Latest / The Eye Believe Podcast / 🍦 Why I Eat Pink Ice Cream – Sharlene Carlson's Story | The Eye Believe Podcast 🎙️

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🍦 Why I Eat Pink Ice Cream – Sharlene Carlson's Story | The Eye Believe Podcast 🎙️ · The Eye Believe Podcast

• 0:00
  hey everyone welcome to the Eye Believe Podcast
• 0:02
  I'm Megan and I am joined by Sharlene
• 0:05
  who is fabulous in pink today
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  Sharlene welcome to the podcast
• 0:09
  thank you Megan
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  I'm here with my pink ice cream cone toy named Pinky
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  oh I love it
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  alright tell us about
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  first of all it's National Ice Cream Day on the 20th
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  so we thought
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  this was a great time to check back in with Sharlene
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  and see what she's got going on
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  so tell us a little bit about your journey
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  and where the pink ice cream comes in
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  okay so first of all
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  I'm celebrating 10 years out from having
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  been diagnosed with ocular melanoma congratulations
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  in April 2015 I was diagnosed to the shock of my life
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  didn't know something I could get
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  and I had a proton beam radiation up at Davis
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  California and um
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  since then I've been monitored and
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  and I have the good fortune that so far
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  do not have any metastases
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  and I can see pretty well
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  um the story about ice cream
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  I wanna talk to you about my mother
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  my mother Edna Carlson
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  and um
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  she was a tough Swede and I should say Yay Sweden
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  um anyway
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  we grew up in the
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  I grew up in the Midwest and my mom lived to be 103
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  she just knew how to survive
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  and so when she was 100
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  shortly after her hundredth birthday
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  um two doctors called me and told me she would
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  be dead in 48 hours
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  because she had had a perforated ulcer
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  so of course
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  I put her on hospice rushed back to Moline
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  Illinois and um
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  you know prepare for her funeral
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  except she didn't die when she woke up
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  the doctors you know she
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  a couple days later they
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  they she woke up and
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  and nobody could explain why
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  and I asked her if she wanted something to eat
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  cause she'd not had anything for a while
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  and she said I want some pink ice cream
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  cause she loved strawberry ice cream
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  and um
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  the DOC said well
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  she'll probably die within a few weeks
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  something will happen it'll burst open
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  she flunked out of hospice six months later
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  and lived for three years
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  so the you know
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  and every day we gave her pink ice cream
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  so this was kind of this joke
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  but when I got um
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  diagnosed with my cancer I'm like
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  how do I kick into survival skills and stay positive
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  so I started eating pink ice cream
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  it's like it works for my mom
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  it's gotta work for me I get a pink ice cream toy
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  of course you know this
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  as I said this is pinky
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  and the other thing I realized it's
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  it's my resilience color
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  so I put a pink streak in the side of my hair
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  some people have wondered if I'm trying to be Barbie
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  but no I'm just trying to stay alive and be fabulous
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  so it's kind of like um
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  it's my way of
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  I figured it's a genetic resilience color
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  they kept my mother alive
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  when she was supposed to be dead
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  so I think
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  it has something to do with why I'm still alive
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  10 years after diagnosis
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  oh and we're so glad you are
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  that's an amazing story I love that
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  you know
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  all these crazy diets we try to do to be healthy
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  and she's like I just want pink ice cream
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  like that's amazing
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  I mean she wasn't a heavy person
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  but she just you know
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  sort of like my grandma used to say
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  a little of what you like does you good
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  you know what I mean it's sort of that
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  so
• 3:25
  Castle Bio Sciences is a proud sponsor of this
• 3:28
  Eye Believe Podcast
• 3:29
  Castle's innovative uveal melanoma tests
• 3:32
  provide
• 3:32
  valuable information about the risk of your eye cancer
• 3:35
  spreading to help you and your healthcare team
• 3:37
  individualize the management of your disease
• 3:40
  to learn more visit Castlebiosciences.com
• 3:43
  anyway I wear pink
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  as you can see I have pink friends
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  I eat pink and it's just
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  so far it's been working for me
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  and on National Ice Cream Day
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  it seems like a good time to celebrate that and say hey
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  pick a color that's your favorite color
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  that's maybe a resilience color for you
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  put it in your hair or put it in your mouth
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  one way or another oh
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  I love it I love it
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  and I love that it can be pink
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  it doesn't have to be blue
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  it doesn't have to be anything
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  be whatever you want whatever it works for you
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  yeah that's amazing
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  so how are you doing now you said you're 10 years out
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  how are you feeling
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  are you doing any kind of treatments
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  what are you up to
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  well I
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  I just had my 77th birthday
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  and I'm still walking this earth
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  so that's something to celebrate
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  I have the good fortune of being treated by
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  Dr. Prithvi Mruthyunjaya at Stanford who follows me
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  he didn't do my initial treatment
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  but he follows me and I have retinopathy in my eye
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  I have some um
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  vision losses and I had swollen retina
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  um it distorts your vision
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  so I I see him every um
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  uh now it's about every 6 weeks
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  and I actually get a
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  a shot in my eye to preserve vision
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  so I'm I'm being monitored all the time
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  you know
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  annually I get scans to see if there are metastases and
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  and uh
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  you know my vision is better
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  my my joke was always well
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  if I have if I have um
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  you know distorted vision
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  I'm okay with that if it makes my boobs look bigger
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  and my butt look smaller but that wasn't the case
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  and so I get the eye shots
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  and get to hang out with Doctor Mruthyunjaya
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  once in a while and he's lovely
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  I mean you know
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  not that it's something you want to do
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  but if you have to do at least
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  you get somebody like him to hang out with
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  for a little bit yeah
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  he is yeah
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  we love him
• 5:31
  alright and you just went to the Palo Alto 5K
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  how was that tell us about your sign
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  I did I went to Palo Alto just had its race
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  a 5K race that was race for a cure
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  and we had I think
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  the largest number of people
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  attending this Palo Alto race
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  and it was a lot of fun and I kind of disrupted by um
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  carrying a sign that said
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  run if you think I am hot with an eye in it
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  but I had a lot of fun so wherever I go
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  I try to you know
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  bring a little joy when I can
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  oh I love it so much
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  and your sign was amazing
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  I wish everybody had the kind of like energy
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  and I say that about myself too
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  I wish I had your energy too
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  like oh
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  what a fun world we'd have
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  yeah I mean it's I you
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  you do what you can you know
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  I mean I
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  I just I try to stay positive and stay alive
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  and I think
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  I think the combination of eating pink ice cream
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  and keeping you know
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  believing that you are a survivor
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  and that's why every morning
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  when I get up and look in the mirror
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  and I look at my hair I know I'm a survivor and that's
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  that keeps me going
• 6:33
  very important and I do a lot of
• 6:35
  of you know
• 6:35
  I raised
• 6:36
  I have helped with various fundraising efforts for A Cure
• 6:38
  In Sight my favorite organization
• 6:40
  a wonderful non profit that has um
• 6:43
  you know does a lot for fun
• 6:45
  funding research and and funding patients
• 6:48
  who need help to get to appointments
• 6:50
  this disease is is not an easy disease to have because
• 6:54
  you know I'm
• 6:54
  I'm fortunate now
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  because I live in an area where my doctor is nearby
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  but that is certainly not the truth
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  not the case for everyone
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  so um
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  you know
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  I try to give where I can to help those who are
• 7:06
  or in have a much more difficult time
• 7:09
  accessing treatment than I do
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  absolutely
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  and we very much appreciate everything that you do
• 7:14
  and all of your support
• 7:46
  so for anyone who's maybe recently diagnosed
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  and they're just finding this podcast
• 7:51
  do you have any words of wisdom
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  I mean you've already given some
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  but is there anything else that you'd want to leave on
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  before we wrap up a final message
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  I think I would say um
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  you know this is one of the it's
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  it's
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  one of the most bizarre experiences I've had in life
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  because you know
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  I didn't even realize I could have this happen to me
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  and you know you it
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  I've had to learn to stay positive
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  to figure out how to manage my own care
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  and make sure people are talking to each other
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  when they need to so it's complex when you
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  when you have a rare disease um
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  but just stay positive stay on top of it
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  never give up look for what our options are out there
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  and of course
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  eat whatever color of ice cream makes your day
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  I love it alright
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  well we will wrap up
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  I just want to wish everyone a happy
• 8:38
  National Ice Cream Day from me and Sharlene
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  and if you would go to our website
• 8:43
  oh yes and Pinky
• 8:44
  we can't forget Pinky absolutely
• 8:47
  so if you would all go to our website
• 8:48
  ACureInSight.org we would love for you to take a look
• 8:51
  and you'll find all kinds of resources
• 8:53
  you'll find 5 K's podcasts
• 8:55
  we do so much webinars so go to our website
• 8:58
  there's a button at the top
• 8:59
  you can click to join our newsletter
• 9:01
  we send out great information
• 9:02
  we have a weekly zoom meeting Tuesday nights
• 9:05
  we have a regular room and a metastatic
• 9:06
  so that everyone can come
• 9:08
  and really connect with someone else
• 9:10
  who knows what you're going through
• 9:12
  and maybe you can be the one that helps the new person
• 9:14
  or maybe you're the new person that needs a buddy
• 9:16
  we have Cure Companions for that
• 9:18
  that's another program you'll find on our website
• 9:20
  we have our store
• 9:21
  and right now we're in the middle of Sight For Life
• 9:23
  it's a new summer campaign we just launched
• 9:26
  it's free to sign up if you do want to make a donation
• 9:29
  when you sign up you get a prize and um
• 9:33
  even though it's free to sign up
• 9:34
  there are lots of prizes for everyone
• 9:36
  and all you have to do is earn points
• 9:37
  to get the prizes and the
• 9:39
  their points are simple things like
• 9:41
  wear blue on Monday you get some points
• 9:44
  um share your fundraiser
• 9:45
  there's points for that
• 9:46
  so please sign up for sight for life
• 9:48
  please help us
• 9:49
  we're trying to raise $100,000 by August 31st
• 9:53
  so please help us with our fundraiser
• 9:55
  sign up get some points share
• 9:57
  there's lots of prizes
• 9:58
  and it's still anyone's game at this point
• 10:00
  so please do that and thank you to our sponsors
• 10:04
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• 10:06
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• 10:07
  they keep all this free education coming to you
• 10:10
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• 10:11
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• 10:12
  to let us know how you liked this episode
• 10:14
  and what you'd like to see in the future
• 10:15
  and we will see you next week
• 10:17
  bye bye everybody bye