What’s it like to experience ovarian cancer as a man? In this episode of Kickin’ It, Nora and Randalynn sit down with Nolan Stuckenschneider, a trans man, drag king and ovarian cancer grad. Nolan shares his ovarian cancer story, the healthcare challenges he faces as a trans man, and steps we can take toward inclusivity. We hope you enjoy this episode of Kickin’ It!
In the latest episode of the Kickin’ It podcast, Nora and Randalynn chat with ovarian cancer grad, Kim Simmons Emory. We discuss Kim’s long road to diagnosis, symptom awareness, Kim’s quest to find her blood sisters to share her cancer history as an adoptee, and much more. We hope you enjoy our chat with Kim!
October 13th is National Metastatic Breast Cancer Day. To honor this day, I am releasing a never before heard conversation between me and Emily Garnett, a beautiful, smart, fierce advocate for the MBC who passed away in March of this year from this unrelenting disease.
"In the afterglow of my celebration, I suddenly felt guilty again. Whether it was for wanting to cut my hair while so many are just happy to have ANY; for being cancer-free while so many of my survivor sisters still struggle; or for my own mother and boyfriend who had to put their lives on hold to take care of me during cancer, the guilt lingers long after treatment ends."
In the diagnosis daze of figuring out my game plan – and looking ahead to what would be over a long year of chemotherapy, surgeries and radiation – which included a litany of tests before I had to start treatment, I heard her nonchalantly ask, "By the way…do you want children? You should decide that NOW.” What, in the next ten minutes???
If I DID want children, I would have to see a fertility expert ASAP to either freeze my eggs or embryos before chemotherapy would temporarily shut down my ovaries. All I could think was, “When the hell am I going to fit in THAT appointment??”
"Even though I know the long-term survival rates for my particular type of breast cancer are good and my post-surgical pathology showed a “complete response” to the chemotherapy, cancer patients are generally not considered to be in complete remission until at least 5 years have passed since the end of treatment without recurrence. So, my journey with breast cancer is not coming to an end, as much as I would like to say that it is."
