While leading a Doctors Without Borders mission in Malawi, Natasha’s husband of 25 years blindsided her by ending their marriage in a text message. She returned home, fell into bed for a few weeks, and eventually with the help of her friends she pulled herself together and went back to work.
A few months later when she discovered an almond-sized lump in her armpit, she did everything she tells her patients not to do and dismissed it, or wrote it off as a “fat lump."
Months went by before Natasha finally got a mammogram, but radiology saw nothing in either breast. It was the armpit lump that caught their attention. Next step was an ultrasound, where the lump was clearly visible. One painful biopsy later, Natasha found out she had stage 2 breast cancer; in one life-changing moment, the nurse became the patient.
Not just any ordinary nurse practitioner, Natasha was a journalist and then a clinical psychologist before becoming a palliative care specialist at San Francisco General Hospital, where her patients are often homeless or addicted.
Like Kristen (our host, and the subject of Season 1),
Natasha discovered her tumor in the shower, it wasn’t caught by a mammogram either, and she navigated breast cancer treatment on her own. But as you’ll see, that’s about all they have in common
Contents of this video:
00:00 - Introducing Natasha Curry
04:02 - How being a trained clinical psychologist has helped me as a nurse
10:14 - How San Francisco gets homeless people with cancer off the streets
11:09 - Do I keep working as a nurse throughout breast cancer treatment?
13:33 - Why I’m not telling my cancer patients that I have cancer
16:22 - How do I advocate for breast cancer?
18:17 - I found out I had cancer right after my husband ended things over text
