Cancer Clear and Simple
Welcome to 'Cancer Clear and Simple,' the podcast dedicated to simplifying cancer. Join us as we discuss the world of cancer, breaking down complex concepts for our listening audience. One of our goals is to equip individuals and families dealing with cancer by providing clear, and concise insights. Through personal stories, expert interviews and practical tips, listeners are enabled to make informed decisions. Whether you're a patient, caregiver, or just simply wanting information, tune in to 'Cancer Clear and Simple' for a easy-to-follow guide on understanding and coping with cancer.
Cancer Clear and Simple
Michelle Robinson | Cancer Before 40
Michelle Robinson never expected to hear the words “you have cancer” before 40.
In this episode of Cancer Clear and Simple, Michelle shares how bariatric surgery led to the discovery of a gastrointestinal stromal tumor. The cancer was caught early, without symptoms, and resolved through surgery, followed by oncology care and clear follow up scans. While the outcome was positive, the emotional and psychological impact of being diagnosed with cancer reshaped her sense of identity, safety, and future.
This conversation explores early detection, family health history, being taken seriously by providers, and why cancer stories without chemotherapy or radiation still carry real weight. Michelle’s experience is a powerful reminder that early detection saves lives and that every cancer story deserves to be seen and understood.
Cancer Before 40 | Michelle Robinson’s Story
Today's episode is different. It's personal. Many of you know me as someone who works in cancer disparities and community engagement. But fewer of you know me as a husband whose family has been directly impacted by cancer. My guest today is my wife, Michelle Robinson. A sociologist, a leader, and someone who was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 38. We're sharing this conversation not just because it's personal, but because it's relevant. Cancer in adults under 55 is rising. Early detection matters, and the emotional and structural impacts of cancer extend far beyond treatment. This is Cancer Clear and Simple. Hey Michelle.
SPEAKER_00:Hi Joshua.
SPEAKER_01:Can you share briefly who you are, your work, your leadership journey, and what your life looked like before the diagnosis entered the picture?
SPEAKER_00:Sure. So my name is Michelle Robinson, and I am uh a southerner. I'm was born and raised in Houston, Texas. Uh I am a first-generation Texan. My parents are both from rural Louisiana, a small town and the birthplace of what would become uh what we now know as Louisiana, called Naggadesh. Um, my mom is a sharecropper. My uh dad lived in the rural town next to the plantation land that my mom grew up in, but they didn't know each other um in Louisiana. Um, fast forward, uh they met each other in Houston. They had myself and my sister, I'm the baby of the two of us, and I am the first person in my family that I know of to cross the Mason-Dixon line and to settle in the Midwest, which makes me a pioneer. Um I have now lived here in Wisconsin for some almost 20 years. It will be 20 years, uh, come, 2027. Um, it is a state that I have made my home. Um I actually love uh this state. I love residing here. Um, and I have had the pleasure for a good chunk of that time to do tremendous work across the Madison community and beyond, um, largely within health and economic equity uh matters, but I have worked in not-for-profit. I have worked in government, um, and I currently serve as an uh executive leader at a local not-for-profit.
SPEAKER_01:And with your transition to being a northerner, how have you dealt with the many cold winters you have gotten through?
SPEAKER_00:Uh well, I was advised before I moved here uh by my faculty advisor at UT Austin, University of Texas Austin, that it was important that I found find a winter hobby and to get myself outdoors. Um, as you know, because you've lived alongside me for most of those years, I did not take that advice until fairly recently. Um, and so I have learned from you, my husband, uh the importance of having proper winter wear and dressing appropriately for the weather. And I have also learned from that former advisor the importance of actually getting outdoors in the winter. Um, and so it's been nice um learning and experiencing getting out to some of the beautiful state forests or um uh uh county um uh parks where you can go hiking and you can sort of uh take in these really beautiful landscapes and things that Wisconsin offers.
SPEAKER_01:Can you walk us through how you were diagnosed? Again, we're sitting here with a situation that's not talked about as much in terms of what a cancer experience can look like.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. Um, so um, I guess to contextualize my cancer story, I have to start with um my health story. Um so um in 2019, I was diagnosed with diabetes, type 2 diabetes and hypertension. And um I knew that at that time that I had to do something different. And doing something different is often harder said than done. Um, but I was working to um enact some serious lifestyle changes because I did not see myself or want to see myself on the trajectory that I knew that I was on. I was becoming a statistic. If I did not figure out how to uh get my diabetes managed, hopefully for me, manage was like without needing drugs, I was needing drugs in order to have acceptable A1C and to have a blood pressure reading without drugs that was acceptable, that I knew that that would likely shorten my life and lead to a lower quality of life. And so there were nutritional changes that I was trying to enact. There was mindset changes that I was trying to enact. Um, and perhaps um most importantly, and what I'm most proud of is some of the movement-based changes and transformations that I was able to start enacting. Um, I also had spinal arthritis, and uh my quality of life and my mobility uh was really suffering. In fact, um, as you know, I went to work and on the weekends I was mostly on the sofa uh because I would have back spasms that were so painful that they could take me to the floor. So it was becoming dangerous for me to walk. And uh we have a friend uh that we share, Beverly Hutcherson, um, who has her own um health journey. And I won't speak to that because that's not my role to share. Uh, but she has attributed a gym that she had worked out at for many years as being a crucial um a crucial component of her own health recovery and um gave me the information and I decided to seek them out. And I did, and I joined the gym. Um, it was transformative for me. Um, I was also in physical therapy, and whereas I thought that my life was over because of these mobility issues, here I am uh gaining strength, uh, seeing my spasms decrease. Um, a year later, competing in my first power lifting contest and sweeping in many ways.
SPEAKER_01:We'll get there.
SPEAKER_00:Um but um despite all the things that I was doing, my A1C was not budging. It was, it was, it was acceptable for a diabetic, but it was not acceptable for me, which my goal was I didn't want to be on medicine. Right. And so um I had some friends who had recently had bariatric surgery, and that was transformative for them. So I began to explore that a bit more. Um, as you know, I had thought about bariatric surgery years ago, but I had always kind of been uncomfortable with it because I believed and um bought into a lot of the rhetoric that like that that spoke about my discipline or that that meant that I uh took the easy way out. I didn't want to take the easy way out. I'm I'm not a person who takes the easy way out. But being able to uh enroll in the UW Manage uh UW Health Weight Management Program, when I enrolled, I wasn't sure I was if I would get the surgery, but I wanted to continue to learn about bariatric surgery. And one of the things that was really transformative for me was really learning about what they know about obesity and how obesity works, and that as much as we want to believe that it's just about people being more disciplined, moving more, eating less, controlling their calories, that our bodies are much more sophisticated than that. Um, especially when you're talking about folks who are experiencing or are experiencing morbid obesity. And even more importantly, I heard and learned that bariatric surgery was is really the only tool we have that is technically a cure for diabetes, type 2 diabetes. That most people who get bariatric surgery and have type 2 diabetes leave the hospital after their surgery with type 2 diabetes in remission, which means that it it's not the weight loss that cure the type 2 diabetes, it's something about the surgery. And so for me, I was sort of like I I need to do this because this feels like this might give me a second chance.
SPEAKER_01:I hear and have walked alongside you as you're talking about these things, and I want you to uh add a little bit more about your training as an academic and how that influenced how you were taking in this information because I know and I see how much you love learning. You just mentioned it. And it was an amazing thing to hear see now, but I want to hear about like what that influence was in that process because you mentioned not wanting to be a statistic, you mentioned you know, having foresight into understanding what what's on the horizon. Yeah, how how does the academic training come about in this learning?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean it's a I guess it's a mixture of my academic training. So I have uh a doctorate, a PhD in sociology. I'm uh quant trained, mixed methods, quantitatively trained. Um, I take science seriously. Um, I believe that uh science is a tool for the goodness of humanity and the world, um, and that we can build a healthier and better better world that works better for all of us through science. Okay. Um by being an academic and studying methodology and being able to um produce research and science myself, it has given me the privilege to understand both what science can do and its limitations. And it also gives me a set of tools and frameworks to understand science that's not even my expertise. So when I'm talking about medical or clinical science, I can come, I can understand, I, you know, I did randomized control trials in the social world, but I so I can translate and understand what it means when we're talking about clinical science. Um, more broadly, you know, I come from uh a family um with a heavy health, negative health burden. Um, as specifically, I'm gonna say sort of the generation above me. So my parents' generation on my mom's side, we have a very heavy burden that impacts the women, uh, my mom and her siblings of autoimmune diseases. And then on my dad's side, we have a heavy burden of cancer. Um, and so experientially, I grew up experiencing and seeing people in varying stages of unwellness, um, including my mom, whose first autoimmune disease onset when I was fairly young. I academically or um from a scholarly standpoint, I am well versed in the uh an under understanding of population health and health disparities. Um and so I understand sort of where we stand as a country when it comes to health outcomes and where different populations within our our broader uh societal ecosystems sort of stand, and specifically African Americans, right? Um, whether we're talking about chronic disease, um, hypertension, diabetes, which also correlates to cancer risk. Um, you know, I know that we often have we not only have higher proportions of onset of those diseases, we also have higher proportions of poor outcomes when it comes to those diseases. So that's what I mean when I said I I didn't want to become a part of that statistic.
SPEAKER_01:Right. And you're walking us through very well your the ways that you're able to understand the framing and how you're able to intake that information. So you were walking us to that door of making the decision to get bariatric surgery.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:And so talk us about talk to us about what that ended up being like.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Um, and so uh picking up, I guess, I I decided to uh I was approved. Um UW Health has a whole process. You have to take classes, you have a health psychologist, you have a nutritionist and a surgeon, and there's a team, and you have to meet some metrics and benchmarks consistently. And then if you do that, you get approved to go forth with the surgery. And I fortunately was approved. Yeah. So I had my surgery on March 14th, 2023. And my husband was there, and also my brother, Dr. Brendan Sterling, was also there. He had he felt he flew in from Houston to be uh alongside us um to ensure that any support we would need, um, we had it. And so the surgery, I guess, went well. I woke up. Uh, I remember waking up um in the kind of aftercare space before they brought me to my room. I was in in quite a bit of pain. Um, they gave me a little medicine and told me they would give me some more once I got into my room. They brought me to my room soon after that, I believe, um, and gave me some meds. And then at some point, uh the surgery team came in. And I just remember, I don't know what you remember, so I would be curious to hear your your your memory of this um as a person who wasn't medicated. But I remember it felt like it was a lot of people, maybe like four, five people, like it was a lot of people, it felt like. And they were they were smiling and they were nice. And they told me that the surgery went really well, um, that they you know felt good about it. And then they said we did find a a gist. I think that I feel like that was what they said was a gist, um, a GI stromal tumor. Um, it was small, and we uh we we think it's okay. Uh we're gonna refer you to oncology uh so they can verify that you're okay. Um but like don't worry, everything's gonna be fine. It was sort of confusing, and I remembered not being clear because you work for a cancer center, and my brother's is is a nurse practitioner at MD Anderson at MD Anderson Cancer Center. So I'm sitting next to, I mean, it's settled, literally settled between two cancer experts of varying degrees. And I I don't know, I came out of that thinking I had diet cancer. That's what I refer to it. That's literally what I refer when I met my oncologist. I was like, so I don't have like diet cancer. I was a little confused. I I I I don't know. I don't know. Some of it might have was just trying to um not wanting to accept you know the reality of what was being told to me.
SPEAKER_01:As a summary, you were going in for bariatric surgery to help address hypertension and hypertension.
SPEAKER_00:Diabetes. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:You wake up from surgery, you're in your room, and immediately after or sometime soon after, we see that a team of doctors comes and visits. Yes. Um, I remember two specifically, um, but there could have been more. And then just with me and and brother Brandon being in the room, there four or five people seems about the right amount of people from your recollection. Um, and just in terms of what they were communicating, it was uh yes and right? The yes was we found a tumor on your on the piece that we removed. Yes. Right? They were also trying to communicate that it was clear margins, yes, meaning that there was no tumor left still in your body. Yes, right? Um, and so from my perspective and brother Brandon, we were hearing that and we are giving a sigh of relief. But still, in what you were rightfully trying to figure out is what does this mean for me? What does it mean? Like, am I supposed to be doing something? Usually I'm hearing about treatment plans, but this communication that y'all just gave me was very positive and we're all good.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. And so But I was being referred also.
SPEAKER_01:So you were being referred, okay. Oncology. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:And so I I feel like it was once I went home and we started the oncological pathway that it kind of clicked more for me. That like, wait a minute, this isn't diet cancer? What is this, right? Um I remember, so my oncologist is Dr. Monica Patel, who you've also had on a previous episode of the Cancer Clear and Simple podcast. Um, I remember meeting her for the first time, and you already had a uh pre-existing professional relationship with her. And I I honestly I I've I've shared this with you. Like I've I've I've seen lots of healthcare spaces because I have a lot of family who have had serious ill illnesses. And I have my own chronic, I had my own chronic because I am three years in remission um from my chronic diseases. Uh, but I have um experienced different healthcare environments and truly carbones, the care that I got with Monica and how she treated me, how she assured me, the clarity that she provided me on both understanding what's going on, under helping me understand what my risks were, and also helping me understand what my options were moving forward, um, was is deeply pre-appreciated. The first thing after I got my initial diagnosis and treatment was they wanted to make sure for sure that there was no cancer anywhere else. So I would want to say within like two months or so after the surgery, they got me in. They had me do CT scans, upper and lower sort of torso scans. Those initial scans came back clear. Um, but to be sure they uh Monica, uh Dr. Monica um wanted me to have another set of scans like three months later. And I want to say it was like August of 2023. So after those second set of scans came back clear, she felt confident to rule me as cancer-free. Um during this time, she also uh referred me to other resources. So I was able to take advantage of the health psychology uh sour resources in Carbone, which was really important at the time. I did not have my own therapist. Um and this was a lot. Um my, you know, the reality was um by this time I had seen four loved ones die of cancer, starting with my uncle hog, um, who was in his late 40s. He passed away 2003, 2004. So I was somewhere between like 19 and 20 years old. Um, he was the first person that I can remember witnessing go through cancer. He was a he was a veteran, he fought in the Vietnam War, he was a very tall man. Man, he was at least six, two, six, three, a large man, um, full of joy, um, just uh uh a light in the world. And to see that person show up at I show up at the VA hospital to visit him, um, to see that person uh essentially uh shrunk into almost bones. Like towards the end of his life. Um, the one of the last times I got to see him before he passed away, he literally looked like a living skeleton. Uh I walked into the room and I had to immediately turn around because it was just too much to to digest to see someone um essentially eating alive. He had pancreatic cancer.
SPEAKER_01:Oh.
SPEAKER_00:Um, and then my aunt Helen passed away, and I didn't know that she passed away. I didn't find out that she passed away until my aunt Joyce passed away a couple of months later, and they both passed away from cancer. Um, and then while we were there in Louisiana, um burying my Aunt Joyce, my cousins shared some concerns about their mom, my Aunt Mary. And I think you remember us talking to Aunt Mary um at her table and saying, Aunt Mary, you need to go to the doctor. Um, like if it's cancer, the best thing we can do is catch it early. Um, I know it's scary, but that's the best thing we can do. Um, I don't think she went immediately, but eventually she was forced to go. Um, and she had uh, I think her cancer had already metastasized by that time. She put in a put up a good fight. She went through a lot of treatment. I want to say it took maybe uh was almost two years later um before she passed away. Um and so that is the context. So I was afraid to get cancer. I was terrified. It was something that I chronically thought about. It wasn't something that I thought I would be experiencing at 38. Um, and so for when it actually onset, um it it robbed me of the little bit of peace and trust I did have in my body. Uh I felt completely betrayed by my body. It was like crap, you know, with the the diabetes and the hypertension, I could point blank to myself about choices and behaviors that I could have made differently. And these were because these are preventable diseases for me. Like I didn't have type one diabetes, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:These were preventable diseases, but cancer, to know that my body was capable of growing a cancer, um, I completely felt betrayed. And I I for a good chunk of time, I didn't know what to do with my body and how to see my body because of that. In the health psychology space, my therapist in that space was really essential for helping me stabilize after that because I felt in crisis. I was like, holy crap, I'm 38. If this cancer comes back, what does that mean for my livelihood? Like, I'm I'm still young enough where I'm supposed to be trying to work to say for retirement. Um, you know, I was concerned about policy changes as it relates to health care and insurance coverage, and how if there are if certain types of policy changes get implemented, how that might make me uninsurable. What does it mean to be a person at risk for cancer and not be able to get health insurance or to be expected to pay full coverage or pay higher levels of insurance because of it?
SPEAKER_01:Right. So we as a country went through that moment where it was a challenge, particularly for women, as having been categorized as having pre-existing conditions for becoming pregnant. Right. And so I'm I'm I'm hearing you, and it is particularly interesting to know that this is one of the ch the things that people that have an early cancer onset have to be forced to deal with and think about, right? And it's interesting and strange to think that a cancer diagnosis might push somebody's political leaning now that they understand the connection between why it's important to have certain policies in in place, whether that's insurance, health insurance, or or what have you. And so I appreciate very much you you laying this out and lining this out. And my mind kind of also wonders around what advocacy for you in healthcare kind of looked like along this way. Because um, you know, with this most recent, you were just talking about okay, now that there's a cancer diagnosis, there um are resources kind of being pushed towards you. Um, what was self-advocacy looking like in their your health experience before this?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you know, that's an interesting question, and and I'm pausing because I want to be very uh intentional in my wording. I've have felt tremendously blessed um when it comes to navigating the healthcare system. I have felt that I have encountered providers who take me seriously because of my family history, and and and I'm fortunate because I am connected to my family and I am connected to, I know my family's health history, I can bring those things to bear into conversation. So when I start to have symptoms, I don't have, I didn't have to have fight to like get tests for room uh uh rheumatop rheumatological tests to see if I had any kind of autoimmune diseases that might be uh presenting. And once I had an onset of a cancer, you know, it led to me ending up getting my mammogram early. So I got my mammogram at 39. Um, you know, folks take me take me seriously when I say, hey, there's something that feels off. At the same time, I have folks in my family, I have friends, I have people I love and I know whose stories are very different, where it has been that they have had to fight or they have had to work really hard, um, work really hard to find the right language, the right um, the right, right way to speak about their context or their their conditions or what they're experiencing in order to get what they need. Um, for me, there I I truly can't say that I've have necessarily found any barriers. It's been more about either asking for it, knowing to ask for it, or not not knowing it exists and having really wonderful providers share with me what these options are. For example, I didn't know that health psychology was an option. It was Monica who was like, we're as we were talking about, she was checking in. She's like, How are you feeling? Like, what is how are you experiencing this? And as I shared that, like, this is hard. This, I'm scared, like, um scared. Yeah, I was scared um to um have a provider, you know, be able to see you as a full person and know that yeah, in my situation, it was an ideal situation, right? It was caught early, it was a small tumor. We don't know how long it's it was growing. It could have been growing for a long time because it was growing so slowly, but it was it was a surgical, it was it was clear by surgery I was having anyway. Yeah, um, so I didn't have to do anything on top of it. I didn't have to uh get radiation, I didn't have to get chemo, I didn't have to take any kind of medicine. Um, I just had to continue to live. But despite those things, I was still experiencing the psychological and emotional dysregulation that a cancer diagnosis would cause a person. And I was also dealing with this broader sort of having to uh contend with like my own mortality and the fact that despite the fact that I want to live a long life, I have been fighting, I am fighting to live a long life. My mom passed away at 52 um from her autoimmune disease. Um, I don't want that for myself. I want to live to be an elder. Um, and to to realize that at 38 I have cancer, I had a cancer, and um that now might call that into question. That was really challenging for me. Um, it created a heavy sense of economic insecurity. Yeah. Um, life insurance, like you know, you the moment you say you had a cancer, no one wants to insure you. They don't want to give you life insurance, um, which is an important part of family stability. It's an important part of retirement. Yeah, um, it's an important part of being an economically secure person in this country, um, having to navigate those things. I think the other piece was I didn't feel comfortable making my cancer story a story publicly because I felt like I had nothing, because everyone was like, Oh, this was this was so great. Like you were so blessed. And I felt guilty about not being able to lean into the blessing that my story had because I was so afraid about all of the potential other outcomes and the fact that like I didn't have it as bad as other cancer patients, the typical cancer patient, right? Like, I didn't have to lose my hair, I didn't have to lose bone density and deal with other kinds of um ailments because of harsh treatments. Um, so I had to figure out, and my my health psychologist really did help me one figure out how to let that guilt go and to see myself validly as a person who had cancer, who survived cancer, and whose story was important. Because the reality of the of the the the truth of the of of of the matter is that while we we focus rightfully so on folks with serious cancer journeys because it's hard and there are there's a need for a different system of support and attention and also um advancement right in the science and the tools and the treatment so that they're not so hard, but most people's cancer stories actually look closer to mine, okay, right? That's what I've learned.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Um, and so I'm also interested in hearing about the reception you were saying from people that are hearing you had a cancer story. You had a difficult time explaining this because of what you were feeling around the lack of awareness of this type of situation when it comes to cancer. Um, but were there other responses that people were giving you that surprised you when you were telling them you had cancer?
SPEAKER_00:No, I wouldn't say there were other uh responses that were surprising. I I think that the the biggest challenge really was that it was a positive story. And and that is what, as I shared the story, folks held on to. Whereas as a person, as the person who had the cancer onset on them, I I needed, I needed also the support and the emotional, the empathy to understand that this, despite the positive outcome, I was still going through something, that my life had changed, and my sense of identity had changed. I had gone from Michelle, a person who was afraid that cancer would onset, to Michelle whose cancer had onset.
SPEAKER_01:You're taking con uh action steps with family members to raise this awareness. What is that looking like?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, um, so one caveat, and I I this is I say this with uh some uh caution because I I don't know how much of it is just I'm out of the loop versus what is true. But I I as I said, I it it really seems this cancer, this cancer burden is concentrated with my dad and his siblings. My dad is the only one of his siblings who has not had a cancer onset. Um, he has one remaining sibling um who is alive, um, who is the baby of the family. Um, and he also had a cancer onset, but he seems to be doing well. And he lives overseas in Germany and is existing in a different healthcare environment. Um so I'm not sure beyond them because I have uncles, you my great uncle Abner, who only passed away two years ago, right? Like I have all these other family members who seem to be living long, healthy lives.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, in his mid-80s.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, he was in his mid-80s. But because it is happening with all of our aunts and our uncles, they're um, at least myself and some of my cousins have decided to pursue genetic counseling. Um, so I've gotten my genetic counseling report. I have a cousin who's gotten their genetic counseling report. Um, we've shared our genetic counseling reports with each other. Um, for us, it's more around like we don't want this to continue to be our family story. If there is a familiar genetic basis for how what how and why cancer keeps presenting itself in my family at young, young age. Like Uncle Hogg was like in his late 40s, my aunts were probably all in their late 50s, 60s, right? That's still that's it's above 55, but that's still on the younger end of the age spectrum. Um, and so wanting to know um if there is something we can, if there's a genetic story underlying this. And right now we haven't found a genetic explanation, even for my own count, cancer. I there's no known based on what we know currently, the science understands currently about uh genetic associations with my form of cancer. I didn't have any of those known um uh genes. Um, and there's nothing that uh is uh that shows up in my report that's showing up in my cousin's report either. So it's it's possible that despite there is a family clustering, it might not be genetic. And that's a hard thing to wrestle with. Um, it also could be that maybe the science just hasn't advanced far enough to identify what might be the genetic cause. And we have to kind of be comfortable with that. That the fact that it's undetermined, it's it's it's not clear yet.
SPEAKER_01:Right. And you have done a wonderful job in being able to help us understand what that has meant for you. And so I just want to, you know, the age piece is still very much in the top front of my mind because um as you were listening out your example, you actually were uh recommended to get a mammogram. And again, it's the we're looking at the anatomy, you know, the torso, the stomach being in the torso. And so they wanted to be clear in making sure that there wasn't any other cancer. But I'm still in this situation where the advocacy space gets a little murky when we're talking about younger people getting screening. Yeah. After your experience, what does it look like for you to talk to somebody about getting screened at a age that's below the recommended screening age?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. That's challenging, right? Um, the main reason I say it's challenging is because without a clinical reason, it's hard to get access to these screenings unless you're paying out of pocket. And most of us can't afford to pay out of pocket. Um, and so I think where my conversations tend to lie more so is one, trying to ensure that folks understand what screenings are, what they do, and what their roles and functions are, to try to demystify um any confusion, um, any uh misinformation, and to help people feel more comfortable with getting these screens because these things literally can be the difference between a person living or dying, or even there's lots of options in between, right? Like treatments are hard, and even if you manage to survive cancer, some of your treatment, some of these treatments might come with some uh outcomes or or uh consequences that change the quality of one's life, right? Yeah, and so um I I also think you know, to the extent people can learn about their family history. Not all of us are connected to families, um, to our families, our blood, relatives, um, for good reasons, um, or in unfortunate ones. Um, and so not everyone has access to being able to get that family history, but if you can, I really encourage people to try to push for those conversations. Um, it can be challenging because the language of healthcare is not the language of regular, daggular folks, right? So trying to talk to a grandpa about who had cancer might require some decoding. Like, how did so-and-so die? Like, well, you know, they they were having some stomach issues and then they lost a lot of weight. You're like, that might be cancer, right? Like, you know, um, being able to read between those lines and then taking that those stories and bringing them to your healthcare providers, right? I think that the other piece of it is the importance of having that primary care physician relationship that you cultivate, that you with someone that you can trust so that they can hold your history and you don't have to show up every single time having to basically retell these stories.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:In my case, I had no symptoms, you know. As I continue to try to look back to that time before my my cancer was diagnosed to uh, you know, understand was it? Did I have a symptom? Was I experiencing something that I was missing? I was not having any symptoms. I don't tend to have gastrointestinal issues. Like, I didn't have any symptoms. And and so for me, you know, I tell people that like my decision to get my bariatric surgery saved my life doubly. It saved my life because it allowed me to reset and have a second chance, not as a diabetic who needs medicine to keep my A1C in a normal space, but it also cured me of a cancer that I did not know was growing inside of me. And there is this counter where I didn't get the surgery, and I don't know how long that cancer would have grown inside. Of me before it became an issue. And if by the time it became an issue, what life would have looked like for me then? What treatments would have looked like would have been required.
SPEAKER_01:The importance I'm hearing of you making the decision to be proactive in just your general health sense and how it had had this type of outcome is more evidence than I think that I'll ever need about really just yeah, just the proactive stance, right? Um, because we find ourselves in again, mid-30s, heading out of the 30s, and in that part of our lives, you know, we're in our careers, we have our routines that we're in that you know are sustaining us, or you know, just that we've gotten into a rhythm or used to. And when those things become unsustainable, or there's something that's dragging down the quality of that, then we need to address it. And in this particular circumstance, it came out with an outcome that you know beyond priceless in terms of positivity in that general sense, right? Um, and just continuing to push out a message around what early detection means because the care in which you're trying to use your words is impressive for me, uh, because it's easy to just generalize or to try to make it simplified because it's in the moment necessary. But what you're doing is you're telling us that there's uncertainty at points of this journey, and it's okay to be okay with that as long as you have other understandings that you can rely on, right? And the power in that is is I'm just resonating in it in this particular moment. And so I just want to also offer another chance. How would you talk to somebody who is on the fence about getting screening?
SPEAKER_00:I would tell them that imagine yourself at the point where you are now forced to see a doctor. Because if you have cancer and it's untreated, there will come a time that you are forced to see a doctor, likely in an emergency room, and they tell you you have cancer and it's metastasized, and there's some things you can do, but the prospects aren't great. Imagine if you only go and get screened today, that ends up not being your outcome. That's what screening is doing. It's not, it doesn't prevent cancer from onsetting. It's just our best tool to give us the best chance of surviving cancer if it does. And the earlier we catch the cancer, the easier it will be to treat the cancer. That is that's just it. The less invasive the treatments are gonna be, you know, with some caveats like brain cancer, that's a different thing, right? But but in general speaking, if they catch it early, it's gonna be an easier go. And you have the best prospects, not only in um recovering, but also potentially being able to live a long life without cancer. And so that is what I I that's the best thing I can say because I know, I know, and you know, I can't help but to wonder, even with my own family, if they had that moment where once the reality of of where their cancer was, if there wasn't a moment where they paused and thought to themselves, like, dang, I should have gone in earlier, I should have gone in sooner, and what that that different decision might have meant for whether or not they would be here with us today.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:I want to end on that because it feels right. Thank you so much. I can't say thank you enough because this story not only is important in its own right, but who you are to me. I just can't say enough good things about who you are and what it is that you are able to convey through your own experience. The look in your eyes when you tell somebody that I think will be convincing enough. But just in case it's not, continue to pay attention and tune in because we're gonna continue to have wonderful guests that know and can say very clearly why it's important to get screened early and why early detection matters. As we wrap up today's episode, I want to thank you for listening and for sharing space with us in a very personal conversation. Sharing Michelle's story and a part of my own was intentional. It reflects why this podcast exists, to make cancer conversations more human, more honest, and easier to understand. Especially for adults who may not expect cancer to be part of their story yet. This episode reminds us that early detection matters, that advocacy matters, and that lived experience is just as important as data. It's moments like this that continue to motivate me to produce thoughtful, high quality content through Cancer Clear and Simple. Thank you for being part of this community. Happy New Year. And be sure to tune in for more episodes of the Cancer Clear and Simple podcast. From our house is yours. Happy holidays.
