Celebrating seven triumphant years since my breast cancer diagnosis! In this heartfelt bonus episode, I unfold a tale not just of my own journey, but of how another's battle with cancer became a beacon during my darkest times.

Immerse yourself in a narrative brimming with hope, strength, and jubilation. Let this episode be a testament to the indomitable spirit within all of us, urging you to live unabashedly and reminding you that cancer is but a chapter, not the entirety of your story. Dream boundlessly.

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, welcome. Welcome. This is a special bonus episode of the breast cancer recovery coach and I am Laura Lummer. And I am so happy to be bringing you this special show today. Because this show is celebrating the anniversary of seven years of surviving breast cancer. Seven years ago, today, July 11, I was diagnosed with stage two B breast cancer, actually the became later after one of the surgery so stage two at that time. And today, I want to celebrate the blessing of life and of good health with all of you. And I hope that by the end of the show someone out there, here's what they need to hear something to give you encouragement to give you hope, and to give you the knowledge that there is life after breast cancer, and that it can be even more limitless, even more full of love and fun and joy than it ever was before.

1:40
Now if you follow this podcast, or if you've downloaded my book, The six habits of healthy happy breast cancer survivors, then you already know my story. And if you don't already know my story, you can go back and listen to it in episode one of this show the breast cancer recovery coach. And it was actually called let your lifestyle be your medicine that but it is episode one. Or you can go to the website, my website, Laura lummer.com, and download my free ebook. But today, the story I want to share with you is a different cancer story. But it's still one that had a tremendous impact on my life. And after I share the story, I'll help you understand why I chose to share it with you today.

2:20
So in November of 1992, I was living in Cathedral City, which is just a little city outside of Palm Springs, California. It was probably around nine o'clock at night eight, nine o'clock at night I put my kids to bed and I was cuddled up on the couch drinking a cup of coffee and I decided to call my mom for a little chat.

2:39
So to set the scene for you, the phone in my mom and dad's house at that time was in the kitchen. And their kitchen is this large room that's kind of a combination of a kitchen and a family room. And it has two external walls that are pretty much all huge windows and they look out on the patio in the back and on the side of the house. Now my dad kept his big propane tank barbecue on the side of the house, just outside the window that was over the kitchen sink. So if you're standing talking on the phone, you'd be looking out that window and seeing my dad at the barbecue. So my mom answers the phone. And within a couple of minutes of talking to me she's yelling at my dad, she's in a panic. And from what I can pick up on the other end of the phone, the propane tank had caught on fire while my dad was barbecuing. And he was using whatever it was he could grab which ever was in his reach to put this fire out. While my mom was hysterically yelling she was terrified for him. She was afraid the barbecue is going to explode. And she's yelling at him to get away from it. And he's yelling at her to leave him alone. And then I hear her yell she's calling the fire department she and there I am sitting 100 miles away from them with my mouth hanging open thinking holy hell, what is happening over there.

3:55
So I waited a little while to give my mom time to call the fire department and let them get there and get the fire out and for the two of them to finish whatever issue they have with my dad blowing up the barbecue. And so I tried to call back and I get a busy signal on the phone and you remember that sound right busy signals, frustrating buzz that just never ends. And I tried to call back a couple of times but continued to get the busy signal. So I hung up. I waited a little while maybe an hour later. And I called back I get through to my mom and I find out that sure enough the barbecue did explode. It burned down then or didn't burn down but it burned the newly painted cinderblock wall. It burned the side of the the outside of the house outside that kitchen window over the sink. The lid flew into our neighbor's pool. The fire department evacuated the next door neighbor. I mean there was a lot of action happening. But the worst of it was that when the fire department left my brother had been on the phone with my mom. That's what I was trying to get through

5:00
And he had called to tell her that he had cancer.

5:04
Now, if you're listening to this show, then probably you or someone you love has had cancer. So you know, that sickening feeling, that feeling of the bottom dropping out of your world that comes with hearing that announcement.

5:23
It is so not a part of your reality, to hear that, that it feels like it just can't be real, it can't be right. And at that time, especially, I was thinking, What the heck, this is not supposed to happen. This doesn't happen to us, this isn't supposed to happen to him. My brother was 31 years old. And I was 29 at that time.

5:46
And I know you understand what I'm saying, if you've heard that diagnosis, and the shock of it, it's just it's difficult to translate that outside yourself. It's something that you really experience and it just blows your mind, right? It just shatters your world.

6:03
And now at that point, I had never known anyone truly personally known anyone who had had cancer. And so I had no idea of cancer stages of the meaning of the terminologies of metastasis, or of what treatments were involved. And in fact, just to give you an idea of how far cancer awareness has come since I was a kid, I can remember hearing my parents and their adult friends talking about different people who had cancer. And then we'll discuss how they were concerned because they want to help these people. But they didn't feel comfortable being around them, because they really weren't sure that cancer wasn't contagious. But they were very confident that cancer was a distance. Now, in 1992, by the time that my brother Randy was diagnosed, we knew cancer wasn't contagious. But we still believed that it was a death sentence, it was just a terrifying thing to hear. And the treatment for cancer was very, very different. So within days of him being diagnosed, he was in surgery. And the news wasn't good. We were told he had testicular cancer, and that it had metastasized throughout pretty much his entire body. He had tumors growing on his vital organs, he had him in his lungs. And it was really severe, he underwent aggressive chemotherapy that it began right out of surgery. And my brother was a chiropractor. So he believed very strongly in natural health practices. And he pursued complementary and alternative treatments. And in addition to going through chemotherapy, and as the cancer progressed, and towards the end, it had spread to his brain. And so he also started having radiation treatments. But it was just too short six months after his diagnosis that he lost his battle with cancer. And his life ended at the age of 32.

7:59
Now, at that time, I would have told you that the loss of my brother devastated my world.

8:06
Fast forward 25 years later, and I'll tell you that

8:12
I've come to the realization that it was the anger that I felt in fed and clung to at the loss of my brother that devastated my world. I was so angry that he had been taken from us in such an unfair way. And at such a young age, I was so angry that the world didn't stop for him, that people expected life to just go on like nothing, they expected me to show up at work to be my happy self again, to move on and let go. And I was so angry, I just wanted to scream at them. I wanted the world to stop, and to recognize that a tremendous loss had just occurred, that an important and valuable piece of the world was missing.

9:02
That all the religious beliefs I had been taught about good things happening to good people was wrong.

9:09
But the world that did not stop, I did. I allow anger to stop me from participating and fully enjoying life for a very long time. It took me a long time to process that.

9:24
And I share the story with you today on July 11, the seventh anniversary of my diagnosis of breast cancer.

9:33
Because I believe that with cancer comes loss.

9:39
And sometimes it's a loss of life. And other times it's a loss of body parts, sometimes both.

9:48
Sometimes it's a loss of self esteem and self image. It's a devastating blow to your self image. Or it's a loss of the sense of security in your own mortality. And the way that

10:00
The world works. And in the certainty that awful things don't touch your life, and they're not going to touch me, that's not going to happen.

10:07
Sometimes it's a loss of the presence of friends, or other loved ones who you thought would always stand by you, but they didn't. Because they were not emotionally prepared to deal with your cancer.

10:21
And sometimes it's the loss of income, or the loyalty of an employer, who you thought valued you much more than the reality of the situation turned out to be when you need it a lot of time off because of illness.

10:35
Whatever it is, there's always a loss, there's a change that you could have done without ever experiencing in your life. And oftentimes, this change or these losses are met with anger, lots of anger, I see this often in many women that I speak with. And I can remember, seven years ago tonight, laying in my bed,

10:59
thinking about what I had just been diagnosed with, and scared to death, having no idea what was about to happen to my body, or my life. But I remember feeling pissed, I was seriously pissed. It was like, why, why is this happening? I did all the right things. I ate all the right food, I exercise, I practice yoga, I spent my entire adult life raising my children. And here I was just a couple of years away from having my own independence from my children being young adults who would leave and allow me the free time to pursue all the things I'd put on the shelf for so long to be the mom that I want to be for them. Why is this happening? Now? If I die, before I get to travel, before I get to take culinary classes before before before, right? This whole bucket list, I'm really going to be pissed?

11:53
Well, fortunately, I did learn a lot in the years between losing my brother and receiving my own diagnosis. And so at first, it was tough in those first couple of days when you're just trying to figure out what in the world is happening, and what is the next step you're supposed to take, and what does all of this mean. But my mental, emotional and spiritual outlook on life was very, very different by this time. So rather than getting caught up in that anger, I really tried to focus on what I could take from this experience, what I could learn from it, and to find any way that I could to channel this struggle into something that could become some kind of a silver lining, because I knew that life was about being happy about really looking for joy in every single day. And I believe that that helped tremendously throughout my treatment. And I know that and so many women that I work with, that have that positive attitude that keep laughing, they keep looking for joy, they do so much better throughout their treatment and through the recovery as well.

13:03
So that's why I share the story with you today. I share it with you in the hope that someone who may need to hear it. Someone who may be holding on to the anger of being the victim of an unfair world can let go a little bit and get back to living fully. Because whether you're in treatment, or if that stage is behind you. If you don't let go of the fear of cancer, or the anger of having been its victim, then you are not fully living. You're not so I recently read this book called finished by Jon Acuff which, by the way, if you have half done projects or unfinished dreams hanging around your home or your life, I highly recommend that you listen to this book. And he's pretty tongue in cheek too, so it's entertaining. But in this book, he shares a story of a cuckoo bird, and how the cuckoo bird drops its unhatched eggs off in other birds nests, to be cared for and hatched while the cuckoo bird flies off to have some fun. And now if this avian mother have hijacked nest doesn't notice that there's a new and different looking egg in her nest, she'll care for it as if it were her own. And she'll have no idea that it's going to hatch sooner than her other eggs. And then it's going to proceed to eat her unborn baby birds. And then finally, it's going to consume her before it leaves the nest and flies off for its own little bird life.

14:37
Now Acuff uses this story as a metaphor for unfinished projects, taking over everything in your home, but I think it's also a perfect metaphor for anger, fear, anxiety, because like that cuckoo bird, these emotions anger, fear, anxiety, they can consume and just destroy everything around you.

14:59
And

15:00
Like that cuckoo bird, something may have been dropped on you that you didn't ask for. But if you don't become aware of it, if you don't recognize it, for what it is and kick that sucker out of the nest, it is going to create bigger problems than you ever dreamed of, and it's can stop your life is going to stop you from living fully.

15:23
So you'll often hear people say, you know, just let it go. If they see that you're stuck on something that's keeping you from being fully present in your life, just let it go. Right. That's the advice. But I suggest that you take a little different approach. And I'd invite you to sit down and really think about what these emotions are. Whatever's keeping you from living the life that you really, really want. Because I know that you know what it is, right? We all know what it is. We're all the experts in our own lives. And I invite you to write down anything that's keeping you stuck. Anything that's keeping your life from thriving, write it down. And then next week, I want you to write two things.

16:05
One is I want you to write down, what's the worst thing that could happen. If you let go of this thing that's keeping you stuck. The very worst thing that could possibly happen. And then too, I want you to write down something really positive that you could do. If you were to take that energy and that time that you're using up on this thing that's keeping you stuck and redirect into something positive.

16:32
What would that positive thing be? What would you do? Well, I'd like to share some stories with you stories of some people who made choices to channel their cancer experience into something positive. And I hope these stories will inspire you not necessarily to go out and start some foundation are changed the world. And I mean, if they do that's awesome, go for it. But all I ask is that you find a way to live your life fully whatever that looks like for you.

17:00
So Michael singer was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010, just two years after losing his sister to metastatic breast cancer. So Michael went from being so embarrassed that he couldn't even tell people what his diagnosis was to being a vocal advocate for men with breast cancer. He became a participant in studies with the American Cancer Association. And in the CBS News report in 2016. He said I want to be the voice for the guys who aren't here anymore. So maybe we can get this early enough to save their lives.

17:35
Grace Lombardo was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 35. And in an attempt to deal with the physical transformation, the body image issues that arose from her experience with breast cancer, Grace made a decision to have a mastectomy tattoo. And she decided to document the process, and how and why she came to that decision in a short documentary titled grace. Now her hope is to foster discussion, understanding and education about what it truly means to survive breast cancer.

18:07
Grace Ma, a physician diagnosed with breast cancer at 44. She tells her story of how her diagnosis, opened her heart to patients and transformed her own personal relationships. She learned to let go of emotional barriers. And now she has more meaningful relationships with her family and friends and a more fulfilling life.

18:30
I'll post the links to the stories in the show notes page for this podcast on my website. But I want you to know that these are just a few of hundreds of stories you can easily find if you need a little boost, a little reminder that you're not alone and that life is off nonferrous we that is the truth. None of us are spared from the random selection of being on the other end of the unfairness of life. It hits us all at some point, right. But the good news is that the five year survival rate for those of us who are diagnosed with breast cancer is an overall 90%. And the 10 year survival rate is 83%. This is according to cancer.net. And that's nearly double the survival rate from 1976. And that means we all have a lot more time to enjoy living.

19:20
With improvement in diagnostics and awareness of breast cancer, the diagnosis of stage zero cancer or DCIS ductal carcinoma in situ.

19:29
That diagnosis has increased from 1% of all cases in 1988 to 25% of cases by 2014. And the five year survival rate for that breast cancer caught at that stage is 99%. Even for those of us who have had some spread to lymph nodes, the five year survival rate is 85%. And that's great news because we're catching this disease earlier. We're catching it more frequently and we're living longer as a result of that.

20:01
So do not miss out on this second chance of life. Make your shit happen, whatever it is, whatever it is you want to do. Whether it's having stronger relationships, seeing more movies, learning to grow orchids, or making a documentary, whatever it is, do not let cancer hold you back from a single minute of it.

20:25
So today I'll commemorate my seven year anniversary, by going down to Laguna Beach, where my son who is an incredibly talented tattoo artist, if I say so myself, he will add a pink balloon to the tattoo I have on my shoulder of a little girl floating away with a bundle of balloons. Now this tattoo is a play on the stencil by an artist named Banksy, who I love. And it reminds me of when I was a kid, and I'd see someone at Disneyland or at a fair and they'd be walking around with a big bundle of balloons for sale. And I think that'd be so cool. If you just had so many balloons, you could just fly away with them. So the balloon signifies another year of life for me. But the design reminds me to hold on to the wonder of that life. The wonder that we saw in life when we were kids, we have to hold on to that at least a little bit. Because there is still magic and wonder out there. There really is. Now if you want to share in this tattoo experience with me, check it out tonight, July 11. Watch for me to start a Facebook Live when the tattoo begins. And you can check it out and celebrate with me. And if not, you're not into that thing and needles freak you out. No worries, I will leave you with an invitation today to celebrate your life every single day, to let go of anything that keeps you from living the life you want. And I leave you with a challenge to take the risk, you know you need to take to create the change that you want. And I'll leave you with the encouragement to reach out and find support any support that you need to be able to take that risk. And that doesn't mean a dangerous risk, right risk doesn't mean danger. Risk means something that's outside your comfort zone. You know, we fall into these habits, we fall into our comfort zones, we fall into traditional beliefs. And I have to do this this way and have to do that that way. So I can't do this thing I really want to do. That's bullshit. Ladies, take the risk. And if you don't feel comfortable doing on your own, find someone who will support you and help you to take the steps you need to have the life you want.

22:36
If you'd like to share your story with our community of breast cancer survivors, I would love to hear it. So I encourage you to go on over to Facebook, find me Laura Lummer and share that story. And while you're scrolling around on the internet, if you could stop by the iTunes Store and subscribe to this podcast or leave a couple stars and review. I would really appreciate that too. And it will make the show easier for other survivors to find.

23:03
So you can find me on Facebook at Laura Lummer on Instagram at the breast cancer recovery coach. And you can go to my website, download my free book six habits of healthy happy breast cancer survivors. And I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful day because I know I will. I'm celebrating I'm happy to be here. I'm super happy to be here with this podcast reaching out and touching every single one of you and I look forward to hearing your feedback and your comments. So until next time, let your lifestyle be your medicine

23:36
to the test laid all your doubts

23:43
your mind is clearer than before your heart is full and wanting more your futures

23:54
you

23:56
know

23:58
you've been waiting all

24:05
this

24:13
time