Hello there, cat people.

Late night at the shelter Cats podcast at the end of Cat Man here along with Michelle the meow maven and her new colorful hair and Samantha, queen of all kittens.

Hi, Sam.

Hi.

And a friend of the show, Melissa from Upstate New York.

Hi, Melissa.

Is it?

Big here, up there yet, Melissa, do we need to know anything in advance down here?

What do we need to expect?

This evening was chilly.

I will tell you, this evening was chilly.

I'm a friend of the fall.

So when you're 53 and going through menopause, fall is your friend.

Falls also, but I live at the beach so I can't have I can't have it be cold yet.

Pause.

Nassau County.

I just, I, I felt left out.

I had to say I was also going through menopause.

Man, how?

About man.

How about man on pause?

Man on pause and welcome to episode 66 A a very abnormal episode of the Shelter Cats Podcast, the podcast created by Shelter Cats.

We are here tonight to honor one of our very own, Michelle, the Miel maven, who was not Privy to everything we were doing tonight.

So Michelle, we're here to honor you because you are on September 5th going in for I don't want to, I don't want to say it.

Would you mind?

Would you be willing to say?

Sure.

I am going in for a lumpectomy because I have a little small about quarter inch lump in my right breast.

So we're going to go deal with that.

We got to get the lump out, get the tissue, get a lymph node and do a little rearranging and take it from there.

Well, you, the reason why we're doing this as a podcast is A, we love you and B, you.

I would be like, I would be angry and bitter and going through the stages of grief and I would be ranting on Facebook and probably ranting to you all on text.

You know, you did the polar opposite.

You went on TikTok, which is always, always singing, right?

That's your TikTok and.

I think so.

OK, she doesn't even know.

I don't even know.

I copy and paste the link that's.

We'll have we'll have it in the description.

And you decided to publicly do videos about what you're calling your breast cancer journey.

I did.

I call it you're going into battle and you will defeat this.

You call it a journey.

So.

You know, you're a little more PR about it, though.

I'd be like, fuck it, I'm going to beat the shit out of this cancer.

You're like, you're like, it's my journey.

So we because you were so brave and and in your videos, we thought we would embarrass the hell out of you in a podcast.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mostly because we love you, we care about you.

We would.

The show would not be the same without you and your hair, and we wanted to wish you the absolute best of luck.

We know you're going to beat this.

We know it's going to be a blip in the long history of Michelle the Meow Maven, so we want you to wish you good luck.

Dan So the one thing, one of the things that is, and I've said it in the in my videos, but I'll say it over and over again, One of the things that keeps me positive and keeps me moving forward.

And where I, I don't feel negative about it is the friends that I have and the support that I've had and the love that I've had from people that are as close to me as Melissa to people that I haven't even spoken to in 10 years, 20 years, who have all reached out And unanimously, whatever you need, I'm there for you, you know, and it like, that is like incredible.

That's incredible to me.

So it's.

Inspiring Michelle, what's up?

You're inspiring.

It's inspiring cause a lot of people do shy away from things and to hit something on and to use to put the videos out that are so informative and jovial in a lot of ways.

And I mean, I feel like everybody hears cancer and they freak out, right?

Yeah, exactly.

Way to say like, no, I'm going to take this and empower myself and empower the people around me to face this and to battle this with a smile, even if it's a scared smile, and to move forward and it gives hope to people.

So that's exactly it.

Yeah.

And, and you know, since I've gone, you know, public with it, so many people have reached out to me and said that they've literally gone through the same exact thing.

They, they, they've gone through it, they've gotten through it.

They're on the other side of it or they are actively going through it right now.

And many of them, as you say, did not share it public, which is fine.

Everybody does their own thing.

You, you, you do it, however you have to handle it.

And that's, that's wonderful.

But what I've seen is like, it's this network and it's just, it's, it's incredible how many people have had some form of breast cancer.

Many almost the exact same thing that I have maybe like different markers or things like that, but almost the same exact thing where like we can get through this, you know, and, and cancer doesn't need to be the, you know, it doesn't need to be a death sentence like it used to be.

And that's part of why I wanted to start doing the videos because I had that mindset going into it.

And you know, now we're learning everything about what I have and how it's treatable and the process and the steps and everything that we're going through and the support that I have.

We can get through this.

No, we can, we can get through this.

We can get through this, You know, so I wanted to share that with people.

I wanted to share and I, I fully expect that even at that, once I have the surgery, I'm going to, you know, I'm going to have some moments because there isn't a little element that's, you know, now I'm going to have like a little bit of a plastic surgery, a little bit of a lift, a little bit of a tuck, some tissue gone, you know, and that changes you, you know, you have that kind of procedure and that that's so I fully anticipate having different emotional levels throughout this whole experience.

And I kind of that's, you know, I wanted to share that because I don't think it's something to hide.

I think it's something to share if you can, you know, if you're comfortable with it and I'm comfortable with it.

So I wanted.

To do it so.

You know, what I May is incredibly is if you look at that first video that you posted and now the most recent update, your spirit, your attitude is is just beyond.

And I know you credit a lot of that to support, but it is inspiring because someone else who might fear this could watch you and say, all right, yes, it's cancer.

It's that word.

But that's not all of who you are.

They are that's right, that's right, that's right.

The difference is, is night and day from 1:00 and you kept it real.

That's that's it's outstanding.

Except the hair color I love.

Your hair color though, I think it's fabulous good.

For you for.

Those that are listening, good.

For that.

For those of you that are listening, for those that are listening and not watching, Michelle had an accident with Gerano.

So part of her hair is blue and the rest is blonde.

This is her new glow in the dark look.

And we, we at the podcast approve of any, any hair color that you choose.

Just imagine how much.

Just imagine how much I'll glow in the dark after I get the radiation.

I mean, you're going to be a radioactive shrimp girl.

You won't even need lighting.

Melissa.

Melissa.

Your new name?

Michelle the radioactive shrimp not for sale at Walmart.

I've been called worse.

I will take it.

I'll take it.

Colin did.

That for season 4 by the way.

Melissa, how did you 2 meet?

I think you had some some embarrassing pictures.

I do.

I do have some pictures.

Dan, we met in second grade.

This isn't 2nd grade, but there's a, there's an oldie but a goodie that was actually in my attic.

And that was the era of like all kinds of shit hanging from your ceiling and key chains and stickers and just unreal.

This, I believe, was Halloween.

Michelle can correct me.

Yeah, that was on Halloween.

That was I I was obsessed with the 50s for a period of time there.

Yep, I was.

I was with the sock hops, with my dad.

I did all kinds of stuff.

Yeah.

And if I may harken back to high school.

I'm sorry for that hair.

Though I know the hair, right?

That's a lot of Hairspray.

And I just, I have like 3 or 4 more.

This was I was thrown a Sweet 16 surprise party again.

Look at the hair now I would like to add though, I also had the crazy long curly hair.

Michelle, there's you guys know Bree.

This was my confirmation I think.

And there's Michelle in our yard with that lovely fence.

We grew up in Schenectady and 2nd to last the I had a very small wedding.

There's Michelle.

She was my only friend to attend the wedding.

Everybody else was family.

And I have one more to show you that Caitlin said.

I don't know, Mom will understand why, but I'm.

Frightened.

Endear Frightened.

It's incredibly endearing.

This is This is Auntie Michelle teaching Caitlin how to get a taxi in New York.

City.

I love that one.

Look at her looking at Kate.

I love that.

Picture.

We joke that Kate is her daughter because she she was probably one of the first people that held Caitlin when she was born in Caitlin's 25.

And she took the Dr.

upstate and not alone, thank God, but she took the Dr.

upstate to come and see me and any event in my life that I've said, could you?

Could you come?

There was no hesitation.

She was there.

So yeah.

That that last picture may be my favorite.

I think that should be blown up and put in a frame on your wall or something.

I I.

You have to send that one to me.

I don't think I've seen that one in a long time.

I will definitely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We learned about the subway.

Give them to Jake so he can edit them into the episode.

Oh my God, there.

You go.

Happy to.

Yeah, yeah, I I do also have Michelle.

I know you can't.

No, I just got a little Panera today.

I did go for the blueberry lavender lemonade.

So it is a fancy.

It's it's.

Him Mara.

If you're looking to sponsor us for our season 4, our Bodega Cat episode numbers are through the roof.

Which reminds me, before we continue, the Shelter Cats podcast is part of the Chewy Rescue and affiliate program.

I'm doing this from memory.

Chewy does great things for cats and shelters, so click the link in the podcast description.

You'll not only help local rescues, you'll help be helping to support the podcast.

So click the link.

Thank you Chewie, we love you.

How was that Michelle?

Was that good enough?

How do you do?

Michelle, you're hired.

Very nice Dan.

I don't know if I could do it by memory and I've read it 20 times already, so I.

I missed I missed half of it but Chewie will love you.

Panera send us an e-mail.

So I I only know Michelle about two years and I heard of her through a mutual friend who said to me, you have to have her on your podcast.

She wrote a book, the farty feline You I I I heard feline and fart in the same sentence and I was sold.

I'm like, all right.

So like the first conversation, What struck me about you was your energy and the commanding presence of your voice.

Those are the first two things.

I'm like, you have, you have a fucking radio voice at a so we, we, we did our episode and we hit it off instantaneously.

Like the chemistry between you and I, just the conversational style.

It's like we became instant friends.

And before we were done recording the episode, I said I have to have her as my Co host because I just wanted somebody to kind of bounce off of.

I mean, now we have 17 Co hosts, but at the time I thought one Co host, you know, I want and and I invited you and you're like, Are you sure you won't be as a you know, there was like a second, right?

Am I remembering this correctly?

It was like a second hesitation.

You're like, I don't know if I've done this before.

Are you sure?

I said that episode was so much fun to record.

We were laughing our asses off.

I think I even went into the history of farting in relationships just from reading the portion of the book you read on the show.

And I can tell you the show immediately improved 8000% when you joined as my first of my first of 17 Co host.

Because you know, you, you, you do better research than me.

You ask better questions than I do.

And you just ground the show.

And you, you just give it a humanity that I can't possibly give to it.

So we there is there cannot be a podcast without Michelle the Meow Maven as our Co host.

Well, I appreciate that, Dan.

I definitely, and I've said it to you, I I've loved like every minute of it.

It's been, it's been so much fun to do this.

And yeah, absolutely we hit off like we did in the first like couple minutes of that first interview and just had just cracked each other up like that whole hour, however long it was and just had so much fun.

But yeah, no, I love this.

The prestige of being a podcast Co host has been incredible.

But no, this is I love it and I love all the people that we met, you know, meeting Samantha and Steven, having them part of it and all the other guests that we've had.

This has been incredible.

Learned, learned so much.

It's just been it's been great.

I'm like, pleased to, I'm really, really thrilled to like be part of the whole thing.

Yeah, it's just become this juggernaut and.

And we appreciate you immensely and you've become a dear friend.

I mean, you know, like Melissa, you were saying how no, she'd be up there at a moment's notice for anything in your life.

When Taylor was sick, when his all his fangs decided to fall out at once over the past couple of months, you came out of your way from, you know, bumble fuck Suffolk County and you drove all the way to pick me up and take us home.

And then when Sophie had her diagnosis, you, you said, you want me to go with you on the day that I, you know, helped her cross the Rainbow Bridge.

You said you don't.

I don't want you to go alone.

I'll go with you.

And you were there for me.

And you were very comforting.

You didn't have to do that at all, you know.

You don't forget that.

That's that's that's who Michelle is.

So when you say you have a great support network of people, it's because you've done the same for other people.

You know, you've been there for so many people.

It's like our pleasure to want to help you.

It's not even an obligation.

We want to be there.

We want to help you because you're going to kick its ass.

It's not even a question.

And we want to celebrate and we want to help you through that journey so that you don't feel that you're alone.

No.

And I, I definitely appreciate it, absolutely.

Well I feel guilty 'cause I don't feel like I helped you.

I just offered you a kitten who like breaks your shit and climbs your.

I just terrorized my home.

She is.

So wonderful.

But she is.

Wonderful and put it in your house.

Good luck.

Sorry, adorable.

She's adorable.

She is the sweetest.

She really is.

She is the sweetest, most adorable asshole you'll ever meet.

She's the best, right?

She's the best I.

Told you I was like maybe this one.

The main the other main thing I wanted to do tonight we're going to attempt to do this is we wanted to have a reading of what should be a a national New York Times best selling children's book that Michelle wrote, The Farty Feline.

I love this book.

I can't tell you how many times I've read this book.

Michelle.

How was lost?

At my house.

Where's the fucking book?

I don't know.

I would have helped you look for it if I knew anything.

I I don't know.

I I spent.

Did Kate take it?

Is it at Kate's place?

There's.

So much time searching pictures in the attic.

And then Dan, like, do you have the book?

And I'm like, I'm sorry, the book.

Shit, yeah, if this thing was on Kindle, everyone would have had the book.

Damn it, Amazon.

We're going to, we're going to do our best.

Sam and I are going to each read a page or two at a time, and when we get to the fart noises, Melissa will be providing the fart noises.

So I'll start, I'll read the first 2 pages and then Sam, you'll read the next two pages.

Yes.

OK, so we present our first reading on the podcast of The Farty Feline by Michelle.

Delilah wanted love.

She wanted to give love and to be loved.

She longed to snuggle on a lap and purr until she dozed off, dreaming of fish and birds and catnip and bathing in the sun.

But Delilah had a problem.

She farted.

Melissa.

OK.

Not just a normal Kitty fart, they were the stench of rotten garbage, spoiled milk, and bad breath all rolled into one invisible.

Poof.

She didn't know why they were that way.

She only knew that humans could not stand to be around her when they happened.

She would fart when she was happy, and she would fart when she was sad, when she was excited and when she was frightened, when she was awake and when she was asleep, when she was nervous and when she was relaxed.

She had no control.

They made her nervous and sad, which made her only firm.

When she was just a tiny kitten, a human family took her in.

She was trying, so happy.

She farted.

She farted the moment they got her home then hold it together.

Shocked and disgusted.

They immediately put her outside and not sure what she did wrong.

Delilah farted again and again and again.

OK, perfect.

Thank you.

Delilah soon became used to this house and these humans and farted less and less.

Sometimes they would even let her sleep in their beds with them.

Delilah loved this so much that she was as calm as she could be and never farted when she was there.

One day, some humans Delilah had never seen came to the house.

There were there were so many.

They all carried boxes and bags with bows, bells and ribbons.

They made so much noise they started singing all at once.

One of them even banged on a thing.

Are humans called the piano?

She was so excited and nervous and frightened.

She tried to find a place to hide, but the humans were everywhere.

There were very little ones running around.

One of the big ones was even sitting in the comfy chair where she loved to curl up.

There was no place to go.

She didn't know what to do.

She just stood at the middle.

Damn it.

She stood at the middle of everyone and farted.

Within seconds, the humans all ran, screaming and moaning in disgust.

Delilah sat alone in the middle of the room.

I'm sorry, she meowed.

That's it, shouted one of the humans.

The next morning she was put in a bottle.

Delilah was devastated.

This is the dark part of the book.

When she when she discovered she wasn't going to the nice doctor's office like they did sometimes, it was the animal shelter.

Her humans walked away as the door to her cage locked.

She was so sad.

She just couldn't help it.

She farted and then farted some more, again and again, all through the night now.

There's a whole page of those.

Whole page.

When the shelter humans came to feed her and clean her messes, she would get excited, hoping they'd pick her up, hoping they'd let her nuzzle them.

But she would fart and they'd leave, making the same awful human, making the same awful faces her human family had made.

Sometimes families would come to the shelter when they would come near her cage.

She would be so thrilled that sometime that someone might take her home and let her love them the way she wanted.

She would sometimes smoosh her little nose through the cage bars so the little ones could pet her face.

Noises, noises.

As soon as they got close she would fart and they'd make that horrible face and walk away.

She once heard one human say, how could anyone love a cat who smells like that?

And from then on, the lion would hide in the back of the cage, ashamed, certain she would never find the love she wanted.

One day a new human family came to the shelter.

Ella got so nervous and excited when the little girl came near her cage she farted.

She didn't even bother going to the front of her cage.

1 whiff and the little girl would make a face and run just like all the other little girls and boys before her.

But the little girl stayed.

When she was close, Delilah heard her say.

Mommy, what's that smell?

The mommy didn't answer and tried to pull her away to another cage.

No mommy, she's so pretty I want to pet her.

The.

Little girl picked Delilah up, pulled her close to her face and kissed her on the top of the nose.

Overwhelmed with joy and excitement, she farted.

I've done that.

I've ruined it, she thought, and got ready to go back in the cage.

The little girl just giggled and said.

She's so silly mommy, I love her.

Delilah purred louder than ever.

She rubbed her face against the little girl's cheek.

The little girl held her tighter and tighter.

Delilah farted.

The girl giggled.

I love you, I'll never let you go.

The end.

Well done guys.

That was.

Great.

The entire time we were reading this, my farty feline Gilderoy has been penetrating.

The space, yeah, Yeah.

And I have to tell you.

Delilah.

Or is that your story of her?

It's my story of her.

I mean, obviously the farting is real, but like, the circumstances were a little different.

It was a friend of a friend had just kept finding her outside in her neighborhood during the winter.

It was that one winter where like it was below 0 for like weeks on end and she would bring the cat back to the house.

Couple times they would take it in and then finally, like on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day, whatever it was that one year, she's like she went to the house, all the cars were there, all the lights were on, people were home.

She's knocking on the door, knocking on the door.

Nobody answered the door, they just wouldn't answer the door anymore.

So she kind of decided from that point forward she was going to just do something with this cat.

So she took the cat in for a little bit, but couldn't keep it because of family situations and whatever.

So then she wound up, you know, reaching out to, to people and I wound up getting her.

And when I, when I brought her home, she really is, she's like a super snuggly cat.

She's older and fatter now, so she's not as snuggly, but she was incredibly snuggly when I first got her.

And when my mom and I first brought her to the vet, like the first week we got her, we got her in the carrying case.

We're getting ready to leave the house and all of a sudden my mother and I just look at each other like, what in the hell?

I had never smelt anything like that before in my life.

I've had cats and dogs my whole life.

I've never smelt anything like that before in my life.

But we just cracked up.

We're like, well now we know why they kept putting her out.

I needed to breathe I.

Was like, but you know, but who cares?

It's a fart.

So, you know, we took her in and she was healthy.

There was nothing wrong with her.

So we kind of just determined it nervous and it really was like over the years, like it would be less and less and less like honestly, you know, maybe she's done it like once or twice this year, you know, not much.

However, Eddie Ann, the new kitten has taken up the gauntlet.

Because let me tell you that little little shit and it smells somehow, it smells exactly like either like sauerkraut or like like, like sour Broten.

It's actually more like Sour Broten because it's a little, it's like.

You've really you've really thought.

About this.

I really have because it's.

Such a specific smell and I don't understand where it comes from because I'm not feeding her sour bra and I'm not feeding her Pickles or anything pickled or aged or, you know, no kimchi, nothing like that.

Like why does it smell like sour bread?

It's just it's it's.

People think about.

The fact that like a young animal's bio digestive enzymes are potent and cats and dogs have a really short digestive system, right?

So the gas that humans have has a long time to build up and mature, and so it loses a lot of its potency unless you've eaten something super potent.

And especially.

Cats who have our obligate carnivores, their digestive system, they process their stuff in like 2 or 3 hours so that gas is ripe.

And it is, yeah.

I have had kids that are like.

Four and five days old that will like let it RIP when I feed them a bottle and it's like my eyes will be watering and I'm like, you're so small.

You're 130.

Grams and I'm going to throw up on you like what the what is that?

It's.

It's really, it's spider cats deal with it.

And they're like.

In there with it and I know.

I don't know, I've had to, I've had to check multiple times to make sure she didn't shit on herself, 'cause I'm like, you're really just messed like so.

Strong like.

Did she just shit on me?

Like was her a dangler?

I've had to check.

Gilderoy, he stinks.

So bad he'll wake us up and we'll be like 2 in the morning and both of us will be like.

What?

What the fuck is Gilroy in?

Here and Gilroy is like pass out.

He's 2 now and he's like a pass out in between US and Hilary will be like holy shit my eyes are on.

Fire.

Well, Michelle?

We love you.

We wish you the best of luck.

You're gonna you're gonna kick this kick its ass.

It's not gonna know what hit it.

Well, thank you, Dan.

This was.

So this was very sweet.

This was very nice.

We really do wish you the best.

We'll be there to celebrate if possible.

Can you keep it after it's removed?

I'd like to interview it on the season 4.

Even if.

I can ask.

Can you ask please?

Tell them you're weird, tell them your weird podcast friends that has weird ideas.

Michelle, we love you.

We wish you the best so we really do.

There will not be a season 4 until you are clear of this.

We will not record without you.

I refuse.

Steven, our producer sends his regards.

He is in an undisclosed location and could not join us tonight.

So he sends he sends you his regards that wishes you the best as well.

We love you.

Thank you for all you do for the show.

Thank you for having amazing hair.

Thank you for adopting a kitten.

Thanks for adopting.

A kitten.

Thanks for anchoring our show and the awesome commercials.

Even with the tongue twisters, You, you, you plow through them with grace, with grace and style.

This.

65 with Bobby Brink was our season finale, but this is like our epilogue episode.

Mid season.

Showmance.

This is our our.

Kind of a tacked on special episode 'cause we could not really end this incredibly long year long season 3 without.

It's been it's really long.

You guys were in high school when we started this season.

Just episode.

1.

You know, it's like Reagan was president.

We wish you the best, but this is really the end of Season 3 and we will start Season 4 by celebrating Michelle and we're going to.

Then we'll make Steven read the whole book again.

I'll find my.

Copy Dan, if I could please come back and redeem myself, You redeemed yourself quite.

Well, with the sound effects, I think, I think you're just fine.

That's I'm going to speak on behalf of the group on that one.

I think you're just my 10 year old.

I was going to try to rope.

In to do that but he's very shy and so he offered a squawking chicken sound Oh it's.

Like a squeaky chicken.

Is not the same, no, it's.

Not, but I'm curious.

It's what we used to get the cats away.

From things were and they run yeah, yeah, yeah.

OK, good.

Quality.

To have.

Melissa, you definitely.

Have a second career making sound effects if you ever wanted to look into that.

Thank you, Dan.

And.

One more time, Michelle, we, we, we wish you the absolute best of luck.

We love you.

You're the best, thank you.

Never going to lose your.

Glow your hyper glow and we will.

We will see you in season 4 when Michelle is free and clear of everything.

Bye for now.

Thanks, Dan.

Bye.

Love you guys, I'll be back.

Hi, guys.

It's.

Tuesday September 16th I got the date right this time.

If you just happen to stumble upon my videos my name is Michelle and I have breast cancer.

I was diagnosed in August I believe it was and I had a lumpectomy on September 5th and the type of breast cancer that I have is estrogen progesterone positive and her 2 positive.

So I did all the preliminary testing the genetic marker testing the an MRI to see what else was in there and all of that came back pretty positive.

My initial diagnosis was a 7mm 7mm lump, so that's about 1/4 of an inch lump.

Didn't none of the tests saw anything else on the.

Sonogram it just saw the one.

Shadow, The mammogram didn't show anything.

So we went ahead and did the lumpectomy to remove that and the tissue surrounding it.

And normal process is to also remove a lymph node to see if the cancer potentially has spread to anywhere else in the body.

And then from there, whatever is removed from the body, the tissue is tested, the lymph node is tested to see what else is in there, if anything.

So like I said, I had my lumpectomy on September 5th.

We also did a little bit of plastic surgery to reconstruct because to match the left breast with the the right breast where the lump was to keep the size consistent.

So there was tissue removed from both areas.

Everything that was removed was tested.

The left breast came back clean.

No, no signs of anything in the left breast.

The right breast came back with a significantly higher, significantly larger main mass than what was initially identified.

It was initially, as I said, 7mm, which is about 1/4 of an inch.

It turned out that the main one was actually 31 millimeters, which is 3.1 centimeters.

That's about an inch and 1/4.

In addition to that, there were two other what's called satellite tumors around around that one.

One was about 8mm which is what we thought the original 1 was and the other one was about 2mm.

So and then also in the lymph node it one of the lymph nodes that was removed did test positive also for cancer cells, so.

All that being said.

I needed to see an oncologist for further study and I did that today.

Excuse me?

And I did that today.

So I met with the oncologist, I was there for over 2 hours and we went over every single thing that needs to be done to treat the specific type of cancer that I have.

The progesterone positive, estrogen positive and her her 2 positive cancer in a woman my age.

I'm 52.

I also have family family history of breast cancer.

My mother had breast cancer when she was younger.

My maternal grandmother had breast cancer, so I'm already high risk to begin with.

And the part that's concerning to everyone and me as well, when I first heard this was, well, why if every scan, the sonogram, the MRI, every test came back and showed one mass that was about 7mm, why then was it actually 3?

And the main one was 31 millimeters.

So something was hidden, something was hiding it, something was disguising it.

We don't really know what, but it makes a little bit disconcerting because now it's like, well, what else is in there?

What else is going on?

Because it's in the lymph node.

Has it gotten anywhere else in my body?

What is what is going on that we're just not seeing?

So I have to go for a PET scan, which will scan my entire body for cancer cells if that's approved by the insurance company.

If that's not approved, then the alternate is to do a CAT scan and a bone scan.

And the doctors assure me that whether we do a PET scan or the CAT scan bone scan combo, both will are are are both just as accurate.

The difference being that with the PET scan, it's one scan, it's done, it's the whole body, The other one that it's the two different scans that have to be done.

But they both assure me that either whichever way we go, we're going to have the same type of accuracy.

So we have to determine if there's cancer or anyplace else in my body.

So if there's a PET scan, also have to do an EKG because I will be starting chemo.

Considering that everything else, the progression of everything else with the PET scan done or the other scans done and then the EKG done, I'm looking at potentially starting chemo in the beginning of October.

So really just a few weeks away.

Which I was really hoping to not.

Have to do chemo, but unfortunately it is what it is.

And I've been really pretty positive about this whole experience because I know that there's treatments and I do still know that there's treatments and I am still pretty positive.

But this has really, this has shaken me as I'm sure it would anybody.

But I will get through this with as much positivity as I can muster on a daily basis and with the love and support of people around me.

It's not going to be easy.

It's going to be a long journey.

It's going to be a very, very long journey because I'm looking at all together a treatment plan of a year of a full solid year where six months of chemo and six months of targeted medications.

So the chemo is, they call it a backbone.

I guess that's just to support everything else to make sure that nothing else is going on in my body, that any sort of cancer or potential cancer cells are killed.

But then the targeted medication, yeah, targeted treatment is specifically in relation to the her 2 positive cells that I had in my breast, which I had to look it up because I wasn't really sure I've heard that term before, but I just looked it up.

And so when you have her 2 positive genes, I'm just going to read right from the website, her two genes change breast cells with a her 2 gene changes pumped out proteins that accelerate the growth and spread of cancer.

So what that means, I, I, I read a bunch else on the website, I'm not going to deal you with all of it, but it's when you have her 2 positive, it means that it's, it's, it can be a more aggressive form of cancer.

So where you can't take any chances.

So the targeted treatment goes specifically towards that type of cell.

So I'm looking at six months of chemo with specifically I'll be on Texatar and garboplatin, that's for six months.

It's once every three weeks.

And in addition.

To that for the first six months I'll also have these targeted treatments which it for the her her 2 positive, which is Herceptin and Perjeta sounds pretty sounds like a lovely name but that all four of those will be once every three weeks for six months and then after the six month period is over the chemo medicine stops but the targeted medicine continues on for another six months.

So like I said it's a full year of treatment once every three weeks and once I'm there at the it's all through infusion.

I go to a facility, I'll be getting a port put in because.

I'll be there for about 4.

Hours with this treatment and there are numerous side effects, potential side effects.

Nausea I think.

Everybody's heard of that for chemo, nausea, vomiting, hair loss.

We've all heard of that.

Possible Constipation, possible diarrhea.

Could be one, could be the other, who knows?

As I was chatting with my brother earlier, I'm like, it's a little literal crapshoot.

And he goes or not.

So yeah, fatigue, confusion.

So like what they're what's called chemo brain.

Like great on top of perimenopause, menopause brain, I'm going to have chemo brain.

So wonderful.

Don't be, don't be surprised if I get my name and I forget to record because I'm sure it could happen.

So I'll also be getting anti nausea medication and I'll be getting dexamethasone.

Oh, that's a steroid.

So that's a steroid that I'll be doing the day before treatment, the day of treatment, and then the day after treatment that helps the body process all of these other things and helps protect certain amounts in the body from the chemo.

So yeah, so today was a big day.

A lot of information.

Lots and lots of information.

Oh, there is also something called a cool cap that I could do as well that when I do the treatment on that same day, once the four hours treatment is over, then I could do this cool cap that you put on your head for it's really another hour and a half to two hours that literally just cools the follicles and prevents the hair from falling out.

Apparently it's incredibly successful for blondes, which yay.

However, it's not covered by insurance.

So I have to decide if it's going to be a cost that I want to do.

And of course there's not, you know, statistically, I may not lose my hair.

I may, I may not, I don't know.

I have to weigh that.

I have to weigh those that option and go forward from there.

So today was a big day and.

Going to have to take it day by day.

See where everything goes moving forward all right.

So once again, thank you for watching.

Thank you for your support.

If you have any questions or anything, you know, if there's something that I haven't explained well enough and you want me to try and explain it better, I can do that, but I'll try to do that.

Leave a comment and I'll try to catch it in the next video.

All right.

Take care of yourselves guys, and.

Don't forget to get your mammograms.

Go for your sonograms.

Just do it.

All right?

Take care.

Bye.