I'm Still Here: Real Conversations About Living with Metastatic Breast Cancer

Someone commented on one of my Instagram posts about being stable since 2004 and said, “But it could change.” My answer was, “Or it could stay the same.” That exchange is what this episode is about. Larry and I talk about what mindset actually looks like in daily life with metastatic cancer, why our brains jump to the worst case, and why that protective instinct doesn’t do much for us with a disease we can’t avoid or outsmart.

This is not about being Miss Sunshine, and it’s not ignoring the hard parts. We talk about the difference between “if we win,” “when we win,” and “I guarantee we win,” what it means to protect your brain from what comes in, and why you only need to know what you can process. We also get into Larry’s view from the caregiver side, and why possibility over probability gave me something to work with. We still need a better word than positive. If you have one, send it.

Join the There’s No Cancer In This Book Club:
https://www.patreon.com/cw/TheresNoCancerInThisBookClub

Heather was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer at 26 and has now been living with the disease for more than 27 years. Through this podcast she shares perspective, lived experience, and conversations that help people navigate life with metastatic cancer.

Digital Guides
https://shop.heatherjose.com/all-guides/

Support the Podcast
If this podcast has helped you, you can support it on Ko-fi. It is always appreciated.
https://ko-fi.com/heatherjose

Sensational Survivor Series
If you have been living with metastatic breast cancer for 10 years or more and would like to share your story on the podcast, you can apply here:
https://forms.gle/6H9K7NXMAeN1QEv87

Listener Questions
Have a question you’d like answered in a future episode? Submit it through the contact form:
https://heatherjose.com

Connect with Heather
Instagram: https://instagram.com/heatherbjose
Website: https://heatherjose.com

Music
Intro and outro music for the podcast was created by Heather’s son, Ty. You can find his music here:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/tyjosee

Casey was first diagnosed with breast cancer at 31 and spent seven years in remission, never giving stage 4 much thought. Then a lymph node popped up near her collarbone in 2014, and everything changed. Twelve years later she is a wife, a mom, a grandmother, and her daughter’s helper at a bridal shop, living a life she describes as normal but not normal.

In this Sensational Survivors conversation, we talk about the call that brought her in for scans, how her husband went looking for someone who had lived long with this disease, and what it takes to keep life ordinary when you are always one breath away from something. We also get into the 80/20 approach, constant appointments, side effects that blur with menopause, and what October feels like when you live with metastatic disease. Casey shares what she would tell someone newly diagnosed.

Find Casey
TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram: Casey Quattlebaum

Heather was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer at 26 and has now been living with the disease for more than 25 years. Through this podcast she shares perspective, lived experience, and conversations that help people navigate life with metastatic cancer.

Join the There’s No Cancer In This Book Club:
https://www.patreon.com/cw/TheresNoCancerInThisBookClub

Digital Guides
https://shop.heatherjose.com/all-guides/

Support the Podcast
If this podcast has been helpful to you, your support is appreciated and helps keep the episodes coming.
https://ko-fi.com/heatherjose

Sensational Survivor Series
If you have been living with metastatic breast cancer for 10 years or more and would like to share your story on the podcast, you can apply here:
https://forms.gle/6H9K7NXMAeN1QEv87

Listener Questions
Have a question you’d like answered in a future episode? Submit it through the contact form:
https://heatherjose.com

Connect with Heather
Instagram: https://instagram.com/heatherbjose
Website: https://heatherjose.com

Music
Intro and outro music for the podcast was created by Heather’s son, Ty. You can find his music here:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/tyjosee

I just got back from Tybee Island, and somewhere between the beach walks I started asking myself how much of my life is actually about metastatic breast cancer, and how much is about living with it. Larry and I talk through the math, from retreat days to the podcast, and how the answer has changed over the years. In the first five years, MBC took up nearly every hour. Then it faded for a long time. Now it’s back, but this time by choice.

We also talk about what it means to build a meaningful life with this disease without making it performative. It can be as small as flip-flops, a real coffee mug, a garden full of grow bags, or Thursday babysitting. If you’re listening and thinking “I’m not living right now,” pick one thing. Then maybe twenty over the next year. Plus a quick update on the Sensational Survivor series and a deal for the first 25 people who join the There’s No Cancer In This Book Club.

Heather was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer at 26 and has now been living with the disease for more than 25 years. Through this podcast she shares perspective, lived experience, and conversations that help people navigate life with metastatic cancer.

Join the There’s No Cancer In This Book Club:
https://www.patreon.com/cw/TheresNoCancerInThisBookClub

Digital Guides
https://shop.heatherjose.com/all-guides/

Support the Podcast
If this podcast has been helpful to you, your support is truly appreciated:
https://ko-fi.com/heatherjose

Sensational Survivor Series
If you have been living with metastatic breast cancer for 10 years or more and would like to share your story on the podcast, you can apply here:
https://forms.gle/6H9K7NXMAeN1QEv87

Listener Questions
Have a question you’d like answered in a future episode? Submit it through the contact form:
https://heatherjose.com

Connect with Heather
Instagram: https://instagram.com/heatherbjose
Website: https://heatherjose.com

Music
Intro and outro music for the podcast was created by Heather’s son, Ty. You can find his music here:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/tyjosee

Tammy Eagle Bowling was 41, healthy, and diagnosed out of nowhere after a routine mammogram caught what blood work and a clean physical missed. She'd never even heard the word metastatic before a scan of her liver changed her diagnosis and her life in one phone call. Eleven years later, she's still here, raising her daughters, and channeling everything she's learned into Light Up MBC, the campaign she now runs that lights up landmarks around the world every October 13th in pink, teal, and green.

In this conversation, Tammy walks us through her diagnosis story, the drug she started on when it was brand new to the market, and how she turned her own advocacy into a global campaign that's raised over $2.7 million for metastatic breast cancer research through MetaVIVOR. We talk about why so little research funding goes to stage four disease, what it's like watching landmarks from the Philippines to Aruba light up in solidarity, and how she developed the EAGLE method to help herself and others build resilience.

Follow Tammy: @eaglemethod

Light Up MBC
Watch live on October 13th, find a landmark near you, or start a team:
https://lightupmbc.org
https://lightupmbc.metaviver.org
Follow the campaign: @lightupmbc

Heather was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer at 26 and has now been living with the disease for more than 25 years. Through this podcast she shares perspective, lived experience, and conversations that help people navigate life with metastatic cancer.

Join the There's No Cancer In This Book Club:
https://www.patreon.com/cw/TheresNoCancerInThisBookClub

Digital Guides
https://shop.heatherjose.com/all-guides/

Support the Podcast
If this podcast has helped you, consider supporting it here — every bit is appreciated:
https://ko-fi.com/heatherjose

Sensational Survivor Series
If you have been living with metastatic breast cancer for 10 years or more and would like to share your story on the podcast, you can apply here:
https://forms.gle/6H9K7NXMAeN1QEv87

Listener Questions
Have a question you'd like answered in a future episode? Submit it through the contact form:
https://heatherjose.com

Connect with Heather
Instagram: https://instagram.com/heatherbjose
Website: https://heatherjose.com

Music
Intro and outro music for the podcast was created by Heather's son, Ty. You can find his music here:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/tyjosee

Heather's solo this week, getting ahead of Breast Cancer Awareness Month before the pink shows up everywhere. This one's less a tidy takeaway and more her thinking out loud — the complicated feelings that come with October, not quite fitting the story the marketing tells, feeling overlooked as a longtime survivor because her experience doesn't look "sick" or "young" anymore, and the strange kind of ageism that comes with living this long. She sits with something a lot of people carry quietly: the pressure to be grateful and invisible at the same time, and whether your worth is tied to what you achieve or just to being here. No neat answers, just an honest place to start.

Heather also introduces a new project she's building with her friend Melissa: There's No Cancer In This Book Club, a virtual book club for readers affected by cancer who just want a good book without a cancer storyline. Details on tiers, pricing, and how to join are in the episode.

Heather was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer at 26 and has now been living with the disease for more than 25 years. Through this podcast she shares perspective, lived experience, and conversations that help people navigate life with metastatic cancer.

Join the There's No Cancer In This Book Club:
https://www.patreon.com/cw/TheresNoCancerInThisBookClub

Digital Guides
https://shop.heatherjose.com/all-guides/

Support the Podcast
If this episode has been helpful, you can support the podcast here:
https://ko-fi.com/heatherjose

Sensational Survivor Series
If you have been living with metastatic breast cancer for 10 years or more and would like to share your story on the podcast, you can apply here:
https://forms.gle/6H9K7NXMAeN1QEv87

Listener Questions
Have a question you'd like answered in a future episode? Submit it through the contact form:
https://heatherjose.com

Connect with Heather
Instagram: https://instagram.com/heatherbjose
Website: https://heatherjose.com

Music
Intro and outro music for the podcast was created by Heather's son, Ty. You can find his music here:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/tyjosee

This week I'm joined by Dr. Eleonora Teplinsky, a medical oncologist specializing in breast and gynecologic cancers, for a conversation about what actually helps people live well with metastatic disease, not just longer. We talk about the shift toward quality of life conversations in oncology, why it took so long to get here, and what it really takes to build a care team that listens. Dr. Teplinsky also opens up about her new book, Beyond the Pink: Navigating Life, Health, and Breast Cancer, out at the end of September, and why she wanted to write something that goes beyond treatment into the parts of this experience we rarely get time to talk about in a clinic visit.

We also get into the practical stuff. How to make the most of a short appointment, navigating the maze of specialists and ancillary care, the realities of insurance pushback on imaging, and what's actually changing in the metastatic treatment landscape right now. If you've ever left an oncology appointment with more questions than answers, this one is for you.

Heather was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer at 26 and has now been living with the disease for more than 25 years. Through this podcast she shares perspective, lived experience, and conversations that help people navigate life with metastatic cancer.

Book Club
Join the There's No Cancer In This Book Club:
https://theresnocancerinthisbookclub.com

Sensational Survivor Series
If you have been living with metastatic breast cancer for 10 years or more and would like to share your story on the podcast, you can apply here:
https://forms.gle/6H9K7NXMAeN1QEv87

Digital Guides
https://shop.heatherjose.com/all-guides/

Listener Questions
Have a question you'd like answered in a future episode? Submit it through the contact form:
https://heatherjose.com

Connect with Heather
Instagram: https://instagram.com/heatherbjose
Website: https://heatherjose.com

Music
Intro and outro music for the podcast was created by Heather's son, Ty. You can find his music here:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/tyjosee

Heather and Larry are back after a summer break, and they're kicking off the new season with a little reflection. After 275 episodes, Heather opens up about why the podcast started in the first place — those late-night questions from friends, family, and strangers about what she's actually done to live with metastatic breast cancer for over 27 years — and how it grew from there. She talks honestly about not having a single formula, about ditching food guilt while still trying to take care of her body, and about the mindset work she believes matters more than anything else in this fight.

Looking ahead, Heather shares what's coming this fall: an episode with Dr. Teplinsky around the release of her book Beyond the Pink, and the launch of "There's No Cancer In This Book Club" — a project with her friend Melissa built around vetted, cancer-line-free reads for anyone who just wants a good book without the ambush. She's also opening the floor for listener questions and topics for future episodes.

Heather was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer at 26 and has now been living with the disease for more than 25 years. Through this podcast she shares perspective, lived experience, and conversations that help people navigate life with metastatic cancer.

Sensational Survivor Series
If you have been living with metastatic breast cancer for 10 years or more and would like to share your story on the podcast, you can apply here:
https://forms.gle/6H9K7NXMAeN1QEv87

Digital Guides
https://shop.heatherjose.com/all-guides/

Support the Podcast
If this podcast has been helpful to you, consider supporting it with a donation on Ko-fi. Every bit helps us keep bringing you these conversations:
https://ko-fi.com/heatherjose

Listener Questions
Have a question you'd like answered in a future episode? Submit it through the contact form:
https://heatherjose.com

Connect with Heather
Instagram: https://instagram.com/heatherbjose
Website: https://heatherjose.com

Music
Intro and outro music for the podcast was created by Heather's son, Ty. You can find his music here:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/tyjosee

Gillian Burles was 39 years old when her breast cancer metastasized to her spine — so severely that her T10 vertebra had to be replaced with a titanium alloy cage. She was living in the Northwest Territories, 1,500 kilometers from the nearest major cancer center, with two young children at home. Her oncologist gave her 18 to 24 months.

That was 20 years ago.

In this conversation, Gillian talks about what it actually looked like to rebuild her life after that diagnosis — returning to work, raising her kids, completing the Camino de Santiago with her husband, and managing HER2+ metastatic breast cancer from a small city in Northern Canada. She also shares the mantra that has stayed with her since the beginning: averages are the abstraction, variation is the reality. If you're newly diagnosed and struggling to see past the statistics, this one is worth your time.

Heather was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer at 26 and has now been living with the disease for more than 25 years. Through this podcast she shares perspective, lived experience, and conversations that help people navigate life with metastatic cancer.

Sensational Survivor Series
If you have been living with metastatic breast cancer for 10 years or more and would like to share your story on the podcast, you can apply here:
https://forms.gle/6H9K7NXMAeN1QEv87

Digital Guides
https://shop.heatherjose.com/all-guides/

Listener Questions
Have a question you'd like answered in a future episode? Submit it through the contact form:
https://heatherjose.com

Connect with Heather
Instagram: https://instagram.com/heatherbjose
Website: https://heatherjose.com

Music
Intro and outro music for the podcast was created by Heather's son, Ty. You can find his music here:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/tyjosee

Heather and Larry are back together, and they're catching up on a full couple of weeks. First up: Larry's first time volunteering at a Little Pink Houses of Hope retreat on the Outer Banks — what he expected, what surprised him, and why he's already ready to go back. From the families powering through the week despite treatment to the moment a 10-year-old said it was just nice to see other people in her shoes, this one is a good reminder of why this work matters.

Then Heather and Larry talk about their daughter's upcoming wedding — what it means to be here for it, why it doesn't feel arrogant anymore to talk about these milestones, and why being on the dance floor is the whole plan for the night. A honest, warm episode about the moments that make the hard stuff worth showing up for.

Heather was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer at 26 and has now been living with the disease for more than 25 years. Through this podcast she shares perspective, lived experience, and conversations that help people navigate life with metastatic cancer.

Sensational Survivor SeriesIf you have been living with metastatic breast cancer for 10 years or more and would like to share your story on the podcast, you can apply here:https://forms.gle/6H9K7NXMAeN1QEv87

Digital Guideshttps://shop.heatherjose.com/all-guides/

Listener QuestionsHave a question you'd like answered in a future episode? Submit it through the contact form:https://heatherjose.com

Connect with HeatherInstagram: https://instagram.com/heatherbjoseWebsite: https://heatherjose.com

MusicIntro and outro music for the podcast was created by Heather's son, Ty. You can find his music here:Instagram: https://instagram.com/tyjosee

What do we actually want when we go into a scan? When we make the hard choices about treatment and energy and how we spend ourselves? We want a Tuesday. An ordinary, unremarkable, nothing-special day when we feel fine, go to work, eat dinner, and nothing interrupts it.

In this episode Heather talks about why the Tuesday is the whole thing — not the milestones, not the moments that take your breath away, but the ordinary days stacked one on top of the other where life actually happens. She talks about what MBC gives you in terms of perspective, how to put the fear down long enough to actually be in the day, and how to hold the grief for the life you thought you would have alongside the life you actually have.

This one is a reminder as much as it is an episode. Look up.

Heather was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer at 26 and has now been living with the disease for more than 25 years. Through this podcast she shares perspective, lived experience, and conversations that help people navigate life with metastatic cancer.

Sensational Survivor Series — apply at: https://forms.gle/6H9K7NXMAeN1QEv87

Digital Guides — https://shop.heatherjose.com/all-guides/

Listener Questions — submit at: https://heatherjose.com

Connect with Heather:Instagram: https://instagram.com/heatherbjoseWebsite: https://heatherjose.com

Intro/outro music by Heather's son Ty — Instagram: https://instagram.com/tyjosee