Talk with Dr. Morgan Mitchell

For this episode, I had the pleasure of chatting with Dr. Morgan Mitchell. Morgan recalled how she was so incredibly elated to graduate with her doctoral degree, after tireless hours, days, weeks, months and years of working on her dissertation and eventually defending her thesis and earning her doctorate degree in Biochemistry in August 2020 from the University of Texas at the age of 36!

But wait! Just a few weeks after graduation, she felt a lump in her left breast. This lump eventually got biopsied a few days later and it showed that her tumor was HER2-positive, ER-positive and PR-positive! She had literally just graduated with her Doctorate degree in August 2020, yet this devastating news also came in August 2020!

One moment, she was really excited about starting her professional life, but the next moment, she’s trying to navigate this new diagnosis right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic! Her treatment plan included a lumpectomy, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and targeted therapy.

Even though her faith was tested, she learned and still continues to lean on God completely. She learned to listen to her body and know her body as she did before the diagnosis, so that she knew what felt normal when performing her own self breast exams frequently. Wow!!!!!! Such an impressive representation of paying close attention to your health and advocating for optimal health! Thank you very much, Morgan!!!!!!! We know that our God has completely healed you in the mighty name of Jesus!!!!!

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus - Philippians 4:6-7 NIV

My goodness!!!!! Chalice and I are kindred sisters!!!!! I’m so amazed, in awe and deeply grateful to God for orchestrating my meeting with Chalice, just me reaching out to her to find out more about her Podcast titled “Breast Cancer, Mental Health, & Black Women Breast Cancer Disparities: Clinical Research Trials” LIVE on Monday, 10/16/23!

Dr. Chalice C. Rhodes (formerly Jenkins) is a licensed and nationally certified Professional Counselor. Most recently, she was honored as the first designee of the American Psychosocial Oncology Society's Psychosocial Oncology virtual academy! This designation led to her becoming a certified Psychosocial Cancer/Oncology Behavioral Health specialist.

This designation is near and dear to her heart, as she was diagnosed with Ductal Carcinoma in Situ (DCIS) or non- invasive breast cancer in September 2022. She had a lumpectomy to remove the cancer and completed radiation treatment in December 2022! By the grace and mercy of God, Dr. Chalice, as she is affectionately known, is a breast cancer survivor!

As a Psychosocial Cancer/Oncology Behavioral Health Specialist, Dr. Chalice's increased knowledge and personal experience has sharpened her sensitivity and skill, while providing competent and effective care to the survivorship population. Join one of Dr. Chalice's online cancer survivorship therapy groups! Or enroll in her course, Thrive: Breast Cancer Survivorship, today!

In Dr. Chalice's free time she enjoys spending time with her two precious sons! Gardening, exercising, singing, dancing, and participating in church activities are a few hobbies. Oh, and we cannot forget that Dr. Chalice loves ALL things water including swimming, aqua workouts, snorkeling, jet- skiing, and water- skiing! My favorite words from Dr. Rhodes were “I’m creating healthy boundaries and balance as I stand confidently and boldly in who God wants me to be!”

Lastly, please check her out @ www.drchalice.com;

Instagram and LinkedIn: Dr. Chalice C. Rhodes. Also, feel free to download the Dr. Chalice, Teach! APP in your Apple or Google Play Store to access her THRIVE: Breast Cancer Survivorship Course and upcoming course "Breaking Free From Emotionally Abusive Relationships."

In this episode, I had the tremendous privilege of chatting with Sonja Sulcer, who is a wife, mom, breast cancer survivor, Amazon best-selling author and remains a trailblazer deeply committed to her relationship with Jesus Christ!!!! Sonja was diagnosed with HER2-positive breast cancer in November 2021, just after her routine mammogram, then biopsy. It was initially worked up to be Stage 0 (DCIS), but after surgery, findings from the surgical pathology upstaged it to Stage 1. Sonja ended up having a mastectomy with reconstruction and then went through chemo.

Sonja was not a stranger to hearing about cancer. Her mom had died from uterine cancer in 2014. While she initially struggled with her fear of the treatment plan itself, being a person of faith, she delved into changing her own perspectives to align with her trust in God’s unwavering faithfulness and healing power.

She decided to combat her fear of the process by creating affirmations!!!!! Omg! Sonja took words of various elements of her own treatment plan and started writing and publishing acrostic poems!!!!!! For example, she took the word chemo, and wrote “Call on our Holy, Everlasting, Magnificent God”.

My goodness! Sonja also created an affirmation journal to share with other women, and now the I Am More Than A Conqueror Journal is a bestseller on Amazon. In addition, she developed a relaxation coloring book for cancer patients during treatments; a devotional called “Strengthen Your Faith: 15 Words of Encouragement: A Devotional For Cancer Treatment”. Lastly, please check out Sonja’s LucilMar Borsa (www.lucilmarborsa.com/) an inspirational bag line dedicated to the wellness of women!!!! Thank you so much, sis!

I’m deeply grateful to my dearest pink sister, Paris Smith for coming on yet another Podcast episode (it’s her third time here!!!!)! I had chatted previously with Paris on Episodes 8 and 15! Thank you so much for continuing to share your invaluable words of wisdom and reflections on your new normal

and beauty, Paris!

I continue to be in awe of how our God remains in control and remains faithful as Paris shares her Stage 2 breast cancer (Triple Negative Breast Cancer, TNBC) journey on every platform she can be on, and advocating for health equity strategies to address breast cancer in disproportionately affected populations. . TNBC accounts for up to 25% of all breast cancers, is hard to treat, fast growing, diagnosed later, and impacts the lives of Black, Hispanic and young women more frequently and there are less research and treatment options for TNBC. Thank you so much for continuing to share your extraordinary story of navigating TNBC and MS, sis!

In this episode, I had the awesome pleasure of chatting with Dawn Marone, my dear sister with so much knowledge and practice about healthy living in every way. I met Dawn on IG while looking into breast cancer survivors living their best toxin-free lives. My goodness, thank you much for being such a great advocate for toxin-free living!!!!!!!

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011, had a double mastectomy later that year and had 32 lymph nodes removed on her right side. Recovery was very brutal and Dawn was very determined to look more into environmental factors and the role they played in her breast cancer, given no family history whatsoever.

She subsequently started a ToxinFree Wellness Group in 2020 (with her amazing daughter’s encouragement!) and still remains deeply passionate about helping others live toxin-free, just as her daughter helped her!!!!!!!! Please check out Dawn’s INCREDIBLE platform @ https://activecleangreen.com/

For this episode, I had the awesome pleasure of chatting with Dr. Sally Knox, who shared so many of her remarkable thoughts and words of wisdom so incredibly well.

Dr. Sally Knox, MD FACS is a surgical oncologist specializing in the diagnosis and surgical treatment of breast cancer. She practiced for 30 years at Baylor Scott & White Hospital in downtown Dallas with a team of breast cancer specialists who are passionate about stamping out breast cancer.

Sally had so many, many thoughts and words of wisdom, including quite a few notable words, including the following: 1. If you just diagnosed with breast cancer and want to know why, recognize that there is nothing that you did or didn’t do; risk factors are population studies - those are determinant, based on general population trends, so know that it was not something you said, did or did not do; pondering about the whys distracts your energy; focus instead on things that will bring life to you; rest that question

2. Again, for a recently diagnosed man or woman, the truth of the matter is most likely you’ll get treated; take a deep breath and look at your options and proceed at a pace where you can walk in peace; there’s time to ask questions

3. Your medical team is there to serve you. What I like to see is women taking ownership of their own lives; I encourage patients with their families to be the ones having the final say and making final decisions; the medical team is there to serve you

Camille Lewis’ words “What is this Cancer trying to teach me? Start with doing your “ME-SEARCH”, recognize that are rewards in obedience…” still resonate with me.

I had the amazing privilege and honor of having Camille Lewis here for this brief episode. Camille was and still is an anti-bias early childhood educator and preschool teacher in the Denver, Colorado Jewish community. Camille is an African-American woman working in a religious minority community.

Since her diagnosis with aggressive stage 2, grade 3 Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) in 2019, she has continued to advocate for health equity priorities and highlighting what survivorship looks like for breast cancer survivors and thrivers she encounters. We were both trained Tigerlily Advocates and have continued to change our perspectives and passion for reaching out to our pink sisters and families.

Thank you so very much, Angela for chatting with me about your breast cancer testimony. Had the privilege of chatting with Angela a few days ago. She walked me through the miracle of her eventual diagnosis, after an initial MISdiagnosis of mastitis! I also had mastitis during each of my 2 pregnancies.

Angela eventually sought a second opinion, then lo and behold, needed a diagnostic ultrasound, then a biopsy. She was diagnosed with breast cancer just in 2020. She went through double mastectomy, then radiation and hormone therapy.

Angela amazingly stayed at NED (No Evidence of Disease) until just a few months ago. Her CT scan in July 2023 showed new recurrence on her lumbar spine. My prayers remain with her as navigates through this journey again. Angela, I know without any doubt that our God who healed you before WILL heal you again and you got this already covered by the blood of Jesus, sis.

1 Peter 2:23-24

23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

I was really honored to have my dear pink sister, Dionne (Dee) Phillips, talking through her breast cancer testimony. My goodness! Many of her reflections so resonate with me. She’s an amazing Clinical Mental Health Counselor and a Registered Nurse, so she just had that gut feeling that something was just not right, despite her Provider’s initial dismissal.

In her “Dionne-ish” way, I’m so happy she insisted on getting heard, imaging and biopsy because her breast cancer diagnosis came on 9/28/22. Here we are over a year after her double mastectomy with clear margins, she continues to spread her testimony!

She had so many words of wisdom and closing remarks still resonate with me. She said “embrace gratitude, faith and perseverance” and “if you don’t make your wellness your priority now, you’ll have to deal with it later”. Wow Dionne! Thank you so much for continuing to be a trailblazer, sis!!!!!

In this episode, I had the awesome pleasure of chatting with Jeanelle as I learned so much from her sharing her story and it continues to resonate with me! Jeanelle talks through her story of just noticing something wasn’t right as she noticed multiple abnormal symptoms with her breast, but her doctor maintained that everything was normal and insisted that was too young to worry. As Jeanelle recalled, her daughter was 6 years old and she hadn’t breastfed in years. For over a year, Jeanelle tried to convince her doctor that something was wrong.

Fifteen months later, Jeanelle felt a lump in her breast, as it continued growing and felt heavy. Subsequently, a series of diagnostic tests (mammogram, ultrasound, biopsy) occurred. Jeanelle was diagnosed with stage 3 ductal triple negative breast cancer at age 33.

Jeanelle started treatment in September 2022. It took so long for Jeanelle’s concerns to be addressed by her doctor. And that has altered her perspectives in every single of her life. The fact that it took so long for Jeanelle to get someone to listen to her concerns has altered how she lives her life. Jeanelle’s powerful words of wisdom “live every day and don’t live with regrets” continue to resonate with me. Thank you so much, sis for sharing your very powerful story.