My Story: Metastatic breast cancer

Deltra bravely shares her journey with metastatic breast cancer, shedding light on her resilience amidst the battle.

Transcript

00:00

Too many of us who are quite young get told to wait and watch. And then, boom, we're diagnosed at this much-later stage.

00:11

Metastatic breast cancer was nowhere on my radar. My very first symptom was in the form of a lump

00:18

in my left breast, which I discovered myself. In my case, I had a doctor who, although they weren't

00:26

too concerned, I wasn't too concerned, they went ahead and said, you know what, let's just schedule you an ultrasound just for peace

00:33

of mind. Neither of us thought it was anything. [MUSIC PLAYING] When I received the cancer diagnosis,

00:40

I was very shocked, hearing you have metastatic cancer, incurable cancer.

00:46

That was certainly a lot to take in. I really value having a team of women that personally

00:56

makes me more comfortable. I personally have an oncologist who is female

01:02

and a woman of color, and I don't question how much she sees me as a person because of that.

01:10

I do a lot of advocacy work. Our health care providers need to become really aware of our community and its needs

01:19

so that they can anticipate their patients' needs. But I also feel that, more often than not,

01:27

our needs are just not getting met. We're just trying to stay alive and thrive. My own personal barriers had to do with like childcare

01:35

and transportation. In my general community and people of color, that's-- those are pretty common.

01:44

It can be really challenging when you get in a room full of people who are professionals, but nobody is the expert in your body.

01:53

And so if you are feeling something, you have to say something, and you have to keep saying it until you are heard.

01:59

That's really important and what will save our lives. [AUDIO LOGO]