Yolanda (00:00):
We just celebrated 31 years together two days ago. I make light of a lot of things because it’s easier. You know. I said, “Hey.” I said, “You chased after me because of my boobs? Now I have none.” I was feeling tired all the time. I hadn’t gotten a mammogram in 12 years. Our son had passed away in 2012, so pretty much I knew that when I went back in, they asked, “Hey, when was your last mammogram? Everything is positive. You do have breast cancer.” So needless to say, I was very angry, scared, and it was hard to hold everything in because mortality has now struck. And you don’t know how to react. From the moment I found out I had cancer, the diagnosis was cancer. I felt like I was free falling. I thought nobody, nobody understood what I was going through. Dr. Wright told me everything about what they could do, looking over all my records, what they thought would be the best way to approach this.

(01:12):
And I was still angry. And then she finally looked at me. She says, “What do you want? I know you don’t want implants, but what do you want?

(01:24):
” I just knew I was angry. And when she finally looked at me and said, “You just want to live?” Bingo. She got it. She understood. I thought nobody, nobody understood what I was going through. Once you do all this, am I going to be a woman? Is every part of me that I feel that makes me a woman still going to be there? I had Dr. Wright that made me feel like it’s going to be fine because she’s going to take care of me. And she did. And the girls did. The staff did. Everybody did. Through my radiation, through my rehab, I couldn’t have asked for a better team. She was a matter of fact. She was no nonsense. There was no BS coming out of her mouth. She asked me what I wanted and I didn’t feel like it was a vanity. I felt like she would do everything in her power.

(02:23):
The whole team would to make sure that I was put and made whole again. Every single time I came into the office or met up with our medical team, everybody was so positive and so caring and so just … They might’ve been having a bad day, but when I walked in, I felt like a rock star. They cared. Oh my gosh. And then to meet Dr. Sullivan, I still feel to this day. I’m saying this because I want him to know this. I still feel like ZZ Top should be standing behind him playing sharp dressed man because that man is just on point. The whole team, Dr. Wright’s team, the surgical team, the anesthesiologist, everybody made me feel like I was a rock star. I mattered. I wasn’t free falling. They’re fixing me. They’ve redone me. They’re putting me back together. And if you had to have cancer, this is the best team you could have ended up with because they’re not going to leave you alone.

(03:36):
I feel like I’m all woman. I feel like this went by so fast, honestly, that they don’t give you a chance to think about not having your breast tissue any longer or having to move things around to make you whole again. I just feel like me again. When people look at me on social media, they’re like, “Oh, we can’t even believe that you even have cancer or that you’ve even gone through cancer because you’re just so happy and they like to say normal. You look normal.” I am one of the lucky ones and I’m grateful, very grateful. I don’t take anything for granted. I don’t take my health for granted. I don’t take for granted that I was given this team because I am not kidding when I say this is like a pristine job that they did on me when I can see other friends that have had surgeries done and it looks like shattered glass on their flesh.

(04:38):
So I don’t wish this on anybody, but if you have to go through this journey and you’re lucky enough to have this team, then I would count you blessed because they’re going to do everything. And I feel like they’ve done everything for me.