{"id":27719,"date":"2021-12-14T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/building-a-support-community-during-cancer-your-stories-podcast\/"},"modified":"2024-11-03T15:14:07","modified_gmt":"2024-11-03T15:14:07","slug":"building-a-support-community-during-cancer-your-stories-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/building-a-support-community-during-cancer-your-stories-podcast\/","title":{"rendered":"Building a Support Community During Cancer: \u201cYour Stories\u201d Podcast"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation, produces the podcast series Your Stories: Conquering Cancer<\/em><\/a> to showcase unscripted conversations between patients, doctors, and the family and friends who conquer cancer with them.<\/p>\n

In the episode \u201cAn Open Book,\u201d Brenda Brody speaks with Mark Lewis, MD, about the highs and lows she experienced while living with breast cancer<\/a>. Brenda revisits tough memories, like the moment she learned she had cancer and the emotional lows of navigating treatment. She also shares how a support community<\/a> can be helpful to people with cancer and the advice she gives to those who have just been diagnosed.<\/p>\n

A scary call<\/h3>\n

\u201cI’ll never forget it,\u201d Brenda recalls of the moment she was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was 3 p.m. on Halloween in 2012. Brenda was preparing to take her daughter trick-or-treating when her doctor called with the devastating news.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy colorful life turned grey, and everything moved in slow motion,\u201d says Brenda. \u201cI had to take my daughter trick-or-treating and pretend nothing was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cultivating a care community<\/h3>\n

Before her diagnosis, Brenda had lost her dad and best friend to cancer. She couldn\u2019t believe it was happening to her. Although Brenda\u2019s prognosis was promising, she still felt isolated and anxious<\/a>. She managed these feelings by maximizing her control over the choices she could make about care teams and treatment plans.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until Brenda\u2019s oncologist encouraged her to form a support network that she learned to let go and embrace help from loved ones. \u201c[My doctor] quickly told me that, you know, it was time for me to stop Googling and to start trusting,\u201d says Brenda.<\/p>\n

Brenda leveraged her natural outgoing nature to form a community of caregivers she could trust for support. \u201cI basically gave my sisters and my friends carte blanche, and they put together a spreadsheet, and we really ran my cancer almost as I run my business,\u201d says Brenda. \u201cThank God for a bunch of driven women.\u201d<\/p>\n

From blogger to mentor<\/h3>\n

As Brenda continued treatment, she launched a blog to document her experiences. This gave Brenda a therapeutic way of expressing her thoughts and emotions when she felt too sick or overwhelmed to spend time with friends and family. Blogging was Brenda\u2019s gateway into a pivotal role she would play after surviving breast cancer: a mentor to other people with cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to continue to tell my story because I’m finding that I’m able to help people,\u201d says Brenda. \u201cAnd to me, that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reaching out for help<\/h3>\n

Brenda has been cancer-free for 8 years. When she mentors people who have been newly diagnosed with cancer, she shares the lessons she has learned along the way about asking for help. Between getting treatment for mental health<\/a>, enduring the side effects of lymphedema<\/a>, and managing the costs of care<\/a>, Brenda wants people to know that relying on others for help is essential during and after cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are things that if I wasn’t trying to be so independent, now that I look back, I would have done differently to get more support for me and for my daughter,\u201d says Brenda.<\/p>\n

Read a transcript.<\/a><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation, produces the podcast series Your Stories: Conquering Cancer to showcase unscripted conversations between patients, doctors, and the family and friends who conquer cancer with them. In the episode \u201cAn Open Book,\u201d Brenda Brody speaks with Mark Lewis, MD, about the highs and lows she experienced while living with breast cancer. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5137],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27719"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43493,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27719\/revisions\/43493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}