00:00I was out yesterday because I had a bunch of scans to get done, so I made the announcement
00:06last Friday that I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and it has been a ride.
00:12Let me tell you that I am absolutely riding on your prayers right now, and that means
00:23more to me than anything.
00:24If you know me at all, you know that I am incredibly faithful and have been praying like crazy
00:31and all the things, but knowing how many people have reached out to me to tell me that they're
00:38also praying is like, I mean, my mind is just blown, and it's so comforting.
00:45It is the most comforting thing, so thank you for that.
00:50Okay, so let's talk about this past week.
00:52Like, seeing so many people at different appearances that I've had, and, you know, like I did Big
00:59Climb for Blood Cancers United and all these things, and seeing so many people and meeting
01:06people for the first time that heard about the diagnosis, thank you so much for, A, saying
01:10something, because I think that people get very uncomfortable and don't know how to behave.
01:15Right.
01:15But thank you for saying things to me and not just looking at me like, oh, that's the
01:20cancer woman.
01:21That's never how I want to feel.
01:24So it's been so lovely hearing from so many people, and yeah, so I had a few appointments
01:29this week, and I had an MRI on Wednesday, and so they had to MRI my whole chest.
01:36So my, the, the cancer was found on my left side, but this MRI then, you know, did a more
01:43comprehensive view of everything, and it showed a lot of activity, a lot of activity on my
01:48left side, and some things on my right side as well.
01:52So this was, it's a little bit bigger than we initially thought.
01:55I'm not sure if it got into my lymph nodes yet.
01:59So I'm, you know, fingers crossed we're going to do some more tests to make sure that those
02:03are clear, or I'll just, you know, whatever we have to do, we have to do.
02:06I also got some good news.
02:09So there's this thing called a HER2 protein, which I don't 100% understand what that is,
02:15but I know that it makes your cancer grow faster, and that's not good, right?
02:23And so I don't have it.
02:25If I did have it, if I was like tested positive for this protein, then I would have to almost
02:31immediately start doing chemo.
02:34So that was great news.
02:36Isn't it comforting knowing that there are doctors who know exactly what HER2 is, know
02:40how to find it, know what it does, and know how to, you know, ride with it.
02:44It's so incredible.
02:45And this, yesterday was, I guess, National Nurses Day, so I spent the day at the hospital.
02:50Wow, that's amazing.
02:51I'm surrounded by all these knowledgeable people who are, just take their time with me and
02:56over-explain things in a way that makes me understand it so much better.
02:59So I cannot thank you enough for all of that.
03:03Sorry.
03:04So that was the first piece of good news.
03:05The second piece of good news is that I also had a bone scan yesterday while I was out,
03:09and they did not find any cancer in my bones.
03:12Yeah.
03:13So I was like, you should have heard me screaming in my house.
03:16I stood up.
03:17I'm dancing.
03:18The kids were like, what is wrong with you?
03:20I was like, you guys, it's not in my bones, you know, but of course they're, they're like,
03:25no, of course it's not because you said you have breast cancer.
03:28So to them, it just stopped.
03:29Right.
03:30But for me, because I'm hearing all the things and I'm aware of all the things and my perspective
03:35is very different.
03:36So that was a huge win for me yesterday.
03:38Wow.
03:39Yeah.
03:39Take those wins.
03:41I know.
03:41I know.
03:42You deserve them.
03:42Very exciting.
03:43So next week, have a couple more appointments.
03:45We'll do ultrasounds on the lymph nodes to see what's going on there.
03:48Talk to more doctors and, and we're, we're fighting.
03:52Like we're getting through this.
03:53It's going to happen.
03:54It's going to happen.
03:55Thank you for taking the time to update everybody.
03:57Cause you know, when you were off yesterday, people are all asking, is Andy okay?
04:01What's going on?
04:01So, I mean, it's just so incredible.
04:04Your journey.
04:05You told us all about this a week ago today.
04:07And now here you are with a overwhelmingly, I would say positive update.
04:11This is really good stuff.
04:12Very excited.
04:13Thanks for sharing.
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