August 7, 2025 • 47 mins
🎙️ Bold, Booked, and Beautiful — Stories That Stick with You AND The Early Bird Bash This week, we sit down with Tennille Corbett to talk about her powerful journey with cancer and the moving memoir she co-wrote with her daughter, Lydia. Together, they’ve created Unremarkable — a story of resilience, honesty, and the unbreakable bond between mother and daughter. We also dive into the upcoming Early Bird Bash in Saskatoon — a celebration you won’t want to miss! From raw conversations about health and healing to the excitement of community events, this episode is full of stories that will stay with you long after you listen. Note: This episode includes discussions of cancer, which may be triggering for some listeners. Please listen with care.
Join Les and Rhi for a bookish podcast where #wereaditsoyoudonthaveto. This isn’t your average book deep dive nor typical book club. We talk about everything from the ridiculous to the relatable, the dramatic to the delightfully unhinged corners of the book world. Whether it’s behind-the-scenes of our book clubs, meet-and-greets with bookish humans, or the absurd moments that make us laugh out loud—this is your invitation to a podcast where anything bookish goes. We’re just two girls who love to read, and we can’t wait to share this journey with you.
No matter who you are we guarantee you will find a show (or multiple) for yourself on the Dufferin Ave Media Network! If you can't find one, start your own! We can help you with that! We're a community of passionate hosts, audio engineers, avid listeners, and day dreamers on a mission to shape the future of on-demand content together.
Join Les and Rhi for a bookish podcast where #wereaditsoyoudonthaveto. This isn’t your average book deep dive nor typical book club. We talk about everything from the ridiculous to the relatable, the dramatic to the delightfully unhinged corners of the book world. Whether it’s behind-the-scenes of our book clubs, meet-and-greets with bookish humans, or the absurd moments that make us laugh out loud—this is your invitation to a podcast where anything bookish goes. We’re just two girls who love to read, and we can’t wait to share this journey with you.
No matter who you are we guarantee you will find a show (or multiple) for yourself on the Dufferin Ave Media Network! If you can't find one, start your own! We can help you with that! We're a community of passionate hosts, audio engineers, avid listeners, and day dreamers on a mission to shape the future of on-demand content together.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I just remember as a kid, you'd go to the
doctor and you'd almost hope that there was something wrong
with you so you could stay home from.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
School, or that's just me.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Maybe I like, I literally every time I go in,
I'm like, tellby, I half strapped, tebby, I broke my elbow,
tell me something's wrong so I don't have to go
to school. And then now as an adult, I'm like,
please tell me there's nothing wrong with me. I'm so tired.
I'm so tired of going to the doctor and then
being like, all right, so your thyroid is really low
(00:31):
and we're gonna have to start this and oh, your
eyes are really dry. We're gonna have to start serum
drops and you're gonna have to give eight piles of blood.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Once a month.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
And you're like, thank you, thank you, I'm so glad
that this is my life. And you go in, You're like,
please tell me nothing, tell me there's nothing wrong.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
But but stin't test me for it. Yeah. Hey, I'm
less and I'm ree. This is not that kind of
book club.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
A bookish podcast for we read it so you don't
have to.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Hey everyone, it is less.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Hey, it's real, good morning, good happy time of whatever.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I was gonna say, it's a podcast, what it could
be listening to it at midnight?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Well, I guess midnight is good morning.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
I'd still say good morning no matter what time of
day it is.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Well, good good day.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Hopefully you're having a real good one. We're really lucky
today we have an author in studio, Slash on Zoom
with us, So everybody welcome to Neil.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
His Neil Hi.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Good day.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah, see she gets it, she gets it.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
But how's it going. How's your morning?
Speaker 4 (02:01):
It's great, My morning is going really well. I actually
don't mind the cooler weather. It just allows me to
get some work done at home instead of feeling like
I need to be outside.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, that is a very true thing.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I feel like once it's chillier or raining, it's like
I don't want to leave the house, so I can
actually be productive for today.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Take care of all those things that I've been putting
off because it's too nice to be inside.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
But okay, So typically how we start off our podcast
is we do read, reading and to be read. So
basically you just tell us what is the last book
you read, what is the current book you're reading and
what is on your TVR or what you want to
read next. If you're not reading anything, you just say
(02:51):
I'm not reading anything.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I'm too busy to read right now.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Okay. The last book I read was, oh gosh, it's
it's right over there. Forget the name of.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
It, get up and grab it really quick.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Okay, one second.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Perks of being assuming from home. Yes, it's amazing.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Okay. This is called Small Things like These by Claire Keegan.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
I don't know if Yes, it's such a cute little book.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Yeah, you know. I ordered it and I thought it
would be longer, and I was like, well, is there
like another series in book in a series? But no,
And then I watched the movie with Killian Murphy so
that was really.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Oh I did not know there was a movie.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Yes there is, yes, Yes, So that was the last
book that I read. I am currently not reading.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
A book, okay.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
And the next book that I want to read. My
husband is actually reading it right now and he keeps
telling me how awesome it is. It's a Kitchen Confidential
by Anthel Dane.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Yes, yeah, amazing. That is such a fantastic book. He
has such a wonderful voice and it's just so interesting
to hear all the insider information on a kitchen if
you're into the culinary odds. Yeah, I absolutely love it
because you're like in your I'm in my element. You
(04:33):
are in some element in my language.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Yeah, because the last.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Few times I'm like, hey, robant, hey fantasy, Hey nonfiction.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Amazing?
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Okay, read what are you reading currently? I am getting
through The Nightingale and One Golden Summer.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I love it. I love it.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I am reading Dear Reader, My Hate James. And then
I've got a at our.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Book club and it's a hefty one.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yeah right, we didn't know how long this book is,
but it's what is it?
Speaker 1 (05:07):
The Fragile, Fragile Threads of Power by V. E.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Schwab.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
It's a big boy. But yeah, so it's uh, what
I'm reading and what I should be reading next? And
then what did I just finished? I just finished some
arcs that I had sent to me by a really
cool local author hashtag.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
You might hear from her soon.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Maybe, but cool.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Okay, So Tanil, tell me about you? Tell me everything
about Tanil. Yeah, it's a very broad question, and.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, take it away.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Yeah, you know, thank you for having me on this
is really great and I love the platform and the concept.
So my name is my name is Tanil. I live
in Saskatoon. And if you had asked me this two
years ago, I think my answer would have been pretty
cookie cutter. Right. I'm a mom, I'm a wife. I
(06:05):
work in you know, in government, and you know, my
days are filled with you know, household chores and running
my kids around and you know, pretty pretty white bread,
cookie cutter until two years ago when I was diagnosed
with stage four uterine cancer. And so my journey has
(06:26):
been not the one I thought I would be on.
But these past two years have been more about exploring
who I am and exploring my creativity and being brave
and bold to try new things, you know, in between
(06:47):
treatment and all of the things that go along with
managing a cancer diagnosis. So during my initial cancer treatment time,
I wasn't working, and my husband said, you got to
do something with yourself, right. I really didn't have any
(07:09):
hobbies and so he said, you just need to start
writing down what you're feeling. And I wasn't into journaling,
so I thought, well, how am I going to do this?
I started writing down the journey. So the year twenty
twenty three. That was my concept each month, what is
(07:31):
this going to look like? And my daughter at the time, Lydia,
she was in grade twelve, and was you know, managing
her little life and what this meant of, you know,
stepping into the next phase of her life and managing
her mental health and understanding that and you know, managing
(07:55):
her feelings around her mom having cancer. So I asked
her to become a part of the book. I said,
what if we wrote this together and wrote from each
other's perspective of this year, right month by month, And
once we got past the side, I and like, oh, Mom,
(08:16):
I don't want to do this with you cringe. Yeah,
Like yeah, cringe, that is the word, you know. We started,
we wrote kind of in silo, and then we brought
in a contributing editor who helped us morph our stories
together and really helped guide because it would have been
(08:39):
just two separate books kind of mashed together, and he
really helped us design the and shape the stories together.
So that that was a great learning experience for me,
not only in how cathartic writing was telling my story
(09:01):
in a vulnerable way, and also learning about the self
publishing process through Amazon that was a lot of you know,
looking up online and how do people do it? And
then I worked with a wonderful person, Jennifer Sparks through
(09:23):
Stoke Publishing. She helped to kind of design the interior
and gave me some coaching on that self publishing process.
And in September of twenty twenty four, so just last year,
we launched our book is called Unremarkable How cancer and
grief intertwined, How cancer and mental health intertwined our stories
(09:46):
of grief and hope. So we are we are a
few months in and we had a great launch party
and great response and I am just so happy that
we took that chance on ourselves.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Oh definitely. I mean, what you have gone through is credible.
What you decided to do with your journey is incredible.
But I want to backtrack just a little bit, if
this isn't too personal, what was the diagnosis process like
for you? Because I think that you know, uterine and
breast cancers, unfortunately, are becoming a little bit more common.
(10:28):
So what are some of the kind of signs and
symptoms that you had so other listeners, you know, maybe
understand a little bit more about what this is like.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Sure, So back in twenty nineteen, I had a had
a cyst on my skin and I went to my
doctor and had it removed, and then the pathology came
back that it was cancerous. I was like, okay, that
was that was not what I was expecting, right, just
(11:00):
little bump and we all have them on our skin.
So I had a wider excision just to kind of
see around the location, just to see if there's any spread,
and there wasn't. So I kind of tucked that away
and you know, went on with my married life. In
(11:22):
late late twenty twenty two. So the fall of twenty
twenty two, I started to have symptoms of heavy bleeding
and my period was changing and I was feeling very tired.
I was feeling bloated. I was having some weight gain,
and so what do you do. You go to doctor
(11:44):
Google and you google all your symptoms and you know
it's a perimenopause. And I'm like, oh, yeah, that makes
sense right. You know, I was not a fan of
the heavy bleeding, right, Like I had switched from you know,
tampons to paths because it was just and switching every
(12:08):
hour because it was so much. So I did go
to my doctor and They're like, okay, so let's try
to alleviate the symptoms of the heavy bleeding. And so
I had an IUD placed right and and you know,
there was no I never thought i'd have to go
back on birth control, but I wanted the side effect
(12:30):
of the birth control of eliminating the bleeding. So there
it was. But it didn't work. You know, months later,
I was still bleeding and I could feel pressure under
my ribs and I'm like, what is this. I could
feel something on my right side. And the thing with
(12:52):
women is that we have a lot of space in
our pelvic region, right We were made for having babies,
and so I didn't understand what was happening. And perhaps
you know winter, it was dark, and I was you know, tired,
and just wasn't understanding what my body was telling me.
(13:13):
It wasn't until I think.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I'm sorry not to interrupt you, but I think too
being a female, that kind of pain is something that
like we're used to in the sense of like getting
cramps or anything like that, so you don't see it
as any different. And I'm not saying that it's comparable
to that, but those who have like really extreme periods
and everything you wouldn't necessarily think of it. And I
(13:36):
think women have such a high pain tolerance when it
does come to things that are related to our periods.
That's again my own opinion, and I'm very sorry for
interrupting you.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
It was just one of.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Those thoughts that I wanted to kind of put there
because that's where the conversation was there.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Oh. Absolutely, I do have a high pain tolerance. And
you know, I would go to work and I would
just eat you know, advil like tic TACs right just
to get through the day. And it wasn't until I
would be so nauseous and I would be throwing up
(14:17):
in the morning, Like, what is this? What's going on?
Finally I said to my husband, I think I have
to go to Emerge. Something's happening here. I don't know
what's going on. And so we went to Emerge at
Saint Paul's and we were there for eight hours, and
(14:38):
I knew something was wrong. I just didn't know what
even though I had you know, blood tests and an
ultrasound and CT scan and they kept adding more and
more tests. I'm like, and the doctor was like, we're
just you know, figuring things out, and we'll be right
back to tell you. And I was like, oh, this
(15:00):
isn't going to be good. And then when they brought
us into a private room and the doctor kind of
like came up really close and said, you know, Tanil,
we found a tumor and we think it's ovary in cancer.
The tumor is thirteen centimeters by eighteen centimeters, like it was.
(15:22):
It was like this, it was the size of.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
A baby in your ribs, right, So it.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Was because it had grown so much. Every time I
sat down or I you know, coughed or I was
it was having difficulty breathing. And so the symptom of
vomiting was it was putting pressure on my stomach. Like
I was so mad at myself, right, like how could
I have missed this? And so the thing that I
(15:54):
have learned and what I encourage people after either reading
the book or asking me, like, yes, what were the
signs and symptoms for every woman out there? Like I
am not a doctor, so I'm just I'm just saying
from my perspective, unusual bleeding is not normal. Get it
(16:15):
checked out. Ask for the ultrasound because it was there
months ago before.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
I had been there for a while exactly.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Well, and it could have started off as like I
know a lot of my friends who who've had these
similar issues where it's like extensive bleeding any of that,
and they go in and it's an Overari insist and
it's something like again like I'm also not a doctor,
but something like that could have been so minimal that
you never know. It could have just kind of stemmed
from that because OVERI insists we can live through. They're
(16:50):
very painful, but people get them all the time, and
people don't always get them. What is the word the ablation? Yep, right,
Like you don't get to do that all the time.
So sorry again for interrupting, but it just was one
of those things where I feel like it's becoming more
common that we're noticing those issues, and it is so
(17:11):
important to get them checked out because a small cyst
could become something more.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
Yeah. Absolutely, And the correlation between that skin cancer that
cyst that I had back in twenty nineteen and this
is that I was referred to genetic counseling because both
of those cancers were related. So I went through documenting
(17:41):
my family tree and any cancers that had been in
my family's past, and what do you know. So I
did have genetic counseling and I am also diagnosed with
Lynch syndrome. So that is a genetic deficiency where your
cells they're they're made and they replicate from your DNA
(18:06):
right over and over and over. And Lynch syndrome is
where I have actually, uh the possibility of four four mutations,
and I have two out of the four mutations. So
as your body creates new cells and they're they're creating
trillions of cells, your body has the ability to fix
(18:31):
any broken cells that pass through, right, they'll catch them
and they'll destroy them. With the mutations that I have,
my body can't catch them all. And so that's what
creates the cancer. Is these broken cells kind of cluster
up and create the tumors. And so with Lynch syndrome,
the top two cancers are colon and uterine. And so
(18:58):
also with Lynch syndrome is that the cells multiply and
grow faster than the norm. So that fast growing tumor
that I had was the symptom of Lynch syndrome.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
So you think that your tumor grew got fast due
to that Lynch.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Yes, oh absolutely, yeah. Yeah. So I was the first
person in my family to have been diagnosed with Lynch syndrome,
So the first in hundreds of generations, right, science caught
up with that, and so it stems from my paternal side.
(19:38):
So a lot of people in my family got tested
for Lynch syndrome, and everyone has a fifty to fifty
chance of getting it. And you know, there's some survivor's
guilt where some of my siblings do not have it.
And you know my dad, who he Again, it stems
from my paternal side, So my dad was able to
(20:00):
get tested and to take some steps to help him.
So for that, I'm grateful that I was able to
kind of protect my family or give them some you know,
ways to you know, prevent cancer from showing up in
their lives too.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
So I guess this is probably a yes, but I'm
gonna ask the question anyways. So I know that when personally,
when my mom had cancer, the first time she had it,
they indicated like, no, we can't do any genetic testing,
blah blah blah. And then the second time she had it,
they're like, hey, well you've had it twice now, so
(20:39):
they did all the genetic testing after the second time.
So then because they found that lump for you on
your skin and then the uterine cancer. Is that kind
of what led to You're allowed to kind of see
that genetic testing or was that kind of automatically you
were just allowed to do it just out of curiosity.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
Yeah, So when they it's based on your pathology. So
there was the pathologists the first time with my skin cancer.
It was something called d differentiated so d MMR. So
they're like, you know, because you have this type of
(21:20):
result with your pathology, there is a high chance that
you have Lynch syndrome or mire tore syndrome. So I
was referred to a genetic counselor back in twenty nineteen,
and you know, they, I'm not sure what the genetic
counseling staffing is like or what that looks like in
(21:44):
our province, but I was put on a wait list
and so I waited. Yeah, so I waited for that,
and you know, after that second time again the pathology
came back as d MMR. I was kind of put
to the top with a list. So I feel like
I've become an expert in myself and Hindsight's twenty twenty.
(22:10):
I wish I would have advocated more for myself to
get that genetic testing earlier done sooner.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
It's so hard in the medical system to do all
of that advocating, and when you're already going through something
and something's not right in your body and your body's
putting so much energy towards that, to then have to
go and advocate on top of that can be really,
really hard. So that's not something you necessarily should wear,
because it is a lot to be carrying well.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
In another kind of personal inter interjection, but I know, sorry,
I'm going to talk about my mom because my mom
went through cancer. So when my mom first got diagnosed,
my sister was six months old. So after my sister
was born, my mom had a lot of difficulty breastfeeding
and she couldn't figure out why she couldn't breastfeed my sister,
(23:01):
and she ended up going in thinking, oh, I have
plugged milk ducks, and she came out with a stage
three breast cancer diagnosis. So it's again one of those
things where something as simple as plugged milk ducks can
lead to a diagnosis. And even at that point in time,
there was no breast cancer in my family like it,
(23:25):
it wasn't there, and at that point. No, we didn't
have the genetic testing. She went through chemo. I was
six years old, so I was old enough to remember.
But I remember getting told she had cancer the day
before my birthday. And then she was actually declared not
cancer free, because cancer free is like that five years.
(23:48):
But she was in remission one year later. But it
was it was a long road, like she was so
so sick, and there were times where as a kid,
you're like, oh my god, like my mother's going to die, Like,
oh my god. And so after she kind of went
through that, like she was good, right, Like we had
(24:08):
how old am I twenty twenty? How old would I
be in twenty twenty, I'd been twenty four, So for
what eighteen years she had been seventeen years she had
been cancer free. And in the middle of twenty twenty,
I remember again it's always around my birthday. She called
me on November twenty sixth and she's like Gallesia, like,
(24:30):
you're gonna have to sit down. And I was like,
oh my god, now what because we had had brutal,
brutal family things going on from twenty seventeen onward. And
she sat down, and I sat down and she's like, Alessia,
they found a lump when I did my mammogram and
they found a small lump. And after my mom had
breast cancer the first time, my sister and I were
(24:51):
told you were at high risk for breast cancer, like
you guys are going to have to not take this,
like certain birth control. We couldn't take yeah, anything like that.
So our whole lives, it's been this and that and
having mamograms really early in life. And so she had
a mammogram. It was a very small tumor, like barely there.
And the only reason why they really caught it is
(25:14):
because she does mamograms all the time and.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
They caught it.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
They were like, Sylvia, it's stage one, like it's barely
a tumor. And my mom she's like, great, chop it off,
get it like she's like just I'm done and I
already have one implant, give me another one and I'm done.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
So because she had.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Gotten it a second time, they did all the genetic
testing and so I remember when it came back and
she's like, wells's yeah, yuess what like what like this
is this is it a good thing?
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Is it a bad thing?
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Like I don't know, and she's like, well, we got
the genetic testing, and because both of them were kind
of based off of different hormones basically, they're like, nope,
it's not genetic in any way whatsoever. So my mom,
they think that it was more brought on by extreme
levels of stress or exhaustion, and like, not exhaustion per se,
(26:09):
but my mom was under a ton of stress with
my sister because she had had difficulties carrying kids, and
by the second one, we were just under so much
stress in twenty twenty that it was induced most likely
by stress. So both of them had a different base.
I think one was more of like an estrogen and
one was more of a progesterone progesterine progesterone, and yeah,
(26:33):
so they were non genetics. So coming back to that
whole genetics thing, I think it's I think it's amazing
that they can even do something like that and they
can look at it and be like, this is a
genetic factor, this is something that carried on through your
family tree, and being able to do that after the
fact is something I really think is quite neat. Sorry
(26:58):
for that, just that like five minutes of straight talking.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
I love hearing these stories because you know, and not
just from cancer patients themselves, like the families and the
caregivers and how it affects everyone, right, And yeah, there's
some there's some fear around the genetic piece, right, And
(27:24):
we've always you know, oh we've got you know, cancer
in the family, like how does that work? And how
do we know? Right? And and how how to protect ourselves?
And I I always want to say, like, so I'll
just it's almost like after after the book, right, because
the book ends at the end of twenty twenty three,
(27:47):
and so many people have said, so, now what's Neil?
Are you going to write another one? Because so much time,
like a year and a half has come and gone,
and like, so now what's happening? And I, you know,
I just finished my final round of immunotherapy in June. Yay, yay, Yeah,
(28:10):
there was that was eighteen rounds of immunotherapy. And one
of the things that we managed wasn't yes, it was
the cancer, but with immunotherapy on this clinical trial, there
was a lot of symptoms and side effects from the
immunotherapy itself, so you know, managing you know, muscle ache,
(28:34):
achiness and headaches and inflammation, hypothyroidism, all these things, and
I thought, oh, I can manage all these symptoms. And
then just just in March April, I started to feel
like pain in my right side. My mom, I'm like, no,
(28:56):
I don't have anything else right because I had the
full hysterectomy. Everything, Like, what could this be? Now? Well
it was my appendix. My appendix said my appendix had
had swollen. So I had an appendectomy and and you
know I just before before you go in for surgery,
(29:19):
you have to have like a pre opt done by
a doctor. I'm like, okay, And they wanted to get
this out because they thought, well, is this just inflammation
or was there cancer in the appendix? So I had
to go to my physician's office and I was I
was put in a room and this casual doctor had
(29:41):
come in and just again it's just like you know, paperwork,
just take my height and weight and all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
What color are your eyes?
Speaker 4 (29:48):
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And so I quickly gave a
rundown in my history to this stranger. And this is
the first time this has ever happened. He stopped what
he was doing it at the computer, and he moved
and faced me and he said, I don't work in
this office. I'm actually an er doctor in the province.
(30:11):
He said, help me be a better doctor. Let me
understand what symptoms you had, so that I can understand
what better questions to ask. And I was like, I
started bawling because I'm like, nobody has ever framed it
in that way. And I said, when women present with
(30:35):
unusual bleeding, believe them that something is not right. It's
almost like start with the worst and then work your
way back right, yeah, you know, like I And he's
like yep, And I said, just order the ultrasound, Just
order it.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
And it's such a quick thing to do too.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
Yes. So I think about that conversation all the time,
and you know, it's not like a you know me
too movement where like believe the woman when she says,
you know, but believe women when they say our bodies
are not right. Yeah, help me find out what's wrong,
(31:17):
and yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Don't ignore the fact that, yeah, like this pain is happening.
And they're like, well, are you sure you're not on
your period or are you sure you're not pregnant or
anything like that, Like take it seriously. It's not something
to joke about. And we know when it's normal pain,
and we know when this is not normal, especially somebody
like myself, Like I've never had extreme period pain where
(31:44):
my sister has the worst, like she's out cold, So yeah,
something like that. Like if I had the same level
as my sister out of nowhere for me, that would
probably be a little bit alarming because of a red flag,
because like, I don't that doesn't happen to me, And
I'd rather go in and get told that I'm healthy
and that nothing is wrong then go in or not
(32:04):
go in and something be detrimentally wrong. And this is
like kind of off topic. I just remember as a kid,
you'd go to the doctor and you'd almost hope that
there was something wrong with you so you could stay
home from school, or that's just me maybe I like,
I literally every time I go in, I'm like, tellby
I half strapped, tellby I broke my elbow, tell me
(32:25):
something's wrong so I don't have to go to school.
And then now as an adult, I'm like, please tell
me there's nothing wrong with me. I'm so tired. I'm
so tired of going to the doctor and then being like,
all right, so your thyroid is really low, and we're
gonna have to start this and oh, your eyes are
really dry. We're gonna have to start serum drops and
(32:45):
you're gonna have to give eight piles of blood.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Once a month.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
And you're like, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
I'm so glad that this is my life.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
And you go in, You're like, please tell me nothing,
tell me there's nothing wrong, but but stilln't test me
for it.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Yeah, So I totally understand in the sense, like not
understand in sense I didn't go in and have a
diagnosis like that, but the fact that it's like, don't
don't underestimate the pain that we're feeling and take it seriously.
One other little little piece and then we'll shift gears.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
And when I.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Had really bad acid reflux and it just kept getting
worse and worse and worse, and I remember going to
the doctor and fighting for myself and it's like I
can't lay down without everything in my stomach coming back up.
I can't sleep, I can't do anything. And I remember
going to the doctor. They sent me for a scope,
then they sent me to the thoracic surgeon, and the
(33:48):
first time I saw my thoracic surgeon He looked at
me and was like, you know what, I think everything
will be better if you just lost weight. And I
remember walking out of there and I'm like, well, nothing's
gonna help, Like that's not fair, and I'll give him credit.
He did send me for two more tests, and coming
in that second time, I sat down and I've never
(34:10):
had a doctor do this to me before, and I've
seen a lot of doctors. And he comes over. He
sits on the stool right in front of me.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
He looks at me.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
He's like, Alessia, the first thing I need to do
is say I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't take
it seriously. I didn't realize that it was this bad.
And basically I ended up having stomach surgery, and it's
a surgery that for example, when I asked him how
long is this gonna last, his response is, I don't know.
(34:40):
I've never had to do it because most of my
patients have died before it failed. And I looked at
him like okay, he's like, but you're.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Only twenty five.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
They were like eighty five, sixty five to eighty five
years old, so of course they died before he had
to redo it.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
That sounds rude, but what am I going to do
when I'm fifty? So moral of the.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Story, they took a bunch of biopsies everything because they
wanted to check if if it was cancerus there there
were a lot of things going wrong, and you know,
at that point, I'm lucky there's nothing there. But now
I'm just kind of on edge all the time, where
it's like anytime something is wrong, I'm like, they're ask surgeon, Hey,
what's up? Can you check my stomach please? So very
(35:21):
off topic, but I understand the whole, like you do
need to fight because if a doctor sits there and
it is like, hey you need to lose weight, or
hey you need to change your lifestyle. Okay, yes you're correct,
maybe I do, but that doesn't change the fact that
something's wrong. No, there's my my full stop for a
(35:42):
moment there. But I think we're gonna shift gears just
a little bit here and we're going to talk about
this amazing event that you are.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
You are a part of organizing.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
So it is the early Bird Bash, So tell me
a little bit about it.
Speaker 4 (35:58):
Yeah, for sure. So I have not been at work
in my former life, my former day job. I haven't
been working obviously, and taking things like not taking things
for granted and being brave to ask for things, and
(36:19):
you know, understanding that life is short. You know, let's
take some risks. And I had been out for dinner
with two of my former staff, Chrissy and Kelsey, and
they are I want to say, late thirties, early forties,
and they've got young children, and so they were saying
(36:42):
to me like, how are you doing it?
Speaker 1 (36:43):
To me?
Speaker 4 (36:44):
You're doing all these things and you know, just taking risks.
And I said, well, we can do that too, like
just what do you want to do? And they were
saying like, we want to go out dancing, but it
needs to be early. Like well, then let's do it.
Let's plan it, and they're like, well, there's nothing else
out there. I said, I know, let's be the ones
to do it. So we you know, we were sat
(37:08):
at the table for like three hours like planning, like
how could we do this? And we had planned our
weddings and it's like finding a hall, finding a DJ
women only safe space. Let's do it. And within three
months we coined it, you know, the Early Birds Bash.
We had the place, we had sponsors, we had a DJ.
(37:32):
We sold tickets. They were sold out in five days.
Like the word just spread and that was at the
end of April. And it was so fun. Women were
able to dance without fear of I just I left
my drink on the table, and know that it's going
to be safe.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Why it's so true though, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:59):
Dance the way that I want to dance. Right there
was there was a fantastic group of women who take
whole dancing lessons and so they were able to dance
the way that they wanted to dance without fear of
being like groped or come up to and just you know,
(38:19):
it was amazing and you know, a women only safe
space where we could just enjoy each other. And it
was great and it was It started at six and
it was over at ten and people could either you know,
go home to bed and carry on with their day
the next day, or you know, carry on and go
(38:41):
out for you know, some late night appetizers. And it
was it was so fun, and so we want to
do it again. So we planned another one, and this
one is going to be even bigger, so we are
able to almost triple the size the number of people
to come, and we so it's October seventeenth, that's a Friday,
(39:07):
and again it'll be from six to ten pm here
in Saskatoon at the Cosmos Center, so just off Broadway
and eleventh and we've got you know, female DJ, we've
got people sponsoring our event. We've got we're actually collaborating
(39:29):
with another girls group. So I don't know if you've
heard of them, The Girls who Like to Do Stuff.
They are they're an Instagram group that bring like minded women,
so gen z Era. They where they come together in
person to do things. Because this group was in high
(39:51):
school when COVID hit and so their ability to kind
of find each other and do things together, this group
is is is doing that. So we're collaborating with them
to kind of bring that group together to do dance
like dancing. And we also want to give back, and
(40:14):
so we ask the Girls who like to do stuff,
so you choose the charity of choice for our fundraising efforts.
And so they are going because it's in October, We're
going to donate our raffle at the event proceeds to
the Canadian Cancer Foundation for breast cancer research. So lots
(40:35):
lots of good things from just this one random dinner
night out of like let's do something and we just
did it right. The support that we've gotten from this,
you know, just random thing that we decided to plan
(40:55):
has been so amazing for you know, Chrissy and Kelsey
see to show that, you know, to show their kids,
their girls like if it's not out there, do it,
you know, make it happen, Just make it happen. So, yeah,
that's that's coming up for us.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
And have tickets gone on sale for this one or
is it already sold out?
Speaker 4 (41:19):
They have not gone on sale yet. What we're doing
is because we're collaborating with the girls who like to
do stuff, So members, if you're on their Instagram, pre
sale tickets are going to go ahead on August fifteenth
for them, so it's a reduced price. So if you
follow girls who like to do stuff, you could get
(41:40):
that early bird Bash code and then they'll go on
sale for the general public and everyone else on August
twenty ninth.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
Amazing, So we still have a little bit of time
before tickets go on sale. If people are looking to
find do you have a website or on Instagram? They
can find you on.
Speaker 4 (42:00):
Yes, So our website is Earlybirdsbash dot ca A or
our instagram is at early Birds Bash.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Amazing nice a soda. Also for our listeners, here's a
little shout out for us, not shout out.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
For us, but in general.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
Rie and I are or sorry, not that kind of
book club. We are a sponsor for this event coming up,
and we think that it's an amazing event. We love
kind of what it's representing and women in anything right,
and we're supporting women, we're creating that safe space, inclusive space,
and we're we're very very proud and lucky to be
(42:46):
one of the sponsors of the event, very excited for it.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
We are excited to thank you so much because the
more word spreads among groups like yourself and your book
and women groups, they you know, they decide together, Hey
let's all buy some tickets and we'll go together. So
you can come on your own, or you can gather
(43:12):
your ladies and come and have a great night. So
thank you for your support. We really appreciate it, of.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
Course, and then thanks you another soda, and then for
you for your for yourself to Neil, do you have
an Instagram or something for followers to kind of connect
with you and finding a way to get your book
or a copy of your book. Is it anywhere in Saskatoon?
Speaker 4 (43:38):
Yes? So my personal Instagram is at the real to
neil ce and Lydia's and my author Instagram account is
unremarkable underscore memoir.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
Okay, amazing.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (43:57):
And if you if yes, sorry, I was just gonna say,
and if you, you know, just put in Neil Corbett
or Lydia Corbett into Amazon. You'll find our book there.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Amazing.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
Hopefully one day or soon we'll we'll see your book
at McNally or any of the local libraries, not local libraries,
local stores.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
Yeah, absolutely soon, amazing, right, I love it. I love McNally.
Speaker 3 (44:24):
Oh yeah, we love good.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
But it was so amazing being able to chat with you.
I know, I first met you November of last year
out of market and we had a great conversation then,
and I bought a copy of your book, gave it
to my mum and.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
And just was so excited about it.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
And when we connected again to see if you could
kind of, well not kind of for you to come
on the.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Podcast, and you agreed, I was.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
I was honestly so excited to be able to chat
with you again and kind of get more of your
story and more of the background, and it was very
lovely having you on today.
Speaker 4 (44:56):
Thank you. I appreciate the time you took to hear
my story and to share women empowerment and to have
these great conversations. So being brave is scary, but it's doable.
So thank you both.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
Oh, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
Okay, we'll have the best rest of your day.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
To Neil, and again, thank you so much. You bet Okay, ee,
that was awesome.
Speaker 3 (45:26):
That was fantastic. Look at that. Another author down.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
That sounds so bad, I know, but in the best way.
Speaker 3 (45:33):
Like it's not like we're putting them down, We're just
like checking them off a list.
Speaker 2 (45:38):
Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
To end us off today, I'm trying to think of
a cool thing. Let's do a book elimination. So I'm
going to pick five books. We're gonna take turns eliminating
a book to come to an agreement.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
As to which is the best book out of these five?
Speaker 1 (45:59):
Ye, and like these are my five, and then we'll
do your five next time. Okay, but I have to
do books that you've read.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
That's difficult. Okay. We're gonna do not Safe for work.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
The Nightingale because you're reading it.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
Mama Love. Yep, oh my god, this is hard, Atmosphere.
Uh huh. And One Golden Summer.
Speaker 3 (46:38):
Okay, well, can get rid of Mama Love, get rid
of No.
Speaker 2 (46:42):
One at a time?
Speaker 3 (46:42):
Oh, one at a time.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
Now I get to get rid of one.
Speaker 3 (46:44):
Okay, get rid of Mama Love.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
Yeah, yeah, it's gone Nightingale gone you return.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
Mmmm. Let's get rid of not safe for work.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
Okay. Oh, I get to pick the winner.
Speaker 3 (46:58):
These are both books I'm currently reading, so whatever one
of them will throw away.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
Just kidding, atmosphere. So the winner is.
Speaker 3 (47:04):
One Golden Summer, which is also our book of the month.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
Wow, look at me.
Speaker 1 (47:08):
I feel like I just like set that up so
that I can show the book of the month. All right, guys,
I'm less Imrie, and thank you for joining us.
I just remember as a kid, you'd go to the
doctor and you'd almost hope that there was something wrong
with you so you could stay home from.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
School, or that's just me.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Maybe I like, I literally every time I go in,
I'm like, tellby, I half strapped, tebby, I broke my elbow,
tell me something's wrong so I don't have to go
to school. And then now as an adult, I'm like,
please tell me there's nothing wrong with me. I'm so tired.
I'm so tired of going to the doctor and then
being like, all right, so your thyroid is really low
(00:31):
and we're gonna have to start this and oh, your
eyes are really dry. We're gonna have to start serum
drops and you're gonna have to give eight piles of blood.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Once a month.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
And you're like, thank you, thank you, I'm so glad
that this is my life. And you go in, You're like,
please tell me nothing, tell me there's nothing wrong.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
But but stin't test me for it. Yeah. Hey, I'm
less and I'm ree. This is not that kind of
book club.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
A bookish podcast for we read it so you don't
have to.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Hey everyone, it is less.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Hey, it's real, good morning, good happy time of whatever.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I was gonna say, it's a podcast, what it could
be listening to it at midnight?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Well, I guess midnight is good morning.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
I'd still say good morning no matter what time of
day it is.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Well, good good day.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Hopefully you're having a real good one. We're really lucky
today we have an author in studio, Slash on Zoom
with us, So everybody welcome to Neil.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
His Neil Hi.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Good day.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah, see she gets it, she gets it.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
But how's it going. How's your morning?
Speaker 4 (02:01):
It's great, My morning is going really well. I actually
don't mind the cooler weather. It just allows me to
get some work done at home instead of feeling like
I need to be outside.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, that is a very true thing.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I feel like once it's chillier or raining, it's like
I don't want to leave the house, so I can
actually be productive for today.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Take care of all those things that I've been putting
off because it's too nice to be inside.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
But okay, So typically how we start off our podcast
is we do read, reading and to be read. So
basically you just tell us what is the last book
you read, what is the current book you're reading and
what is on your TVR or what you want to
read next. If you're not reading anything, you just say
(02:51):
I'm not reading anything.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I'm too busy to read right now.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Okay. The last book I read was, oh gosh, it's
it's right over there. Forget the name of.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
It, get up and grab it really quick.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Okay, one second.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Perks of being assuming from home. Yes, it's amazing.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Okay. This is called Small Things like These by Claire Keegan.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
I don't know if Yes, it's such a cute little book.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Yeah, you know. I ordered it and I thought it
would be longer, and I was like, well, is there
like another series in book in a series? But no,
And then I watched the movie with Killian Murphy so
that was really.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Oh I did not know there was a movie.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Yes there is, yes, Yes, So that was the last
book that I read. I am currently not reading.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
A book, okay.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
And the next book that I want to read. My
husband is actually reading it right now and he keeps
telling me how awesome it is. It's a Kitchen Confidential
by Anthel Dane.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Yes, yeah, amazing. That is such a fantastic book. He
has such a wonderful voice and it's just so interesting
to hear all the insider information on a kitchen if
you're into the culinary odds. Yeah, I absolutely love it
because you're like in your I'm in my element. You
(04:33):
are in some element in my language.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Yeah, because the last.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Few times I'm like, hey, robant, hey fantasy, Hey nonfiction.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Amazing?
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Okay, read what are you reading currently? I am getting
through The Nightingale and One Golden Summer.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I love it. I love it.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I am reading Dear Reader, My Hate James. And then
I've got a at our.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Book club and it's a hefty one.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yeah right, we didn't know how long this book is,
but it's what is it?
Speaker 1 (05:07):
The Fragile, Fragile Threads of Power by V. E.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Schwab.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
It's a big boy. But yeah, so it's uh, what
I'm reading and what I should be reading next? And
then what did I just finished? I just finished some
arcs that I had sent to me by a really
cool local author hashtag.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
You might hear from her soon.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Maybe, but cool.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Okay, So Tanil, tell me about you? Tell me everything
about Tanil. Yeah, it's a very broad question, and.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, take it away.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Yeah, you know, thank you for having me on this
is really great and I love the platform and the concept.
So my name is my name is Tanil. I live
in Saskatoon. And if you had asked me this two
years ago, I think my answer would have been pretty
cookie cutter. Right. I'm a mom, I'm a wife. I
(06:05):
work in you know, in government, and you know, my
days are filled with you know, household chores and running
my kids around and you know, pretty pretty white bread,
cookie cutter until two years ago when I was diagnosed
with stage four uterine cancer. And so my journey has
(06:26):
been not the one I thought I would be on.
But these past two years have been more about exploring
who I am and exploring my creativity and being brave
and bold to try new things, you know, in between
(06:47):
treatment and all of the things that go along with
managing a cancer diagnosis. So during my initial cancer treatment time,
I wasn't working, and my husband said, you got to
do something with yourself, right. I really didn't have any
(07:09):
hobbies and so he said, you just need to start
writing down what you're feeling. And I wasn't into journaling,
so I thought, well, how am I going to do this?
I started writing down the journey. So the year twenty
twenty three. That was my concept each month, what is
(07:31):
this going to look like? And my daughter at the time, Lydia,
she was in grade twelve, and was you know, managing
her little life and what this meant of, you know,
stepping into the next phase of her life and managing
her mental health and understanding that and you know, managing
(07:55):
her feelings around her mom having cancer. So I asked
her to become a part of the book. I said,
what if we wrote this together and wrote from each
other's perspective of this year, right month by month, And
once we got past the side, I and like, oh, Mom,
(08:16):
I don't want to do this with you cringe. Yeah,
Like yeah, cringe, that is the word, you know. We started,
we wrote kind of in silo, and then we brought
in a contributing editor who helped us morph our stories
together and really helped guide because it would have been
(08:39):
just two separate books kind of mashed together, and he
really helped us design the and shape the stories together.
So that that was a great learning experience for me,
not only in how cathartic writing was telling my story
(09:01):
in a vulnerable way, and also learning about the self
publishing process through Amazon that was a lot of you know,
looking up online and how do people do it? And
then I worked with a wonderful person, Jennifer Sparks through
(09:23):
Stoke Publishing. She helped to kind of design the interior
and gave me some coaching on that self publishing process.
And in September of twenty twenty four, so just last year,
we launched our book is called Unremarkable How cancer and
grief intertwined, How cancer and mental health intertwined our stories
(09:46):
of grief and hope. So we are we are a
few months in and we had a great launch party
and great response and I am just so happy that
we took that chance on ourselves.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Oh definitely. I mean, what you have gone through is credible.
What you decided to do with your journey is incredible.
But I want to backtrack just a little bit, if
this isn't too personal, what was the diagnosis process like
for you? Because I think that you know, uterine and
breast cancers, unfortunately, are becoming a little bit more common.
(10:28):
So what are some of the kind of signs and
symptoms that you had so other listeners, you know, maybe
understand a little bit more about what this is like.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Sure, So back in twenty nineteen, I had a had
a cyst on my skin and I went to my
doctor and had it removed, and then the pathology came
back that it was cancerous. I was like, okay, that
was that was not what I was expecting, right, just
(11:00):
little bump and we all have them on our skin.
So I had a wider excision just to kind of
see around the location, just to see if there's any spread,
and there wasn't. So I kind of tucked that away
and you know, went on with my married life. In
(11:22):
late late twenty twenty two. So the fall of twenty
twenty two, I started to have symptoms of heavy bleeding
and my period was changing and I was feeling very tired.
I was feeling bloated. I was having some weight gain,
and so what do you do. You go to doctor
(11:44):
Google and you google all your symptoms and you know
it's a perimenopause. And I'm like, oh, yeah, that makes
sense right. You know, I was not a fan of
the heavy bleeding, right, Like I had switched from you know,
tampons to paths because it was just and switching every
(12:08):
hour because it was so much. So I did go
to my doctor and They're like, okay, so let's try
to alleviate the symptoms of the heavy bleeding. And so
I had an IUD placed right and and you know,
there was no I never thought i'd have to go
back on birth control, but I wanted the side effect
(12:30):
of the birth control of eliminating the bleeding. So there
it was. But it didn't work. You know, months later,
I was still bleeding and I could feel pressure under
my ribs and I'm like, what is this. I could
feel something on my right side. And the thing with
(12:52):
women is that we have a lot of space in
our pelvic region, right We were made for having babies,
and so I didn't understand what was happening. And perhaps
you know winter, it was dark, and I was you know, tired,
and just wasn't understanding what my body was telling me.
(13:13):
It wasn't until I think.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I'm sorry not to interrupt you, but I think too
being a female, that kind of pain is something that
like we're used to in the sense of like getting
cramps or anything like that, so you don't see it
as any different. And I'm not saying that it's comparable
to that, but those who have like really extreme periods
and everything you wouldn't necessarily think of it. And I
(13:36):
think women have such a high pain tolerance when it
does come to things that are related to our periods.
That's again my own opinion, and I'm very sorry for
interrupting you.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
It was just one of.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Those thoughts that I wanted to kind of put there
because that's where the conversation was there.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Oh. Absolutely, I do have a high pain tolerance. And
you know, I would go to work and I would
just eat you know, advil like tic TACs right just
to get through the day. And it wasn't until I
would be so nauseous and I would be throwing up
(14:17):
in the morning, Like, what is this? What's going on?
Finally I said to my husband, I think I have
to go to Emerge. Something's happening here. I don't know
what's going on. And so we went to Emerge at
Saint Paul's and we were there for eight hours, and
(14:38):
I knew something was wrong. I just didn't know what
even though I had you know, blood tests and an
ultrasound and CT scan and they kept adding more and
more tests. I'm like, and the doctor was like, we're
just you know, figuring things out, and we'll be right
back to tell you. And I was like, oh, this
(15:00):
isn't going to be good. And then when they brought
us into a private room and the doctor kind of
like came up really close and said, you know, Tanil,
we found a tumor and we think it's ovary in cancer.
The tumor is thirteen centimeters by eighteen centimeters, like it was.
(15:22):
It was like this, it was the size of.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
A baby in your ribs, right, So it.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Was because it had grown so much. Every time I
sat down or I you know, coughed or I was
it was having difficulty breathing. And so the symptom of
vomiting was it was putting pressure on my stomach. Like
I was so mad at myself, right, like how could
I have missed this? And so the thing that I
(15:54):
have learned and what I encourage people after either reading
the book or asking me, like, yes, what were the
signs and symptoms for every woman out there? Like I
am not a doctor, so I'm just I'm just saying
from my perspective, unusual bleeding is not normal. Get it
(16:15):
checked out. Ask for the ultrasound because it was there
months ago before.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
I had been there for a while exactly.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Well, and it could have started off as like I
know a lot of my friends who who've had these
similar issues where it's like extensive bleeding any of that,
and they go in and it's an Overari insist and
it's something like again like I'm also not a doctor,
but something like that could have been so minimal that
you never know. It could have just kind of stemmed
from that because OVERI insists we can live through. They're
(16:50):
very painful, but people get them all the time, and
people don't always get them. What is the word the ablation? Yep, right,
Like you don't get to do that all the time.
So sorry again for interrupting, but it just was one
of those things where I feel like it's becoming more
common that we're noticing those issues, and it is so
(17:11):
important to get them checked out because a small cyst
could become something more.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
Yeah. Absolutely, And the correlation between that skin cancer that
cyst that I had back in twenty nineteen and this
is that I was referred to genetic counseling because both
of those cancers were related. So I went through documenting
(17:41):
my family tree and any cancers that had been in
my family's past, and what do you know. So I
did have genetic counseling and I am also diagnosed with
Lynch syndrome. So that is a genetic deficiency where your
cells they're they're made and they replicate from your DNA
(18:06):
right over and over and over. And Lynch syndrome is
where I have actually, uh the possibility of four four mutations,
and I have two out of the four mutations. So
as your body creates new cells and they're they're creating
trillions of cells, your body has the ability to fix
(18:31):
any broken cells that pass through, right, they'll catch them
and they'll destroy them. With the mutations that I have,
my body can't catch them all. And so that's what
creates the cancer. Is these broken cells kind of cluster
up and create the tumors. And so with Lynch syndrome,
the top two cancers are colon and uterine. And so
(18:58):
also with Lynch syndrome is that the cells multiply and
grow faster than the norm. So that fast growing tumor
that I had was the symptom of Lynch syndrome.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
So you think that your tumor grew got fast due
to that Lynch.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Yes, oh absolutely, yeah. Yeah. So I was the first
person in my family to have been diagnosed with Lynch syndrome,
So the first in hundreds of generations, right, science caught
up with that, and so it stems from my paternal side.
(19:38):
So a lot of people in my family got tested
for Lynch syndrome, and everyone has a fifty to fifty
chance of getting it. And you know, there's some survivor's
guilt where some of my siblings do not have it.
And you know my dad, who he Again, it stems
from my paternal side, So my dad was able to
(20:00):
get tested and to take some steps to help him.
So for that, I'm grateful that I was able to
kind of protect my family or give them some you know,
ways to you know, prevent cancer from showing up in
their lives too.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
So I guess this is probably a yes, but I'm
gonna ask the question anyways. So I know that when personally,
when my mom had cancer, the first time she had it,
they indicated like, no, we can't do any genetic testing,
blah blah blah. And then the second time she had it,
they're like, hey, well you've had it twice now, so
(20:39):
they did all the genetic testing after the second time.
So then because they found that lump for you on
your skin and then the uterine cancer. Is that kind
of what led to You're allowed to kind of see
that genetic testing or was that kind of automatically you
were just allowed to do it just out of curiosity.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
Yeah, So when they it's based on your pathology. So
there was the pathologists the first time with my skin cancer.
It was something called d differentiated so d MMR. So
they're like, you know, because you have this type of
(21:20):
result with your pathology, there is a high chance that
you have Lynch syndrome or mire tore syndrome. So I
was referred to a genetic counselor back in twenty nineteen,
and you know, they, I'm not sure what the genetic
counseling staffing is like or what that looks like in
(21:44):
our province, but I was put on a wait list
and so I waited. Yeah, so I waited for that,
and you know, after that second time again the pathology
came back as d MMR. I was kind of put
to the top with a list. So I feel like
I've become an expert in myself and Hindsight's twenty twenty.
(22:10):
I wish I would have advocated more for myself to
get that genetic testing earlier done sooner.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
It's so hard in the medical system to do all
of that advocating, and when you're already going through something
and something's not right in your body and your body's
putting so much energy towards that, to then have to
go and advocate on top of that can be really,
really hard. So that's not something you necessarily should wear,
because it is a lot to be carrying well.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
In another kind of personal inter interjection, but I know, sorry,
I'm going to talk about my mom because my mom
went through cancer. So when my mom first got diagnosed,
my sister was six months old. So after my sister
was born, my mom had a lot of difficulty breastfeeding
and she couldn't figure out why she couldn't breastfeed my sister,
(23:01):
and she ended up going in thinking, oh, I have
plugged milk ducks, and she came out with a stage
three breast cancer diagnosis. So it's again one of those
things where something as simple as plugged milk ducks can
lead to a diagnosis. And even at that point in time,
there was no breast cancer in my family like it,
(23:25):
it wasn't there, and at that point. No, we didn't
have the genetic testing. She went through chemo. I was
six years old, so I was old enough to remember.
But I remember getting told she had cancer the day
before my birthday. And then she was actually declared not
cancer free, because cancer free is like that five years.
(23:48):
But she was in remission one year later. But it
was it was a long road, like she was so
so sick, and there were times where as a kid,
you're like, oh my god, like my mother's going to die, Like,
oh my god. And so after she kind of went
through that, like she was good, right, Like we had
(24:08):
how old am I twenty twenty? How old would I
be in twenty twenty, I'd been twenty four, So for
what eighteen years she had been seventeen years she had
been cancer free. And in the middle of twenty twenty,
I remember again it's always around my birthday. She called
me on November twenty sixth and she's like Gallesia, like,
(24:30):
you're gonna have to sit down. And I was like,
oh my god, now what because we had had brutal,
brutal family things going on from twenty seventeen onward. And
she sat down, and I sat down and she's like, Alessia,
they found a lump when I did my mammogram and
they found a small lump. And after my mom had
breast cancer the first time, my sister and I were
(24:51):
told you were at high risk for breast cancer, like
you guys are going to have to not take this,
like certain birth control. We couldn't take yeah, anything like that.
So our whole lives, it's been this and that and
having mamograms really early in life. And so she had
a mammogram. It was a very small tumor, like barely there.
And the only reason why they really caught it is
(25:14):
because she does mamograms all the time and.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
They caught it.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
They were like, Sylvia, it's stage one, like it's barely
a tumor. And my mom she's like, great, chop it off,
get it like she's like just I'm done and I
already have one implant, give me another one and I'm done.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
So because she had.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Gotten it a second time, they did all the genetic
testing and so I remember when it came back and
she's like, wells's yeah, yuess what like what like this
is this is it a good thing?
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Is it a bad thing?
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Like I don't know, and she's like, well, we got
the genetic testing, and because both of them were kind
of based off of different hormones basically, they're like, nope,
it's not genetic in any way whatsoever. So my mom,
they think that it was more brought on by extreme
levels of stress or exhaustion, and like, not exhaustion per se,
(26:09):
but my mom was under a ton of stress with
my sister because she had had difficulties carrying kids, and
by the second one, we were just under so much
stress in twenty twenty that it was induced most likely
by stress. So both of them had a different base.
I think one was more of like an estrogen and
one was more of a progesterone progesterine progesterone, and yeah,
(26:33):
so they were non genetics. So coming back to that
whole genetics thing, I think it's I think it's amazing
that they can even do something like that and they
can look at it and be like, this is a
genetic factor, this is something that carried on through your
family tree, and being able to do that after the
fact is something I really think is quite neat. Sorry
(26:58):
for that, just that like five minutes of straight talking.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
I love hearing these stories because you know, and not
just from cancer patients themselves, like the families and the
caregivers and how it affects everyone, right, And yeah, there's
some there's some fear around the genetic piece, right, And
(27:24):
we've always you know, oh we've got you know, cancer
in the family, like how does that work? And how
do we know? Right? And and how how to protect ourselves?
And I I always want to say, like, so I'll
just it's almost like after after the book, right, because
the book ends at the end of twenty twenty three,
(27:47):
and so many people have said, so, now what's Neil?
Are you going to write another one? Because so much time,
like a year and a half has come and gone,
and like, so now what's happening? And I, you know,
I just finished my final round of immunotherapy in June. Yay, yay, Yeah,
(28:10):
there was that was eighteen rounds of immunotherapy. And one
of the things that we managed wasn't yes, it was
the cancer, but with immunotherapy on this clinical trial, there
was a lot of symptoms and side effects from the
immunotherapy itself, so you know, managing you know, muscle ache,
(28:34):
achiness and headaches and inflammation, hypothyroidism, all these things, and
I thought, oh, I can manage all these symptoms. And
then just just in March April, I started to feel
like pain in my right side. My mom, I'm like, no,
(28:56):
I don't have anything else right because I had the
full hysterectomy. Everything, Like, what could this be? Now? Well
it was my appendix. My appendix said my appendix had
had swollen. So I had an appendectomy and and you
know I just before before you go in for surgery,
(29:19):
you have to have like a pre opt done by
a doctor. I'm like, okay, And they wanted to get
this out because they thought, well, is this just inflammation
or was there cancer in the appendix? So I had
to go to my physician's office and I was I
was put in a room and this casual doctor had
(29:41):
come in and just again it's just like you know, paperwork,
just take my height and weight and all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
What color are your eyes?
Speaker 4 (29:48):
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And so I quickly gave a
rundown in my history to this stranger. And this is
the first time this has ever happened. He stopped what
he was doing it at the computer, and he moved
and faced me and he said, I don't work in
this office. I'm actually an er doctor in the province.
(30:11):
He said, help me be a better doctor. Let me
understand what symptoms you had, so that I can understand
what better questions to ask. And I was like, I
started bawling because I'm like, nobody has ever framed it
in that way. And I said, when women present with
(30:35):
unusual bleeding, believe them that something is not right. It's
almost like start with the worst and then work your
way back right, yeah, you know, like I And he's
like yep, And I said, just order the ultrasound, Just
order it.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
And it's such a quick thing to do too.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
Yes. So I think about that conversation all the time,
and you know, it's not like a you know me
too movement where like believe the woman when she says,
you know, but believe women when they say our bodies
are not right. Yeah, help me find out what's wrong,
(31:17):
and yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Don't ignore the fact that, yeah, like this pain is happening.
And they're like, well, are you sure you're not on
your period or are you sure you're not pregnant or
anything like that, Like take it seriously. It's not something
to joke about. And we know when it's normal pain,
and we know when this is not normal, especially somebody
like myself, Like I've never had extreme period pain where
(31:44):
my sister has the worst, like she's out cold, So yeah,
something like that. Like if I had the same level
as my sister out of nowhere for me, that would
probably be a little bit alarming because of a red flag,
because like, I don't that doesn't happen to me, And
I'd rather go in and get told that I'm healthy
and that nothing is wrong then go in or not
(32:04):
go in and something be detrimentally wrong. And this is
like kind of off topic. I just remember as a kid,
you'd go to the doctor and you'd almost hope that
there was something wrong with you so you could stay
home from school, or that's just me maybe I like,
I literally every time I go in, I'm like, tellby
I half strapped, tellby I broke my elbow, tell me
(32:25):
something's wrong so I don't have to go to school.
And then now as an adult, I'm like, please tell
me there's nothing wrong with me. I'm so tired. I'm
so tired of going to the doctor and then being like,
all right, so your thyroid is really low, and we're
gonna have to start this and oh, your eyes are
really dry. We're gonna have to start serum drops and
(32:45):
you're gonna have to give eight piles of blood.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Once a month.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
And you're like, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
I'm so glad that this is my life.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
And you go in, You're like, please tell me nothing,
tell me there's nothing wrong, but but stilln't test me
for it.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Yeah, So I totally understand in the sense, like not
understand in sense I didn't go in and have a
diagnosis like that, but the fact that it's like, don't
don't underestimate the pain that we're feeling and take it seriously.
One other little little piece and then we'll shift gears.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
And when I.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Had really bad acid reflux and it just kept getting
worse and worse and worse, and I remember going to
the doctor and fighting for myself and it's like I
can't lay down without everything in my stomach coming back up.
I can't sleep, I can't do anything. And I remember
going to the doctor. They sent me for a scope,
then they sent me to the thoracic surgeon, and the
(33:48):
first time I saw my thoracic surgeon He looked at
me and was like, you know what, I think everything
will be better if you just lost weight. And I
remember walking out of there and I'm like, well, nothing's
gonna help, Like that's not fair, and I'll give him credit.
He did send me for two more tests, and coming
in that second time, I sat down and I've never
(34:10):
had a doctor do this to me before, and I've
seen a lot of doctors. And he comes over. He
sits on the stool right in front of me.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
He looks at me.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
He's like, Alessia, the first thing I need to do
is say I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't take
it seriously. I didn't realize that it was this bad.
And basically I ended up having stomach surgery, and it's
a surgery that for example, when I asked him how
long is this gonna last, his response is, I don't know.
(34:40):
I've never had to do it because most of my
patients have died before it failed. And I looked at
him like okay, he's like, but you're.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Only twenty five.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
They were like eighty five, sixty five to eighty five
years old, so of course they died before he had
to redo it.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
That sounds rude, but what am I going to do
when I'm fifty? So moral of the.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Story, they took a bunch of biopsies everything because they
wanted to check if if it was cancerus there there
were a lot of things going wrong, and you know,
at that point, I'm lucky there's nothing there. But now
I'm just kind of on edge all the time, where
it's like anytime something is wrong, I'm like, they're ask surgeon, Hey,
what's up? Can you check my stomach please? So very
(35:21):
off topic, but I understand the whole, like you do
need to fight because if a doctor sits there and
it is like, hey you need to lose weight, or
hey you need to change your lifestyle. Okay, yes you're correct,
maybe I do, but that doesn't change the fact that
something's wrong. No, there's my my full stop for a
(35:42):
moment there. But I think we're gonna shift gears just
a little bit here and we're going to talk about
this amazing event that you are.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
You are a part of organizing.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
So it is the early Bird Bash, So tell me
a little bit about it.
Speaker 4 (35:58):
Yeah, for sure. So I have not been at work
in my former life, my former day job. I haven't
been working obviously, and taking things like not taking things
for granted and being brave to ask for things, and
(36:19):
you know, understanding that life is short. You know, let's
take some risks. And I had been out for dinner
with two of my former staff, Chrissy and Kelsey, and
they are I want to say, late thirties, early forties,
and they've got young children, and so they were saying
(36:42):
to me like, how are you doing it?
Speaker 1 (36:43):
To me?
Speaker 4 (36:44):
You're doing all these things and you know, just taking risks.
And I said, well, we can do that too, like
just what do you want to do? And they were
saying like, we want to go out dancing, but it
needs to be early. Like well, then let's do it.
Let's plan it, and they're like, well, there's nothing else
out there. I said, I know, let's be the ones
to do it. So we you know, we were sat
(37:08):
at the table for like three hours like planning, like
how could we do this? And we had planned our
weddings and it's like finding a hall, finding a DJ
women only safe space. Let's do it. And within three
months we coined it, you know, the Early Birds Bash.
We had the place, we had sponsors, we had a DJ.
(37:32):
We sold tickets. They were sold out in five days.
Like the word just spread and that was at the
end of April. And it was so fun. Women were
able to dance without fear of I just I left
my drink on the table, and know that it's going
to be safe.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Why it's so true though, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:59):
Dance the way that I want to dance. Right there
was there was a fantastic group of women who take
whole dancing lessons and so they were able to dance
the way that they wanted to dance without fear of
being like groped or come up to and just you know,
(38:19):
it was amazing and you know, a women only safe
space where we could just enjoy each other. And it
was great and it was It started at six and
it was over at ten and people could either you know,
go home to bed and carry on with their day
the next day, or you know, carry on and go
(38:41):
out for you know, some late night appetizers. And it
was it was so fun, and so we want to
do it again. So we planned another one, and this
one is going to be even bigger, so we are
able to almost triple the size the number of people
to come, and we so it's October seventeenth, that's a Friday,
(39:07):
and again it'll be from six to ten pm here
in Saskatoon at the Cosmos Center, so just off Broadway
and eleventh and we've got you know, female DJ, we've
got people sponsoring our event. We've got we're actually collaborating
(39:29):
with another girls group. So I don't know if you've
heard of them, The Girls who Like to Do Stuff.
They are they're an Instagram group that bring like minded women,
so gen z Era. They where they come together in
person to do things. Because this group was in high
(39:51):
school when COVID hit and so their ability to kind
of find each other and do things together, this group
is is is doing that. So we're collaborating with them
to kind of bring that group together to do dance
like dancing. And we also want to give back, and
(40:14):
so we ask the Girls who like to do stuff,
so you choose the charity of choice for our fundraising efforts.
And so they are going because it's in October, We're
going to donate our raffle at the event proceeds to
the Canadian Cancer Foundation for breast cancer research. So lots
(40:35):
lots of good things from just this one random dinner
night out of like let's do something and we just
did it right. The support that we've gotten from this,
you know, just random thing that we decided to plan
(40:55):
has been so amazing for you know, Chrissy and Kelsey
see to show that, you know, to show their kids,
their girls like if it's not out there, do it,
you know, make it happen, Just make it happen. So, yeah,
that's that's coming up for us.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
And have tickets gone on sale for this one or
is it already sold out?
Speaker 4 (41:19):
They have not gone on sale yet. What we're doing
is because we're collaborating with the girls who like to
do stuff, So members, if you're on their Instagram, pre
sale tickets are going to go ahead on August fifteenth
for them, so it's a reduced price. So if you
follow girls who like to do stuff, you could get
(41:40):
that early bird Bash code and then they'll go on
sale for the general public and everyone else on August
twenty ninth.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
Amazing, So we still have a little bit of time
before tickets go on sale. If people are looking to
find do you have a website or on Instagram? They
can find you on.
Speaker 4 (42:00):
Yes, So our website is Earlybirdsbash dot ca A or
our instagram is at early Birds Bash.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Amazing nice a soda. Also for our listeners, here's a
little shout out for us, not shout out.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
For us, but in general.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
Rie and I are or sorry, not that kind of
book club. We are a sponsor for this event coming up,
and we think that it's an amazing event. We love
kind of what it's representing and women in anything right,
and we're supporting women, we're creating that safe space, inclusive space,
and we're we're very very proud and lucky to be
(42:46):
one of the sponsors of the event, very excited for it.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
We are excited to thank you so much because the
more word spreads among groups like yourself and your book
and women groups, they you know, they decide together, Hey
let's all buy some tickets and we'll go together. So
you can come on your own, or you can gather
(43:12):
your ladies and come and have a great night. So
thank you for your support. We really appreciate it, of.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
Course, and then thanks you another soda, and then for
you for your for yourself to Neil, do you have
an Instagram or something for followers to kind of connect
with you and finding a way to get your book
or a copy of your book. Is it anywhere in Saskatoon?
Speaker 4 (43:38):
Yes? So my personal Instagram is at the real to
neil ce and Lydia's and my author Instagram account is
unremarkable underscore memoir.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
Okay, amazing.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (43:57):
And if you if yes, sorry, I was just gonna say,
and if you, you know, just put in Neil Corbett
or Lydia Corbett into Amazon. You'll find our book there.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Amazing.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
Hopefully one day or soon we'll we'll see your book
at McNally or any of the local libraries, not local libraries,
local stores.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
Yeah, absolutely soon, amazing, right, I love it. I love McNally.
Speaker 3 (44:24):
Oh yeah, we love good.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
But it was so amazing being able to chat with you.
I know, I first met you November of last year
out of market and we had a great conversation then,
and I bought a copy of your book, gave it
to my mum and.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
And just was so excited about it.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
And when we connected again to see if you could
kind of, well not kind of for you to come
on the.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Podcast, and you agreed, I was.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
I was honestly so excited to be able to chat
with you again and kind of get more of your
story and more of the background, and it was very
lovely having you on today.
Speaker 4 (44:56):
Thank you. I appreciate the time you took to hear
my story and to share women empowerment and to have
these great conversations. So being brave is scary, but it's doable.
So thank you both.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
Oh, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
Okay, we'll have the best rest of your day.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
To Neil, and again, thank you so much. You bet Okay, ee,
that was awesome.
Speaker 3 (45:26):
That was fantastic. Look at that. Another author down.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
That sounds so bad, I know, but in the best way.
Speaker 3 (45:33):
Like it's not like we're putting them down, We're just
like checking them off a list.
Speaker 2 (45:38):
Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
To end us off today, I'm trying to think of
a cool thing. Let's do a book elimination. So I'm
going to pick five books. We're gonna take turns eliminating
a book to come to an agreement.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
As to which is the best book out of these five?
Speaker 1 (45:59):
Ye, and like these are my five, and then we'll
do your five next time. Okay, but I have to
do books that you've read.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
That's difficult. Okay. We're gonna do not Safe for work.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
The Nightingale because you're reading it.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
Mama Love. Yep, oh my god, this is hard, Atmosphere.
Uh huh. And One Golden Summer.
Speaker 3 (46:38):
Okay, well, can get rid of Mama Love, get rid
of No.
Speaker 2 (46:42):
One at a time?
Speaker 3 (46:42):
Oh, one at a time.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
Now I get to get rid of one.
Speaker 3 (46:44):
Okay, get rid of Mama Love.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
Yeah, yeah, it's gone Nightingale gone you return.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
Mmmm. Let's get rid of not safe for work.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
Okay. Oh, I get to pick the winner.
Speaker 3 (46:58):
These are both books I'm currently reading, so whatever one
of them will throw away.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
Just kidding, atmosphere. So the winner is.
Speaker 3 (47:04):
One Golden Summer, which is also our book of the month.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
Wow, look at me.
Speaker 1 (47:08):
I feel like I just like set that up so
that I can show the book of the month. All right, guys,
I'm less Imrie, and thank you for joining us.
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