#13 Women Guiding Women

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In this engaging episode, join me as I sit down with Randal Snyder, a co-manager of the esteemed Women Guiding Women cancer support and education program at Long Beach Memorial Hospital, alongside Susie Garrison.

Randal unveils the intricacies of their comprehensive programs, extending a warm invitation to all cancer survivors. He shares insights on the collaborative efforts of varied organizations converging to augment accessibility and support for survivors, transcending geographical and institutional boundaries.

Our discussion meanders through the joy and profound impact of bolstering Women Guiding Women, unraveling the multifaceted rewards that ensue. As we approach the climax of our conversation, Randal delineates the essence of becoming a mentor within the program. He illumines the pathway for aspirants, unfolding an opportunity to embark on a journey of inspiration, empowerment, and profound connection.

Tune in for a spirited, enlightening dialogue that oscillates between the profound and the pleasurable, weaving a narrative of hope, support, and unified strength. A narrative where every listener is invited to partake in a community that uplifts, educates, and empowers each member, carving out spaces of sanctuary and support amidst life's tumultuous storms.

 


Read the full transcript: 

0:01
This is Laura Lummer, the breast cancer recovery coach. I'm a healthy lifestyle coach, a clinical Ayurveda specialist, a personal trainer, and I'm also a breast cancer survivor. In this podcast, we talk about healthy thinking and mindfulness practices, eating well, moving your body for health and longevity. And we'll also hear from other breast cancer survivors who have reengaged with life, and have incredible stories to share. This podcast is your go to resource for getting back to life after breast cancer.

0:38
Welcome to Episode 13 of the breast cancer recovery coach, women guiding women. This topic is so special in near and dear to my heart, because this is a conversation with Randall Schneider who is the CO manager along with Suzy garrison of women guiding women cancer support and education at Long Beach Memorial Hospital. This is a program that's very special to me because I received so much support once I was diagnosed through this program, so much so that if you listen to my podcasts, other episodes, you know that I later became a mentor through this program. And that's something that is just so meaningful. And I have really gotten a lot out of this conversation today is going to give you insights into how you can reach out if you feel like you want to have a mentor if you are someone who's newly diagnosed, other programs that are not just for support in treatment. But other ways that are social, that are fun, that are educational programs that are provided through Long Beach Memorial and through these programs that Randall and Susie and other people in the hospital manage, and how you can become part of that and have fun and have some camaraderie and really get some social engagement for like minded people.

2:02
We also talk about how this program is supported and ways you can get involved, whether it's from a fun walk, or wine tasting or shopping, lots of great stuff and we wrap it all up with what it means to be a mentor, what that training looks like, and how you can reach out if it's something that's interesting to you to become a mentor for breast or gynecological cancer patients as a part of your journey of cancer recovery. So we're gonna get right into this and I'm so happy to introduce to you Randall Schneider, co manager of women guiding women cancer support and education. So I'm Randall Schneider and my coworker Susie garrison and I both manage the women guiding women answer support and education program that's here at Todd cancer at Long Beach Memorial. And the program over many years ago started as a were the phone support program for breast cancer survivors. Then I came on 11 ish years ago, we expanded it to include gynecologic cancer survivors as well. And the way we work is that we offer over the phone support to newly diagnosed women who have breast cancer, and gynecologic cancer. And I think the surprising thing for a lot of people is that young women are diagnosed with breast and guys in their 20s or 30s, as well as, of course, unfortunately, women in their 40s 50s 60s 70s 80s. And the way we are funded is through donations and our annual Walk. The Spirit is like other breast cancer walks, except that this is for all cancers. And the money stays right here in Long Beach at Long Beach Memorial. That said, most of our Cancer Support Programs here at Todd cancer at Long Beach Memorial are for anyone and access our services, not just for patients here. Some of our programs are limited to just our patients at Long Beach Memorial, but many of them like the program that I helped manage the women guiding women, the over the phone support is available to anyone. So great to know. And I think that it's just something that isn't widely known. I know that even though I came into the mentor program, and I was lucky enough to have someone to have a mentor from the program, contact me when I was diagnosed, which was a godsend. I mean, really amazing. So much so that that's why I felt I had to go back to that program and do it and be available for maybe somebody else that I could, you know, just help and be there. Oftentimes people are just lost, right? And then you get a diagnosis and you have no idea your whole world just changes immediately. And it's like where do I turn

5:00
and being able to speak to somebody who's been through the process. Let's talk a little about that. Because you actually go through a process of matching newly diagnosed people to mentors, right? You're not just putting anybody. So how do you go about doing that? Oh, that's right. And I love that we're talking about a process that you're very aware of, because you've now been a mentor for a number of years. So you know how it works. So the nurses here will, when they call newly diagnosed breast and guiding patients, they will them not only that all the physical clinical parts, but of the upcoming care, but they'll also talk to new patients about the kinds of cancer support services we have here, including our mentor program, which is the over the phone support. And then if the patient's interested, we'll call them. And Susie or I will talk with them that with women about their maybe for 510 minutes about their diagnosis. And if they know what their treatments are going to be there, we call it the treatment plan. And then we will match them with someone in their age group. And who've had a similar diagnosis and said of treatments. Now, patients with breast cancer, a lot of times women will be deciding on what kind of surgery they want their implants or using their own tissue, which is called a DI EP. And so then they can talk to people who have done either of those have also not only match on treatments, diagnosis and treatments, but also

6:39
the new patient has young kids will match them with someone who went through the process of telling their kids about their cancer diagnosis. And of course, we would get the social worker involved if that's what the patient wanted. We'll bring in we're a conduit to all the other resources not only at a cancer, but also out in the community to that is so cool. And I know for my experience, I was mentored by someone. And then I went through the mentor training, which we'll talk about also, through that mentor training. I heard what you've been referring to as these other programs. And I went through beat the odds program

7:16
that you and your husband did. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And it was incredible. And I did beat the odds after I was finished with treatment, which I think a lot of people think, you know, oh, well, I'm done with treatment. So you know, too bad. But there's, somebody said to me the other day, that one of the hardest things for them was figuring out how to move on with life because the people around them were like, Okay, you're done with cancer, let's go back to normal you lived with for her, she doesn't feel like she's ever done with cancer, and know that it's all it impacted her. And it's something that's always in the back of her mind. Because as you know, you know, there may be recurrences in some people and whatnot. But there's also that experience and so I think me going through beat the odds, even after in treatment just kind of opened my eyes and created a lot more awareness to different ways that go through treatment or having cancer impacted me impacted my family at AB even impacted the way that I looked at the future of my life, you know, so, and these.

8:15
I love that you brought that up that whole survivorship component. And let's talk about that a little bit more. But let me put that on. Table that for just a moment, I want to go back to how we get patients who want to talk to a mentor over the phone. Okay, if a patient's newly diagnosed and this is both gynecologic cancers and breast cancer, and let me be clear, gynecologic cancer includes all of our, some decent, so we're talking cervical, labile, ovarian, uterine endometrial, fallopian tube, ovaries, or Tenille, which is the lining there, you know, the whole deal. And

8:57
the point I wanted to make was, though, often our normal process to get a patient is through one of our nurses here, we also have patients call us directly. We have family members of patients, call us know, it can make the initial the family member can make the initial contact, but then it has to be directly with the patient that we talk because we need to know that the patient really wants it too. So I just want to reassure people and I'll give the phone number right now it's 562-933-7815. And lower. I'll put that up too so that you all can see that. So people can call us directly or their their doctors or the nurse refers us they can also call us directly. We have women in there. As I said before, we have mentors who were diagnosed in their 20s and we have mentors all the way through their 70s. We have Spanish speaking mentors. We have some who speak Japanese I believe, and we're always trying to expand that base.

10:00
We have women who've had metastatic breast cancer who mentor of women who have metastatic breast cancer. We also even have a networking group here now for young diagnoses, breast and GYN survivors who are going through treatment in their 20s and 30s. They we have it's not a support group with the clinician, but it's a way just to reach out and talk to other women who are diagnosed young. So people can contact us and talk to us about that monthly group too. And they don't just get together and talk they also go and do fun stuff like Sephora, for, you know, they go to the when we see BS, which is a local, beautiful lingerie store and do bra fittings, you know, that's right. Yeah, yeah. So that's our specialty groups for young survivors. And Janelle, one of our mentors is actually spearheading that for young survivors. But my point is, if you give us a call, or email us, and my email is R, Schneider, r s and YDR, Memorial care.org,

11:13
you're in the greater Long Beach area, we, if we don't have the programs, we can put you in touch with others that do like komen, or the cancer support community or the American Cancer Society. We all work together. Yeah, that's a great point. And I know I've had people reach out to me through my podcast, or through my Facebook page, I lived in other states and said, No, I'm really interested I could really use someone to talk to. And in that situation, do you try to hook them up with something locally, if there's something for them, I will tell you this, that our mentors have talked to people in different states, we even had a patient who was in Europe, and she had this set up with her phone company that she just got charged a local rate. So that patient was mentored for quite a while actually, while she was in Spain, I believe it was.

12:08
But right, if they're out of state, and it's more appropriate, they can also go to the American Cancer Society's program, I think it's, well, I won't use the name because I can't, I'm not sure that I have it accurately. But what we like about we do is we're going to have a little bit more specific match, like I was talking earlier than maybe some organism other organizations do, where we're really matching not only by treatment and diagnosis, but also age and family situation. And kind of, and I wanted to also have been Laura who probably aware of this times people want to talk to more than one person. And they can tell us if they want to talk to one mentor, or they want to talk to several to get different perspectives, we can arrange that easily. Right. I know, I've experienced that with some of my mentees who may be related to me, some of them maybe say, my lifestyle situation, but then had a different surgical process. And then they went and talked to another mentor about how they dealt with that. Yeah. And I think it's important we point out to that what what does that mean, being in a mentor program, because it's really on the patient's terms, right? Oh, right, because not only do they have to initiate it, but it is in learning to initiate even something as small as taking the step to get a mentor, or active seeing the patients practicing self advocacy, speaking up for themselves requesting a program that they want. But part of having a mentor and being a mentor, as you know, is learning to advocate for oneself, with the doctors, with the nurses with the clinical staff. And by that I mean, stating what you need clearly, and emotionally, which is really difficult for all of us to do when you're fearful and when you're in a stressful situation. But you you want and deserve leader explanations about what to expect with your care, cancer care. And it is on the professionals. It's their responsibility to explain it in terms that the patient understands. That's well said. Yeah. And I think that's what how mentors can help the newly diagnosed patients. The mentors are not there to provide clinical information and will immediately refer the patient back to their doctors for clinical information, but they can help patients learn how to ask those questions. Yeah. Because Don't you feel I know, for my own personal experience, and then from others that I've spoken with. Again, you're kind of hurled into cancer treatment, and you're not sure am I supposed to ask, is this what everybody gets? Is that what I have to do? You know, so I think it's nice to know that you can be your own advocate and when

15:00
We're hearing. So articulate it's that's well said. And I do want to be clear too, that the patient doesn't feel there's only one right way to do this, the mentors are trained over four sessions. And one of the things that we really stress is, they're not there to tell the patient what to do. Mentors are there to help the patient figure out their own style of asking the questions to their clinicians. So patients just want to follow along with what the doctors and nurses are saying and just go with the flow. And that's fine. If you don't understand something, that's where we want the mentors to encourage the patient to ask further questions or to repeat. It's all okay to do that. That's what they're there for. They understand, and I know, you know, this, but the clinical stuff deals with these problems of cancer, day in day out over and over and over again. So they're very familiar and comfortable with these really heavy subjects. Where's the patient? It's most likely your first time. And hello, it's your own body. Yeah. Your life body. Yeah.

16:11
Exactly. It's your life and your body, and you have to decide what works for you. So I'm trying to remember Lauren, I don't know if you mind talking about this, but you were diagnosed in what you paid in 2011. I was 48. I thought it was in your 40s. Right. And at what stage of breast cancer, I was a to b so I had a little spread into the lymph nodes. Yeah. Okay. Okay, good. So, we, I don't know exactly what you remember exactly how we matched you. But let's take your experience as an example you would have called in, they would match you with probably mentors who had chosen or lumpectomy and radiation or stick to me. So I think I came in kind of through a bad route, because I was talking to my sister, and my sister had a friend who is a big supporter of our program, Lisa King. Lisa King said, Oh my gosh, my friend, Martina is a breast cancer mentor, because I was talking to my sister and saying, I have no idea what to do. When I was diagnosed, my physician was a naturopath. And my physician said to me, Well, I don't work in that field of allopathic medicine anymore. So you should probably go home and Google the first steps to take. And I was beside myself, I was like me and Google trying to figure out how to treat cancer. Awesome.

17:37
You know, so I was really lucky that I got that phone call from her.

17:42
You did too. And I hope that just

17:45
as talking today, and sharing this conversation, will let more American men to fully know about the kinds of resources that are out there.

17:57
I like what we're talking about, too. When you mentioned about the internet. There are some very good sites, but there's a lot of hokey stuff out there, too. So there are a few great websites, breast cancer.org cancer.org, which is the American Cancer Society.

18:17
There are a few sites that are just fantastic.

18:22
It's called the foundation of there's one for gynecologic cancers that's run by a group of gynecologic oncologist in the United States. I have to give you that link, because I'm forgetting off the top of my head. But there are a few sites that really guide him. Well through those first questions to ask your doctors. And I am so thankful for those resources. But I have to say, I like talking to someone who's been there, right. So here is like when I chose our son's pediatrician and dentist, and I got that information. Who friends and colleagues. Exactly, yeah, you want it from somebody who think that having that referral from a personal experience of someone who said you can trust this person, you can trust this program. No matter how much information I read, nothing could replace the fact that a woman called me and said, I had breast cancer. Here was my experience. It's going to be okay. You know, here are some places you can call and check. And yeah, nothing reading anything can't take the place of that of hearing. You know, and I think it depends on your perspective for me, you know, earlier in my life, I had a sibling who died from cancer. Cancer really is not a part of somebody's Yeah, it's not really a part of somebody's world until it's a part of your world, right? Yeah. So maybe your perception of cancer is oh my gosh, anyone who gets cancer dies, you know, it's something that's

19:58
your three year we have

20:00
People come up to us and say, Oh, I didn't know you could survive cancer. There are over 6 million cancer survivors in the United States there. And more than 80% of women survived cancer, my breast cancer, I should say breast cancer.

20:17
And it is now more and more, I mean a disease with which people live. But that is not to say it's easy, you know, it is still a difficult process. And let's say if you do want to talk to someone who has been through breast cancer or gynecologic cancer, you can talk to someone. Our service are through American Cancer Society, service and others. But let's say you don't want to talk over the phone with someone you also have the choice at least at talking cancer at Long Beach Memorial can go to one of our support groups. We have a support group for breast cancer once week, we have twice a month we have a gynecologic cancer support group. We have if I may say the other groups too. We have an all cancer support group that we partner with the cancer support community of Redondo Beach to provide that here at Long Beach Memorial in our Tod cancer facility. That's once a week on Thursdays. We have a group but by

21:17
a PhD I believe from UCLA who comes down to support surviving spouses whose spouse died of cancer

21:29
doesn't have B have over in our children's hospital, clinical social worker who can work with tween their parent or loved one grandparent has cancer. I'm Hope I'm not forgetting. I mentioned the young survivor coalition,

21:49
say subsidiary but that's not the right word. But anyway, that networking group that we have here on campus, it's once a month the last Thursday of the month run by our mentor Janelle unaired so who's awesome by the way, I just want to say fun full of energy and Yeah, stick. See, when you get in touch with these people then like through Janelle and others, you learn about oh, yeah, you can do dragon boat rowing if you want for a fit. No. So we also have yoga classes here twice a week for Survivor, and no charge, although you have to do pay for parking. And

22:25
all of these programs are paid for through donations, and mostly through our team spirit walk that I mentioned earlier. And the reason that we have to depend on donations is that although to be a licensed Cancer Center, we are required to offer for IT programs like these, the most part we can't build for them through insurance. That's why we have to raise the money and depend on both to donate money. And it's we really appreciate because our patients tell us how important these services are for their families. And such high quality every program I've ever been through at the top cancer Pavilion at Long Beach Memorial has just been so well thought out. So well supported, and amazing. But I'm really glad you brought up the financial part because as you know, with the whole insurance thing going on and medical expenses, and everything being the political and social topic that it is I think it's important that people might think, why do you need to raise money when we're spending a bloody fortune already for medical services? You know, you guys?

23:34
Yes, it's a good point. And cancer is so expensive, even when you have covered Yes, but our social workers and the head of our registration staff Cindy gots can help navigate through the financing

23:51
of care. But still, it is a big hit for a lot of people, even when they do have insurance. I hate to say, but I will tell you this also we work come in Los Angeles to do outreach to all different communities and

24:07
part of cancer care comes up a lot. But we do have contacts to help with some of those resources. I don't want to over promise on any of that. But

24:17
for the financial, the financial part of it, our social workers are so inundated with patients that they can really only assist the Long Beach Memorial Todd camps for patients, but we can suggest others perhaps who aren't ships at Memorial, or they can go to get advice on those issues. That's great. So you mentioned Sorry to cut you off. You mentioned the jobs program. So that facilitated by Mario HBOGO Dr. Vega, who is a psychiatrist who specializes in oncology care, and that's one of our other support program. And she does the nighttime version of it 10 to 12 weeks program a couple of times

25:00
Fear and then the daytime program is run by our mind body oncology code. Aaron Summerville, she does the daytime version of BPR. That is a fantastic program. You did it after you were done with a lot of people do, but you can do it during also. Right. And it's and I would had I known about it during, because as you mentioned, you don't have to be a patient Long Beach Memorial, and I was not I was fresh another hospital and then, you know, came to Long Beach through the Mentor Program. And because of that, I was just so amazed at all the support because it would I hadn't heard about anything like that during my treatment where I was going. And so yeah, I would say had I known about that during my treatment, my gosh, I would have loved it. And it was really, really an amazing experience. And I've had an interview previously on my podcast with Erin, she's an amazing, yeah, oncology coach. And, you know, just I highly recommend it, whether you're in treatment or not. But you talked a little bit about team spirit when we first started. And so I want to go more into that. What is team spirit? Exactly? How can people get involved? When does it happen? And how important is it to making sure this program gets to continue? Right. So it's vital, not only for our program to mentor other women guiding women, but also all of the programs we just mentioned, the adult cancer support program, at Long Beach Memorial, are funded by donations, mostly through the team spirit walk that is now you know, it's well over a decade, forgive me if I'm not remembering exactly how long I think it's 17 years now. So here's how it was formed. It was formed by Long Beach locals,

26:45
including a mentor, breast mentor, who had walked their big cancer walks in Southern California and said, I want something local. Else, I also want something shorter.

27:03
The money stays local. And here at Long Beach Memorial, and funds for now. We're 16 years, Cancer Support Services here for us. And that's what they want it. Now the money to stay local, they also didn't want to have to walk so far. So this year on September 23rd, it's a 5k. Yay. And you can walk it or run it, walk it, run it, you can bike it. You don't even have to walk the whole way, you can just be there for the kickoff for the event and go for brunch. You know,

27:39
this is not

27:42
we don't have any requirements on people walking. Oh, it is really fun to be right down to the beach, it's on the beach path. There's parking that's been set aside, and you can walk and raise money or you can just read turn, walk yourself. Because there's enough people there. It's fun to meet people that day will tell you that we

28:05
have heard time and time again, that the value not is not me is for fundraising. It's for the patients and survivors and their families. Just to have that group support. It's a survivorship activity feels so good to be with all those people. Absolutely. Yeah, I agree. 100%. That's so true. And how much does it cost to register for the race? So I think now it's $55. And the reason why I say think because I know, when we just opened like other fundraising activities on the first day, it's less expensive, and then it gets more expensive. The closer you get to the event. Yeah, it's that team spirit lbd.org. It's different from Long Beach. And then that'll take you to a memorial Care website where you can register. To register as part of a team, you can start your own team, you can just register as an individual. You can also volunteer for the event. You can also just donate. It's all good, but some sweat and just donate. Yeah, but it is a beautiful, beautiful day, my coworker Garretson will be there that day. And then I'm going to be at another event which you and I will talk about in a moment. But I wanted to say that two of the directors here at the Breast Center are now in charge of team spirit, Sandra Lopez and Cindy got the second year they're actually doing all the organization along with the event management firm of team spirit. It really makes it run smoothly. It's just great. is great. Yeah, it does run smoothly as well planned as well thought out. It's a lot of fun. I agree. I'm glad Yeah. It's always a great time. So you do have another event on the same day on the 23rd for people who really just don't like exercise or don't want to be outside or don't want to walk on the beach. What can they do? So this was not our own event. This is the shopping extravaganza at this

30:00
Dell retail outlets. And you can go to Citadel outlets and a lot of 30s that are participating in this. You buy a $35 ticket $25 Go back to the charity of your choice. And of course, we're one of those, which is Todd Cancer Institute. And then we didn't have any choice of the date without it just happened to fall on team spirit, which is just bad luck of the draw. Yes, you're the only year this has happened. But I have to say like, I echo what you said, you know, if you don't want to go to the beach and walk and you can go shop. Yeah. And the cool thing is, you know, the outlet really, name outlets, now they have Kate Spade, and Michael Kors and Nike. And anyway, there's a list on the website. And not only get the more choice that you get it outlet stores. But if you buy this ticket for that day, September 23, for the shopping extravaganza, you get additional discounts. Oh, cool, right. So you can tell your husband, I'm shopping for a good reason. Everything I buy supports breast cancer, but we've been guiding Women program, really to for all of the cancer support programs, right. So then you not only get the additional discounts, you get free lunch, from rubies from rubies, and we're all trying to meet up at noon. But I think lunch goes from like 11 to one but it's been covered attempted open outdoor area where they serve hamburgers, as well as Ruby salad, there's entertainment. They also have wine tasting at noon, free wine tasting, they also have free head and neck massages, head and neck massages.

31:45
This is a really fun thing. Not all of their retailers are participating. But the ones that are when you're 30 that are participating with further discounts on the website. And even though stores that aren't officially participating, if you come in with your wristband on it shows that you're part of it. Sometimes they'll give you chills if you ask Oh, very cool.

32:12
You know, how do you say no, you're like, Can I get a discount to support cancer survivors?

32:19
You can't say no to that. That's awesome. And that's at the Citadel shopping mall in City of Industry, right? It's south east of downtown LA cool setup. It was an old plant with faux historic basing on the front of it. That's all been refurbed to this really lovely outlet stores really pretty. Yeah, I don't even like shopping that I love this event. It's all for a good cause. And oh, what I totally forgot that. Also say one of the other perks of getting a ticket for that day is they have over $90,000 in gift card giveaways. Oh, that is a perk. Yeah. And so many people will win, I've won a number of times where most of the denominations are $25 or so. But to their stores there, it's great. It's really make it worth your while to go. That is really cool. They're both great events. And if anybody listening has some free time on the 23rd pick one and go. I'm I'm leaning more towards the $25 to win gift certificates, wine tasting and a free lunch.

33:24
So the tickets are 35. And then 25 comes back to us. But we would love it if people would go on there and choose Todd cancer. And I like this event so much that I'm ready to hotel room the night before and the day of the event. And I'm gonna get there early. I'm gonna help greet people. And then I'm actually volunteering in the head neck massage area in the afternoon. Nice. Yeah. And then I'll be there to shop. Girl I'm going to date

33:54
when I went by the next day,

33:57
do some strategic planning for this shopping event. Because you know what, a lot of people use it as pre holiday shopping. That's a great idea. Well, I don't I don't want to close out without talking about what if somebody wants to be a mentor to women? What what does that entail and how would they go about contact? I'm so glad you mentioned that. Okay, so if you're a gynecologic patient who's six months away from finishing treatment for breast cancer patient a year away from finishing treatments, then would be eligible to go through our annual training, which is usually in the spring. So spring of 2018. We already have three dates in May and one June that we've chosen for the human enter training, and we hope that people would attend all four of the training session. The reason why we ask them to wait six months to a year dying for breast cancer survivors, is because we just want to give you truly to give yourself time to heal physically and

35:00
motional and are ready to focus on someone else, when you get that call as a mentor that mentors time and time again, are coached. Remember that when they're mentoring, it's not about them, right. And I know you're really good at this Lord to focus on what the patient needs, even if the patient ends up choosing some treatment or doing something that you didn't do or doesn't think is right. It doesn't matter. Because it's not about dementia, it is about the patient. Absolutely. Yeah, it is about. And that's important, because the work that I do as a breast cancer recovery coach privately, because there's still a lot going on with your body, your mind your life, and just acclimating back into normal life. A new normal, yeah, the new normal after treatment ends. And you know, I know for me personally, and I've talked about this on my podcast before, is I didn't know that, you know, I thought, yay, my last day of chemo is this day, it stays on me for three weeks, and then boom, back to normal. And here comes my hair, you know, and then I went, Hey, this is not working out the way that I thought it was gonna work out, you know, am I actually feeling very different than what I felt like before? I think a lot of people, maybe they don't need to realize that quite yet as they're going through treatment, you know? Right. Right. That's, but I'm glad that you pointed out that cancer survivorship is its own important, alert stage, living past cancer treatment. But you've, I'm so glad you brought this too, because one of the things that we train or coach the mentors on is to mentor where the patients act. So like you just with a person newly diagnosed and you're talking to them about chemotherapy, you're not going to talk to them about what it feels like after chemotherapy, necessarily, or two years or 10 years down the line you're talking about. You're addressing the questions and the needs of where the patient is at that time. Because each of those stages are difficult enough. Yeah. And deserve their own attention. Absolutely. Yeah. And the last thing you want to say is, oh, wait, when you get through this, you're not going to believe what comes next, you know? Oh, that's encouraging. Yeah, yeah, exactly. There's only so much a person can handle at one time. And I do want to be clear that mentors are not surrogate therapists.

37:21
You know, most people talk to mentors once or twice, Link, some talk to them continue a relationship maybe once a month for four or five months, six months, or if, let's say they talk to him during adjuvant chemotherapy, which is chemotherapy before surgery, that is often part of the protocol, then they might talk to them a few times during chemotherapy, but then also after surgery, or before and after radiation, you know, there's different points where they might have been in connect with their mentor. But to go back to the training of the mentor, I just want people to be clear that they deserve the time to heal mentally and physically themselves before they look at becoming a mentor. Most of our classes have about 10 to 20 new GYN, gynecologic and breast cancer mentors who we train together. And this other three couple hour classes are two to three hours long each. There's three of those where clinicians and others come in and speak on a variety of topics. And then the last quote unquote class is actually our annual cancer survivor. Celebration we've been doing for years and years. And there we have speakers, we have community programs to come we have some vendors, that's really a fun to great fun morning. And that's all cancer survivors. But that's our last part of the mentor training too.

38:51
And it's awesome. And then there's ongoing community in collaboration with mentors, girlfriend, that's what I'd say. That's what we love. We're really here for education, and Susie has just hit the ball out of the park. We are doing probably the other month some sort of community education. We start with cancer survivors need and by survivor, I mean anyone who has been diagnosed and still is living with cancer, whether you're in treatment or in survivorship, we call you a cancer survivor. So these, we have ongoing education programs almost every other month now small and large. We're partnering with all of the groups that I mentioned before, to offer new kinds of education. We also in the past have done a fashion show that features cancer survivors in the model. We have little hiatus we're going to start again in 2018. It's going to get feature bottles who are cancer survivors and we're actually going to have models of all cancers and we're going to include some men this time awesome and fun fun dates.

40:00
Whew, I love your passion is is we're going to, we're going to switch it up a little bit, we're going to do a little bit more low key, we're going to have it here on campus and house before. But people can get all that information, the education and the events and all that. If they contact us, if they want to be kept in that loop, they can. Okay, that's awesome. So much great information, I could talk to you forever. Because really, you guys do I know. And I love talking with you do so many great things to say. And I just, I love, love, love getting that information out there for people about how many resources there are and about how you're not alone, regardless of what stage of cancer or treatment or survival you're at. There are awesome people who are at that same stage with you and who want to support and make sure that you're thriving, that you're just having the best life that you can have at whatever stage you're at. And that's so important. That is so upsetting. I love the work that you're doing. And there are there are so many resources out there. And still, no, it's a very personal journey. I know that word journey is overused. But I'm hoping people will reach out for assistance. There's no shame in asking for. Some people might call it help. I call it information. Yeah, absolutely. But you can make your own decisions. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. 100%. And you know, and it's near reach, it's just taking another step, just no different than going and buying a book on self improvement or buying a book to learn about a business. If that's what you're in, you're reaching out to say, oh, you know what, I'm in this stage. I've never been here before. I'd actually like to make it a little better than what it is right now. What information is out there that will help me do that? Very well said, yeah. Because when you become a patient,

41:51
you have a whole team of doctors, nurses, clinician, staff, people you're dealing with, you're dealing with a whole new dictionary of terms. Yes, with which you are probably unfamiliar. And you have to come up to speed pretty darn quickly. Oh, yeah, really quickly. It's a whirlwind. But there are people who can help you with that information. So I thank you so much for talking with me. You're doing work. Thank you. Thanks, man. And thank you for making the time today. I really, really appreciate it. And we're gonna put all the contact information and we'll be URLs and all of that for team spirit and the shopping extravaganza and all that on the podcast information page to thanks, right and say hi to Susie, and thanks for making the time fabulous, Suzy. Okay, I see you on the 23rd.

42:36
That was awesome. So much fun. Randall is just a vivacious, energetic, wonderful personality, and so is Suzy. And one of the things that really stands out to me that I love, and I hope you got from listening to Randall is that even though cancer is this very challenging, very heavy, very difficult period, obviously, in so many people's lives, not only those of us who are survivors, but those of us who love us and how their lives are impacted as well. And I think we have a tendency to visualize anybody who's engaged in cancer support or involved in programs maybe takes a very clinical approach. And I hope that you got the feeling and understanding by listening to this conversation with Randall, that it's so much more about happiness, about joy, about getting what's best for you out of your treatment, if you're in treatment and out of your life, if you're out of treatment, finding ways to find joy, finding ways have social engagement, to connect with others and to just really pursue anything that brings happiness into your life. I thank you so much for listening. And if you haven't had a chance to subscribe or leave a review for the breast cancer recovery coach, please take the time to do that as it means so much and it helps this show be more easily found by other breast cancer survivors. Have a happy and awesome Labor Day weekend and safe and until the next time let your lifestyle be your medicine.

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You've heard your courage to the test laid all your doubts

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your mind is clearer than before your heart is full and wanting more your futures

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given all you

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know

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you've been waiting on

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this

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this

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