 Think Tech Hawaii. Civil engagement lives here. Aloha and bienvenidos to Hispanic Hawaii on richer conception. Fighting cancer takes more than just medication, chemotherapy, and a great team of doctors by your side. It requires a strong mental power, faith, hope, love, family, and friend support. And the most important, a positive attitude. Today's guest is Dr. Melvistence. She's here to share her personal experience with fighting against cancer. Her courage, positive attitude, and motivate and inspire others to fight cancer and to stay healthy. Bienvenida, welcome to the studio. Gracias, gracias. Alright, tell me a little bit about yourself and tell me when do you find out that you have cancer? Oh, thanks everyone. I'm a peak performance psychologist, so I help people move forward in life with different mechanisms. I'm a psychophysiologist professor too. I found out I had cancer because I went to the store with my daughter, my teenager, and we were trying different things. And when I tried something on, I thought there was like a wire that hurt me around here, so I didn't buy it. But the next morning, intuitively, somehow, I felt like I had to touch there. Something was hurting me. When I touched, I realized I had like a marble. And I was shocked, so I ran to my daughter and I asked her if she could sense it. And she was like, mommy, you have a ball there. So, gladly, my sister, she had cancer, my mom too. She had twice breast cancer and another type of cancer. My mom passed. She had told me, if you ever find out, just drive to the hospital. That's exactly what I did. I got in the car and I drove to Tripler. And I told them, yeah, I'm a retarded tunnel colonel. I've worked here at Tripler for half a decade. Can I just wait until someone sees me? This is your second time at the show. The first time you came in, we were talking about bowel feedback. I know. I know that great stuff and helping others within the community. With your clinic, now you're going through this situation. How that affect you and your family and the job? Oh, it affected big time. My family, they're being great supporters. My husband, actually, he sits with me every time I go to chemotherapy at Tripler for five hours. He just asks for medical leave and he sits next to me. My daughter has been very supportive. My family in Puerto Rico as well. What else do you want to know? Yeah, but when you went to Tripler, you told me you drove straight to Tripler. And they told you right in the spot or they had to go through a test in order for them to find out. They tested me differently, like physically and also they took me to do some x-ray, MRI, some ultrasound, some different things. And then they took a biopsy and about two days later they confirmed that it was cancer. Which by then I already knew because of my family history and because I had something like this. So what was going through your mind? Did they call you or physically? They called me. So when they called you and they told you what went through your mind? By then I already knew because it was a foreign object here, something that I didn't have and my family had it. And it was more like I'm out of air. Like you're in a train super fast and it stops for a halt and you're like, what now? So now you start reversing, you need it in time. You're thinking okay how much time do I have left? Why should I be doing against this so it doesn't proliferate and spread more. So how do you notify your husband and your daughter? My husband, my daughter? She created planes and said, well I'm going to say this. I'm going to say that. You just called in. My daughter, she felt it. She felt the marble like thing. And my husband, I call him on the way to Trooper. And what was his reaction? He was like, he's very cool, calm, collectible. He was like shocked. Like honey, I'm sorry. Don't worry. And my family in Puerto Rico, they were going through the hurricanes, Maria, et cetera. So it was very hard to talk with my sister for guidance about cancer and stuff. Because the communication, the towers were down. So tell me about you dad. During that time, your father was in Puerto Rico. Yes, so remember he was living here with us and enjoying Hawaii so much. But then he wanted to see my siblings in Puerto Rico. So he was 84 so we thought okay that's another move. So I flew all the way there with my daughter and we left them there. He was having a great time. He came, he got very sick. And the hospital didn't have any water, electricity, even though we were in the city. And he passed. It was about the same time that he was notified. A couple of weeks after my father died, almost the same time. He's like, okay, you have cancer now. I'm glad he's not here because he was a physician. Because he would want to take care of me. So he's resting with my mom who died after cancer as well. So now that you know that you have cancer, what are you doing and how is affecting you and your daily activities? Well, there's no day that goes by that I'm not aware that I have cancer. And I don't want to fall into the, oh, it's going to be gone because I don't believe it will be gone forever. For some people there's miracles. So I try to take care of my day every day and live every day I can and a lot of family time. So I slow down and enjoy more the present. So let me ask you about cancer. Exactly what cancer? Do you know exactly what it is and how we getting cancer? Because there's thousands and thousands of people that get cancer. Yeah, actually in Hawaii, I believe, I was looking at the stats. From 100,000 people, 400 people, I guess I know with cancer every year and about 150 die because of it. Because they don't have life insurance, medical insurance or they're in denial or it's too late. So what was the other question? That's the keyhole, brain fog. I think we have the statistic. Can you show the statistic about Hawaii? Here's the statistic in the whole United States in 2017, the new cancers. There's a large number of dead and people that are getting cancer. Can you show the other one, the Hawaii? Here's in the Hawaii. This is the most dead one in 2015. So here in Hawaii, with these large people estimating having cancer, how tripler, which is tripler, is a medical center for the military. How they handle this situation? Tripler was awesome. Very fast. They did, I mean, they're treating me aggressively because it spread. During surgery, they realized that it spread to my lymph nodes, so they had to remove 19 nodes. And they have a tumor brain, a tumor bore, sorry. And they, it is composed of a surgeon, a plastic surgeon, a psychologist, occupational therapist, the DNA researcher, a dietician. They're great. And then they have a chemo area and they have a radiation area. What needs to be improved, if anything, is a lymphedema program. Because when you get the lymph nodes removed, a lot of us start, because there's no drainage, you know, the white blood cells kind of be drained properly. You get a lot of water, edema, lymphedema, excess, and it hurts a lot, and it burns and it affects your mobility and everything. So I think in Hawaii we need better lymphedema programs. More occupational therapists or physical therapists are specialized in helping us with lowering the distention of the tissue post-surgery. So let me ask you, how do they decide to, to decide what treatment they're going to do? It depends on how the cancer is or depends on your health. Exactly. It depends on the cancer type and where is it, how's your health, your support mechanisms. The client has the last word, you know, the surgeon can propose, et cetera, the client, they can say I don't want anything or I want it all or whatever. In my case, they, they proposed chemotherapy and during surgery, the surgery was before the chemo, they realized that I, that it has spread, so now I'm going to have radiation 35 days. And then I'm going to have a, so I had surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and then I'm going to have some medication with hormones for like five years. So you're going through different stages right now, different treatments. A lot of pain. So tell me how you're dealing with the pain because I see that you have, you'll be blogging about cancer and you're very positive and motivated and keeping yourself in a good move and a lot of people are so excited and you're motivated in to stay healthy. Tell me how you, how you do that? Well, there's days that I'm very down, et cetera, but I don't want to, I don't want those to be the most than the least. I always, I always, before cancer, I always thought, you know, you have to live the present. You can always be planning for the future. The past is gone. So all you have is the present. So I try to think of some people have worse than me. So what am I complaining about? And I do have a purpose in life. I have a teenager. I have a life. I have a husband, a family. I have a community. I see some clients. So, I mean, we can be, we can be as happy or as miserable as we want to. So, of course, I deal with medication or alternative medicine, nutrition, relaxation. I watch, now I'm watching a lot of Netflix and movies. So you just slow down and try to, try to be happy. Why not? So how does it affect your families and friends? You know, because sometimes, you know, we get sick and it's temporary, but when it's something like this that in my last longer, they have a long affect on relationship. Tell me about that. Interestingly, some people stopped talking to me. And I think it was because they thought, oh, she's dying maybe tomorrow, the day after, and I don't know how to deal with it. I don't know what they were thinking about. But some people stopped talking. All the people came and started talking to me. And some friends of friends started talking to me. So now on Facebook, I put stuff and just to motivate people and stuff. So, but the people that really care for you or even the community, they stick around and we try to help each other, support each other. So I believe in God. So I believe whatever happens is because it needs to be, it needs to happen. So. Well, let's talk about some of your activities that you do, you know, like working out. You still work out, you still, I've seen some pictures, you know, you doing your rubbish work out. You know, in the military, I used to be so fit. And I used to teach Zumba and cardio kickboxing and everything. I've slowed down. And now I do more like relax yoga. And I walk with my husband, which is great because it's like, you don't need a couple of therapy or nothing when you're going with your spouse around the neighborhood walking. You know, it's a great communication. Kills two birds with one stone, right? Yeah. So, and it's great for the family. And I try to, I just slowed down. I try to do exercise when I can. I don't kill myself. I don't have high expectations. Just stay healthy because I'm immune system. It's so low that we cannot be pushing ourselves and get sicker because then we won't have chemo the next day. We won't have treatments. If we're sick, they have to stop the protocol. So how do you reinforce or provide a better, strong immune system to you, buddy? How do you do that? I try to go to bed at the same time. I try to drink a lot of water. I try to stay healthy. I also, I'm in BNI, Business Network International. So I have a lady and I take her juice plus. So I make sure I have, even if I don't want to eat because my throat hurts or whatever, I can have all the amounts of veggies or fruit that I need. And I try to eat more vegan and more raw because cooking kills a lot of nutrients, as we know. So who is at risk? Is everybody at risk? I think everybody's at risk. Regardless of the age? I think everybody's at risk. And I think we need to be more conscientious and actually asking our families about their medical conditions. It could be mental. It could be physical. One of them could be cancer. If we're not informed, then we might be a victim of that. History repeats itself. Like I said, I already had in the back of my mind my mom had breast cancer, my sister had breast cancer. So I knew there was a probability. Now my other sister is getting checked because she might get it too. And also, just like in Puerto Rico, the sun, we're all exposed to the sun. We don't protect ourselves. We can have melanoma. We can have skin cancer. If we're eating a lot of dead animals, carcasses, it won't be digested. We only digest like this, right? And we have like 25 feet of intestines. So what we eat and how we eat affects too. So the environment when we put in our bodies too. Even lotions, even lipsticks, there's some lipstick that they have led. And we're putting that through our pores. So we have a very conscientious of what we put in our bodies. Oh, it's so nice that we don't know. But we're going to take a quick break. And we're going to come back and continue talking story and learning about how we can stay healthy. Thank you. And fight cancer. Plan for fun and responsibility. Captain of our team is the DT. For every game day, a sign a designated driver. Welcome back. We are here with Dr. Melva Stens. Talk about her fight and her personal experience against cancer. Well, we was talking about all the different factors that can cause cancer. We would talk about tobacco, the way we eat, physical activities. They can help us to maintain any good health. Let's talk about a little bit diet. You know, you change your diet as you start taking a chemotherapy. Talk to me about that. Well, my father was a sports medicine doctor. He was always into fitness. So we were very aware of that in my family. And my mother was a dietitian. So we were very conscientious about it as well. I was a vegetarian for over 20 years. Since I joined the military, so I guess it's 30. Go fast. Yeah. Lately I've been more vegan because there's a lot of food that we eat. It's not preaching. I mean, the literature. So tell us. We want to know. So anything that makes you, makes yourself get all bigger or swollen like cheese is not good for the body because it won't be processed as needed. So I don't take any cow milk. Try my best not to have cheese, even though I used to love cheese. I do love cheese. Try to avoid things that are pretty much smoked, burned, barbecued. Try not to eat late because you're not going to digest it. It's just going to stay there and it's going to be rotten. And that's why there's so much colon cancer. And here in Hawaii as well. So try to drink a lot of water and try to drink filter water. I know we say, oh, but the water is good. No, we don't know that. Even the fishes, if there's a lot of mercury, you're eating that. Again, I don't want to be preaching, but if you go to PETA, P-E-T-A, that's a company, a group that they show you how many animals that are not organically raised or whatever. They eat corn and they have a lot of pesticide or they have a lot of medication and they even eat their own feces. And when they die, it's in a way that is so cruel that all the toxins come out. And that's why we are actually later on eating. So if you can stay away from things that are processed and are not really what nature gave you, do it. Because it's going to help you. I mean, I'm going to do it for the rest of my life. So it's healthy. Well, you mentioned a lot of things that I do that I need to change. Thank you so much. But let's talk about cooking. Now I have a video right here that you was learning how to cook some of this great and wonderful food. Oh, this is Dr. Elena Maganto. She's a health coach here in Hawaii. I can give you her info if you contact me. So we're trying to eat as healthy as possible. We have couscous there, spinach. The greener, the better it is. So how much influence the food has in our body? Because we eat it and everything. But we really don't know what is good and what is bad for us. Yeah, and we eat more than we're actually going to process or need or digest. So it's got to go somewhere and it's going to make us sick. Many of our diseases have to do with that. So preventing is the best. It's good to eat like every three hours to keep your sugar level up and you have the energy versus not eating the whole day then going home and eating three plates. I eat in small bowls and I try to eat like every three hours. Like maybe three bigger meals and two snacks. And I try not to eat after five or six because for what? I'm just going to go to sleep. So what about sugar intake? Everything has sugar. Cancer loves sugar. Cancer cells love sugar. I used to love frosting. I like the frosting. You might take it to my husband. No, I'm avoiding it so much. Cancer loves sugar and stress. And in the army I was a research psychologist but I was deployed to Iraq and different places and it was very stressful and I had to deal with a lot of problems and clients that they had PTSD, etc. So it was a very stressful environment. So avoid sugar and stress as much as you can. Oh wow, that's very difficult things to do. So when you were cooking and you were learning so you were eating more vegetable, cream food and things that is not preserved. Less process. Everything that is in a can or in a bottle or most things, they have to have preservatives. Things that keep them in the best shape possible. Those things don't tend to be healthy. So we got to read something like Dr. Elena not only because she's Hispanic. She's like hers that she is a graduate from Harvard. She has a postdoc in microbiology. So we got to Costco, different places and she teaches me not only read the label but the ingredients in the back and the synonyms. The other words that sugar has or bad things for your body. So you can eat cleaner. So you think that the industry is doing enough to educate or to measure that we eat a product that is not going to contaminate us? Because I think most corporations that have money like Pharmaceutical and different companies like Kentucky Fried Chicken or whatever they're going to push for saying that that's healthy. So we try to eat or fall in love with food through our eyes. So if it looks tempting and people... I think it's disrespectful when I'm eating or when I'm at home and I have people crunching on Kentucky Fried Chicken or whatever because I don't eat animals at all. So I'm like, I wish it was banned. If you're vegan, you don't have to see those commercials. So no, I don't think we're doing enough. As a matter of fact, I'm kind of sad that as a researcher, a published researcher we are not putting enough energy, money and time on curing cancer. Look at me. I have to have not drink but intake through IV, poison. Poison that is killing not only the cancer, hopefully but it's also killing healthy cells. Brain cells, skin cells, my hair fell. So it's sad that we're not putting enough into curing cancer. So cancer is no guarantee that it's going to be cured. I don't think so. You can talk to other people. They're going to say miraculously they're cured, whatever. I don't believe it. They're cells. And for example, in my case that it was in one breast and here under the armpit I decided the other breast too because cells can move in seconds. So why would I do that? Only take this away and have to come back two years later maybe and take the other breast, right? So prophylactically I don't take everything away. Males here in Hawaii, prostate cancer, colon cancer is a big thing but people don't get checked. A lot of, I'm not saying here in Hawaii but at least in Puerto Rico a lot of machismo. I don't need to check my prostate. Then you might lose and you might lose your life too. So how do we get checked? We just go to the doctor and the request? Yes, you say you're educated and you say my family like I always said about my family you always say your family has this history please just scream me and he'll scream you before it's too late. Wow. You can lose not only those organs but your life as well. So let me ask you how do you stay so motivated because I always think about you sometime when I got a headache or my back hurt all the day when I was skating with my daughter I fell and as soon as I fell on the ground and I needed to take a break but I thought about you and said this is nothing and she's going through cancer and she is an inspiration to keep myself motivated. How do you do it every day? What is the secret? Oh thank you. My father was very positive. My mother, my family in the army everything was like suck it up and drive on you know that? Yes. I mean I jumped from planes I did different things so I think I've always been in that same motto and that's what I help people with peak performance because I'm like what are we going to do? I mean we have times to ventilate and feel sad and down completely understood but then if you're going to do it again like I don't see clients that come every week to complain to me. No you complain but you're trying to work on something. I think while you complain about things and get out of your system and shared and kumbaya and everything you should also be thinking about okay what can I do about it? Be responsible about it. So I just think God gave me this life I'm still alive. There's a reason for me to be here not just to be sucking oxygen. It has ever been one day that you just get up in the morning and fail like wow how cancer what are going to do with my life? Maybe at the beginning I already know that I'm gonna keep trying to beat it so the cancer doesn't take me away from my life earlier than I want. I want to see my daughter getting married and stuff or whatever she decides to do. So I think it's my responsibility to take care of it. So if I'm down I go up again. That's what I like about you. I'm highly motivated. Well you know we're almost out of time and we'd like to ask you to give us some advice or recommendations to those who's watching the show right now or your personal experience fighting against cancer. Well thank you again. Get screened. Go to the doctor. Find all the information from your family, the history. A boy thinks everything with moderation eat healthy, drink water, go to bed early and live happy. Enjoy every day. Positive attitude, right? Positive attitude. All right. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you. Thank you. Well we want to say thank you so much for watching Hispanic Hawaii and don't forget you can re-watch the show and many other shows at tintehawai.com. Gracias y hasta luego. Gracias.