 Hey you guys, so this is a different type of video. I didn't know whether or not I was going to do this or not, but I was watching, I am in the middle of watching Love and Marriage Huntsville. And Kimmy is, while we're watching the show, she finds a lump and come to find out that they did a biopsy and she has stage two breast cancer. So I decided to share because I think it's so important not only being a woman, being an African-American woman and being an African-American woman with a family history, not only breast cancer, but cancer in general. So a little backstory. I've always been very, very hands on and proactive about my health in regards to cancer. You guys, who have been following me for a while, can go back and look at the blogs where I talk about my family history of cancer on my mom's side alone. Sorry, I'm being loud. On my mom's side alone, there is breast cancer, ovarian cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, stomach cancer, and pancreatic cancer. Six different cancers. Granted, it is a huge traditional southern family. My mom was the youngest of 15 kids. I have over 200 first cousins. I'm not even kidding because my father, my grandfather married several times. My grandmother was having kids with her kids. With that being said, I was like, whoa, and people started getting, and my family started getting cancer at young ages. It didn't matter. I have a cousin who had colon cancer at 20 something and then breast cancer under the age of 50, mid-40s, then stomach cancer, then lung cancer for people who never even smoked. But now you got lung cancer at 70 years old. So with that being said, I really took that serious. My OB-GYN, my OB recommended that I go see a geneticist. When she saw my history of cancer, she recommended that I go see a geneticist. I did that at the time. The lady was mapping it all out. She was writing out. She had to turn the page over because it just due to the extreme nature. And she said, this is a lot. I said, but I'm a big family. She said, it doesn't matter. Even with the family that's large to have 13 plus people to have had cancer in your family is a lot. So with that being said, she has some recommendations, losing weight, eating healthy, reduce your breast tissue mass. And so I started doing that, y'all. That was my goal. So y'all would know that I was on a journey. I had a breast reduction. God, I think it's been about four to five years now. I had a breast reduction. I was a 38 triple D or E. I am now a 38 large C. I'm not even a D, a 38 large C. I've lost 25 pounds since my breast reduction. I am trying to lose 20 more pounds because I just think it's important. I have. So in addition to that, getting my breast reduction and just trying to lose weight and being healthy overall, I went ahead and started to get mammograms at 32. No problem with getting mammograms. At one point, they were recommending it twice a year and I was like, that's a bit much. But because then my insurance only covered once. Okay. And I don't know why that particular doctor was recommending twice a year. The geneticists put me at a higher range of developing cancer due to some autoimmune issues and just everything in general. That has been my life since I was 32. I'm 42 years old. That's 10 years. I've been doing this consistently. No fail. I probably, and I think I didn't do it then when COVID hit. Okay. I went a couple of months ago and when was it? The end of December. Excuse me. No, the beginning of January. Excuse me. The beginning of January, I had my routine mammogram. Yeah. Those of you don't know, put your arm up, press up. And it's so funny, but when your breasts are smaller, it's actually harder to have for them to push down with using the plates. It's actually harder when my breast was big. I just put it up there. Go like a pancake and smash it. Hold my breath. Breathe out. It takes less than five minutes of those of you who have never had a screening done. So had it done early January, right? I'm feeling good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get a call within a week and they said, your mammogram is abnormal. We need for you to come back in to do another screening and possibly an ultrasound. We don't know if it's scar tissue from your breast reduction or what. When I tell you, I held my breath. It felt like, I know this is so cliche. It felt like everything stood still. And I was like, okay, I'll absolutely do it. And I was like, okay, I think it's okay. So I told my husband, my husband reassured me. I think it's breast tissue. I think you're okay. I told my mama about it. And she's like, yeah, I think it's breast tissue. I think everything is okay. In the midst of all of this, I had a cousin who was diagnosed. I found out that she had pancreatic cancer. Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. She had been battling it off and on for a month, six weeks, y'all, six weeks. The day before my appointment to redo it, the mammogram, she passes away. She had very clear instructions on what she wanted her end of life to be. No viewings of the body, close casted. I couldn't even go to the funeral. Anyway, so I'm just saying that all of this is going on. So I go to the mammogram, second mammogram, I'm sitting there. This is not covered because the first one's covered. The second one's not. $1,000 out of pocket. No, $800 and something dollars out of pocket. Whatever. She told me if it's an ultrasound, that's not going to additional. It would have been like a little over $1,500 for everything. Whatever. It's my health. There's no value to that. I'm just telling you, this is all that's going on. Go in and get it done. And she tells me, she's like, you're going to have to stay here. The tech is telling me, well, excuse me, the nurse is telling me, you're going to have to stay here until the tech can review it. And then once she's reviewed, once she reviews it, they will let you know if we need to forego and proceed with an ultrasound. I said, okay. So I'm fully good. I'm like, okay. Cause I had, you know, I'm a very optimistic person, you guys. Not only is the glass half full, but that glass is a diamond and crusted rhinestone glass. I'm very optimistic, but with everything that's going on, work, stuff going on at JV school, it's starting to get to me. So she comes back and the nurse is like, everything's okay. You don't need to get the ultrasound. I was, I broke down. I said, I said, thank you so much. I said, the reason why I'm just, my emotions is at a heightened level is that I had a cousin that just passed away from cancer. And then to go through this and not know what's happening. Just really, you know, she was like, oh, give me a hug. Let me hug you. So she gave me a hug. I calmed down, gathered myself together, put them on top and love. The reason why I am sharing this is that I want to encourage all of you, especially my black women out there to please take care of yourself. Go ahead and have your mammograms done. Make sure that you're getting your pap smear. Do not be afraid to do it. Just go ahead and get it done. This is just something that they never noticed before. Like I said, I've been getting this done since I was 32 years old and they just never, you know, and for what I understand, you can still be, this is from the nurse, that you can still be developing the scar tissue internally for a couple of years after a breast reduction. And that makes sense because my breasts are forever changing. Like it took a full year for them to drop. They are actually getting a little bigger because I'm gaining weight. I need to be monitoring that, but they are getting a little bigger. So I still say, they're probably still a full D. They're a full D, but, you know, I was, went ahead and bit the bullet and had the second ultrasound like I said, I didn't care about the price. I had the second ultrasound within a week, no, within two weeks of the abnormal finding because I don't have time. I have a small child to take care of. I have a family and I have me. Okay. That's also important. So please, please, please, you guys, please go get checked out. Don't be afraid. I do need to put it on my list to continue to do self, what do you call it? Self-examinations. I have a, on my calendar, I have a reminder, but please, please, please, you guys, one out of eight women would be diagnosed with breast cancer. Cancer, in general, affects African-Americans at a more aggressively rate. They don't know why. Doesn't even help. The only way to really help it is early detection. So this is just a announcement PSA. Please go get checked out. Please, please, please. So that is it, you guys. Take care. Bye.