Transcript generated from the episode’s automatic captions. Speaker names are not identified, and automatic captioning may misspell names and terminology. Please refer to the video for the authoritative version.

I want to thank you for joining us on today’s episode of The Cancer Project podcast. We’re very privileged to have Priscilla Biyasteros on today. Um, she is a breast cancer survivor and has a very unique story because she was actually diagnosed with cancer while she was pregnant with her son. So, we’re going to talk about that and just talk about what she’s learned about a cancer diagnosis and what might have possibly caused her cancer. Um, and so we’re really excited to have Priscilla on today. So, Priscilla, thank you for joining us. Thank you so much. I feel extremely privileged to be able to have the opportunity to just share my testimony and just how far really the Lord has brought us and just all that, um, all that has happened since this diagnosis cuz it definitely turned our lives right side up.

Yeah, no, for sure. And I I should mention that, um, I contacted you actually on TikTok, um, because you’ve uh, been really generous, I think, with your time and just everything that you’re going through of talking about your journey on that social media platform and then and just elsewhere online. So, maybe to kind of kick things off, talk a little bit about when you decided that, hey, I want to actually document this journey that I’m going through publicly and what was the motivation behind that? Yeah, uh, I love this question. I when I first got diagnosed, it was, as you can imagine, very, very difficult and no one around me and my family had ever had cancer.

I genuinely didn’t know what it looked like, what tomorrow had in store for me. So, like a millennial, I went on TikTok. Yeah. And I started to look for other women that were in my shoes, specifically pregnant because that was probably my biggest fear. Like I’m carrying a tiny baby. Um so I was wanted to know like what my future looked like. So I started to look through Tik Tok and I thankfully found someone. Her name is Liv. I love Liv. She um was very great about documenting her entire journey from start to finish with just so much joy that I would watch her videos over and over and over again when I would start to have hard days because her just like her mentality and the way she approached treatment and just everything.

She was also pregnant and she was just such an encouragement to me that I would watch her videos over again and I just knew like when I was ready, I wanted to be able to be that for someone else. Um because unfortunately, we are not one of one. This happens. Not as common, but it does happen to a good amount of women that are diagnosed while pregnant. And I just wanted to give someone else that same hope that she gave me. Um so when I was ready, I eventually I was already in treatment. I started to document. Uh it took me a while to get there.

Um but when I was ready, I started to document the process of what it looked like to go to chemo. What it looked like to be to shave my head while pregnant. What it looked like uh just to have all of the side effects and what it felt like mentally to go through that process while pregnant and then eventually giving birth and eventually becoming a new first-time mom and just I tried my best to document that process. It wasn’t easy most days. Um but I knew that it was it was going to help someone one day. So that was my motivation. Were you nervous when you were about to post that first video talking about I mean cuz it’s like kind of a big change from “Hey, this is my kind of normal happy life and my husband and we live in Southern California and now here’s this kind of really tragic situation that I’m going through.

” Right, so my very first post was kind of like it was just text and it was like “Hey, this is what I’ve been secretly battling for the last couple months because I had to share that I was pregnant. I think I shared my my gender reveal possibly and then I shared what I had been going through. Um so that was hard because when you begin to say it out loud to people, it becomes real. Um when it’s just like amongst you and your immediate family, it feels real but not yet. It’s when you like announce it publicly that it really like just weighs on you.

So yeah, that was that was a little hard but it also at the same time was like such a blessing because so many people just like came around in prayer and just came around and just words of encouragement because I shared. So while it was hard, it was also a huge blessing because I just got the support that I needed. Yeah. Have you So have you met other people that have had a somewhat similar journey to you after you’ve posted? I mean you mentioned Liv and there’ve been other people that have now reached out to you? Yeah, through social media I’ve had a lot of women and every time I get a message from a new woman and you a new mom, it’s hard because I know exactly what they’re facing but it’s also a blessing that I am able to relate to them in that way and that I have gone through it and that I have gotten to this place where I am well and I could just like encourage them.

Um but yeah, I definitely have had a lot of women reach out to me till this day like randomly I’ll get someone like I just found your page and you know, so. So, tell us about Ezra. So, he’s your son. He’s healthy. I He loves cars, I understand. Yes. Yes, so tell us about him. he’s yeah, he’s three now. Uh he is full of life. He is a typical boy, loves cars. Uh he’s really kind of nerdy, which I love. He He loves books. He loves to learn like anything with numbers and letters. Like he will We do a little like school time. And he He just soaks it all in.

Like he loves it so much. We speak dominantly Spanish to him. Um so, it’s just been like a lot of fun cuz it’s been a challenge to me. I’ve gotten to like, you know, um sharpen my own Spanish through him and learn a lot through him. Uh but yeah, he’s he’s definitely a joy and um he was sent at the right time. Yeah. What have you learned about yourself being a mom? So, separate from the cancer diagnosis, just that journey of motherhood with your with your son. What have you learned about yourself? Yeah. What have I learned about myself? Wow. Um I don’t know. I think I think I’ve learned to just give myself grace.

Mhm. Um I am very type A and very perfectionist tendencies um and that definitely carries over into how I carry myself as a mom and just like the expectations I hold over myself. And I’ve learned that no one is perfect. No one is doing this well. Like we are all every day figuring it out and trying our best and at the end of the day we all we just love our kids and we want the absolute best for them but who we are who we show up as every single day is the best like that is exactly who they need we are exactly what um what they don’t have any other expectations other than who we are each day and um that’s something I’ve had to like really remind myself of is um I need grace every day yep and I am exactly who I need to be for him well and everyday too is that unique opportunity to form a little bit more of a bond and it’s that that bond between a parent and a child that’ll carry on through the rest of your life and everyday is kind of just that a strengthening of that bond between the two of you yes yes it’s definitely a very huge privilege to raise up the next generation and it’s not something I take lightly at all so tell us about your husband Alex you guys have been married for what I think seven seven years seven years seven years but you guys have been together longer than that and you’ve you’ve documented kind of a funny story where you I think you described it as friend-zoning him initially so talk a little bit about just meeting Alex cuz I know he’s played a really big important role in your life especially as you’ve gone through cancer yes 100% so I met Alex in high school we met our freshman year of high school and we were friends throughout all pretty much all of high school we came out in a quinceanera together which is how we like became closer friends but we all we each dated our own people like we were just genuinely friends and then our senior year of high school things started to like shift a little bit and we started spending more time together and at that time I had come out of like a 2-year relationship, which was a long time for a 17-year-old.

And I was like, I don’t want a boyfriend. Like, we’re cool being friends. I enjoy your company, but like that’s it. And he was like persistent. He would not He did not give up. So, at some point I realized like he’s actually a really good guy. So, we had already graduated. It was like the summer after we graduated and I was like, okay, I think I think I’m ready. And I was like, you can ask me now to be your girlfriend. Okay, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he asked me to be his girlfriend and I was like, yeah. [gasps] Pretty much. Yeah, he he was persistent and he was kind and patient and he was yeah, he’s been definitely just the same and just like the best thing that could have happened to me.

So. And then and so how long did you guys date before you got married? We dated for 7 years because we were so young when we started dating. So, we dated for 7 years, got engaged, and we were after we got engaged we were married within like 9 months cuz I was ready. Yeah, yeah. Well, you’d been dating for a long time. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I was ready and he he’s a man and he’s a provider. So, he’s like, let me make sure I get all my ducks in a row first. Let me get my career settled and then then we’ll move forward and that’s exactly what we did and we’ve been running running together ever since.

Yeah, that’s great. And And tell me about Alex as a dad to Ezra. Alex is the best dad. He is a very hard worker and like a huge provider and he doesn’t have as much time with Ezra as he would like. But when he does have time, he like whatever stress he’s carrying, whatever things he just has on his plate, he just is able to put that behind him and just be there and be present with my son and he’s just Yeah, he’s just the best. He can look back at pictures of him when he’s a baby and cry. Like that’s that’s who my husband is.

That’s amazing. Yeah, that’s wonderful. Well, he sounds like an amazing person and your son sounds like an amazing person. So, um I want to pivot a little bit and talk now about the cancer journey that you’ve been on. So, um let’s just start at the beginning. That first moment where I believe there was uh you had maybe something pop up on imaging and then there was a you were pregnant at the time. So, just take us through kind of those early moments. What even made you wonder if something was going on um and kind of leading up to the diagnosis. Right. So, Alex and I had decided we wanted to try to start having a baby and we tried for 6 months and I was not able to get pregnant.

So, during that time I had a lymph node under my arm that had been enlarged and my lymph nodes my whole life have been kind of reactive. So, I wasn’t too worried. Like the ones in my neck, the ones in my arm, like they’ve always like gone up and down when my body’s fighting something off. But, because I couldn’t get pregnant and this lymph node had been there for a few months now and it was like a pretty good size and it wasn’t going down. I was like, “Okay, let’s go to the doctor and see if maybe this has something to do with it. ” Um so, I went to the doctor.

He was like, “You’re young. It’s probably nothing, but let’s order you an ultrasound. ” I go do the ultrasound within like a week or so. The day or the weekend I think before I had that ultrasound I found out I was pregnant. Wow. Um so, I go I do the ultrasound and they’re like, “It’s probably nothing, but let’s do a biopsy just in case. ” Well, at that at point in my life I had never had a biopsy, didn’t know what a biopsy really entailed and I had just found out I was pregnant and I was like scared, so I was like, let’s push this out until my second trimester.

So, I literally scheduled the appointment like first week of my second trimester. Um and I even then was like skeptical. When that time finally came, I was like, I don’t want to do this. I’m scared. And thankfully, by the grace of God, people encouraged me like, just do it. Just so you have a peace of mind, just go and do it. So, I went and did that biopsy, and less than a week later, uh the doctor’s office called me like, “Hey, we need we got your results. Like, let’s um schedule an appointment. ” And I That doctor at the time was far, so I was like, “Let’s do a virtual or like a phone appointment.

” And they’re like, “Okay, that’s fine. ” A few hours later, they called me and they’re like, “Hey, the doctor doesn’t want to do phone appointment. He wants to do video call. ” And when they called and they said that, I knew I’m like, “There’s That’s not good. ” So, I had like a few hours between that call and the actual video call, and I was just like, I could not think. So, I finally have that call, and the doctor tells me like, “I’m so sorry, but it’s cancer. ” And that’s a moment like you’ll you’ll never forget because like the feels like the world starts stop spinning, and I think I needed him to repeat it a few times because I I just was just like in complete and utter shock, but yeah, he told me it was cancer.

It was a hard drive home, a hard time to tell Alex. That was probably like one of the hardest things is having to tell your family. Um so, after I got diagnosed, that doctor was really great about getting me connected with cancer center and just starting the whole process. So, within days, I had an appointment with the breast cancer um office, which was surreal. Um extremely surreal to be sitting in that office and having those appointments. And then things like chemotherapy and radiation and surgery and PET scans and mammogram like all of these things start getting thrown at you and those things are hard and then add on top of the fact that you’re pregnant and you’re just like wait, I’m not supposed to take medication let alone Yeah.

chemotherapy or you know, all of these other things that you’re throwing at me. So then it became a thing of do I start all these things they’re asking of me or do I protect my baby? And me and my husband just wanted to run away. Like that was literally our reaction is we just wanted to run away and run away from our problems and hope that it would just go away. Um so we were like indecisive of whether to start treatment or not. Um but the thing that kind of solidified things for me is one day my mom was like, you are worried about your baby and I’m worried about my baby.

Um so that’s kind of what caused me to start treatment. So third trimester is when I started chemo and within a few weeks the first chemo I did was every 3 weeks. So within like 2 weeks my hair started to fall out. And I think after the second infusion I finally shaved it off because it was just falling out in like clumps and it that I don’t know what’s more traumatic your hair falling out like that or having to shave it. Yeah. Um but I eventually got the courage to first I cut it really short and then I my husband shaved it for me. Um that was really hard because when you look in the mirror, you don’t recognize who you see and that that was one of the hard things about that journey is like not recognizing the person in the mirror.

So thankfully at that time we didn’t have a lot of mirrors in the house. There was only like one or two in the bathrooms and that was about it, and I kept it that way for a reason. Um but yeah, so I started chemo while pregnant. I had three infusions with my son, and then I delivered him. He came early, thankfully, and he stayed in the NICU for about 2 weeks. And the week after I delivered him, I had my fourth chemo infusion, which was insane to have chemo postpartum like that. And yeah, then I he came home, and I navigated postpartum, chemotherapy, and being a first-time mom all at the same time.

And that was probably the darkest season of my life because I definitely went through postpartum depression. But just all of the things in combination was hard because the expectations of what I expected being a new mom to look like, not physically being able to meet those expectations cuz I just mentally and physically could not. Um Ezra was a baby that cried a lot, and now I look back, and I don’t know if it was like side effects of the chemo, or if he was just really colicky, or I don’t know what it was, but he cried a lot. So, it just made things like extra hard because he wasn’t a baby that just like ate and slept, and he was not a chill baby at all.

He required a lot of me. Um so, yeah, that season was really really really really hard. So, when you were uh when you were diagnosed and the doctor’s talking to you about going through chemotherapy while pregnant, what what were some of the things that they were talking about and how it might impact your baby or might not impact your baby. I mean, do you do you recall some of the specific risks that they talked through with you? Yeah, they never they never mentioned specific specific risks. They said that other women had gone through this and that the baby came out fine. And they also like weighed heavy on the fact that the risk did not outweigh the benefit.

So, the benefit to me to treat this cancer early because it was caught relatively early um outweighed [clears throat] the risk of what it could do to the baby. Um but I think I think for me like Liv’s case because I knew that she had a baby and the baby was fine. Like being able to see that is what encouraged me. But as far as on the doctor’s end there wasn’t like there’s also not enough data surrounding these cases. So, they didn’t have enough data to be able to present me. It was more of just like word of mouth kind of thing. Like we’ve had other women that have gone through this and their baby came out fine.

And I just had to trust I just had to trust them. So, uh and but then even you mentioned once you have the baby, it’s like that thing always in the back of your mind if anything is going on with Ezra, like that’s probably that you’re thinking, oh wow, did my treatment somehow have this effect? Now. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah, it’s definitely I mean, till this day, like I take um an amazing amount of care of Ezra health-wise because he went through chemo with me and that’s not a small thing, you know? So, I’m very very very particular on what Ezra eats and what he’s exposed to and just everything about Ezra’s well-being.

I’m very intentional about because he and I went through chemo. You know, at the end of the day, he was inside of me while I had three chemo three red devil infusions, which is no joke, you know. Yeah, and and and red devil that for those that aren’t familiar, I mean that is probably one of the most aggressive, most toxic chemotherapies that you can take take and a lot of women that go through breast cancer treatment have to go through this red devil chemotherapy regimen and that’s what makes your hair fall out among many, many other side effects. Yes. So, talk a little bit about cuz one of the things that you’ve talked about on um your social media platform is just taking ownership of what you can control and specifically those are things like de-stressing and uh controlling what you put into your body and sleep and things like that.

So, just talk about I mean, I’ll describe it as kind of this holistic approach to treatment. When did you really first start thinking about that and what how has your approach evolved over time? What were you doing specifically to try to tackle this cancer that was inside your body? Yeah, so I’ve always had kind of a holistic mindset even before cancer. Uh so, that was already like who I was before all of this happened. Um but specific things that I did were like when I got diagnosed, I I just changed the way I was eating. So, I stopped eating fast food pretty much. I let go almost all fast food during that time.

Um all my meals were home cooked and I would eat very low carb. I took out sugar completely. Um I would eat just whole, real foods. Um and once I had Ezra, I did go an integrative medicine route, and I did both simultaneously. I did traditional medicine, and I did integrative together. And um, through that, I started to fast. So, I would fast 24 hours before chemo, and I would fast 24 hours after chemo. And the studies behind that show like that it makes the chemo a little bit more um, what’s the word? Um, effective, and it’s the studies show that it helps to limit your side effects, and I feel like for me, that was the case.

Um, I started to juice a lot because I was just trying to find any way to get as many vitamins and minerals in in me. Um, I tried to keep my stress as low as possible, which was obviously really hard at that time. Um, I dabbled with red light therapy and PMF therapy, and um, just getting out in the sun and touching grass, and um, a huge one was just being around family. There’s something very healing about being in community with other people. It’s the times where I was alone that I had the hardest time, and when I was around other people, I just life was brought back into me.

So, being around other people was huge in my healing. Um, I think those are like the biggest things is um, is those. Yeah. Well, [clears throat] and I think And how has evolved? Sorry, I wanted to answer that. How has it evolved? Uh, I think in the beginning, I was very like adamant on like, “No, I can’t eat this. I can’t eat that. I need to eat this. I need to be taking all my supplements. ” Like, it became a stressor more than it was healing me because I was just like trying to make sure I did all of the things and I got to a point where I realized like you trying to stick to this regimen that’s intense and heavy is probably doing you more harm because you’re stressing about it than it is good.

So, present day, um I’m not so strict on myself. Like if my family goes out to eat dinner or we are running late and I need to grab some quicker food out, I will. Like I eat food now. Before I like wouldn’t eat if it wasn’t a healthy option. Now I eat food because we need food to survive and um I have really had to put my trust in the Lord because at the end of the day I can do all of the things, but if that’s not the Lord’s plan, then all of that is for nothing. So, I had to just surrender all of the things that I can control because that was the thing I was trying to control everything.

I was trying to control my food, my supplements, my stress. I was trying to control everything around me that could have potentially affect the cancer and like you can’t. Like these things are really out of your control. And I had to realize that. Not quick enough. I wish I would have realized that a lot sooner. But I had to really just surrender control of everything I was trying to carry. Well, I think I mean I part of the reason I asked why it evolved is that we know that cancer’s a journey, right? Like each day looks different and what you’re going through day one versus what you’re going through day 365 versus two years, three years, five years, 10 years down the road.

It’s just going to look different over time and there’s different seasons of life. And so I know you’ve kind of grown through this process and learned a lot about yourself and taking care of yourself. Um one thing that you have brought up a couple times that I do want to ask about is your faith because I think that seems like it’s also been a very important part of just getting through this battle that you’ve been going through. Yeah. Yeah, 100%. So, I’ve always had faith. I’ve always believed in God. I’ve always I got saved as a junior high girl. Um, but nothing would have prepared me for just how much my faith would evolve and deepen during this season.

So, I thought I thought I had a faith in the Lord. I thought I had a strong relationship, but when you’re faced with death, when you’re faced with you don’t know what tomorrow looks like, you really really have to surrender again that control and you are you’re at the mercy of a creator at that point and I got to a point where well, initially I was angry. I was angry at the Lord. I was like, “How could you allow me to go through this? Like, I’ve tried to live my life perfectly and do all the things, but again, control. ” And then I got to the point where I was like, “Okay, I need to surrender and I need to trust in his plan.

” And that is probably the best thing. I got to a point where I thanked the Lord for cancer if it wasn’t for cancer, I wouldn’t be walking in an intimate relationship with him that you only get when you get to a point of surrender. And um, it it’s just changed everything. Like, it’s changed the way I see life. Like, I just truly enjoy life in just a different way than I ever did before. Like, I’m thankful for literally each day. Um I recognize how much of a gift and a miracle Ezra is and children are in general. Like, it’s a complete miracle that he’s here considering all that he went through.

Um it’s approached it’s changed my relationship with my husband. Like, my husband was a gift from the Lord from 17-year-old me. Like, 17-year-old me did not realize what 28-year-old us would go through. And my husband was literally the most perfect gift that I could have had. He was the perfect person to go through this with. And um just like the relationship with my family through this, my relationship with them has just strengthened in a way it wasn’t there before. And I just like I owe all of it to the Lord. And I I’ve had to surrender because we all have these ideas of what our lives should look like.

And we all have these hopes and dreams. And when those things are crushed, you have nowhere to go but to the Lord. And it’s literally the best place you can be because he is faithful. I’ve just seen him work so many times. Um from the beginning of like when I got diagnosed and how I got diagnosed. I wouldn’t have gone to the doctor had I not been trying to get pregnant and not able to get pregnant. Right. And then I believe the Lord is a keeper of our wombs and he allowed me to get pregnant after I had already gone to the doctor. And I truly believe that if it had not been for me being pregnant, I would have succumbed to this disease because I would have fallen into depression.

And because I was pregnant and I had Ezra to now care for, he kept me going. Like as soon as I had Ezra, something just kicked a gear in me that I was like, “No, like I am not going to allow this to take over. I am going to like fight. ” And I that’s when I started to do all the things that I could do to try to fight this. So, the Lord sent me Ezra literally at the perfect timing. And had I had I not got pregnant when I did, Ezra would not be here right now because then I would have gone through this whole cancer journey and, you know, so I’ve seen him work in just all of these finite details time and time and time again.

Um I recently shared on my social media how when I first got diagnosed, um I got a email from my HR. At the time I was working full-time. I got an email from HR saying, “Hey, we haven’t been paying you correctly for the last year. So, we owe you” it was like $1,900. And my deductible at the time for my insurance that I was now having to use a lot was $2,000. So, for me that was just like the way the Lord’s way of showing me very early on like, “I’m going to be here for you. I’m going to provide anything and everything you need.

” And there has been just so many instances of him showing himself to us that way. Um another crazy thing is before I got diagnosed, like literally probably 2 weeks a few weeks before I got diagnosed, we went to church and this woman came forward and she shared how she had a tumor. And then the tumor was gone the next time she went to her appointment. Like first appointment, tumor. Second scan just a check-in on it, gone. So, that was just like I remember that story like really impacting me cuz I was like it just gave me hope. Like, wow, like miracles are possible. And then within a few weeks I got diagnosed.

And her story, and I get to see her, which is another crazy thing. When I go to church she plays the piano. I get to see her still to this day, and she is just like a reminder of hope, of like miracles exist, the Lord can heal. And I’m always reminded of like how I can potentially be that same reminder of hope for other people. And it’s just a tremendous privilege that I don’t I don’t take for granted. I’ve had a lot of friends on this journey pass away. Mhm. And they’re no longer here. And that’s not something I will ever understand why some of us get to stay and some of us don’t.

Um so I don’t take this opportunity to share for granted. So, when you reach out to me and you’re like, “Would you do a podcast? ” I had to think about it first for a second and make sure I pray about it first, but I I truly take any opportunity to share. Um like it’s just such a privilege because if I can offer hope to someone else going through this journey, I I’m just so thankful because I get the privilege to do that. And I have so many other friends that did not get that opportunity and did not get that privilege, you know? So. Sorry, that was a long-winded answer.

No, that’s amazing. I Thank you for sharing that, Priscilla. So, um and and again, an amazing testimony and and everything that you’ve shared I know is going to be so encouraging for people and and what you’ve already shared on social media I know has encouraged a lot of people. Um how did how did you think about kind of the interplay or intertwining of integrative medicine and faith and then traditional medicine. Because I know that’s something, you know, I work at a cancer center here in Oklahoma and we get that question a lot of well, I wish I could just choose one path, right? Like I just Well, I just I wish I could just pray and the cancer will go away or I wish I could just do red light therapy and the cancer will go away or I don’t want to think about faith and uh it’s and and integrative medicine.

Let me just do the chemotherapy and and be done with it. So, talk about how you kind of process thinking about how those three things work together. Yeah. Um well, I will say that I didn’t do it perfectly. Um like I had to mention like there was so many times where I tried to control everything. So, I there was times where I can admit I was relying on medicine and relying on all the things I could do to heal myself. Um and then you start to realize like the things that I’m doing are working for this person and not for the next person. And you get to a point where you realize like it doesn’t matter what I do.

I can do just integrative medicine. I could do just traditional medicine. I could do nothing. At the end of the day, it’s truly up to our creator. It’s truly in the hands of the Lord. So, my encouragement to someone would be there is no right or wrong. Mhm. It’s pray because the Bible says that when we seek wisdom we receive it. So, take it to the Lord and pray and ask what do I do? And then whatever route feels most at peace with you, trust the Lord that he’s going to meet you there. Mhm. So, if you choose to only do in traditional medicine, I think the Lord can heal you that way.

If you feel called to do both, if you you know, whatever it is that you are feeling called and at peace to do, do it with confidence knowing that the Lord is there. Because the worst thing, in my opinion, that you can do is do something, make a decision on something, and not be at peace with it, and just do it with anxiety, and do it with fear. Whatever route you go, do it with full confidence that this is the route you’re supposed to do. So, if you decide to do integrative medicine, whatever those doctors are saying, trust it. Because you’re going to stress yourself out questioning everything everyone says because in the cancer world, there’s so many opinions.

There’s so many ideas of how to heal or what works and what doesn’t work, what’s going to harm you, what’s going to benefit you. People will say a specific water. This water is going to help you. This water is going to harm you. Like, about water, an essential thing we all need. So, you know, just follow one doctor’s advice and take it. Like, don’t stress yourself out trying to find the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth opinion. You know, that’s the part where I would just encourage someone to pray, go the route that you feel most at peace with, and do it with confidence because anything else is going to stress you out, and that’s not a place where we can heal.

So, you’ve talked about stress a few times, um and I’m I’m going to read this cuz I want to make sure I get this right. So, um you had a post, and again, you were diagnosed at 28, which is really rare. So, you’re you’re on the very young side as far as somebody getting breast cancer. And so, um you kind of went through this natural process of trying to figure out well, why did I get cancer? Like, what what led to this cancer? And some of the things that you’ve talked about are potentially birth control, unresolved emotions, uh body’s inability to fully detox, inflammatory foods, and then stress being this other item.

So, talk a little bit about just kind of how you’ve processed that, what led you to say maybe these are five things that I think contributed to the cancer, and just advice for people that are thinking about well, I want to reduce my risk of cancer going forward. Right. Right. I think just like the holistic approach, um just like opens your eyes to things that are potential causes of cancer, um but at the end of the day, none of us really know. You know, like I can have theories on all of these things, but at the end of the day, we don’t really 100% know what caused it.

So, for me, the breath the birth control, I was on birth control from a really early age. I was on it at like, I want to say like 16 years old, and I was on it for at least 7 years. That’s a really early age to be on birth control when your body is still developing and changing, and the birth control was there to mask my overproduction of um estrogen. I had really heavy periods. I had a really he- uh painful periods, which is why I sought out the birth control. But had I know all that I know now, and having had estrogen-driven breast cancer, I would have tried to address that issue in a different way other than trying to mask it with birth control, which could have worsened it.

Um stress is another thing like the emotions that I think I was carrying. Um stress and concealed emotions do a lot to our body and we can swallow them and push them down and push them down push them down, but at some point they’re going to surface. Um so for me, I think that was a contributing factor. Um What were the other things? had detoxing. Yeah, you talked about um just detox inflammatory foods. Yeah, so detoxing I’ve never been a regular bathroom user. Um and I don’t think you realize how important that is when you’re 16, 17, 18 years old until you’re older. Like if you’re not going every day, that’s not normal.

Like your toxins that you’re you need to eliminate them somehow and they’re going to get eliminated somehow. Uh so that is something that I now know is something that should have been addressed at an earlier age. I also have that I always pronounce this wrong, but like the MTHFR gene. Okay. Which also just makes me even more predisposition to not detox well. So I don’t sweat well. I don’t eliminate well. Like I’m just that’s not something I do well. So I have to do things to help encourage those things. Um and then the other one I already forgot. Well, when you say that I guess when you say inflammatory foods, what what specifically are you thinking of when you say that?

So just like fast food and processed foods. Like Well, growing up we talk my family and I talk about this all the time. Growing up we didn’t realize we didn’t recognize what impact food had on our bodies. Like we just thought we could eat whatever and we’ll be fine. Like we didn’t realize nutrients in foods. We didn’t realize things that could be inflammatory like processed foods, processed oils, um flour, sugar. Like, all of those things add to inflammation in the body. We didn’t understand that. Like, we didn’t understand the impact of food on the body. So, after this after this diagnosis, we really my whole family, we’ve all like transformed the way we see food, the way we correlate them with our body because that’s not something that we understood before at all.

Um so, and I think that’s normal. I think that’s common. I think a lot of people go in the grocery stores and they buy the sugary cereals full of dyes and they don’t think twice about it because they just don’t know, you know? So, that’s something that was like a huge revelation for our family because it’s not something we thought about before. Well, and and a lot of that is, you know, it’s convenience, it’s cost, it’s like, okay, well, I can buy this and it’s not that expensive and it’s going to last a long time and we’ve been so programmed to kind of gravitate towards that of convenience and cost.

Um and I think, yeah, we’re definitely learning a lot now, especially as we’re seeing an increase in cancer instance rate among a younger population that maybe some of these chemicals that are being put in our foods uh are actually part of the cause of an increase in, for example, colon cancer in a young population. Um and I and there’s definitely a correlation between chronic inflammation and cancer cuz that inflammation is causing cell mutations and if you get a certain number of and a certain type of cell mutations, then that’s how you end up with cancer cells. Um so, I think that’s very uh it’s very good that you have that observation now and that awareness now.

Um do you kind of I’m trying to think of the right word here, but are there things that you maybe regret or that you wish that you had known? I mean, you talked a little bit about that when you were 16 or 20 or 22. Yeah, of course. There’s things that I wish I knew. But I don’t have regret because I didn’t know. Like, you don’t know what you don’t know. And now that I do know, I can do better. And I very much have a personality that I share these things with others just cuz I I love everyone around me and I I want I want everyone around me to be healthy.

And I don’t wish this journey on anyone because it’s a very hard journey to go through. So, I share a lot with people around me. Everyone around me knows that um I eat healthy and I encourage everyone to do the same. Um so, yeah, I I don’t have regrets. Um but I I wish I did know. I wish I did know, but we didn’t. And that’s something I try to like tell my mom often cuz I think my mom has regrets. Like, I wish I would have known that. I wish I would have, you know, taken you to the doctor and figured this out and, you know, but we we can’t live in regret because we just did not know.

Yeah. Well, and you’ve talked a lot about stress and um I think that’s an important element, too, is that regret can lead to stress. And so, and then stress can lead to inflammation. Um and I had a conversation recently with somebody who was really worried about microplastics and microplastic exposure and the damage that microplastics can cause and you know, they’re worried about every little thing in their home that potentially could whether it’s the clothing or the spatulas or the Tupperware or whatever it is. And I And what I encouraged them was kind of what you said, which is yes, do everything you can in your control to limit your exposure to microplastics, but don’t don’t have that process be something that causes so much stress in your life that it just offsets the benefit of reducing exposure to microplastics.

It’s I mean ultimately it’s everything in moderation, right? And you’ve talked about that. Like you’ve had to come to that realization that, you know what? If I go out and I have uh pizza, maybe it’s not the best thing for me, but if I do it one time and I’m with family and we’re having a good time and Ezra enjoys it, like, you know, there’s actually that’s okay. Yeah. Yeah, I definitely think there’s a benefit in the sharing a meal with family or um just having like good memories around something. The stress definitely is way worse than enjoying something from time to time or taking your time to eliminate plastics from your house.

Like we can’t stress out about it cuz we’re actually doing more harm than good. Right, right. So just to kind of close things out, Priscilla, talk a little bit about the survivorship journey because there’s there’s the treatment process, which is incredibly physically taxing. It’s mentally arduous. It’s You would never wish that on anybody, right? But I think for people that maybe haven’t gone through cancer, it’s easy to forget or maybe not even realize that the journey doesn’t stop when treatment ends. Like there’s this whole kind of thing that continues physically and mentally. So just talk about what the last maybe two or three years have been like in that survivorship part of the journey.

Yeah. So you end treatment and you’re hoping like things are going to go back to normal, like I’m going to go back to my old self. Things are just going to look up, but that’s unfortunately not the case. Like your old self is gone, unfortunately. And that there’s a grieving process for that because the person you once were is no longer. And in my opinion, you are a whole new better version of that old self because you’ve grown a lot of wisdom, you’ve learned a lot, you are now full of compassion that you never had before. Um so yeah, you you lose your old self and that’s a process of accepting that.

And then just logistically, a lot of us are on medications and the medications cause a lot of side effects. For me, it was like mood swings and depression and um hot flashes, there’s just side effects um to the medications we’re on and then if you had surgery or if you had radiation, in my case, I had radiation. It changes your body a lot. Um so now you’re faced with um this new this new version physically of you. Like you have to look at that person every day in the mirror and it’s it’s hard. Like yeah, you’re better, you’re healthy, you’re here, you have your hair back and you want to be grateful for all those things and you are, but then there’s still part of you that you know, misses your old your old body and it’s not the same anymore.

Um and then mentally, mentally is probably in my opinion the greatest the greatest greatest challenge um because you survived cancer and you’re here, um but now you’re worried about what ifs. The what ifs are what eat you alive and cancer is everywhere. Anywhere you look, there’s cancer on movies, on shows, on you know, people you see, social media, it’s everywhere. It’s really really hard to avoid seeing it. And everyone is different, everyone reacts different, but for me, when I would see it and let’s just say the case for that person was not going that well, you I put myself in their shoes. Like that could easily be me.

I could easily be that person and then you go on this journey of fighting your own thoughts. And that’s where my faith comes in because I have to just give those things over to the Lord. Um something that I realized and I’m so thankful I did is tomorrow is not promised to any of us whether we have cancer or no cancer. Any person healthy whole can go driving their car and not come back, you know? So I had to realize like yes, you had cancer and yes, you’re at a risk of something but life is not promised to anyone. Tomorrow is not promised to anyone cancer or not cancer.

So I had to just swallow my little pity party and realize that, you know? Um but it’s not easy. You go down this same cycle of mental It’s like a mental challenge all the time of like that could be me. What is this that’s hurting me in my underarm like this is hurting me in my breast or oh my gosh, I ate that. I shouldn’t have ate that or you know, like it’s just like a constant cycle of coming across these thoughts and then fighting them and again, that’s where my faith comes in is I just have to like surrender those thoughts to the Lord.

We’re supposed to not be held captive by our thoughts and just surrender them and um there’s a verse that I love that it’s like think it tells us to think about these things. Think about things that are pure, true, joyful. Like think about these things and if it is not fall under the category of those things, if it’s not true, if it is not pure, like do not meditate on those things. Don’t allow yourself to continue this cycle of thinking about these things because it’s not true. It’s not of the Lord to think about these things. So I have to like remember that and be able to have the strength to surrender those thoughts and put them behind me because you can easily easily easily become victim to your own thoughts and in my opinion that’s the hardest part of this journey is your own mind which is kind of crazy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re going through this physical battle but it it’s also this mental battle at the same time and sometimes that’s even harder. So what my last question so you meet somebody because there’s going to be somebody watching this video and they will have just been diagnosed. What’s your message to that person at that point in time? Yeah. My message would be to the person that’s just diagnosed. I’m so sorry that you are going through this. It is going to be a very very challenging journey. I won’t sugarcoat it because it is it is hard and everything you’re feeling everything you’re thinking is valid.

Because it is hard. Um my encouragement would be to not lose hope because there is hope. My encouragement would be to stay away from the stories that are not positive and to hold on to the hopeful positive encouraging stories. Um my encouragement would be to seek the Lord because at the end of the day everything we do everything we try to do in our own strength is not enough. Like we truly need the Lord for our mind, our body, our spirit to be well and healthy. So seek the Lord in prayer. And surround yourself with family. Family are going to want to come around you to help.

Allow them to help. When I went through this journey I had a hard time accepting help but people want to bless you. People want to help you. Allow them. They’ve been placed in your life for a reason. Allow them to help you. And um just don’t lose hope because there is hope. There is there is hope everywhere you look. You just have to look for it and um allow yourself to receive it. That’s amazing. Thank you, Priscilla. And you’re amazing. Thank you for coming on today and sharing your story. And thank you for everything that you’re doing advocating for women’s health and just people that are having to go through the cancer journey.

Thank you. And thank you so much again for this opportunity. It’s always a privilege just be able to share my testimony and just it share all the Lord has done in my life. And it’s just a true privilege. Amen. The Cancer Project podcast is made possible by the Oklahoma Proton Center. A state-of-the-art cancer center where precision in treatment meets real compassion in care. We’re grateful for their support and for you for spending this time with us. If you’d like to learn more about the Oklahoma Proton Center, you can visit their website at the link below. And if something you heard today resonated, we’d love for you to stick with us.

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