Kristen Update: I’m Moving to Australia

Eva (00:17):
We are back. Hi, Kristen.

Kristen (00:21):
Hello. Hello, Eva.

Eva (00:23):
We have not released an episode since April of 2024, and I just want to start with apologizing to the audience. Not fair. Actually, I mean, we've finished season three with Dr. Tita Gray, but we haven't had a Kristen update since last year in June. So I'm glad to have you back today and to hear what's going on, and it's been a while. So where do you want to start?

Kristen (00:50):
Should we start with where we left off?

Eva (00:51):
Yes. The last time we talked to you was on Kristen Update: I'd prefer to have a second type of cancer,

Kristen (00:59):
Which is how crazy is that? Right,

Eva (01:02):
Right. Which you didn't,

Kristen (01:04):
Which I don't and I didn't.

Eva (01:05):
Obviously, ou did not.

Kristen (01:06):
Well, yeah, to just kind of recap, last year was, I would say March through October, 2024 was very tenuous. I was having a lot of issues, a lot of things that were happening in my body and tests. And it's that whole thing where a test can lead to great news or one test can lead to, oh really, I got to do this again. And anybody who has breast cancer, who has had breast cancer or any kind of cancer, it's not any cancer. There's always that, we talked about that little sibling poking you in the back like, Hey, I'm here. I'm right here. And I'm like, but are you? And then it's also how your thoughts control things and how your body feels and just all of the scanxiety kind of things. And all of the fear of recurrence because let's face it, getting a diagnosis is trauma. Surgery is trauma. Radiation is trauma. There's all of these things that are traumatic and that your body stores all of that too. So as soon as a doctor says, let's check this out, until you've had a lot of times where it's no nothing, which I have, yay. Spoiler alert, until you've had a lot of times that are nothing, it's like your body and your nervous system just go on high alert. And when we left off, I was trying to get into see the esophageal doctor, the gastro, if I remember correctly, because there was this gastro lymphatic lymph node that lit up in that ligament down in gastro area and finally got that. And oh my gosh, I cannot say enough about the doctors at Scripps. And I mean, I ended up somehow, somehow I keep getting the heads of the departments. I dunno. They look at my case. They're like, oh, we need somebody special there.

Eva (03:17):
It's cuz you're a famous podcaster.

Kristen (03:19):
Oh, and that's my moving company too. Yeah. I'm a famous podcaster.

Eva (03:26):
You're an influencer. This is why you're getting the special treatment.

Kristen (03:28):
I am. And if you can't see me. I'm flicking my hair right now and I'm shaking it.

Eva (03:33):
Okay. T Swift

Kristen (03:36):
T Swift. They did the biopsy and all of that, and that was really, I mean, it really was a day. It was a procedure. It was like having a colonoscopy on the other end basically. Except you didn't have to prep, which was good. They just kind of went down,

Eva (03:50):
Okay Polly

Kristen (03:54):
And did you call me Polly?

Eva (03:57):
Yeah, I did. You're being you.

Kristen (03:59):
Sorry. So they went in and they did it. And what they found was that it was benign. However, I had level four esophagitis, which means my whole esophagus was just on fire, which we knew, right? Because I was feeling that also that this lymph node was so inflamed because of the esophagitis. And I think about all that stuff that had been going on for years. I mean the esophagitis, so we're talking about 2024. I had chemo in 2021. 4 years ago. Oh my God. And I had radiation in 2021, and both of those affected my esophagus. So that lymph node, that poor little guy was sitting there for years. And my poor esophagus was just like, what the hell are you doing? And I had just resigned myself to that, this was how I was going to live. And I didn't talk a lot about it because that was number 14 on my list of things that hurt at that point. And that sounds so lame, but my feet, my knees, my back, my whatever. And so he gave me something. It was a pill called Protonix that I had to take before two meals, and I took it for 90 days. Better.

Eva (05:30):
Gone?

Kristen (05:31):
Fine.

Eva (05:31):
How soon did you start feeling better though?

Kristen (05:34):
Two weeks.

Eva (05:35):
Wow.

Kristen (05:37):
And so it's not like they took anything out. I will say I have been remiss in going back, I'm supposed to have a recheck. I was supposed to have it six months ago, and they want to do the whole thing like front to back because it's time for a colon, a colonoscopy, and I just haven't worked up the nerve to decide I was going to do all of that at once and take a day. I mean, I take days for other reasons, but I just haven't wanted to be medically in that place again yet. And I'll do it before I leave, teaser for later.

Eva (06:14):
Wait, oh, you're moving again?

Kristen (06:20):
This time. I don't know if I need a moving company. I think I just need a lot of suitcases. I'll tell you about that in a minute. Leaving the country. Yeah. Australia. Australia.

Eva (06:32):
Okay.

Kristen (06:33):
Okay. Let me go back and tell everybody I'm fine. I'm good.

Eva (06:37):
Okay.

Kristen (06:37):
I'm better than good. And in the midst of all of this in August, I'm just making myself some coffee and I go like this. And what I'm doing is I'm rubbing the left side of my chest above where my implant is. There's a big lump. I was like, mother. A lump? And so I asked my housemate, I'm like, I'm like, I'm not being creepy, but do you feel this? And she's like, oh. And I'm like, okay. But this was right before I was having the second PET scan. So luckily Dr. Ali says, well, it's not lighting up, so that's great, but I want you to go see Dr. Rivera. And I said, okay. So I put

Eva (07:27):
The left side is the reconstructed side?

Kristen (07:29):
No, the right side is where the cancer was. And so the left side is where I have this lump above

Eva (07:38):
That was supposed to be the good side.

Kristen (07:40):
That's the good side.

Eva (07:41):
Yeah.

Kristen (07:42):
I did have a double mastectomy to remind everybody. And I did have reconstructive surgery and I did have fat transfer.

Eva (07:50):
Yes. Did he transfer fat to that side too?

Kristen (07:52):
Yeah, because

Eva (07:54):
Is that what it was?

Kristen (07:56):
That's what it ended up being. By the time I got in to see Dr. Rivera, he's like, yeah, you should have been seeing me a little sooner. And I was like, I know. I know, I know. And he does an ultrasound. He orders an ultrasound and he says, I think it's fat necrosis. And I said, I think so too. And that's what I've decided that it is. By the time I get to him, it's down to, it was two centimeters, it was big. It's down to under one now it's almost nothing. And I'm doing just some massage on it and stuff like that.

Eva (08:26):
Do you happen to remember where they transferred the fat from?

Kristen (08:29):
Yeah, my tummy and my hips. The fat transfer was to take fat from my stomach and my hips and put it into that area. so it actually looked more like a breast. So it actually went down kind of a nice slope and so it looked more normal. And the thing is that some of the fat cells just die. And so fat necrosis is when the fat cells just kind of solidify. So we haven't done a biopsy or anything. When I went to have the ultrasound, I was given that option by the radiologist and she's like, we can do a couple different things. And I'm like, what's the least invasive? And she's like, how about if you just come back in three months, we'll check it again. So medically, that's where I am. As far as anything, I think when we last talked, I don't know if we talked about it. I was having a lot of neck pain. I was living my life in physical therapy for lymphedema, for neck pain, for hands, bone injections, all the things.

Eva (09:35):
What about your feet?

Kristen (09:36):
And my feet are fine.

Eva (09:38):
Your feet are fine?

Kristen (09:39):
Perfect. They're great.

Eva (09:41):
I mean, we spent two years talking about your feet.

Kristen (09:44):
I know my feet and my legs. I still have a little bit of inflammation in my legs and ankles, which I'm working on. I know I'm going to sound so North County, San Diego, California. Yoga, yoga changed my life. And I'm not talking about pretzel bendy yoga because this body doesn't do, didn't do pretzel bendy yoga. I just did restorative and yin yoga and gentle, and it just kind of elongated everything and got things moving and also spending less time in shoes with rubber soles and being more grounded. I know that sounds very, again, very Encinitas North County.

Eva (10:30):
No. It's actually, it's really becoming very normal, mainstream.

Kristen (10:37):
Good. Because we'll talk a little bit more about, well, do you have any more questions about my body before I launch into this next piece?

Eva (10:48):
No, but I also want to make sure you tell us why you've been going on so many trips. Didn't you also go to India again for the second time.

Kristen (10:58):
I did a pilgrimage. I guess that's the best way to say it.

Eva (11:01):
Was it related to the yoga?

Kristen (11:03):
It wasn't a yoga retreat. It was more like a spiritual retreat where I did a lot of yoga and I spent a lot of time doing mantra and chanting and meditation and in the trees. And I ended up in Tasmania in the rainforest, which was like swam in the South Sea that doesn't touch any land until it gets to Brazil. It was wild. The ocean was wild and crazy. I'll send you pictures. I turned 60 a couple, I know. I know. You can see it right here. If you can get away with getting rid of this Dr. Patella, that would be great. But I turned 60 in February, which I wasn't sure until maybe a year or two ago that I was going to turn 60.

Eva (11:55):
I know.

Kristen (11:56):
I was giving away my furniture. I was giving away. We know you guys followed me.

Eva (12:00):
You always give away your furniture. That's not new. I still have some.

Kristen (12:06):
I know you do. Everybody has my furniture and I think it's so great. It's my gift to the world. I curate beautiful things and then I just give them away.

Eva (12:20):
I just open the drawer and go, where's my leggings? Kristen gave me this dresser. I hope she's not dead.

Kristen (12:27):
Is that how you, is that what you think every day?

Eva (12:29):
No, but I do think of you often when I look at the dresser.

Kristen (12:33):
Good.

Eva (12:33):
I love it so much.

Kristen (12:35):
I love That's the best. That was a free dresser. I put it on top of my car.

Eva (12:40):
You're going to be so disappointed.

Kristen (12:42):
Why?

Eva (12:42):
They took away heavy trash day and now it's just on demand. So if you don't live in Austin, you don't realize how sad this is that Kristen and I both used to live in the richest neighborhood in Austin, and on heavy trash day you could drive around and pick up Ethan Allen furniture for free. And so that's how she got this dresser. And then when she moved, one of the 17 times that she's moved in the last 10 years, she let me take this dresser and then I chalk painted the dresser and made it even cooler. It was already really cool. And so in the middle of my bedroom is this beautiful piece of furniture that I inherited from her. So that's why I think about her all the time when I'm putting on leggings

Kristen (13:27):
From big trash day. Yeah,

Eva (13:30):
Trash.

Kristen (13:30):
Well, and it's like from France. It was in a gated community. I put

Eva (13:36):
Who you out there with? Sonya? Were you guys just driving?

Kristen (13:39):
Yeah, it was with Sonya. Okay. And okay. And it's a big as dresser. Are you guys? I somehow put it on the top of my Murano.

Eva (13:48):
How did you do that?

Kristen (13:50):
I dunno. I don't know. Anyhow, we digress.

Eva (13:54):
Wish I had a picture of that.

Kristen (13:55):
Yeah, furniture. So I had committed to going on this retreat to India and it's a two week retreat and I'd been to the Ashram before and it was with some people that I know, and I was really very intense though I had not been to an intensive quite like this before. And I thought, you know what? During cancer, I didn't even take a month off of work. I'm taking a month because I'm turning 60 and my goal is to learn, to relax, to serve, and to just lift my vibration and my spirit and heal my body. I just decided I was giving myself a month to do that. And so one of my favorite people in the world, her name is Kim Frazier, her spiritual name is Shakti Durga. She has taught me so much. She lives in Australia, new South Wales area, and she was having a retreat in Tasmania two days following the end of the retreat in India.

(15:00):
And I was like, this is really resonating with me. I can't stop thinking about it. I can't stop thinking about it. So I sent her a note and I said, do you think that it's too much? Is it too well my soul explode if I go on all of these spiritual retreats? Is it too much and is it logistically doable? And she says, wow, that just sounds great. She goes, I think that's really a good idea. And I said, okay. So I did the retreat in India, which was intense and amazing and all the things. And I managed to forget my antidepressants when I went to India, my Prozac.

Eva (15:41):
Oh wow.

Kristen (15:41):
And I don't know where it went. It's not here. When I got back, it wasn't here. I don't know where it's, it disappeared. I don't know if I threw it away. I don't know what happened. It was gone. It was gone. And I got there and it was about four days after I got to India and I was like, oh shoot. I forgot my antidepressant. And I was like, wow, I'm going to be going through a lot of stuff here. Kind a lot of ups and downs. I went and I spoke with the Ayurvedic doctor because I was staying at basically like an Ayurvedic spa on the campus. I talked to her and I said, Dr. Jan, I forgot my Prozac. I'm like, what am I going to tank, like what's going to? And I was not on a low dosage.

Eva (16:27):
You weren't looking for more. Can

Kristen (16:30):
You give 80 milligram

Eva (16:31):
A prescription? You went to her, what's going to happen to me? Not, can you find me some? Right,

Kristen (16:36):
Right. Well, no, it was more like, what do I need to do?

Eva (16:40):
Okay.

Kristen (16:41):
I was like, is this okay? Is there an Ayurvedic non

Eva (16:48):
Substitute?

Kristen (16:48):
Huh? What?

Eva (16:50):
 Eat this, not that?

Kristen (16:53):
Yes, basically. Yeah. I was like, is there a solution? And she's like, well, I can get it for you from the pharmacy here. That's fine, because there's pharmacies all over there. She's like, but let's just try it without, I'll keep an eye on you. And I just kind of feel like you're not supposed to be on it. I feel like you're going to go through some transformation here. I was like, okay. And she gave me something that's more like probably melatonin on steroids. I don't know. It didn't make me sleep. I forgot to take it half the time. And I brought some home. Haven't taken Prozac since February. Fine, not tanking. I'm fine.

Eva (17:35):
Wow.

Kristen (17:36):
And I think it had to do with just a lot of the work that I did, and a lot of it was pulling up trauma. This is a podcast for another time, but I had quite a clearing and quite a shift when I visited the schools. It was really good. I got to cry about things. I got to turn some things that had hurt in the past into more of a feeling of love. And I know it sounds very different than a lot of things people are used to hearing, but I was able to clear that a lot. And I think that my body had been holding a lot of the pain from trauma and from just the way I lived my life, the way I let things get to me.

(18:27):
And I think I saw myself more as a victim, even though we never talked about me feeling like a victim. And so I feel like I kind of got rid of that victim mentality and I don't hold it in my body anymore. And my body was able to release a lot. So I end up going to Tasmania. I fly from India, from Chennai, south India. By the way. I have three wardrobes, one for India, one for Northern Australia, and one for Tasmania. I was doing all three things. I was going all three places.

Eva (19:05):
Okay, hold on. We got to look at this. I can't do it without looking, so just help me out here. Okay.

Kristen (19:10):
Yeah.

Eva (19:12):
All right. You started in what city in India.

Kristen (19:16):
In Chennai. Well, we'll just say Chennai is the airport.

Eva (19:19):
Chennai international airport?

Kristen (19:22):
Then I flew to Singapore, then I flew.

Eva (19:25):
Oh man. Google's like, what are you doing to me, man?

Kristen (19:29):
I know. Then I flew. Then I flew to Melbourne, then I flew to Hobart. So Melbourne is obviously Australia. Tasmania is a little island to the southeast of Australia, and so I flow into the biggest town there, which is Hobart.

Eva (19:52):
I broke it.

Kristen (19:55):
Okay. Then just do Singapore to Hobart. That's fine.

Eva (20:00):
All right. Well, we got the first one. You went from here to here. You didn't drive.

Kristen (20:06):
I didn't drive. Well, and it was just if you really want to just do,

Eva (20:10):
Oh, it's not that far. It's a four hour flight. Okay. I just need some context here.

Kristen (20:15):
Okay, so you went from Singapore, then I went over to, you could just put in Hobart or Melbourne, either way.

Eva (20:22):
Okay, got it.

Kristen (20:23):
Okay. So I'm in another hemisphere at this point, right? I've never been in another hemisphere. I go to Hobart and I meet my friends there that I'm on a retreat with. There were about, I think 11 of us, and we went kind of in a backward sea around Tasmania, and we were in a place called Maydena. We were a place called Strahan. We were in a place called Penguin. We were in a place and then we were in Launceston, and I'm probably saying it wrong. So what we did there was really, we were in the rainforest. We were just getting a feel for the land. I didn't know this before, but Tasmania had the entire aboriginal indigenous people wiped out. Maybe two people got off the island and got to other places. It was wiped out, massacred. And so there was a feeling that there was a lot of pain in the land there.

(21:27):
So we went there to see these trees and to just be on the land and to feel what it felt like to be there. I'll have to send you these trees. There's this tree that's think 2000 years old. It's some of the oldest trees in the world are there and they're twisted. And Tasmania, just with that kind of a history, it just has a wildness to the land and to the feel of everything. And so it was transformative. I was able to be with my feet on the ground in the water, in the trees, and what I've learned is with grounding to have your feet on the ground without synthetic material between it, it lowers the voltage in your body, which lowers your inflammation and lowers your pain. I had zero pain for three weeks. Zero pain in my body, not my neck, not my shoulders, nothing. I know you're looking dumbfounded because that is not the story we've been telling

Eva (22:41):
To ask next. Is it back now that you're home?

Kristen (22:45):
No. I will say that I still have not been doing my yoga the way that I had been doing it, and I have been not doing my practices as often as I was doing them with my meditation. And there's a whole series of things that I do, and I have not been doing that as often and consistently as I had been when I was on retreat. And it's just because I get up really early and I get into my day, but it's still about 95% gone. Those leg sleeves that I wear, I take them. Okay, I use them in India now, I mean, I was doing a lot of flying and what happens with your legs and the inflammation and stuff like that when you fly? I mean, I'm not talking about a two hour flight. I'm talking about from here to India. It was 22 hours.

(23:37):
And then it was another 13 maybe to get to Hobart. And then when I came home, luckily I came through Sydney. I was on a 14 hour flight to LAX, and so it was a lot better. After Tasmania, I went up to, went up, not northern, but I went up to New South Wales about two hours, and Sydney is in New South Wales and it's near a town called Morissette, kind of Korin Bong, and it's near Lake Macquarie and about two hours north of Sydney, that's where the people that I was on retreat with live. And then there's also an ashram there. And so I was lucky enough to get to stay with my friend Kim, Shakti Durga at her house and just kind of immersed in that community there. And it's people who I have been online doing learning and meditations and doing all kinds of spiritual work with for two and a half years. And so it was great to get to see everybody in person and the people there just enveloped me.

Eva (24:47):
I remember you doing this in the middle of the night, right? Because they're on such a, was that the same group?

Kristen (24:54):
When you

Eva (24:54):
Would get up in the middle of the night to do the thing?

Kristen (24:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's it. Because the time difference and the thing was that when I was in Tasmania, I have not felt that good in my skin probably since I was a kid and it was just jumping the waves. I mean, I live here, I don't go jump the waves here, even though that's good for me. People were like, you look 20 years younger. I'm like, I feel 20 years younger, just like pictures there. It really brought out just like I don't even know how to really explain it except that I feel lighter in my body and I mean, I maybe lost 10 pounds, so it's not because of that, but I just feel like I could move. I was able to run, we talk about my 42 minute mile, but I mean I was able to handle luggage all over the world and travel alone, which there was a point in time not long ago when I felt I couldn't live alone.

Eva (26:04):
I remember that it was not that long ago.

Kristen (26:05):
And I know the audience probably remembers that. And so the inflammation, I haven't had to wear my leg sleeves at all. The inflammation is mostly gone. I don't want people to think that, oh, go on this pilgrimage to these places and you're going to get healed. That's not the point. I think the point is that I was able to get my mind out of the fear of recurrence. It's still there. It can happen anytime, but I don't live my life by that anymore. And I felt like I really was. And I thought about moving other places and I was like, but I have the best medical team here. What happens happens if I get sick, what happens? And I'm like, I can't sit here and let that just dictate my life. I did that for long enough and I was finding all the reasons why I couldn't do things versus why I could or why I might.

(27:06):
And so while we were in Tasmania, we were in a meditation and I just had these tears flowing. It was like, and I know he wasn't, but it was like my son was talking to me who hasn't talked to me in five years, but it was like he was saying, mom, go to Australia. Go live your life. I'm fine. Go. You've done everything for other people all your life. It's time for you to choose you. And he gives me this big hug and I just start crying. And it was like a dream state kind of. There were no psychedelics, there was no plant-based medicine. It really was like a dream is what it felt like. And he was like, there's all kinds of reasons why you should stay and wait for me, but I'm 28 and I'm giving you space to go do what you want to do and go live your life. I'm being given the spaciousness in the room to go and take care of myself and my soul and my body the way that I want to. Or for now, I don't know if I'm going forever, but I'm moving to Australia in October.

Eva (28:20):
You know what I always say about moving? You can always go back.

Kristen (28:24):
That's just it. That's just it. I have a place to live. I'm living in a beautiful place on Lake Macquarie with a woman who's 65 who moved there, and I'm going to have the downstairs area that's a studio and we're going to share the studio as an office and an exercise space, and I have a bedroom there. It's going to cost me a third of what my rent is right here now. Now it's not because Australia's cheaper, it's because I've been given this opportunity and everything is just falling into place. The hardest thing, the reason I'm not going to October is because A, I'm with Sammy until he goes to kindergarten then, and then also it takes me six months to get Jack over there. So anyhow, that's where I am. When I saw Dr. Ali last week, I said, I think I'm moving into Australia.

(29:22):
She goes, oh, I love that. Go. And I said, medically, I said, medically, I'm okay? And she's like, you're not in any weird therapies. The Zometa, we're going to do a bone scan, a bone density scan in August and see how your bones are. You may be finished with Zometa after that. But I said, how am I on this anastrozole? And she said, 10 years total. And I've changed my diet quite a bit. I don't eat a lot of meat, red meats and stuff. I eat more like if I eat meat, I eat fish and chicken, but I eat more plant-based foods and not a lot of processed. All that to say I wish I would've listened to people who told me about these things two years ago, three years ago, but I had to get there on my own and I had to do my own work. And I started, this is the first time I have contacts again. I haven't had contact since COVID because I didn't want anything in my eyes and then I just didn't care after cancer.

Eva (30:25):
Are we going to have to update the cover of the podcast now? It's going to have to be California and Australia.

Kristen (30:33):
We're going to have to have three pictures. I'll get an Australia

Eva (30:37):
Season four.

Kristen (30:40):
There you go.

Eva (30:42):
Yeah. Okay. Well, I'll put that on the list.

Kristen (30:45):
Yeah, I'm flying into Sydney. I have the date set. It's November, not November, October 19th, and Jack is going into Melbourne. He has to go to quarantine for 10 days, but it's like a puppy spa. I checked it out, and so he'll leave a day before me so I can be sure he got there, and then I'll fly to Sydney and then 10 days later I'll fly to Melbourne, pick him up, and he'll, the place that I'm living, there's a dog just like Jack, and her name is Gabby, and there's another dog named Sita. So Jack has two girlfriends that he's going to be hanging out with, and we're going to be on the lake.

Eva (31:26):
Well, this is a lot less crazy plan than I originally thought it was happening.

Kristen (31:35):
Well, all I did is text you and say, I'm moving to Australia.

Eva (31:39):
Yeah, I'll admit, my first thought was, no one moves like that unless it's for a dude, and I actually am really happy to hear that it's just for you.

Kristen (31:51):
Thank you. Yeah, not for a dude, although I do have a thing for Australian accents. I mean, but anyhow, my body's going to be what it's going to be and any recurrence is going to be what it's going to be and I'm going to keep up on it and all of that. I do think I made a lot of my decisions out of fear, and also it was COVID and it was just me making these decisions.

Eva (32:16):
What other way was there to make decisions?

Kristen (32:19):
There wasn't

Eva (32:19):
Besides fear.

Kristen (32:20):
Well, I didn't have anybody to listen to, to tell me what it was going to be like, or I didn't have anybody to really help me along in making decisions because it was COVID and everybody was in their spots, and B, I'm single and I didn't know anybody who'd gone through it. There was nobody to tell me, this is what you're going to feel like. This is how this is going to go. You're going to have this two centimeter lump that you're going to stress over for six months because of fat necrosis. It's just dumb stuff that

Eva (33:00):
Well, so then that's another thing that's been really developing quickly is fat replacement. So there are lots and lots of smart people working on fat and moving fat around, and so there's new products coming out all the time where instead of fat from you, there's fat you can buy and they can put it in. I don't know how much of this is available at Scripps because they're not private practice.

Kristen (33:30):
The other thing too is that I am realistic about having to establish care and how much an insurance policy in Australia would cover this stuff. And from what I've been reading, I think you can have three revisions. I think it just kind of depends on your insurance.

Eva (33:49):
I would say just really, oh, you mean insurance wise? I think it's also highly dependent on you, on the condition of your skin, I think is what they would say. Only just because heard them say that so many times now. All revision is dependent on the condition of your skin, whether you've had cancer or not, and if you've had cancer or radiation, you're the most difficult and most challenging.

Kristen (34:14):
Well, and that's the thing is that my square boob is on my radiation side. And I mean, I showed you, you were like, yeah, they look good, except that one square. Yeah, I mean the skin is still very sensitive. As much as I massage or I do bio oil or I try to do even almost like a Clarisonic, but with a soft thing, it still, however I can, lemme see if I can do it. I can reach my fingers if I go like this now.

Eva (34:52):
Wow.

Kristen (34:53):
I know you guys can't see what I'm doing, but I am touching my fingers behind my back by lifting my left arm up the bottom of my back and my right arm over the top. I never thought I would be able to do that because of all of my pecs are still pretty tight, to be honest. Yeah, I see Patella the end of May. I just made that appointment today.

Eva (35:22):
Alright, well let's wrap this up and then we'll put something on the calendar so we know it's coming and we don't forget and we promise we'll be back soon. Everybody who's listening, we'd love to hear from you. Make sure you're subscribed to us on Substack for written updates and other things that come along. And if you're out there and you either know someone who's at the very beginning and has a story to tell, we're always open to the right story for seasons four. So just stay in touch if you're listening. And thank you, Kristen, for the big update. It's exciting to hear what's happening.

Kristen (36:02):
Well, and just because I'm well right now doesn't mean we're done. Breast cancer isn't, it's not done. So I'd love to hear from you guys and please connect in Instagram and any way that you feel like you would like to know.

Eva (36:21):
Yeah, Instagram @BreastCancerStoriespodcast. Okay, love you.

Kristen (36:26):
Love you.

Eva (36:34):
Thanks for listening to Breast Cancer Stories. To support Kristen, you can find us at patreon.com/breastcancerstories. There's a link in the show notes with all of the resources mentioned on this episode and more info about how you can donate. If you're facing a breast cancer diagnosis and you want to tell your story on the podcast, send an email to hello@theaxis.io. I'm Eva Sheie, your host and executive producer. Production support for the show comes from Mary Ellen Clarkson and our engineer is Daniel Croeser. Breast Cancer Stories is a production of the Axis, theaxis.io.