Sara Ferguson - Survivor of Stage II Breast Cancer - Invasive Lobular Carcinoma

Sara has worked as a professional book editor, a dishwasher, a philosophy professor, a ballet instructor, a waiter, and an English teacher in Slovakia and Lithuania. She’s ordained clergy, an astrologer, and lives in Ithaca, New York, with her beautiful husband, brilliant son, and a slightly above-average pit bull. Sarah has been cancer-free for eight years.

0:00:00 How the breast cancer was discovered

0:07:30 Breast feeding

0:12:18 Surrounding yourself with strong advocates

0:16:02 Loved ones who don’t show up

26:39 Doctors working in tandem

29:00 Chemotherapy

38:30 Eating through treatment!

42:51 Marijuana to manage side-effects 

46:44 Chemo-brain and recovery from anesthesia 

50:21 Post-treatment elective surgeries 

56:26 Misdiagnosed 4x

58:09 Mastectomies and reconstruction 

1:03:15 The body and societal norms

1:10:31 Caregivers

1:18:34 Cancer coaches and therapists 

1:21:17 Cultural expectations of men & women

1:24:13 Positive thinking or just lucky?

1:28:19 Finding freedom in my diagnosis 

1:35:29 Cancer woke me up!

1:42:13 Cancer as a gift?

 

-recorded 3/06/2020