 Hi, welcome to Seymour's World. I'm Seymour Kazimurski on Think Tank Hawaii. Today's show is a very, very special show, and I'll explain why. We titled it, I Beat Cancer. I have been diagnosed with cancer. It's called CLL, which is chronic lymphatic leukemia. I can't explain all the different nuances of sport, but I'm going to fight this cancer and then I'm going to beat this cancer. And to do it, I have asked two of my very, very good friends to help me because they have both beat cancer as well, Debbie Atkinson and Tanya Reid. I've known both of you for many, many years. I've known you through your ups and downs with cancer, and I have to learn from you how to cope with what I have on a very simple level. I want people to understand that the big C is no longer what it used to be. We have so many people surviving all sorts of cancers in so many different ways. Holistically, medically, some of them go to far-off countries to do it, some of them do it here with chemotherapy, and some with new treatments that are just coming online through the new clinical trials. In my case, just so that you understand, I am going to be under a new clinical trial out of Sloan Kettering in New York, which will not necessitate chemotherapy. I'm hoping that everything will work well, and you will see my progress through this over the next few months of Seymour's world. But I can tell you this, I'm a fighter, and just as these ladies are fighters, I feel very, very comfortable with what is going to transpire over the next few months. So, Debbie, first of all, you are the best cheesecake maker in the world. That's my title for you. Is cheesecake health food? I honestly think it is. You know why? Because I think that smile on your face right now is indicative of what cheesecake does. You see, I'll find a reason to make sure that we can eat the food that we like to eat, because I think part of beating cancer is your mind, isn't it? Did you find that as you were coping with it? Yes, I think you're right there. Always our outlook influences our health, no matter what issues you have, and everybody has something going on, right? And did you find that when you were first diagnosed with it, was it like it was for me? Oh, my God. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. I think that's the most difficult time probably, because this is three of the first few months until you start taking action. And did it take you long to do that? Once you find the treatment that you're going to follow and that you're comfortable with, I think you feel like you're taking action, and I think people, when they feel more in control of their lives, have a better mental outlook. And that's a very positive feature, isn't it? Right. I think that's actually, my feeling is that's one of the most important features of it, is that mental outlook. Tanja, you have survived multiple cancers, haven't you? I have. How many? Actually, four. I forgot about my thyroid. Oh, my God. Four cancers. And did you go through chemo with all of them? Well, no, because the first one was 74. And there was no chemo at that time? They did a modified radical, so they took the lymph nodes out, so that's all they did then. And so, and I didn't have time for chemo. I had two, one and three year old, and they kept me sane. They just, and my husband, they kept me above ground, right? It was wonderful. I mean, I had no time to think of myself, which was probably good. And so, yeah, they helped me through. I think, Tanja, I remember those times, because we were with you during those times. And the one thing that I always remembered was that your kids and your husband were there for you to look at, and that gave you that. My biggest supporters, yes, definitely. And they were there for you, which I think is absolutely fantastic. Debbie, I have to ask you something. After the diagnosis and after the beginning of treatment, did you feel during the, and this is important for me to understand, did you go through ups and downs, feeling that is this worth it, is it not worth it, or were you just gung-ho, I'm going to do it and I'm going to beat it? I was, I think first of all you need to find somebody who's treating you that you have absolute confidence in. And it's good like you've done to explore different treatment options so that when you finally decide on something you feel confident and you feel like you've made that choice rather than you've been steered into something that you're not sure about. But yes, there are some ups and downs, of course, because I think we go through the five, Kubler-Ross's five stages of grief, too. So there's a certain amount of denial and then there's a certain amount of anger and then there's bargaining and then there's, what is it, depression and then there's acceptance. So we're not static, we're, we change. That is very well, now I'm listening to you and thinking, what stage am I in, you know, where am I right now? We don't stay in one stage either, we bounce around, so I hope that answered your question. Tanya, how about you, did you have ups and downs through the coping mechanism? I didn't so much with my first cancer because I was so busy with the kids and there was no chemo or anything. I mean, they assumed they got everything and that's the way they did it then. Actually, I think it was harder for my second one because everybody was grown and home by ourselves and I felt a little sorry for myself at first, actually. But it didn't last very long because at this point in my life we talked about it before the 74, you didn't talk to people, you didn't even know anybody who had cancer, I mean. So there was so much support from friends and from people, people bringing food over and just, Jim's Exchange Club and Seymour helped me go get a, make sure I had a PET scan right away. And just everybody was wonderful and that was such a big help and my husband's a big help. Well, Jim, as we know, is the light of your life still after all these years. And I wonder sometimes why. Almost 50 years. Yes. But he is still definitely the light of your life. I know that. And for you, how about your kids? How did it affect your kids? Well, they were eight and ten. So I probably wasn't as busy as Tanya with a one and three year old but they were pretty young and they were incredible because I had to have a lot of surgery and they were just really cute and really supportive and there was one time when they tried to, this is a funny, Yeah, please. They tried to get a dent out of a ping-pong ball and they said, Mom, don't you just light a match and the dent pops out. And I said, yeah, yeah, do that because I wasn't feeling very well and they did and they're standing right next to me and the thing burst into flames and landed on the couch and scorched it but it was like, it was a lesson in what's important in life. It was like, who cares about the couch? We didn't light a fire and everybody's saying and we all just burst into laughter. So laughter is such a great remedy when you're in the dumps. I think you're right. My personal feeling as I'm just getting through this over the last two weeks and figuring out what to do, I am really taking, and of course I'm asymptomatic so I'm still playing tennis, I'm still playing golf and still busy with my Make Him Smile program and my Your In Charge program and all the galas and events that I do and all that stuff. And very honestly, I am not going to let this thing beat me down as, and I owe it as far as I can. I'm going to keep doing what I can do for as long as I can do it and as long as the treatment allows me to, which is I think the important part. Tanya, for you, what about some incidences that you had that were, I mean Debbie just brought up one that made them all laugh? Did you have anything that really, that you can remember during that period? When I first had my first cancer and I was 20, no I was 30, my mom came to help me with the boys. The lady came over from the Cancer Society showing me how to do the exercises and mom says, she's been out mowing the lawn already. I'm like, the lady looked at me like, but my mom was right, I had been out mowing the lawn and so that was the end of the lady being over there, but she meant really well. But you know that's the whole point. The whole point is both of you had this great positive attitude with their ups and downs, I know that, but this great positive attitude. I told just to tell our audience, I told my oncologist, he said, well, you know, you might have to have chemo and this and that and I said, well, you'll have to schedule it around my tennis and my golf and all my activities, you know, because that's more important to me than having chemo and he just laughed his head off because he had not heard that before, you know, everybody thinks that, oh my God, I got to do this, I got to do that, but I think attitude is really critical. I have to say that when the second time I had cancer, then it was 01 and I kind of felt sorry for myself then, you know, and it was like, oh, I think I'm feeling sorry for myself, I shouldn't be doing that, but I needed a little time to do that and I was fine because the kids were gone, they were in college, I was Jim and I home alone, you know, and Jim is a wonderful support, but I just did feel sorry for myself. I don't know if you ever did. Yeah, I thought, I've got to get out over this because this isn't helping me any to feel sorry for myself. That's excellent. I remember visiting you in the hospital and you weren't feeling sorry for yourself and I tried to pull you up a little bit and I realized it's something that comes from within, it really is. It's critical. Well, it's like, why now after? I mean, it was like 30 years, you know, so it was like, oh boy. Well, blessings to both of you guys because there's no doubt in my mind that you are perfect for what people have to see as fighting something that they think could be the end of the world for them, the end of their lives and everything has changed and it was changed. When I was diagnosed two weeks ago, all of a sudden my life changed. You know, I had to think about what's important. Do you remember that far back? I do. And how was that for you? That was very difficult. Again, I think the hardest time is right after you're diagnosed because there's that disbelief and why me and everybody would feel sorry. Anybody would feel a little bit sorry for themselves. Well, you know, looking at you two now, number one, you couldn't tell that you had cancer and number two, both of you are so active in your community events and everything that you do. And we're going to spend the second half of the show talking about that. I want people to know that you actually become, I think, more active after you've survived cancer. You start to realize that giving back to the community and doing more for others is as important than what you did before you had cancer. And I'm pointing to Tanya. She's wearing a make-up smile button. Right now, yours fell off. I don't know where it went. Tanya, you were our first volunteer I was. I'll never forget because she said is there anything I can do to help? And I loved you for that. I loved the idea that you would do anything whether it was accompanying the musicians in the hospitals. Especially with the children. That's hard. I know. But you did it and you were able to go with the musicians and visit the kids and see the smile and the whole program. How important it was for them. Well, we've got to take a short break but then we're going to come back and we're going to talk about today and what your future is all about and what you've done since that awful time or the time that you had with cancer. I don't look at it as awful either. Cancer is something that you get. Some people get diabetes. Some people get cancer. Some people have an accident and they lose a limb. In my case, I'm actually very, very strong about it and I'm not taking any prisoners. I'm going to just live my life the way I think we should and these two young ladies are an absolute example for us. We'll be back in a minute. Hello, my name is Josh Green. I serve as Senator from the Big Island on the Kona side and I'm also an emergency room physician. My program here on Think Tech is called Health Care in Hawaii. I'll guess that should be interesting to you twice a month. We'll talk about issues that range from mental health care to drug addiction to our health care system and any challenges that we face here in Hawaii. We hope you'll join us. Again, thanks for supporting Think Tech. Hi, this is Jane Sugimura. I'm the co-host for Condo Insider and we're on Think Tech Hawaii every Thursday at three o'clock and we're here to talk about condominium living and issues that affect condominium residents and owners and I hope you'll join us every week on Thursday. Aloha. This is Steve Katz. I'm a marriage and family therapist and I do shrink wrap which is now going to every other week all during the summer and maybe forever after. Take care of your mental health this summer. Have a good time. Do what's fun and take good care of yourself. Bye-bye. Hi, I'm Stacey Hayashi with the Think Tech Hawaii show Stacey to the Rescue, highlighting some of Hawaii's issues. You can catch it at Think Tech Hawaii on Mondays at 11 a.m. Aloha. See you then. Hey, how you doing? Welcome to the Bachi Talk. My name is Andrew Lanning. I'm your co-host and we have a nice program here every Friday at one o'clock on Think Tech Studios where we talk about technology and we have a little bit of fun with it. So join us if you can. Thanks. Aloha. Hi, welcome back to Seymour's World on Think Tech Hawaii. I've got the biggest smile on my face because I have two beautiful young women here with me. We have Debbie Atkinson and Tanya Reid both friends of mine who are cancer survivors and are helping me in my journey of trying to figure out how to deal with cancer that I was diagnosed with two weeks ago. We talked about what it was like during that time when you were diagnosed and trying to face up to it but then it's over and you're in remission and now you're leading a life. Did you change? Did you find there was change in your life? Debbie, you first. I'm going to back up a little bit. When I was diagnosed I had a very philosophical surgeon who gave me the Buddhist Bible and he said, come on, Deb, you're no different than anybody else. Everybody has something. The attitude of the Buddhist towards life and death is different than some of ours and I'm not an expert on this so I won't go on about the religious differences but it helped me put my existence into perspective and he said to me, you can use this to enjoy your life more. Very good. And so I would. I'd go for walks and I'd try and look at every leaf on the tree and just walk out and say what a beautiful day it is. That's excellent because that happened to me last night. We were at the Outrigger Canoe Club for dinner and my daughter was there and I said, I want a picture with you and I took a picture with her and I looked at the picture and I looked at how beautiful it was around and you start to realize how important the little things are. It's not just the big things that you are in life. Tanya, how about you? What was that moment for you that all of a sudden changed the way you were looking at things? I mean when I had cancer I didn't have a lot of time to think about myself because the kids are so little and I think it was good because every once in a while I feel sorry for myself and that's pretty normal but I had such joy in my children and watching them grow up and my husband Jim was such a big help for me too that I don't remember a lot because it was so long ago I was 30 years old and so I think I just put myself into my husband and my children's life and that fulfilled your day. That fulfilled what I needed and I don't think I ever thought I wasn't going to survive. I really don't. You were very positive about the process. I was very positive and I just went through life doing what I would do at raising my family. I think I felt more sorry for myself when I had cancer when the kids had left. Then I had a little period of feeling sorry for myself and then I got out of that and I was just fine. I did my line dancing, I did things with all my friends, did my yard work so I got out of it but I think it happens to everybody that they you're going to feel sorry for yourself. It's very easy to do. Well I have to say that your dancing has always been a big part of your life. My partner once. Yes, yes. For my birthday. It was after my second bout of cancer. We had a big party and oh, we had so much fun and so we had a band and we were just, everybody was dancing. It was fabulous. So stuff like that just makes you smile and but you know that's what's key for all of us who are facing any type of disease. For me it's cancer, for somebody it's something else. Do things that make you happy. Do things that make you feel like you can and do it with people that help you. Of course. Now Debbie, we have some books here. I have always said that you are an amazing talent when it comes to reading books. I've read three of them. I haven't read the fourth book. But Debbie, can you tell us a little bit about what you've done here? Well, I loved write and I write crime fiction and these are four of the books in the series. Can I add something? There is sex in some of these books. Oh no. You should know there is a little bit of sex. I don't want to put more in it. Oh more? Okay, go ahead. I mean that's something I'll have to work on. Yeah. There are suspenseful thrillers that take place here in Hawaii. I used to work on the big island and as I drove around from place to place I think somebody needs to write a good mystery that shows the islands as those of us who live here see them. That's what we've tried to do. We've some of the legends and myths into them. I think it's fabulous. Are they available on Amazon? They're available on Amazon, audio books, yes, or the titles. The library probably has them too. They're all under Deborah Atkinson? Yeah. It looks like my driver's license. Okay. They're under Deborah Atkinson. They just type that into Amazon or whatever they're looking for. What else do you do with your life? I know a few things. You're helping your husband, right? Yeah, well I've been helping him in the office occasionally. He sometimes needs an extra hand. Yeah, I'm working on a new book on helping parents deal with a child who is an addict because I've had that experience and I felt like parents could use more guidance. That's finished and I'm trying to sell it now. That's a process. I have a new fiction book that's a start of a new series that I'm working on selling too. You still work out and you make jewelry? I do. I hammer on metal, I say. I pound metal. Talk about somebody who's always busy and somebody who has taken their life to the max today. You never stop. I know that. I think that's part of your one of the good reasons that you were able to survive cancer as well as you did. That strength that you have, that inner drive, that motivation, the ability to take whatever is in front of you and just run over and do it the way you have to do it. Well, thanks Seymour. It's true. I think some of it is science. Cancer is different. I don't pat myself on the back so much. I even cringe a little when we say breast cancer survivor because I've lost some really good friends to this and it isn't because they didn't fight. Right. We want to be really careful that we don't make anybody have a sense of failure. Do you know what I mean? Oh, that's a very good point. A very, very good point. What about you, Tanya? What are you doing now these days? You're still dancing? Yeah, I'm still line dancing. I'm an avid gardener. I'm in my yard all the time. I walk my dog, my little beagle. And you were a caregiver to somebody for a long period of time. Actually, I just, I retired about maybe eight years ago. And you were a nurse as well. I still am a nurse. And I did mostly private duty all the time because so my husband and I could travel to the mainland in the summers because you don't get time off from a job. Right. So I always took care of had my own private patients so it worked out really well for me. And you were very consistent with that for many, many years. I worked in the hospitals sometimes for private doctors when they had burn cases and stuff like that. Then after that, I mostly went to people's houses. So my last patient died at 103. Oh my gosh. It wasn't because of me. Are you taking credit for that? No. She was a hoot. She was a fighter, that lady. That word fighter really is a critical word in beating this thing. And we have to be fighters. Even if you get a little depressed at first you go, okay. Now, this is it. This is enough. And you go to the next step. It helps to have a wonderful family to help you out. And very good friends. It just means so much. You guys think that you're very good friends of ours, but obviously your cheesecake is the reason you're still a good friend. And you're 11 squares. You're not allowed to come to our house without those. I know that. We cannot. That's part of the reason that you're at our house for ironic reasons. I bring those a lot of places. Well, we only have a couple of minutes. So I do want to ask you one more question. Share with the audience something that you would like them to know about you, whether it's cancer or not cancer. Just something that you would like them to know. Debbie, you first. Enjoy life. Enjoy every day. Get up in the morning and look for something positive. Try and have an attitude of gratitude just because you're up walking around. No, that's great. That's absolutely wonderful. How about you, Tanya? Well, you know, a lot of people say why me for cancer or for other things, why not me? I mean, the odds are we can get it just as much as anybody else can. It's just your attitude and how you handle things. And with a loving family. Thank God. I think both of you have identified such a great method of dealing with cancer. And it could be anything. I just want the audience to understand that cancer is not the end all and be all and they shouldn't just go down in the dumps and say that's it. Especially with the new medication out there for us. So I think for all of us, including myself now, it is something that we have to work on and we have to face and we will overcome it as best as we can one way or the other. Gratitude is an absolute necessity in understanding what our life is all about and being, I mean, we we're both involved, actually you're coming to Tanya on Sunday to our kids here too, Gaila, and you supplied some jewelry for you. Oh, good. And that's all about gratitude. That's the gratitude that we have to give to the rest of the world to say thank you and instead of just taking we give back to the community. And good friends. Yes, that's what makes it all. So thank you to both of you for really coming and joining me today and sometimes it's difficult to open up and talk about what has happened to you. It's so gracious to do it. So I appreciate it very much. Thank you Seymour. And to you, my friends out there anywhere in the world we will be back with Seymour's World before Christmas. We will give you our progress on how I'm doing and what's going on with me. And I think you'll find it'll be interesting to see how we're able to cope with the individual stresses and I really do like the idea that we're thankful and grateful for everything that we have. So I wish you well. I'll see you in two weeks. Happy holidays to everybody. Aloha from Seymour's World on Think Tech Hawaii.