Dorothy: [00:00:00] There is no better event to show off at or to show up at than The Rose’s Hats And Henna High Tea creator Ashma Moosa, who’s on our board, turned her yearly celebration of surviving breast cancer into one of our best fundraisers and fundraisers. Listen to some of our guests who attended our previous hats and Hena High Tea, and you’ll see why this event continues to grow every year.
When you subscribe to our show, you help us grow. Someone you know may need to hear this story. So please share with your family and friends and consider supporting our mission at therose.org.
Let’s Talk About Your Breast, a different kind of podcast presented to you by The Rose, a breast center of excellence, and a Texas treasure. You’re gonna hear Frank discussions about tough topics, and you’re gonna learn why knowing about your breast could save your life.[00:01:00]
Tina: Hello, I am Tina Saenz. I am a member of The Rose Board of Directors. It’s important for me because it’s just such a fantastic organization that is helping save the lives of our mothers, our aunts, and our grandparents. I got connected with The Rose whenever I was getting my MBA at Rice. And Rice and Rose have a, a relationship where students there can participate, uh, as non-active members of the of the board.
Breast cancer has not touched my family or friends personally. What really speaks to me about this is I come from a more rural area, and so The Rose actively reaching women who were not in urban medical center areas really touches me. My message for women about breast cancer prevention is, uh, to talk about it to your, to your friends, to your sisters, to your aunts, making sure that [00:02:00] everyone that you know is getting, uh, mammograms regularly, they’re doing their regular breast, uh, screenings, and if they suspect any kind of problems to see their doctor and get your mammogram out The Rose.
Mona: I am Mona Ellakany, uh, the honorary of Hat and Henna event this year. Actually, my friend Neha, she introduced me to Ashma at the very beginning, uh, of my diagnosis with breast cancer. And since then, like I have bonded with Ashma and uh, she invited me last year to the first time to come to Hat and Henna event, and she asked me this year to come to speak about like the breast cancer.
My message to the women going in the same battle like me, like, you need to embrace it as a journey, not as this sentence, because now cancer is co-exist in your life, and in order to live with your kids and have a [00:03:00] purpose in your life, you need to accept that it’s unwelcome guest and you need to, uh, deal with everything comes with it: emotions, learning journey, but it’s not gonna stop you from doing what you’re supposed to do. It is not like, as I said, it’s not a death sentence.
Mazin: My name is Mazin Ellakany and I’m here to support my mom, Mona Ellakany, at the Hats and Henna event. So throughout the years, my mother’s cancer journey has taken a toll on us all. It hit us with a quite a storm, and when I, when she first came home from her first treatment, she came home very tired. And that, that, that just put me in distraught. I, I didn’t know how to feel. So what I did is while she was resting, I decided to take it upon myself and like take care of my siblings, helping them with homework, cleaning, cooking, doing as much as possible to ease the load on her so she didn’t have to lift a finger while she was taking her [00:04:00] medication.
While when you see the person you love in fear, they’re not sure about what to do in the future, fear holds us back. And what I’ve learned is don’t let, don’t let fear hold you back, essentially. Like there’s nothing to be afraid of, ’cause at the end, everything will, will be okay and no matter what. Things happen for a reason, and those reasons we don’t know, but we just gotta live through life and just hope for the best and just always be positive.
Giang: Hello, my name is Giang. I am the social media specialist at CLS Health.
Dr. Moosa: Hello, I’m Dr. Abdul Moosa. I’m a wound care specialist with CLS Health.
Giang: With
Dr. Moosa: Dr. Abdul Moosa.
Giang: anything in life, if it’s something that’s easy to do and it’s convenient, people will tend to do it more. Um, we don’t have enough people who will take the initiative to go for preventative care. So having the bus there and having it right in your face while your provider’s already giving you, um, that access means just more chances of people getting better care.
Dr. Moosa: So, being that my wife [00:05:00] is a survivor, it’s in my heart that I wanna make sure that every lady has an access to mammography. So having a mobile mammography unit come to CLS Health provides the opportunity for those patients who’d have difficulty traveling, um, distances or have other logistic issues so they can at least get the mammogram because early prevention is the key here. So if we can detect it early, the survival rates are incredible at that point. So that’s why it’s very important that they get those mammograms done in a timely manner.
Usually we try to look at all the risk factors. And so we do know, unfortunately, that a lot of women who are getting breast cancer do not have family history of breast cancer. And that’s one of the biggest myths that is out there. So please don’t fall into that category aspect and, and if you doctor tells you that you need it, don’t say, oh, I don’t have any family history, so I’m not gonna worry about this.
You definitely need to get the mammogram done at that point. Uh, like I said, early detection. Now, unfortunately, what we are seeing as a physician, it sort of scares me. ‘Cause [00:06:00] we are seeing younger folks now getting breast cancer. And so it is becoming where we need to look at more than just getting a lump, you know, that you feel itself. Uh, we, we have to look at genetics. We have to look at your risk factors that are out there and see if you need to have a mammogram done earlier than what is recommended.
Giang: As a woman and as a daughter, um, I, you know, always tell my mom, like, mom, I know it’s scary going to and seeing, maybe there’s a chance that you could have it, but what’s scarier is that having it and not knowing there’s a way to fix it. Um, so that’s why I tell my mom all the time. I tell my aunts, I tell my grandma, I tell everybody to go get their mammograms done. And also even people my age, so I just turned 30 and I still tell them. Literally, prevention is key. So I know it’s, it’s uncomfortable. I know it hurts. I know it’s scary, but why would you not go and do the scary step first? So you don’t have to have the chance of going to the other scarier steps.
Dr. Moosa: There’s gonna be lots of ups and downs. Please make sure that you’re reaching out to either the [00:07:00] doctor or a mental health provider because there are gonna be some downtime that you will have, so you’re not in this journey alone. You have to speak up when you need the help in the sense of when it comes time to have help or have some other resources that are available in the community. And so you have to talk to your doctor if you’re feeling that way.
Lin Lin: I’m Lin Lin Yan, one of the honorees of Hat and Hena. I am an an owner of Alings Chinese Bistro, as well as a radio. I have a radio talk show, and that’s where I met Ashma and she would come onto my show to raise awareness on breast cancer and to help in the community and encourage women to get their screening done.
So we work together on many, many, uh, projects as well. Uh, we’ve had a fundraiser in the restaurant as well. It is very important. My grandmother passed away with breast cancer and I have many friends who, some of them are going through it right [00:08:00] now. So this is very important to me. Uh, it is also very important because there are so many women here who are unaware of how important it is to take care of, uh, breast health, how important that is, as well as, uh, women who cannot afford to do mammograms. So this is very dear to me that we get together and encourage women and help The Rose as much as we can.
For, uh, women, I would just encourage you all, get your mammograms done early, get your screening done. It is so important. And, um, you know, we all have to get together and support each other. That is important as well. Raise the awareness. And encourage each other, empower each other.
Dr. Alawadi: Hey, I am Dr. Zeinab Alawadi. I’m one of the general and breast surgeons with Memorial Hermann Hospital. The first meeting with the breast cancer patient, first time talking about that diagnosis is the most difficult meeting. And, [00:09:00] you know, there’s a lot of handholding, a lot of information, and a lot of overwhelming things for those patients.
The biggest thing is, uh, how you tell them the diagnosis, how early is the diagnosis, and of course, the patient’s social support, that is, that’s the, the key in surviving their diagnosis. Uh, we have a lot of young women who do well. They have great support system. We have a lot of young women who don’t do well because they don’t have an insurance, can’t get diagnosed on time, can’t get treated on time, and don’t have the support system.
So, uh, having an early diagnosis and having the means and the funds to go through the treatment as early as possible and having a good social support is the key to survive, uh, breast cancer, the most difficult, I would say three scenarios are older women who’ve always put their health on hold, taking care of their spouses or their children, or, you know, never had their mammograms because they don’t have time to do it, or have actually seen a visible lesion on their skin and their breasts, and they [00:10:00] don’t even wanna bother their family by giving a diagnosis and getting through treatment.
Those are really difficult situation. Typically it’s in older women. The even more difficult situation is breaking the news and having discussion with a younger woman. A younger mom with young children. Their thought is always like, who’s gonna take care of my children after me? This is, you know, this is one of the most tough situation to deal with, especially that we know breast cancer in younger women is much more aggressive.
So, although most of breast lesions in older people can be a cancer. While most of breast lesion in younger people are more likely non-cancer. Breast cancer and younger women is much more aggressive than older people. So I’m, again, I’m a Memorial Hermann Medical Group physician. I work mainly with Memorial Hermann, but I do get a lot of patients from The Rose, even patients with insurances, including my personal family and friends, you know, if they haven’t, young people, they haven’t really established relationship with, with physicians, primary care doctors, uh, we always [00:11:00] direct them to The Rose. It’s so easy to get access to everything. They get all the work done in time, uh, and then they send them back for treatment. And it’s, you know, we trust them with, with whatever comes through The Rose. We have no issues with them.
Karim: Hello, my name is Karim Mohammed. So for me, The Rose, my relationship is very personal because my wife is a breast cancer survivor. I’ve been in the oncology clinical trial space for over 20 years, and then when cancer hit home, it hit home very close. And, uh, for me it was something that, watching my wife personally go through it and the journey, it’s, it’s quite profound that, uh, if you don’t have the right support and the right network, um, cancer is a very kind of, most people think it’s this, you know, death sentence and it’s a finality. Where The Rose, I think brings, um, early detection and detection [00:12:00] in. And if you catch cancer early, it’s like anything else, it’s hard to detect, but easy to treat. And for me, the earlier you capture a disease, the better outcomes you have.
So for me, that was where my wife was, is that her cancer was, uh, previously biopsied was, she was told it was negative, and then 15, 20 years later, here she is with breast cancer. And I think that, you know, with better technology, with better diagnostics, better imaging, hopefully, and more women being, uh, the awareness of detection and early screening, it can prevent, you know, the progress that cancer typically does have in many women.
For husbands like myself who are going through, um, the journey of cancer with their wives and the new diagnosis, I would say: be patient, read the right literature, and your wife needs a pillar and a foundation, and that’s your job. Um, other than that, you know, [00:13:00] find good networks of people to support you and your family.
Post-Credits: Thank you for joining us today on Let’s Talk About Your Breasts. This podcast is produced by Speke Podcasting and brought to you by The Rose. Visit therose.org to learn more about our organization. Subscribe to our podcast, share episodes with friends, and join the conversation on social media using #LetsTalkAboutYourBreasts. We welcome your feedback and suggestions. Consider supporting The Rose. Your gift can make the difference to a person in need. And remember, self care is not selfish. It’s essential.
