October 3, 2024 • 32 mins
Amy’s guest today is renowned TV reporter, Amy Robach. It’s powerful to hear how an unwanted career change led to a segment on Good Morning America that changed Amy's life forever. Actually, it didn’t just change her life…it saved it! You’ll also hear the important (behind the scenes roll) that Robin Roberts played in that part of her story.
Amy's story is impactful any time of the year, but especially during Breast Cancer Awareness Month and we're grateful for her willingness to share so that others feel encouraged and that nobody ever feels alone. Amy & Amy discuss:
- The power of NOW & acceptance
- The importance of open conversations about breast cancer
- Emotional challenges women face when making treatment decisions
- Being your own advocate
- Support systems (the role of family & friends)
- How early detection is EVERYTHING!!
- How cancer changes your POV on every aspect of life
- Resilience & growth
Amy Robach is co-host of the podcast “Amy & TJ” alongside her partner T.J. Holmes (both television news anchors!) Following a live mammogram on "Good Morning America" to kick off Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Robach, then 40, received a phone call several weeks later, in Oct. 2013, telling her she had stage 2 invasive breast cancer. Very soon after her diagnosis, Robach underwent a double mastectomy, followed by eight rounds of chemotherapy and then breast reconstruction surgery. She has been candid about the challenges of breast cancer treatment, and equally passionate about the importance of early detection and community building for others.
HOST: Amy Brown // RadioAmy.com // @RadioAmy
GUEST: Amy Robach // @ajrobach
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Okay, cats up road fan, little food for yourself life.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Oh it's pretty bad. Hey, it's pretty beautiful than beautiful.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
For that for a little more, facing.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Said he you're kicking with four with Amy Brown.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Happy Thursday. Four Things. Amy here, and I've got another
Amy joining me for this episode, Amy Robock, and I
am excited for y'all to hear this chat and how
cancer changed her entire outlook on life now. Amy Roebach
is a renowned news anchor. She was on Good Morning America.
(00:53):
She was on NBC. She is now co host of
the podcast Amy and TJ alongside her partner t J Holmes,
who also has worked in news for a lot of years.
And following a live mammogram on Good Morning America to
kick off Breast cancer Awareness Month, Amy received a phone
call several weeks later. This is back in October of
twenty thirteen. She was forty years old at the time
(01:16):
and on that call they told her she had stage
two invasive breast cancer. Then after that diagnosis, Amy underwent
a double mistectomy, followed by eight rounds of chemotherapy and
then breast reconstruction surgery. Amy has been very candid about
the challenges of breast cancer treatment, and she is very
(01:37):
passionate about the importance of early detection, sharing her story
building community for others, coming alongside other women, and I'm
very thankful for her taking the time to come on,
especially being that it's October Breast cancer Awareness Month. And
I'm thankful for Amy's perspective and her outlook on life
(01:58):
and what she shares with us. Hope you enjoy the chat.
Here you go, Amy, thank you for coming on to
share some of your story. I've heard a lot about
you over the years. We were talking just before we
started recording about our mutual friend Chase, who he's come
on the podcast multiple times. Of some of my longtime
loyal listeners, they know exactly who Chase Locke is, and
(02:20):
he speaks so highly of you.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
I'm not exaggerating when I say he is one of
my all time favorite people on this planet. He has
a heart of gold, a smile that will knock you over,
and just one of the most decent people I've ever met.
He just texted me because I've heard about you, but
I wasn't putting two and two together that I was
going to be talking to the Amy the other Amy.
(02:44):
So I'm very excited to be able to finally meet you.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Well, I'm grateful that you're going to share some of
your very personal story with us, because it's an important month.
And when Chase has talked about you, something that he
consistently says is that you just live in the moment,
and you do it so effortlessly, and you do it
so well, and you've been a beautiful example to him.
(03:08):
And when he's talking about you, his encouragement is coming
from you, but to others to like, we need to
live in the moment. And so in a minute, I
want to go back to twenty thirteen, and you know,
it's Breast cancer Awareness month. You're on Good Morning America.
You do a live mammogram, not knowing that the trajectory
of your life is about to change. But before we
(03:30):
get into some of that, I'm just curious about how
you've been as a person your whole life, Like living
in the moment. Is that something that comes naturally to
you or was it the cancer diagnosis that sort of
shifted that into gear.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
It was one hundred percent the cancer diagnosis. I was
not living in the moment. I was living for the
next assignment. I was living for the next job. I
was living for the next thing I was going to
do or accomplish. I was on that track, and I
wasn't focused on how valuable time was. The interesting thing
(04:03):
is being a journalist, and I started out at twenty
two being a crime reporter. But I always kind of
considered myself, and sadly this was the case.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
I was kind of a death and destruction reporter.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Anytime anything bad happened to anyone or to a community,
I was the one going. And so I thought in
my head in those years that I understood how precious
time was, that I understood how precious life was, and
as much as I could have, I did. But until
your life is threatened, until you actually think, holy crap,
(04:38):
I'm going to die and I might die soon, only
then do I think you can actually really have that
true sense of knowing how precious time is and how
all we actually have is right now. So being in
the news, you would think I would get that, but
I just believe you can almost separate yourself from it.
You almost think somehow that your not going to be
(05:01):
affected by it, that it won't happen to you. I
think a lot of us think that we see other
people and think, oh, how sad. We don't actually think
it can happen to us until it does. And that's
what happened to me. And that's when my life changed.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
And so then when you started to implement like I
need to be in the moment, what does a baby
step look like? I know you were thrown into the
deep end with a cancer diagnosis, but still that's new
behavior for you. So I'm just thinking of people listening
right now that are resonating with what you're saying. Maybe
they're not reporters, but they are grinding and they're in
the moment and they actually don't even have a cancer
(05:35):
diagnosis to push them towards this. And selfishly, I want
to know too, because I'm practicing living more in the moment.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
But the way Chase.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Describes you, I got to say your next level, and
I'm like, I need to have more fun. I need
to have more fun in my life. So since I
have you dubbed in my mind as like queen of
fun and being present with your people, like, what's a
baby step towards cultivating and creating that in our lives
so that we aren't just sucked up into the hamster wheel, so.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
What I've tried to do.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
And by the way, I just want to say, it
took me about two years host the diagnosis to get
to a place where I felt safe enough to even
think about having a future. I know that sounds ma Cob,
but I was in a dark place and scared to
death about dying. And then you start realizing, you know,
don't die before you die, you have to actually live.
(06:26):
And I remember even I'm going to give Shannon Doherty,
the late great Shannon Dohorty, who spoke to me right
after her stage four metastatic breast cancer diagnosis. She and
I were diagnosed almost about the same time, I think
really a year or two apart. Her cancer came back
and she directed me to a Charlie Brown Snoopy cartoon
where Charlie Brown says to Snoopy, you only live once, Snoopy,
(06:51):
and Snoopy says, you got it wrong, We only die once.
We live every day. And it was just through some
of these, I think other people's stories that actually got
me to wake up and realize, wait a minute, you're
still here, so what are you doing.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
With your life right now?
Speaker 4 (07:08):
And for the baby step every time a negative thought
pops in my head, which is often I'm annoyed by
someone in front of me, I'm annoyed by a slow
walker on the streets of New York City, I'm annoyed
that I'm stuck in traffic, whatever it is. And I
started thinking like, wait a minute, I'm alive, I'm breathing,
I'm here. How can I enjoy this moment? And I
(07:28):
really looked to greater teachers than me, people like Michael
Singer or Eckhart Tole.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
I try to remind myself of this.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
There are three states of being if you want to
actually have a good life. The lowest stage should be acceptance.
So whatever's happening, you get a flat tire, someone upsets you,
accept it. That should be your lowest state. The second
state should be enjoyment, right, just figure out how a
way to enjoy it, laugh at something, find something funny.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
In the mess.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
And the third and highest in the state of being
that I always strive for is absolute enthusiasm. So how
can you take that enjoyment and actually have something to
look forward to? So I always try to enjoy where
I am, but have something to look forward to and
find some humor in the mess. But I have to
remind myself of this constantly, but I really try to
make it a priority.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah, it sounds like it's been a journey for you,
and probably back in twenty thirteen you didn't you didn't
have these three tools. You didn't have at Artolet or
maybe you had already read maybe The Power of Now
at that point.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
But nope, I had done it. No soul set here.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
And that's one you can either read or listen to
multiple times and still try to continue to comprehend. It's
good stuff, for sure. But if you go back to
twenty and thirteen and you know where you were in
your career and like thinking stuff like this is not
going to happen to me. I mean you're at a
different stage in your career for sure, but I would
imagine doing a live mammogram you thought, oh, this is
(08:54):
just going to be good for awareness and nothing's going
to come back. So what was it like for you
getting that phone call? And then what did you think
of your role as a public figure having to navigate this,
Like did you know right away, well here we are
and I'm going to share it all or did you
feel like, uh, this is something I don't know that
(09:15):
I can share with the world.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
Well, obviously it's incredibly personal when it's happening. And I
will back up a little bit with where I was
in my career. I think it's funny from the outside
looking in, you think, oh, look where she was Good
Morning America. But I had just left NBC News and
it wasn't something that I wanted to do necessarily. I
found myself in a new network, very scared, needing to
(09:37):
prove myself, feeling like I took a step backwards instead
of a step forwards, and really questioning my career and
where I was and all of those things. So I
was in that place when I was asked to do
this live mammogram in the middle of Times Square, and
I had no actual personal intention of going to get
(09:58):
a mammogram at forty I had always prided myself on
authenticity as a reporter, and so I actually went into
Robin Roberts, who is a breast cancer survivor, and Thriver,
and I said, hey, look, they want me to do
this mammogram and this Mamma Van and I just don't
think I'm the right person. I have no family history,
my mom's one of nine. My dad's one of six
Midwestern Catholic families. No one has breast cancer. I can't
(10:20):
even count how many female cousins I have. No one
has breast cancer. I just feel like I'm not the
right person for this. And she looked at me and said,
you're the perfect person for this because you think cancer
can't happen to you. And what I'm saying is, I'm
sure you're fine, but you're going to convince one other
woman who doesn't think she needs to have a mammogram
to go and make her appointment, and she's going to
(10:41):
find her cancer early, and you're going to save her life.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
And so that is what convinced me.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
I did it thinking I was being of service, thinking
I was being altruistic, and I didn't realize obviously that
the first life I saved was my own.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
And I had.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Sat there in that room and telling Robin I had
no connection to disease all the while I had two
malignant tumors, the cancer had already spread to my lymp
notes and I felt perfectly healthy and fine. But once
I made the decision to go into the Mamma van
and the mammogram, when I found my cancer. A few
weeks later, when it was diagnosed, I went into hiding
for a few days, and I talked to Robin, and
(11:17):
I talked to my really good friend Hotocopi, who was
also a breast cancer survivor, over at the Today Show,
and she and I had shared a dressing room for
a full year together right after she had gone through it,
and I talked to them about it, and I just
felt like it wasn't even a choice for me at
that point. If my intention going into that Mamma Van
was to get women to get their mammograms, I knew
the power of me saying, hey, guess what, that, Mamma Van,
(11:40):
That imaging just led to my breast cancer diagnosis, and
now I have the unbelievable gift of knowing I have
it and being able to treat it because it's still
early stage. And yes, I had to go through chemo,
and yes I had to go through several surgeries, and
yes I had almost a decade of medicine and meds
(12:01):
that don't make you feel great, But guess what, I'm
here and I'm alive, and I'm alive because of that.
And so it was a non starter for me, not
to make it public because I knew it would save lives.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Well, I'm so glad you had that talk with Robin
and she was a perfect person to go to. And
I'm so glad she said that to you, because I
can't even imagine the amount of people that because of
your story have decided to just go book their mammogram
because you were forty and I don't know back then
or when it changed. I'm pretty sure at forty is
when you should start.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
So interestingly at that point because it's gone back and
forth and this is maddening to me and frustrating to me,
and I'm on my soapboxing about it all the time
whenever I'm asked. But at the time it had shifted
to fifty. Then they moved it to forty five, and now,
thank god, they've moved it back to forty. But if
I had not been asked to do that by Good
Morning America, and if Robin had not pushed me into that,
(12:51):
Mamma Van, I one hundred percent would have waited until
I was fifty And I don't think i'd be here
talking to you today at the age of fifty one.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Yeah, which is the importance of early detection, and I
want to get to that in just a second. But
something stood out to me when you said a little
bit about your career and you were new to Good
Morning America. You had left NBC. It's not necessarily what
you wanted to do, But isn't it interesting to look
back and see that even though that's not what you
wanted and I'm sure there was some pain there. Ultimately,
(13:21):
going to Good Morning America's what led to the MAMMOGRAMT,
which is what led to saving your life. Ultimately, going
to Good Morning America's what led to the MAMMOGRAMT, which
is what led to saving your life.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Amy, I have gone through this, even in recent events
where I have looked back at things that have happened
that I didn't want to happen the way they did,
that I don't think should have happened the way they did.
And I have to trust and believe, especially based on
what happened to me at forty with my breast cancer,
that I was exactly where I was supposed to be.
(14:02):
Going through that then has helped me throughout the last
eleven years, and I remind myself of that I'm exactly
where I'm supposed to be. I don't know why, even
if I don't think it's fair, even if it's the
hardest thing I've ever been through, It's where I'm supposed
to be because I'm supposed to be learning something and
I'm supposed to be doing something, and this is where
(14:23):
I am. And so yes, that has guided me through
many more storms that I've weathered since then and that
I'll weather from now on.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Yeah, And it just makes me think back to the
first step you mentioned of acceptance. When it's something that's
happening and you're having to accept it, having that sentence
is powerful. If I am exactly where I'm supposed to be,
I don't understand it now, but I am here, And
what is possible from this now? So early detection for you.
(14:53):
So stage two had spread to your lymph notes, that's
stage two.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Correct, when it leaves the breast, so if it stays
within I believe the breast ducks, it's stage Zero's I
know there's dcis I believe is the name of it.
When it's in the breast tissue, that's stage one. And
then when it leaves the breast tissue and it goes
on to your lymphoes, that's stage two, and then there's
all these difference. If it's stage four, is the metastatic,
that is the breast cancer that everyone fears and that
(15:19):
they've made great strides in giving women longer, better lives,
But it's still at this point terminal, and so that's
what I'm Among the many things I want to talk
about with early detection, It's also about funding and research
because women should not still be dying, and women and
men men can get breast cancer too.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
I always want to point that out.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
If you have breast tissue, you can have breast cancer,
So I want everyone to be aware of that. But
obviously it predominantly affects women, and I just want there
to be awareness. The earlier you get it, the less
chance you have of becoming stage four.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
That is true.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
So when you got the call and you realized you
had breast cancer and the different details around it at
stage two, and was there ever a moment in your
treatment plan where you personally felt like I need to
question this more, or something's off, or I need to
go see somebody else, or you had to advocate for yourself. Now,
I walked through cancer with two parents, and I feel
(16:12):
like there were times it was just it was clear,
this is what it is, and we felt comfortable with
what was being said. But I do know of stories
where people just had to advocate for themselves so hard
and they just felt inside like something is off. Did
you personally have that. We encourage advocating for yourself no
matter what, but I didn't know if you had a
personal story on your journey.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
I do within the treatment, and anyone who's gone through
probably any cancer knows it's this weird thing where I
don't have an MD, and yet I'm being asked what
I want to do, how I want to proceed. And
that was confusing to me because at that point, initially
in the diagnosis, they had only found one malignant mass
and it was recommended to me that I get a lumpectomy.
(16:56):
My brother, I'm very lucky, happens to be a physician,
and I had him sent all the stuff, charts and
everything he read and looked at. Now, he is not
an oncologist, but he is an internist, and it was
his recommendation to me at the age I was at
that I go ahead and get a mistake. To me,
he said, You're going to have a mammogram every six
months for the rest of your life. You're going to
live in a lot of fear. If it was my wife,
(17:18):
you're my sister, this is what I would tell you.
So I insisted on it, and I got some pushback,
and I love my surgeon. The night before the surgery,
she even said, are you sure you want to do this?
And because I do, want to say, this a mistectomy,
a double mistact. To me, this is a serious operation,
This is an amputation, and it is not a boob job.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
It is not cosmetic.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
Surgery by any means, and it is grueling and it
is life changing and you never look the same, you
never feel the same. I feel like I have two
foreign objects attached to my body, and I remember every
time I got into the shower, and still to this day,
you can't feel the water hit your chest. And that
doesn't sound like much, but it's a constant reminder of
what you've been through. And so there's there are things
(18:01):
you don't think about, there's scars, and there's just changes.
So this is nothing to take lightly. And I'm not
advocating for this because every person's cancer story and journey
is different, but for me, I pushed so my surgeon
when I woke up, she said to me, all right,
so you were right, but I was good. She said,
I did the double mistectomy. I took my finger and
(18:23):
I went over your chest wall. I had an MRI,
I had a sonogram, I had multiple mammograms. Never once
did another tumor show up. But she found a second
tumor on my chest wall that was undetected by any
of the other tests. And had I not had the
double mistectomy, or at least the mistectomy on that breast,
it would have gone undetected.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
So we were all grateful.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
It was just one of those moments where I went
with my gut, I pushed back, I advocated for myself,
and it turned out I had a second tumor and
then my left breast tissue. When they got all of
the results back in, much of that breast tissue was
pre cancerous, so she was like, wow, you actually ended
up being like the poster child for a double mistectomy,
but they didn't know until they went in there. So
(19:07):
in that sense, I did advocate for myself. But I
also feel very lucky that I had a brother who
was a physician who made me feel comfortable with that decision.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
And I love that he said, if you were my wife,
you're obviously his sister. But that was one of the
things that I would say to my mom's doctor. I
remember specifically, well, if this was your mom, what would
you tell her to do? Because exactly you want them
to connect in that way. But I did understand sometimes
they can't connect to every single patient. It has got
(19:36):
to be exhausting for them everything that they go through.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
And the insurance companies fight them. By the way, like
my insurance was denied for my follow up mammogram that
led to my cancer diagnosis. I got a call from
NYU the night before my appointment saying, your insurance company
has denied your follow up. I had to pay out
of pocket. It was only eight hundred dollars.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
And I say only for me, for so many people,
and for me when I was younger, that was twice
my rent. That was food on the table, So it's
not even a choice. And I even hesitated with that
price tag. So the doctors are dealing with insurance companies.
Everyone wants to make sure you're not doing anything unnecessary.
But at the end of the day, I just say,
you have your voice. You have to advocate for yourself,
(20:18):
and you have to know your rights as a patient.
And it's not easy when you're dealing with fear, like
real crippling fear where you don't even think you can
get up in the morning, and now you've got to
advocate for yourself.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
It's a tall order, but it's important.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
You mentioned your brother and the support he was to you.
What encouragement do you have for other family members that
might be listening right now and they have a friend
or a loved one that is going through cancer whatever type.
Right now we're talking about breast cancer, but there's all kinds,
or they're going through any type of illness or life change.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Like, what was.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Helpful for you in how people came alongside and what
type of support was most beneficial?
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Oh my gosh, check in.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
Send the message, send the card, send the flowers, send
the blanket, Send whatever you would want if you wanted
to feel comfort, and then don't ask for anything in return.
I think some of my favorite gifts and I had
a lot of beautiful support from people, and.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
It does matter. It does help.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Just a text, if you don't have the money to
send something, a text saying I'm thinking of you.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I love you. You got this.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
It's unbelievable how much that can lift your spirits in
every way. And you know, can I take you to chemo?
Can I watch your kids while you're going through chemo?
Can I pick up your kids? Offer to help? Can
I make you a meal? Can I send you an
Uber eats? You know, these are the little things. Or
just do it anyway, you know, just do it without
even asking, and do it without any expectations of a
(21:49):
thank you. I think when people said to me, don't
you dare write me a thank you note? I was
so grateful, like thank you. You know, my mom taught
me to write.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Thank you notes.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
But when people would send a gift and say, don't
you dare write a thank you note? That was the
biggest gift of all. But I just hearing from people
and knowing they were thinking of me, praying for me,
sending me love, It lifts you up in a way
you can't imagine. You might think it's trivial, but it's not.
And I don't think I realized how important an email was,
or a text was, or a card was until I
(22:21):
was on the receiving end of it. And I would
just say the number one thing is don't treat someone
like you're attending their funeral. So many people mistaken LYE
just kind of give you the pity hug, the heart
on the hand, the pity glance, like whatever you can do,
just try to keep a smile and positivity and just
say I love you and I want to help you.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
When can I take your kids to the movies? When
can I take you out to lunch? When can I
buy you a meal? Or I'm buying you a meal
on Thursday? Does that work for you? Just do it
and that is everything, But it could just the smallest, smallest.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Note of encouragement is tremendous.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
I love the reminder of maybe even tacking on, like
you said, it was a gift. Don't even dare write
me think you know. But also if it's a text,
like don't even reply exactly, go ahead and just verbalize
that so that there is that relief. Because you have
so much on your plate that you're juggling, and if
you're hearing from a lot of people, then it can
get overwhelming, which what a blessing to have multiple people
(23:19):
reaching out. I remember something that I saw at times
that was just really heartbreaking. I remember something that I
saw at times that was just really heartbreaking, people that
(23:40):
were at appointments by themselves all the time. And I
know that not everybody has someone that's able to go
to their appointments because they can be in the middle
of the work day and there can be a lot
going on. But I like that you said reach out
and be like, can I take you to an appointment.
I know that my mom she never had to, or
my dad because we sort of built it and everybody
(24:01):
was in communication and we took care of it. But
I guarantee you that if we had not, there would
have been days where she would have gone alone and
she would not have wanted to ask anybody. And so
you never know that one person that might just be
putting on the game face every day and showing up
by themselves. But if someone were to just offer.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
There are so many ways you can help people in
need who do need a friend or somebody to take
them to chemo, to sit with them at chemo. I
can't imagine having done it alone. And I hear you,
and it's a way to give back. I unfortunately, I
say unfortunately because I've had friends and I have a
friend right now who is stage four and every chance
(24:42):
I can get to join her in that chemo room
is just a way of giving back, you know, because
I get it. I know, and even if you don't,
you can imagine how hard that is to be dealing
with this disease and to be dealing with it alone.
I was actually just reading the World Health Organization. Their
theme for this year's Breast Cancer Awareness Month is nobody
(25:03):
should face cancer alone, and that is so true, Like,
we need community, and I think one of the hardest
things to do when you're in the middle of this
fight is to ask for help. So what a gift
it is for people to offer that help and then
there is something to receiving it. It's a little hard
sometimes for a lot of us women who are so
used to helping other people to actually receive help. That
(25:23):
sounds silly, but when you're in that position, all of
a sudden, you're like, wait, I am not the one
who's pitied, I'm not the victim, I'm not the weak person.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
But suddenly you are in need of help. And learning
how to accept and.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Receive help is amazing, but it needs to be offered
in the first place. And I just encourage anybody if
you know, someone just offer it means the world.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
When it comes to gratitude. Do you have a daily practice,
an ongoing practice, or what works for you when it
comes to practicing gratitude.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
I wish I could say I journaled. I have journals.
I've written in them intermittently, but not religiously. And I
wish I could say I was that person, but I'm not.
And I would say. What I have is my runs.
And when I run, I think, and it's my therapy.
And I believe me. I've had therapists fairly recently, actually,
(26:13):
and they helped too. But that's when I feel most grateful,
when I'm running and I feel my legs moving and
I feel my heart beating, and it's hard and I
want to quit, but I'm capable physically of doing it.
I tried to run when I was going through chemo.
I think I had a mile in me here and there.
My dad would run with me, and sometimes I still
run along the same stretch. Then my dad and I
(26:35):
ran together when I was going through chemo, and I
never forget some of those curves and turns where I'm
looking at the Statue of Liberty, and I remember being
so afraid and thinking I don't know what's going to happen.
And I run down those same paths now a decade later,
and I think, hell, yeah, look at me now.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
And so for me, that's my gratitude.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
Well, I often have guests just share fourth things that
they are grateful for in this moment, just to peek
into your life. It can be something big, it can
be something small, like your favorite coffee drink you got
to have this morning, or whatever. So just four things
you're thankful for today.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
The first thing that pops into my head is my
daughter's love, respect and their health. Like those are huge
for me. Like when things are tough, I'm like, my
daughters are safe and they're healthy, and there's real love
between us among us, and so that I'm forever grateful for.
Number two, I'm grateful for my parents' health. You know,
(27:35):
we get to a certain age, our parents get to
a certain age, and our hearts are living outside of
us and we don't have any control over it. So
I'm grateful for their health number two. Number three, I
am so grateful to be in the loving relationship I'm
in with TJ, to have my best friend and my
work partner, be somebody who I spend twenty four to
(27:56):
seven with and it was hard fought and it was
hard one but it was worth every second because I'm
with my person. So I'm so, so so grateful for that.
And lastly, I'm grateful for my health. Like literally, I
wake up and I'm like, whoo, I woke up. I mean,
you get to that point when you've been in certain
places with your health. So I'm genuinely genuine Like my
(28:21):
alarm went off at three forty five this morning. We're
doing this daily podcast thing and I'm getting up earlier
than I did when I was working at ABC News,
and I'm grateful that I woke up.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
It's as simple as that.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
I don't even I mean, I can be grateful for
little small things here and there, but I have so
many big things to be grateful for.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
I don't want to lose sight of that.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Well, you mentioned TJ and getting to work with him.
Are y'all doing a special episode dedicated to this topic?
Speaker 4 (28:48):
We are, Yes, it'll be happening, of course, in honor
of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and we get to highlight
some warriors, one who I personally know and one who
everyone else I believe knows but to talking about women
who are in different stages of their fight. But it
will be inspirational and hopeful and a reminder to every
(29:08):
woman out there to take their health seriously, to be
advocates for themselves, and to not think that it can't
happen to you. I don't want to be an alarmist,
but my god, your best protection against this disease is
to be proactive and to make sure that you're taking
care of yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
And so that's what I want this episode to be about.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
And I want this month to be another reminder because
Breast Cancer Awareness Month saved my life. Amy Absolutely October
first saved my life, and I will forever be grateful
for that, and I will hopefully continue to remind other
women and everyone who will listen to me that you
have to take your health seriously and you have to
put yourself first.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
So these episodes will be airing throughout the month of October.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yes they will, indeed, so look for them.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
I'm excited about them, and I hope that people really
it resonates with not just women, but just with everyone,
people who love the women in their lives and the
men who need to take care of themselves as well.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Yeah, I think it's beautiful that y'all are doing it.
But just continuing the conversation in any way that you can,
I think is always helpful for one for people that
made need to hear it and feel a little nudge
to go get tested or get a mammogram or whatever
they need to do. Maybe it's this is breast cancer awareness,
but podcasts live on forever. Maybe you're stumbled across this
and it's not even October, but you're like, shoot, I
(30:22):
was supposed to go get my colonoscopy.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Well go get that. That's so true.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
Whatever it is that you maybe put off. I went
to get my Mamma Graham in August, so that was
my yearly and checked that box and it's it's not fun.
It's like the last thing I wanted to go do.
And you know, I did my colonoscopy. I'm forty three,
and I have to do those more regularly because of
the type of cancer my mom had, and.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
That is not at the top of my list.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
And so many of my friends are like, what you
have to do with colonoscopy because I was doing them younger,
and you don't have to worry about anybody else. You
just do you. And I know that sometimes talking about
it might be uncomfortable, but what Aimy doing and what
Amy and TJ You're doing on their podcast and sharing
and highlighting other people's stories is hopefully encouragement that talking
about it is okay and will only encourage others.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
The power of one voice, like your voice, you who
are listening to me. The ripple effects of you sharing
your story impacts everyone around you who loves you, and
it matters, So I love that you are talking about
that as well.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
I'm proud of you forgetting your mammogram because it's not
easy and it's not fun.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
But guess what's even worse going through chemo, fighting for
your life, being afraid you're going to die, and all
of those things can be mitigated. If you get your
cancer diagnosis early, you can avoid a lot of that.
So yes, an uncomfortable few minutes is worth not having
to deal with far worse situations.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
That's just the way life is. So it's the right
thing to do.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
It's the hard thing to do, and I'm really happy
that you're on that road and you're on it because
you've seen what happens you've had a personal experience with
your parents and sometimes that's what it takes.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Well, Amy, thank you for this talk. And next time
I'm in New York and Chases in New York, I'd
love for us to all go do something. I just
obviously adore him and he loves you so much that
he needs to get his Amy's together.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
I'm in. I can't wait. We can be Amy Square.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Awesome. Okay, Well, thanks Amy, and say your Instagram and
stuff real quick. I'll link this in the show notes too,
but just before we go.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Thanks It's Amy and TJ podcast on Instagram and it's
a j Roebuck on Instagram as well, So thank you.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Perfect.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
Okay, Thanks Amy, Bye bye
Okay, cats up road fan, little food for yourself life.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Oh it's pretty bad. Hey, it's pretty beautiful than beautiful.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
For that for a little more, facing.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Said he you're kicking with four with Amy Brown.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Happy Thursday. Four Things. Amy here, and I've got another
Amy joining me for this episode, Amy Robock, and I
am excited for y'all to hear this chat and how
cancer changed her entire outlook on life now. Amy Roebach
is a renowned news anchor. She was on Good Morning America.
(00:53):
She was on NBC. She is now co host of
the podcast Amy and TJ alongside her partner t J Holmes,
who also has worked in news for a lot of years.
And following a live mammogram on Good Morning America to
kick off Breast cancer Awareness Month, Amy received a phone
call several weeks later. This is back in October of
twenty thirteen. She was forty years old at the time
(01:16):
and on that call they told her she had stage
two invasive breast cancer. Then after that diagnosis, Amy underwent
a double mistectomy, followed by eight rounds of chemotherapy and
then breast reconstruction surgery. Amy has been very candid about
the challenges of breast cancer treatment, and she is very
(01:37):
passionate about the importance of early detection, sharing her story
building community for others, coming alongside other women, and I'm
very thankful for her taking the time to come on,
especially being that it's October Breast cancer Awareness Month. And
I'm thankful for Amy's perspective and her outlook on life
(01:58):
and what she shares with us. Hope you enjoy the chat.
Here you go, Amy, thank you for coming on to
share some of your story. I've heard a lot about
you over the years. We were talking just before we
started recording about our mutual friend Chase, who he's come
on the podcast multiple times. Of some of my longtime
loyal listeners, they know exactly who Chase Locke is, and
(02:20):
he speaks so highly of you.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
I'm not exaggerating when I say he is one of
my all time favorite people on this planet. He has
a heart of gold, a smile that will knock you over,
and just one of the most decent people I've ever met.
He just texted me because I've heard about you, but
I wasn't putting two and two together that I was
going to be talking to the Amy the other Amy.
(02:44):
So I'm very excited to be able to finally meet you.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Well, I'm grateful that you're going to share some of
your very personal story with us, because it's an important month.
And when Chase has talked about you, something that he
consistently says is that you just live in the moment,
and you do it so effortlessly, and you do it
so well, and you've been a beautiful example to him.
(03:08):
And when he's talking about you, his encouragement is coming
from you, but to others to like, we need to
live in the moment. And so in a minute, I
want to go back to twenty thirteen, and you know,
it's Breast cancer Awareness month. You're on Good Morning America.
You do a live mammogram, not knowing that the trajectory
of your life is about to change. But before we
(03:30):
get into some of that, I'm just curious about how
you've been as a person your whole life, Like living
in the moment. Is that something that comes naturally to
you or was it the cancer diagnosis that sort of
shifted that into gear.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
It was one hundred percent the cancer diagnosis. I was
not living in the moment. I was living for the
next assignment. I was living for the next job. I
was living for the next thing I was going to
do or accomplish. I was on that track, and I
wasn't focused on how valuable time was. The interesting thing
(04:03):
is being a journalist, and I started out at twenty
two being a crime reporter. But I always kind of
considered myself, and sadly this was the case.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
I was kind of a death and destruction reporter.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Anytime anything bad happened to anyone or to a community,
I was the one going. And so I thought in
my head in those years that I understood how precious
time was, that I understood how precious life was, and
as much as I could have, I did. But until
your life is threatened, until you actually think, holy crap,
(04:38):
I'm going to die and I might die soon, only
then do I think you can actually really have that
true sense of knowing how precious time is and how
all we actually have is right now. So being in
the news, you would think I would get that, but
I just believe you can almost separate yourself from it.
You almost think somehow that your not going to be
(05:01):
affected by it, that it won't happen to you. I
think a lot of us think that we see other
people and think, oh, how sad. We don't actually think
it can happen to us until it does. And that's
what happened to me. And that's when my life changed.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
And so then when you started to implement like I
need to be in the moment, what does a baby
step look like? I know you were thrown into the
deep end with a cancer diagnosis, but still that's new
behavior for you. So I'm just thinking of people listening
right now that are resonating with what you're saying. Maybe
they're not reporters, but they are grinding and they're in
the moment and they actually don't even have a cancer
(05:35):
diagnosis to push them towards this. And selfishly, I want
to know too, because I'm practicing living more in the moment.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
But the way Chase.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Describes you, I got to say your next level, and
I'm like, I need to have more fun. I need
to have more fun in my life. So since I
have you dubbed in my mind as like queen of
fun and being present with your people, like, what's a
baby step towards cultivating and creating that in our lives
so that we aren't just sucked up into the hamster wheel, so.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
What I've tried to do.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
And by the way, I just want to say, it
took me about two years host the diagnosis to get
to a place where I felt safe enough to even
think about having a future. I know that sounds ma Cob,
but I was in a dark place and scared to
death about dying. And then you start realizing, you know,
don't die before you die, you have to actually live.
(06:26):
And I remember even I'm going to give Shannon Doherty,
the late great Shannon Dohorty, who spoke to me right
after her stage four metastatic breast cancer diagnosis. She and
I were diagnosed almost about the same time, I think
really a year or two apart. Her cancer came back
and she directed me to a Charlie Brown Snoopy cartoon
where Charlie Brown says to Snoopy, you only live once, Snoopy,
(06:51):
and Snoopy says, you got it wrong, We only die once.
We live every day. And it was just through some
of these, I think other people's stories that actually got
me to wake up and realize, wait a minute, you're
still here, so what are you doing.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
With your life right now?
Speaker 4 (07:08):
And for the baby step every time a negative thought
pops in my head, which is often I'm annoyed by
someone in front of me, I'm annoyed by a slow
walker on the streets of New York City, I'm annoyed
that I'm stuck in traffic, whatever it is. And I
started thinking like, wait a minute, I'm alive, I'm breathing,
I'm here. How can I enjoy this moment? And I
(07:28):
really looked to greater teachers than me, people like Michael
Singer or Eckhart Tole.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
I try to remind myself of this.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
There are three states of being if you want to
actually have a good life. The lowest stage should be acceptance.
So whatever's happening, you get a flat tire, someone upsets you,
accept it. That should be your lowest state. The second
state should be enjoyment, right, just figure out how a
way to enjoy it, laugh at something, find something funny.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
In the mess.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
And the third and highest in the state of being
that I always strive for is absolute enthusiasm. So how
can you take that enjoyment and actually have something to
look forward to? So I always try to enjoy where
I am, but have something to look forward to and
find some humor in the mess. But I have to
remind myself of this constantly, but I really try to
make it a priority.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah, it sounds like it's been a journey for you,
and probably back in twenty thirteen you didn't you didn't
have these three tools. You didn't have at Artolet or
maybe you had already read maybe The Power of Now
at that point.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
But nope, I had done it. No soul set here.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
And that's one you can either read or listen to
multiple times and still try to continue to comprehend. It's
good stuff, for sure. But if you go back to
twenty and thirteen and you know where you were in
your career and like thinking stuff like this is not
going to happen to me. I mean you're at a
different stage in your career for sure, but I would
imagine doing a live mammogram you thought, oh, this is
(08:54):
just going to be good for awareness and nothing's going
to come back. So what was it like for you
getting that phone call? And then what did you think
of your role as a public figure having to navigate this,
Like did you know right away, well here we are
and I'm going to share it all or did you
feel like, uh, this is something I don't know that
(09:15):
I can share with the world.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
Well, obviously it's incredibly personal when it's happening. And I
will back up a little bit with where I was
in my career. I think it's funny from the outside
looking in, you think, oh, look where she was Good
Morning America. But I had just left NBC News and
it wasn't something that I wanted to do necessarily. I
found myself in a new network, very scared, needing to
(09:37):
prove myself, feeling like I took a step backwards instead
of a step forwards, and really questioning my career and
where I was and all of those things. So I
was in that place when I was asked to do
this live mammogram in the middle of Times Square, and
I had no actual personal intention of going to get
(09:58):
a mammogram at forty I had always prided myself on
authenticity as a reporter, and so I actually went into
Robin Roberts, who is a breast cancer survivor, and Thriver,
and I said, hey, look, they want me to do
this mammogram and this Mamma Van and I just don't
think I'm the right person. I have no family history,
my mom's one of nine. My dad's one of six
Midwestern Catholic families. No one has breast cancer. I can't
(10:20):
even count how many female cousins I have. No one
has breast cancer. I just feel like I'm not the
right person for this. And she looked at me and said,
you're the perfect person for this because you think cancer
can't happen to you. And what I'm saying is, I'm
sure you're fine, but you're going to convince one other
woman who doesn't think she needs to have a mammogram
to go and make her appointment, and she's going to
(10:41):
find her cancer early, and you're going to save her life.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
And so that is what convinced me.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
I did it thinking I was being of service, thinking
I was being altruistic, and I didn't realize obviously that
the first life I saved was my own.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
And I had.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Sat there in that room and telling Robin I had
no connection to disease all the while I had two
malignant tumors, the cancer had already spread to my lymp
notes and I felt perfectly healthy and fine. But once
I made the decision to go into the Mamma van
and the mammogram, when I found my cancer. A few
weeks later, when it was diagnosed, I went into hiding
for a few days, and I talked to Robin, and
(11:17):
I talked to my really good friend Hotocopi, who was
also a breast cancer survivor, over at the Today Show,
and she and I had shared a dressing room for
a full year together right after she had gone through it,
and I talked to them about it, and I just
felt like it wasn't even a choice for me at
that point. If my intention going into that Mamma Van
was to get women to get their mammograms, I knew
the power of me saying, hey, guess what, that, Mamma Van,
(11:40):
That imaging just led to my breast cancer diagnosis, and
now I have the unbelievable gift of knowing I have
it and being able to treat it because it's still
early stage. And yes, I had to go through chemo,
and yes I had to go through several surgeries, and
yes I had almost a decade of medicine and meds
(12:01):
that don't make you feel great, But guess what, I'm
here and I'm alive, and I'm alive because of that.
And so it was a non starter for me, not
to make it public because I knew it would save lives.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Well, I'm so glad you had that talk with Robin
and she was a perfect person to go to. And
I'm so glad she said that to you, because I
can't even imagine the amount of people that because of
your story have decided to just go book their mammogram
because you were forty and I don't know back then
or when it changed. I'm pretty sure at forty is
when you should start.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
So interestingly at that point because it's gone back and
forth and this is maddening to me and frustrating to me,
and I'm on my soapboxing about it all the time
whenever I'm asked. But at the time it had shifted
to fifty. Then they moved it to forty five, and now,
thank god, they've moved it back to forty. But if
I had not been asked to do that by Good
Morning America, and if Robin had not pushed me into that,
(12:51):
Mamma Van, I one hundred percent would have waited until
I was fifty And I don't think i'd be here
talking to you today at the age of fifty one.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Yeah, which is the importance of early detection, and I
want to get to that in just a second. But
something stood out to me when you said a little
bit about your career and you were new to Good
Morning America. You had left NBC. It's not necessarily what
you wanted to do, But isn't it interesting to look
back and see that even though that's not what you
wanted and I'm sure there was some pain there. Ultimately,
(13:21):
going to Good Morning America's what led to the MAMMOGRAMT,
which is what led to saving your life. Ultimately, going
to Good Morning America's what led to the MAMMOGRAMT, which
is what led to saving your life.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Amy, I have gone through this, even in recent events
where I have looked back at things that have happened
that I didn't want to happen the way they did,
that I don't think should have happened the way they did.
And I have to trust and believe, especially based on
what happened to me at forty with my breast cancer,
that I was exactly where I was supposed to be.
(14:02):
Going through that then has helped me throughout the last
eleven years, and I remind myself of that I'm exactly
where I'm supposed to be. I don't know why, even
if I don't think it's fair, even if it's the
hardest thing I've ever been through, It's where I'm supposed
to be because I'm supposed to be learning something and
I'm supposed to be doing something, and this is where
(14:23):
I am. And so yes, that has guided me through
many more storms that I've weathered since then and that
I'll weather from now on.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Yeah, And it just makes me think back to the
first step you mentioned of acceptance. When it's something that's
happening and you're having to accept it, having that sentence
is powerful. If I am exactly where I'm supposed to be,
I don't understand it now, but I am here, And
what is possible from this now? So early detection for you.
(14:53):
So stage two had spread to your lymph notes, that's
stage two.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Correct, when it leaves the breast, so if it stays
within I believe the breast ducks, it's stage Zero's I
know there's dcis I believe is the name of it.
When it's in the breast tissue, that's stage one. And
then when it leaves the breast tissue and it goes
on to your lymphoes, that's stage two, and then there's
all these difference. If it's stage four, is the metastatic,
that is the breast cancer that everyone fears and that
(15:19):
they've made great strides in giving women longer, better lives,
But it's still at this point terminal, and so that's
what I'm Among the many things I want to talk
about with early detection, It's also about funding and research
because women should not still be dying, and women and
men men can get breast cancer too.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
I always want to point that out.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
If you have breast tissue, you can have breast cancer,
So I want everyone to be aware of that. But
obviously it predominantly affects women, and I just want there
to be awareness. The earlier you get it, the less
chance you have of becoming stage four.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
That is true.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
So when you got the call and you realized you
had breast cancer and the different details around it at
stage two, and was there ever a moment in your
treatment plan where you personally felt like I need to
question this more, or something's off, or I need to
go see somebody else, or you had to advocate for yourself. Now,
I walked through cancer with two parents, and I feel
(16:12):
like there were times it was just it was clear,
this is what it is, and we felt comfortable with
what was being said. But I do know of stories
where people just had to advocate for themselves so hard
and they just felt inside like something is off. Did
you personally have that. We encourage advocating for yourself no
matter what, but I didn't know if you had a
personal story on your journey.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
I do within the treatment, and anyone who's gone through
probably any cancer knows it's this weird thing where I
don't have an MD, and yet I'm being asked what
I want to do, how I want to proceed. And
that was confusing to me because at that point, initially
in the diagnosis, they had only found one malignant mass
and it was recommended to me that I get a lumpectomy.
(16:56):
My brother, I'm very lucky, happens to be a physician,
and I had him sent all the stuff, charts and
everything he read and looked at. Now, he is not
an oncologist, but he is an internist, and it was
his recommendation to me at the age I was at
that I go ahead and get a mistake. To me,
he said, You're going to have a mammogram every six
months for the rest of your life. You're going to
live in a lot of fear. If it was my wife,
(17:18):
you're my sister, this is what I would tell you.
So I insisted on it, and I got some pushback,
and I love my surgeon. The night before the surgery,
she even said, are you sure you want to do this?
And because I do, want to say, this a mistectomy,
a double mistact. To me, this is a serious operation,
This is an amputation, and it is not a boob job.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
It is not cosmetic.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
Surgery by any means, and it is grueling and it
is life changing and you never look the same, you
never feel the same. I feel like I have two
foreign objects attached to my body, and I remember every
time I got into the shower, and still to this day,
you can't feel the water hit your chest. And that
doesn't sound like much, but it's a constant reminder of
what you've been through. And so there's there are things
(18:01):
you don't think about, there's scars, and there's just changes.
So this is nothing to take lightly. And I'm not
advocating for this because every person's cancer story and journey
is different, but for me, I pushed so my surgeon
when I woke up, she said to me, all right,
so you were right, but I was good. She said,
I did the double mistectomy. I took my finger and
(18:23):
I went over your chest wall. I had an MRI,
I had a sonogram, I had multiple mammograms. Never once
did another tumor show up. But she found a second
tumor on my chest wall that was undetected by any
of the other tests. And had I not had the
double mistectomy, or at least the mistectomy on that breast,
it would have gone undetected.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
So we were all grateful.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
It was just one of those moments where I went
with my gut, I pushed back, I advocated for myself,
and it turned out I had a second tumor and
then my left breast tissue. When they got all of
the results back in, much of that breast tissue was
pre cancerous, so she was like, wow, you actually ended
up being like the poster child for a double mistectomy,
but they didn't know until they went in there. So
(19:07):
in that sense, I did advocate for myself. But I
also feel very lucky that I had a brother who
was a physician who made me feel comfortable with that decision.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
And I love that he said, if you were my wife,
you're obviously his sister. But that was one of the
things that I would say to my mom's doctor. I
remember specifically, well, if this was your mom, what would
you tell her to do? Because exactly you want them
to connect in that way. But I did understand sometimes
they can't connect to every single patient. It has got
(19:36):
to be exhausting for them everything that they go through.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
And the insurance companies fight them. By the way, like
my insurance was denied for my follow up mammogram that
led to my cancer diagnosis. I got a call from
NYU the night before my appointment saying, your insurance company
has denied your follow up. I had to pay out
of pocket. It was only eight hundred dollars.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
And I say only for me, for so many people,
and for me when I was younger, that was twice
my rent. That was food on the table, So it's
not even a choice. And I even hesitated with that
price tag. So the doctors are dealing with insurance companies.
Everyone wants to make sure you're not doing anything unnecessary.
But at the end of the day, I just say,
you have your voice. You have to advocate for yourself,
(20:18):
and you have to know your rights as a patient.
And it's not easy when you're dealing with fear, like
real crippling fear where you don't even think you can
get up in the morning, and now you've got to
advocate for yourself.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
It's a tall order, but it's important.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
You mentioned your brother and the support he was to you.
What encouragement do you have for other family members that
might be listening right now and they have a friend
or a loved one that is going through cancer whatever type.
Right now we're talking about breast cancer, but there's all kinds,
or they're going through any type of illness or life change.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Like, what was.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Helpful for you in how people came alongside and what
type of support was most beneficial?
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Oh my gosh, check in.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
Send the message, send the card, send the flowers, send
the blanket, Send whatever you would want if you wanted
to feel comfort, and then don't ask for anything in return.
I think some of my favorite gifts and I had
a lot of beautiful support from people, and.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
It does matter. It does help.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Just a text, if you don't have the money to
send something, a text saying I'm thinking of you.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I love you. You got this.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
It's unbelievable how much that can lift your spirits in
every way. And you know, can I take you to chemo?
Can I watch your kids while you're going through chemo?
Can I pick up your kids? Offer to help? Can
I make you a meal? Can I send you an
Uber eats? You know, these are the little things. Or
just do it anyway, you know, just do it without
even asking, and do it without any expectations of a
(21:49):
thank you. I think when people said to me, don't
you dare write me a thank you note? I was
so grateful, like thank you. You know, my mom taught
me to write.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Thank you notes.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
But when people would send a gift and say, don't
you dare write a thank you note? That was the
biggest gift of all. But I just hearing from people
and knowing they were thinking of me, praying for me,
sending me love, It lifts you up in a way
you can't imagine. You might think it's trivial, but it's not.
And I don't think I realized how important an email was,
or a text was, or a card was until I
(22:21):
was on the receiving end of it. And I would
just say the number one thing is don't treat someone
like you're attending their funeral. So many people mistaken LYE
just kind of give you the pity hug, the heart
on the hand, the pity glance, like whatever you can do,
just try to keep a smile and positivity and just
say I love you and I want to help you.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
When can I take your kids to the movies? When
can I take you out to lunch? When can I
buy you a meal? Or I'm buying you a meal
on Thursday? Does that work for you? Just do it
and that is everything, But it could just the smallest, smallest.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Note of encouragement is tremendous.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
I love the reminder of maybe even tacking on, like
you said, it was a gift. Don't even dare write
me think you know. But also if it's a text,
like don't even reply exactly, go ahead and just verbalize
that so that there is that relief. Because you have
so much on your plate that you're juggling, and if
you're hearing from a lot of people, then it can
get overwhelming, which what a blessing to have multiple people
(23:19):
reaching out. I remember something that I saw at times
that was just really heartbreaking. I remember something that I
saw at times that was just really heartbreaking, people that
(23:40):
were at appointments by themselves all the time. And I
know that not everybody has someone that's able to go
to their appointments because they can be in the middle
of the work day and there can be a lot
going on. But I like that you said reach out
and be like, can I take you to an appointment.
I know that my mom she never had to, or
my dad because we sort of built it and everybody
(24:01):
was in communication and we took care of it. But
I guarantee you that if we had not, there would
have been days where she would have gone alone and
she would not have wanted to ask anybody. And so
you never know that one person that might just be
putting on the game face every day and showing up
by themselves. But if someone were to just offer.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
There are so many ways you can help people in
need who do need a friend or somebody to take
them to chemo, to sit with them at chemo. I
can't imagine having done it alone. And I hear you,
and it's a way to give back. I unfortunately, I
say unfortunately because I've had friends and I have a
friend right now who is stage four and every chance
(24:42):
I can get to join her in that chemo room
is just a way of giving back, you know, because
I get it. I know, and even if you don't,
you can imagine how hard that is to be dealing
with this disease and to be dealing with it alone.
I was actually just reading the World Health Organization. Their
theme for this year's Breast Cancer Awareness Month is nobody
(25:03):
should face cancer alone, and that is so true, Like,
we need community, and I think one of the hardest
things to do when you're in the middle of this
fight is to ask for help. So what a gift
it is for people to offer that help and then
there is something to receiving it. It's a little hard
sometimes for a lot of us women who are so
used to helping other people to actually receive help. That
(25:23):
sounds silly, but when you're in that position, all of
a sudden, you're like, wait, I am not the one
who's pitied, I'm not the victim, I'm not the weak person.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
But suddenly you are in need of help. And learning
how to accept and.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Receive help is amazing, but it needs to be offered
in the first place. And I just encourage anybody if
you know, someone just offer it means the world.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
When it comes to gratitude. Do you have a daily practice,
an ongoing practice, or what works for you when it
comes to practicing gratitude.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
I wish I could say I journaled. I have journals.
I've written in them intermittently, but not religiously. And I
wish I could say I was that person, but I'm not.
And I would say. What I have is my runs.
And when I run, I think, and it's my therapy.
And I believe me. I've had therapists fairly recently, actually,
(26:13):
and they helped too. But that's when I feel most grateful,
when I'm running and I feel my legs moving and
I feel my heart beating, and it's hard and I
want to quit, but I'm capable physically of doing it.
I tried to run when I was going through chemo.
I think I had a mile in me here and there.
My dad would run with me, and sometimes I still
run along the same stretch. Then my dad and I
(26:35):
ran together when I was going through chemo, and I
never forget some of those curves and turns where I'm
looking at the Statue of Liberty, and I remember being
so afraid and thinking I don't know what's going to happen.
And I run down those same paths now a decade later,
and I think, hell, yeah, look at me now.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
And so for me, that's my gratitude.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
Well, I often have guests just share fourth things that
they are grateful for in this moment, just to peek
into your life. It can be something big, it can
be something small, like your favorite coffee drink you got
to have this morning, or whatever. So just four things
you're thankful for today.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
The first thing that pops into my head is my
daughter's love, respect and their health. Like those are huge
for me. Like when things are tough, I'm like, my
daughters are safe and they're healthy, and there's real love
between us among us, and so that I'm forever grateful for.
Number two, I'm grateful for my parents' health. You know,
(27:35):
we get to a certain age, our parents get to
a certain age, and our hearts are living outside of
us and we don't have any control over it. So
I'm grateful for their health number two. Number three, I
am so grateful to be in the loving relationship I'm
in with TJ, to have my best friend and my
work partner, be somebody who I spend twenty four to
(27:56):
seven with and it was hard fought and it was
hard one but it was worth every second because I'm
with my person. So I'm so, so so grateful for that.
And lastly, I'm grateful for my health. Like literally, I
wake up and I'm like, whoo, I woke up. I mean,
you get to that point when you've been in certain
places with your health. So I'm genuinely genuine Like my
(28:21):
alarm went off at three forty five this morning. We're
doing this daily podcast thing and I'm getting up earlier
than I did when I was working at ABC News,
and I'm grateful that I woke up.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
It's as simple as that.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
I don't even I mean, I can be grateful for
little small things here and there, but I have so
many big things to be grateful for.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
I don't want to lose sight of that.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Well, you mentioned TJ and getting to work with him.
Are y'all doing a special episode dedicated to this topic?
Speaker 4 (28:48):
We are, Yes, it'll be happening, of course, in honor
of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and we get to highlight
some warriors, one who I personally know and one who
everyone else I believe knows but to talking about women
who are in different stages of their fight. But it
will be inspirational and hopeful and a reminder to every
(29:08):
woman out there to take their health seriously, to be
advocates for themselves, and to not think that it can't
happen to you. I don't want to be an alarmist,
but my god, your best protection against this disease is
to be proactive and to make sure that you're taking
care of yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
And so that's what I want this episode to be about.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
And I want this month to be another reminder because
Breast Cancer Awareness Month saved my life. Amy Absolutely October
first saved my life, and I will forever be grateful
for that, and I will hopefully continue to remind other
women and everyone who will listen to me that you
have to take your health seriously and you have to
put yourself first.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
So these episodes will be airing throughout the month of October.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yes they will, indeed, so look for them.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
I'm excited about them, and I hope that people really
it resonates with not just women, but just with everyone,
people who love the women in their lives and the
men who need to take care of themselves as well.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Yeah, I think it's beautiful that y'all are doing it.
But just continuing the conversation in any way that you can,
I think is always helpful for one for people that
made need to hear it and feel a little nudge
to go get tested or get a mammogram or whatever
they need to do. Maybe it's this is breast cancer awareness,
but podcasts live on forever. Maybe you're stumbled across this
and it's not even October, but you're like, shoot, I
(30:22):
was supposed to go get my colonoscopy.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Well go get that. That's so true.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
Whatever it is that you maybe put off. I went
to get my Mamma Graham in August, so that was
my yearly and checked that box and it's it's not fun.
It's like the last thing I wanted to go do.
And you know, I did my colonoscopy. I'm forty three,
and I have to do those more regularly because of
the type of cancer my mom had, and.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
That is not at the top of my list.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
And so many of my friends are like, what you
have to do with colonoscopy because I was doing them younger,
and you don't have to worry about anybody else. You
just do you. And I know that sometimes talking about
it might be uncomfortable, but what Aimy doing and what
Amy and TJ You're doing on their podcast and sharing
and highlighting other people's stories is hopefully encouragement that talking
about it is okay and will only encourage others.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
The power of one voice, like your voice, you who
are listening to me. The ripple effects of you sharing
your story impacts everyone around you who loves you, and
it matters, So I love that you are talking about
that as well.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
I'm proud of you forgetting your mammogram because it's not
easy and it's not fun.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
But guess what's even worse going through chemo, fighting for
your life, being afraid you're going to die, and all
of those things can be mitigated. If you get your
cancer diagnosis early, you can avoid a lot of that.
So yes, an uncomfortable few minutes is worth not having
to deal with far worse situations.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
That's just the way life is. So it's the right
thing to do.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
It's the hard thing to do, and I'm really happy
that you're on that road and you're on it because
you've seen what happens you've had a personal experience with
your parents and sometimes that's what it takes.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Well, Amy, thank you for this talk. And next time
I'm in New York and Chases in New York, I'd
love for us to all go do something. I just
obviously adore him and he loves you so much that
he needs to get his Amy's together.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
I'm in. I can't wait. We can be Amy Square.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Awesome. Okay, Well, thanks Amy, and say your Instagram and
stuff real quick. I'll link this in the show notes too,
but just before we go.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Thanks It's Amy and TJ podcast on Instagram and it's
a j Roebuck on Instagram as well, So thank you.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Perfect.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
Okay, Thanks Amy, Bye bye
Feeling Things with Amy & Kat News
Host
Amy Brown
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.