Latest / I Choose Me with Jennie Garth / I Choose...To Take Care of Myself with Sasha Pieterse, Samantha Harris, and Dr. Michelle Kittleson

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I Choose...To Take Care of Myself with Sasha Pieterse, Samantha Harris, and Dr. Michelle Kittleson · I Choose Me with Jennie Garth

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: You're listening to I Choose Me with Jenny Garth. Hi, everyone,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: welcome to I Choose Me. This podcast is all about
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the choices we make and where they lead us. As women.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: One of the most important things we can do is
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: advocate for ourselves, and it is not always easy, you guys,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: which is why I wanted to dedicate the entire panel
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: at the event about health and this is wild. Someone
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: at our event ended up going home after hearing this
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: discussion and decided to listen to her body instead of
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: ignoring it. Turns out she was suffering from a heart attack.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: That's right, she was having a heart attack, you guys.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: These conversations are so important and I am so glad
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: we helped Amy save her life that day. Ah Amy,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: I hope you're listening. I am sending you love love
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: love right now. Okay. Today's panel is a powerhouse first
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: up known for her role in Pretty Little Liars and
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: being the CEO of Hippie Water. Sasha petersa cardiologist, doctor
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Michelle Kittleson and Our Incredible Event MC. She's an author,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: a TV host, and two time breast cancer thriver. Samantha Harris.
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  Speaker 1: But before we jump into the panel. I just want
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: to take a quick second to thank some of the
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: amazing sponsors from the day. Let's see Toast they make
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: my favorite sparkling non alcoholic beverage. It is so delicious,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: you need to try it. And my friends at Marrow
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Fine Jewelry. They specialize in crafting modern yet timeless pieces,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: so so beautiful. Okay, let's get into this conversation.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: Let's get started with our choose to take care of
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Myself panel, So please welcome.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: First up, an actor known for her role on Pretty
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Little Liars.
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  Speaker 2: She's the CEO of Hippie Water and the host of
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: her podcast.
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: Women in the Nude. Please welcome show Peterson.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: I mean I told you.
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  Speaker 4: All right.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Next up, we have the professor of medicine at Smittheart Institute,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Cedar Side, and the author of Mastering the Art of
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  Speaker 2: Patient Care, doctor Michelle Ketelson.
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  Speaker 3: All right, and Jenny, Oh that's me.
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  Speaker 4: Wait.
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  Speaker 1: I want you to join us because you are a
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  Speaker 1: badass and I need you. You have so much to
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  Speaker 1: say about taking care of yourself. Join this panel. Okay,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: we need.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: You so now. I prefer organic coffee. We'll get into
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: that later.
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  Speaker 1: Why okay, Okay, I'm going to start with you, my
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  Speaker 1: lovely friends, Sasha. It's so good to see It's so
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: nice to see you two.
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: It's been a minute. A thank you for having me.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, okay, So you were on pretty Little Liars
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: for those of you. The Job an amazing show that
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: basically broke the Twitter, right it did.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, we were really lucky. We were, you know, premiering
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: when Twitter was starting to get really popular, and we
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: were kind of the first show to incorporate it into
• 3:38
  Speaker 5: you know, live television. That was a thing we had
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: to wait for an episode.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Right those days.
• 3:44
  Speaker 5: So live tweeting was a thing for us, and that
• 3:47
  Speaker 5: was that was lucky. I don't know if we would
• 3:49
  Speaker 5: have had the same success without those two things coming together.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: But the interesting thing about that you were so young,
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  Speaker 1: I was you started that show when you were twelve.
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: I did the pilot when I was twelve, that I
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: did the first season when I was thirteen.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, how old was your character that you were playing?
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  Speaker 4: She was about fifteen sixteen.
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  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, such a baby. You were struggling, though
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  Speaker 1: you were silently struggling.
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  Speaker 4: I was not quite a twelve.
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  Speaker 5: So the show ran for about seven seasons, but it
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: was over twenty episodes a season, so as you can
• 4:22
  Speaker 5: relate to this, it actually felt like fourteen seasons. And
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  Speaker 5: you know, I grew up over the course of seven years.
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  Speaker 4: I became a woman. In the course of seven years.
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  Speaker 5: I graduated high school, I started driving, met the man
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  Speaker 5: that was going to be my husband. I did a
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  Speaker 5: lot of life in those seven years. And while all
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: of that was happening, my body was changing, not just
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: because women's bodies naturally changed in those seven years, as
• 4:50
  Speaker 5: they do, but also because I was having some severe
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: health issues that I couldn't figure out. It took me
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  Speaker 5: seventeen kind of call egists and about five years to
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  Speaker 5: figure out that I have pc US.
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  Speaker 1: And so can you explain about for those of you
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  Speaker 1: that don't know.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely so.
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  Speaker 5: A lot of the signs are we gain hormonal fluctuations,
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  Speaker 5: lack of a period.
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  Speaker 4: Or too long of a period. A lot of people
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  Speaker 4: have cysts in their ovaries.
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  Speaker 5: It can be a lot of different things, but it
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  Speaker 5: can also be misdiagnosed a lot. And what ends happening
• 5:34
  Speaker 5: to women, which I'm sure a lot of you can
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  Speaker 5: relate to this. You go to the doctor and you
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: say I'm stressed, my period isn't regular, I'm gaining weight,
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  Speaker 5: I have anxiety. I think I might be a little depressed.
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  Speaker 5: And they say, here's some birth control, or you're too young,
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: it'll regulate eventually, or are you eating things that you
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  Speaker 5: shouldn't be. You know, we get I feel like we
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  Speaker 5: get dismissed more than we get listened to. Still, and
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  Speaker 5: so when I was around fifteen or sixteen seventeen, I
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  Speaker 5: gained seventy pounds in one year with no explanation.
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  Speaker 4: I could not figure it out.
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  Speaker 1: Oh wait, wait, go back. You just said you gained
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  Speaker 1: seventy pounds in one year, and.
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  Speaker 3: I also want to just sorry. All of a sudden,
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  Speaker 3: my journalists have back on.
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  Speaker 2: But PCOS stands for polystytistic ovary syndrome, just in case
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  Speaker 2: anyone doesn't know.
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  Speaker 3: It's very common and a lot of people are misdiagnosed.
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  Speaker 5: A lot of people are misdiagnosed. And what's really sad
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  Speaker 5: about that is that it can turn into other things.
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  Speaker 5: If you have PCOS, it can turn into ovarian cancer,
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  Speaker 5: it can turn into nymetriosis, It can turn into type
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  Speaker 5: two diabetes. It might not be you know, it might
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  Speaker 5: not happen to you, but if you don't catch it
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  Speaker 5: in time, those things, when they're uncontrolled can develop into
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  Speaker 5: things that are not.
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  Speaker 3: And also it can make it challenging for some to
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  Speaker 3: get pregnant.
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  Speaker 5: You have infertility issues or yes, infertility issues are a
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  Speaker 5: big sign. And I think you know, we were told this.
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  Speaker 4: Is how you lose weight. You have to do a
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  Speaker 4: lot of cardio.
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  Speaker 5: You can only eat vegetables, don't eat any fats, don't
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  Speaker 5: eat any you know our snow carbs.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly.
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  Speaker 5: So you get told, Okay, well I'm gonna not I'm
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  Speaker 5: going to hardly eat anything. I can barely eat an almond.
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  Speaker 5: I'm gonna, you know, have a salad, and I'm going
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  Speaker 5: to run my entire life. And that doesn't work for
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  Speaker 5: most women. Everybody's body is different. It might work for some,
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  Speaker 5: but you know, low carb, high protein diet is what
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  Speaker 5: worked for me, and that took me years upon years
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  Speaker 5: to figure out. Pilates is better for me than running
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: on the treadmill. And every single body is different. There
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  Speaker 5: is a diet for everybody. It's not a trend. You
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  Speaker 5: got to figure out what works for you, and that
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  Speaker 5: might mean trying on a lot of different diets. Diet
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: is not a fab word. It should be a way
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  Speaker 5: of life, uh, and something that is attainable. But to
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  Speaker 5: hop back really quick to that period in my life,
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  Speaker 5: I was growing up on camera and my character, in
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: particular I'm pretty old Liars was the it girl, and
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  Speaker 5: so you know, I was supposed to look a certain way.
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  Speaker 5: But we were also doing a lot of flashbacks to
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  Speaker 5: the night that I disappeared very mysterious, and so in
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  Speaker 5: seven years you see me becoming lots of different people
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  Speaker 5: going back to that same night, and it is a
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  Speaker 5: constant comparison to what I look like as a.
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  Speaker 3: Twelve year old.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, and so it's naturally confusing for everybody, to be honest,
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  Speaker 5: Fans all across the world were seeing this character that
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  Speaker 5: they love to hate not look like the character that
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  Speaker 5: they initially loved to hate.
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  Speaker 4: And I couldn't give them an answer.
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  Speaker 5: Not that I necessarily owed anybody one, but I couldn't
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  Speaker 5: even figure it out.
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  Speaker 4: And as Twitter.
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  Speaker 5: And Instagram we're turning into what we turned to on
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  Speaker 5: a daily basis.
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  Speaker 4: It gave people a.
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  Speaker 5: Platform to talk to us across the world, which is amazing,
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  Speaker 5: but also a double edged sword, and so I was
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  Speaker 5: I felt very trapped I bet and I had an
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  Speaker 5: amazing support system, thank goodness at home, But because of that,
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  Speaker 5: I don't I don't think that I would be where
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  Speaker 5: I am now. So I'm actually very thankful for it,
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  Speaker 5: and because of that, I've been able to help so
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  Speaker 5: many other women just advocate for themselves. They might not
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  Speaker 5: have PCUS, but they might have something else.
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  Speaker 1: Go for it. I was going to ask you, being
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  Speaker 1: in that environment on the set of Pretty Little Liars
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  Speaker 1: with a lot of young women around you, how did
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  Speaker 1: that feel like? Did you feel seen and heard? Did
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  Speaker 1: you feel misunderstood?
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  Speaker 5: We have We had a great cast and a great crew,
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  Speaker 5: and you know, we were very lucky, especially considering how
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  Speaker 5: many how much estrogen was on set.
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  Speaker 4: You know, there's a lot of estrogen there.
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  Speaker 5: We were very lucky. Everybody became like a family. Our
• 9:49
  Speaker 5: crew was incredible. But I was also the youngest, so
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  Speaker 5: you know, I was twelve when I started, but the
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  Speaker 5: rest of our cast was I think Lucy was turning
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  Speaker 5: nineteen as the youngest, so I was very we were
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: all playing the same age, but I was very much
• 10:04
  Speaker 5: in a different part of my life now. I've always
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  Speaker 5: felt like I was older. I always had older friends.
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  Speaker 5: You know I connected with adultsmore than I did people
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  Speaker 5: my own age, but there are certain things that are
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  Speaker 5: going on in our lives that are just not the same. Uh.
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  Speaker 4: And they were so kind.
• 10:18
  Speaker 5: And so lovely, and as I got older, obviously that
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  Speaker 5: that gap just becomes smaller. But I felt supportive, but
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  Speaker 5: at the same time I knew that it was an
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  Speaker 5: It was a very frustrating situation, I think for for everybody.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: But you had the support of your handsome husband. I did,
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  Speaker 1: and I do.
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  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: I have known my husband for for so long, way
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: before we started dating, and so we had a level
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: of friendship that was so supportive beforehand, and so when
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: it turned into something romantic, it not only felt natural,
• 10:57
  Speaker 5: but it was also the sense of I see you,
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: I know what you've gone through, I know what you
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: can be and that's really cool.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's support is so important. How do you think
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: people should show up for other people that are suffering
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  Speaker 1: with pcos? Like, how can they support young women?
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: I think ultimately it's.
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  Speaker 5: It's ultimately about being heard, because we can't fix something overnight.
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  Speaker 5: It's a journey for everybody, specifically with pcos. You know,
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  Speaker 5: I feel like I'm in a good path right now,
• 11:32
  Speaker 5: but my body might change in a little bit, my
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: hormones might fluctuate, and I might have to figure out
• 11:36
  Speaker 5: a different solution. Again, it is a constant journey. There
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: is no cure, and it's all about balance. And as
• 11:43
  Speaker 5: a woman, we know that that's not easy. We feel
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: that way in every part of our lives. And you know,
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: when you have a baby, your hormones fluctuate.
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  Speaker 4: Again.
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: I was really lucky that when I had my son,
• 11:57
  Speaker 5: I was in a very very very small percentage of
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: women where it actually almost resets your hormones.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Hendrick saved you, Hendrick.
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: Saved me in so many ways, but that was something
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: that I was totally shocked by. So for the first
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: time in my life, I've had a regular period after
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: having him, and that has been life changing in itself
• 12:17
  Speaker 5: because now my body clock is more centered and I
• 12:21
  Speaker 5: can really navigate my health much better.
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: But often that's.
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: The opposite when you have a baby, you know, because
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: those hormone fluctuations happen. You could go the other way
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: and you could, you know, be dealing with.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: The plethora of other issues. You're talking about that fluctuation.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, we all have experienced that. I know I
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: have an on camera. It's always fun. The criticism is hard.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: How did you handle that? I know how I deal
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: with it, but how did you internalizing.
• 12:51
  Speaker 5: That's not the right way? You know, a couple of
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: different ways. I think for a while I hid. I
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: got to the point where, you know, where I should
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: have been, what should have been the greatest platform, became
• 13:04
  Speaker 5: really scary, and I started having designers say that they
• 13:07
  Speaker 5: can't dress me, and so it was like, well, what's
• 13:11
  Speaker 5: the point? And so I hibernated for a while and
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  Speaker 5: that helped because I had a strong support system, but
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  Speaker 5: it wasn't really solving the issue.
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  Speaker 4: And so that it takes work. It takes work on yourself.
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  Speaker 5: You have to be you have to choose yourself before
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: any of that can really develop on like a confidence
• 13:31
  Speaker 5: side when it comes to like facing the world publicly
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: or not.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Right, we're gonna we're gonna talk a lot later about menopause,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: But do you feel like PCOS needs to be talked
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: about more openly?
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: Absolutely? I mean all of our health issues do.
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  Speaker 5: We're so understudied, and PCUS is one of those things
• 13:50
  Speaker 5: where because it affects women in so many different ways.
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: Long term being proactive about your hormones and your insulin
• 13:56
  Speaker 5: resistance and everything that comes along with it. It's a
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: it's a lifetime journey. It's something that you can to
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: keep working on. And so the sooner we catch it,
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: the faster we catch it, the better our chances are
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: going to be. And so ultimately, yes, it's about awareness.
• 14:13
  Speaker 5: We need to keep talking about it. We need to
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: keep asking our doctors to listen to us and really
• 14:18
  Speaker 5: get to a place where it's easier to be diagnosed.
• 14:22
  Speaker 5: The signs are actually very clear if you've.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Just got a food panel for all time.
• 14:29
  Speaker 5: Seventeen gynecologists told me that I was too young, lying
• 14:34
  Speaker 5: flat out somebody flat out told me that I must
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: be lying about what I'm eating, that I must just
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: be eating terribly.
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: I mean I got everything and nothing from gynecologists, and
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: I had a friend recommend going to an endocrinologist. I
• 14:49
  Speaker 5: sat down with an endochronologist.
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: I told her what I.
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: Was experiencing, and she was like, well, I mean it
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: sounds like you pcus. I can't be sure until we
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: take a blood panel, but let's figure it out.
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: But that was what you're saying, It's this is what
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: it sounds.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: Like as simple as that.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: Well, will you just again for everybody, hammer it down?
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: What were your symptoms? And was it the blood test?
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: And can you just say to.
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: An undercanologist or a gynocologist, I.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: Want you to test me for pcos and is it
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: that definitive?
• 15:23
  Speaker 5: Yes, I mean you The answers are yeah, all the above.
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: So most commonly, which was what happened with me? I
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: had a severe vitamin ded efficiency. I my testosterone was
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: through the roof way higher than normal, and I was
• 15:40
  Speaker 5: obviously gaining weight. I had a really inconsistent period. I
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: would go six months, nine months without having a period,
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: and so I wasn't sure if I was even ovulating. Uh,
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: that's a really big sign. A lot of women have.
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: A lot of gastro issues.
• 15:55
  Speaker 5: And you know, struggling to lose weight even though you're
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: gaining weight, struggling not being able to to lose any weight.
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: A lot of women have depression and brain fog and fatigue,
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: and they don't realize that it's also connected. So if
• 16:08
  Speaker 5: you have any of those things, a combination of those things,
• 16:12
  Speaker 5: definitely ask. It does look different on everybody. I have
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: a really good friend who genetically is just she just
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: looks like a model, and she didn't have any clue
• 16:23
  Speaker 5: that she had PCOS until she started trying to get pregnant.
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: She had infertility.
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: Issues, and she always thought that her gas or issues
• 16:31
  Speaker 5: were like you know, sense reality, he's allergic, yeah, gluten free.
• 16:35
  Speaker 5: She was always changing her diet. Can never figure it out,
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: and it was actually PCOS. And so she went in
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: for a blood test and that was how it was diagnosed.
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: And so a full.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: Blood panel, just a blood test.
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: Your cholesterol is a huge trigger if you've got high cholesterol,
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: and so yeah, your main ones are your estrogen, your testosterone.
• 16:57
  Speaker 5: A full blood panel, you will see all of these things.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: So it's not like, hey, here's the it's not here's
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: the PCOS test. It's let's look at your cholesterol, your
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: vitamin D, you look at your testosterol, or look at
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: your different estrogens and other hormones, and then paint the
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: picture from that.
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: Yes, and if you are experiencing any pain in your
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: ovaries yet, good job.
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 17:17
  Speaker 5: If you're experiencing any like pain in your ovaries, something
• 17:20
  Speaker 5: that seems maybe abnormal, or stomach pains, if you think
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: you have PCOS, you should also ask for an ultrasound. Now,
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: I actually don't have any system my ovaries, So honestly,
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: it's kind of a silly name for the for the
• 17:33
  Speaker 5: disease because you might not have.
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: Any system your ovaries.
• 17:37
  Speaker 5: But most women who have pcos have system they're ovaries,
• 17:39
  Speaker 5: and a lot of women find out they have pcos
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: when a cyst ruptures, which is not fun. And so
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: just because you don't have cysts doesn't mean you don't
• 17:48
  Speaker 5: have it. And it's kind of a game of like
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: what on the list do I have? What don't I have?
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: But the fixes aren't simple, but they are easy to implement,
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: and so I think that's important. Is like there's there
• 18:03
  Speaker 5: is more and more research on it, but ultimately it's
• 18:07
  Speaker 5: like figuring out what works for your body, and like
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: most things in our lives, it's the right type of
• 18:12
  Speaker 5: diet for you, the right fitness for you, and figuring
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: out what little things.
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: That you can do.
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: Medication might be something it doesn't It could be I
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: always try and not get on medication, but it but
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: it's always something that I look to, which is Western
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: and Eastern medicine together. I think they always go together,
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: and I don't think we should hide from either one.
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: I think they need to support each other. And so, yes,
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: it's a mixed bag, right.
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: It's like, what's going to work for you?
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: You're going to have to go on that journey and
• 18:47
  Speaker 5: find out for yourself.
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: But it is rewarding to know what's wrong with you.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: I love it that you've been so open about it
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: and such a great voice for the condition, and so
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: many young girls are aware of it because of you
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: sharing your story. So thank you, Hi, thank you, so brave, Samantha.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: I want to talk to you because people have loved
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: watching you throughout your career. I'm one of me big fans.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Big We're big fans up here, Samantha Harris. Thanks and
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: now your podcast and your book, Your Healthiest Healthy.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: Which you all have in your gift bag. By the way,
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: thank you to iHeartRadio. iHeartRadio got happy.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: Yes, but if we could just go back to the
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: beginning for you, Does breast cancer run in your family?
• 19:32
  Speaker 6: No?
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: The biggest shock that I had, because I was looking
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: for answers at forty, being as fit and healthy as
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: I had ever been, Right, was okay?
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: My dad died of colon cancer when he was fifty.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: His mom and there's a breast colon connection hereditarily.
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: I didn't know that.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you can test for that for the genetic link.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: His mom my grandmother was a breast cancer survivor postman
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: apostles diagnosis, so they don't connect that. To mind, this
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: was just premaopausal but lived to ninety five, God bless her.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: But I was certain I.
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: Must have a genetic link.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: And I did the battery one hundred and eighty different
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: or maybe more than that. Now genetic tests for breast
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: cancer and no genetic link. And so I'm a national
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: ambassador for Susan g Coman an American cancer Society, And
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: the biggest mind blowing stat to me was that for
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: breast cancer, now one in eight women will be diagnosed
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: with invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime,
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: and yet only five to ten percent of those breast
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: cancers are actually genetic. And here I was, I had
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: no hereditary link. And I remember when I got that news,
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: which is really good news to celebrate at first, and
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: only for a moment, I was disappointed.
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: I was disappointed because then I thought, well, what the heck,
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: why me?
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: Why am I eating egg white onlets, skinless, boneless.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: Chicken dresss.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: Why am I eating jeesus freaking pizza?
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: All right? Now?
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: Of course here I was, you know, growing up in
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: the eighties and nineties and early two thousands with the
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: fat free, low fat generation, eating my rows of those
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: sandwich cookies I won't name my name, you know, the
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: ones that are white with the white cream in the middle.
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: I would eat an.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: Entire row, or or the licorice that I also won't
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: name that's full of red dye forty and high fructose scorns.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: But nobody'm looking at all of that. So that was
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: the biggest shock, and that's what sent me on my journey.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: I thought I was my health you know, I was
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: thought I was healthy, but I realized I needed to
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: be my healthiest healthy, which is why the book is
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: called Your Healthiest Healthy?
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: Can you?
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: Okay?
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: So when you first got your first diagnosis, was that
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: something that you discovered or was did a doctor discover it?
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: The biggest lesson I learned is we have to be
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: our own health advocate. And you guys are all here
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: live or listening to this, and you know you have
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: to choose yourself.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: I choose me. So I didn't realize how much I
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: had to.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: So the fast answer to that was I had my
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: fortieth birthday a month in the future, and I thought
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: I should get a mammogram, because that's what you do
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: at forty. Had them squished and pushed an ouch and
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: it was clear.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: I mean it should be clear.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: I'm so healthy and eleven Jenny, eleven days after clear
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: mammogram results, I was changing after a workout and you
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: know how tight those sports bras are, so I'm like
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: moving them to the left, moving them to the right,
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: little rotation going on. I called the soft tissoe tango
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: and uh the ten ten yes.
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: And there it was.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: There was a slump and I mean it was sizey.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: Like I said to my husband, Am I crazy? Like
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: do you feel this?
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: Yeah?
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: I feel it. Do you see it? Yeah? No, I
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: can see it. And I'm thinking, how did they miss
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: that on the mammogram.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: I could have stuck my head in the sand and
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: I could have just said, you know what, I just
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: had clear results.
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: I'm good.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: But I thought, you know, I'll call the doctor who's
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: the only doctor who ever does a breast exam when
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: I'm in the you know, And that's of course the
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: guy I know. So there I was at my obigu
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: i N. I trusted her more than any doctor. She
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: delivered both my kids. I mean I was seeing her
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: before I'd.
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: Even had sex.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: Okay, I was like, and I was really old when
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: that happened. So tmi, Oh, my kids aren't listening to this.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: Actually hopefully they are, so they wait, any teenage girls,
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: it's fun, okay.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: So anyhow, so there I was. I went to see
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: my obig i N.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: She did a quick clinical exam and Jenny's same thing.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: It's like, nope, it's nothing, don't worry about it, and
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: sent me on my way. Months later, lump's still there.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: I thought, yeah, I should probably get a second opinion.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: So then I well, again, not cancer because I just
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: had that clear mammogram.
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: I've Ghino said it's nothing.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: So I saw my internest he did a quick feel,
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: said it was nothing. Four months later, lumps still there.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: Now that inner voice and this is where we have
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: to get quiet. Sometimes we really have to listen to
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: that inner voice. And it was screaming at me, Antha,
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: you need to see an expert who looks at breasts
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: every day as a specialty. Little did I know there's
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: only one specialty that does that. Now, that's a breastoncologist.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: So here I was in a cancer center and she
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: did two ultrasounds, a needle biopsy.
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: We did a subsequent MRI, not one.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: And this is not to scare you, but this is
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: just to again implore you to be your own best
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: health advocate and push for answers. I didn't think it
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: was cancer, but I pushed for answers. Not one diagnostic
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: test showed that it was cancer, to the point that
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: she came back in with the results after the needle biopsy.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: Pathology came back and she said, Samantha, I have good
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: news and bad news. The good news is it's not cancer.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: But the bad news is.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: I don't know what it is. Let me do a
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: lump back to me. I'll just take the lump out. Figured, okay, look,
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: the moves did what they had to do. They got me,
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: my husband, they fed my kids.
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: I'll have a scar now.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: And so a month after a week after that, pathology
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: for the lumpeck to me came back.
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: I told my husband, it's a beautiful day, go golf.
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: Why don't you, honey, go golf?
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: So nice enough you Sasha's like, yeah, we both had
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: golf widows, so we understand the golf thing.
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: And so he was, which I sent him on his way.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: The three and six year old are playing at home,
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: and I sat in the dark, dank doctor's office as
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: she's feverishly drawing diagrams of boobs and dots of cancer.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: And you have ductal carconoma insight too, and it's invasive.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Wow, that's that is a crazy story. And if it
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: wasn't for your persistence, your tenacity in wanting to know
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: about your body, you would have never known, and who
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: knows where you would be.
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: And that's, you know, that's.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: The scary thing I think about is if I had
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: taken the doctor's advice, or had I stuck my head
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: in the sand and not. And again, I really didn't
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: think I had cancer, you guys, I did not think.
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: I had cancer.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: So it was really shocking when I had that diagnosis.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: And then that just you know, started my cancer journey
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: and cancer versity. As you're having like you know, trying
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: to take a sip from the fire hose and all
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: the information's coming and you're collecting information and you know,
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: multiple opinions. I always encourage with any type of health diagnosis,
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: if you have the opportunity, if your.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: Insurance allows or your own finances.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Allowed, get a second opinion, get.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: A third opinion, and then make your decision. But gather
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: the information and don't always, as I'm sitting next to
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: an incredible cardiologist right now, don't always take the first
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: bit of advice that comes. And a good doctor, and
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: I know doctor Kilson will second.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: This will not be offended if you get a second opinion.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: Right They want you to Okay, So talk to us
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: about the moment you found out that your cancer had returned.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: What was going through your mind then?
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: So in the in.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: Between, by the way, So twenty fourteen was when I
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: was dyingnosed. After lots of information gathering, I opted for
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: a double.
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: Mestectomy with two stage reconstruction.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: I was on an endocrine therapy so at estrogen blocker
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: for seven and a half years. Celebrated my tenure cancer
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: versary and my twentieth wedding anniversary with an amazing trip.
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: With the family, and then came back to knowing.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: That I needed to have a biopsy because about a
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: year before my second diagnosis, I again found a little
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: lump and I went to Now I have my doc
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: squad stacked, so I was going to the right experts.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: But even they said this tiny little it was like
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: smaller than the size of a pe. But it was
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: in the same exact location of my original tumor, so
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: that gave me pause.
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: But they all said it's not anything. We're not worried
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: about it. We had an ultrasound, but ultrasound came back
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: looked great.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: But finally, my stepfather is a retired surgeon, not he's
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: a pediatric surgeon, but he kept saying, you need to
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: get a surgeon's hands on this. So I went back
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: to my best ectomy surgeon. They did another ultrasound, still
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: said it was fine, so I want to see you
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: in six months.
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: We'll check it out. Then I said, no, I'm not
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: comfortable with that. How about in a month?
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: They said a month, we're not going to notice any difference,
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: but well how about this three months?
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: Like, oh deal, I'll see you in three months.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: So every three months I was looking at that ultrasound
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: result again and it was staying the same until it
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: changed shape, to.
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: Which we then needed that biopsy.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: So I returned from this amazing celebration of twenty years married,
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: ten years cancerversary cancer free and got those results, and
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: I remember the nurse practitioner called and she.
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: Said, Samantha, I cannot believe it. It's cancer again.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: Believable And your family was there for you through this
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: whole journey. And you know, you have two beautiful daughters.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: How do you guide them moving forward early detection in tests?
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: What do you tell your daughters in such.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: A different conversation than when I was diagnosed and they
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: were three and six now they were thirteen and sixteen.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: And the hardest part of this journey, besides, of course,
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: waiting to make sure after the bone scans and the
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: CT scans that it hadn't metastasized, with thank goodness it
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: did not, was having to sit across for my daughters
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: with my husband and tell them that mommy has cancer
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: again again.
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: They were very well versed.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: In the fact that I had cancer, but they saw
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: me as the survivor who was thriving and doing an
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: amazing you know, I was killing it in the workouts
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: and the hikes, and I was, you know, running them,
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: and I'm eating healthily, and I changed up all my makeup,
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: my skin.
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: Garrett got all the talks I've amid.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: All these sweeping changes to be my healthiest healthy, and
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: I share and guide others to do that. I went
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: back to school to become a certified health coach. I've
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: been a certified trainer for like forever. And so this
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: is the line I walk, this is the world I
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: live in, and here I was with this diagnosis. So
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: explain to them that this is what was happening, and
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: they just of course wanted to know, Mommy, are you
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: going to be okay?
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: That was crushing. Yeah, but yes, I'm going to be okay,
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: and I have to believe that.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: So that is a wild story. And it's so valuable
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: that you're sharing that with all of us because sometimes
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: we don't want to know the truth, and I think
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: in your situation, you kept fighting for the truth because
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: you knew instinctually and that's just so inspiring.
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: And to answer your question in a short form because
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: I know I like to talk, sorry, is that if
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: you have a cancer diagnosis in your family with a
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: first degree relative. So, for instance, my dad was diagnosed
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: at forty eight died at fifty of colon cancer. I've
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: been getting colonoscopy since thirty five every three years, not
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: every five.
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: I push for every little.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: And I had followed out that I actually even had
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: some of those times and didn't realize that I would
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: have had them so important. So for my daughters, they
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: will also start about ten years before with their breast detection.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: Only those screenings get further and further apart as I've
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: gotten older. It used to be the four years, Now
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: it's six years. And for the you know the check
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: thank you insurance. Yeah, I guess so. So your persistence
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: really paid off and you're able to teach your daughters
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: that which is going to keep them healthy. Yes, it's incredible.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: I hope you were talking about your dad. My father
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: suffered from a massive heart attack when he was thirty seven.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: I think, is that right?
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: Mom?
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: Thirty seven? And so I got curious when I hit
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: my thirties and I thought, I I want to get
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: a cardiologist. Is this crazy? And one day I was
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: on Larry King Live speaking on behalf of the American
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: Heart Association, on behalf of my father and I. After
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: we quit, I went to doctor P. K. Shaw and
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: I said, please, will you be my cardiologist? He looked
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: at me so oddly, and he's like, you're so young.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: But Okay, come and see me. And everybody thought I
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: was crazy. They thought I was being dramatic by getting
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: a cardiologist at that age. But I did not want
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: to go down the road that my dad had gone down.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: So I went in and I asked for certain tests,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: and I stepped right up as my own heart health advocate.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: I want to talk to you, doctor Kittelsen, about health
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: and the fact that women who are hospitalized are less
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: likely to get the treatment they need and more likely
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: to die from heart disease.
• 32:48
  Speaker 6: There's no question there are these very disturbing sex related
• 32:53
  Speaker 6: trends and outcomes for heart disease, and I just want
• 32:57
  Speaker 6: to echo it's such a gift for me sits on
• 33:00
  Speaker 6: the other side most of the time as the physician
• 33:03
  Speaker 6: and not the patient, to hear these such powerful stories.
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: One of the things I do is medical.
• 33:08
  Speaker 6: Education, trying to teach trainees how to listen the art
• 33:13
  Speaker 6: of diagnosis, and so much of that on the physician
• 33:16
  Speaker 6: end is embracing the uncertainty, understanding the uncertainty, not feeling
• 33:21
  Speaker 6: confident you always have the right answer.
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: So I want to thank you both for those stories, and.
• 33:26
  Speaker 6: I would yes, please clap because they're amazing.
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: And then I also want.
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: To make it actionable.
• 33:32
  Speaker 6: Not something I'll take back to my medical students, but
• 33:34
  Speaker 6: something you and the audience can also take back. How
• 33:38
  Speaker 6: can you prevent perhaps these episodes of misdiagnosis or not
• 33:42
  Speaker 6: being heard? And I think there's two very important, three
• 33:44
  Speaker 6: very important things. Number one, go in with your agenda.
• 33:47
  Speaker 6: When do you ever go to a meeting and not
• 33:49
  Speaker 6: have an agenda with your action items and priorities. Women
• 33:51
  Speaker 6: always have a list, So have a list of the
• 33:54
  Speaker 6: things you want to accomplish, things you want answered. Number two,
• 33:58
  Speaker 6: it's so important to say, I know you think it's X,
• 34:02
  Speaker 6: but is there any way it could be wires?
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: It?
• 34:05
  Speaker 6: You don't have to know what wires rsay is there
• 34:07
  Speaker 6: something outside of the box we're not thinking of? And
• 34:10
  Speaker 6: number three, never be afraid to get a second opinion.
• 34:15
  Speaker 6: If your doctor is one hundred percent confident, but you're
• 34:18
  Speaker 6: not buying what they're selling because there's always some uncertainty
• 34:21
  Speaker 6: involved in and I think a good physician will recognize
• 34:25
  Speaker 6: that uncertainty and make a plan to deal with it.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: Our heart attack symptoms the same for men and women.
• 34:32
  Speaker 6: It's the short answer is no. This is the general
• 34:36
  Speaker 6: teaching is this. Any symptom between your nose and your
• 34:40
  Speaker 6: navel could be your heart. It's not always going to
• 34:43
  Speaker 6: be the classic crushing chest discomfort. It's not going to
• 34:46
  Speaker 6: be on the left side of your chest because the
• 34:48
  Speaker 6: heart's on the left side of your chest. For me,
• 34:51
  Speaker 6: the huge red flag is going to be not necessarily
• 34:55
  Speaker 6: how you describe it, but often when it happens. The
• 34:59
  Speaker 6: heart is a muscle. It's going to get into trouble
• 35:02
  Speaker 6: when you use the muscle. So any symptom that tends
• 35:05
  Speaker 6: to get worse when you exert yourself gets better when
• 35:09
  Speaker 6: you rest is a huge red flag. I don't care
• 35:12
  Speaker 6: if it's in the right side of your chest or
• 35:15
  Speaker 6: the left side of your jaw. If it happens in
• 35:17
  Speaker 6: that sense, that is a huge red flag. Be very
• 35:20
  Speaker 6: mindful of triggers.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: Right, and the numbers are rising, isn't that correct?
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: You know?
• 35:24
  Speaker 6: I think it's a blessing and a curse that we
• 35:27
  Speaker 6: all live longer. And if you live longer, you're more
• 35:29
  Speaker 6: likely today something's going to happen to you, and it
• 35:31
  Speaker 6: might as well be heart disease. And I think the
• 35:33
  Speaker 6: other epidemic we're dealing with, of course, is overweight and
• 35:38
  Speaker 6: that is a risk factor. So I think we have
• 35:40
  Speaker 6: to all recognize no one wants to happen, but if
• 35:43
  Speaker 6: it's going to be there, you'd rather know about it
• 35:45
  Speaker 6: than not know about it.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Do you think that stress, because we all have
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: that thing called stress, does that play into our risks
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: for heart disease?
• 35:57
  Speaker 6: You know, I'm a big believer in we don't worry,
• 36:00
  Speaker 6: we make a plan. Okay, So we're never going to
• 36:02
  Speaker 6: get rid of stress, right, And there's no scientific study
• 36:06
  Speaker 6: where you can dose humans with stress like you dose
• 36:08
  Speaker 6: a lab rat and actually sees what happens. So yes,
• 36:11
  Speaker 6: probably stress isn't good for you, but we're never going
• 36:13
  Speaker 6: to get rid of it, so we have to figure
• 36:15
  Speaker 6: out better ways to.
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: Deal with it.
• 36:17
  Speaker 6: And conferences like this that give you so many amazing
• 36:21
  Speaker 6: tools through all these sessions are going to be huge.
• 36:24
  Speaker 6: But if there's one thing that we can all do
• 36:26
  Speaker 6: that's going to help, it's going to be exercise. Whether
• 36:28
  Speaker 6: you're running up and down the stairs at the CBS
• 36:30
  Speaker 6: studios or wherever you make it work. That will be
• 36:33
  Speaker 6: a one two punch win win of stress relief and
• 36:38
  Speaker 6: good for your heart.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: Do you think that a diet plays a factor.
• 36:44
  Speaker 6: You know. I love so much, Sasha, I love so
• 36:47
  Speaker 6: much about what you said. It resonates with me one
• 36:49
  Speaker 6: thousand percent when you talked about there is no one
• 36:52
  Speaker 6: right diet. Every book will tell you that their diet
• 36:55
  Speaker 6: is the right diet, but you can't really dose humans
• 36:57
  Speaker 6: with diets and do scientific studies the same where you
• 37:00
  Speaker 6: can dose labrats. So honestly, one hundred percent, the right
• 37:04
  Speaker 6: answer is what works. There is one rule I give
• 37:06
  Speaker 6: all my patients, which is, if you have to open
• 37:09
  Speaker 6: it and stick your hand in to eat it, it's
• 37:11
  Speaker 6: probably not good for you. But short of that, you
• 37:15
  Speaker 6: just have to take the common sense approaches. Grandma told
• 37:18
  Speaker 6: you lean meat's, whole grains, fruits and vegetables. If you
• 37:21
  Speaker 6: have to make it yourself, it's probably better.
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: And I try to.
• 37:24
  Speaker 6: And then patients will often come to me and say, well,
• 37:26
  Speaker 6: should I become a vegan? I've heard the vegan diet's
• 37:28
  Speaker 6: the best, and I say nothing against the vegan diet,
• 37:31
  Speaker 6: but are you going to live longer or just feel
• 37:34
  Speaker 6: like you're living longer because it's so unsustainable? So really
• 37:38
  Speaker 6: you have to pick what makes sense. It's healthy, but
• 37:41
  Speaker 6: it's sustainable for you.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: Did you guys, know that heart disease is the number
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: one killer of American women. I didn't know that. I
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: thought for sure it was cancer, but it over. If
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: you combine all the cancers, heart disease is still the
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: number one killer of American women. Just so you know,
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: just do take it seriously, not to scare you, just
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: to give you the knowledge so you can take care
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: of yourself better. I want to open it up to
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: all of you. Okay, growing up, did you have a
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: maternal figure in your life that you talked to about
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: women's health in general.
• 38:22
  Speaker 4: I'll go first, I guess.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: Yes, go.
• 38:24
  Speaker 5: I mean I was really I am really close with
• 38:27
  Speaker 5: my mom, so yes, I mean I was an only child,
• 38:31
  Speaker 5: so I didn't have a sister or an older sister
• 38:33
  Speaker 5: to maybe talk to about that. I feel like I
• 38:36
  Speaker 5: was really open with my mom. I do remember when
• 38:39
  Speaker 5: I got my period, which was when I was like
• 38:44
  Speaker 5: I think I was either just turning ten or right
• 38:46
  Speaker 5: before I turned ten, which is also very early early bloomer.
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: Yes I was.
• 38:50
  Speaker 5: In anyways, I remember that was the only time.
• 38:54
  Speaker 4: I feel like she didn't know what to do.
• 38:58
  Speaker 5: I think she was so taken off guard that it
• 39:00
  Speaker 5: had happened so quickly, and she just she gave me
• 39:05
  Speaker 5: a tampon and.
• 39:06
  Speaker 4: She closed the door and I was like, I don't
• 39:08
  Speaker 4: know what to do. She's like, you'll figure it out.
• 39:09
  Speaker 4: We all do.
• 39:12
  Speaker 5: And I think that's about as closed off as she's
• 39:14
  Speaker 5: ever been. She definitely got more open after that when
• 39:18
  Speaker 5: I had more questions, but he had to work. I did.
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: I had to ease her.
• 39:22
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 39:23
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think ultimately, my mom had a lot of
• 39:27
  Speaker 5: her own health issues. She was a dancer and so
• 39:31
  Speaker 5: when she was growing up, her mom was kind of
• 39:34
  Speaker 5: emotionally abusive and she ended up becoming bolliemic because of it,
• 39:39
  Speaker 5: and then she got hyper thyritism, so her body was
• 39:43
  Speaker 5: working over time. She was losing a ton of weight
• 39:46
  Speaker 5: and could not figure out why. She had seen every
• 39:50
  Speaker 5: single specialist you could think of, and it was a
• 39:53
  Speaker 5: nose and foot doctor that figured out that she had
• 39:56
  Speaker 5: a thyrite issue. That is what people were still making
• 40:00
  Speaker 5: tubes down her throat, which by the way, only made
• 40:02
  Speaker 5: her thyroid worse. It was just tons of inflammation. I mean,
• 40:06
  Speaker 5: she had every test and this was back in South Africa,
• 40:10
  Speaker 5: which is where I'm from, and nobody could figure it out.
• 40:13
  Speaker 4: Now, this was before I was born.
• 40:15
  Speaker 5: She was losing weight rapidly to the point where she
• 40:18
  Speaker 5: was really really sick.
• 40:20
  Speaker 4: She was losing her hair. They could not figure it out.
• 40:23
  Speaker 5: They had a dance contract in America that they had
• 40:26
  Speaker 5: already agreed to. My parents were a speciality act, and
• 40:30
  Speaker 5: so they got on the plane and you know, this
• 40:33
  Speaker 5: was before we all had cell phones, and my grandma
• 40:38
  Speaker 5: knew where she was, where they were staying, and she
• 40:41
  Speaker 5: just kept getting all of like, she just kept calling
• 40:43
  Speaker 5: and they weren't there yet. By the time she finally
• 40:46
  Speaker 5: got my mom on the phone, she was like, you
• 40:48
  Speaker 5: have hyperthyroidism and you need to get to a doctor
• 40:51
  Speaker 5: immediately otherwise.
• 40:52
  Speaker 4: You could literally die any second.
• 40:56
  Speaker 5: And so she had to take the radiation pill. Now she's,
• 40:59
  Speaker 5: you know, on a lifelong thyroid pill medication for it,
• 41:04
  Speaker 5: and so, you know, I think, I think with all
• 41:08
  Speaker 5: of my issues, it was like, well, we've got diabetes
• 41:11
  Speaker 5: in the family on both sides, both type one and
• 41:14
  Speaker 5: type two. We have thyroid issues on my mom's side,
• 41:21
  Speaker 5: we have random cancers on both sides. And I think
• 41:26
  Speaker 5: it was like I was determined to find what was
• 41:28
  Speaker 5: wrong with me because I knew that there were lots
• 41:31
  Speaker 5: of different things, got lots of different risks. My mom
• 41:34
  Speaker 5: had struggled so hard to find her diagnosis.
• 41:37
  Speaker 4: But I think it was also.
• 41:40
  Speaker 5: It's also one of those things where and I would
• 41:42
  Speaker 5: never blame this on her. I think it's one of
• 41:45
  Speaker 5: those things where her and I were both in an
• 41:47
  Speaker 5: industry where what you looked like mattered. Yeah, and so
• 41:51
  Speaker 5: it's like, I don't think there being an actual issue
• 41:56
  Speaker 5: or disease was her first thought.
• 41:59
  Speaker 6: For me.
• 42:00
  Speaker 5: I think it was like, well, we got to just
• 42:02
  Speaker 5: figure out what's happening with your weight, and it wasn't
• 42:05
  Speaker 5: the connection because that wasn't something that had happened to her.
• 42:09
  Speaker 5: And so I think ultimately it's knowledge, right, Knowledge is power,
• 42:13
  Speaker 5: And like you had said before, which is a real
• 42:15
  Speaker 5: real thing.
• 42:17
  Speaker 4: Sometimes we just don't want to know what it is.
• 42:19
  Speaker 5: We put it off because that's very scarier. Yeah, but
• 42:24
  Speaker 5: at the end of the day, you need to know,
• 42:27
  Speaker 5: you need to make what's happening to you. It's not
• 42:30
  Speaker 5: worth living with that, it's not worth that you know,
• 42:35
  Speaker 5: it could it literally could be life and death. And
• 42:38
  Speaker 5: so that mother relationship that I had with her definitely
• 42:44
  Speaker 5: definitely made it easier. But I think we are all
• 42:47
  Speaker 5: ill equipped in some way. We don't always have all
• 42:51
  Speaker 5: the answers. And so you know, you have daughters, we
• 42:54
  Speaker 5: have sons, And if I had a daughter, I think
• 42:58
  Speaker 5: that is the thing where it would be like like,
• 43:01
  Speaker 5: you know, I'm gonna do this with my son too,
• 43:02
  Speaker 5: but those risks. It's like, if I had a daughter,
• 43:05
  Speaker 5: all I would want to do is want to make
• 43:06
  Speaker 5: sure that we're at every checkup, that we're caught, you know,
• 43:09
  Speaker 5: making sure that everything is on the right track, that
• 43:14
  Speaker 5: we can as far as we can help it. And
• 43:16
  Speaker 5: also you know, cross off those things earlier. It doesn't
• 43:21
  Speaker 5: the heart dizzy thing like you. It's happening to women
• 43:23
  Speaker 5: in their twenties and their thirties.
• 43:25
  Speaker 4: You know, it's not you.
• 43:26
  Speaker 5: There's no like age that you get to where it's like, okay,
• 43:29
  Speaker 5: well now I've been safe for it or from it
• 43:32
  Speaker 5: up until now. That doesn't really exist anymore. Tell me
• 43:36
  Speaker 5: if I'm wrong.
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: I have a daughter who thinks she's eighteen. Now you
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: know who you are over there, She is eighteen, but
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: she thinks that she should just go to the doctor
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: by herself. I'm like, I know you don't want to
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: hang out with me, but I'm gonna go with you
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: because I know a thing or two about a thing
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: or two, and I want to make sure that we're
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: getting all of our questions answered. So that's really important too.
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: Did you who is it in your life that taught
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: you to choose yourself?
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: I think it definitely comes back to the moms. You know,
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: we hope we do for our kids. And my mom's
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: always in my ear, I mean with both of my
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: you know, now I'm fifty one and she's still in
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: my ear.
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: You know, I'll forget.
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: I'll literally go to an appointment now as active and
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: this is my whole jam, right, I'm all about wellness
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: and all of the things that I'm talking and I'm
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: sharing with other people. And yet she'll be like, hey,
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: by the way, did you ever get results for that.
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: MRI you had or did you get oh?
• 44:29
  Speaker 4: Not about for guys?
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: Should check up on that.
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: Are so important? So important? I love you mom, So
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: you guys, this has been such a valuable conversation. I
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: think that I feel like I've learned a lot and
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: I feel validated by you, doctor Kittelsen, to know that
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: I have the option to go out there and find
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: the help that I need. Ask the questions that I
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: have on my list. It's so important also just listening
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: to your instincts, Sasha, and for you persistence in knowing
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: and listening to your body and not taking oh everything's fine.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: For an answer, can I ask a quick question? Yeah,
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: why did you choose cardiology?
• 45:14
  Speaker 6: I'm the fifth generation of doctors in my family, an
• 45:17
  Speaker 6: only child and the child of Indian immigrants, so it's
• 45:21
  Speaker 6: pretty incis then that I would be a doctor. But
• 45:23
  Speaker 6: it's the greatest privileged job in the world. I became
• 45:25
  Speaker 6: a cardiologist for three reasons. Number one, talking to a
• 45:28
  Speaker 6: patient actually matters when you're a cardiologist. You can't diagnose
• 45:31
  Speaker 6: everything with a blood test. I enjoy that interaction. Number two,
• 45:35
  Speaker 6: there's a beautiful pathophysiology about how the heart works, and
• 45:39
  Speaker 6: I love the science. And number three, there's a pantheon
• 45:43
  Speaker 6: of clinical trials that show treatments work, and I love
• 45:46
  Speaker 6: bringing those to patients.
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: I love your enthusiasm. It's so great to meet a
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: doctor like this. Thank you, thank you, thank you for
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: sharing your stories.
• 45:54
  Speaker 3: Before we get this is such a fun lot. We
• 45:56
  Speaker 3: need to do a photo.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: Oh my god.
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: Okay, you guys can get on your phones first, and.
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: If you want to. You don't have to, I mean,
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: but if you want all right? Ready, all right?
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Nice?
• 46:07
  Speaker 5: One?
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: Two three?
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: Good? We got it, We got it. Thank you so much, ladies,
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: I love you. Thank you so much. It was so
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: great to meet you. I'll be calling you though.
• 46:19
  Speaker 4: I can't wait.
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: You guys them a round of a past Thank you everybody.
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: Sasha and doctor Kennelson. Thank you very very much, and
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: thank you Jenny for let me be part of the conversation.
• 46:32
  Speaker 6: Is so fun.