Traveling with MBC: Tales & Tips
Travel can mean many things - Adventure. Relaxation. Exotic places & cultures, foods & jaw-dropping natural vistas. It can stimulate or soothe us and transport us literally and figuratively to a different reality. It lifts us out of the daily challenges of our diagnosis. It's no wonder so many of us with MBC love to travel and to plan new trips. But traveling with MBC can present a unique set of challenges. In this episode, Nancy Roylance co-hosts with Dr. Ellen Landsberger. She's the perfect partner, a retired MD, and one of the most traveled people we know. So brew yourself a cup of tea., pull up a comfortable chair ,and settle in. You'll hear from several members of the OUR MBC life team as well as other frequent flyers from the larger MBC community. We reflect on where we've been, where we would like to go and offer our advice for when a journey is really a journey.
Understanding Progression: How to Identify & Treat ESR1 Mutations in HR+ MBC
Today we are bringing you a special podcast that we created in partnership with SHARE Cancer Support called Understanding Progression: How to Identify and Treat ESR1 Mutations in HR+ MBC. This episode was produced from a live webinar from this past October. There has not been a new endocrine treatment in decades and many of us find out the endocrine treatment no longer works for us because the cancer has mutated. Kate Vieira Pfitzer and Victoria Goldberg are excited to bring Dr. Virginia Kaklamani to you. You will hear her explain this common problem, how to test for it, the new treatment option that is now available as well as many of the ongoing clinical trials for HR+ MBC.
mTNBC Unicorns: Living In Contradiction
Becoming a cancer “unicorn”--a person whose cancer responds exceptionally well to available treatment and who survives beyond what is expected--is what most of us hope for. This is all the more true for triple negative MBC where effective, targeted treatments are still sorely lacking. Today we talk to two women who have lived with triple negative metastatic breast cancer for 8 years. Dr. Toni Willis and Colleen Broughton share their diagnosis & treatment stories, including their experiences with second opinions, clinical trials, self-advocacy, and cultivating joy for themselves & their families as they navigate surviving longer than they –or their doctors—expected to.
Tony Laudico: One Year Without Lisa
Meet Tony Laudico, husband of 27 years to our beloved Lisa. In this episode, you will hear a remarkable and at times, heart wrenching account of Tony’s struggle to comprehend a life without the partnership that had sustained and defined him for 30 years. He will talk about the anguish of loss, a nightmare of "death-duties", the true meaning of grief, and the solace of friendship. Although not always easy listening, this is an uplifting story and a testament to the power of love.
TJT with Dar #3: Gratitude and it’s Importance in Living a Joyful Life
With the holiday season fast approaching, it is a great time to talk about gratitude and how important it is to have a joyful life. Making gratitude a part of your life, just like breathing, is such a huge help if you are searching for joy. But you can't just conjure up a life lived in gratitude. - unlike being thankful, which exists in the mind, gratitude is an appreciation that comes from the heart. It has to be cultivated and practiced. Today's #ThinkJoyThursday explores ways to do this and even offers some helpful hints to make joy a habit in your life.
Young Adults & MBC
Young Adults & MBC is an episode that explores the lives of those diagnosed under the age of 40. We focus on finding a community, over coming obstacles and living with breast cancer everyday.
Episode 7: Meditation Mondays with Barbara Chutroo
Welcome to the next episode of our Meditation Mondays series, created with MBC patients in mind.
In today's meditation, we will be focusing on our life and the 10,000 joys and the 10,000 sorrows that have passed through it and all of our combined lives
We Remember
To live with your own diagnosis or to be a loved one, caregiver, or friend of someone with MBC is to inhabit a community of loss. “We Remember” is our opportunity to give voice to the profound grief we share and to honor and celebrate each person lost to this disease. It’s a chance for the MBC community to express gratitude for the extraordinary and unique ways they made our lives richer.
TJT with Dar #2: What’s Perspective Got to Do With It?
On this episode of #ThinkJoyThursday, we will be exploring the relationship between perspective and joy. Choosing the way you look at the world is a major key in having a joyful life. You can learn that it is possible to hold joy and sorrow in the same hand by using perspective. It’s not always easy to do this, so we will discuss ways to incorporate perspective into your life, as well as some tips and tricks to make it become your go-to tool when confronted with difficult situations.
Living & Aging with MBC: Dr. Rachel Freedman & Patient Experiences
What is old? What do you call old? Seniors? Elderly? Geriatrics? Older Adults? We have strong opinions about these terms and being included in this group. In general, breast cancer is a disease of aging and more common in older patients. As our population ages, it is becoming increasingly more common, and yet older patients have worse survival from their breast cancers than their younger counterparts at every stage of diagnosis & every subtype. We will ask Dr. Rachel Freedman, medical oncologist from Dana Farber, to explain and discuss what it means to be living & aging with MBC, along with a very special group of women living with MBC.
Episode 6: Meditation Mondays with Barbara Chutroo
Welcome to the next episode of our Meditation Mondays series, created with MBC patients in mind.
In today's meditation, we will be focusing on how in meditation we're listening to ourselves and finding space to open up and offer ourselves the attention and the care.
Report Back From ASCO 2023: What’s the Latest News in MBC Research?
Dr. Sherry Shen, breast oncologist from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, breaks down the recent research from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2023 Annual Meeting. She will present new findings in Metastatic Breast Cancer research.
TJT with Dar #1: The Difference Between Joy and Happiness
On this episode of Think Joy Thursday, we will be exploring the difference between happiness and joy. We will share some scientific research that has been done to determine if we are pre-disposed to being joyful and will delve into ways to help you spot true joy. We will explore how to have joy even if you are experiencing difficult life circumstances by sharing ways to find joy when confronted with both the big and small challenges of life.
Roberta Lombardi and Infinite Strength
Roberta Lombardi wanted to do something for the Connecticut moms and kids with breast cancer, but that *something* quickly morphed into a nonprofit effort to help break through barriers in the lives of moms with MBC. Laser focused on single moms with kids under 19 living at home and financial need, Roberta took her nonprofit (she calls it her fourth child) nationwide in mid-2023 and is already serving women in 27 states. While providing 6 months of financial support to approved applicants remains the core of Infinite Strength, Roberta has added to the support through one-day local (Connecticut) mom-and-kid retreats, in-person and online panels with some of the best experts in cancer care, a 2024 MBC conference, and a groundbreaking effort to change the picture through the Connecticut Coalition of Oncologists. This is a woman who does not sit still and we are so lucky to have her as an ally for people living with MBC. This episode may inspire *you* to get out there and do something!
Episode 5: Meditation Mondays with Barbara Chutroo
Welcome to the next episode of our Meditation Mondays series, created with MBC patients in mind.
In today's meditation, we will be focusing on having a sense of being in community, having the support of the community.
OMBCL Shorts #2: Dr. Erika Hamilton with Top Takeaways from ASCO23
Our second OMBCL Shorts features Dr. Erika Hamilton answering questions about her top takeaways from ASCO23. In this 20-minute interview we covered important updates on the CDK4/6 inhibitors for both early-stage and metastatic breast cancer, as well as research on a new HER3 ADC and the first AKT inhibitor for MBC.
MBC Life: Quakes, Aftershocks, and Hope
Welcome to the Our MBC Life Summer Season 2023. In this episode Victoria Goldberg is joined by clinical psychologist and author Sarah Mandel to discuss her book and her insights into life and death, trauma and healing. parenting and hope. Sarah’s book, Little Earthquakes is a beautiful, honest, and thoughtful memoir of how a healthy 36-year-old, who is about to give birth to her second baby, lives through an experience of getting de novo MBC diagnosis and its horrific aftermath.
Episode 4: Meditation Mondays with Barbara Chutroo
Welcome to the next episode of our Meditation Mondays series, created with MBC patients in mind.
There are a lot of principles of meditation or of the practice that contains meditation.
Being with the truth of whatever is here in this moment with compassion and without judgement and knowing that we're not any one thing because we are constantly changing, is at the heart of this practic
Living in the Public Eye with MBC: An Interview with Kelly Crump
Anne Woodward sits down with a special guest to discuss the in’s and outs of having MBC while living in the public eye. Get ready folks, pull up a chair you are not going to want to miss hearing from Kelly Crump, the first ever sports illustrated swimsuit model photographed while posing on a picturesque beach in a gorgeous swimsuit with a mastectomy scar for all the world to see. In this incredible interview Kelly explains how she embraced social media to live out loud and in doing so harnessed all the attention to be an inspiration and help her 30,000 + followers.
Episode 3: Meditation Mondays with Barbara Chutroo
Welcome to the next episode of our Meditation Mondays series, created with MBC patients in mind.
Why do we meditate? We meditate to be aware of ourselves, and we meditate to concentrate, and we meditate to develop compassion.
Our meditation leader is Barbara Chutroo, a longtime meditator, experienced meditation teacher, and an MBC patient.