere was any warning signs, any
other pop ups, anything likethat until you got to the
seizure portion. Right? Yes,that's that was exactly what
(14:10):
happened. Now, the differencebetween a stage one A which is
what I was told that I had on in2007 and a stage three are
whether there are lymph nodesinvolved or not. And the only
way they know that is to testthe lymph nodes. And they won't
do that if they say somethingwas shallow enough. They won't
(14:31):
test for it. So I never actuallyhad my lymph nodes tested. So
the only other trouble that Ihad was in 2010 No 2012 I
wrecked my bike really hard losta lot of skin. So I went in and
got a tetanus shot. Well I gotthe tetanus shot in my right
arm, which is the right shoulderis where I had the the melanoma
(14:53):
removed. And I got a third boobgrew in
My right armpit it swelled up sobadly that there had to have
been, I mean, I actually went tomy doctor for that. And I was
like, there's a lot of swellinghere is this normal from a
tetanus shot? And he said, Ican't be with some people, you
(15:13):
know, just take over the counterpain meds. And it was six months
later that I ended up having myseizure, they found out that I
had a golf ball sized tumor inmy right lower lung lobe. So the
lymph nodes in my right armpit,were very likely affected with
melanoma already. And it hadgone from there into my right
(15:34):
lung, and then eventually upinto my brain. So it took I
mean, it took six years until Ifinally fell out of my chair
five and a half years, until Ifell out of my chair. But all
that time it was actuallyinvading, and I had no clue.
Just none.
It's it seems like a lot of likea cavalcade of errors,
(15:56):
basically, unfortunately, itseems like there were things
that at that point, you didn'tknow how to advocate for
yourself. And quite frankly, Idon't think the majority of the
population would would know toto question or advocate to get
the care that they do need. SoI, I, I think it's an important
portion to know that skin cancerand melanoma isn't always as
(16:23):
neon lights of like, hey,something's going on. And to
really, no pun intended, digdeeper into okay, this is
happening, what are the nextsteps? And being a questioner in
all honesty? And if thequestions don't get adequate
answers to, to have to take thatupon yourself to find how to get
(16:46):
adequate answers, which again,your blog has a wealth of
information? Absolutely. Youhave so many great resources
here.
There are,there are places on social media
that you can go if you've evenbeen diagnosed with the lowest
level of skin cancer, and youthink this is no big deal. You
can just ask people questions.
(17:08):
What did they do? What did theythink they should be doing? Is
there something further thatthey should be testing for is
there when I got it? I mean, Ithought, okay, it's melanoma. So
you cut it off the skin and it'sgone. I mean, I was that I don't
want to say stupid, ignorant, Iguess would be the word that it
could spread inside. And oddlyenough, we actually knew of a
(17:34):
man whose son died at 32 ofmetastatic melanoma. And it just
when I got it, I thought, Oh,well, mine wasn't this, whatever
this metastatic is, it was juston my skin. And it's like, well,
yeah, the difference between onyour skin and metastatic is the
stuff that grew on your skin,then spread in throughout your
system. And that's, so it was,it was a whole education that
(17:59):
a lot of, you know, nobody wantsto default to well, this is
probably a lung tumor. You'relike, Well, yeah, here's your
allergy meds. Or, you know,well, I'm having a headache.
Yeah, but I also get migraines.
So is it a migraine? Or is it abrain tumor? I mean, you don't
think in your life, especiallyat 40 to 44 years old that, hey,
I think I might have a braintumor, something seriously wrong
(18:21):
with me. And while you don'twant to live paranoid you also
once you have confirmation thatthere's an issue, follow through
on it and just make sure thatyou know your body and you know,
when something's it's not right,I mean, we teach ourselves to
ignore our bodies and our painsas runners. I mean, you okay,
(18:42):
you're being a wuss, knock itoff. But at some point,
maybe you're not being as wasyou have to learn how to tune in
when it is just your mindplaying tricks on you. Yeah. So
in an in an effort to, cuz Ithink really, at the end, we
just a lot of us, and I'd saymost of us are just ill
(19:03):
informed. And we're not taughtthese things. So while we are
glad that your story had a happyending,
how has it kind of changed theway that you approach your
outdoor activity? And what typeof precautions do you take now
(19:23):
that you wish people would takecurrently before they'd have to
walk a similar path to yours?
Make sure you take care of yourkids because that's that's where
it could start. I had blisteringsunburns as a child. I mean, I
was the teenager where theCoppertone baby, you know, he
pulled it and I didn't tan Iwould burn. So it was burned and
(19:46):
brown burn then Brown. When mysister came in to visit me at
the hospital after my firstbrain surgery. She goes oh my
gosh, your legs are so strongand tan. Oh, I'm so jealous and
I thought you areare aware that I'm sitting here
having melanoma removed from mybrain, I should not be this tan.
But I was I was, I was a lovelydark shade of brown because I
(20:10):
thought, well, they took themelanoma off, I don't have to
worry about it. So I was outriding my bike, I was out for
hours a day, in the sun doingeverything. So once I had the
diagnosis, I went into incidentparanoia, and I, I wanted to
live like a vampire, I didn'twant to go out in the sun,
the best times to be outside orbefore nine or 10am.
(20:35):
Between 10am and about three or4pm, that's when the sun is at
its peak, that's when it's atits strongest. Your clothing can
do some level of protection.
It's better if it's something ofa tight weave, it doesn't
necessarily have to be up ifclothing. Although that is
(20:56):
available, it tends to be moreexpensive. But any most lycra is
pretty, pretty tight. We'vebasically if you hold it up to
the sun, and you can see lightthrough it, it's less
protective.
So if you hold something up tothe sunlight, and it's a total
block, you're doing okay, you'redoing better, you should still
(21:17):
wear thin layer sunscreenunderneath. And just make sure
you're in the shade as much aspossible. You reapply the
sunscreen after two hours. Ifyou've been sweating like crazy,
maybe even sooner if you reallyare susceptible to burning, just
in take care of yourself, butyou can still enjoy being
outside wear your sunglasseswear hat wear, you know, I don't
(21:41):
like having sunscreen on myface. So I tend to wear hats a
lot. And if you're on the wateror the snow, get that extra
reflection. So you have to watchunder your chin and everything
that kind of burn even yourears. I actually had something
scraped off the top of one of myears, it was not a melanoma but
it was a basal cell or somethingthat had to be taken off.
(22:04):
Because just being outside witha baseball hat on the tops of my
ears were getting more sun thanI was aware of. So there are
ways you can protect yourselfand still fully enjoy being
outside. I mean, I live inCalifornia, you guys are in
Florida, the beach is a thing.
We just that's what we do. And Imean, you just you don't want to
wreck your love of the outdoors.
(22:27):
Because now you want to livelike a vampire. There are still
like exactly what you said,getting in there before the
sun's at its highest peak, whichhere in the Sun Belt anyway, you
need to do that regardless, justso that you don't have a heat
stroke with how hot it is. Soall the way around these
practices kind of carry overinto each other to helping you
stay as healthy as possible. Sogetting out with those running
(22:49):
groups early in the morning, sois great. As you mentioned, I
kind of like the second youmentioned that hat I think what
kind of chic beach hat can Idefinitely add to my like Amazon
wishlist.
Oh, they're right. Fabulous.
Those wide brim. I actually havea runner here that she always
has one of the wide brim hats.
(23:11):
And every single time I see her,I always I always think like
he's so smart. Is she running init in a wide room? Yes. Really.
It's a big okay. Again, I'm inlike South Florida where beach
Central. So it's not likewickery type of wide brim. It
(23:31):
looks fabulous. I'm just sayingto have safety but make it
fashion.
Talking about when you wentthrough this. It wasn't long
haul it didn't happen where youwent into treatment. And it was
it was a very long haul. How didyou and I know you have in your
blog and you've written about ithow it became your new normal
(23:53):
cancer life became your newnormal? Did that change your
training? Did it change yourfocus of your training? I know
that you also have some linksabout how to live as healthily
as possible. Can you expand onthat? I ended up walking
everywhere. Because when youhave a seizure at least here in
California, I'm sure it'sprobably true throughout the
United States, you're notallowed to drive for six months.
(24:15):
So that will make a person goinsane. Especially someone who's
active and my husband was youknow, he had to go back to work
he wasn't comfortable with mebeing on my bicycle by myself.
So I would go out and I wouldwalk in if you've ever seen the
bike lane. I started namingthose those people that they
paint in the bike lane on thatthe stick figure on the bike, I
(24:36):
started calling him chug alongCharlie and I used to talk to
chug along Charlie every time Iwould pass one and I'd be like
that's it I'm gonna be ridingover your face. In the next six
months I will be riding overyour face again. So get ready
for it Chuck and I just it wasjust trying to get out and be a
normal person and not beoffended when people say
(25:00):
Oh, you just you just had skincancer. So like, what's the
problem like, well,not just skin cancer. And
I don't know, just just tryingto you notice the beauty in the
world when your life has beenthreatened,
you noticed more beauty aroundyou, which ends up being a
(25:21):
double edged sword, because thenyou really don't want to let go
of that beauty. But you do, youneed to take it in and somebody
put it online recently, I thinkit was one of the brunchers put
something on on Facebook aboutnoticing little bits of beauty
like bites of beauty around you.
Notice, I don't know, when alittle kid smiles at you, you
(25:45):
know, in, in a passing car, orwhere as much as we hate for it
to happen in our own drivewaywhere a weed or a dandelion or
something comes up through thecrack and you're thinking you're
gonna destroy my driveway. Butat the same time, it's like,
wow, nature is so powerful tohave been able to do that.
That's, that's gorgeous. Look atthat shade of yellow, oh my
(26:07):
gosh, and now I'm gonna pluck itfrom my driveway. But it's
really super pretty. So youjust, I don't know, you have to
take in those those smallmoments because we don't all get
those grandstanding in front of the Grand
Canyon kind of moments. But youget a lot of little ones during
the day that if you notice them,they can offset the garbage
(26:27):
that's going through your life,like I have to drive back down
to LA to get an infusion or, youknow, yeah, I might need another
brain surgery, I might need morebrain radiation I might need
whatever. Just just taking inall those little pieces and
building your new life. Becausethat's it's part of what you're
(26:48):
going to do. Now you're going togo to doctor's appointments
very, very regularly. And Imean, it's, it's better off, if
you can prevent those doctor'sappointments. But
just enjoy what's around you andenjoy the fact that you can get
out.
That's interesting that you saythat there is this book called
(27:09):
The Power of art based off ofthe research that actually
finding on our every day is whatit takes to help you get through
chronic pain or pain ordifficult times in life. And
like you said, it's kind of agratitude practice, but even a
little bit more. So finding outlike you said, and that
dandelion weed. So I appreciateyou sharing that that's
absolutely such a great point.
(27:32):
Well, especially as runners,because you guys, you guys will
tell us, you know, we get to dothis, you got to reset your mind
for him, we get to do this. Andwhile you're out and you're
thinking I get to do this,that's that's when there are
those little moments of all,little mouse running through the
field of you know, bird up inthe tree screaming at you as you
go by anything. I mean, thoseare just that's the time to
(27:53):
absorb and notice those kinds ofthings.
And it's really a shame that wehave to have those gut checking
realities to reel it back tothat simplicity. But, again, it
it really is true. And it's veryeasy in today's world, to see
the good to make theappointment. And I know I'm
(28:15):
guilty of saying that I am busy,I don't have time for XY and Z.
But it all kind of wraps itselfinto the same mindset of enjoy
the little things, take the timefor your health, take the time
to enjoy the dandelion, thenature and everything and really
kind of stripping life back downto the basics. And it is very
(28:41):
deep and philosophical. But itis the truth and even like as
runners again, we get to dothis. No one's making us so it's
yeah, it's a healthy reminder tonot get so caught up in life
that you don't really live andenjoy life.
(29:01):
Exactly. Yeah, we we ended upfinding that. It used to be
work, sleep, shower, repeat. Andthat's not
how it is anymore at all ourtime is so valuable to us now
that it's like if you reallydon't want to do something,
(29:22):
right. Don't make yourself ahermit because I'm already a
hermit by nature. Butyou know, if you really don't if
you don't want to do something,we learn to say no. I mean, it's
easy to do when you have theexcuse of sorry, you know, I
just had brain surgery last weekor I have radiation tomorrow.
It's easy to say no. But yeah,no one's gonna argue with that.
(29:43):
Yeah, exactly. If cancer card.
It's the table. But yeah, youjust you have to learn how to,
again advocate in your bestinterest for for not tabling not
taking on so much. Don'tvolunteer for every parent
thing going on at the schooldon't You don't overload your
plate if you don't have to.
(30:07):
Otherwise, you develop a darksense of humor. I feel like this
originally started as anawareness of cancer. But now I
feel like we're just gettinglife lessons from Nikki like
this is, this is so much powerwithin the words that you're
saying, especially I think, aswe start to embark on summer,
where it could be a veryoverwhelming time for parents
(30:28):
where kids are back at home, andmaybe you're out. So from the
one thing that you have to sayyes to is sunscreen. And
everything else can wait is whatI say yes to your kids, because
you only have them for so long.
My son is 32 now and you onlyget them for so long. And man,
when they learn to drive, younever see them. You try and
teach them to be independent,grown up people. And then they
(30:49):
turn into that and you just gowell, where'd my baby go?
Because now I want my needylittle child back. And I that's
not going to happen because hegrew up into this strong
independent person. Soit's just, again, life lessons.
You didn't?
Yeah, I just. But I think that'sa testament to to who you
(31:11):
surrounded yourself with?
Because it seems like you've notonly went through all of the
health stuff, but it reallyseems like you changed a lot of
how you live.
Where did you have a reallystrong base when you were going
through all this? Or did youlearn to say no to certain
people and, and really make yourown community from there. I had
(31:37):
a lot of our writing group,because I was we had a cycling
club that we were riding with.
And so I mean, we weresurrounded by all of those
people in those friends, becausethey were all pretty shocked and
pretty scared themselves.
Because, you know, we wouldregularly go out for four hour
bike rides and beat all of usout in the sun all day. And so
they started wondering, youknow, can it happen to me,
(31:58):
because Nikki's one of thestrongest youngest members of
this group and what happened? Soyeah, I mean, it's it's one of
those things where it's like Idid, I had a very strong support
group, my son and my husband,came down to all of my early
appointments, my husband hasnever missed an appointment at
(32:18):
all.
And we also have a very warpedsense of humor, which,
if you end up looking at myblog, you're going to notice a
lot of that, and I don't mean tooffend, if you can, because some
cancer patients are a littlemore sensitive than we are.
I don't know, my husband wouldask if, if they could, when they
(32:39):
did brain radiation, if theycould target the less mouthy
section of my brain, like so thesecond time I ended up having a
seizure, it was the left half ofmy face and my left hand. And I
couldn't speak because I had nocontrol over the left half of my
face. And so when we went downfor the follow up appointment
(33:00):
before I was gonna get my secondbrain surgery. He goes, You
know, I felt a little bad. Ifelt like oh my god, they
actually hit it. They made herless. There it is. And he goes,
I feel a little guilty aboutthat.
But as I say, I mean was alsocalling me brain fried Betty. So
one of the gifts that I gave tomy team was I made them apple
(33:23):
cider.
It had a lot of vodka in it. Soit was it tasted like apple pie
hot apple pie. Mix and I putbrain fried Betty's hot apple
pie, cider. And I said, youknow, it'll cure all that. What
else? Yeah. And I put a pictureof a brain in a pan frying
(33:45):
because everybody down thereknew that he called me brain
fried buddy. And I mean, peoplejust were like, wow, I can't
believe you say that about yourwife. You're lucky you're not
getting smacked.
I'm here for the dark humor.
Like I'm I'm all about darkhumor. I said that to her last
night. I was like, you are goingto be like fast friends.
(34:06):
Michelle, do you guys have asense of humor? Well, after
listening to the Mother's Daything, I am a lot like Shelby's
mom your mom. I was just like,yes, yes. Oh my gosh, yes, me
too. Me too.
Long glass twinview. We alsostarted talking about how
elephants evidently arematriarchal society. And the
(34:27):
minute that I was like carryingall these facts about it. I was
like, Oh my gosh, it's likeShelby's home like it's like,
it's just like this like, herdof powerful women and like just
to kind of follow the leader ofthe wisest woman ever. So
anyway, Nikki, let's bring itback to you did in your blog,
tons of great gifts, tons offunny memes. There's no doubt or
is quite a bit of levity toreally deliver this incredibly
(34:51):
powerful message of selfadvocacy, being aware of
protecting ourselves protectinglittle ones, or maybe not so
little ones in our lives. All ofthose things are definitely
prevalent in there. But anotheraspect is prevalent is some of
the things that maybe you didthat set you apart because I
think that from what I'm hearingyou say it went from 4% chance
(35:11):
of it returning or becoming moresevere to when it was finally
diagnosed when it had permeatedand kind of an I hate to use
this word, but it's kind oflike, insidiously taken through
your system, your chances ofsurvival at that point was 4%.
And I have to think it's becauseof your healthy lifestyle, your
positive attitude, all thosethings, and some great doctors
(35:33):
and medicine kind of helps youalong. Would you say that there
are factors that you can kind ofcredit with helping to increase
your odds of survival? Yeah,definitely the fitness for sure.
Because any kind of canceryou're going to be diagnosed
with, the treatments can bethinking me rough. I never had
(35:55):
to have chemo, I was fortunateto have immunotherapy, which is
now starting to take off forother cancers. It's no walk in
the park. But it's also notchemo. The idea of chemo is it
destroys cells. And whetherthey're healthy cells or their
cancer cells, it doesn'tdistinguish. Immunotherapy ramps
up your immune system to takecare of it.
(36:18):
When I was diagnosed in 2013,Keytruda, which you see TV
commercials about all the timenow was in trials. But because I
had brain tumors, I was notallowed in the trials, which I
understand the these companies,they want to get this stuff out
to market, and they have toprove it works to get it out to
market. So if you've got peoplewith brain tumors who have a 4%
chance of survival, you don'twant your drug going into them
(36:40):
and having them die on youanyway, because then it makes
your statistics look worse forgetting it out to the public. So
while I was upset about that,you know, we needed to take care
of the brain. And then I got onKeytruda. And it it, it worked
out for me it worked very well.
I mean, like the 15 to 35% ofpeople that it works for. But
you know, part of it is it's youhave to have some joy in your
(37:03):
life, because stress will makecancer worse it stress weakens
your immune system. And ifyou're on immunotherapy, you
really want your immune system,working and functioning.
Getting exercise and gettingfresh air will actually help
(37:23):
your immune system.
So, you know, having peoplearound you that support you and
care about you, even if they're,we call them mela homies.
Because there's a group onlinethat are I mean, they're all
people with melanoma, whateverdifferent level they've had.
And, you know, we support oneanother. And it's kind of like
(37:48):
the brunchers. I mean, you'vegot brunchers out there. And you
get to know these people and youcare about these people, whether
you've met face to face or notthese people are your your
friends, and you know them andyou hear them. And so yeah, when
when something goes wrong, ifyou've had a similar experience,
and you can relate to whatthey're saying, and you reach
out to them. That's a healthyconnection to have. So I mean,
(38:12):
not to give people anotherreason to listen to time for
brunch, but it's another reasonto listen to time for brunch,
and get to know your fellowbrunchers. And get to know each
other on social media, justbecause you you already have the
similarity of wanting to run anddo better for your yourself and
getting fit. So why not? I mean,now you're gonna support each
(38:32):
other on a new level, you'rehitting on my love language, not
just because you're talkingabout brunch, but because you're
talking about, I swear, it's notjust because you're talking
about how fabulous brunch ismy love language of really
increasing your support network,increasing your connection,
because at the end of the day,that connection with others is
it's I mean, it's just proven toreally help in so many different
(38:52):
ways. And that's quite, quite abig marker of your story is as
again, as I go through yourblog, you talk about like your
connection with your yourmedical team, your connection
with your doctors, yourconnection with your husband,
even the inside jokes, all ofthose things relate or as you
call them, your mela homies, allof these things, kind of helping
you to move forward aspositively as possible. Which
(39:14):
brings us to the next questionthat I have you given us? A lot
to think about. You've given usso much wonderful advice. But
what's next for Nikki? Like,what do we see? You said that
you want to be able to say no tothe things that don't
necessarily serve you increating those boundaries, which
allows you to open up to sayyes, what do you want to say yes
(39:35):
to next? Wow.
I kind of got everything. Imean, my husband just my husband
just retired. Oh,congratulations. I mean we shall
be so greased pigs withsunscreen. All I'm thinking is
bake andso your team's savories what I'm
hearing a greasy pig is bacon. Ican't help it.
(39:58):
Well, that said My husband willmake Make these deep chocolaty
pancakes that I love to eat to.
So I'm Team food. I will eatanything. But yeah. Next for me,
let's see. Well, I just did mysecond marathon, it took me 12
years in between I did one precancer and one post cancer. So
(40:19):
12 years of aging in between wasdifficult enough. Losing a lung
lobe, made it an extrachallenge. So I mean, I really
didn't set any goals other thanto have fun. Just have fun with
it. I will never do it again.
Oh, I wanted to make sure I hadsome fun with it. Can't say no.
(40:46):
I don't see myself ever doing itagain. Okay. Yes, that would
probably be the better way ofphrasing it because you just
literally never know. But okay.
Congratulations on that. By theway. It was so fun watching
guys. It was so fun watchingyour training journey. And
again, another way that you likeinject positivity even on the
runs that may have been where itwas embracing the suck a little
(41:08):
bit. You still had a lot of funwith it from outside looking in.
So thank you for sharing that.
Yeah. So the I don't know nextfor me, I already signed up for
the Santa Barbara half marathon.
They don't I don't think they doa full anymore. But they have a
half marathon. It's in November.
I signed up for the moment thatI could, because I know I really
enjoy that distance. And that'swhat I wanted to do. My bib
(41:29):
number is number nine. I wasthat early for sign up the ninth
person to register. So lookingforward to that did November
Yeah, I'm gonna look like I'msupposed to be fast and they're
gonna see this old lady trot anddown the road and go What's up
with her? How did she get such alow bid number? No, they're
gonna say look at that. Badmamma jamma
(41:53):
I was gonna say another word buta bad ass.
There you go. Yes. Take a lot ofasphalt for sure. So yeah,
looking forward to that. Andlike I said, my husband just
retired in March 30 years offederal service, launching
rockets out here at Vandenberg.
And he's also got his retiredAir Force, which will be that
(42:14):
that pail start rolling in andwhen that does, we'll be
spending even more money andtime.
I don't know we would like to dosome more national traveling.
We've been all over Spain,there's a little bit of Spain we
still want to see. Butnationally, we still want to see
some of the more hiking kinds ofthings. I'd like to go to Bryce
(42:35):
Canyon I would like to see theGrand Canyon again. I haven't
seen it since I was 10 just kindof fun travel stuff that's still
exercise he I guess want to seean Olympic National Park and
just kind of those sorts ofthings. Oh, we're going to
Yosemite to in October so we'vealready got that on the list as
well. So my my October andNovember are booked
(43:01):
but other than that, yeah, maybesee CR kid more now. Where is
where's kid? Is he inCalifornia? He lives about six
hours away from us.
He is but California has he'she's six hours away. So if we
were in New England, he'd justbe you know, might as well be in
Tennessee is just that. But soyeah. And then my husband is
(43:22):
also an instructor pilot so wehave a little airplane and we
can we want to adventure in thatkind of like old people
adventure in their RV we want toadventure in our little linear
class. Oh, goodness. So lots offun is on the agenda and you're
stimulating the economy is whatI'm hearing like there's you
know, you just have theopportunity we will be
stimulating the national parksystem
(43:45):
he can qualify for the don'tthey have like a federal benefit
for the national parks where youget like a discount to get into
all of the national parks. Youknow, I'm gonna look into that.
I thought I was a designatedcouponer here.
But Plus, he's retired militaryretired Air Force so so thank
(44:06):
him so much for his service. I'mso excited to hear that. Okay,
so traveling and more movementssince movements medicine and it
definitely keeps you healthy andhappy seeing kiddo. So I think
that friends what we're hearingfrom Nikki is that that should
be all of our to do list is thethings that like make your soul
happy and make you a little bitextra pep in your step. And
(44:29):
hopefully that's what therunning but if that's something
you have to put on the backburner for a little bit, find a
movement that that quiteliterally creates as much joy
and happiness as we see Nikkisharing on her face right here
with us right now. Nikki, beforewe go ahead and
bid adieu, we are again going topoint people over to your blog
because you've got so many greatresources but what kind of
(44:51):
takeaway advice besides justliving your best life would you
want to give folks? Wow, okay,well from a cancer patient
perspective, don't everor when somebody tells you
they've been diagnosed withsomething don't go Oh, my aunt
had that she died. Don't ever dothat to a person didn't like
don't you would be shocked howoften that happens. Oh, my
grandma had that she died. No,if you know somebody who died of
(45:15):
the cancer that they had shutyour mouth. Just don't say
anything say I'm sorry. I don'tknow what to say and walk away.
I mean, I would rather somebodynot hear it than then to hear.
The reason I even started myblog was to give people more
more the upside more than darkhumor side more than the
(45:37):
cheerful side. I hate to saythat the cheerful side of cancer
but because you hear and read somuch about it's it's a horrible,
horrible thing to go through.
Everybody knows that. So let'stry and bring a little levity
into life. So yeah, don't eversay that the one one piece of
(45:59):
advice as a cancer patient.
Other than that as just a humanbeing.
You know, if you can't get outfor a run, and you need some
strength training, I've got 15tonne of rock that we just
shoveled into the side of thedriveway, if you want to come
out here with a bucket and helpme carry it up the hill that
would be fabulous.
Living in your house a strengthtraining advice, deep clean your
(46:20):
house, you can get plenty ofstrength training out of that.
And then you get to look at yourwonderful landscape or your very
nice clean house. And again,those small moments of all you
clean your floors is a miserablehorrible thing. But you know
what? You just got to work outyou burn some calories. And you
now have a gorgeous floor. Sosit down on a chair and look at
your floor and when yoursignificant other asks you what
(46:43):
in the hell you're doing. Yougo, I am admiring a job well
done. Look at how that shines. Imean look at that. And don't
step on it. Take your shoes off.
I think all of that wasroundabouts to yellow, here's
your other half towalk on your beautiful floors.
Oh my goodness gracious. Okay,so we've learned so much Nikki
mainly that we want you to comeback into chat with us again,
(47:06):
because it was so much funhearing you kind of weave us
through your own journey. Butalso leave us through not just
advice on if you have adiagnosis that can be so life
changing, but how to really,really truly live in our best
days, every single day. So thankyou for that. With that said,
friends again, use that link inEpisode Notes head on over to
(47:28):
the blog that we posted. But ofcourse, specifically head on
over to cancers new normal.comwith Nikki story because she's
got a whole lot of resources.
And some of the best memes Ifeel like I feel like I got
called out on some of thesememes on this blog. So you're
(47:48):
definitely gonna want to head onover there and get a good
laughter too. I mean, can't gowrong with Spongebob Squarepants
in a unicorn. So that said thankyou again, Nikki, for joining us
today. Well, thanks for havingme and everybody put on your
sunscreen when you get out foryour run today and just know you
get to do this. That's rightfolks, it indeed is a privilege
(48:10):
that we get to do. Thank you somuch for joining us for today's
quick bites. We look forward tohaving you come back and join us
again this Friday for a time forbrunch runners etiquette
edition. And in the meantimefriends we're gonna keep serving
up more miles a with a sadsmiles
Hey friends, Coach Shelby and coach Christine
welcoming you in and letting youknow it's time for brunch quick
bites edition, where you cangrab your miles with the sight
of smiles. Take them on the runmidday in the afternoon or a
late night snack attack. Solet's have some fun, whatever
your activity of choice istoday, or maybe you're just
(00:23):
driving along, we're happy tohave you. And we have, as always
a very special guest here at thebrunch table welcoming a fellow
brunch, brunch member. And well,you're gonna hear a really
incredible story today. Sowithout further ado, we are
introducing Nikki co Zak, ametastatic melanoma cancer
(00:45):
survivor who is here to shareher story about overcoming the
odds and providing skin cancerprevention tips for runners as
we prepare to go into those hotsummer training, even though
these are great practical tipsfor all your RAM. So without
further ado, Nikki, we are soexcited to have you here today.
Well, thank you for having me,especially it's melanoma
(01:07):
Awareness Month and it's braintumor Awareness Month. So it all
kind of go gray and may or wearyour black in May. Because
that's bringing attention to itall. And wear your sunscreen all
the time. 365 right. 365 all thetime. I mean, I'm sure the
(01:27):
damage was done when I was achild. So if you have children
put sunscreen on your children.
Niki Kozak (01:33):
I I agree. We were Oh yeah. squirming in all hotel
pieces. Don't you just spraythem no matter how much they
scream just take it away fromtheir eyes.
Christine Hetzel (01:43):
Oh no, I'd take the if there was a big
debate of it was suntan cream orsuntan lotion. I call it suntan
lotion. So yeah, we we lather upand we're greased up pigs at the
end of the day. Yes, thatexactly is the way I say it. So
you're welcome listeners willlet the layers a little bit
here. And while we are superprepared to get all the tips,
(02:06):
and we wish we could turn backthe hands of time and maybe I
would not have gone into thoseindoor tanning booths. But I'm
gonna I'm gonna say that thedamage may have been done in
that regards, but we want tomake sure that we are prepared
moving forward. Let us knowNikki a little bit about your
story if you could, if you couldbring us up to date on it.
Unknown (02:25):
Oh, well as short and dirty since this is a quick bite
is I was heavy into running andcycling best shape of my life. I
have 42 years old. I think I wasat the time. I had I had run a
marathon, my first marathon andI was injured during that time.
(02:47):
So I got into cycling and I wasriding my bike every single day.
I drove into work as a radio DJin the morning during the
morning shift live, brought mybike with me figured nothing was
wrong. I had no idea anythingwas going on. It was spring was
April. So I thought maybe I washaving some allergies because I
was having a little troublebreathing when I was writing the
(03:08):
hills. And at 815 on a Fridaymorning. I went catatonic and my
morning show partnercalled my husband and he said
has Nikki ever been so angrywith you that she just stopped
talking to you. And then I fellout of my chair and he goes,
nevermind, I have to call 911.
(03:30):
And I just thought I didn't knowanything. I mean, I didn't know
anything was wrong with me. Ihad just gotten up and gone to
the bathroom, and come back tomy chair. So as far as I knew
the world was totally normal.
And I woke up, I looked up and Iwas looking at a first responder
who was trying to put a neckbrace on me and I just kept
(03:50):
insisting I did not want to wearthat neck brace. I didn't know
what the problem was. And it's astrange thing. I don't know if
it was the location in my brainthat the tumors were happening
in. But I really gave zero.
Let's keep this PG crap.
(04:13):
About what what was happening. Ihad just no idea I
kind of feel sorry for the guythat had to ride with me in the
back of the ambulance because Iwas asking all kinds of
questions. I was supertalkative. So I've never been in
an ambulance before. Do they allhave that stuff on the ceiling?
What is that? What is this? Whatis that? And he was trying to
(04:33):
get my name my age. You know,all my emergency contacts and I
just was just a babel beast atthe time. So but yeah, I got
like That's funny. Not funnybecause I'd be I know I was just
like super talkative. I waslike, people pay me to talk. I'm
the DJ, this is what I do. Sobut I yeah, I got to the
(04:57):
emergency room. I was gonna sayplus this your stress response
likeI probably was, yeah. I mean, I
had never been in an ambulance Iwas super curious to so.
But yeah, they they did a CT ofmy brain and saw something in
there. Then they dragged me downthe hall for an MRI, which I was
so out of it that I don't reallyrecall either of those things
(05:21):
happening.
My husband and my son werethere, they remember more about
it. Apparently, I had anotherseizure at the ER when they told
me I had brain tumors.
Again, might have been a stressresponse, but I wasn't I was
kind ofand but yeah, come to find out I
went down to USC because theneuro surgeon up here. First of
(05:43):
all, he's like 75 years old. SoI was not going to have them
cutting into my brain. Nooffense to 75 year old men, but
I don't want sharp objects in myskull. If they're in your hands.
Somebody's a little younger.
Yeah, who that'sfunny. All right. So yeah. So my
husband said, no, no, we'regoing to LA and I actually had
(06:06):
my first brain surgery, whichyou to get the vision at the
denture in my head thatlisteners won't get that but
I had that 11 days after endingup in the emergency room. And
the the biopsy of that showedthat it was melanoma. Now I had
had a previous one removed frommy right shoulder in 2006. It
(06:30):
was a very early stage melanoma.
And I was told, quote, it's allgone, you're cured, you don't
need to worry about thisanymore, you have about a two to
4% chance that this is evergoing to come back.
The story didn't really endthere.
knew it was that was 2007 when Ihad it, take it off my shoulder.
(06:52):
And it was 2013 when I had aseizure and fell out of my
chair. So really,you shouldn't be seeing a
dermatologist. I mean, my myfamily doctor said, Oh, no, you
know, we can do the skin checksand the physicals and all of
that, but you have to advocatefor yourself. Because I mean, I
thought I was going to be okaywith that. And every six months,
(07:14):
I saw my family doctor. Andapparently it was not, it was
not enough. And I was either themost unlucky person in the two
to 4% odds that it would comeback or something got missed and
overlooked that really shouldhave been further looked into.
(07:36):
So I want to point out Nikkithat we are going to be pointing
people towards your blog so thatfolks can see that the photos
that maybe they're not, they'renot able to see here on the
podcast, because you've got,you've got quite a few different
images. I think also in yourblog, what sticks out to me is
the fact that you just hit onit, that you don't necessarily
(07:57):
100% cure this type of cancer,it is something that you need to
be more aware of, you need to,as you mentioned, be able to
advocate for yourself, get thoseregular checkups with the
specialists that know best. Soat this point, that sounds like
something that if folks arerolling through here, or maybe
they want to add it to their todo list, take a quick moment to
(08:20):
make that specialist appointmentwith a dermatologist just for a
check in and then make it alittle bit more of a regular
date. I mean, I think seeing thedermatologist is probably the
the least painful way of baringit all. I mean, we go to the
OBGYN and we might as well go tothe dermatologist. Right? Right.
I would rather go dermatologistsany day of the week. Oh, me too.
(08:42):
Yeah, I mean, they call it atoga party now in the melanoma
world that's like, Hey, I got mytoga party today and you're
putting on yourhumiliating gown, but I was
like, hey, at least it's not thescooch scooch Doc, I don't I
did. I call it this scourge.
Could you scooch down a littlefurther. Could you scooch down a
little further. Could you scootit down? It's like
(09:03):
it's good. Scooch appointmentsare far less comfortable than
the daily I'm never referring toa GYN ever again.
That said my Scrooge Scroogediary checks that zone where my
dermatologist does not hedoesn't look in that area. He
leaves that to gynecology. Sothat actually is a really good
(09:24):
point though, because especiallydepending on your exposure, you
know, there's different parts toget exposure. So as you can see
or look for the high the hightraffic areas. I don't know that
we can talk about the scoochconstructor and high traffic
areas my friend, it might be ahigh traffic area, it's just not
exposure.
(09:48):
It might be that I'm trying togive people all the information
might be more traffic than anyarea let's
we're gonna reel this back wherethis was part of it.
Okay, as falling into thegutter,
we're gonna bring it back, we'regonna bring it back, we're gonna
bring it back to the cycling. Soyou are an avid cyclist or an
(10:11):
avid runner, I was just gonnasay real quick, there are areas
of your body under yourfingernails, the bottom of your
feet, places that don'ttypically suntan or get sun
exposure that can get melanoma,particularly if you have had one
anywhere on your body. Any lowerlevel one anywhere, it means
your body has a propensity toput this forth so it can happen.
(10:34):
So have your hairdresser checkthrough your hair on your scalp.
Look at the bottom of your feet,you know your body better than
anyone else. If something ischanging, growing, getting
darker, looks different. Justmake note of it and pointed out
to someone. Oh my gosh, thankyou for saying that Nikki. Last
year, I had my first bout with alittle with a skin cancer and I
(10:55):
would have been that person whowould have swore to you that
never ever, ever would I have itbecause I'm Hispanic heritage.
Nobody in my family has ever hadit. And while I'm pale because I
have weighed the sun. Now I havea brother natural olive
complexion. So I just assumedthat it wouldn't be something
that I would necessarily have toworry about. And exactly as you
said it ended up popping up inan area that doesn't necessarily
(11:18):
have as much sun exposure, itwas in my lower extremity. And I
was kind of floored by it. And Ithink another really good reason
to think about it friends andgetting in with those
dermatologists is that if youwait until you have an area of
concern, it can take a long timeto get on with those
dermatologists versus havingthat regular checkup and having
that regular relationship withthem.
(11:40):
Yeah, yeah. I mean, sometimesit's, I mean, it's up to a year
around here, because we have sofew we're just not I'm in a
rural area, and it's hard tocome by them. So I mean, if you
pointed out to your family care,doctor, whoever you have, I mean
they could do something aboutit. They can at least send it
off for pathology. And thenyeah, if it's something a
dermatologist needs to takefurther care of or
(12:03):
dermatological surgeon, thenyou're in the door with
dermatology and then it's justfollow up appointments that are
a lot easier to track. But yeah,I mean, it can it can happen
anywhere on your body to anyone.
So you definitely need tosunscreen up and and take care
of it. Oh, and there's no suchthing is safe tan by the way.
(12:23):
There are people I know thereare rumors out there that say,
Well, you should get a base tan,it's protective. No, if there is
any color to your skin that isnot the same color as your
booty, or the palms of yourhands is the wrong color. It
should be you should be auniform color. That said I do do
guilty I have some shorts linesfrom my running shorts. Because
(12:50):
I just I just yeah, there's acertain amount of time where at
some point the sunscreen isgonna get beat. I mean, it's 50
SPF, but if you're out oftenenough, so but my dermatologist
said he would rather I have avery light tan line because of
running than to be sitting onthe couch and being pasty white.
And you know, not getting in thethe effort and the exercise that
(13:15):
builds a strong body and keepsyour immune system on edge.
Or we can always faux tan liketan and a bottle has come a long
way from what it used to be it'soh my gosh, then your palms will
be orange. You use the rightyes. Well, you wear those gloves
or something. Yeah, that's anAin't nobody got time for that
latex glow I justlearned to live with everything.
(13:47):
Well, I want to I want to reelit back for a second because I
think a reallypoignant portion of the story.
So you went and you got some ofthe melanoma removed in 2007.
And then it doesn't seem likethere was any warning signs, any
other pop ups, anything likethat until you got to the
seizure portion. Right? Yes,that's that was exactly what
(14:10):
happened. Now, the differencebetween a stage one A which is
what I was told that I had on in2007 and a stage three are
whether there are lymph nodesinvolved or not. And the only
way they know that is to testthe lymph nodes. And they won't
do that if they say somethingwas shallow enough. They won't
(14:31):
test for it. So I never actuallyhad my lymph nodes tested. So
the only other trouble that Ihad was in 2010 No 2012 I
wrecked my bike really hard losta lot of skin. So I went in and
got a tetanus shot. Well I gotthe tetanus shot in my right
arm, which is the right shoulderis where I had the the melanoma
(14:53):
removed. And I got a third boobgrew in
My right armpit it swelled up sobadly that there had to have
been, I mean, I actually went tomy doctor for that. And I was
like, there's a lot of swellinghere is this normal from a
tetanus shot? And he said, Ican't be with some people, you
(15:13):
know, just take over the counterpain meds. And it was six months
later that I ended up having myseizure, they found out that I
had a golf ball sized tumor inmy right lower lung lobe. So the
lymph nodes in my right armpit,were very likely affected with
melanoma already. And it hadgone from there into my right
(15:34):
lung, and then eventually upinto my brain. So it took I
mean, it took six years until Ifinally fell out of my chair
five and a half years, until Ifell out of my chair. But all
that time it was actuallyinvading, and I had no clue.
Just none.
It's it seems like a lot of likea cavalcade of errors,
(15:56):
basically, unfortunately, itseems like there were things
that at that point, you didn'tknow how to advocate for
yourself. And quite frankly, Idon't think the majority of the
population would would know toto question or advocate to get
the care that they do need. SoI, I, I think it's an important
portion to know that skin cancerand melanoma isn't always as
(16:23):
neon lights of like, hey,something's going on. And to
really, no pun intended, digdeeper into okay, this is
happening, what are the nextsteps? And being a questioner in
all honesty? And if thequestions don't get adequate
answers to, to have to take thatupon yourself to find how to get
(16:46):
adequate answers, which again,your blog has a wealth of
information? Absolutely. Youhave so many great resources
here.
There are,there are places on social media
that you can go if you've evenbeen diagnosed with the lowest
level of skin cancer, and youthink this is no big deal. You
can just ask people questions.
(17:08):
What did they do? What did theythink they should be doing? Is
there something further thatthey should be testing for is
there when I got it? I mean, Ithought, okay, it's melanoma. So
you cut it off the skin and it'sgone. I mean, I was that I don't
want to say stupid, ignorant, Iguess would be the word that it
could spread inside. And oddlyenough, we actually knew of a
(17:34):
man whose son died at 32 ofmetastatic melanoma. And it just
when I got it, I thought, Oh,well, mine wasn't this, whatever
this metastatic is, it was juston my skin. And it's like, well,
yeah, the difference between onyour skin and metastatic is the
stuff that grew on your skin,then spread in throughout your
system. And that's, so it was,it was a whole education that
(17:59):
a lot of, you know, nobody wantsto default to well, this is
probably a lung tumor. You'relike, Well, yeah, here's your
allergy meds. Or, you know,well, I'm having a headache.
Yeah, but I also get migraines.
So is it a migraine? Or is it abrain tumor? I mean, you don't
think in your life, especiallyat 40 to 44 years old that, hey,
I think I might have a braintumor, something seriously wrong
(18:21):
with me. And while you don'twant to live paranoid you also
once you have confirmation thatthere's an issue, follow through
on it and just make sure thatyou know your body and you know,
when something's it's not right,I mean, we teach ourselves to
ignore our bodies and our painsas runners. I mean, you okay,
(18:42):
you're being a wuss, knock itoff. But at some point,
maybe you're not being as wasyou have to learn how to tune in
when it is just your mindplaying tricks on you. Yeah. So
in an in an effort to, cuz Ithink really, at the end, we
just a lot of us, and I'd saymost of us are just ill
(19:03):
informed. And we're not taughtthese things. So while we are
glad that your story had a happyending,
how has it kind of changed theway that you approach your
outdoor activity? And what typeof precautions do you take now
(19:23):
that you wish people would takecurrently before they'd have to
walk a similar path to yours?
Make sure you take care of yourkids because that's that's where
it could start. I had blisteringsunburns as a child. I mean, I
was the teenager where theCoppertone baby, you know, he
pulled it and I didn't tan Iwould burn. So it was burned and
(19:46):
brown burn then Brown. When mysister came in to visit me at
the hospital after my firstbrain surgery. She goes oh my
gosh, your legs are so strongand tan. Oh, I'm so jealous and
I thought you areare aware that I'm sitting here
having melanoma removed from mybrain, I should not be this tan.
But I was I was, I was a lovelydark shade of brown because I
(20:10):
thought, well, they took themelanoma off, I don't have to
worry about it. So I was outriding my bike, I was out for
hours a day, in the sun doingeverything. So once I had the
diagnosis, I went into incidentparanoia, and I, I wanted to
live like a vampire, I didn'twant to go out in the sun,
the best times to be outside orbefore nine or 10am.
(20:35):
Between 10am and about three or4pm, that's when the sun is at
its peak, that's when it's atits strongest. Your clothing can
do some level of protection.
It's better if it's something ofa tight weave, it doesn't
necessarily have to be up ifclothing. Although that is
(20:56):
available, it tends to be moreexpensive. But any most lycra is
pretty, pretty tight. We'vebasically if you hold it up to
the sun, and you can see lightthrough it, it's less
protective.
So if you hold something up tothe sunlight, and it's a total
block, you're doing okay, you'redoing better, you should still
(21:17):
wear thin layer sunscreenunderneath. And just make sure
you're in the shade as much aspossible. You reapply the
sunscreen after two hours. Ifyou've been sweating like crazy,
maybe even sooner if you reallyare susceptible to burning, just
in take care of yourself, butyou can still enjoy being
outside wear your sunglasseswear hat wear, you know, I don't
(21:41):
like having sunscreen on myface. So I tend to wear hats a
lot. And if you're on the wateror the snow, get that extra
reflection. So you have to watchunder your chin and everything
that kind of burn even yourears. I actually had something
scraped off the top of one of myears, it was not a melanoma but
it was a basal cell or somethingthat had to be taken off.
(22:04):
Because just being outside witha baseball hat on the tops of my
ears were getting more sun thanI was aware of. So there are
ways you can protect yourselfand still fully enjoy being
outside. I mean, I live inCalifornia, you guys are in
Florida, the beach is a thing.
We just that's what we do. And Imean, you just you don't want to
wreck your love of the outdoors.
(22:27):
Because now you want to livelike a vampire. There are still
like exactly what you said,getting in there before the
sun's at its highest peak, whichhere in the Sun Belt anyway, you
need to do that regardless, justso that you don't have a heat
stroke with how hot it is. Soall the way around these
practices kind of carry overinto each other to helping you
stay as healthy as possible. Sogetting out with those running
(22:49):
groups early in the morning, sois great. As you mentioned, I
kind of like the second youmentioned that hat I think what
kind of chic beach hat can Idefinitely add to my like Amazon
wishlist.
Oh, they're right. Fabulous.
Those wide brim. I actually havea runner here that she always
has one of the wide brim hats.
(23:11):
And every single time I see her,I always I always think like
he's so smart. Is she running init in a wide room? Yes. Really.
It's a big okay. Again, I'm inlike South Florida where beach
Central. So it's not likewickery type of wide brim. It
(23:31):
looks fabulous. I'm just sayingto have safety but make it
fashion.
Talking about when you wentthrough this. It wasn't long
haul it didn't happen where youwent into treatment. And it was
it was a very long haul. How didyou and I know you have in your
blog and you've written about ithow it became your new normal
(23:53):
cancer life became your newnormal? Did that change your
training? Did it change yourfocus of your training? I know
that you also have some linksabout how to live as healthily
as possible. Can you expand onthat? I ended up walking
everywhere. Because when youhave a seizure at least here in
California, I'm sure it'sprobably true throughout the
United States, you're notallowed to drive for six months.
(24:15):
So that will make a person goinsane. Especially someone who's
active and my husband was youknow, he had to go back to work
he wasn't comfortable with mebeing on my bicycle by myself.
So I would go out and I wouldwalk in if you've ever seen the
bike lane. I started namingthose those people that they
paint in the bike lane on thatthe stick figure on the bike, I
(24:36):
started calling him chug alongCharlie and I used to talk to
chug along Charlie every time Iwould pass one and I'd be like
that's it I'm gonna be ridingover your face. In the next six
months I will be riding overyour face again. So get ready
for it Chuck and I just it wasjust trying to get out and be a
normal person and not beoffended when people say
(25:00):
Oh, you just you just had skincancer. So like, what's the
problem like, well,not just skin cancer. And
I don't know, just just tryingto you notice the beauty in the
world when your life has beenthreatened,
you noticed more beauty aroundyou, which ends up being a
(25:21):
double edged sword, because thenyou really don't want to let go
of that beauty. But you do, youneed to take it in and somebody
put it online recently, I thinkit was one of the brunchers put
something on on Facebook aboutnoticing little bits of beauty
like bites of beauty around you.
Notice, I don't know, when alittle kid smiles at you, you
(25:45):
know, in, in a passing car, orwhere as much as we hate for it
to happen in our own drivewaywhere a weed or a dandelion or
something comes up through thecrack and you're thinking you're
gonna destroy my driveway. Butat the same time, it's like,
wow, nature is so powerful tohave been able to do that.
That's, that's gorgeous. Look atthat shade of yellow, oh my
(26:07):
gosh, and now I'm gonna pluck itfrom my driveway. But it's
really super pretty. So youjust, I don't know, you have to
take in those those smallmoments because we don't all get
those grandstanding in front of the Grand
Canyon kind of moments. But youget a lot of little ones during
the day that if you notice them,they can offset the garbage
(26:27):
that's going through your life,like I have to drive back down
to LA to get an infusion or, youknow, yeah, I might need another
brain surgery, I might need morebrain radiation I might need
whatever. Just just taking inall those little pieces and
building your new life. Becausethat's it's part of what you're
(26:48):
going to do. Now you're going togo to doctor's appointments
very, very regularly. And Imean, it's, it's better off, if
you can prevent those doctor'sappointments. But
just enjoy what's around you andenjoy the fact that you can get
out.
That's interesting that you saythat there is this book called
(27:09):
The Power of art based off ofthe research that actually
finding on our every day is whatit takes to help you get through
chronic pain or pain ordifficult times in life. And
like you said, it's kind of agratitude practice, but even a
little bit more. So finding outlike you said, and that
dandelion weed. So I appreciateyou sharing that that's
absolutely such a great point.
(27:32):
Well, especially as runners,because you guys, you guys will
tell us, you know, we get to dothis, you got to reset your mind
for him, we get to do this. Andwhile you're out and you're
thinking I get to do this,that's that's when there are
those little moments of all,little mouse running through the
field of you know, bird up inthe tree screaming at you as you
go by anything. I mean, thoseare just that's the time to
(27:53):
absorb and notice those kinds ofthings.
And it's really a shame that wehave to have those gut checking
realities to reel it back tothat simplicity. But, again, it
it really is true. And it's veryeasy in today's world, to see
the good to make theappointment. And I know I'm
(28:15):
guilty of saying that I am busy,I don't have time for XY and Z.
But it all kind of wraps itselfinto the same mindset of enjoy
the little things, take the timefor your health, take the time
to enjoy the dandelion, thenature and everything and really
kind of stripping life back downto the basics. And it is very
(28:41):
deep and philosophical. But itis the truth and even like as
runners again, we get to dothis. No one's making us so it's
yeah, it's a healthy reminder tonot get so caught up in life
that you don't really live andenjoy life.
(29:01):
Exactly. Yeah, we we ended upfinding that. It used to be
work, sleep, shower, repeat. Andthat's not
how it is anymore at all ourtime is so valuable to us now
that it's like if you reallydon't want to do something,
(29:22):
right. Don't make yourself ahermit because I'm already a
hermit by nature. Butyou know, if you really don't if
you don't want to do something,we learn to say no. I mean, it's
easy to do when you have theexcuse of sorry, you know, I
just had brain surgery last weekor I have radiation tomorrow.
It's easy to say no. But yeah,no one's gonna argue with that.
(29:43):
Yeah, exactly. If cancer card.
It's the table. But yeah, youjust you have to learn how to,
again advocate in your bestinterest for for not tabling not
taking on so much. Don'tvolunteer for every parent
thing going on at the schooldon't You don't overload your
plate if you don't have to.
(30:07):
Otherwise, you develop a darksense of humor. I feel like this
originally started as anawareness of cancer. But now I
feel like we're just gettinglife lessons from Nikki like
this is, this is so much powerwithin the words that you're
saying, especially I think, aswe start to embark on summer,
where it could be a veryoverwhelming time for parents
(30:28):
where kids are back at home, andmaybe you're out. So from the
one thing that you have to sayyes to is sunscreen. And
everything else can wait is whatI say yes to your kids, because
you only have them for so long.
My son is 32 now and you onlyget them for so long. And man,
when they learn to drive, younever see them. You try and
teach them to be independent,grown up people. And then they
(30:49):
turn into that and you just gowell, where'd my baby go?
Because now I want my needylittle child back. And I that's
not going to happen because hegrew up into this strong
independent person. Soit's just, again, life lessons.
You didn't?
Yeah, I just. But I think that'sa testament to to who you
(31:11):
surrounded yourself with?
Because it seems like you've notonly went through all of the
health stuff, but it reallyseems like you changed a lot of
how you live.
Where did you have a reallystrong base when you were going
through all this? Or did youlearn to say no to certain
people and, and really make yourown community from there. I had
(31:37):
a lot of our writing group,because I was we had a cycling
club that we were riding with.
And so I mean, we weresurrounded by all of those
people in those friends, becausethey were all pretty shocked and
pretty scared themselves.
Because, you know, we wouldregularly go out for four hour
bike rides and beat all of usout in the sun all day. And so
they started wondering, youknow, can it happen to me,
(31:58):
because Nikki's one of thestrongest youngest members of
this group and what happened? Soyeah, I mean, it's it's one of
those things where it's like Idid, I had a very strong support
group, my son and my husband,came down to all of my early
appointments, my husband hasnever missed an appointment at
(32:18):
all.
And we also have a very warpedsense of humor, which,
if you end up looking at myblog, you're going to notice a
lot of that, and I don't mean tooffend, if you can, because some
cancer patients are a littlemore sensitive than we are.
I don't know, my husband wouldask if, if they could, when they
(32:39):
did brain radiation, if theycould target the less mouthy
section of my brain, like so thesecond time I ended up having a
seizure, it was the left half ofmy face and my left hand. And I
couldn't speak because I had nocontrol over the left half of my
face. And so when we went downfor the follow up appointment
(33:00):
before I was gonna get my secondbrain surgery. He goes, You
know, I felt a little bad. Ifelt like oh my god, they
actually hit it. They made herless. There it is. And he goes,
I feel a little guilty aboutthat.
But as I say, I mean was alsocalling me brain fried Betty. So
one of the gifts that I gave tomy team was I made them apple
(33:23):
cider.
It had a lot of vodka in it. Soit was it tasted like apple pie
hot apple pie. Mix and I putbrain fried Betty's hot apple
pie, cider. And I said, youknow, it'll cure all that. What
else? Yeah. And I put a pictureof a brain in a pan frying
(33:45):
because everybody down thereknew that he called me brain
fried buddy. And I mean, peoplejust were like, wow, I can't
believe you say that about yourwife. You're lucky you're not
getting smacked.
I'm here for the dark humor.
Like I'm I'm all about darkhumor. I said that to her last
night. I was like, you are goingto be like fast friends.
(34:06):
Michelle, do you guys have asense of humor? Well, after
listening to the Mother's Daything, I am a lot like Shelby's
mom your mom. I was just like,yes, yes. Oh my gosh, yes, me
too. Me too.
Long glass twinview. We alsostarted talking about how
elephants evidently arematriarchal society. And the
(34:27):
minute that I was like carryingall these facts about it. I was
like, Oh my gosh, it's likeShelby's home like it's like,
it's just like this like, herdof powerful women and like just
to kind of follow the leader ofthe wisest woman ever. So
anyway, Nikki, let's bring itback to you did in your blog,
tons of great gifts, tons offunny memes. There's no doubt or
is quite a bit of levity toreally deliver this incredibly
(34:51):
powerful message of selfadvocacy, being aware of
protecting ourselves protectinglittle ones, or maybe not so
little ones in our lives. All ofthose things are definitely
prevalent in there. But anotheraspect is prevalent is some of
the things that maybe you didthat set you apart because I
think that from what I'm hearingyou say it went from 4% chance
(35:11):
of it returning or becoming moresevere to when it was finally
diagnosed when it had permeatedand kind of an I hate to use
this word, but it's kind oflike, insidiously taken through
your system, your chances ofsurvival at that point was 4%.
And I have to think it's becauseof your healthy lifestyle, your
positive attitude, all thosethings, and some great doctors
(35:33):
and medicine kind of helps youalong. Would you say that there
are factors that you can kind ofcredit with helping to increase
your odds of survival? Yeah,definitely the fitness for sure.
Because any kind of canceryou're going to be diagnosed
with, the treatments can bethinking me rough. I never had
(35:55):
to have chemo, I was fortunateto have immunotherapy, which is
now starting to take off forother cancers. It's no walk in
the park. But it's also notchemo. The idea of chemo is it
destroys cells. And whetherthey're healthy cells or their
cancer cells, it doesn'tdistinguish. Immunotherapy ramps
up your immune system to takecare of it.
(36:18):
When I was diagnosed in 2013,Keytruda, which you see TV
commercials about all the timenow was in trials. But because I
had brain tumors, I was notallowed in the trials, which I
understand the these companies,they want to get this stuff out
to market, and they have toprove it works to get it out to
market. So if you've got peoplewith brain tumors who have a 4%
chance of survival, you don'twant your drug going into them
(36:40):
and having them die on youanyway, because then it makes
your statistics look worse forgetting it out to the public. So
while I was upset about that,you know, we needed to take care
of the brain. And then I got onKeytruda. And it it, it worked
out for me it worked very well.
I mean, like the 15 to 35% ofpeople that it works for. But
you know, part of it is it's youhave to have some joy in your
(37:03):
life, because stress will makecancer worse it stress weakens
your immune system. And ifyou're on immunotherapy, you
really want your immune system,working and functioning.
Getting exercise and gettingfresh air will actually help
(37:23):
your immune system.
So, you know, having peoplearound you that support you and
care about you, even if they're,we call them mela homies.
Because there's a group onlinethat are I mean, they're all
people with melanoma, whateverdifferent level they've had.
And, you know, we support oneanother. And it's kind of like
(37:48):
the brunchers. I mean, you'vegot brunchers out there. And you
get to know these people and youcare about these people, whether
you've met face to face or notthese people are your your
friends, and you know them andyou hear them. And so yeah, when
when something goes wrong, ifyou've had a similar experience,
and you can relate to whatthey're saying, and you reach
out to them. That's a healthyconnection to have. So I mean,
(38:12):
not to give people anotherreason to listen to time for
brunch, but it's another reasonto listen to time for brunch,
and get to know your fellowbrunchers. And get to know each
other on social media, justbecause you you already have the
similarity of wanting to run anddo better for your yourself and
getting fit. So why not? I mean,now you're gonna support each
(38:32):
other on a new level, you'rehitting on my love language, not
just because you're talkingabout brunch, but because you're
talking about, I swear, it's notjust because you're talking
about how fabulous brunch ismy love language of really
increasing your support network,increasing your connection,
because at the end of the day,that connection with others is
it's I mean, it's just proven toreally help in so many different
(38:52):
ways. And that's quite, quite abig marker of your story is as
again, as I go through yourblog, you talk about like your
connection with your yourmedical team, your connection
with your doctors, yourconnection with your husband,
even the inside jokes, all ofthose things relate or as you
call them, your mela homies, allof these things, kind of helping
you to move forward aspositively as possible. Which
(39:14):
brings us to the next questionthat I have you given us? A lot
to think about. You've given usso much wonderful advice. But
what's next for Nikki? Like,what do we see? You said that
you want to be able to say no tothe things that don't
necessarily serve you increating those boundaries, which
allows you to open up to sayyes, what do you want to say yes
(39:35):
to next? Wow.
I kind of got everything. Imean, my husband just my husband
just retired. Oh,congratulations. I mean we shall
be so greased pigs withsunscreen. All I'm thinking is
bake andso your team's savories what I'm
hearing a greasy pig is bacon. Ican't help it.
(39:58):
Well, that said My husband willmake Make these deep chocolaty
pancakes that I love to eat to.
So I'm Team food. I will eatanything. But yeah. Next for me,
let's see. Well, I just did mysecond marathon, it took me 12
years in between I did one precancer and one post cancer. So
(40:19):
12 years of aging in between wasdifficult enough. Losing a lung
lobe, made it an extrachallenge. So I mean, I really
didn't set any goals other thanto have fun. Just have fun with
it. I will never do it again.
Oh, I wanted to make sure I hadsome fun with it. Can't say no.
(40:46):
I don't see myself ever doing itagain. Okay. Yes, that would
probably be the better way ofphrasing it because you just
literally never know. But okay.
Congratulations on that. By theway. It was so fun watching
guys. It was so fun watchingyour training journey. And
again, another way that you likeinject positivity even on the
runs that may have been where itwas embracing the suck a little
(41:08):
bit. You still had a lot of funwith it from outside looking in.
So thank you for sharing that.
Yeah. So the I don't know nextfor me, I already signed up for
the Santa Barbara half marathon.
They don't I don't think they doa full anymore. But they have a
half marathon. It's in November.
I signed up for the moment thatI could, because I know I really
enjoy that distance. And that'swhat I wanted to do. My bib
(41:29):
number is number nine. I wasthat early for sign up the ninth
person to register. So lookingforward to that did November
Yeah, I'm gonna look like I'msupposed to be fast and they're
gonna see this old lady trot anddown the road and go What's up
with her? How did she get such alow bid number? No, they're
gonna say look at that. Badmamma jamma
(41:53):
I was gonna say another word buta bad ass.
There you go. Yes. Take a lot ofasphalt for sure. So yeah,
looking forward to that. Andlike I said, my husband just
retired in March 30 years offederal service, launching
rockets out here at Vandenberg.
And he's also got his retiredAir Force, which will be that
(42:14):
that pail start rolling in andwhen that does, we'll be
spending even more money andtime.
I don't know we would like to dosome more national traveling.
We've been all over Spain,there's a little bit of Spain we
still want to see. Butnationally, we still want to see
some of the more hiking kinds ofthings. I'd like to go to Bryce
(42:35):
Canyon I would like to see theGrand Canyon again. I haven't
seen it since I was 10 just kindof fun travel stuff that's still
exercise he I guess want to seean Olympic National Park and
just kind of those sorts ofthings. Oh, we're going to
Yosemite to in October so we'vealready got that on the list as
well. So my my October andNovember are booked
(43:01):
but other than that, yeah, maybesee CR kid more now. Where is
where's kid? Is he inCalifornia? He lives about six
hours away from us.
He is but California has he'she's six hours away. So if we
were in New England, he'd justbe you know, might as well be in
Tennessee is just that. But soyeah. And then my husband is
(43:22):
also an instructor pilot so wehave a little airplane and we
can we want to adventure in thatkind of like old people
adventure in their RV we want toadventure in our little linear
class. Oh, goodness. So lots offun is on the agenda and you're
stimulating the economy is whatI'm hearing like there's you
know, you just have theopportunity we will be
stimulating the national parksystem
(43:45):
he can qualify for the don'tthey have like a federal benefit
for the national parks where youget like a discount to get into
all of the national parks. Youknow, I'm gonna look into that.
I thought I was a designatedcouponer here.
But Plus, he's retired militaryretired Air Force so so thank
(44:06):
him so much for his service. I'mso excited to hear that. Okay,
so traveling and more movementssince movements medicine and it
definitely keeps you healthy andhappy seeing kiddo. So I think
that friends what we're hearingfrom Nikki is that that should
be all of our to do list is thethings that like make your soul
happy and make you a little bitextra pep in your step. And
(44:29):
hopefully that's what therunning but if that's something
you have to put on the backburner for a little bit, find a
movement that that quiteliterally creates as much joy
and happiness as we see Nikkisharing on her face right here
with us right now. Nikki, beforewe go ahead and
bid adieu, we are again going topoint people over to your blog
because you've got so many greatresources but what kind of
(44:51):
takeaway advice besides justliving your best life would you
want to give folks? Wow, okay,well from a cancer patient
perspective, don't everor when somebody tells you
they've been diagnosed withsomething don't go Oh, my aunt
had that she died. Don't ever dothat to a person didn't like
don't you would be shocked howoften that happens. Oh, my
grandma had that she died. No,if you know somebody who died of
(45:15):
the cancer that they had shutyour mouth. Just don't say
anything say I'm sorry. I don'tknow what to say and walk away.
I mean, I would rather somebodynot hear it than then to hear.
The reason I even started myblog was to give people more
more the upside more than darkhumor side more than the
(45:37):
cheerful side. I hate to saythat the cheerful side of cancer
but because you hear and read somuch about it's it's a horrible,
horrible thing to go through.
Everybody knows that. So let'stry and bring a little levity
into life. So yeah, don't eversay that the one one piece of
(45:59):
advice as a cancer patient.
Other than that as just a humanbeing.
You know, if you can't get outfor a run, and you need some
strength training, I've got 15tonne of rock that we just
shoveled into the side of thedriveway, if you want to come
out here with a bucket and helpme carry it up the hill that
would be fabulous.
Living in your house a strengthtraining advice, deep clean your
(46:20):
house, you can get plenty ofstrength training out of that.
And then you get to look at yourwonderful landscape or your very
nice clean house. And again,those small moments of all you
clean your floors is a miserablehorrible thing. But you know
what? You just got to work outyou burn some calories. And you
now have a gorgeous floor. Sosit down on a chair and look at
your floor and when yoursignificant other asks you what
(46:43):
in the hell you're doing. Yougo, I am admiring a job well
done. Look at how that shines. Imean look at that. And don't
step on it. Take your shoes off.
I think all of that wasroundabouts to yellow, here's
your other half towalk on your beautiful floors.
Oh my goodness gracious. Okay,so we've learned so much Nikki
mainly that we want you to comeback into chat with us again,
(47:06):
because it was so much funhearing you kind of weave us
through your own journey. Butalso leave us through not just
advice on if you have adiagnosis that can be so life
changing, but how to really,really truly live in our best
days, every single day. So thankyou for that. With that said,
friends again, use that link inEpisode Notes head on over to
(47:28):
the blog that we posted. But ofcourse, specifically head on
over to cancers new normal.comwith Nikki story because she's
got a whole lot of resources.
And some of the best memes Ifeel like I feel like I got
called out on some of thesememes on this blog. So you're
(47:48):
definitely gonna want to head onover there and get a good
laughter too. I mean, can't gowrong with Spongebob Squarepants
in a unicorn. So that said thankyou again, Nikki, for joining us
today. Well, thanks for havingme and everybody put on your
sunscreen when you get out foryour run today and just know you
get to do this. That's rightfolks, it indeed is a privilege
(48:10):
that we get to do. Thank you somuch for joining us for today's
quick bites. We look forward tohaving you come back and join us
again this Friday for a time forbrunch runners etiquette
edition. And in the meantimefriends we're gonna keep serving
up more miles a with a sadsmiles
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