00:01I was out yesterday because I had a bunch of scans to get done, so I made the announcement
00:08last Friday that I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and it has been a ride.
00:14Let me tell you that I am absolutely riding on your prayers right now, and that means
00:25more to me than anything.
00:26If you know me at all, you know that I am incredibly faithful and have been praying like crazy
00:33and all the things, but knowing how many people have reached out to me to tell me that they're
00:40also praying is like, I mean, my mind is just blown, and it's so comforting.
00:47It is the most comforting thing, so thank you for that.
00:52Okay, so let's talk about this past week.
00:56Seeing so many people at different appearances that I've had, and I did Big Climb for Blood
01:02Cancers United and all these things, and seeing so many people and meeting people for the first
01:09time that heard about the diagnosis, thank you so much for A, saying something, because
01:13I think that people get very uncomfortable and don't know how to behave.
01:17Right.
01:18But thank you for saying things to me and not just looking at me like, oh, that's the cancer woman.
01:23That's never how I want to feel.
01:26So it's been so lovely hearing from so many people, and yeah, so I had a few appointments
01:31this week, and I had an MRI on Wednesday, and so they had to MRI my whole chest.
01:39So the cancer was found on my left side, but this MRI then did a more comprehensive view
01:46of everything, and it showed a lot of activity, a lot of activity on my left side, and some
01:52things on my right side as well.
01:54So this was, it's a little bit bigger than we initially thought.
01:58I'm not sure if it got into my lymph nodes yet.
02:01So I'm, you know, fingers crossed we're going to do some more tests to make sure that those
02:05are clear, or I'll just, you know, whatever we have to do, we have to do.
02:08I also got some good news.
02:11So there's this thing called a HER2 protein, which I don't 100% understand what that is,
02:17but I know that it makes your cancer grow faster, and that's not good, right?
02:25And so I don't have it.
02:27If I did have it, if I was like tested positive for this protein, then I would have to almost
02:34immediately start doing chemo.
02:36So that was great news.
02:38Isn't it comforting knowing that there are doctors who know exactly what HER2 is, know
02:42how to find it, know what it does, and know how to, you know, ride with it.
02:46It's so incredible.
02:47And this, yesterday was, I guess, National Nurses Day, so I spent the day at the hospital
02:53surrounded by all these knowledgeable people who are, just take their time with me and over
02:58explain things in a way that makes me understand it so much better.
03:02So I cannot thank you enough for all of that.
03:05Sorry, so that was the first piece of good news.
03:07It was the second piece of good news is that I also had a bone scan yesterday while I was
03:11out, and they did not find any cancer in my bones.
03:14Yeah.
03:15So I was like, you should have heard me screaming in my house.
03:18I stood up.
03:19I'm dancing.
03:20The kids were like, what is wrong with you?
03:22I was like, you guys, it's not in my bones.
03:25But of course, they're like, no, of course it's not, because you said you have breast
03:29cancer.
03:30So to them, it just stopped, right?
03:32Right, right.
03:32But for me, because I'm hearing all the things, and I'm aware of all the things, and my perspective
03:37is very different.
03:38So that was a huge win for me yesterday.
03:40Wow.
03:41Yeah.
03:42Take those wins.
03:43I know, I know.
03:44Very exciting.
03:45So next week, have a couple more appointments.
03:47We'll do ultrasounds on the lymph nodes to see what's going on there.
03:51Talk to more doctors, and we're fighting.
03:54Like, we're getting through this.
03:55It's going to happen.
03:56It's going to happen.
03:57Thank you for taking the time to update everybody, because, you know, when you were off yesterday,
04:01people are all asking, is Andy okay?
04:03What's going on?
04:04So, I mean, it's just so incredible, your journey.
04:06You told us all about this a week ago today, and now here you are with an overwhelmingly,
04:11I would say, positive update.
04:13This is really good stuff.
04:14Very excited.
04:15Thanks for sharing.
Comments